ENA
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ENA
Zake Red, is compofed of fine Gold, diflblved in Aqua Regia> with. Sal Artffimiac, or common Salt. The DilTo- lution being compleated, 'tis put in a Cucurbit with Spring Water, and Mercury, o'er hot Sand for 24 Hours. The Pow- der remaining at the Bottom of the Cucurbit, when the Water is pour'd oft, is ground up with double its Weight of Flower of Sulphur, and put in a Crucible over a gentle Fire. And when the Sulphur, which takes Fire, is exhaled, the red Powder remaining, is ground up with Rocaille. Laftly, White Copperas calcined, makes a Colour much like the amber Colour ufed by the Limners.
Thefe feven or eight Colours, or Enamels, ferve for the Composition of all the reft, by a difcrete Mixture and Combination thereof. Thus, blue and yellow make green ; blue and red, Violet 5 and fo of the reft. See Colour. Enamels ufed by the Jewellers, Goldfmiths, and
Mnametters. Thefe Kinds of Enamel, we have obferved, come chiefly from Venice and Holland : They arc in little thin Cakes of different Sizes ; ufually four Inches in Diameter, and t an Inch thick. Every Cake has the Maker's Mark ftruck on it with a Punchion. The moft ufual Marks are the Name TeJftSj a Syren, Monkey, Sun, &c.
Thofe bought from Venice are chiefly white, Slate- Colour, fky Blue, Carnation, Yellow, Green, and a deep Blue, call'd a falfc Lapis. Thefe feven arc the Principles of all the others, which arife out of the Mixture of thefc. And the white, in particular, is, as it were, the Balis of all the other fix principal Colours.
White is made, as already obferved, of Cryftal Glafs, Tin, and Lead calcined by a revcrbcratory Fire. And this Enamel is ufed not only by the Jewellers and Enamellers on Metal, but alfo by the Painters in Enamel, the Makers of Dutch Ware, &c. By adding Azures thereto, it becomes a Slate Colour j by adding Copper, and Cyprus Vitriol, it makes a fky Blue. By Perigueikx, a flefh Colour .j and by Iron-Ruft, a yellow. To make a green, they add Copper-filings, &c.
ENAMELLING, by the Antients call'd Encaufiice, the Art, or Act of applying Enamels of various Colours, on Metals, $$c. either in the Way of Painting, or by the Lamp. See Enamel.
fainting in Enamel, is a Method of Painting with Enamels, or Metal Colours, ground, redue'd to Powder, and ufed, like other Colours, with a Pencil ■ then fufed, baked again, and vitrified by Force of Fire.
The Art of 'Painting in Enamel is very anticnt ; and appears to have been firft practifed on Earthen, or Potters- Ware. As early as the Age of <Porfenna King of Liifcany, we hear of beautiful Vafes made in his Territories, Ena~ ■mell'd with various Figures 5 though far fhort of thofe afterwards made at Faenza, and Cajlel 'Durante, in the Dutchy of Urbino, in the Time of Raphael, and Michael Angelo. There are ftill fome of thofe Vafes extant in the Cabinets of Antiquaries 5 in all which the Defign, or Drawing of the Figures, is much better than the Colouring. For they were, at that Time, only acquainted with two Colours, viz. black and white ; either for Earthen, or Metal Works : Excepting a faint Kind of Carnation in the Faces and other Parts.
In the Time of Fra?2cis I. of France, the Art was re- triev'd in that Country, particularly at Limoges $ where there were produced Abundance of very valuable Pieces, in the Manner of the Antients, that is, well perform'd as to the Draught, and the Clairobfcure, chiefly in two Colours.
There are two Ways of 'Painting in Enamel ; the one with clear and tranfparent, and the other with thick and opakc Colours.
To ufe the firft, they arc only ground up with Water : The fecond are ground with Oil of Afpic.
The firft are laid on the Metal flat, and bordtr'd, or edg'd, with a Rim of the Metal, to keep the Colours afunder. Tho', we have feen Pieces laid on contiguous, and without any Partition 5 which is very difficult to practife, by Reafon the tranfparent Colours, in Melting, are apt to run in each other 5 efpecially in the little Works. The Invention of opake Colours, is much later, and greatly preferable to that of tranfparent ones.
All Metals, however, will not equally admit both Kinds. Copper, for Inftance, which bears all the opake Colours, will not bear the tranfparent ones : But to employ thefe latter upon Copper, they are forced, firft, to cover it with a Lay, or Couch, of black Enamel, over which they lay a filver Leaf, and on this apply the other fuitablc Colours, that is, the Colours or Enamels proper for Silver, which it felf does not allow of all Kinds.
