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diff --git a/75528-0.txt b/75528-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c46466 --- /dev/null +++ b/75528-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6852 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75528 *** + + + + + + ESSAYS + + TOWARDS + + THE HISTORY OF PAINTING. + + + + + ESSAYS + + TOWARDS THE + + HISTORY OF PAINTING. + + BY MRS. CALLCOTT. + + LONDON: + EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET. + + MDCCCXXXVI. + + + + + LONDON: + BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, + WHITEFRIARS. + + + + + TO THE MISS WARRENS. + + +MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS, + +When your excellent Father suggested to me to engage in some little +work which should afford constant and steady employment, as the best +means of alleviating the wearisomeness of an increasing and incurable +disorder, I hoped to have had the benefit of his advice during its +progress. It has pleased God that it should be otherwise, and I have +had to mourn the premature loss of the most skilful physician and the +kindest friend. Yet I have followed his advice as far as my strength +has permitted. One portion of the task he prescribed to me is done; and +I offer it to _you_ as a token of my gratitude to _him_. + +Should I live to go on with the second portion of the work, it will, +perhaps, be more interesting to you in its nature. This, however, +I know you will receive affectionately, when you remember at whose +desire it was begun, and think of the regard I have always felt towards +yourselves since I have known you. + + MARIA CALLCOTT. + + _June 1st, 1836._ + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + ESSAY I. + + PAGE. + +Introduction.--Lectures on Painting.--History of Art displayed +by its remains.--Object of the present Essays.--Origin of Art.--First +mention of Art in the Book of Genesis.--Egyptian and Chaldean +Colonies.--Art among the Chinese.--Hindoo Art.--Egyptian Art.--Second +Colonization from Egypt.--Egyptian Arts as practised by the +Israelites.--The Ark of the Covenant and the Golden +Calf.--Hieroglyphical Writing; its effects upon Art.--Egyptian +Painting.--Pigments used by the Egyptians 1 + + + ESSAY II. + + OF ART IN ANCIENT ITALY. + +Italy long a Civilised Nation before the existence of Rome.--The +ancient Etruscans.--The useful Nature of their Works.--Their +Tombs.--Those of Chiusi.--Tarquinii and Vulscii.--Etruscan +Vases.--Painted Tombs.--Early Pictures mentioned +by Pliny.--Etruscan Statues in Rome.--Roman +Pictures.--Fabius Pictor.--Pacuvius.--Triumphal Pictures.--Pictures +used in Law Suits.--Begging Pictures.--Compliment +paid by Augustus to Painting.--First Greek Pictures +brought to Rome by Mummius.--Pictures brought to Italy +by different Conquerors and placed in Temples and Porticos.--New +Italian School of Pottery.--Schools of Painting in Italy.--No +good Roman Painters.--Roman Busts.--Mosaic Pictures.--Miniatures.--Books +first Illustrated with Portraits by +Varro and Atticus.--Antique Pictures found at Pompeii.--Portrait +Painting in Nero’s Time.--Gradual decay of Art +in Italy 44 + + + ESSAY III. + + OF PAINTING IN GREECE, FIRST AND SECOND SERIES. + +Earliest Painting in Greece.--No relic of Greek Pictures remaining.--The +Arts first cultivated at Sicyon and Corinth.--Their rapid +improvement in Greece.--Art in Asia Minor.--Vases of Clay +and of Metal.--The first Greek Painters.--Progress of Painting up +to the time of Phidias.--The Works of Mycon.--Those of Polygnotus.--The +Battle of Marathon.--The Pictures of Delphi.--Apollodorus.--Improvements +made by him in Art.--Further Improvements made by Pamphilus.--And +still further by Parrhasius.--His Pictures and Character.--Zeuxis, +his Pictures.--Timanthes, his Pictures.--Colotes 85 + + + ESSAY IV. + + OF THE THIRD PERIOD OF PAINTING IN GREECE. + +Macedonian Kings Encouragers of Art.--Philip.--Alexander.--Pamphilus +and School of Sicyon.--Pictures of Pamphilus.--Apelles.--His +Character.--His Pictures.--His Danger in Egypt.--His Picture +of Calumny.--His Visit to Protogenes.--The Venus +Anadyomene.--Protogenes.--His Pictures.--Aristides of Thebes.--His +Pictures.--Nichomachus.--His Pictures.--Pausias.--His Picture of the +Garland Maker.--Other Pictures.--Euphranor.--Antiphilus.--Familiar Life +Subjects.--Pyreicus.--Interiors, animals, &c.--Minor +Painters.--Nicias.--Timomachus.--His Medea.--Conclusion 137 + + + ESSAY V. + + CLASSIFICATION OF PICTURES. + +Inconveniences of the present Mode of Classing Pictures.--Proposed +Classification.--Historical Pictures Divisible into +Four Classes.--Further Subdivision.--Present Class of Dramatic +Pictures divided into two.--Three Classes of Portrait +Painting.--Two Classes of Familiar Life Subjects.--Landscape, +its Four Classes.--Two Classes of Animal Painting.--Examples +taken from Ancient and Modern Pictures.--Table of Cebes.--Calumny +of Apelles.--Old Fresco at Sienna.--Allegories of +the Greek Painters.--Of Giotto.--Prophets and Sybils.--Sistine +Chapel.--Works of Polygnotus.--Some Works of +Raffaelle.--Other Pictures of Polygnotus.--Hemelink’s +Three Kings.--Cimabue’s and Giotto’s Lives of St. Francis +and the Virgin.--Raffaelle’s Loggie.--Luini Frescoes.--Andrea +del Sarto.--Domenichino.--Pictures of Single Actions +by the Ancients.--Many Examples by the Moderns.--Dramatic +Pictures of the Ancients.--Of the Moderns.--Historical +Portraits and Examples.--Familiar Life Pictures of the +Ancients.--Of the Moderns.--Examples of the Four Classes +of Landscapes.--Animal Painters Ancient and Modern 169 + + + ESSAY VI. + + ON THE MATERIALS USED BY PAINTERS. + +Introduction.--Early Pictures, in Egypt and Etruria, on bare +Sandstone.--Painting on fine Plaster or Stucco.--On Wood, +prepared.--Kinds of Wood.--Manner of Preparing it by +Ancients and Moderns.--Painting on Linen.--Its Antiquity.--Its +use.--When revived.--Pigments.--Vulgar Error concerning +the Number of Colours used by the Ancient Greeks.--Its +Refutation.--White Pigments of the Ancients.--Middle +Ages.--Moderns.--Yellows.--Reds, especially vermilion.--Minium.--The +Red Ochres.--Dragons’ Blood.--Blue Colours.--Ultra Marine.--The Blue +of Egypt.--Blues used by Early Modern Painters.--Blue Earths and +Indigo, Ancient and Modern.--Green Colours, Native and +Manufactured.--Blacks of the Ancients and Moderns.--Purples and +Browns.--Vehicles used by Painters.--Difficulty of the +subject.--Asphaltum, Petroleum, Wax, and Oil, used as Varnishes by the +Ancients.--Encaustic Painting.--Vehicles certainly known +to the Ancients.--The Vehicles used in the Tenth Century, +in the Thirteenth, and by the Moderns.--Metal Points +used for Drawing by the Ancients.--The Egyptian Drawings, +made with a Pen or fine Pencil.--The Tools of Hogs’ Bristles +have always been the same.--Fine Pencils made of Squirrels’ +hair in the Twelfth Century.--Conclusion 217 + + + + + ESSAYS. + + + + + ESSAYS + + TOWARDS + + THE HISTORY OF PAINTING. + + + + + ESSAY I. + + The Historical and Literary knowledge of an Art is, for the learned, + and for Artists, what maps are for the Warrior, the Traveller, and the + Sailor. + + RASPE. + + +To write such a book upon any art as should be eminently useful to +the professors of that art, as instructing them in methods whereby +they may improve their practice, and avoid the difficulties they have +to encounter, or gracefully evade them, would require the hand of a +consummate artist, who, to great practice, should join large knowledge +of his subject, and a minute acquaintance with the materials upon whose +nature more of practical success depends, than enthusiasts in art are +willing to own. Besides, he should possess sufficient learning to +communicate the experience of past ages, for the improvement of this; +and a good taste and acquaintance with general literature, to adorn +his subject with the graces that all arts may borrow from each other, +becoming always richer in proportion as they draw from their common +treasury, Nature. + +To write a work of just criticism, upon a peculiar art, the author +should no less be a professor, whose practice might exemplify his +criticism, or at any rate might enable him justly to appreciate the +merits and defects of the peculiar works which he should choose as +subjects on which to found his criticisms. + +The lectures of Sir Joshua Reynolds made art popular in this country, +less because they contained excellent precepts and well-chosen +examples, than because, like Johnson’s criticism in the Lives of +the Poets, they laid open the general principles applicable to all +the arts. Poetry and music, painting and sculpture, architecture +and landscape-gardening, may equally profit by them, the passages +peculiarly appropriated to painters being far from the most numerous, +though such as none but a painter could have written. + +Fuseli appears to be more exclusively a critic in his own art. He +had prodigious practice in his own wild walk, wherein, however, even +he often mistook the glare of caprice for the light of genius. He had +great learning, the effect of which he injured by affectation and +quaintness, yet there are exquisite passages in his lectures, which +will always be read with profit and delight both by artists and lovers +of art. + +The practical lectures delivered or published by other authors, some +living, and some whose loss we have to lament, have not been popular, +chiefly because they were most properly composed for the use of +artists. And when we consider that they have been for the most part the +works of men whose lives were passed in the most laborious department +of a Profession that demands constant application, namely portrait +painting, it is surprising how much they did in those hours which +nature might have claimed as due to rest and relaxation. But such is +the advantage possessed by a professor, when writing on the art be +practises and understands. + +I am aware that a certain class of connoisseurs, amateurs, or +enthusiasts have lately put forth, perhaps I should say revived, the +strange opinion that a practical artist is of all men the least fit to +judge of art, and that it belongs to _them_, that is the connoisseurs +only, to judge of his work. I believe this notion to have lurked in +secret in the bosom of many an amateur for centuries back; but it +required the fostering hand of German enthusiasm to publish it, as an +axiom, to the world; and to write books upon the absurd notion, that +those who know nothing practically of a subject, are the best judges +and instructors concerning it. + +Apelles had different notions; for while he bade the shoemaker _stick +to his last_, he took his advice about the sandals of his Venus. + +In truth, to use the words of the wisest of modern men, “the labours of +speculative men, in active matters, seem to men of experience, little +better than Phormio’s discourses of war; which seemed to Hannibal as +dreams and dotage[1].” + +If mere lovers of art will, nevertheless, devote their thoughts and +pens to her enchanting service, I think they may do an acceptable +office, even to painters themselves, by collecting what is, or has been +known of her progress, following up her history from the first faint +traces of her path among savage tribes, to her majestic footsteps in +the flourishing states of Greece; nor losing sight of her entirely in +her sad hours of degradation under Imperial Rome, and finally watching +over her gentle though slow revival under the brilliant sun of Italy. + +There is a kind of history of art which has been successfully +cultivated: I mean that which addresses itself directly to the eye +by a chronological display of the remaining works of art in the +great publications of Monfaucon, Dagincourt, Micali, and the various +archæological works of different societies[2]. But these are books +of such price as must always render them difficult of access; and, +unfortunately, the descriptions attached to the prints seldom admit of +separation; and are, in general, written too dully to interest, or so +much in the spirit of controversy as to render them disagreeable. + +Such history can never become popular. There remains, however, open, an +unpretending path, yet untrodden, by which those who love art may be +led sufficiently near her temple to enjoy her beauties, understand her +virtues, and be blessed by her happy influence, without encroaching on +the province of her professed servants, or engaging in combat with her +false or mistaken friends, or avowed enemies. + +Tis this path that I would pursue, and take along with me those of my +sex and country who love the good and the beautiful, and who likewise +love to look up through them, to the fountain of all goodness, and to +the Author of all beauty. + +A great deal of time and much temper have been wasted, in disputes +concerning the native country of the arts. China, Upper India, and +Egypt, have been perhaps the favourites of the learned, though there +have not been wanting champions for the claims of Western Asia, and +even Greece. + +But, if we could trace all the arts, whether springing from the primary +wants, or the mere desires and wishes of man, to one original inventor, +we should not be much the forwarder. As mankind increased, and formed +separate nations, these arts would naturally and necessarily vary, in +order to accommodate themselves to climates and circumstances. And we +are as little likely to fix, with any thing like certainty, on the +native country of painting or sculpture, as to discover that of the +various kinds of grain, which in all ages have formed the principal +food of civilized men. The discovery of the great Western World, long +enough after the art of printing, to secure whatever memorials might +be written concerning the state of its inhabitants, opened to us a +monument of the early condition of all mankind, a thousand times more +instructive than pillars of marble or of brass. + +The Spaniards found in Florida one species of grain, cultivated and +used for bread, in the same way, and in as much ignorance of its +origin, as wheat in the Old World: and in many provinces, a substitute +for the finer grains was used, requiring infinitely more ingenuity +in its preparation, and of the origin of which the natives knew so +little, as to look upon it as the gift of a benevolent enchanter[3]. +In Mexico and Peru they found many arts considerably advanced. The +smelting, casting, embossing, engraving of metals; the making of +very fine pottery; the chiselling of the hardest stones and marbles. +There, too, was painting practised, not as a mere luxury, but as a +matter of prime necessity. For the nations were still so young as not +to have discovered alphabetical writing; therefore, painting, mixed +with a variety of conventional signs, almost amounting to hieroglyphic +characters, was used, to record the history of the nations, the +transactions of the priests and merchants, and the decisions of the +laws[4]. + +Since that great first discovery, many and various tribes have been +gradually revealed to us, none so savage as not to have discovered some +longing after arts, beyond those absolutely necessary to existence. +The cloth of the Sandwich Islander was stamped with mimic leaves and +branches. The clubs, darts, and hatchets of the New Zealanders were +covered with flowers and foliage; and not unfrequently we find on them +an attempt at the human form. + +The fences of the Morais presented, on many of the poles, a human head, +grossly cut indeed, but still bearing the impress of man’s imitative +genius. + +Instances of this sort might be multiplied; but for the present I have +named enough for my purpose, which is, to prove that it is unnecessary +to trace the arts from country to country, or from house to house, to +give them, as it were, a formal genealogy; but that we may expect to +find that, circumstances being tolerably alike, the fine arts will +spring up in all nations as they advance in civilization. + +The progress of art is a separate question, and must have been +influenced by many circumstances not naturally connected with it. Hence +we see it in one nation beginning in splendour and advancing rapidly +for a time; when suddenly it is stopped as by an enchanter’s wand: the +handicraft may improve, but the form, character, and spirit, remain +for ever fixed. In another, on the contrary, it advances, firm and +free: every age improves it: and its career is only cut short when the +nation itself sinks before a foreign conqueror! + +Differently again, but still influenced by the circumstances of +society, we have beheld the arts almost touching upon perfection and +then withering, by slow and sickly decay, till all that ennobled them +has disappeared, and they seem fitted for nothing but to adorn the +ephemeral trophies of fashion or caprice. + +Having thus so far cleared the ground, I will endeavour to collect the +scattered notices concerning art, in the most ancient times, and among +the most anciently civilized nations; and so prepare the way for more +connected details, when we reach the period of common history. + +The book of Genesis names one of the great grandsons of Cain, as the +first who wrought and graved on metal, and another as the inventor of +musical instruments,--a proof that the arts were cultivated in very +early stages of civilization[5]. + +Again, within four centuries after the flood, we find that men had made +images of wood, and stone, and metal, to worship. They had not only +built them cities, but they had tasted of the barbarous civilities +of war; they had erected trophies; poets had extolled the exploits of +heroes; and sculptors had already fashioned their images, to adore. +Constant tradition names Terah, the father of Abraham, as a maker of +images; and that the worship of them continued in his family for nearly +two hundred years, notwithstanding the call and conversion of Abraham, +is proved by Rachel’s theft of the images of Laban, when she left her +father’s house to accompany her husband to the land of Canaan. + +But, if we may believe Greek and Egyptian tradition, more than a +century before the call of Abraham, a colony had been planted at +Sicyon, by an Egyptian leader, Ægialeus,[6] who brought with him the +knowledge of sculpture and painting, and founded the earliest and +purest school of Greek art. + +Another civilized colony, from Egypt, soon settled in Greece. Inachus +founded the city of Argos, while Abraham was still an idolater, in Ur. + +At this period, Egypt and Chaldea both seem to have sent out colonies +on every side, and history and tradition alike point to this period +also, as that of the invention of alphabetical writing: or, at any +rate, its establishment in a great part of the then civilized world. +The claims of the Egyptian Memnon and the Phœnician Cadmus to the +invention, appear to be equally and entirely without foundation; and +Pliny’s notion that it had existed from the beginning, in Chaldea and +the adjacent countries, is supported, by a very remarkable passage in +the book of Joshua[7]. + +On the victorious march of the Israelites, under Joshua himself, to +Palestine, we find he took Debir; i.e. the place of an oracle or wise +discourse. The name of the town was before Kirjath Sepher, or city +of books or of letters; therefore books and letters were ancient, in +that country, in Joshua’s time.[8] That pictures and sculpture were so +likewise, I infer from the command given in Numbers, xxxiii. 52, to +destroy the _pictures_ and molten images of the natives of Palestine. + +If any reliance is to be placed on the annals of China and of India, +civilization and its attendant arts were at least as early with them as +with Egypt and Chaldea, each claiming the priority, and each pretending +to have been the teacher of the rest of the world, on equally plausible +grounds. + +There is no doubt of the antiquity of Indian civilization. The ancient +Greek writers talk of the Indian philosophers, as belonging to a nation +highly polished, before a grain of corn had been sown in Greece; and +the pretensions of China are supported by the Indians themselves. + +I have said thus much of the general civilization of these nations, +because I could not separate it from the cultivation of the arts. I +will now keep closer to my subject, reserving, however, the liberty of +digressing wherever I see occasion, or, in other words, whenever it +suits my humour. + +As I take it, the Chinese remain, more nearly than any other people, in +the state in which they were two or three thousand years ago, and are, +for their age, the veriest babes that inhabit the earth. I will begin +with them, and see what their proficiency in art has ever amounted to. + +It is plain from their written signs, for alphabet they have none: +that in early times, they, like the Mexicans, exerted their powers of +imitation to represent in painting, events, the memory of which they +wished to preserve. On dissecting the hundred and seventeen elementary +characters, whose endless combinations represent their language, it is +not difficult to trace the rude forms of men, birds, quadrupeds, fish, +houses, trees, hills, and so forth; and in the very oldest writings, +before the circular forms were rejected altogether, these shapes were +still more distinct[9]. + +We may naturally expect that, as long as painting is thus used, +convenience alone would require the once admitted forms and colours +to be invariable, and that precautions would be taken against +innovation, even for improvement, lest the painted pages should +become unintelligible. But the Chinese had advanced far beyond that. +Their characters approach, even more nearly than hieroglyphics, to +alphabetical writing, and yet their art remained stationary and at +a very low point. It is very difficult to account for this among so +ingenious a people. It was not that the Tartar conquest, by any direct +influence, lessened their civilization or stopped their progress. We +have undeniable witnesses to the contrary, in the Chinese histories, as +interpreted by the missionaries and other learned orientalists; and, +what is still more curious and satisfactory, in the writings of Marco +Paulo, who accompanied the Tartar conqueror on his expedition. + +The religion of the Chinese, as Bhuddhists, is assuredly not calculated +to call forth the genius of painting. The insipid Goorus do not, like +the gods of the Hindoo or Greek mythologies, present subjects for +fancy to play with; and the statues of Bhud, while they have all the +stiffness, have none of the grandeur of the Egyptian gods. + +Perhaps, as the Chinese have always been a commercial nation, they +contented themselves with cultivating the art of painting, just so far +as to decorate their exquisite porcelain and lacquered ware for the +market, and sought after nothing more. + +They had certainly attained to great manual dexterity, and the power +of copying servilely whatever inanimate subjects were before them; and +they had discovered the method of extracting colours from metallic +substances, capable of bearing the furnace, as well as those of more +obvious use, in the chalks and earths of their country: besides some +of the finest varnishes in existence. We ought not to marvel that +they did not attain, in their painting, to common, much less ideal +beauty, when we reflect on the general character of form, in their own +nation or their Tartar conquerors, which is very far below that of the +Indians and their western neighbours. And we have, perhaps, no right +to expect better human shapes than that of the portly mandarin and his +crimp-footed lady, upon their plates and dishes. But their animals, +whether painted, modelled in clay, or cast in metal, are little less +distorted than their men: and as to perspective, linear, or aërial, +they seem to have no sense of either[10]. In flowers and birds, their +pencilling is delicate, and often true to admiration; but, even in +these objects, except in treatises on botany or ornithology, their +peculiar taste breaks out in monstrous combinations of leaves and +flowers, that never grew in the same soil; and of beaks and wings, +that were never hatched in the same nest. + +The Japanese appear to have carried many arts to much greater +perfection than the Chinese; and even in painting, the very old Japan +figures approach nearer in style to beauty and a certain sort of +greatness. + +But the reading of one Chinese novel or drama, such, for instance, +as the “Fortunate Alliance,” or “The Adventures of the Fair Shuey +Ping Sing, and the Chalk Ring,” or “Le Cercle de Craie,” must satisfy +us that, whatever progress that nation may have made in science, or +whatever sagacity it may have displayed in internal government or +in commerce, a true taste for the liberal arts has never ennobled +its other pursuits, or charmed the leisure of its philosophers and +statesmen. + +I do not mean to say that they neither look at pictures nor listen to +music: but those pictures and that music differ so widely in taste and +quality from what the greater number of civilized nations are agreed in +admiring, that I feel justified in considering them as insensible to +that standard of taste which all the rest of the world acknowledges. + +Was India then the mother of the arts? and, among her many claims to +distinction can she, with justice, advance that of having instructed +Egypt and anticipated the splendours of Babylon? + +It might be expected that the remaining works of art, in that most +ancient nation, might decide the question. But far from it. Nor does +history or tradition throw any trust-worthy light on the subject. + +The most ancient monuments of Egypt bear a certain resemblance to some +of those of India, and what we know of the religion of both countries +indicates, that, in some most remote period, their mysteries and rites +had a close resemblance. Yet, on some material points, such as their +funeral ceremonies, the difference seems to have been so decided that +we are forced to conclude that they were of different sects, emanating, +possibly, from a common source. + +It is curious, that the figures of Bhud, whether on the continent of +India, or the island of Ceylon, or in China, should present the form, +and curled woolly hair of a Southern African. But the Bhuddhists of +India do not appear to have produced better works, in sculpture, than +those of China. The Brahmins, on the contrary, have left, besides +magnificent architectural monuments, in their caverns, in which +they are rivalled by the Bhuddhists, pieces of sculpture, of a very +different character from theirs, where there is occasionally grandeur, +and, not unfrequently, freedom and grace. No one, who has seen the +colossal head of the Trimurti, in Elephanta, can deny the grandeur, +almost the sublimity, of that strange work; and the compartments of the +same temple-cavern are examples of a gracious feeling of nature. The +sculptured rock, at Mavellipoor, or Mahabalipoor, called the Tapas, +or Penance of Arjoon, is a further example of freedom and taste; and +the figures of the elephants, and other animals, attendant on the holy +penitent, are designed with the greatest truth. The deformities, almost +constant in Egypt, of placing the heads of animals on men’s shoulders, +because the qualities of those animals were figurative of the +attributes of the deities, are added to by the Hindoos, who, regarding +the human hand as the symbol