Castanets is the name of a musical instrument of percussion in the form of two hollow shells of ivory or hard wood, which are bound together by a band fastened on the thumb, and struck by the fingers to produce a trilling sound in keeping with the rhythm of the music. The castanets were introduced into Spain by the Moors, and are much used as an accompaniment to dances and guitars.

The term bird's-eye view is applied generally to modes of perspective in which the eye is supposed to look down upon the objects from a considerable height. In sketching or drawing a locality for military or economical purposes, this kind of perspective is always used. The great difficulty is to represent at the same time the relative heights of mountains and steepness of acclivities. But the more usual kind of bird's-eye view differs from the common perspective picture only in the greater height of the horizontal line.

Soprano (Ital.) is the highest species of voice. Its average range extends from C below the treble stave to A above it; but the greatest variety in compass and quality is found. The highest compass on record is that of Agujari, which on the testimony of Mozart reached to C in altissimo (three octaves). Music for this voice is now written with the G or treble clef; but in German full scores the old soprano clef, C on the first line, is still used. The mezzo-soprano has a somewhat lower range, usually from A beneath the treble stave to F on the fifth line.

Foreshortening is a term in painting or drawing, applied to signify-that a figure, or a portion of a figure, which is intended to be viewed by the spectator directly or nearly in front, is so represented as to convey the notion of its being projected forward; and, though by mere comparative measurement occupying a much smaller space on the surface, yet to give the same idea of length or size as if it had been projected laterally.

Genre-painting is a term in art which originally indicated simply any class or kind of painting, and was always accompanied by a distinctive adjective or epithet, as genre historique, "historical painting," or genre du paysage, "landscape painting." The term genre is now limited to scenes from familiar or rustic life and to all figure pictures which from the homeliness of their subjects do not attain to the dignity of historical art.

Improvisatori is an Italian term, designating poets who without previous preparation compose on a given theme, and who sometimes sing and accompany their voice with a musical instrument. The talent of improvisation is found in races in which the imagination is more than usually alert, as among the ancient Greeks, the Arabs, and in many tribes of negroes. In modern Europe it has been almost entirely confined to Italy.

Great schools can spring only from a profound popular delight in expressions of beauty and truth. Art is not primarily didactic - not essentially religious or theoretical - but, rather, ethical, and delight is a moral quality. Thus the measure of a nation's advancement in regard to its ethical conceptions is an accurate measure of its love of art and of its capability to achieve great things in color, in marble and in architecture.

Perhaps it is too much to ask that the people read all that artists write. Granted that they do not, there still remains the fact that their hearts delight in expressions of truth, which their minds as yet do not grasp. And from such popular delight in things of intrinsic nobility came that sincerity which made it possible for Ghiberti, the Florentine, to fashion "The Gates of Paradise." And from the spirit of the people the great American school of art is to spring.

The term pre-Raphaelite has been applied to a body of artists, poets, and literary men who combined together (1850) to advocate, by precept and example, a return to nature in art. Their subsequent success and influence was largely owing to the support they received from the pen of John Ruskin. The name was adopted because they looked upon Raphael as " the first traitor to religious art," since he idealized his creations past recognition, and was the founder of what they deemed the "illusory" style.

The word caricature is used to express either a pictorial or a descriptive representation, in which, while a general likeness is retained, peculiarities are exaggerated so as to make the person or thing ridiculous. Although sometimes applied to literary descriptions, the word caricature, when used alone, is generally understood to relate to design. Caricature being a natural expression of natural feelings, must be as old as man himself, and possibly the eccentric markings found on rocks and in caves are not entirely due to bad drawing, but were intended in certain cases to ridicule the artist's enemies. Examples of caricature have been found in the art of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans.

The Facade (Fr.) is the exterior front or face of a building. This term, although frequently restricted to classic architecture, may be applied to the front elevation of a building in any style. It is, however, generally used with reference to buildings of some magnitude and pretension; thus, we speak of the front of a house, and the façade of a pal* ace. The back elevation of an important building is called the rear façade, and a side elevation the lateral façade. The sides of a court, or cortile are also called façades, and are distinguished as north, south, etc., façades.

Relief, as distinguished from "sculpture in the round," is one of the oldest forms of mural decoration, and in many cases is a subordinate department of architectural art rather than a branch of sculpture proper. It is low relief (bas-relief, basso-rilievo), middle (mezzo-rilievo), and high relief (alto-rilievo) according as the carved figures project very little, in a moderate degree, or in a very considerable degree from the background. The ancient Egyptians practiced a peculiar kind of low relief and intaglio combined. The wall-sculptures of Assyria and Babylonia are mostly in very low relief.

Dissolving views are pictures painted upon glass, and made to appear of great size and with great distinctness upon a wall by means of a magic lantern with strong lenses and an intense oxyhydrogen light, and then -by removal of the glass from the focus, and gradual increase of its distance - apparently dissolved into a haze, through which a second picture is made to appear by means of a second slide, at first with a feeble, and afterwards with a strong light. Subjects are chosen to which such an optical illusion is adapted, such as representations of the same object or landscape at different periods.

The art of painting manuscripts with miniatures and ornaments termed "illumination," is one of the most remote antiquity. The Egyp-ian papyri containing portions of the Ritual or "Book of the Dead" are ornamented with veritable drawings and colored pictures. Except these papyri, no other manuscripts of antiquity were, strictly speaking, illuminated; such Greek and Roman manuscripts of the first century as have reached the present day being written only. It was in the middle ages, and in the hands of ecclesiastical scholars or copyists, that the art of illumination touched its highest development.

The Elgin Marbles are a celebrated collection of ancient sculptures, brought from Greece by the seventh Earl of Elgin, then ambassador to the Porte, and acquired from him by the nation for the British Museum in 1816 at the sum of $175,000. Early in the century he obtained a firman to examine, measure, and remove certain stones with inscriptions from the Acropolis of Athens, then a Turkish fortress. His agents, on the strength of this firman, removed the so-called Elgin Marbles, packed before Elgin's recall in 1803, but not finally conveyed to England till 1812. They are said to have cost the ambassador upwards of $370,000.