Fig. 198.—Frieze in Sgraffito.
A form of external decoration which has been but little used for heraldry, though it is one which is readily adapted to the purpose, is that kind of cement work in layers that is known as Sgraffito. Examples of this method of work are shown in the friezes, Figs. 198 and 199, in which the heraldry adds interest to very graceful design, and in the panel of the Armorials of Pope Paul III (Fig. 200).
Fig. 199.—Frieze in Sgraffito.
In Sgraffito work the design is drawn through a coat of moist plaster on to a lower one of another colour, much as etching is drawn through the ground on to the copper, and like it is, in its simplest form, a line art.
Fig. 200.—Arms of Pope Paul III (Farnese). Panel in Sgraffito.
Heraldry in interior decoration found its first application in the actual shields, which were hung on the walls of the great Halls of mediaeval strongholds, was closely followed by the similar use of the more ornate ceremonial ones and continued in the tapestries and embroidered hallings which were the wall coverings of the halls and chambers. Some of these are still extant, and many others are mentioned in the wills of great personages and in the household accounts of the time.
Fig. 201.—Armorial carving in the Gallery of the Vyne, Hampshire.