of power, have accordingly multiplied the +hands of the gods. + +I shewed the late Mr. Flaxman some drawings of the sculptured rocks of +Mahabalipoor: he was struck with the freedom and expression of several +of the figures, in which there was an evident attempt to imitate +nature, and especially he was pleased with the expression of the +courtiers of Bali, in the design of the Vamuna Avater. + +I must observe that at Mavellipoor, within a circuit of less than two +miles, there are, besides the ruins of several large temples, built of +hewn stone, eight Monothelite temples: small[11], but all differing in +form, richly and capriciously ornamented; several caverns, on the walls +of which there are many mythological subjects carved in high relief, +some of the figures being seven feet high; and the sculptured rock of +Arjoon, which I have already mentioned. + +Yet, in most of these works, the execution is coarse, as if the +material had been too stubborn for the tools of the workman. I am told +that this defect does not exist in some other of the cavern temples of +India, but it runs through all that I have seen. + +Of the painting of the Hindoos, no specimen of anything like ancient +times has been preserved[12]; though, from their undoubtedly ancient +poems and plays, it is certain that they did paint, and that their +pictures were not only single portraits, but compositions, both of what +we call history and familiar life[13]. + +Who, indeed, can read Sir William Jones’s pleasant abridgement of the +Hindoo mythology, his translation of Sacontala, or the hymn to Camdeo, +and not perceive that the Indians wanted neither imagination, nor +subjects to exercise it upon, in their religion and poetry? + +But their florid religion, and exaggerated songs, were of later date, +in all probability, than that grave and philosophical faith which gave +the Brahmins their reputation in Greece and Egypt; and, perhaps, their +more natural pieces of sculpture and their pictures belong to that +later time rather than to the age of the gymnosophists; or if the +Indian arts furnished examples to Egypt or Chaldea, we must seek those +examples in the hewn rocks, which represent figures nearly as large +as the Egyptian Memnon, with their hands attached to their sides, and +their feet planted together, and of which some few still exist, within +the Peninsula, and on the Indian side of the borders of Tartary[14]. + +What do we know of the arts of Chaldea, in very early times[15]? +Babylon and Nineveh have, for thousands of years, been buried in +utter ruin; and if here and there a bauble, such as the signet of a +Satrap, or the breast-pin of a lady, be picked up, however delicately +the cornelian or the onyx may be chiselled, the forms are stiff and +angular, and nothing displays the freedom and grace that render art +valuable. The great sculptured rocks met with in various parts of +modern Persia, have everywhere the same character. But, upon the whole +however, there is a graver and more majestic air than in the monuments +of India, and a much greater dexterity of hand is displayed in the +workmanship, but there is less nature in the design. + +As to painting, in that country, there are neither relics nor +memorials, of earlier date than our æra[16]. + +It is with reverence, not unmixed with awe, that I approach the subject +of Egyptian art: and here, as in India and the intermediate countries, +I must consider its sculpture as the only satisfactory monument. I am +aware that coloured subjects, by courtesy called pictures, have been +discovered on the walls of tombs and caverns, by persons well qualified +to examine and pronounce, as antiquaries, on their meaning and their +merit. + +But they are, in composition, entirely sculpturesque; and many of them +are, in fact, coloured basso-relievos. + +Belzoni told me he had seen, in Egypt, figures in relief wrought in +stucco on the walls of some of the catacombs, which were coloured in +simple unbroken colours. To these he ascribed a marvellous effect, +and said, they were the grandest _pictures_ he had seen. Such also, +I remember, was the language used by my enthusiastic friend Kestner, +when, in 1827, he described to me the tombs of Egyptian character, +opened the year before at Tarquinii, in the country of the ancient +Etruscans. + +I can imagine readily that in the chambers of the dead, the plain form +shadowed out in a simple colour, and lighted by the glare of torches, +may have had an awful and ghostly character; and if these figures were +of the size of life, or larger, and further aided by the varying tints +afforded by a low relief, as the torches glared upon them, a describer +could hardly be charged with exaggeration, whatever effects he might +impute to them. + +Still these are not pictures, though the artists approached nearly to +picturesque design in many of the chiselled figures on the walls of the +temples and tombs of Thebes, where the attacking and defending towns, +the triumphs of a victorious king, the punishment of rebels, and other +historical facts, are rendered with considerable spirit, and convey +a notion that their authors might have become painters, had they not +been restrained by custom from change or progress. These could not, +however, be the beginnings of art. They mark already a very advanced +state of society, since such great works of ornament could be required +and executed; and they, it seems, were ancient when Herodotus visited +Egypt 450 years before our era[17]. + +But we have more authentic documents in favour of the antiquity of the +arts in Egypt, even than those afforded by the father of Greek history. +Fifteen centuries before Herodotus travelled into Egypt, Abraham had +been entertained there by a powerful king, who gave him gifts, such +as only the head of a people already conversant with many arts could +bestow. The whole history of Joseph’s life in Egypt[18] bears witness +to the progress already made there in civility and the arts of polished +life. + +Could we read the inscription freely, which covers the obelisk of +Mataryah, the only remains of the stately Heliopolis, the On of +Scripture, perhaps we might find some record of that high priest who +gave his daughter in marriage to the Hebrew governor. + +Both sacred[19] and profane history[20] fix upon the two centuries +between 1600 and 1400 before Christ, as the period when a prodigious +movement took place in Egypt, and when great works were undertaken by +the kings, and important colonies led forth into the western parts of +Asia, and into Greece. + +I have already mentioned the foundation of Argos and Sicyon, said to +have taken place nearly 600 years before the period of which I am now +speaking. They were, therefore, flourishing states when Cecrops[21], +the Egyptian, taught the people of Attica to sow corn, instead of +trusting to the precarious chances of the seasons in bringing forth +wild fruits, or the still more uncertain product of the chase; and +chose for the patroness of his new colony the goddess to whom his +native city Saïs was consecrated; Minerva or Bubastis. The rich country +of Asia Minor had not been more backward than Egypt in the earlier +times; nor afterwards less forward than Greece in receiving colonies. +In the time of Abraham, Damascus was a market, where slaves[22] were +sold; and forty years after Cecrops had founded Athens, Scamander +settled a colony in Troy. + +Scarcely a hundred years[23] after the Egyptians had carried their +arts and their religion into Attica, we find the first Panathenaic +procession mentioned, when the whole people of Athens solemnly +dedicated themselves to the service of the goddess Athena or Minerva, +and to that of their country, and bore before them to her temple her +banner, or veil, formed of fine linen, and embroidered with subjects +relative to her history or her attributes. + +The fine arts were therefore known in Attica at this early time; for +whether the peplos or veil were wrought in Attica, or imported from +Saïs, those who followed the banner could not be blind to the designs +and colours that adorned it. It was about this time that Cadmus brought +from the Eastern countries to Greece the knowledge of alphabetical +writing; at this time, when Minos gave his laws to Crete; while +Danaus, believed to be an Egyptian prince, reigned at Argos, and +Erichthonius in Athens; that Rameses was Phrah, or king of, at least, +Northern Egypt. He had caused the descendants of Abraham to build for +him the treasure cities of Rameses and Pithom[24]; and in his reign +Moses led forth the Israelites, to escape from his tyranny, into the +land promised to their forefathers. + +Before I say anything concerning the arts of Egypt alone, or the +changes they underwent in different soils, and under different +circumstances, I must point out the only minute account we have, that +can be relied upon, of any peculiar works executed by any of the +various tribes who at that time separated themselves from their nursing +mother. I mean the ark of the covenant, fashioned by the direction of +Moses in the wilderness, and the contemporary golden calf and brazen +serpent. + +And here we have, as far as I know, the names of the two most ancient +artists recorded: Aholiab and Bezaleel, whom the Scripture calls the +wise in heart; but they had many assistants, and it appears that Aaron +himself was a skilful workman. + +The arts required for the making of the ark and the erection of the +tabernacle were the preparing and dying of skins; the weaving of fine +linen; the fine dyes, blue, scarlet, red, and purple; designing for +the embroiderers[25], who wrought the pomegranates, the flowers, and +the leaves; every variety of carving in wood; casting and chiselling +of metals; and, finally, the engraving on precious stones, and setting +them according to the jewellers’ art. + +When, to quiet the impatient Israelites, Aaron consented to make a god +for them, such as they had been used to in Egypt, he caused them to +bring their jewels of gold to him for the purpose; and, after he had +cast or made a molten image, he finished it with the graver[26]. Now +this is the process of casting figures in metal to this very day. + +Here, then, we have the Jews designing, making moulds, casting metals, +and finishing with the graver. They were, therefore, not all mere +brick-makers in Egypt; but some of them, like Moses and Aaron, had been +instructed in the learning, or at least the arts, of the Egyptians. +Again, for the brass and gold ornaments of the tabernacle and the ark, +Bezaleel made the cherubim[27] on the mercy seat of beaten gold; that +is, their faces and wings were embossed and chiselled. So likewise was +the great candlestick, with its flowers and its almonds, its leaves and +its buds. + +The whole putting together of the tent of the tabernacle is most +ingenious, and denotes an acquaintance with great magnificence in +architecture and in furniture. The breastplate was composed of twelve +precious stones, from diamond the hardest, down to the most easily +wrought, cornelian; yet each was engraved after the manner of a signet, +with the name of one of the tribes, and set in its own peculiar setting. + +Such are the particulars we learn on undoubted authority of the arts at +that early period, as practised in Egypt for convenience and ornament. + +But Egypt had another use for the arts. She applied them mainly to the +service of religion. + +All nations, however rude, evince a desire to record their own actions +and those of their fathers. Poets, bards, senachies, scalds, or by +whatever name the same class of men may be called, are, like the +traditionary tale-tellers of the American Indians, the earliest of +historians. Their art, which is that of so placing words as to form +sentences, whether distinguished by rhyme or by only a peculiar rhythm, +more easily and pleasantly remembered than the same words would be in +the ordinary arrangement of speech, may be practised by the warrior +or the huntsman, without interfering with his other avocations. It +is, therefore, peculiarly fitted for rude tribes, who cannot afford +that any individual should give himself up exclusively to an inactive +profession. + +The rhapsodies of the bards, however, may be forgotten, and will +probably be so in a few generations;[28] and, if a tribe migrate so as +to settle where other tongues are spoken, the songs are sung in the +ears of the deaf, and the beginnings of history are swept wholly away. + +How, then, shall the memory of the past be preserved? the propensity +of man to imitation will lead him to attempt to form a likeness of +any great benefactor to the community. The simple stone set up for a +memorial will soon be cut into a rude statue. The face of a rock will +admit of carving figures enough to represent an event of importance; +or the outlines may be scratched upon a board, and the use of colour, +which abounds everywhere, is an easy step towards the beginning of +painting. Such, we have positive proof, it was in Mexico; such, we may +reasonably presume, it must have been in Egypt. + +But the heroes and benefactors of a lively and enthusiastic people +soon came to be looked upon as something divine. He, who first in the +sight of his tribe, scattered seed upon the earth, and, trusting to +the certain return of the season, taught how to gather in the harvest +and convert the grain into bread, must have stood in the light of a +Creator. When accident had attracted observation to the fatty nature +of the olive, he who applied oil to the feeding of a lamp would be +celebrated as a benefactor. The tamer of the bull, who brought kine to +labour for men, and from their milk produced such variety of delicious +food, merited still higher gratitude; and those who converted rude +dross and shapeless ore into instruments of agriculture, mechanical +tools, weapons offensive and defensive, almost deserved the divine +honours paid to them. + +It is neither my business nor my inclination to discuss the origin or +principles of the mythology of any country, farther than as it affected +the arts. + +The pictures and statues of the benefactors, or, as they soon began +to be called, of the gods, were intended to be lasting memorials of +their forms and acts. They were to speak a language independent of the +tongue. Hence it became absolutely necessary, that their representative +type should remain for ever fixed. So that to whatever excellence +the _mechanic_ might attain, or whatever improvement the progress of +science might enable the _artist_ to make, all change was forbidden; +and though the labour and finish became exquisite, it would have been +sacrilege to alter the form. Hence, while the statues of other nations +not under these restrictions, assumed the freedom and grace of nature, +Egypt saw her Osiris and Isis retaining their rigid and unnatural +characters, notwithstanding the sublime style in which they were +conceived. + +The basso-relievos, intaglios, and painted stuccoes of the temples and +catacombs, present greater varieties of action and design; but even in +them, the human figure is still monotonous in character. + +But whole statues and pictures engraved on rocks and walls of granite +and freestone, are inconvenient registers. Hence one well known form +was soon allowed to stand as the sign of a subject or action; part of +that figure might, in time, be substituted for the whole. + +The forms of animals whose qualities were supposed to bear relation +to those of man, were admitted to represent abstract ideas; as, for +instance, in India, the elephant’s head adorned the shoulders of the +god of wisdom, and in Egypt, the watchfulness of the cat procured +her the honour of lending a mask sometimes to the greatest of the +goddesses. Insects whose appearance was constant at particular seasons, +became the types of those seasons, or of the heavenly bodies which +regulate them; so by a natural process, a scheme of hieroglyphic +representation, if we must not say writing, was framed, which long +continued in use among the governing priests of Egypt to preserve the +annals of the country. + +Their hieroglyphics were themselves too cumbrous for constant use, +and it appears certain from ancient tradition and modern discovery, +that they produced a variety of steps approaching more or less to +alphabetical writing; and in all probability the learned priests who +could not be ignorant of the existence of such writing, preferred their +own mysterious and obscure characters for the sake of that power which +unusual and exclusive knowledge always confers. + +The effect that the use of hieroglyphic painting, whether more or +less near to writing, had upon the art of painting itself was most +disastrous. Those who were permitted to paint at all, were bound to +make no improvement. The art was jealously kept for the adornment of +hideous mummy cases[29] and sepulchral chambers, where the nearest +approaches to what is properly painting were a sort of portraits, drawn +upon the inner coffins, which were composed of folds of linen prepared +with a chalk ground, or basso-relievos either coloured themselves, +or imitated in flat colours upon the walls. The wood upon which the +commoner coffin-painting was executed appears to have been sycamore; +it was prepared with fine lime, mixed with some kind of gum or size +for the colourer. The pigments were ochres for the most part; but the +blues and greens appear to have been prepared from copper. The black +was lamp-black, and the white a very fine lime[30]. These colours when +applied on wood, or cotton, or linen, were probably mixed with gums, +probably gum arabic or the Sarcocolla, which the Egyptians used in +preparing their mummies, and also for glue[31], and that gum probably +formed part of the varnish found on the mummy cases. According to Mr. +Wilkinson’s account, the pictures in the catacombs were executed either +on the bare limestone wall, or on the sandstone prepared with fine +lime. Whether the groups were to be painted or chiselled in intaglio +or relief, they were outlined with red ochre, then corrected with +black. The next step was the carving the intaglios or the reliefs, or +modelling the stucco applications, after which, in some of the tombs, +plain unbroken colour was applied. But even this approach to painting +arose from the desire of distinguishing objects, as tribute of gold +from tribute of silver, prisoners of white, tawny, or black nations, +and so on. But nothing like a picture, as we understand the word, has +ever been found; nothing displaying a knowledge of light and shadow, +perspective either lineal or aërial, nothing which by means of colour +and tint imitates nature: nor have we the name of any Egyptian painter +in the annals of art. + +Under some of the Ptolemys, artists from Greece visited the court of +the Grecian kings; and doubtless the merchants of Alexandria may have +been permitted to possess Greek pictures; but the Ptolemys became +Egyptians, and adopted the hieroglyphic manner of recording their acts +and lives; and until the Christian hermits plastered over the mystic +figures of the Egyptian priests, that they might without pollution +erect their simple altars within the shelter of the abandoned temples, +no change appears to have taken place with regard to the practice of +the arts in Egypt. + +It was reserved for the followers of Mahomet, who abhorred statuary and +painting, to introduce a gay and florid architecture among the severe +palaces and tombs of the children of Misraim, to use their temples +as quarries for building materials, and to burn their statues for +lime[32]. + +Egypt, therefore, though once excelling in architecture and religious +sculpture, knowing the use of colour, and conferring innumerable +benefits on other countries in most of the arts of design, has never +herself been the country of painting. + + +_Extract of a Letter from_ MR. CLIFT _to_ MRS. CALLCOTT. + + _November 1835._ + +I have been present, and assisted in the opening of several mummies, +in which, although there was a general resemblance in the manner, yet +there were palpable differences too, arising probably from difference +of person, time, and price; but in none of them was there any painting +whatever on the inner linen wrappings: they appear to differ chiefly in +the greater or less care taken according to the price; some being much +more laboriously and carefully prepared than others. + +Raspe may have been right in the particular to which you allude, of the +inner bandages being painted, if he has not mistaken the inner coffin +for bandaging: as Mr. Pettigrew in his late quarto volume on Mummies, +has given a three-quarter face portrait, which I think he describes as +having been found on the surface of the immediate wrappers of the body +_within_ the second coffin of a specimen in the British Museum, which I +have not seen; and he has, or had, the head of a supposed female mummy, +which had the features of a face and head-dress outlined upon the +exterior wrapper of the body, but I have seen no other example. + +It is not unusual, in the more expensively prepared mummies, to find +the _inside_ of the _outer_ or wooden case ornamented with figures +in outline; but I do not recollect any such that were coloured: the +greatest labour appears to have been always bestowed on the second or +internal coffin, or case which immediately contains the body. + +The outer, or wooden case, which is generally believed to be made +of sycamore-wood, is sometimes wrought out of the solid, that is, +excavated; and sometimes composed of several pieces joined by _dowels_, +or wooden pegs, instead of nails. I never saw an instance of iron or +metal being employed. This outer case is also usually of considerable +thickness, viz., from two to three or four or more inches, and +generally coated thickly with distemper colour, on which is painted +various emblematical devices in a very inferior manner; the mask or +face sometimes gilded, sometimes red (male), sometimes yellow (female). +I never observed any appearance of varnish having been employed on the +colours of this outer case. + +On wrenching open the upper and lower portions of this outer or wooden +case, which are united by flat tenons received in sockets and fastened +by pegs, and apparently glue in the joint, the second or _inner case_ +appears. This case has not any wood in its composition, except a small +piece at the bottom, or foot-board, on which the feet of the mummy +rest. This case is composed of at least ten or a dozen layers of linen +of the same quality as that which envelopes the body; these laminæ are +very firmly cemented together by a material apparently glue and lime, +or plaster. This case is originally moulded on a rude mass or model of +clay and straw, of the size and form of the swathed body intended to +be afterwards contained in it, and when sufficiently dry to retain its +form, the clay and straw are scraped or scooped out from the back part +which is left open, or rather apparently cut open for that purpose, +and then the body is introduced, and the edges of the aperture brought +together and secured by a very simple and ingenious method of drum-like +bracing, and the seam and lacing covered afterwards with a strip of +cloth, glued or cemented, over them. This, with the foot-board, which +is braced in or secured in the same manner, rendered the body as it +were, hermetically sealed in its chrysalis case. + +The painting on the exterior of the inner case is, I believe, the most +laboured part of the process, and I have seen some which must have +occupied many days, perhaps many weeks, in the very elaborate outlining +and colouring in water-colour or distemper; and finally varnishing +or fixing the subject of this hieroglyph or allegory. The ground of +this painting is of very fine and pure white, resembling stucco. The +parts that are drawn on, and apparently outlined with a pen and then +coloured, are the only parts that are afterwards varnished:--the +blank parts of the white ground remain unvarnished, except where the +varnish-brush has occasionally slipped beyond the outline, and there +the white has become yellow. This white ground may be disturbed by +a wetted finger, which is not the case with the varnished parts. +Their varnish must have been of excellent quality, as it retains +its transparency and gloss in a most extraordinary degree; in some +instances appearing as if executed only a few days. In one that was +opened in Sir Benjamin Brodie’s new theatre in Kinnerton-street, +Knightsbridge, during the last summer, some persons were so deceived as +to believe the varnish to have been duly laid on and not yet dry; and +really it might appear so to an inexperienced eye, without touching. + +What the nature of the pigments used were, I have no adequate +knowledge; they generally appear to be earthy or ochreous and opaque: +yet their artists understood the art of representing transparent +objects with them, for example:--in one which was opened about two +years since at the College of Surgeons in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, on +which several figures were introduced, one of them had its limbs +partly naked, partly covered by a thin transparent robe, and a third +degree seen through a double and thicker part of the dress. The body +of this mummy was enveloped in at least fifteen or twenty layers of +linen filet, measuring I think about one hundred and thirty yards of +handbreadth strips, torn the length way of the piece. The only _entire_ +piece from one end to the other of the warp, which I could preserve, +measured eighteen feet, which, folded twice, made the length of their +ordinary robe or dress (four feet six inches), of which we met with +several examples. The outer general envelope or winding-sheet was in +one piece, about seven feet in length, and nearly two yards wide, of +excellently regular manufacture, with a very good and uniform selvage: +there were also various pieces of about a yard long, and two yards or +rather more in breadth, folded and placed under the hollow parts of +the body, together with three or four halves (all of the left side) of +robes or dresses, torn lengthwise, that had been much worn and darned, +or strengthened with much ingenuity and neatness. These were folded, +and laid behind or beneath the back as a palliasse. The name of this +mummy, as deciphered by Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Pettigrew, was “Horseisi, +son of Naspihiniegori, incense bearing Priest in the Temple of Ammon +at Thebes.” This inscription was repeated three or four times on the +bandaging, between the body and the external surface of the wrappers, +but there was no appearance of any painting whatever on them. