Enamel (Fr. esmail; Ital. smalto). A glassy substance of many brilliant colours, melted and united to gold, silver, copper, bronze, and other metals in the furnace. Enamel is coloured white by oxide of tin, blue by oxide of cobalt, red by gold, and green by copper. Different kinds of enamel are (1) inlaid or incrusted. (2) Transparent, showing designs on the metal under it. (3) Painted as a complete picture. “Many fine specimens of ancient Chinese enamel were seen in the Exhibition of 1851. They have the enamel on copper, beautifully coloured and enlivened with figures of flowers, birds, and other animals. The colouring is most chaste and effective. The Chinese say that no good specimens of this manufacture have been made for the last six or eight hundred years.” (Fortune.) Beautiful transparent enamels are made in India. They look like slices of emerald or sapphire laid in beds of gold, having tiny figures of beaten gold let into their surfaces. (See also Cloisonné, Champ-levé, Basse-taille, &c.) The beautiful example of enamel-work, Fig. [287], is attributed to Benvenuto Cellini. (See Fig. [188].)
Enamel. Painting in enamel is done by means of colours that are vitrifiable, a quality that is communicated to them by combining them with a vitreous base, which is called their flux. These are fused and fixed on the enamel by the action of fire, which produces in the colours applied such changes as the artist has previously learned to calculate. (Bouvier.)
Enamelled Glass. (See Glass.)
Enamelled Wares. (See Glazed Ware.)
Encænia, Chr. A dedication festival.
Fig. 288. Encarpa (Festoons) on the Temple of Vesta at Tivoli.
Encarpa, Gr. An architectural decoration formed of festoons or garlands of flowers and fruits (καρποὶ), whence its name. Fig. [288] shows an example from the temple of Vesta at Tivoli.
Encaustic, R. (lit. burning in). The art of painting in encaustic. Pliny says, “The colours were applied with wax on marble, and transparent gum on ivory. Coloured wax was applied to the wall in the form of a paste, and in the manner of mosaic or enamels. This was then melted or fused with hot irons (cauteria), a small fillet of a different tint being inserted between each flat tint.” Fairholt says, “There is no antique painting extant which is properly called ENCAUSTIC; all those supposed to be so have, on closer examination, proved to be in Fresco or in Tempera.”
Encaustic Tiles. Ornamental tiles for floorings, extensively used in the Middle Ages.