encaustic, a. and n.
(ɛnˈkɔːstɪk)
Also 7–8 in Gr. or L. form encaustice, 8 encaustica.
[ad. Gr. ἐγκαυστικός, f. ἐγκαίειν to burn in.]
A. adj.
1. Pertaining to, or produced by, the process of ‘burning in’: a. with reference to the ancient method of painting with wax colours, and fixing them by means of fire; also to modern processes of similar nature.
| 1756 Phil. Trans. XLIX. 654 The new encaustic painting, or painting in burnt wax. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) V. 2 The revival of encaustic painting. 1841 W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 193 The processes of the ancient art, now lost..particularly the Encaustic method. 1867 A. Barry Sir C. Barry vi. 184 The great fresco and encaustic pictures. |
b. in wider sense, with reference to any process by which pigments are ‘burnt in’, e.g. enamelling, painting on pottery, etc. encaustic brick, encaustic tile: one decorated with patterns formed with different coloured clays, inlaid in the brick or tile, and burnt with it.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Encaustick (encausticus), enameled, wrought with fire, varnished. 1781 Hayley Tri. Temper vi. 174 The..artist, whose nice toils aspire To fame eternal by encaustic fire. 1860 Smiles Self-Help ii. 45 The manufacture of encaustic tiles. 1879 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 177 The splendid encaustic floor is still perfect. |
2. transf. and fig.
| 1822 De Quincey Confess. Wks. V. 232 Those encaustic records which in the mighty furnaces of London life had been burned into the undying memory. 1872 H. Macmillan True Vine vi. 260 The encaustic lichen on the rock. |
B. n.
1. [ad. Gr. ἐγκαυστικὴ τέχνη.] The art or process of encaustic painting. Chiefly applied to the ancient method of painting so called, or its mod. imitations (see A. 1 a); occasionally to enamelling, painting on pottery, etc.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 546 The art of painting with fire (called Encaustice). 1708 Kersey, Encaustice or Encaustica, the Art of Enamelling..with fire. 1838 Baroness Bunsen in Hare Life (1879) I. xi. 481 The method of painting in encaustic, practised by the ancients. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby iii. iv. 106 The walls..entirely painted in encaustic by the first artists of Germany. 1848 Wornum Lect. Paint. by R.A's 221 note, Encaustic..practised by the later Greeks..appears to have been nothing more than burning-in with a heater (cauterium) the ordinary wax colours. |
† 2. A pigment or glaze applied by ‘burning in’.
| 1662 Evelyn Chalcogr. iv. Misc. Writ. (1805) 277 A certain encaustic or black enamel. |