[FOURTEENTH LESSON.]
INCISED, INTAGLIO, OR SUNK CARVING.
Deep carving, as it is termed by certain writers, is now known among artists as incised, sunk, or intaglio. It is an advanced form of gouge-cutting.
It is a very beautiful yet easy kind of work, which was extensively practised in Italy in early times, and which is deserving special attention because of its applicability not only to bold, large, and even coarse decoration—which was, however, very effective—but to the most delicate and minute objects. “It may,” says General Seaton, who was the first to describe it, which he does with much enthusiasm, “be called sunk carving, for, contrary to the usual method, the carving is sunk, while the ground is left at its original level.” Like engraving on metal, it cuts into the ground, and depends entirely on outline, or drawing, and shadow for its effects. It is suitable for book-covers, or to be employed wherever the carving is liable to be handled or rubbed, because, being sunk beneath the ground, it cannot be rubbed or injured till the ground itself is worn down.
Take any wood except a coarse one,—holly, beech, oak, poplar, pear, or walnut,—and let the surface be well planed, or perhaps polished. If it be a wood of light colour, draw your pattern with a very soft pencil, say B B B, on paper, lay it face down on the wood, and rub the back carefully with an ivory or other polisher. The work is chiefly executed with bent gouges and grainers, flat and hollow, with two or three bent chisels and stamps, and it often happens that a good piece of incised carving can be executed with very few tools. It is executed almost entirely by hand, or without hammering.