a. and sb. 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 colors, 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.
1857. 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, tile: one decorated with patterns formed with different colored clays, inlaid in the brick or tile, and burnt with it.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Encaustick (encausticus), enameled, wrought with fire, varnished.
1781. Hayley, Triumphs Temper, VI. 173.
| As the fine 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. sb.
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. B’ness Bunsen, in Hare, Life (1879), I. xi. 481. The method of painting in encaustic, practised by the ancients.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, I. iv. 106. The walls … entirely painted in encaustic by the first artists of Germany.
1848. Wornum, Lect. Paint. by groups of 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.
