stone there was a vein of red
colour, and here the artist has made the skin turn over... and he
has represented this skin with such exactitude that the spectator
imagines himself to behold it newly torn from the animal! Of another
mark he has availed himself, for the hair, and the white parts
he has taken for the face and breast." Matteo was an independent
spirit: when a baron once tried to beat him down in his price for a
gem, he refused to take a small sum for it, but asked the baron to
accept it as a gift. When this offer was refused, and the nobleman
insisted upon giving a low price, Matteo deliberately took his
hammer and shattered the cameo into pieces at a single blow. His
must have been an unhappy life. Vasari says that he "took a wife in
France and became the father of children, but they were so entirely
dissimilar to himself, that he had but little satisfaction from
them."

Another famous lapidary was Valerio Vicentino, who carved a set
of crystals which were made into a casket for Pope Clement VII.,
while for Paul III. he made a carved crystal cross and chandelier.

Vasari reserves his highest commendation for Casati, called "el
Greco," "by whom every other artist is surpassed in the grace and
perfection as well as in the universality of his productions."...
"Nay, Michelangelo himself, looking at them one day while Giovanni
Vasari was present, remarked that the hour for the death of the
art had arrived, for it was not possible that better work could
be seen!" Michelangelo proved a prophet, in this case surely, for
the decadence followed swiftly.

CHAPTER III

ENAMEL

"Oh, thou discreetest of readers," says Benvenuto Cellini, "marvel
not that I have given so much time to writing about all this," and
we feel like making the same apology for devoting a whole chapter
to enamel; but this branch of the goldsmith's art has so many
subdivisions, that it cries for space.

The word Enamel is derived from various sources. The Greek language
has contributed "maltha," to melt; the German "schmeltz," the old
French "esmail," and the Italian "smalta," all meaning about the
same thing, and suggesting the one quality which is inseparable
from enamel of all nations and of all ages,--its fusibility. For
it is always employed in a fluid state, and always must be.

Enamel is a type of glass product reduced to powder, and then melted
by fervent heat into a liquid condition, which, when it has hardened,
returns to