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Lord Bacon, on the Advancement of Learning. + +[2] The prodigious collection of Mexican relics, presented by the +publication of Lord Kingsborough’s splendid work, is among the most +interesting records of an infant civilization ever laid before the +world. + +[3] Mandioca, called, in the West Indian islands, Cassava. The +planting, gathering, storing the roots, grinding, and finally +separating the meal from the fine gum called Tapioca, suppose a long +period of experience and great ingenuity. + +[4] See Humboldt’s Researches, in one of the plates to which there +is a _picture law-suit_, of mixed realities and symbols. The small +golden figures, thought to be idols, found in some parts of Peru, and +of which I saw one in the possession of T. Bigg, Esq., belong to the +jewellers’ art rather than to legitimate sculpture. That which I saw, +was ingeniously formed of gold wire, various coils and folds of which +were twisted into the form of legs and arms, a body and head, with the +features of the face; very frightful, it is true, but still with a +sufficient degree of imitation to be the likeness of a man. The Terra +Cottas and stone or marble figures of Mexico, are of a higher class. + +[5] See some excellent observations of Mr. Wilkinson, as to the +agreement of the book of Genesis and the Egyptian documents on this +point. + +[6] Pausanias, in the fifth chapter of the Corinthiacs says, that the +Sicyonians assert that Ægialeus was the first _native_ of the place, +and that he named the country Ægialeus, and the city Ægialea. _Taylor’s +Translation._ + +[7] Chap. xv. v. 16. + +[8] I am obliged to a learned friend, for the above explanation of the +meaning of the names Debir and Kirjath Sepher. To the same friend I owe +many corrections and suggestions of great value to me in the following +pages. + +[9] See the figures and inscriptions on the curious cups belonging to +three of the most ancient Chinese dynasties, published in the Journal +of the Royal Asiatic Society. + +[10] A change is taking place in Chinese art. The portrait painters of +the celestial empire are beginning to imitate those of Europe. This +year (1836) there is one in the Exhibition at Somerset House that was +taken for the work of a European artist by the academicians who first +saw it. + +[11] The account of Mahabalipoor, or Mavellipoor, in the first Volume +of the Asiatic Researches, is erroneous. The author seems to have seen +but two of these temples, and to have mistaken the place of them. The +largest is forty-seven feet long and twenty-five feet high. The second +is twenty-seven feet long and thirty-six feet high. + +[12] Unless, indeed, the recently discovered caves, in Northern India +should turn out to be anything more than coloured bas-relief. + +[13] See, for examples, in Wilson’s translations of the theatre of +the Hindoos, Malati Madava, act i., scene 2. This play was written by +Bhavabhuti, who flourished about A. D. 720. Here the lover draws his +mistress’ portrait, from memory, on his writing tables. + +There is another very pretty example in Retnavali, or the Necklace, by +Sri Hersha Deva, written for the court of Cashmir, about A. D. 1120, +where the young lady sketches her lover in the character of Camdeo, and +her friend finishes the picture by adding her figure as Reti, the bride +of Camdeo. + +[14] See plates and descriptions in the early vols. of the Asiatic +Researches, and Lieutenant Burnes’ most interesting travels. + +[15] Ezekiel xxiii. 14, 15; a very remarkable passage. + +[16] Doubtless such magnificent persons as the Kings of Persia had +painters and sculptors. Persepolis, and the Takht i Rustan prove it. +Pliny says that a Phocean artist, named Telephenes, was in the service +of Xerxes and Darius; therefore the Persian court offered to artists +the prospect of fortune. + +In the very interesting narrative of the late Mr. Rich’s residence on +the site of ancient Nineveh (lately published by his widow), mention is +made of the remaining decorations of the decayed Christian churches. +These are of so early a date that the art employed on them must be the +same with that of the times of the fire-worshippers. The figures appear +to have been in relief, like those of the catacombs of Egypt, and +colour remains in various parts. + +[17] Curious and interesting as the plates are which adorn the work of +Rosselini, brought to England since this essay was written, they do not +in the slightest degree alter my view of Egyptian painting. + +[18] The reign of the Phrah Osirtisen II., Wilkinson says, was that in +which Joseph was carried down into Egypt. + +[19] Oxford Bible. Quarto. Chronology at the end. + +[20] Arundel Marbles. + +[21] B. C. 1582. + +[22] Eliezar, Abraham’s servant, was bought there. + +[23] B. C. 1495. + +[24] Tanis. Lightfoot. + +[25] Gold was used in this embroidery; the metal was beat into +exceeding thin plates, then cut as small as wire; this flat gold +embroidery is still used in the East. Exodus, chapter xxxix., verse 3. + +[26] Exodus, chapter xxxii., verse 4. + +[27] For the supposed figures of the cherubim, see Lightfoot, who +thinks they had the faces of oxen between their wings, not human heads. + +[28] The song of Maneros was, however, long sung in Egypt; but that +was accompanied with a strangely melancholy air, which, perhaps, +secured its duration. The few words said of this air by Herodotus, have +furnished Mr. Seymer with the subject of a beautiful tale. See first +series of Romance of Ancient History. + +[29] See extract from Mr. Clift’s letter at the end of this Essay. + +[30] See Wilkinson. + +[31] Herod: Euterpe LXXXVI. Not that they were ignorant, probably, of +glue made from the skins of animals, &c. The Romans had it, and, as +Pliny says, preferred that made of _bulls’_ hides. + +[32] See the accounts given by all modern travellers. The extreme +beauty and delicacy of structure of many of the Mosques and the Tombs +of the Caliphs, ornamented, even to profuseness, with everything but +imitations of animated beings, form a contrast almost extravagant, with +the severe, if not sublime, masses of ancient Egypt. + + + + + ESSAY II. + + OF ART IN ANCIENT ITALY[33]. + + Arts are advanced not so much by them that dare make a great show of + Art, as by them that know how to find out what there is in Art. + + ISOCRATES. + + Honour doth nourish Arts, and we are all drawn by glory to take pains; + as are also such things ever neglected, as are little regarded in the + opinion of men. + + CICERO. + + +It is very disagreeable to unlearn the learning of one’s youth, and +to give up belief in certain things that seem, from our long familiar +acquaintance, as if they made up a part of the system of nature itself. + + +But so it must be, if we will give ourselves fair play in examining +into the history of art or science, polity or commerce, in ancient +Italy. In our early education it is Rome only to which the attention is +directed. Rome is represented as first in arts and arms, as spreading +civilisation along with her dominion: and, in short, Roman virtue and +Roman greatness dazzle our young imaginations, till, seeing nothing but +the glare of her meridian splendour, we forget to look whence and how +it arose. + +Yet Italy must have had a long and not inglorious history before the +seven-hilled city could boast of a shepherd’s hut, or the politic +Romulus, if such a king ever reigned, found a village considerable +enough to tempt him to make himself a king contrary to the custom of +the neighbouring federal states, one of which, Cœre, had, not very long +before his time, expelled its Lucumon (Mezentius) for little reason but +that he had sought to change the annual magistracy into a monarchy for +life[34]. + +This history will probably remain for ever obscure as to the particular +facts relating to it, and the names of those who might have figured +in it; because, the vainglory of the Romans, infecting even their +writers, desired that their own history and their own monuments +should stand foremost in the eyes of posterity; and though the +ancient books existed, and the ancient language was still understood +to a late period[35], no use was made of them by those who recorded +the achievements of the Romans; and it is because they found it so +difficult to conquer the Italian tribes, one by one, that we are led to +form an idea of their strength and importance. + +Many men of learning and understanding in Italy, had, from time to +time, thrown doubts on the early portion of the Roman history, some +perhaps feeling that their own native provinces had been wronged by +their gorgeous adversary. + +But the fate of Italy, + + Servir sempre, o vincitrice o vinta, + +had lowered the energies that, under other circumstances, would have +boldly proclaimed these doubts long ago, and have shown Rome as she +was, the destroyer of men and of happiness; a conqueror converting +whole well-peopled and cultivated provinces into deserts, ever which a +few wretched slaves wandered to their task work, instead of the free +peasants who once gathered their own rich harvests; a tyrant at whose +frown the liberal arts withered, and commerce deserted the useless +ports and abandoned storehouses of the subdued merchants and spiritless +artists. + +But the pains-taking critics of Germany had no morbid sensibility to +prevent them from attacking Rome; none of the hopeless feeling of those +who would, but must not, vindicate the fame of their ancestors; and +with something of roughness and much of justice, they have taught us +to trample on ancient prejudice, and to dare to look upon Italy as not +dependant entirely upon Rome. + +There have not been wanting Italians to join in these views, and to +acknowledge the merit of their trans-alpine critics. Among these +Micali is conspicuous; and, as his late work, with its atlas, throws +considerable light on a very early period of art in Italy, I shall make +use of it in preference to any other in what I have to say of painting +and its kindred arts, before the period of Roman authentic history +begins. + +The scattered notices to be found in ancient writers, leave no doubt +as to a few facts: namely, that a rude tribe, or several rude tribes, +called by the various titles of Opicians, Auruncians, Oscans, +Cascans, or Priscan Latins, under the general name of Ausonians, and +all speaking the same language, once possessed, at least, the hill +countries of Italy; that these were succeeded by a race speaking a +different dialect, resembling the Pelasgians, who appear in several +countries as the first people possessing the arts of civilized life, +beginning to build cities, and introducing regular government. + +Then we read of Umbrians, Siculi, and colonies from Greece and Phrygia; +and Italy next appears, long before the foundation of Rome, as chiefly +possessed by a people whose native name seems to have been Ra-seni, who +were called generally by the Greeks, Tyrrhenians, and by the Latins, +Tuscans or Etruscans. + +It is among this remarkable people, possessed of some of the sciences +and most of the arts of social life, that the fine arts were first +cultivated in Italy; and that they were no mean proficients, will not +be disputed by any one who has beheld even a single Etruscan vase[36]. + +They had not pyramids or giant temples to boast of. Their works were +not for kings or for the exclusive profit of the governing priests, +like those of Egypt or India, but for the public. They have left walls +of cities, solid quays and ports, drains and sluices, useful even at +the present time, as their monuments. + +But in their country, as well as in Egypt, it is in the repositories of +the dead that we are to look for the relics of whatever was beautiful +or ornamental among them[37]. + +The first steps of art have, doubtless, been the same among all +nations; but the Tyrrhenians had some advantages in their early +cultivation. They were early a maritime people; as merchants or as +pirates they visited whatever ports the Phœnicians traded to, in the +Mediterranean; and the effect of their foreign intercourse is to be +traced in whatever we know of their institutions or see of their arts. + +But I must not allow myself to be seduced into more than the very +slightest mention of the resemblance of some of their institutions to +those of Greece, and of others to those of Egypt; and that mention is +only made because the influence of the intercourse with other nations, +upon the arts of Etruria, is so conspicuous, that it is impossible to +give the slightest sketch of them without a reference to it[38]. + +The relics, confessedly of Etruscan manufacture, that from time to +time have been discovered in various parts of Italy, had convinced +us that the nation was early acquainted with the arts, but there was +little to guide antiquaries as to the age of the relics themselves, or +the sources whence those arts had been derived. The fabulous as well +as the true stories of colonies from Asia, Egypt, and Greece, which +had been left by the ancients, became signals of battle for modern +disputants, and much ink has been shed in support of all manner of +contradictory theories. + +The late historical disquisitions of the Germans and Italians cleared +away a good deal of obscurity; the re-opening of the great cemeteries +of Chuisi, Tarquinii, and Vulscii, have, as far as relates to art, done +much more[39]; and we may safely conclude that the Etruscan artists, +not mean in themselves, were improved by the importation of models from +other countries, and probably by the settling of potters and metal +founders from Sicyon, Corinth, and other Greek cities among them. + +That they early adopted the deities of other countries is also proved +by the opening of the tombs of Chuisi. It is impossible not to be +struck with the close resemblance to the sculpture and coloured +bas-reliefs of Egypt found there; and, saving that the Tuscans do not +appear to have practised embalming, the mystic ceremonies in honour of +the dead are shown to be the same. + +The beautiful vases of different kinds and colours, of clay baked or +unbaked, are covered with designs, in exquisite taste and delicately +touched. They are mostly painted in one single colour, or at most +two or three flat colours, picked out with black or white. Some have +figures in slight relief; and, with few exceptions, the subjects are +from the Greek mysteries of Bacchus, Hercules, and Ceres, when their +attributes coincide with those of the Egyptian deities, Osiris and +his family. The genii, with two or four wings, found in some of the +most ancient, mark a very early intercourse with the priests of both +countries; and though the most offensive particulars belonging to their +mythologies are totally absent, the great Egyptian demon of destruction +is common on cups, pateræ, and vases[40]. + +Among the great variety of designs found in the newly opened tombs, +I cannot refrain from mentioning one which Micali has published, of +a domestic rural scene, painted in several colours. Under a canopy +there is a grave elderly man seated, and before him his servants are +weighing corn, brought in nets from the field[41]. Below, as if in a +vault, others are stowing sacks of corn, which we may suppose have been +weighed. The resemblance of the subject on this patera or plate to some +of those found by Mr. Wilkinson on the walls of the catacombs of Egypt, +is very remarkable. + +Besides the vases of clay, some utensils of wood and metal were found +in the cemeteries. Gems also, with chased ornaments, of beautiful fancy +and excellent workmanship, necklaces, armlets, rings, buckles, signets, +besides armour, all designed with taste, and executed with skill, show, +to our regret, against how civilized a people the Romans made war, and +leave us to lament that the selfish vainglory of the conquerors thought +of preserving no annals but their own. + +To describe the painted sides of the tombs at Chuisi and other ruined +Italian cities, would be to repeat what I have already said of those of +Egypt, as far as their colouring is concerned, or their approach to +the nature of a true picture; but I must remark that the designs, if +not so imposing, have more nature and grace, though they are not to be +compared in size, number, or variety, with those of Egypt. + +But there is some reason to believe that the ancient Italians had true +painters among them. Indeed I think the evidence for it as good as that +we have for any other facts connected with the arts. Pliny[42], after +refuting the story that painting was brought into Italy from Corinth, +by Cleophantus, a friend of Tarquinius Priscus[43], who had fled from +the tyranny of Cypselus, says expressly[44], “Extant there be at this +day to be seen at Ardea, within the temples there, antique pictures, +and indeed more ancient than the city of Rome. And I assure you no +pictures ever came to my sight which I wonder so much at, namely, +that they should continue so long fresh and as if they were newly +made, considering the places where they be so ruinate and uncovered +over head. Semblably at Lanuvium, there remain two pictures of Lady +Atalanta and Queen Helena, close one to the other, painted naked, by +one and the same hand: both of them are for beauty incomparable, and +yet a man may discern one of them to be a maiden by her modest and +chaste countenance, which pictures, notwithstanding the ruin of the +temple where they stand, are not a whit disfigured or defaced[45];” and +farther on he says, that at Cære there were pictures of still greater +antiquity. + +These were of course the works of Etruscan artists, and, as Pliny had +opportunities of seeing and judging of the best Greek pictures which +successive conquerors had brought to Rome before his time, his praises +may be taken as good evidence for the general estimation of the skill +of those early painters. + +Happily, although the barbarous Romans had not taste enough to value +and preserve the fame of their Etruscan rivals, they did not disdain +to employ their artists. One of the Roman modes of honouring their +forefathers was to preserve their effigies in plaster, wax, stone, or +metal; and on the death of any member of a family, the figures or heads +of the ancestors were taken from the family treasury to accompany the +body to the place of burial, or to the funeral pyre. + +This alone would render the Etruscan sculptors popular. One of the most +ancient remaining works, executed by them for Rome, is the bronze wolf, +“the thunder-stricken nurse of Rome,” preserved in the Capitol, and +of which Micali has given an excellent figure. But this, and also the +most ancient statues of the kings and consuls, must have been cast in +Etruscan towns, and brought to Rome; for Pliny[46] tells us that the +very first bronze statue cast within the city was that of the goddess +Ceres, the expense being defrayed by the forfeited goods of Spurius +Capius, who was put to death for aspiring to the dignity of king[47]. + +The Romans were so fond of the Tuscan statues that they collected them +from all quarters. At the taking of Volsinum (now Bolsena) alone, they +removed two thousand to their own city; and the practice of setting up +statues, even in the public places, must have become a nuisance, before +the senate made a decree that they should all be removed, excepting +such as had been erected by public vote in honour of great personages. +Thus, when the streets and market-places were cleared of the nameless +crowd, the bronze portraits of Poplicola and of Cornelia became of +double importance. + +Among the most ancient of the monumental bronzes were several +equestrian statues in honour of women as well as men. That of Clelia +was especially prized, and there was another of the daughter of +Poplicola held in the highest reverence. + +Of colossal figures, there was an Etruscan Apollo, of fifty feet +high, placed in the library of the Temple of Augustus; of which Pliny +says, “But the bigness thereof is not so much as the matter and the +workmanship; for hard it is to say, whether is more admirable the +beautiful figure of the body, or the exquisite temperature of the +metal[48].” + +There was also the colossal Jupiter of the Capitol, cast by Corvillius +out of the brazen armour taken from the dead bodies of the conquered +Samnites. + +Besides this taste for statues, the Romans were not slow to acquire a +love for ornamented cups and bowls and dishes of the precious metals; +nor were there wanting among the spoils conveyed to Rome from the +Etruscan cities, lamps and candelabra and other furniture of elegant +design, which the more rigid citizens looked upon as tending to the +corrupting of the manners of the ancients, the moderate and aged +dedicated to the gods, but the multitude used and enjoyed. + +With all these examples of beautiful forms daily before them, and +familiar enough with the sight of pictures in the neighbouring towns, +the inhabitants of Rome could not long be without painters; indeed, +painting seems to have been highly esteemed at one period, for the +great and noble family of the Fabii cultivated it so fondly, that one +of their distinguishing surnames was Pictor. + +Fabius Pictor, the father of that Fabius Pictor who was sent to Delphos +to consult the Oracle of Apollo, on the fate of his country, after the +disaster at Cannæ, appears to have dedicated the first picture publicly +to the gods in Rome. He himself painted the Temple of Salus, in such a +manner as to be esteemed even after the introduction of Greek pictures; +but the painting with the Temple itself was destroyed by fire in the +reign of Claudius Cæsar[49]. + +Pacuvius, the poet and tragedian, is named as another great painter in +the time of the Republic. He lived about sixty years later than Fabius +Pictor, and was a native of Brundusium. As the nephew of Ennius, his +works would have been sure of a favourable notice from all the wise +and polished Romans of his time; but, by what we are told of them, +they do not appear to have required indulgence. He painted the Temple +of Hercules in the cattle market in Rome, and the pictures are said to +have given dignity to the art itself. + +But a singular use was made of painting by the Roman heroes. Their +inordinate love of military fame discovered a mode of feeding that +ruling passion by means of this charming art; and it appears that +Valerius Maximus Messala was the first to adopt a practice of +exhibiting pictures of his own actions, which became afterwards pretty +common, though condemned by some of the chief men of the Republic. +Messala then caused a picture to be hung up in the Portico Hostilia, +representing the Battle of Messana[50], where he had vanquished both +the Carthaginians and Hiero of Syracuse, who had joined his former +enemies to resist the invasion of his country by the Romans. + +By means of this picture, Messala kept himself before the eyes of the +people, in the situation best calculated to further his views whenever +he should be a candidate for the magistracy. Instead of sitting himself +in the market-place, dressed in the white robe of humility, and +pointing to his wounds, as Coriolanus says, to + + “Show them the scars that I would hide, + As if I had received them for the hire + Of their breath only,” + +the picture told the story of his achievements to the best advantage, +and perhaps placed his personal and party enemies in doubtful +situations or in disgrace. + +That some injurious effects were occasionally produced by the practice +is certain, from the displeasure entertained by Scipio Africanus +against his brother Lucius Scipio, for placing in the Capitol +a picture of the battle near Sardes, which won him the title of +Asiaticus, but in which, his nephew, the son of Africanus, was taken +prisoner. + +Again, Scipio Emilianus was highly offended at the display of a picture +of the taking of Carthage, exhibited in the market-place by Lucius +Hostilius Mancinus. It appears that Mancinus was the first to enter +Carthage on the taking of that city: and, on his return to Rome, being +desirous of the consulship, he had a picture painted representing the +strong situation of the town, with its fortifications, and all the +machines employed in the attack and defence, besides the actions of the +besiegers, in which care was taken that those of Mancinus should be +most conspicuous. This he hung up in the Forum, and, seating himself +by it, he explained to the people all the parts of the picture, +particularly those in which he was concerned, in such a manner, that +he won their good will, and gained the consulship at the very next +election. + +The lawyers of Rome also made use of pictures in their pleadings, as we +learn from Quintilian, who censures the practice of hanging pictures +of murders or other atrocious crimes, over the statue of Jupiter, in +the Forum, for the purpose of moving the judges. As an example of the +bad effects of such machinery, he relates the story of a pleader, who, +having undertaken the cause of a young woman whose husband had been +murdered, had a picture of the murder painted, in order to produce it +at the proper moment, and thereby to affect the judges and the audience +in her favour. But his design failed, and the painting produced +excessive mirth instead of tears; for they who had received directions +for showing it, not properly comprehending them, displayed the picture +as often as the orator looked their way. This notice, attracted at a +wrong moment, was mischievous enough; but when the lookers on perceived +that the husband was an ugly old man, the contrast between his figure +and the representation of the pleader was so ludicrous, that the +pleading lost all its merit, and the young woman her cause. + +It appears also that pictures of their disasters were hawked about, by +shipwrecked mariners, persons whose houses had been burnt, and other +unfortunate men, in order to move compassion and obtain assistance; and +that painted tablets were also hung up by such persons in the temples +in thankfulness to the gods for their escape. + +It is probable that these pictures were but coarse; yet there must +have been in them sufficient individual likeness for the people to +recognise the portrait, and the painters must have had skill enough in +grouping to have rendered their subjects intelligible. + +To the early scene-painters the birds of Rome are reputed to have paid +as great a compliment as those of Greece did to the grapes of Zeuxis; +for when Claudius Pulcher, during his edileship, exhibited dramas +publicly in Rome, the scenery representing houses and other buildings +was so natural, that the ravens and other birds, deceived by their +verisimilitude, came to perch there. + +But by this time all Italy was merged in Rome the conqueror; and +the posterity of the Etruscan artists was confounded with her other +military Helots. Yet one last compliment was paid to painters in Rome +by Augustus himself. The nephew or grandson of that Pœdius, who had +been appointed by Julius Cæsar his coheir along with Augustus, was born +dumb; and the Emperor consulting with Messala, the child’s maternal +grandfather, determined that he should be brought up a painter. He +displayed considerable talent, but died while yet a youth. + +I mention this the more particularly, because some writers have +asserted, that after the time of Pacuvius painting became disreputable, +if not infamous, in Rome. Had that been the case, Augustus would +not have chosen it as a profession for one so nearly allied to +him. Nevertheless, centuries passed before native Italians again +distinguished themselves in the fine arts. + +From the time of the Consul Mummius, foreign pictures were daily +brought to Rome. The first publicly exhibited was a Bacchus and +Ariadne, painted by Aristides of Thebes, for which King Attalus had +offered so large a sum, that Mummius suspected there must be some +secret charm attached to the picture, and so broke off the bargain and +took it himself to Rome, where he dedicated it in the Temple of Ceres. + +After this example every general seems to have been ambitious of +adorning the city with the