ARTIST, in a general sense, a person skilled in some art. Mr Harris defines an artist to be, "A person possessing an habitual power of becoming the cause of some effect, according to a system of various and well-approved precepts." See ART.
* Exel, Discourse of medals, p. 237, &c. We are told* of a privilege granted at Vicenza to artists, like that of clergy in England: in virtue thereof, criminals adjudged to death save their lives if they can prove themselves the most excellent and consummate workmen in any useful art. This benefit is allowed them in savorem artis, for the first offence, except in some particular crimes, of which coining is one; for here the greater the artist, the more dangerous the person.