y of
taste. It has been maintained by purists in modern times that all
engraving or shading of the pieces of wood used in forming the design is
illegitimate; and if this be so, it is equally illegitimate to stain any
of them; but it is undeniable that a great addition to the resources of
the inlayer was made by the discoveries of Fra Giovanni, and it seems
unreasonable to refuse to make any use of them because later
intarsiatori abused these means of gaining effect. The earliest work, it
is true, depends mainly upon silhouette for its beauty, but does not
altogether disdain lines within the main outline, and the abandonment of
these inner lines, whether made by graver or saw, so reduces the
possibilities of choice of subject as to restrict the designer to a
simplicity which is apt to become bald. A great deal may be done by
choice of pieces of wood and arrangement of the direction of the
lines of the grain; some of Fra Giovanni's perspectives show very
suggestive skies made in this manner, and Fra Damiano was very
successful in thus suggesting the texture of much veined and coloured
marble and of rocks, but directly the human figure enters into the
design these expedients are felt to be insufficient and inexpressive,
and inner lines have perforce to be introduced. The opposite extreme is
such work as the panels by the brothers Caniana in the Colleoni Chapel
at Bergamo, in which the composition and drawing of the figures recall
the designs of the Caracci, and the technique of the shading reminds one
of a copper plate, while the tinting and gradation of the colours take
away all impression of a work in wood, substituting that of a coloured
engraving. Here it is quite evident that the desire to imitate pictorial
qualities has led the craftsman far away from what should have been his
aim, viz., to display the qualities of the material which he was using
to the best advantage, consistently with the position and purpose of his
work in it. Not that perfection of workmanship is to be decried, though
it is only occasionally that one is able to make use of, or indeed
produce it. But the aesthetic sense demands that consideration for
material and purpose in every production which the joy and pride of the
craftsman in overcoming difficulties sometimes prevents him from
giving. Notwithstanding the beauty of much of the marquetry of the
periods of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., one often feels that design has
been put to one side in the en