finest pictures and statues from Greece, +Asia Minor, and Sicily. Julius Cæsar enshrined the two exquisite +pictures of Medea and Ajax[51] in the temple of Venus, where he had +hung up the shield covered with British pearl. + +Augustus hung his forum with pictures of the horrors of war and the +glories of a triumph; and in the temple, which he dedicated to the +deified Julius, he placed many choice pictures, the first and most +beautiful of which was the Venus Anadyomene of Apelles. + +Another work of the same painter, namely, Alexander in triumph leading +War bound and manacled, was defaced by Claudius, who caused the face +of Alexander to be erased, and that of Augustus to be painted instead. +Among many pictures of note in the same temple was one of Castor and +Pollux, of especial value. + +In the Comitium also Augustus placed some excellent works of Nicias of +Athens, and Philochares his friend, less attractive for their subjects +than for the execution and beauty of the design. + +The Temple of Peace was rich in pictures of the highest class. There +was placed the most valued of all the works of Protogenes, namely, the +hunter Ialysus with his dogs and game. + +It is said that when Demetrius laid siege to Rhodes, and was upon the +point of taking the city, he abstained from an attack that must have +been successful, on learning that the picture of Ialysus was in the +quarter of the town he might have carried, lest in the confusion the +picture should be injured; and the workshop of the painter, being just +without the walls at that point, was another reason for sparing it. + +In the Temple of Peace also were the Cyclops of Timanthes, and the +sea-monster Scylla by Nichomachus. + +In the Temple of Concord there was a precious picture by Zeuxis, of +Marsyas bound to a tree; and in private hands, the Muses and the Helen +of the same painter adorned some of the villas of Rome. + +In that shrine of Ceres, where Mummius had placed the Bacchus and +Ariadne of Aristides, there were several other pictures by the same +painter, which, having been trusted to a restorer that they might +appear to advantage in some public procession, were utterly ruined. So +ancient was the practice of consulting quack restorers for works of +art!! + +In the Temple of Minerva on the Capitol was the Theseus of Parrhasius, +with the Rape of Proserpine and a victory by Nichomachus. + +The portico of Octavia was adorned by pictures of Greek Mythology +and History, painted by that finished artist Antiphilus; and that of +Pompey boasted of a rare fragment by Polygnotus. It was a soldier upon +a scaling ladder, and possibly stolen from some of the great battle +pieces which he painted in honour of his countrymen[52]. + +The Romans were not more ceremonious than modern conquerors in their +robberies; witness the conduct of the general who permitted the tombs +of Corinth to be broken open, and in the sight of the people the urns +containing the ashes of their forefathers torn from their sacred +asylum, and publicly sold to the highest bidder among the Romans, who +became for a time so passionately fond of them, that not a grave was +left unviolated for miles round Corinth; and it was only when the +market was glutted, and the fashion had passed away, that Corinthian +vessels were laid aside. + +A new school, if I may so express myself, of pottery was then +established in Italy, where formerly the Etruscan workmen had excelled +all others. But as fashion is all-powerful in all ages, a new rage +for earthen dishes and bowls of enormous size grew to such a pitch, +that the nickname of Patinarius was given to Vitellius, on account +of one large platter which he had made for him, and which cost more +than a fine wrought vessel of chalcedony would have done[53]; and the +satirical poets of that age have named not a few of the lovers of large +dishes. + +But to return to our imported pictures. The portico of Pompey was still +farther adorned with pictures by Nicias. There was a large portrait of +Alexander, a figure of Calypso, and some animals painted by him which +were much prized. The same Nicias painted that beautiful picture of +Hyacinthus, which Augustus valued so highly, that, after his death, +Tiberius consecrated it to his memory, in the temple dedicated to him. + +But the greatest influx of Greek pictures at any one time into Rome +was during the edileship of Scaurus; when, on account of a real or +pretended debt owing by the people of Sicyon to Rome, the whole of the +pictures of that city were seized and conveyed to Italy. Among these +the most precious appears to have been a sacrifice by Pausius, the +greatest painter of his native town, and one whose playful disposition +and agreeable qualities we may gather from even the short notices we +can at this distance of time collect[54]. + +Such were a few of the many pictures, the prizes of war, which were +brought to adorn the temples, palaces, and public places of Rome; +not to speak of those with which taste or fashion decorated private +houses[55]. + +It is not to be doubted that such an influx of excellent statues and +pictures caused a revival of the taste for the arts. And accordingly +there grew up new schools of painting in Italy as a matter of course. +But no name of note has been preserved. Pliny, to be sure, tells us of +one Ludius, in the time of Augustus, who first devised the decoration +of the walls of houses with rural scenery; and nearly at the same time +lived Arellius, a man of talent, but of dissolute manners. These were +followed by Aurelius, Cornelius Pinus, and Actius Priscus, who were +employed by Vespasian to decorate some temples which he rebuilt; but +their pictures are said scarcely to have attained mediocrity, much less +excellence. + +In sculpture there is proof still existing that great manual dexterity +had survived the genius that produced the ideal Jupiter of Phidias, +and the Venus of Praxiteles. That dexterity was happily applied to +portraits. + +There is an individual expression, notwithstanding some hardness, in +the Roman portraits in marble down to a very late period, that must +satisfy us that they are genuine likenesses, and that enables us to +read the characters of the men as truly as if we sat in their company. +But the artists that wrought in and for Rome were now Greeks, and with +the exception of some of those who engraved gems[56], their works are +universally of an inferior character. + +Under the magnificent Hadrian there was indeed a temporary revival +of art. All that the patronage of a Roman Emperor, ambitious of +distinction as the reviver of art and elegance could do, was done. +The portraits of Antinoüs, which he caused to be executed, whether +with a flowery garland, and beautiful as Adonis, or in the character +of an Egyptian priest, or as a Greek huntsman, rival the youthful gods +and heroes of the sculptors of Greece[57]. But with Hadrian and the +Antonines this prosperity ended[58]. + +The arts could not flourish where tyranny, vice, and civil war +alternately reigned. They withered almost to death; and had Constantine +not pillaged the monuments of his predecessors his own would have +remained mere masses of deformity, to mark the degradation of art[59]. + +While such was the fate of sculpture, that of painting was little +better. Some of the Roman conquerors had introduced, from the eastern +provinces, a taste for that gross kind of painting, Mosaic. One of the +finest pieces executed in Italy was the great pavement in the Temple +of Fortune, at Prænesti[60], by Egyptian artists in the service of +Sylla the dictator; and, as a pavement, the coolness and cleanliness +of that kind of work must have had strong recommendations, besides +whatever merit the designs might possess. This luxury soon became so +general, that, even in the remote province of Britain, specimens of +mosaic pavements, of no common beauty, are from time to time discovered +in the neighbourhood of Roman stations. To the workers in mosaic we +are probably indebted for part of what little art outlived the five +dull ages preceding the twelfth century; and for a larger part to the +illuminators of books, whose miniatures certainly preserved much that +was afterwards used to great advantage by the revivers of painting in +Italy and Germany. + +Pliny mentions Aterius Labeo, a man of prætorian rank, who in his time +was very skilful in small works of painting, which I conceive to have +been miniature. He exercised his art in Gallia Narboniensis, where he +was vice-consul; and I have sometimes fancied that his works might +have assisted to form the early illuminators of missals in the southern +provinces, nay, perhaps, the Monk of the Golden Isles himself. + +I cannot omit to mention here, that the first persons who illustrated +books appear to have been Varro and Atticus. In the books of their +noble libraries, they each of them inserted small portraits of the +authors at the head of their works. This was within a century of our +era; and so diligent had they been in seeking out the portraits of +authors, that M. Varro published a collection of seven hundred[61]. + +Cornelius Nepos says, that under each of the heads in his collection, +Atticus wrote four or five verses, describing the deeds and honours of +the original. Had but a few of these miniatures come down to our times, +how precious they would have been to the artist and the antiquary. + +Among the last names of ancient Italian painters given us by Pliny, is +that of Turpilius, a noble Venetian, who painted at Verona in the first +century, with considerable reputation; and it is remarkable that some +of the earliest of modern painters appear at Verona, and that many of +the most beautiful miniature illuminations extant were executed by very +ancient monks of that city[62]. + +It was in this first century that the great catastrophe, which buried +several ancient cities in one of the most cultivated parts of Italy, +occurred. It proved fatal, too, to the extraordinary man to whom we +owe not only the greatest part of our knowledge of the painters of +antiquity, but all that is to be depended upon of the practice of +the art. Pompeii with other towns was covered with ashes from Mount +Vesuvius; and in them such works of art as were not portable, remained +fresh as at the day of their disappearance, to gratify our curiosity: +and it was in a visit to Pompeii to observe the phenomena connected +with the eruption that Pliny lost his life. + +Every one must be struck with the great disparity between the bronzes +and marbles, and the pictures of Pompeii. Some of the bronze figures +and most of the furniture of that metal are exquisite in taste and +execution, and many of the marbles are not far behind them. But the +pictures are of a very inferior character, generally speaking. Single +figures there are indeed of great beauty, and some arabesques elegantly +designed; but the groups are for the most part more like sculpture than +painting; and the few landscapes are little better than those of the +Chinese. + +To account for this in some measure, I would suggest, that the pictures +we have found are merely the decorations of small private houses, and +that they must have been executed late in the decline of art, because +the great earthquake which had destroyed the temples of Pompeii, but +a few years before that eruption of the mountain which buried the +town, must have shaken the stucco from the walls, and with it whatever +specimens of art of a better time might have then existed[63]. Besides, +the inhabitants of Pompeii had most of them time to escape with their +most precious moveables. Now, if any of the residents in that small +provincial town, which was to Rome as Folkestone may be to London, +possessed any Greek pictures, or others of value, they were painted +on light wooden pannels (larch or sycamore), and were easily removed, +so that, if not saved, they must have been consumed in the fields by +the fiery showers, that destroyed more persons without the gates of +the town than within them. Hence I cannot think that the pictures of +Pompeii furnish a fair criterion by which to judge of the real nature +of antique painting, any more than the arabesques that have been found +in the Roman baths and the subterranean chambers of the palaces, which +we cannot suppose to have been the places where the choicest works of +art were placed. + +Two very beautiful pieces of antique painting, now in London, which +were found near Rome, seem to corroborate my opinion that the pictures +scattered through the Italian provinces were generally inferior to +those belonging to Rome itself and the immediate neighbourhood. One +of these is the half figure of a boy, with a double flute; broad in +colour and effect, and round and fine in form, reminding one of the +Venetian frescoes, particularly those of Paul Veronese. The other is +a Ganymede, very beautiful in form, and remarkable for the effect of +light and shadow. The light is principally on the body of the Ganymede, +in the centre, and carried into the blue sky on the left; but a low, +light stone altar on the right balances it. Over the altar, the eagle, +with outstretched wings, is dark; and the dark is continued behind the +lower part of the figure of the boy by a purple mantle. + +These two pictures have none of the stiff, sculpture-like look of +almost all the other antique pictures I have seen. They are real +pictures, in which the artist has attended to light and shadow, and to +general effect, as well as to colour and form. Whether they were the +works of Greeks settled in Rome, or of their Italian scholars, they +give me the notion of much more skill in painting, as an art quite +distinct from sculpture, than any other antique picture I ever saw[64]. + + +By the existing statues we perceive that the ancient writers did not +exaggerate the merit of their sculptors; why therefore should we doubt +their judgment as to their painters? + +But to whatever perfection the art of painting might have arrived in +the bright days of Greece, it is certain that, when Pliny wrote, it +had sunk down to a very low degree in that country: and there is good +reason to believe that under the Empire there were no great Roman +painters; but this was not for want of encouragement. In the towns +preserved by the ashes of Vesuvius there is scarcely a house where some +apartment is not painted, where the precious red walls, varnished with +wax[65], are not decorated with dancing figures and arabesques; and +certainly not one where the doorways or the kitchens are not adorned or +disfigured, as it may be, with portraits of all manner of utensils and +articles of food. + +I confess I have been charmed to observe that glass decanters, pretty +like our own, were used for water, wine, and sherbet, at the drinking +houses in those ancient fishing towns; that their sirloins were cut in +true English fashion, as in the picture in what is called the surgeon’s +house, that dog who is gnawing the bones of one could tell; and that +hams and legs of mutton, to say nothing of broiled eels, must have +looked just like our own when brought to table. But above all was my +fancy diverted, when I perceived, by the sign over the school-master’s +door, that the same remedies for dulness were prescribed eighteen +centuries ago, as are found beneficial now. + +Numerous, indeed, must the painters of the first century have been to +supply such demands! But not even one name have they left for posterity +to dwell upon. + +There is no question but that portrait painters abounded. The numerous +portraits of the period, in marble, attest it, if we had no other +proof. But Nero himself patronised that branch of the art, and ordered +a canvas[66], one hundred and twenty feet high, to be strained, whereon +his colossal portrait might overlook the city, from the gardens of +Marius. But his design was frustrated; the lightning blasted the +portrait ere it was finished, and we have not even the name of the +painter left, who was to have been immortalized along with the emperor! + +Some small portraits of this period have been preserved among the +catacombs, and it would be a matter of great interest to examine +carefully those preserved in the cabinets of Christian antiquities, +which fill one long gallery of the Vatican. I had too short a time +when there to make any observations worth setting down. My first visit +to these precious cabinets was in company with Canova, and my second, +after a lapse of eight years, with Maia! They drew my attention to +other objects; and as I then hoped to revisit Rome, I was willing to +be led by such guides, trusting to the future for an opportunity of +forwarding my own particular pursuits. But some other person must +now take my place. Infirmity, not age, binds me to my own fire side. +Happy that I have been permitted to see so much to occupy my thoughts +and time with pleasant retrospect, under circumstances that without +occupation would be dreary indeed. + +In the first century of our era, we may consider painting as a merely +decorative art, little better than upholstery, excepting when applied +to portraits, for which human vanity will always create a demand. +There might also be artists employed to copy the ancient pictures of +Greece; and now and then, among that class of painters, one who would, +in some original composition, imitate the style and manner of the older +masters. + +This is so natural that it scarcely wants the confirmation of authority +to gain belief. But I think we have authority in the notices scattered +through the dialogues of Lucian[67], and in the descriptions of +pictures by Philostratus[68], who erects his imaginary gallery on the +shores of the bay of Naples. + +But a great change was taking place in the world: the gay and poetical, +but licentious belief of Greece and Italy, was fading away. The images +and actions of gods and heroes no longer delighted the multitude. A +graver, purer, yet more impassioned faith, was gradually advancing +through many impediments: and it was long ere its votaries had leisure +to convert to its service the glorious arts that had adorned the +temples of the old religion. + +The interval during which the change was going on, could not be +otherwise than hurtful to those arts; and accordingly, the first +efforts of Christian painting, as far as we see in the few relics we +possess, were gross and coarse. + +Yet there is in them a certain dignity of expression, which saves them +from contempt. But the revival of art in Christian times belongs rather +to the Greeks than the Italians, as I shall have occasion to point out; +for as the conquest of Greece by Rome brought art and artists into +Italy, so the removal of the seat of government attracted them eastward +again, to the new court, and they left the deserted Capitol of the +Western Empire to seek the patronage of the rising city. + +From what I have said in this Essay, it will be seen that the time when +Italy could boast of native artists, equal to those of the surrounding +nations, was before Rome existed. + +That after the Roman conquests, native artists gradually disappeared, +and the very few who have left a name seem only placed here and there +as beacons, to show the nakedness of the land. + +That the forced luxury of art, fostered by imported pictures and +statues, foreign artists and imperial patronage, produced in Italy +no painter or sculptor of eminence, even in the most flourishing +times of Roman politeness; while the free cities of Greece had +given birth to those men of sublime genius, whose borrowed works +gave to Rome all the lustre she could ever boast of in art[69]. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[33] I am aware that it is unusual to place Italy before Greece in any +ancient historical question; but I am induced to do this because the +real ancient Italian art, namely that of the Etruscans, was coeval +with the oldest Greek schools, if not anterior to them; and that as +the Roman conquests destroyed the arts of old Italy before the most +brilliant periods of Greek painting, I may well look upon Italian or +Etruscan painting as having an earlier life and death than that of +Greece. + +[34] Micali, Vol. II., p. 73. + +[35] Micali, Vol. I., p. 32, mentions certain books of the ancient +Italians, preserved at Anagni, so late as the time of Fronto. + +[36] For whatever notices of ancient or modern authors, before his +own time, that can throw lustre on Etruscan art, I must refer to +Tiraboschi, _Storia delle Lettere Italiane_, Parte Prima, x. to xviii., +and to Micali’s work generally. + +[37] It is a pity that the want of early Italian writers deprives us of +the means of judging of the truth of some of the marvellous traditional +accounts of Etruscan monuments. The cavern sepulchres of Clusium may +possibly have been connected with the labyrinth which Pliny, B. xxxvi., +c. 13, on the authority of Varro, says, was under that incomprehensible +tomb of Porsenna, the account of which reads like a fairy tale; and has +uselessly employed some modern dreamers in impossible restorations. + +The square body of the building, the four pyramids at the corners, and +that in the centre, will remind the traveller of the modest monument, +miscalled that of the Horatii and Curiatii, on the road between Laricia +and Rome. To me it seems to have some resemblance with that raised by +Simon Maccabeus to his family, about three centuries after Porsenna’s +time, 1 Macc. xiii., v. 27, 28, 29, 30. + +[38] See the 22nd chapter of Micali for what can be known of the +religion of ancient Italy, its gradual alteration, and the introduction +of Egyptian, Oriental, and Greek mysteries by the Cabiri, who, in their +mixed character of priest and merchant, appear to have influenced the +whole system of worship. + +[39] I say the _re-opening_, because it appears that at some former +time or times, now forgotten, the sepulchres have been searched for the +precious metals which, in the form of ornaments of various kinds, were +buried with their owners. Some of the tombs remaining open served as +refuge for robbers, for sheep-pens, &c. See Tiraboschi as above, also +Micali. + +[40] This demon, with his huge tusks and his large tongue, might be +taken for the Hindoo demon that is to destroy all mankind at the end +of the world, according to some. Several plates of this destroyer, who +is sometimes to be identified with Siva, sometimes with Kali, are to +be seen in Moore’s Hindoo Pantheon. The resemblance between the two +monsters is very remarkable. + +[41] From this it appears that the whole ear of corn was stored in +these nets, as was the custom in Egypt. + +[42] Book xxxv., ch. 3. + +[43] Cleophantus is said to have used no other colour than pounded +brick. Demaratus, the father of Tarquinius, had been a fugitive, and +settled as a potter at Tarquinii. + +[44] I quote the pleasant old translation by Philemon Holland. The 1st +Book of Tiraboschi, to which I have already referred, may be consulted +if any doubts concerning Pliny’s account should arise. + +[45] Pliny mentions that, in his time, Pontius, a lieutenant of +Caligula, wished to have removed the pictures from Ardea, but found +that the plaster or stucco upon which they were painted would not bear +removal. These pictures could not have been painted merely in water +colours, for they were not injured by exposure to the weather. Could +they have been painted with the size of oil, mentioned in book xxxvi., +chap. 24? or were they not rather true frescoes? + +[46] Book xxxiv., ch. 4. + +[47] Before Christ, 485. + +[48] Book xxxiv, ch. 7. + +[49] “C. Fabius, a most noble Roman, who, when he had painted the walls +of the Temple of Salus, before dedicated by Julius Bubulcus, he set +his own name to it: as if a consular, sacerdotal, and triumphal family +stood yet in want of this ornament.” Val. Max. book viii., quoted by +Junius. + +[50] Modern Messina. + +[51] By Timomachus, a Byzantine contemporary with Cæsar, who was his +patron according to one passage in Pliny’s thirty-fifth book; but +other passages, with, as I think, more likelihood, make him older than +Apelles. On carefully comparing such authorities as we have on the +subject, I cannot help thinking that there were two, if not three, +painters of the name. Two seem to have been Thracians. + +[52] Most probably from the Pæcile, where the pictures were not painted +in fresco, but on pannel. The portico of Octavia, with its library and +pictures, was burnt in the time of Titus. + +[53] The fashion of the fine wrought cups of chalcedony is said by +Pliny to have been introduced into Rome by Pompey. B. xxxvii., c. 11. + +[54] For his other various merits, see Fuseli’s first lecture. + +[55] Among the pictures taken from Greece, Tiraboschi names, on the +authority of Vitruvius, b. ii. c. 8, some frescoes from Sparta; which, +by orders of the Ediles Murena and Varro, were sawn from the walls they +adorned, and, being tightly wedged in wooden cases, were transported to +Rome. + +[56] Dioscorides, whose works came next in beauty to those of +Pyrgoteles, Acmon, Aulus, and some others in the time of Augustus; +Alpheus and Anthon in that of Caligula; Evodus and Necander under +Titus; Ænorus in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, &c. + +[57] See the basso-relievo, of the size of life, in the Villa Albani, +and the statues in the Museum of the Capitol and the Galleries of the +Vatican. + +[58] Marcus Aurelius was himself a painter: his master was, according +to Julian, Diognetes; whether the same Diognetes, who was his master in +moral philosophy, does not appear. + +[59] The arch of Constantine in Rome furnishes a perfect example: such +parts as he stole from the forum of Trajan are of great merit, and do +credit to the artists of the last good school of antique sculpture. +Those portions of the decorative bas-reliefs, executed by Constantine’s +workmen, are mean and deformed--totally worthless in design and +contemptible as sculpture. + +[60] Now Palestrina. See Cecconi, Historia di Palestrina. + +[61] All Roman families of rank preserved the effigies of their +forefathers, some in wax, others in clay, wood, marble, or bronze. +These were carried in procession at funerals. + +The images of Brutus and Cassius were not permitted to appear among +those of seventy of the principal houses of Rome, at the funeral +of Junia the widow of Cassius; but Tacitus says, that “before all +the rest THEY flashed upon men’s thoughts, the more for not being +there.”--Annals, Book iii. + +The Athenians set up the statues of Brutus and Cassius along with those +of Harmodius and Aristogiton.