Art-Jottings In Art-Studios.

such well-known portions of the " Elg in Marbles " as the Metopes from the " Frieze " of the Parthenon . From the same building , in the same collection in the British Museum , we have bad deposited probably the most perfect ancl most beautiful specimen of " Low Eelief " in existence—we mean the "Paiiatheuaic Frieze , " which represents the solemn procession to the Temple of Minerva during the Panathenaie Festival .

We have said that those are probably the most perfect , as well as the most beautiful specimens extant , because they keep strictly to the canon of the Art , no " perspective" being attempted and all "foreshortening" avoided ; for when we come to the time of the Romans , we find that Sculpture—so great was the demand upon its resources—witness the innumerable tombs—streets of monuments , such as the Appian Way—that it degenerated into a manufacture , and its spirit was lost because its true purpose was departed from . The province of Painting was invadedrows of figures ,

, one behind the other , were depicted , "foreshortening" was adopted , " perspective " introduced , and even backgrounds of " scenery " inserted , until a disastrous failure was the result , although it cannot be denied that a certain kind of marvellous work was attained to by such master-hands as those of Ghiberti .- Even Canova ' s " reliefs " were too nearly " pictures in stone" to be the perfection of "relief , " and it was reserved to Flaxman , and , above every one , to Canova to restore to this noble art its true

characteristics . There is , by the way , every reason to believe that in many excellent ancl ancient examples colouring was introduced in the shape of backgrounds of blue , whilst the hems of the garments and other prominent portions were coloured and even gilt . Turn we now to tiie reverse of " relief "—

" INCISION . " Probably this form of the Art is the most ancient of all : certainly of all method of the " treatment" of flat surfaces . It was especially used , we find , for sacred purposes , as is evidenced by what are usuall y known as " Hieroglyphs . " When wc thus speak of the Hieroglyphs we must first say that , for our present purposewe mean only their "Ideographic" and not their "Phonetic" forminasmuch

, , as the latter , having become nothing more nor less than a system of writing the language , it touches rather upon the domain of Science than that of Art . Were not this the case we should dwell upon the fact of " incised " characters having been necessarily used by the Almighty Himself , the Tables of the Sacred Law being distinctly stated to have bad this holy origin . The same reason prevents us from here entering into any detailed account of the Rosetta Stone , which is a slab of black basalt bearing a tri-lingual

inscription ( Hieroglyphic , Demotic or Enchorial , and Greek ) , ancl which has formed the long-lost key to Hieroglyphic writing . The inscription itself is a decree in honour of Ptolemy Epipbanes , by the priests of Egyjet assembled in synod at Memphis , on account of his having remitted certain arrears of taxes owing to him by the priestly body . Tho stone was found in 1799 by M . Boussard , of the French Engineers , on tho site of a temple dedicated by the Neclio II . of the 2 Gth dynasty , to the solar god Atum . It was in all probability set up A . n . 1890 .

We have , however , —thanks to the patriotism and liberality of our worthily revered Brother , Erasmus Wilson , —another instance of "incised" work in England , in the shape of " Cleopatra ' s Needle . " In his "People ' s Edition" of "Our Egyptian Obelisk , " Bro . Wilson says , " The material of the obelisk is a kind of granite ' , very hard , and very dense , of a rose-red colour , and distinguished , as deriving its source from Syencby the name of Syenite . Pliny speaks of it as variegated with distinct

, flame-coloured spots . It is capable of receiving a high polish , and from its hardness admits of being carved with the sharpness of a gem . The carvings are generally two inches aud more in depth , and in some instances the hollows are - burnished to the lowest groove . " We camwt do more here than state that the middle column of Hieroglyphs speaks of Thothmes HI ., by whom the obelisk was erected , and that , two