Guido Fassi, called del Conte, a native of Carpi, born in 1584, was the
inventor of a valuable kind of work in imitation of marble, called by
the Italians _Scagliola_ or _Mischia_, which was subsequently carried to
great perfection, and is now largely employed in the imitation of works
in marble. The stone called _selenite_ forms the principal ingredient.
This is pulverized, mixed with colors and certain adhesive substances
which gradually become as hard as stone, capable of receiving a high
polish. Fassi made his first trials on cornices, and gave them the
appearance of fine marble, and there remain two altar-pieces by him in
the churches of Carpi. From him, the method rapidly spread over Italy,
and many artists engaged in this then new art. Annibale Griffoni, a
pupil of Fassi, applied the art to monuments. Giovanni Cavignani, also a
pupil of Fassi, far surpassed his master, and executed an altar of St.
Antonio, for the church of S. Niccolo, at Carpi, which is still pointed
out as something extraordinary. It consists of two columns of porphyry
adorned with a pallium, covered with lace, which last is an exact
imitation of the covering of an altar, while it is ornamented in the
margin with medals, bearing beautiful figures. In the Cathedral at
Carpi, is a monument by one Ferrari, which so perfectly imitates marble
that it cannot be distinguished from it, except by fracture. It has the
look and touch of marble. Lanzi, from whom these facts are obtained,
says that these artists ventured upon the composition of pictures,
intended to represent engravings as well as oil paintings, and that
there are several such works, representing even historical subjects, in
the collections of Carpi. Lanzi considers this art of so much
importance, that he thus concludes his article upon it: "After the
practice of modeling had been brought to vie with sculpture, and after
engraving upon wood had so well counterfeited works of design, we have
to record this third invention, belonging to a State of no great
dimensions. Such a fact is calculated to bring into higher estimation
the geniuses who adorned it. There is nothing of which man is more
ambitious, than of being called an inventor of new arts; nothing is more
flattering to his intellect, or draws a broader line between him and the
animals. Nothing was held in higher reverence by the ancients, and hence
it is that Virgil, in his Elysian Fields, represented the band of
inventors with their brows bound with white chaplets, equally distinct
in merit as in rank, from the more vulgar shades around them."