--Dion. Cassius, Book xlvii., c. 20, +quoted by Colonel Leake. + +[62] Of these, there are beautiful examples in the _Libreria_ at +Sienna, and some in the collection at Munich. The latter had not been +arranged when I saw them in 1827. + +[63] In and about the market-place at Pompeii, there are buildings +partly repaired, and also preparations for repairing others. So that +the consequences of the first catastrophe had by no means been fully +removed before the second occurred. + +[64] These pictures are now in the possession of Sir Matthew White +Ridley. They were discovered in 1823, in a vineyard belonging to Signor +Santa Amandola, to the right of the Via Appia, near San Sebastiano. The +boy with the flute formed the centre of the vault of a Columbarium, +and was taken down to preserve it. There were, in the same tomb, some +relievos, in stucco, and some painted arabesques, of considerable +merit. The Ganymede was found in the same vineyard, as was likewise a +fine sarcophagus, which has been published in an archæological journal. + +[65] See Pliny, Book xxxv., c. 11; and further, see Essay 6. + +[66] See Essay 5, also see Pliny, Book xxxv. It is curious to observe +how M. Durand has twisted this passage to suit his own views. It +is only necessary to compare Durand’s paraphrase with the honest +translation of old Philemon Holland, to be convinced of the Frenchman’s +want of fidelity. Tiraboschi has, without his usual care, adopted +Durand’s view of this matter. I think wrongly, for my reasons see Essay +6. + +[67] See Franklin’s Lucian. In the dialogue, _Zeuxis_, Lucian says, +that the original picture of the Centaurs was lost at sea; but that he +saw a copy in a picture dealer’s shop, at Athens. It is worth while to +refer to Lucian’s dream, for an account of the customs of the sculptors +of his day,--the pupils crying casts about the streets, while the +masters were labouring themselves. + +[68] See the French translation, by Blaise de Vigenere, with its +singular plates and notes, ten times more bulky than the original work. +There is an epigram to each of the plates by D’Embry. + +[69] Tiraboschi has laboured hard to convince himself and others that +Zeuxis was a native of the Italian Heraclea. But I think he fails. Even +if he succeeded in establishing his birth-place in Italy, his life was +passed in Greece: there he studied and there he painted. His being +employed by the Sicilians at Agrigentum, and by some towns in Magna +Græcia, only prove their taste for Greek art, not that Zeuxis was an +Italian. + + * * * * * + +(Additional Note to Essay II.)--It may appear strange that I have not +mentioned Sicily, which abounded in works of art, more particularly +in this Essay. But the truth is, there was no native school of +either sculpture or painting; and whoever will take the trouble to +read Cicero’s fourth oration against Verres, will see in that very +interesting catalogue, that with trifling exceptions, all the statues +and pictures which that guilty Prætor plundered the Sicilians of, were +either imported from Greece, or the works of Greek artists. It is a +pity that Cicero has not named the painters of those pictures which +hung in the temple of Minerva at Syracuse[70], and which he praises so +highly, especially the battle piece, representing Agathocles charging +at the head of his cavalry. It would also be interesting to know the +authors of those twenty-seven portraits of the tyrants and other great +men of Syracuse, which the orator says were so valuable, not only as +likenesses of the persons, but as works of art. Cicero, however, was no +connoisseur, and when he wished to adorn his library, at Tusculum, with +some work of art fit for the place, he employed a friend to choose it. +And well did that friend choose, if the beautiful fragment now in the +monastery, at Grotta Ferrata, and which was found on the site of the +Tusculan Villa, be the very ornament sent from Athens, in compliance +with his request. + +[70] Now converted into the cathedral church. It must have been a +beautiful specimen of Greek Doric, but it is hidden and defaced by the +building and walls necessary for its conversion. I saw it in 1818. + + + + + ESSAY III. + + PAINTING IN GREECE, FIRST AND SECOND PERIODS. + + It is no small glory to be made partaker of a great and worthy matter, + however it be but a little you do possess. + + COLUMELLA. + + +To write of the beginning of painting in Greece, one of two theories +must be repeated. Either that all nations, at a certain stage of +civilisation, have discovered a fondness and aptness for the fine arts +without communicating with others; or that painting was brought with +the other arts ready formed from Egypt to Sicyon and Corinth. + +For my part I am apt to consider both these views as partly true. + +It is not to be supposed that the civilised people, whatever was its +origin, which possessed Greece before the time of the earliest Egyptian +colonies, and which in the massy walls and curious treasure-houses, +which it has left as monuments, proving a considerable advance in the +knowledge of mechanics, had made none in those finer arts that adorn +and sweeten life. Neither are we obliged to believe that the Egyptian +Colonies, whether led by an unfortunate prince, or composed of men +flying from the tyranny of a harsh government, would forget to practise +the arts which flourished in their native soil. They might improve +the nation on whose shores they landed, and in return be improved by +intercourse with it[71]. + +It is certain, however, that whatever were the first steps of the arts +of Greece, they soon out-stripped those of every other nation, making +their practice the law by which all others were to be tried for ever. + +Alas, for the pictures of Greece! they have perished, and are now mere +matter of history, and like the hands that produced them + + Poca polvere son, che nulla sente. + +But the temples they adorned, the statues that were coeval with them, +the bassi-relievi conceived in the spirit that inspired them, are not +utterly gone; and while we have them before us, the history of the +pictures of Greece may still borrow a momentary reality as we read +over the descriptions of the heroes of Polygnotus, and the Helens and +Venuses of Zeuxis and Apelles. + +Of the plastic arts it is scarcely possible to doubt that modelling in +clay must be the earliest that arrived at any degree of perfection. The +very shaping and moulding of vessels for domestic use, must have given +a facility of hand to the potter, highly advantageous when he began to +model his first ornamental foliage, and afterwards in his imitations of +men and animals. It is a pity not to believe that the first portrait +in profile, and the first bust, owed their common origin to love; +and after all it may be true. The potter’s art may have formed the +clumsy likeness of a human head, and many a rude outline may have been +scratched on rocks, or cut in turf, or drawn in the sands before. But +Dibutatis tenderly tracing the shadow of her sleeping lover, may still +have formed the first individual likeness; and her father’s filling up +of that line, the first head in clay that deserved the name of model. + +At all events, I would have the poets and the young believe it. + +The tale points to Corinth as an early nursery of art; and we have +seen how closely the beautiful vases of that city and those of Etruria +resemble each other. Of late years, vessels almost equally beautiful, +and not dissimilar in form, have been found delineated in the catacombs +of Egypt; but it is remarkable, that although they are ornamented with +many tracings and scrolls like those of Corinth, there is no instance +of their bearing the human form. + +The designs on the Corinthian and Etruscan vases, may be considered as +pictures in monochrome, according to Fuseli[72], whose ingenious but +somewhat fanciful account of the process by which the monochromes were +executed, is probably near the truth. + +The works of the earliest Greek painters, therefore, which we know +were called monochromes, resembled the Corinthian and Etruscan figured +vases; and, perhaps, it is equally credible that the two, three, and +four-tinted vases represent, with tolerable accuracy, the steps towards +the many coloured pictures which excited the admiration of the Greeks +in the earliest paintings mentioned in authentic history. + +But, before we take up the history of painting exclusively, it will +not be uninteresting to name a few of those early productions of the +workers in metal, mentioned by the poets or older historians, and, in +some instances, preserved in the treasures of the Grecian temples, +particularly those of Delphi, to a late period[73]. We must remember +that the Greeks of Europe, Asia, and the Islands, practised the arts +with equal taste and success; that, by trade or by alliance with the +Phœnicians, they maintained an intercourse with Egypt, and also a +direct commerce with the Etruscans; and that their border nations on +the Asiatic side were cultivated and luxurious, drawing their origin +either from the same ancient civilised stock with themselves, or from +Egypt, or its immediate neighbourhood. + +The shield of Achilles, that noble piece of chased and inlaid work as +described by Homer, about nine centuries before our era, is an example. +Its rich design could not have been imagined, unless the arts necessary +to produce it had arrived at a high degree of perfection in his country +at the time he wrote[74], though we may doubt if, at the period of the +war of Troy, three hundred years before Homer, there existed artificers +capable of executing it. + +Within a century after the taking of Troy, there was a great movement +among the Greek tribes; many new colonies settled in Asia Minor, and +the Heraclidæ finally regained their ancient seats in Peloponnesus. It +is worthy of remark, that at that period Jerusalem was adorned with +her first magnificent temple by Solomon, and that David built his +house of cedar. The chief workman sent by Hiram the king of Tyre, to +assist Solomon in the building of the Temple, but more especially to +superintend the execution of the ornaments, was the son of a Tyrian +artist by a Jewess of the tribe of Naphthali. According to one passage +of scripture he was like his master called Hiram[75]. + +A little before the building of the temple we must place the +construction of the tomb of Absalom, part hewn in the rock, and part +built; which resembles in those particulars, and, in my mind, surpasses +in taste, many of those described and figured by late travellers in +Asia minor; while I should say, the cavern tombs of the kings of +Judah have a resemblance to those of Egypt, or rather, perhaps, to +the curious excavations discovered by late travellers, at Petra in +Edom[76]. These are surely proofs that the arts were flourishing as +freely in Syria, as in Asia Minor at that time. + +But, to return to Greece. About seven centuries before the Christian +era, the temple of Delphi was enriched by a number of most precious +gifts by some of the kings of Asia. Gyges, whose story has served for +the foundation of so many charming tales of enchantment and fairyism, +sent to the god at Delphi the first foreign offering, or, as the +Greeks term it, the first gift from a barbarian[77]. It consisted of +vessels of gold, silver, and brass; among which, six golden goblets, +particularly valued, were afterwards placed, in a chest or cupboard +called the treasury of Corinth, which was presented by Cypselus[78] +to the shrine, some years afterwards. Midas had by a short time +anticipated the gifts of Gyges, consecrating to the Delphian Apollo +the throne whence he dispensed justice, said to be of exquisite +workmanship[79]. + +Halyatus, the great-grandson of Gyges, sent a vase to Delphi, precious +for its material, but still more precious on account of the workmanship +of the under cup which supported it. The vase was of chased silver, the +under cup of iron curiously inlaid with silver, the work of Glaucus of +Phocis, said to be the inventor of that kind of work in metal. This +was the only one of the gifts of the Lydian kings that remained when +Pausanias visited the temple. + +Indeed, the magnificent presents sent by Crœsus, the son of Halyatus, +would have been sufficient to tempt the cupidity of a conqueror, and +perhaps to overcome the honesty of the priests of Delphi themselves. Of +pure gold there were a hundred and seventeen bricks or tiles, forming +the floor for a lion of great size, of the same metal, and the statue +of a woman said to have baked the bread for the king’s household. +These were taken by the Phocians to defray the expenses of the sacred +war. There were also many beautiful chiselled vases of gold and +silver, basins, ewers, fountains, and cisterns. One goblet of silver +was particularly precious; it was said to be the work of Theodorus of +Samos[80], one of the earliest founders in bronze. + +Crœsus also enriched other temples with precious gifts. The great +temple at Ephesus possessed three golden heifers and some fine columns +given by him. The shrines of Thebes in Bœotia, were enriched by him; +and to the temples in Miletus, he had sent gifts of equal value with +those he consecrated at Delphi. + +In return for a quantity of gold given by Crœsus to the Lacedemonians, +they sent him a large vessel of bronze, round the mouth of which the +figures of all sorts of animals were chased or engraved. The vase, +indeed, never reached Crœsus, who was dethroned by Cyrus while it was +on its way, and it fell into the hands of some merchants who sold +it for a large price. Cyrus had the fortune not only to obtain the +treasure in the precious metals and in the workmanship, of the gorgeous +possessions of Crœsus, more precious than those metals themselves, but +also to restore to Jerusalem the splendid ornaments and rich vessels, +the work of the Tyrian artists, which belonged to the temple, and which +were no doubt saved, by having been consecrated in[81] the temple of +Belus, during the taking of Babylon. + +It will perhaps never be known in what degree the taking of the Capital +of the Chaldeans by Cyrus, altered the state of literature and art +in ancient Persia. I have already referred to the passage in the +prophet Ezekiel, which mentions the portraying the figures of men with +vermilion, according to the use of the Chaldeans of Babylon; and, it +should be observed, that their _many-coloured_ head-dresses are also +mentioned; so that the Babylonian pictures, such as they were, were not +monochromes. But this belongs to another place[82]. + +The Greeks had early adopted or borrowed deities from every nation. The +Syrian Astaroth or Astarte, and Thammuz or Adonis, were not neglected, +but were received as kindly in the temples, as the Tyrian purple and +the fine linen of Egypt, in the ports of Greece; and they were too +intelligent and tasteful, not to adopt whatever of beautiful or elegant +might be found among the artificers and artists of the nations with +which they traded. Perhaps the Greeks were less inventors, than quick +and happy discerners, of what was beautiful. They seem to have wrought +the rough materials of many other nations into the happiest forms; +and, if they borrowed largely from others, they amply repaid them by +the beauty of the works they produced, and the excellent artists they +formed, and these, by seeking employment in foreign countries, refined +no doubt the taste of the great barbaric courts. + +The art of inlaying and colouring metals is still possessed in +perfection by many of the descendants of the nations of Asia Minor and +Syria. The Circassians especially pride themselves on colouring silver, +an art in which in ancient times the Egyptians excelled, though it was +practised by the artists of Tyre and Sidon[83]. + +Figures and sometimes portraits were introduced in the patterns of the +stained metals; and though the damasking or colouring steel[84] is now +confined to swords and fire-arms, the example of the curious under-cup, +seen by Pausanias at Delphi, shows that it was applied to different +purposes by the inventors. + +I have dwelt more upon the ornamental and religious vases, whether +in clay or wrought in metal, than upon statues in bronze or marble, +because their subjects, the manner of treating them, and the tools +employed in executing them, seem properly to belong to painting. On +the fictile vases, the subjects being chiefly applicable to funereal +rites, represent the mysteries of Ceres, Bacchus, and Hercules. Any +part of the fables concerning those divinities sufficed to indicate the +mystery. I have seen a beautiful design of Triptolemus with a winged +car, a type surely of the burial of the body in earth, while the living +spirit shall revive, even as the corn sown in the field springeth up +to beauty and use when the winter is gone. The struggles of Bacchus +and Hercules, the death of Linus, the descent of Hercules to Hades, +all these are compositions belonging strictly to picture, and form +the first steps towards it; departing more from the nature of designs +for sculptured friezes or tablets in bas-relief, than those other +Bacchic subjects, where the Menadæ and their companions dance at fixed +distances and independent of each other, or the graver Pyrrhic dancers +that are supposed to be equally emblematical, and are frequently drawn +on the vases or on the sides of altars, consecrated to the service of +the temples. + +One of the most interesting works of the kind, of which the knowledge +has come down to us, was the chest of Cypselus already mentioned, in +the temple of Juno at Olympia in Elis[85], it was of cedar, inlaid with +gold, silver, and ivory; it was covered with designs indicative of the +mysteries, or representing funeral games. Whatever relates to Ceres +or Proserpine, to Bacchus or to Hercules, as connected with Dis, is +represented. Pausanias describes many figures, which my very imperfect +knowledge of their mystic meaning would lead me to call miscellaneous; +but they are doubtless connected with the main design. Among these are +some representing the virtues and the arts. It is clear that the woman +called Night, with a black child in one arm and a white one in the +other, called Death and Sleep, has a reference to the usual mysteries +of death. + +But the fancy of the artificer has brought together, according to the +description, all the greater gods and older heroes, without any very +perceptible connexion as to their position[86]. + +In the same temple where that chest was placed, there were statues, +altars, treasures, and vases innumerable. However, there is but one +more that I shall notice on account of the fitness of the figures that +adorned it. It was the table of gold and ivory upon which the crowns +of the victors in the Olympic games were placed, and was the work of +Colotes, who, like his master Phidias, was a painter as well as a +sculptor. That is, they both of them designed, and sometimes carried on +their drawings, so far as to make them real monochrome pictures[87]. +This appears to have been sometimes done as a preparation for working +in relief, as on the famous shield of Minerva, designed by Pantænus the +brother of Phidias. On the front of the table or altar were the six +greater gods more particularly patrons of the games; namely, Cybele, +Juno, Jupiter, Mercury, Apollo, and Diana. On the back the Olympic +games were carved or inlaid--it is not very clear which, as the word +used is only _representation_--and we know there were both carving and +inlaying in the chest. One side contained a battle under the direction +of Mars; and close by, were Esculapius and Hygeia; the other side was +filled by Pluto, Proserpine, Bacchus and two nymphs, one of whom held +a globe, the other a key: both symbolical of the mastery of Pluto or +death over the world. + +The earliest names of Greek painters, discovered by the indefatigable +Pliny, are those of Dynas, Hygiænon, and Charmas. What their works +might be we can scarcely conjecture; for it is accounted a great +improvement that after them Eumanus the Athenian distinguished man from +woman in his figures[88], and undertook to draw any object he could +see; and Cimon the Cleonian proceeded so far as to place his figures in +different positions, and to give the proper direction to the eyes. + +These all preceded Bularchus, whose picture of the battle of the +Magnetes must have very far surpassed the works of those artists. It +was esteemed so highly, that Candaules, the last King of Lydia, of the +race of the Heraclidæ, bought it at a very high price--it is reported, +at its weight in gold--and regarded it as a treasure. This was about +the eighteenth Olympiad, or nearly 730 years before our era. + +If the description given by Lucian of the picture in the temple of +Diana in Taurica, and which he ascribes to some very ancient unknown +painter, be anything but imaginary, it must have been painted about +this time[89]. + +In the half century after Bularchus, the arts of design, and especially +painting, had made large and rapid progress. Somewhere about the +eightieth Olympiad, or between four and five hundred years before +Christ, prizes for painting were instituted at Delphi and at Corinth; +and we find Pantænus, the brother of Phidias, contending at Delphi with +Timagros, among the first of the exhibitors for the prize. + +Besides the drawings or pictures, which Pantænus had made in +conjunction with Phidias[90], he had already painted at Athens the +battle of Marathon, in which the portraits of the leaders of both +armies were conspicuous. The two Mycons, and Timarete, the daughter +of the second, were his cotemporaries; his elders, Aglaiophon, +Cephysodorus, and Phylus, were still living. These all employed their +genius upon subjects relating to the religion or the history of their +country. From devotion or patriotism they drew their inspiration. Hence +the grandeur and severity that, according to all authors, distinguished +their works. + +Between seven and eight centuries before Christ, about the time +when the Olympic games became fixed, many of the temples and public +buildings of Athens appear to have been improved or rebuilt. At that +period all the states, enjoying any advantages of situation as to +maritime commerce, appear to have been actively employed in domestic +improvements, or in sending out foreign colonies. Syracuse, Corcyra, +Tarentum, Rome, and many other cities were founded. Byzantium, half +a century later; and in the interval Necho’s ships had sailed round +Africa. + +By the year 550 before Christ, the Athenians, under the government of +Pisistratus and his sons, had not only improved in all that renders +civilised life delightful, but had extended their commerce, and +acquired a degree of wealth and splendour, that drew upon them, first +the admiration, and not long after the hostile attacks of the Persians, +aided, it must be confessed, by the revenge of the Pisistratidæ, who +had been expelled when the popular government was established. + +It was then when the great contest began between Athens and the +Monarchs of the East, who would have oppressed all Greece by the +conquest of her first free people, that the arts were called into +existence. They lent their aid to deepen religion, to animate +patriotism, to reward virtue. + +Themistocles rebuilt in purer taste, and with greater magnificence, +some of the temples, and most of the other public buildings injured +by the Persians. But it is said that his works were chiefly those +necessary, or at least most useful to the people. + +Cimon, the son of that Miltiades who won the battle of Marathon, +resolved to beautify the city with temples, and statues, and pictures, +part of the expense of which he defrayed out of his private fortune, +and part was provided for by a portion of the Persian spoils. + +Struck with the heedlessness of the Athenians, who, among their many +shrines, had never erected one in honour of Theseus, their greatest +benefactor, he planned and accomplished the Temple of Theseus[91], +about thirty years before Pericles’ more magnificent structure, the +Parthenon, rose to fix for ever a canon for perfection in architecture +and sculpture[92]. + +The expedition of Cimon to the Isle of Scyros, to recover the bones of +Theseus, and to punish the islanders for the death of that hero, was +immediately followed by the erection of the venerable temple, still +standing in honour of his remains. Its decorations were more beautiful +than any that had hitherto been seen. + +Mycon, who was both a sculptor and a painter, had the direction of +the structure. The sculptured metopes are said to be even finer than +those of the Parthenon[93] in execution, though inferior in taste; +and the same is said of the two friezes that adorn the front and back +vestibules of the temple. As these pieces of sculpture bear marks even +now of having been coloured, I must consider them as works fitted, +in the opinion of one of the greatest painters of that age, to be +considered as pictures. + +The friendship that subsisted between Theseus and his cousin Hercules, +and the gratitude so strongly expressed by Theseus for the services +and favours of his friend, rendered it natural that a temple to one of +these heroes should be decorated with the acts of both; and as in life +Theseus had always generously given the first place to Hercules, so in +his monument the Athenians placed the pictures of his actions in the +front of the temple, while those of Theseus occupied the back and sides. + +The flat pictures were what we should call frescoes; they were all +painted upon the interior walls of the Theseum, and related solely to +the actions of Theseus. + +It is impossible now to know how far Mycon had departed from the +Egyptian style of painting which had prevailed in Athens and elsewhere +before this period. + +Where paintings of mythological, or even historical subjects were +required in public places, plain unbroken colours, without much regard +to nature, were applied, so as to produce a dazzling effect at a +distance, much like that of an Eastern bazaar, where separate pieces of +various coloured brocades produce a gorgeous but not unpleasant show. + +By the age of Mycon some discrimination was used in the application of +colour. The coloured foliage and meanders which decorated the Theseum, +the Parthenon, and the Panhellenic Temple of Egina[94], were only +internal decorations; and I think the descriptions left of the pictures +contemporary with those of Mycon, justify us in concluding that the +Egyptian practice was already falling into disuse. + +The subjects chosen to do honour to Hercules were, of course, his own +actions, not exactly those called the twelve labours of Hercules; +though some of them are mixed with other events in the hero’s life. The +subject of the frieze, over the front entrance, is the war with the +giants, in which the superior gods are only spectators, while Hercules, +Mars, Bacchus, Apollo, and Mercury, are actively engaged in combat with +the giants. The subjects on the metopes, relating to Hercules, are some +of them too much injured to be recognised with certainty; but others +are from his common adventures, such as the Nemean Lion, the Hydra, and +so on. + +The frieze, in honour of Theseus, represents the battle of the Centaurs +and Lapithæ. Among the groups there are some of great beauty; but I +cannot help thinking that, like those of the battle of the giants, +there is an affectation of a display of strength. There are too many +figures with legs outstretched and strained, and arms employed without +a visible necessity; very unlike the work of Phidias, where the action +of every figure is directed to its proper purpose. + +But it is not as sculpture I speak of them; all these figures were +painted by Mycon and his daughter Timarete, reported by Pliny to have +been a paintress of great reputation. Even yet, Colonel Leake[95] says, +there are traces of bronze or gold coloured armour, garments of various +hues, azure skies, and golden stars. If these artists gave natural +colours to the objects they treated, it was already a great improvement +on the Egyptian notion of pictures; but yet their works must have +resembled those ancient