Illustrated Companion to the Latin Dictionary/Incisura

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rich, Anthony (1849). The illustrated companion to the Latin dictionary, and Greek lexicon. p. vi. OCLC 894670115. https://archive.org/details/illustratedcompa00rich. 

INCISU'RA. A term used by the Roman painters to express what is now technically called hatching by our engravers and artists (Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 57.); which is produced by making separate strokes with the brush, like those of an engraving or chalk drawing, over the flat tints, in order to deepen the tone, give transparency, and form a half-tint between the light and shade. The expedient of hatching is never resorted to in oil painting, because the lubricous vehicle blends easily of itself, but is commonly applied by the fresco painters both of the old Roman and modern Italian schools. The illustration (Incisura/1.1), which is a facsimile of a piece of sculptured pavement in the cathedral at Siena, will explain exactly what is meant by the term. If it were a fresco painting instead of an engraving, the darkest tint at the right hand side between the head of the child and the drapery of the female figure, would be crossed over with a hatching of strongly marked lines as it is here, each one of which would form an incisura; the name being transferred from its original meaning, an indented line, like those in the palm of the hand (Plin. H. N. xi. 114.), to one which resembled the same in its effect.

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  Incisura/1.1