Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/197

 Subjects. 167 called cameos; those which are hollowed out intaglios. The term cameo is, however, especially used to denote the very small pieces of sculpture in stones having two layers of different colours ; the upper colour being used for the object to be represented, the under serving as background. Die-sinking is the art of engraving the die or stamp used for coining, and for stamping thin plates of metal with designs of various kinds. The blank die is engraved in intaglio with the device required, by the aid of small steel tools. The face of the die is then hardened by heat, after which it is ready for use. The subjects suitable for representation in sculpture are necessarily limited. Except as an accessory, vegetable life is almost excluded from its sphere. The infinite variety and richness of the details of foliage, fruit, and flowers, and the way in which, when grouped together, they inter- twine and hide one another, render it impossible that they should be accurately represented in an art to which exact imitation is forbidden. It is only plants with prominent characteristics that can be used as architectural accessories. Such was the deeply-indented acanthus leaf so largely employed by the Greeks and Romans. The noblest study of the sculptor is man, "the human form divine/ ' and to produce a perfect statue is his highest task. The human figure is made up of an infinite variety of curves and sinuous lines, and the sculptor can find nothing more perfect to imitate than fine types of humanity, in the prime of youth and vigour ; but he must not be content with mere copying, — he must aspire to the embodiment of ideal conceptions. Beauty of form is plastic — that is to say, it may be represented by modelling in an