altar-pieces, some by the hand of Albert +Durer himself, which we still meet with occasionally in the German +churches[96]. + +The description of, and apology for, coloured sculpture in Flaxman’s +seventh lecture, leaves nothing to be said on that side of the +question. On the other I believe there is an universal feeling of +distaste to anything so like waxwork. + +The pictures on the inner walls of the Theseum were painted on stucco, +which here and there still retains vestiges of colour. + +The subjects were most probably effaced when the temple was converted +into a Christian church. + +They were the battle of the Amazons, that of the Centaurs and Lapithæ, +and one of an action performed by Theseus, in Crete, to convince Minos +that he was indeed the son of Neptune. It appears that the king, +offended with Theseus, had taunted him with pretending falsely to a +divine origin, and threw a ring into the sea, desiring him, if he +really had the influence of a son with Neptune, to restore it. Theseus +immediately dived to the bottom, and soon emerging from the tide he +presented the king with his signet, and displayed the golden crown with +which Amphitrite had honoured him while below the waves. + +The best work of Mycon, however, according to Pausanias, was Acastus +and his horses, which he painted in the temple of the Dioscuri. His was +also the picture of the Argonauts, in the same temple, where Polygnotus +also painted some excellent pictures. + +But leaving these things, I must hasten on to a work of still greater +importance in the history of painting, and which the Athenians likewise +owed to Cimon. I mean the Stoa or Portico, called Pæcile, on account +of its many colours[97]. The painters who adorned it were Polygnotus, +Mycon, and Pantænus. Here, both the patriotism and filial piety of +Cimon were gratified. The memorable acts of the Athenians, from the +time of Theseus, the war of Troy, and other historic subjects were +represented in the Stoa; but the picture that was of most importance, +nay, that almost forced the spectators to forget all the others, was +the battle of Marathon, by Polygnotus. + +I must refer to Fuseli for a most beautiful and spirited sketch of the +character of the works of Polygnotus, and confine myself to relate the +little that history tells of them. + +Alas! for the ancient painters that no Vasari among them condescended +to collect gossipping anecdotes, and tell us about their houses, their +dress, their labours, and their amusements. We might, indeed, have been +induced to believe a few pleasing fables, but who would not delight +in being brought a little nearer to those master minds, which gave a +character to their age, and to grow into acquaintance with them at the +expense of a little incorrectness. + +But I am obliged to take leave of Mycon, well paid as we are told, for +his works, and of his daughter, without knowing more of their lives or +deaths; and in turning to Polygnotus, what can I tell of, before he +painted in the Stoa, but that he was the son and pupil of Aglaiophon, +and was born at Thasos? After he had finished his great pictures in the +Stoa, and the votive pictures of the Gnidians at Delphi, I can indeed +show that his patriotism induced him to refuse all payment for the +public works executed in honour of his country. And that the Greeks, +in return, were so alive to his worth, that the Amphictyonic council +decreed, that wherever he might travel in Greece he should be received +with public honours and provided for at the public expense! + +Notwithstanding the coldness of Pausanias’ description, we cannot but +perceive that a true poetical feeling governed the composition of the +battle of Marathon. Presiding over the whole, the hero Marathon, after +whom the plain was named, received Minerva, the patroness of Athens, +accompanied by Hercules, and soon to be joined by Theseus, whose +shade, arising out of the earth, thus claimed Attica as his native +soil. The armies are engaged in combat: some of the Persian chiefs are +distinguished, particularly Mardonius, the insertion of whose portrait +scarcely gratified the Athenians less than that of their own commander, +Miltiades, along with whom were Callimachus, Echetlus, and the poet +Æschylus, who was in the battle that day[98]. In another part of the +field the Persians were routed; and farther on, some were seen hurrying +to their ships to escape, and others flying towards the marshes, where +the Greeks following were slaying them in their flight[99]. + +I am aware that critics require painters to observe what they call the +unities, not less than dramatic poets; and that to represent different +actions of the same story, or different parts of the same action, on +one and the same canvas, is to sin grievously against their rules. But +Shakspeare gloriously breaks the laws of the drama, and Polygnotus had +a right to break those, if they then existed, of the picture. In a +future Essay I hope to show the great advantages that may be derived +from a disregard of the unities in painting, and to bring forward +examples of its success by more modern artists. Meantime, in some of +the other works of Polygnotus, which I am about to mention, it will be +seen that he used considerable freedom in this respect. But, to go on +with those in Athens. In the temple of the Dioscorides, assisted by +Mycon, he painted the actions of these heroes[100], and their marriage +with the daughters of Leucippus. Two other pictures adorned one of the +buildings of the Acropolis, the subjects being Achilles among the young +women of Scyros, and the meeting of Ulysses and Nausicaa[101]. + +But the great works of Polygnotus were the story of Troy and the +descent of Ulysses into the infernal regions, painted in the Lesche, or +public hall, at Delphi. + +From the very unartistlike description by Pausanias, I think I can make +out, that the back ground of the picture was filled by the town, the +citadel, the surrounding country, and the sea. The hero Epeus, naked, +was visible destroying the walls of the citadel, over the top of which +the head of the famous wooden horse was seen[102]. Scattered about +singly, or in groups, were the dead or the dying. On the margin of the +sea were the Greek ships, on board of which parties of the conquerors +were embarking; while their servants were bearing tents, furniture, and +spoil, to put on board. + +Approaching the foreground, and distributed in groups, were the +principal captives, and some of the heroes. Helen was sitting attended +by her maids, one of whom was tying her sandal, and gazed upon by +Briseis, Diomed, and Iphis. Near her, were some of both the nations +whose miseries she had caused. The chief of these were the captive +Trojan princesses: Andromache, with her infant, and one of her sisters, +Priam’s daughter, Medisecasta, veiled; but the poor virgin Polyxena was +bareheaded, with her hair gathered into a knot, as became her years. + +In front of the city, the groups were composed of more wretched +captives still, in various attitudes; some thrown upon couches, others +kneeling, some clinging to their native altars, and, chief in misery, +the sad Cassandra, with her arms round the Palladium, crouched upon the +earth as Ajax was drawing nigh the altar, where the Atridæ appeared +ready to receive his oath. Some of the circles of the lower town were +laid open where this was taking place. There, boys were seen clinging +to the altars, or infants to their mothers, while Neoptolemus was +continuing the work of slaughter. + +Such were the grand features of the picture. Some touches of common +nature we find there, were, as if to give truth to the scene. For +instance, the horse rolling on the sandy shore, and servants loading a +beast of burden[103]. + +The other picture was the Descent of Ulysses, described by Pausanias +with even less feeling than the first. It is, however, evident that +the reedy Acheron, with Charon’s boat, occupied the foreground; and +that one of the figures in the boat was a person initiated into the +Eleusinian rites, by the covered basket she held, thus signifying +the mysterious passage between life and death. Beyond the river, the +demon Eurynomus, of an unearthly hue, was fitly placed, sitting on the +skin of a vulture, and gnawing the bones of the dead[104]. Ulysses, +performing the incantation, was properly conspicuous; and the rest of +the picture was filled with the women and heroes whom he saw or spoke +to while in the kingdom of Pluto. + +The clumsy way in which these pictures, and those in the Temple of +Minerva, in Bœotia, are described by Pausanias, who saw them six +hundred years after they were painted, has led even Fuseli to fancy +that all the figures were of equal size and at equal distance from +the spectator. But the inference is surely not just; for an ignorant +man would probably (especially if the horizon were placed high in the +picture) thus speak of one group as _above_ another instead of _beyond_ +it. + +Any one who has had the good fortune to examine, at leisure, Hemelink’s +epic picture of the three kings, formerly in the Boiserée collection, +and now at Munich, will at once comprehend the possibility of arranging +the most complicated subject, without confusion of parts or division +of interest; and I cannot comprehend why we are to suppose Polygnotus +incapable of such arrangement[105]. There are two pictures in the Pitti +palace, by Andrea del Sarto, of the history of Joseph, arranged as +I suppose the great works of the Pæcile and at Delphi to have been; +which, to such as admire only Italian art of the best time, will afford +proof, if it were wanting, of the excellent effect that a departure +from vulgar rules may sometimes produce. + +I must not omit to say that Polygnotus, like the painters of the vases, +wrote the names of the principal figures near them. + +I have now repeated the account Pausanius has left us of the pictures +of Polygnotus. It remains to consider what has been said, particularly +by Pliny, of the change he effected in the art. + +Before his time the faces had all one grave set expression; something, +as we may presume, like that of the marbles and bronzes of the Eginetic +and Etruscan schools. + +Polygnotus first parted the lips, varied the appearance and expression +of the eyes, dimpled the cheeks with smiles, or deformed the brow and +nostrils with the expression of passion, however imperfectly rendered. +He also it was who introduced the use of veils and other light and +becoming ornaments in his female figures, and adorned their heads +with fillets and coronals, thus adding delicacy and grace to his high +poetical conceptions. In the brides of Castor and Pollux, in the +captive Trojan princesses, and in the shades of celebrated and unhappy +women in the descent of Ulysses, these qualities were particularly +admired. Polygnotus, then, must be looked upon as the painter, who, +leaving the practice of making mere coloured bas-reliefs, rendered +painting a separate art, and established the difference between statues +and groups in marble or bronze, and true pictures. + +The name of Polygnotus is the greatest that adorns what we may consider +as the first great epocha of Greek art. When, having nearly attained +perfection, sculpture in the hands of Phidias produced the perfectly +sublime in his Jupiter Olympias and his Minerva of the Parthenon, and +formed a model which has never been safely departed from, for the +composition of basso-relievo in the Panathenaic procession. But in +painting, Polygnotus, though he had attained to great grandeur and +majesty, had still left much to his successors to add in correctness, +in expression, and in grace. + +Contemporary with Polygnotus was Evenor, the master as well as father +of Parrhasius[106]. But before Parrhasius began to distinguish himself, +Apollodorus of Athens had made a great and rapid stride in art, and +had painted at least two pictures that for six centuries commanded the +admiration of all men of taste and understanding. He therefore may be +considered as the first of the second epocha of Greek painting. + +It was Apollodorus who first gave the niceties of character and +expression to his figures; strength and force without exaggeration, +and tenderness without insipidity. He added also to the mechanical +powers of the painter, by breaking the colours, and showing the value +of light and shade, of harmony and contrast. Pliny says, “I may well +and truly say, that none before him brought the pencil into a glorious +name and especial credit[107].” The only two pictures of which we know +the subjects, were preserved at Pergamos, at least until the end of +the first century of the Christian era. In one the chief figure was +a kneeling priest in fervent adoration. The other represented Ajax +Oileus on a rock, stricken by the thunderbolt after escaping from his +perishing fleet. + +It is evident that the effects of such subjects must have depended in +great measure on light, and shadow, and colour. Accordingly, the school +of Apollodorus produced the painter of most note among the ancients +for those qualities. I mean the Heracleot Zeuxis; but Zeuxis had also +the advantage of being a contemporary of the Ephesian Parrhasius, and +was thus able to avail himself of the improvements introduced by that +extraordinary man. + +Parrhasius no doubt made use of the studies of the Macedonian Pamphilus +who painted at Sicyon, and greatly improved that famous school, whence, +half a century after the time of Apollodorus, proceeded Apelles and +other painters of note. This Pamphilus taught his pupils arithmetic and +geometry, without which he maintained that it was impossible to paint. +Linear perspective was thus improved, and some general rules, acted +upon intuitively before, were now fixed; but the delicacy of eye, which +demanded a finer perspective, belonged to Parrhasius. He introduced +the magic of aërial perspective; and the description by Pliny, of the +manner in which the objects in his pictures seemed to shadow somewhat +behind, and yet showed what they seemed to hide, may lead us to imagine +that he was not ignorant of the effect of reflected lights. + +He is praised for the beauty of his features, and peculiarly the +sweetness and “lovely grace about the mouth and lips;”[108] the +softness and fulness of the hair; the blended tints that melted away +the outline, in some instances perhaps too much, as we gather from the +painter Euphranor’s observation, that the Theseus of Parrhasius looked +as if he fed on roses, while his own had evidently fed on flesh. + +Two ancient writers on painting, Antigonus and Xenocrates, now lost, +praised Parrhasius especially for the delicacy with which he finished +the extremities of his figures. They quoted many pictures on pannel, +and drawings on parchment, which served as examples for other painters, +and as proofs of his wonderful skill in this part of his art. + +It is to these authors that Pliny ascribes the criticism that the +interior drawings were not quite equal to the outlines of his figures: +not that they were inferior to those of other men, but only as one part +of Parrhasius’ work might be inferior to another: Parrhasius, compared +with Parrhasius[109], who, as Horace says, + + ---- bade the breathing colours flow, + To imitate in every line + The forms, or human, or divine[110]. + +We have a pretty considerable list of the works of this great painter +which were in existence when Pliny wrote; one of these indeed, which +was at Rhodes, was held in great reverence, because, although the +pannel on which it was painted had been thrice struck with lightning, +yet the painting remained uninjured; the subject was a story of +Meleager, Perseus, and Hercules. There is scarcely any class of +subjects which Parrhasius does not appear to have chosen occasionally. +One of the most celebrated of his pictures was a personification of the +Demos, or people of Athens, in which he is said to have embodied the +virtues, talents, humours, and inconstancy of that witty, capricious +democracy. + +He is praised for the majesty of his demi-gods and heroes, the beauty +and expression of his women and young men, and the grace and simplicity +of his children. In short, to use the words of Quintilian, “Parrhasius +was so exact in every particular, that he is looked upon even to this +day as the lawgiver of painters; because the paintings of gods and +heroes, such as he has left behind him, are held as so many models, +which they make it a rule to follow invariably[111].” + +Of the life of Parrhasius we know nothing, but of his manners we have +a curious picture preserved by Pliny. His vanity appears to have been +almost insufferable. He clothed himself in a purple robe, and wore a +chaplet of golden flowers; his staff was entwined with tendrils of +gold, and his sandals were clasped at the instep and ankle with golden +latchets. He affected the name of Abrodrœtus, or the delicate[112], +assumed the title of Prince of Painters, and pretended to have had +Apollo himself for his forefather. There was something like insanity +in the assertion that Hercules appeared to him in the visions of the +night, that he might delineate his form with exactness[113]; and, +perhaps, his insolent demeanour to other painters might spring from an +unsound mind. + +Two anecdotes concerning him are well known. His contest with Zeuxis, +in which, though the grapes on the head of the boy of Zeuxis had +deceived the birds, the curtain painted by Parrhasius deceived Zeuxis +himself[114]. The second story is, that having lost the prize in a +contest with Timanthes of Samos, for a picture of the contest between +Ajax and Ulysses for the armour of Achilles, he affected to pity Ajax +for being thus a second time foiled by a worthless rival. + +The most celebrated of the contemporaries of Parrhasius was Zeuxis of +Heraclea, who began to attract public notice soon after Parrhasius +himself had established his reputation. He was the pupil either of +Demophiles the Nemerian, or Niceas the Thracian, perhaps of both. +Quintilian says[115], that “he painted bodies with greater than real +proportions, thinking such a form to be more august; and in this it is +thought he followed Homer’s manner, who took pleasure in representing +all his characters, even his women, of large and strong size.” + +Apollodorus, of whose extraordinary powers I have already spoken, paid +the same generous tribute to the rising merit of Zeuxis, as Michael +Angelo did to that of Raffaelle; and even wrote some verses, which have +been lost, in praise of his works. + +Zeuxis’ works were so eagerly sought after, that he very soon made +a fortune equal to his wishes, after which he refused to work for +money, but gave away his pictures; for instance, to the people of +Agrigentum he presented his great picture of Alcmena; and to Archelaus, +King of Macedon, a large painting of Pan. We are obliged to Pliny +for preserving the subjects of several of his best works. Jupiter, +surrounded by the other gods, is praised for its majesty; and the +picture of the infant Hercules strangling the serpents in his cradle, +for the expression of the bystanders, especially of Amphitryon and +Alcmena. Of his Penelope it is said that he had not only painted the +outward charms and features of her person, but the inward qualities and +affections of her mind. + +Of his famous Helen, and of the story of his choosing her several +perfections from several beautiful women sent to him by the +Agrigentines for the purpose, when they entreated him to paint their +votive picture for the temple of Juno, it is unnecessary to remind +the reader, as the story, true or false, is in every collection of +anecdotes. We know not Zeuxis’ own estimation of that picture, but +with another of his works he was so satisfied, that he is said to +have written under it, “It will be easier to envy than to imitate +me.” The subject was a wrestler. Some writers, however, say that +the inscription, which was a Greek Iambic verse, was written by +Apollodorus, his master and friend. And this is most natural; for what +man of genius was ever entirely satisfied with his own work? + +I have already mentioned the contest of Zeuxis with Parrhasius, for the +nicest power of imitation in painting. The picture of the Muses, which +was carried to Rome, demanded qualities of a different kind; so did the +Marsyas, which Pliny likewise saw in Italy. His drawings in a single +colour, relieved with white, appear to have been numerous and greatly +valued[116]. Like Raffaelle, Zeuxis is said to have painted sometimes +on earthen ware, and that vases and cups adorned by him were much +prized. Possibly he only furnished the designs for these. + +Zeuxis was not quite free from the same love of show which +distinguished his great rival, Parrhasius. He is reported to have shown +himself, magnificently attired, at the Olympic games, and to have +caused his name to be embroidered in gold upon his upper garments, of +which he displayed an unusual number of changes during the games. + +Another of the great men who flourished in this second period, was +Timanthes. His celebrated picture of Iphigenia, in Aulis, has been +the subject of much criticism. The ancient writers, with one accord, +praise the feeling which led the painter to conceal the father’s +face; and though it is probable that most of them either mistook, or +were ignorant of, the principle on which Timanthes, as an artist, +proceeded, they were still right as to human nature. Reynolds and some +other modern critics, especially Falconet, have reprobated the idea of +Timanthes; but Fuseli has, in my opinion, set the matter at rest in a +very beautiful piece of criticism[117], which I shall give below. + +The picture itself was painted in competition with Colotes of Teos, +whom I have already mentioned as the sculptor of the table of the +Coronets at Delphi. The work of Timanthes gained the prize, as his Ajax +had done, when exhibited in competition with that of Parrhasius. + +There was a celebrated portrait of a prince by him, of which Pliny +says, “It was thought to be most absolute: the majesty is such that +all the art of painting a man seemeth comprised in that one portrait.” +Timanthes did not always confine himself, however, to the grand and the +pathetic. There is an account of a little picture where he represented +a Cyclops asleep, and a number of little satyrs peeping out of the +woods; some of whom, astonished at his size, are measuring the thumb of +the unconscious giant with wands. + +At the same time with the four great painters, Apollodorus, Parrhasius, +Zeuxis, and Timanthes, lived Euxenidas, Eupompus, Echion, Therimachus, +and some others not unworthy of their fellowship. They were remarkable +also as having formed the men who flourished in the third and most +brilliant epoch of painting in Greece. + +As this essay is already longer than I intended, I will close it +here; and endeavour, in another, to sketch the history of the highest +prosperity and gradual decline of art in Greece. The consideration +of the causes of that decline belongs to the philosophy of general +history. I will only remark, that painting in Greece rose to its +highest excellence by individual exertions, exciting the sympathy, and +therefore the patronage, of the public generally; that it flourished +under the encouragement of Alexander; but that the unnatural fostering +of power appears to have weakened the spirit of art, which faded +after his time, as those delicate plants which are cherished into +extraordinary beauty by the heat of the stove, after a season languish +and die, even of the effort that seemed to contribute to their +luxuriance. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[71] I have heard it objected that the Americans of the United States, +though they built towns and established civil governments and so on, +thought little of the fine arts for 200 years. That is true. But it +should be remembered that the fine arts formed part of the religion of +the Egyptian emigrants. The British emigrants, on the contrary, had +just quitted a most gorgeous communion, which had employed all the arts +in its service, and thus rendered them an abomination to the severe +puritans who were in fact flying from the persecutions of the great +patrons of art in their days. + +[72] Lecture 1. + +[73] Pausanias, to whom we owe the largest catalogue of antique works +of art, travelled about the year 170 of our era; and the objects he +describes could not have been suddenly dispersed even after his time. + +[74] Contemporary with Homer was Jeroboam, who set up the two calves or +heifers in two cities of Palestine. + +[75] 1 Kings, ch. vii., v. 13. In 2 Chron. ch. ii., v. 14, he is not +named, and his mother is said to have been of the daughters of Dan; +his qualifications were, that he was “skilful to work in gold and in +silver, in brass, in iron, in stone and in timber, in purple, in blue, +in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, +and to find out every device which shall be put to him.” Scripture +tell us likewise, that Solomon built or repaired many cities. Balbec +and Palmyra are both named. Now, the columns and lighter parts of the +temples at Balbec look very like architecture of the Roman time; while +the massy substructures resemble works that are always said to be of +Pelasgic origin. Again, the temples of Palmyra are of Roman taste; but +the tombs and watercourses, like the works in Palestine ascribed to +Solomon, are massy and durable. + +[76] The Dutch traveller, Cornelis de Bruyn, in his 1st folio vol., +published in 1698, was among the first to publish a figure of the tomb +of Absalom; Pocock has given a very faithful representation of it; +Meyer, who travelled with Sir Robert Ainsley, also gave a faithful +likeness of it and the tombs of the kings. The most agreeable points +of view of these subjects are however to be found in the Landscape +Illustrations of the Bible, published by Mr. Murray, with descriptions +by the Rev. Hartwell Horne. For the excavations and buildings of Petra, +see M. Leon de Laborde’s works. If quite authentic, they, like Palmyra, +show _very_ ancient excavations and buildings, overlaid with Roman +additions. + +[77] Unless that of Arimnus, a Tyrrhene king, preceded it, which is +doubtful. + +[78] This is that Cypselus, from whose tyranny Demaratus is reported +to have fled and taken refuge at Tarquinii, and to have settled in +Etruria, and carried on his former occupation of a potter. His son, +under the name of Tarquin, became king of Rome. + +[79] The description of the fabulous horse of brass, which makes so +conspicuous a figure in the tale of Gyges, supposes the maker to have +been an ingenious mechanic, as well as an artist of talent. + +[80] Pliny, besides extolling the statues this Theodorus cast in +bronze, praises some exquisitely minute works of his. Contemporary with +the gifts of Crœsus to the Delphic Apollo, was the golden image set up +by Nebuchadnezzar at Babylon; and, within fifty years, Perillus made +the brazen bull for Phalaris, tyrant of Syracuse, who with a cruel +justice consumed the artist himself in it. + +[81] Ezra, ch. vi., v. 14. The vessels returned by Cyrus were 5400 in +number. Ezra, ch. i., v. 11. + +[82] By the time of Cyrus, Athens had for ever shaken off the kingly +government: and a polished Greek city, Marseilles, had been founded in +barbarous Gaul. + +[83] See M. Tausch on the Circassians, in the first Number of the +Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. + +[84] _Damasking_, evidently from Damascus. As silks and linen, with +rich varied surfaces, often of different colours, are also called +damask. + +[85] Pausanias, b. v. ch. 17. The chest is said to be that in which +the tyrant was concealed by his mother when the Bacchidæ would have +slain him: some say it was in the family meal chest that he was hidden. +I have seen in very old English houses, and some Italian ones, meal +chests curiously adorned. + +[86] Pausanias, in the beginning of the eighteenth chapter of the +Laconics, names the statues of Sleep and Death, believed to be +brothers; and farther on, in the same chapter, the throne of Amyclæs, +made by Bathycles, the ornaments of which were as various and chosen +with as much apparent caprice as those on the chest of Cypselus. + +[87] Fuseli. + +[88] An improvement almost equivalent to that made by Dædalus in +sculpture. He, it is said, first detached the arms from the sides, +varied the positions of the limbs, and gave true relief to the +features. Hence the fable that he endowed his figures with motion. +There are some curious Mexican figures in the possession of Capt. +Veitch, they are in high relief upon slabs; holes are drilled for the +arm-pits, the fore arms are crossed upon the stomach, the legs only +indicated, and to give the appearance of relief to the nose, the cheeks +are hollowed on each side. + +[89] “On the walls of the temple is painted, by ancient artists, the +whole history as engraved on the pillar. There you see Orestes sailing +with his friend, his ship split on the rock, himself taken, and +Iphigenia preparing to sacrifice him: in another part he is represented +freed from his chains, slaying Thoas and several other Scythians; +they are setting sail with Iphigenia and the goddess; the Scythians +attempting to board the ship, and hanging on the rudder; some wounded +and repulsed, others frightened and swimming back to the shore. On the +opposite side of the wall is pourtrayed the mutual affection of the +two friends in their battle with the Scythians; the painter has drawn +one of them driving away the enemies who attacked the other, without +regarding those who fell on himself, as if careless of his own life, if +he could but preserve that of his friend, covering him on every side, +and receiving the strokes that were aimed at him.” + + FRANKLIN’S LUCIAN. + + +[90] Pliny, b. xxxv. ch. 8, says “it is for certain reported that +Phidias himself was a painter at the beginning.” + +[91] Before Christ, 465. _Leake’s Topography of Athens._ + +[92] The architect of the Parthenon was Ictinus, who wrote a treatise, +now lost, upon its construction. + +[93] There are casts in the British Museum. + +[94] I am not aware that any _pictures_ adorned this temple, though the +statues were painted. The Egina marbles, which might have been, but +which, alas! are not in England, form an interesting link between the +free finished works of Phidias, and the stiffer and more conventional +figures of early Corinth and Etruria. _See Mr. Cockerell’s interesting +Essay, with the etchings, in the 6th Vol. of the Quarterly Journal of +Science and Art._ + +[95] Topography of Athens. + +[96] The approach to common life in the German compositions, renders +their colour less offensive perhaps to our feelings, than colour +applied to the ideal forms of Greek sculpture would be. + +[97] _And painted Stœa next._--MILTON. It was from this portico that +the stoics derived their name. + +Colonel Leake quotes Synesius to show that the pictures of Polygnotus, +in the Pæcile, were painted on pannels, and that they were not removed +till the 4th century. + +[98] In the 15th chapter of Pausanias’ Attics, I know that he does not +name Æschylus as one of the persons introduced in the picture; but in +chapter 21, after speaking of some other tragic poets, he says, “with +respect to the image of Æschylus and the _picture_ in which his valour +at Marathon is represented, I am of opinion that these were produced a +long time after his death.” What picture, if not that of the battle of +Marathon? + +[99] Polygnotus neglected nothing that could flatter the Athenians. +Into this great epic picture he introduced a dog, which having followed +a soldier to Marathon, returned unhurt after the battle, and became a +pet with the people. Dogs seem to have been in favour at Athens. There +is a story of a white dog which trotted through the temple of Minerva +Polias down into that of Pandrosus, and placed himself in comfort on +the altar, that stood under Minerva’s own olive tree. Another white dog +acquired fame by tasting of the meat offered in sacrifice to Apollo. +There is also a white dog referred to in the catalogue of monuments of +Hercules. The numerous statues of dogs, in bronze and marble, attest +the gratitude of the ancients to those friends and guardians of man. + +[100] Castor and Pollux, as the preservers of seamen, were very early +worshipped by the Athenians. + +[101] It was near this building that the Graces in marble by Socrates +stood: they were veiled as became the Graces, fashioned by the hand of +wisdom. The veil on the work of Socrates was a real veil; but a friend +has observed, that “the veil was a remarkable part of the mythology of +the Graces, but it is described as invisible, and having only the moral +effect of a veil.” + +[102] I think that as Epeus is said to have invented the wooden horse, +an allegory was intended in this part of the picture. Indeed, I have +somewhere seen it remarked, I think in Pausanias, that to suppose that +the horse of Epeus was anything but a warlike machine, is to suppose +the Trojans very stupid indeed. + +[103] There are in this part of the picture some verses, by Simonides, +to the following effect:-- + + The artist Polygnotus, for his sire + Who claims Aglaiophon, in Thasos born, + painted the captured tower of Troy. + + _Taylor’s Translation_ (of 1794) + + +[104] I cannot help considering the figure of Ocnus, who was +represented as twisting a rope of rushes for a she ass to devour, as an +emblem of the inactivity--the doing of nothing in the grave. We have a +single picture, by another painter of the same subject, as an emblem +of idleness, mentioned by Pliny. Pausanias, however, calls the ass of +Ocnus the emblem of a thriftless wife. + +[105] No one can be more sensible than I am of the great merits of the +modern German artists. Yet I think they have carried their admiration +of the ancients to excess in some points, and I cannot but consider +the outlines of Riepenhausen, intended to illustrate the descent of +Ulysses, by Polygnotus, a proof of it. Surely a German should have +looked at Hemelink, and at the history of St. Paul, at Augsburg, by the +elder Holbein, where he would have found that a double story, or even +one of many parts, can be treated without violating common sense, or +the rules of painting. + +[106] Olymp. 93. + +[107] Holland’s Translation, b. xxxv. + +[108] Pliny, b. xxxv. ch. 10. + +[109] See Fuseli’s first lecture. + +[110] B. iv. Ode 8. + +[111] Institutes, b. xii. ch. 10. + +[112] Ælian. + +[113] This picture was at Lindos in Pliny’s time. + +[114] It is a pity that this anecdote has come down to us bald as it +is, because it seems to infer that the lowest kind of excellence was +what these great men aimed at, that is, mere deceptive imitation. But +we should remark that we have not the writings of a single painter or +artist of any kind preserved, and that the relators of the story were +notoriously ignorant of art. It is impossible that the painter of the +Helen of Agrigentum, and he who conceived the Demos of Athens, could +have had such narrow views of art. + +[115] Institutes, b. xii. ch. 10. + +[116] I cannot help subjoining, as a note, Lucian’s description of one +of the pictures of Zeuxis:--“I will tell you a story of Zeuxis. That +famous painter seldom chose to handle trite or common subjects, such +as heroes, gods, and battles, but always endeavoured to strike out +something new, and exerted all his art and skill upon it. Amongst other +things, he painted a female centaur, with two young ones; there is an +exact copy of it now at Athens; the original was said to have been sent +into Italy, by Sylla, the Roman general, and lost at sea, with the +whole cargo, somewhere, I believe, near Malta. The copy, however, 1 +have seen, and will describe to you; not that I pretend to be a judge +of pictures, but because, when I saw it in a painter’s collection +there, it made a strong impression on me, and I perfectly recollect +every part of it. + +“The centaur is lying down on a smooth turf; that part which represents +a mare, is stretched on the ground, with the hind feet extended +backwards; the fore feet not reaching out as if she had laid on her +side, but one of them as kneeling with the hoof bent under, the other +raised up and trampling on the grass, like a horse prepared to leap; +she holds one of her young ones in her arms, and suckles it like a +child at a woman’s breast; and the other at her dugs like a colt. In +the farther part of the picture is seen a male centaur, as watching +from a place of observation, supposed to be the father; he is behind, +and discovers only the horse part of the figure, and appears smiling, +showing a lion’s cub, which he lifts up, as if to frighten the young +ones in sport. + +“With regard to correctness in drawing, the colouring, light, and +shade, symmetry, proportion, and other beauties, of this picture, as +I am not a sufficient judge of the art, I leave it to painters whose +business it is to explain and illustrate them. What I principally +admire in Zeuxis is, his showing so much variety, and all the riches +of his art, in the management of one subject, representing a man so +fierce and terrible, the hair so nobly dishevelled, rough, and flowing +over the shoulders, where it joins the horse, and the countenance, +though smiling, amazingly wild and savage. The female centaur is a most +beautiful mare, of Thessalian breed, such as had been never ridden or +tamed; all the upper part resembling a very handsome woman, except +the ears, which are like a satyr’s: that part of the figure where +the body of the woman joins to that of the horse, incorporating, as +it were, insensibly and by slow degrees, so that you can scarce mark +the transition, deceiving the sight most agreeably. The ferocity that +appears in the young ones is moreover admirably expressed; as well as +the childish innocence in their countenances when they look towards the +young lion, clinging at the same time to the breast, and getting as +close as possible to their mother. + +“When Zeuxis produced this work, he expected undoubtedly to meet with +universal approbation from the spectators; every body indeed praised +and admired it; and how could they do otherwise? Above all, they +commended, as my friends did with regard to me, the novelty of the +invention; said it was a most uncommon subject, and unattempted by any +of his predecessors. But, when Zeuxis understood that their admiration +was confined entirely to the novelty of it, and that they passed over +all the art which he had exerted in it, ‘Cover up the picture,’ said he +to his pupil, ‘and let it be carried home, for these people are only in +love with the dregs, as it were, of the art, and take no notice of the +real merit of the picture; the novelty of the performance alone runs +away with all the praise and admiration.” + + _Franklin’s Lucian._ + +It is ever the same with the vulgar. As soon as any art seems to have +arrived at something approaching to perfection, the incessant craving +for novelty forces artists to seek new ways of gratifying their +patrons;--sometimes by exaggerating form, sometimes by exaggerating +colour, or light and shadow. The painter by degrees loses sight of +nature, and produces monsters. The sculptor attempts to make marble +flow and flutter in the wind; the musician drowns expression in noise; +and the poet either sickens his reader with blood and murder, or sends +him to sleep over daisies and daffodils. + +[117] Neither the French nor the English critics appear to me to +have comprehended the real motive of Timanthes, as contained in the +words “_decere_, _pro dignitate_, and _digne_,” in the passages of +Tully, Quintilian, and Pliny; they ascribe to impotence what was the +forbearance of judgment; Timanthes felt like a father; he did not +hide the face of Agamemnon because it was beyond the power of his +art, not because it was beyond the _possibility_, but because it was +beyond the _dignity_ of expression; because the inspiring feature of +paternal affection at that moment, and the action which of necessity +must have accompanied it, would either have destroyed the grandeur of +the character and the solemnity of the scene, or subjected the painter, +with the majority of his judges, to the imputation of insensibility. He +must either have represented him in tears, or convulsed at the flash +of the raised dagger, forgetting the chief in the father, or shown him +absorbed by despair, and in that state of stupefaction which levels all +features and deadens expression. He might indeed have chosen a fourth +mode; he might have exhibited him fainting and palsied in the arms of +his attendants, and by this confusion of male and female character, +merited the applause of every theatre at Paris. But Timanthes had too +true a sense of nature to expose a father’s feelings, or to tear a +passion to rags; nor had the Greeks yet learnt of Rome to steel the +face. If he made Agamemnon bear his calamity as a man, he made him +also feel it as a man. It became the leader of Greece to sanction the +ceremony with his presence, it did not become the father to see his +daughter beneath the dagger’s point: the same nature that threw a real +mantle over the face of Timoleon, when he assisted at the punishment of +his brother, taught Timanthes to throw an imaginary one over the face +of Agamemnon; neither height nor depth, propriety of expression was his +aim. + +The critic grants that the expedient of Timanthes may be allowed in +“instances of blood,” the supported aspect of which would change a +scene of commiseration and terror into one of abomination and horror, +which ought for ever to be excluded from the province of art, of poetry +as well as painting: and would not the face of Agamemnon, uncovered, +have had this effect? was not the scene he must have witnessed a scene +of blood? and whose blood was to be shed? that of his own daughter--and +what daughter? young, beautiful, helpless, innocent, resigned--the +very idea of resignation in such a victim, must either have acted +irresistibly to procure her relief, or thrown a veil over a father’s +face. A man who is determined to sport wit, at the expense of heart, +alone could call such an expedient ridiculous; “as ridiculous,” Mr. +Falconet continues, “as a poet would be, who in a pathetic situation, +instead of satisfying my expectation, to rid himself of the business, +should say, that the sentiments of his hero are so far above whatever +can be said on the occasion, that he shall say nothing.” + +And has not Homer, though he does not tell us this, acted upon a +similar principle? has he not, when Ulysses addresses Ajax in Hades, +in the most pathetic and conciliatory manner, instead of furnishing +him with an answer, made him remain in indignant silence during the +address, then turn his step and stalk away? has not the universal voice +of genuine criticism with Longinus told us, and if it had not, would +not Nature’s own voice tell us, that that silence was characteristic; +that it precluded, included, and, soaring above all answer, consigned +Ulysses for ever to a sense of inferiority? nor is it necessary to +render such criticism contemptible to mention the silence of Dido +in Virgil, or the Niobe of Æschylus, who was introduced veiled, and +continued mute during her presence on the stage. + +But in hiding Agamemnon’s face, Timanthes loses the honour of +invention, as he is merely the imitator of Euripides, who did it before +him. I am not prepared with chronologic proofs to decide whether +Euripides or Timanthes, who were cotemporaries about the period of the +Peloponnesian war, fell first on this expedient, though the silence +of Pliny and Quintilian on that head seems to be in favour of the +painter, neither of whom could be ignorant of the celebrated drama of +Euripides, and would not willingly have suffered this master-stroke of +an art they were so much better acquainted with than painting, to be +transferred to another from its real author, had the poet’s claim been +prior: nor shall I urge that the picture of Timanthes was crowned with +victory by those who were in daily habits of assisting at the dramas +of Euripides, without having their verdict impeached by Colotes or his +friends, who would not have failed to avail themselves of so flagrant +a proof of inferiority as the want of invention in the work of his +rival:--I shall only ask what is invention? if it be the combination +of the most important moment of a fact with the most varied effects of +the reigning passion on the characters introduced, the invention of +Timanthes consisted in showing, by the gradation of that passion in the +faces of the assistant mourners, _the reason why that of the principal_ +one _was hid_. This he performed, and this the poet, whether prior or +subsequent, did not and could not do, but left it with a silent appeal +to our own mind and fancy. + +In presuming to differ on the propriety of this mode of expression +in the picture of Timanthes from the respectable authority I have +quoted, I am far from a wish to invalidate the equally pertinent +and acute remarks made on the danger of its imitation; though I am +decidedly of opinion that it is strictly within the limits of our art. +If it be a “trick,” it is certainly one that has served more than +once. We find it adopted to express the grief of a beautiful female +figure on a basso-relievo formerly in the palace Valle at Rome, and +preserved in the Admiranda of St. Bartoli; it is used, though with +his own originality, by Michael Angelo in the figures of Abijam, +to mark unutterable woe; Raffaelle, to show that he thought it the +best possible mode of expressing remorse and the deepest sense of +repentance, borrowed it in the expulsion from Paradise, without any +alteration, from Masaccio; and, like him, turned Adam out with both his +hands before his face. And how has he represented Moses at the burning +bush, to express the astonished awe of human in the visible presence of +Divine nature? by a double repetition of the same expedient; once in +the ceiling of a stanza, and again in the loggia of the Vatican, with +both his hands before his face, or rather with his face immersed in his +hands. As we cannot suspect in the master of expression the unworthy +motive of making use of this mode merely to avoid a difficulty, or to +denote the insupportable splendour of the vision, which was so far from +being the case, that, according to the sacred record, Moses stepped +out of his way to examine the ineffectual blaze; we must conclude +that Nature herself dictated to him this method as superior to all he +could express by features; and that he recognised the same dictate in +Masaccio, who can no more be supposed to have been acquainted with the +precedent of Timanthes, than Shakspeare with that of Euripides, when he +made Macduff draw his hat over his face. + + + + + ESSAY IV. + + OF THE THIRD PERIOD OF PAINTING IN GREECE. + + The Poets bring the Gods upon the stage, and all that is pompous, + grave, and delightful. The Painters likewise do design as many things + upon a board as the Poets possibly can utter. + + PHILOSTRATUS, _Preface to the Picture Gallery_. + + In the fantasies of Painters nothing is so commendable as that there + be both possibility and truth. + + LONGINUS. + + +Among the nations bordering upon European Greece, Macedonia was most +like it in manners, language, and physical circumstances; yet the +Macedonians were generally looked upon as barbarians by those proud +Republicans, who claimed the exclusive name of Greeks. + +Alexander, the eldest son of Amyntas, King of Macedon, desirous of +distinction in Greece, proposed himself as a competitor in some of +the Olympic games; but the Greeks rejected him at first with scorn as +a Barbarian[118]. However, he brought proofs of his descent from an +Argive family, and was thereupon admitted by the Hellanodicæ[119] to +an equal participation with other Greeks in those sacred games. He +obtained a victory in one of the races, and dedicated a golden statue +in the temple of Olympia. + +The title of the Macedonians to appear as Greeks at the Olympic games, +was asserted by the successors of Alexander in person or by proxy, and +Philip received the news that his horses had won the prize in the race +at Olympus, on the very day when the tidings reached him of the birth +of Alexander the Great. + +In truth, the kings of Macedon had been for many generations eager +to civilise their people, by introducing among them some of the +refinements of Greece, when they could snatch an interval of peace +from the wars they were continually forced to wage against their rude +neighbours to the north. They had employed the sculptors and painters +of Athens and Sicyon; and the forced residence of Philip with the +Thebans during the civil wars in Macedon, had rendered _him_ at least +intimate with the literature and philosophy of Greece. + +In choosing Aristotle for one of the tutors of his son, Philip probably +had a view to improving his taste, as well as cultivating those higher +qualities, which, though they may exist without it, derive from it a +grace and a spirit which double their value. + +The same feeling which led “the stern Emathian conqueror” to + + spare + The house of Pindarus, when temple and tow’r + Went to the ground, + +made him the friend of Apelles and the patron of Lysippus and +Pyrgoteles[120]. + +I am not certain whether it was to Alexander or to his father, though +probably to the latter, that Pamphilus the Macedonian, a disciple of +Eupompus, owed the protection which enabled him to re-establish the +school of Sicyon, with such enlargement as suited the time. In the +public course of instruction he procured painting to be ranked in the +first degree of liberal sciences[121]; and, consequently, all youths +of honourable birth were understood to learn at least the elements of +drawing as part of their education[122]. + +Pamphilus had cultivated the severe sciences as well as the agreeable +ones, including music and poetry. I have already mentioned that he +required from his pupils a knowledge of arithmetic and geometry. His +course of study, besides, appears to have been exact, if not severe. +“No day without a line,” was a precept learnt by Apelles in his school, +where he studied for ten years, paying a silver talent for each +year[123], according to some, while others imagine the talent was paid +for the whole ten years[124]. At any rate, Pamphilus set a high value +upon his art, and maintained that none but the free could practise it. + +His own pictures were much prized: Pliny names one of the battle of +Phlius; another, of Ulysses in a small vessel at sea; and a third +picture, containing, as I imagine, several family portraits. Quintilian +praises the beautiful designs of Pamphilus; and as many of his original +works were in Rome when Quintilian wrote, he had an opportunity of +judging of them for himself. But it is Apelles whose name spreads +lustre over the most refined and polished æra of painting in Greece. +Admired, beloved, and consulted in his own time, and praised by every +writer among the ancients, we have to lament not only that no picture +of his has come down to us, but that those letters to his pupils, and +those more connected works in which he is said to have laid down all +the rules and principles--nay, the very secrets of art, have perished. + +Apelles was born in Cos, though Lucian, in one of his dialogues, talks +of him as a native of Ephesus[125]. He seems to have been endowed with +the sweetest temper and disposition, as well as the finest genius. +He was generously eager to set forth the merits of others, and the +urbanity of his manners was such, that while he used perfect freedom, +he could not give offence. + +As an instance of this, Pliny relates that Alexander, who frequently +visited his workshop, allowed himself great licence and liberty of +jesting. Apelles gently reproved him, entreating him to forbear, lest +his pupils and the boys who ground his colours should repeat his words +and make a jest of the king. + +The freedom of the painter was so far from displeasing, that Alexander +appears to have cultivated an intimacy with him, little usual between a +king and conqueror, and an artist. + +Besides employing him to paint his own portrait, and forbidding any +other painter to attempt it, he took so great an interest in the Venus +Anadyomene, which Apelles was at work upon when he arrived at Athens, +that he sent him the most beautiful of his Theban captives, named +Campaspe, with whom he is reported to have been deeply in love, to +serve as a model. Apelles, moved by her misfortunes and her loveliness, +conceived a passion for her which could not be concealed, and Alexander +perceiving that his captive returned the painter’s affection, instantly +resigned her to him[126]. + +But the favour of Apelles with Alexander seems to have procured him +the ill-will of some of the courtiers, particularly of Ptolemy, as +was shown some years afterwards, when Apelles, being on a voyage to +Rhodes, was shipwrecked at the mouth of the Nile; and on getting ashore +repaired to Alexandria, where Ptolemy, who had become King of Egypt on +Alexander’s death, then held his court. It appears that several Greek +painters had already established themselves there, and that jealous +of the motives of Apelles’ visit, they, in conjunction with a painter +of Alexandria, named Antiphilus, planned his ruin by the following +artifice. + +They bribed the court jester to invite Apelles formally to sup with +the king. On his presenting himself, Ptolemy, remembering his ancient +enmity, was extremely enraged, and threatened him with death, unless he +instantly informed him of the name and quality of his inviter. Apelles +being entirely ignorant of both, and unacquainted with any person at +court, took a piece of charcoal and drew the face of the jester, which +was recognised instantly; the life of the painter was spared; but his +treatment was such that he hastened to escape from Egypt, and soon +after painted, in memorial of his danger, the allegory of Calumny, +which has been highly praised by the ancients, and has furnished +several modern painters with a theme[127]. + +Apelles’ first voyage to Rhodes was expressly to visit Protogenes, at +that time extremely poor, and living in obscurity. Some of his works +having been brought to Athens for sale, and publicly exhibited, Apelles +instantly resolved to make acquaintance with the painter, and embarked +accordingly. On landing, he ran eagerly to the house of Protogenes, +and, finding that he was abroad, took up his pencil, and drew a fine +pure line, such as he thought only himself could draw. He left it and +returned, when he hoped Protogenes might be found; but he had been +obliged