Thofe which fuit it beft, are Purple, Green, Azure and Ague marin. But Gold receives all the Kinds, and Colours, both opake and tranfparent, perfectly well. It muft be
added, however, that only the fineft Gold muft be ufed herein. For the tranfparent Colours being laid on a bafe Gold, grows dim and livid ; there being a Kind of Smoak that fettles on it not unlike black Lead.
Of tranfparent Enamels, the hardeft are the beft - tho* there is a Difference even among thefe 5 fome lo'ftn? their Colour in the Fire, and others retaining it. As to the reds, they are only red by Accident, being only yellow when made and applied on the Gold ; and becoming red in the Furnace. The beft transparent Reds are thofo made of ca'cin'd Copper, Iron Ruft, Orpiment, and calcinM Gold, melted with the due Proportions^ Grafs.
But 'tis the Method of Painting with opakc, or thick Enamel, to which we owe all our fine modern Pieces of Enamel ^ particularly thofe curious ones on Gold, repre- senting Portraits to as much Perfection as the beft Painting in Oil ; and even fome Hiftory Pieces : With this great Ad- vantage, that their Beauty and Luftre never decays.
This Art we are indebted for to the Fre?2ch : Nothing of the Kind having been attempted before the Year 1630 5 when Jean Toutin, a Goldfmith of Chafieaudun, and a great Maftcr in the common Way of Painting with tran- sparent Enamel, firft applied himfelf to find a Way to ufe thick Colours of different Teints, which fhould melt with Fire, yet retain their Luftre, Purity, &c.
Toutin Succeeded in his Attempt, and having got the Secrer, communicated it to his Fellow Artifts h who, in their Turns, contributed to the bringing it to Perfection : The firft who diftinguifh'd himfelf was Z)ubie, a Gold- frnith, who wrought in the Galleries of the Louvre. After him came Mortiere, a Native of Orleans, who ap- plied himfelf chiefly to the Painting on Rings and Watch Cafes. His Difciple, Robert Vauquer of Slois, exceeded them all both in his Defigns and his Colours. After him <Pierre Chartier of Slots, took himfelf to the Painting of Flowers, wherein he fucccedcd to Admiration.
By this Time, the Englijh were fallen into the Way 5 who, as is allowed by Foreigners themfelves, feem to have been the firft that applied it with Succefs to the Painting of Portraits, which was now become mightily in Vofme, in Lieu of thofe in Miniature.
M. Felibien obferves, that the firft, and moft finifh'd Portraits, and thofe in the fineft Colours, were brought into France by Tetitot, and Sordier from England: This occafion'd Lo?iis Hance, and Louis du Guermer, two good Painters in Miniature, to attempt the like ; in which the latter Succeeded beyond every Body. He likewife invented Several new Teints for the Carnations 5 and had he lived, had probably merited the Glory of carrying the Art to its laft Perfection.
This Kind of Painting, to be in Perfection, muft be on Plates of Gold : For Copper, befide that it emits a Fume which tarnifhes the Colours, is apt to fcale ano\ crackle 5 and Silver turns the Whites, Yellow.
Thefe Plates are made a little hollow on one Side, and rais'd on the other, either in a circular or oval Manner, to prevent the Gold's fretting by the Fire, and making the Colours crack and fly : Nor muft they be made too thick. 'Tis Sufficient they can bear the Colours ; tho' 'tis ufual to ftrengthen them all around with a Circle fomewhat thicker.
The Plate being hammer'd very evenly throughout, they apply a white Enamel on both Sides, tho* the" Dcfi<->n be only to paint on one. The Intent of this is to prevent any Swelling and warping by the Fire ; For otherwife, in large Pieces, and efpecially if the Colours be laid on 'any Thing unequally, they are apt to rife up in Puffs or Blifters. Now, this firft Lay, which is white, remaining Smooth and uniform, ferves as a Ground for all the other Colours. The Compofition of the white Enamel, with the other opake Colours, is already delivered under the Article Enamel.
The Gold Plate thus EnamelPd in white ; the Draught, or Defign, to be painted, muft be chalked thereon 5 and, afterwards, the whole accurately drawn out in a ruddy brown. The Draught, or Out-line, thus finifh'd, tho Piece is fet to the Fire, and then painted with the Colours above prefcribed.
The ^ white Ground they paint on, ferves all the Colours for white. The Method being to fpare the Ground from firft to laft, in the Places where the Lights are to be, after the fame Manner as in Miniature : Tho' they have another white, to lay over the other Colours, when there is Occafion to raife them.
Add, that as the Painters in Oil re-touch their Paintings Several Times, and let them dry 5 f j n this Sort of Paint- ing, they touch the Piece as often as they plcafe, letting it each Time to a rcverberatory Fire, and taking it away again, affoon as rhey perceive the Enamel has got its full pon'h. The rcverberatory Fire is made in a little Furnace, wherein there is Fire both a-top and all around 5 onh a
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