3 Soft-Ground Etching
A very charming style of work which was much used by Bartolozzi and other engravers of his time, but now gone entirely out of use. A suitable book-plate engraved in this manner not turning up in time, the present fine example of the style was selected to illustrate the character of the work, which bears a close resemblance to a chalk drawing, and on that account offers considerable difficulties in the way of reproduction by the half-tone process. The result is, however, successful in a remarkable degree in translating the peculiar texture of the original.
The allegorical device represents the turret-crowned goddess Cybele, “mother of a hundred gods,” standing upon an isolated rock in the sea, holding out an olive-branch, and with her attribute, the rudder, as guide and director of the destinies of cities and states; youthful figures representing the Arts and Sciences—which are the glory of a State—are disporting themselves in the clouds.
Though not originally intended for a book-plate, a friend is desirous of adopting it, with the motto from Virgil, “Fato prudentia major”—to intimate that, in his opinion, prudence is greater than fate.