Some of the Dutch artists of the seventeenth century used a clear sky for the purpose of enhancing the relief of their figures, but as these are usually of a comparatively small size, the result is only partially effective. Albert Cuyp and Philip Wouverman painted many pictures with men and animals silhouetted above the horizon, and Paul Potter executed a few of the kind, but of all Dutch painters, Jan Steen secured the best relief with his Terrace Scene.[a] In more recent times the scheme has seldom been adopted for the purpose of relief, but a few Scottish painters practised it in the early nineteenth century. Simson followed Cuyp's plan,[b] and Dyce in a sacred piece equalled the best of the old masters in his manner of producing the illusion.[c] Grant also painted a fine example.[d] Some portrait painters of the English school of the eighteenth century used the scheme in a partial way, but they commonly placed clouds behind the figures thrown against the sky, thus disturbing the illusion. [a] National Gallery, London. [b] National Gallery, Edinburgh. [c] St. John Leading the Virgin from the Tomb, National Gallery of British Art, London. [d] The Countess of Chesterfield and Mrs. Anson, Gilmour Collection, Scotland. There is only one method of using this device for assisting in the production of relief in interiors. This is to throw the figure against a high wall which is undecorated or nearly so. The figure must be some little distance in front of the wall, and it is observable that the best effect is obtained when the light throughout the room is equal, but in any case the wall should not have less light than the figure. Inasmuch as the figure has to be of life size or nearly so, to produce the desired result, a very large picture would be necessary for the representation of a standing adult; hence the plan is not attempted with a life-size figure, except with a sitting adult or a standing child. Before this scheme was used for the human figure, that master of relief, M. A. Caravaggio, adopted it for a simple still-life work.[a] A basket of fruit on a plain table, with a high bare wall at the back--the canvas now sombre and darkened, like the soul of the artist, but still remarkable for the relief: this was the first application to interiors of a plan which had been used in exteriors by some of the greatest masters for more than a century. [a] Ambrogia Museum, Milan.