Fig. 48 b.
Simple figures may be executed in flat or ribbon-work, or in the lowest relief, as well as in any other work.
The Italian carvers, for cabinet making, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, made great use of figurini, Fig. [49], also the ornament on page [60]. These were little statues, generally of human beings, from three to five inches in length. They were, in ordinary work, rather sketched out than elaborately carved, but the effect was good; sometimes a hundred of them would be worked into a single cabinet. These figurini were also very freely used in later Roman and Roman Byzantine stone and ivory work, generally as rows of saints or scriptural personages, every one filling a niche under a round arch. These latter were often as rudely and simply shaped as it is possible to conceive, yet, owing to their “making up” or disposition, as subordinate parts they were in good taste. Any carver with a little practice can produce them. Rows of figurini in niches were frequently used for borders, or to surround caskets.
Hanging Box for a Corner.