to leave home again, not, however, without acknowledging the +line of Apelles, for he drew another still finer within it. Apelles +now added a third finer than either, which Protogenes seeing, now made +it his business to discover the stranger, with whom he contracted a +lasting friendship[128]. + +The proverb that a prophet is not honoured in his own country, was not, +it seems, falsified in the case of Protogenes, whose fellow-townsmen, +the Rhodians, esteemed his pictures but lightly, and paid him a very +inadequate price for them. Apelles, however, on inquiring the cost of +some works he was engaged upon, declared he thought the sum much too +small, and immediately engaged to give fifty talents for them[129]. The +Rhodians, astonished at the price, imagined that Apelles had purchased +them for the purpose of selling again as his own. They therefore began +to open their eyes to his merit, and the reputation of Protogenes rose +nearly to an equality with that of Apelles himself. + +In a former Essay I have mentioned the compliment paid to Protogenes +by Demetrius, who refused to attack the quarter of the city of Rhodes, +where his famous picture of Ialysus then hung. It is of that painting +that we are told that accident produced one of its greatest beauties. +Protogenes, being anxious to represent the foam from the mouth of one +of the overtired dogs, found it so difficult, that, losing patience, +he threw his sponge at it. The softness of the sponge just obliterated +so much of the form as the foam might naturally have hidden, and the +painter, improving the accident, rendered the picture perfect[130]. + +But Apelles, however he might admire and assist Protogenes, used to +find one fault with him, he said he never knew when to have done, and +that he sometimes injured his works by over-anxiety. In this matter he +preferred himself to his friend, as of better judgment. + +Yet Apelles was careful beyond what we know of modern painters, as +we learn from the well known story of his publicly exhibiting his +pictures, and hiding himself behind them, that he might profit by the +unrestrained criticism of the multitude. On one occasion, a shoemaker +passing, remarked that something was wanting to the sandal of the +principal figure. In the evening, Apelles altered the faulty sandal, +and when the shoemaker passed the next morning, he was so charmed with +the attention paid to his observations, that he extended them farther, +and began to find fault with the limbs; upon which, Apelles broke out +of his hiding place, exclaiming, “Let not the shoemaker go beyond his +last,” which words have passed into a proverb. + +The most noted work of Apelles was his Venus Anadyomene, which was +afterwards carried to Rome, and so greatly injured in the carriage, +that it could not be restored. + +He had undertaken to make a duplicate of this celebrated figure, but +died before it was finished, and the imperfect work is said to have +been valued as highly as his more perfect paintings, because it was the +last thing upon which that skilful hand had rested. + +In the Greek Anthology there are the following lines of Leonidas, which +inform us how the painter had treated the subject: + + When from the bosom of her parent flood + She rose refulgent with the encircling brine, + Apelles saw Cytherea’s form divine, + And fixed her breathing image, where it stood. + Those graceful hands entwined, that wring the spray + From her ambrosial hair, proclaim the truth; + Those speaking eyes where amorous lightnings play, + Those swelling heavens, the harbingers of youth: + The rival flowers behold with fond amaze, + And yield submission in the conscious gaze. + +After the Venus, the ancient critics seem to have prized the famous +portrait of Alexander, in the character of Jupiter the Thunderer, +which was hung in the temple of Diana of Ephesus, and cost no less +than twenty talents of gold, according to Pliny. This picture is +praised as much for grandeur and majesty as the Venus for loveliness. +Nor was it the only portrait of Alexander he painted, for we are told +that he represented him in every action and character, and that the +pictures of King Philip, by Apelles, were almost equally numerous. The +portrait of Clytus he painted in armour, and that of Megabyzus, the +priest of Diana, in his priestly robes, performing a sacrifice. Of +other remarkable portraits by him, we have the names of Antiochus, the +king, whom he painted in profile to conceal the want of an eye, which +disfigured him; of Menander, king of the Rhodians; of Gorgosthenes, the +tragedian; and of one Ancæus, a Samian. + +At Rome there was an allegorical picture painted by him, in which +Castor and Pollux, Alexander, and a winged victory were introduced; and +also that picture of war in chains, which was afterwards so cruelly +defaced by Claudius, who, as I have already mentioned, had the head of +Alexander scraped out, and that of Augustus substituted for it[131]. + +Other subjects on which he employed his pencil have been named by +various authors: for instance, a Hercules nearly turned from the +spectator; a Hero and Leander; Archelaus with his wife and daughter; +and a most beautiful picture of Diana, with her attendant virgins +preparing a sacrifice. This last was esteemed by the connoisseurs +of Greece as one of his very finest works, though a few preferred a +picture of Antigonus on horseback. He had painted the same king in +armour, on foot, with his horse led by a soldier, but this work was +not esteemed nearly so much as the other. He seems to have been fond +of painting horses, and carried away the prize from several rivals in +subjects where they were treated, either alone, or along with their +riders. I am not clear whether it were a solitary horse, or one on +which he had mounted Neoptolemus armed, and charging some Persian +soldiers, that, according to Pliny, procured him the compliment of a +greeting from a real horse that was passing by[132]. + +It is evident, I think, from what the ancients have related concerning +his works, that he never painted in fresco, nor do I find any mention +made of drawings on parchment, like those of Zeuxis and Parrhasius. He +must then have painted upon pannel with the usual preparation of chalk +or carbonate of lime, with size. Of the peculiar glaze or varnish, +which he is said to have first used, I shall have occasion to speak in +a future Essay. + +Protogenes, the friend and rival of Apelles, was born at Caunus, in +Cilicia; but Rhodes was his adopted country. His poverty was such, that +he was a ship painter during the early part of his life. Now the ships +of the ancients, though coloured generally red or black, laid on with +pitch, wax, and oil, at the bottoms and the seams, had always a figure +painted at the prow, representing the tutelary deity, or hero of the +vessel, much after the manner of our figure-heads. On the stern it was +customary to paint marine subjects, such as Neptune and Amphitrite, +the Tritons, the birth of Venus, and so on[133]. In the course of this +practice Protogenes acquired great knowledge and skill in shipping, and +became a considerable marine painter. + +Perhaps the sight of some of the ships painted by him might have +induced the Athenians to invite him to paint some of their favourite +ships of war, in the Portico near Minerva’s temple. The great praises +bestowed on his pictures by Apelles, was another temptation to a +people so eager after every kind of elegance, to engage him in the +service of the city. Accordingly, about the fiftieth year of his age, +he accepted an invitation to work for the Republic, and having painted +the Thesmothetæ of the time[134] in the chamber of the council of five +hundred, he painted the two galleys, Paralus and Hemionis, in the +portico near Minerva’s Temple. The Greek painters were occasionally +in the habit of surrounding their pictures with a border of subjects, +executed on a smaller scale than the main action of the picture; this +they called Parerga[135]. The parerga to the Paralus and Hemionis +consisted of small vessels, of various kinds and dimensions. Pliny says +that the painter intended thereby to show from what small beginnings, +he, a painter of ships and boats, had arisen to eminence. But I think +it more likely that he only made his border to suit his subject, which +was dedicated to the service of the state and commerce of Athens[136]. + +It is said that while Protogenes remained in Athens, Aristotle urged +him, without success, to paint the triumphs of Alexander. But he +painted some portraits which were highly esteemed, particularly one of +Aristotle’s mother. He also painted Antigonus and some other men of +note in his time. None of his pictures, however, were so much admired +as his Ialysus; though the Anapomenes or Satyrs at rest, the Cydippe, +the Tlepolemus, and the Pan, were greatly esteemed. Protogenes acquired +as great a reputation for his bronze statues as his pictures. + +Aristides of Thebes is the next great name in the third era of Greek +painting. He was remarkable for the intense expression he threw into +his figures. His battle pieces, his hunting scenes, and his chariot +races, painted for foreign kings and public halls, though highly +prized, were far below the pathetic groups of his smaller pictures, in +general esteem. There was a suppliant sueing so earnestly for grace +that his very voice seemed to be heard; there was Byblis expiring +for love; also a tragic actor, with his attendant on the scene, and +some other pictures, which were carried to Rome, and hung in the most +honourable places[137]. His great merit seems to have been a close +attention to nature, not only in form but in action and expression; +else, whence arose the strong attraction of his Dying Man? But the most +touching of all his works was that picture of the storming of a town, +in which the foremost group consisted of a dying mother and her infant. +The child was creeping towards the breast, she anxiously watching its +weak movements, and endeavouring to guide it aright. None could look on +this painting without a tender horror; few without shedding tears. It +was found in Thebes, when the place was sacked by Alexander. He took it +for his own, and sent it to Pella. The following lines, by Emilianus +Nicœus, convey the sentiments of the painter. + + Suck, little wretch, while yet thy mother lives! + Suck the last drop her fainting bosom gives! + She dies--her tenderness survives her breath, + And her fond love is provident in death[138]. + +Nichomachus was a painter, formed in the same school with Aristides. +But his mind had a freer and more cheerful turn; and we find in Pliny’s +list of his pictures some of even a playful cast. For instance, one +of a procession of the priestesses of Bacchus, in their habits, which +having attracted the notice of the sylvan deities, they are peeping +from the woods, and creeping as near as they dare. The rape of +Proserpine was another of his subjects. The sea monster Scylla another. +He is also known to have painted Ulysses on his raft; several pictures +of the gods, an Apotheosis, and other works, which were carried to Rome. + +He had the reputation of painting with greater celerity than any other +man of his time, in proof of which, we have the following anecdote. He +had undertaken to paint, for a certain sum of money, the tomb which +Anstrœtus, tyrant of Sicyon, had built in memory of Telestes the poet. +The work was to be finished by a certain day; but four days before the +time appointed, the painter had not even arrived at Sicyon to begin. +Upon learning this, Anstrœtus threatened him with exemplary punishment. +But, to the tyrant’s surprise, when the day came round, instead of +punishment, he had to bestow both the promised reward and the highest +praise, for the excellency of the work. + +I come now to the last great painters of Greece, Pausias and Euphranor, +who were a little after the time of Apelles and Aristides. + +Timomachus, of Byzantium; Nicias, of Athens; and Theon of Samos, +indeed, attained to considerable fame; and there were some painters of +familiar life and other subjects, that appear to deserve notice for +their reputation, even were it less curious to observe how ancient and +modern art have followed the same paths. + +Pausias was the son and pupil of Brietes, of Sicyon, and appears to +have been dexterous in the use of every kind of material and tool then +known. He was particularly celebrated for his pictures in encaustic, +of the origin of which method of painting Pliny himself was in doubt. +His skill in the more ancient methods of painting was such, that he +was chosen to repair the pictures of Polygnotus, at Thespiæ, which +had suffered greatly from time and damp. It is true that his work +was considered greatly inferior to that of the original picture; +not, indeed, as Fuseli says, because he used a different method and +different tools, but because he wrought in a manner to which he +was unaccustomed. May we not also say, because his gay, cheerful +disposition, delighting in painting children and flowers, did not and +could not enter into the high and solemn feelings which seem to have +constantly guided the pencil of Polygnotus? + +The exceeding beauty of colour which is said to have distinguished +the pictures of Pausias, he owed to love. There lived in Sicyon an +exceedingly beautiful girl, called Glycera, a garland maker, celebrated +for the taste and elegance with which she wove the coronals, then worn +universally at religious festivals and banquets, public and private. +At first, Pausias resorted to her for the sake of painting the fresh +flowers, and catching their combinations of colour and form; but he +soon began to love Glycera more than her flowers; and the picture that +he painted of her, while wreathing a garland, was the finest work that +ever came from his hand[139]. + +Akin to this, was his Hemerosis, a small picture of a child, reported +to have been painted in a single day, though executed with the greatest +care and nicety, to prove how falsely those accused him of idleness +who said his love of painting children arose from the little necessity +there was for care and diligence in such subjects. + +A very remarkable picture of his is mentioned, representing a +sacrifice, in which a number of oxen are introduced. The foreshortening +of one of these is said to have been imitated, though without success, +by many rivals; the manner of casting the shadows also, upon the more +distant groups, was a distinguishing excellence of Pausias. + +This sacrifice, and other works of this most eminent man, were carried +to Rome, when all the pictures at Sycyon were seized during the +Edileship of Scaurus, as I have already mentioned. + +Euphranor, the Isthmean, was the most accomplished of all the ancient +painters after the time of Pausias. He was equally celebrated as a +sculptor in marble and bronze, and the bowls and vases of his embossing +always fetched a high price. + +The great public work of Euphranor was a portico, in that part of +Athens called the Ceramicus. One of the subjects was an allegorical +picture of the early political state of Athens. + +The Athenian people, Theseus, and the personage of Democracy, were +introduced; but Pausanias, who mentions the subject, gives no account +of its treatment, though he says it signified that Theseus first +established equal rights of citizenship among the Athenians. In the +same portico, Euphranor also painted the battle of Mantinea, in which +the most remarkable group was an encounter of cavalry. Epaminondas was +at the head of the Bœotians, and Gryllus, the son of Xenophon, led the +Athenian horse. + +One end of the portico Euphranor sanctified by paintings of the twelve +superior gods. Perhaps some slight judgment of the tone of these +pictures may be formed from the expression of Euphranor himself--that, +while the Theseus of Parrhasius looked as if he had fed upon roses, his +own showed that he lived upon flesh. + +The other principal pictures of Euphranor appear to have belonged to +the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the most remarkable of which was the +feigned madness of Ulysses, who was harnessing a horse and an ox to the +same yoke. + +Before I proceed to the painters of less note, I will use the words of +Quintillian to sum up the general character of some of the greatest men +who distinguished the third period of Greek art. + +“Protogenes distinguished himself by his accuracy: Pamphilus and +Melanthus by beauty of design: Antiphilus by the easy and natural +strokes of his pencil: Theon of Samos by his lively imagination: and +Apelles by his ingenuity, and the graces which he boasted he had +excelled in: Euphranor made himself admirable by being possessed of +these different qualities in as eminent a degree as the best masters.” + +The great encouragement of art about the time of Philip, and in the +reign of Alexander and his immediate successors, called out abundance +of talent of various kinds and degrees; from that of the Egyptian, or +rather Alexandrian Antiphilus, whose attention to nature must have been +of singular use to him in those scenes for the theatre on which he +loved to employ himself, to that pupil of Apelles to whom his master +said sarcastically, “As you have not been able to paint your Venus +beautiful, you have made her fine;” in allusion to a profusion of gold +chain and other ornaments with which he had loaded her. The serious +pictures of Antiphilus which were carried to Rome, were the death of +Hippolytus; several votive pictures of Greek divinities, and some +few heroes. He painted grotesques so perfectly, that from one of his +figures, a fool named Gryllus, with a cap and bells, such subjects got +the name of Grylli. + +Antiphilus is, besides, the first painter, whose name has come down +to us, who painted fire-light effects. His most famous work of this +kind was a boy blowing a fire with his mouth, in which the natural +character of the boy, and the effect of the light throughout the room, +were greatly admired. Another favourite picture represented a number of +women spinning and gossiping, highly valued for its truth. + +Pliny seems doubtful whether it be not beneath the dignity of painting +to praise Pyreicus, who loved to paint interiors, especially the shops +of tailors, shoemakers, and sempstresses; giving every thing its true +nature and character, to a degree that attracted much admiration and +many purchasers; and as he delighted in making pictures of the houses +of the humble classes of men, he loved also to paint the animals that +especially belong to them. The nickname of _Rhyparographus_, was given +him, on account of his skill in painting asses bringing vegetables and +fruit to market. These pictures were of small size, and very highly +finished, and were sold for large prices. Serapion, the contemporary of +Pyreicus, on the contrary, painted nothing but play-house scenes, mock +architecture, and other things of enormous size, but was incapable of +drawing either men or animals. + +Heraclides the Macedonian was celebrated as a marine painter. His +friend Metrodorus, I conjecture to have been a scene painter, and as he +combined considerable knowledge of the arts, with the science requisite +for a tutor to young men, he was employed by Lucius Paulus both to +bring up his sons, and to paint his triumphs. + +But I will close my account of the painters of Greece with two names +of greater eminence, Nicias and Timomachus, who lived in the time of +Julius Cæsar. Nicias was an Athenian of considerable private fortune, +so that having painted a picture of the descent of Ulysses to the +infernal regions, he refused to sell it at a very high price to a +foreign prince, and presented it to his native city. He was famous +above all for the beauty of his women, and the bold relief of his +figures, which are said to have appeared ready to leave the ground they +were painted upon, and to walk out of their frames. I have mentioned +in the last Essay the subjects of some of his principal pictures which +were carried to Rome, and highly prized by Augustus Cæsar. There seems +to have been another painter of the same name[140], who was also a +sculptor and pupil of Praxiteles, who esteemed him highly on account of +the exquisite finish of his works. + +Timomachus of Byzantium seems to have delighted most in tragic +subjects, though a picture of his, containing excellent portraits of +several generations of one and the same family, is mentioned. His +most successful work is said to have been a Gorgon’s head. He painted +Iphigenia in Aulis, Orestes and Clytæmnestra; and, for Julius Cæsar, an +Ajax and a Medea. The treatment of the latter we may gather from the +following lines, by Antiphilus, preserved in the Greek anthology. + + +ON THE MEDEA OF TIMOMACHUS. + + When bold Timomachus essayed to trace + The soul’s emotions in the varying face, + With patient thought, and faithful hand, he strove + To blend with jealous rage maternal love. + Behold Medea! Envy must confess + In both the passions his complete success; + Tears in each threat--a threat in every tear; + The mind with pity warm, or chill with fear. + The dread suspense I praise, the critic cries, + Here all the judgment, all the pathos lies; + To stain with filial blood the guilty scene + Had marr’d the artist, but became the queen[141]. + +I think it best to close my account of ancient Greek painting here, +while it was still practised by great masters in their own land, not +yet quite enslaved. From the time of Augustus, Italy attracted the best +artists of all kinds, but, as I have already shown, it was not under +the Cæsars that the liberal arts flourished most. + +I have now given a sketch of the history of painting and painters in +Greece--very imperfect, I acknowledge, but such as I can collect from +the authors who either treat on the subject of pictures and artists, or +who have left incidental remarks on them, in such works as have come +down to us. + +The first efforts of painting in Greece appear to have been as rude as +we found them among the savages of Polynesia. The earliest steps of +art in Egypt and Etruria elude our observation, but the nature of the +improvements attributed to Eumanus of Athens, teach us what they were +in Greece. + +The art once exercised, however, neither halted nor tarried. It +was sublime in its simplicity in the hands of Polygnotus and his +cotemporaries. It served their gods and their country. Much improved in +beauty, but still grave and dignified, it grew popular in the time of +Parrhasius and Zeuxis. Under Apelles and his followers it was devoted +to the graces, revelled in beauty, and ministered to the refined +pleasures of taste, rather than as at first, to the gratification of +higher moral feelings. + +Brought down thus to the commoner tone of general society, more +various subjects were thought worthy of it. Pyreicus anticipated +the subjects of the modern Dutch painters, and it should seem with +kindred success. The natural desire for novelty, and the anxiety for +individual distinction, produced fire-light scenes, pictures of still +life and other varieties. Fashion, rather than taste, became the guide +of purchasers, and it may truly be said, that the decline of painting +began with the Macedonian conquests, which altered the character of the +Greeks, and, consequently, of their arts. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[118] Herodotus, Terpsichore, c. 22. + +[119] The judges of the Games. + +[120] Pausanias does not mention the name of the sculptors who executed +either of the three statues of Alexander which were at Olympia. One was +raised to him as conqueror in that race called _Hemerodromos_, because +a great space is run through in one day; another, dedicated to him by +a certain Corinthian, represented him in the character of the son of +Jupiter; and the third was an Equestrian statue, a votive offering of +the Eleans.--_See the Lists of Votive Statues in the V. and VI. Books._ + +Lysippus of Sicyon was originally a coppersmith; afterwards a pupil of +Eupompus. He cast many statues of Alexander, one of which Nero caused +to be gilt, but afterwards washed off the gold. A large composition, +representing Alexander hunting with his horses and dogs, was dedicated +in the temple of Apollo at Delphi; and Lysippus executed many other +statues of Alexander, and of his friends, especially Hephæstion, which +were placed in various temples as compliments to the conqueror. + +Pyrgoteles was of all the Greeks the most renowned engraver of gems. + +[121] It was unlawful to teach a slave painting, engraving, or +embossing.--(Pliny, b. xxxv. 10.) + +[122] Box tablets, properly prepared, were used for these +_diagraphice_. In a future essay I propose to compare these with the +tablets used by the school of Giotto, of which we have a minute account +in Cennino Cennini’s curious work. + +[123] It appears that Pamphilus would not undertake to instruct a pupil +for a less term of years. + +[124] If the talent be rightly computed at 193_l._ 15_s._, the pay, in +the first case, is enormous; in the last very small. + +[125] Dr. Franklin, the translator of Lucian, without citing any +authority, says, there was a second Apelles, and that the Apelles of +Alexander and the Apelles of Ptolemy were different persons. It is +evident that Lucian himself meant _the_ great Apelles. And the picture +of Calumny has always been ascribed to him; I cannot find any mention +elsewhere of a second. + +[126] In Lilly’s pleasing play of Alexander and Campaspe there is so +pretty a song put into the mouth of Apelles that I cannot help copying +it. + + “Cupid and my Campaspe played + At cards for kisses, Cupid paid; + He stakes his quiver, bow, and arrows; + His mother’s doves, and team of sparrows; + Loses them too; then down he throws + The coral of his lip, the rose + Growing on ’s cheek (but none knows how), + With these the crystal of his brow, + And then the dimple of his chin; + All these did my Campaspe win. + At last he set her both his eyes, + She won, and Cupid blind did rise. + O, Love! has she done this to thee? + What shall, alas! become of me?” + + +[127] Lucian’s description of the Calumny is as follows: “On the right +hand side sits a man with ears almost as long as Midas’s, stretching +forth his hand towards the figure of Calumny, who appears at a distance +coming up to him; he is attended by two women, who, I imagine, +represent Ignorance and Suspicion. From the other side approaches +Calumny, in the form of a woman, to the last degree beautiful, but +seeming warmed and inflamed, as full of anger and resentment; bearing +a lighted torch in her left hand, and with her right dragging by the +hair of his head a young man, who lifts up his eyes to Heaven, as +calling the gods to witness his innocence. Before her stands a pale +ugly figure, with sharp eyes, and emaciated, like one worn down with +disease, which we easily perceive is meant for Envy; and behind are two +women, who seem to be employed in dressing, adorning, and assisting +her, one of whom, as my interpreter informed me, was Treachery, and the +other Deceit; at some distance, in the back part of the picture, stands +a woman in a mourning habit, all torn and ragged, which we were told +represented Penitence; as she turned her eyes back she blushed and wept +at the sight of Truth, who was approaching towards her.” It is evident +that Botticelli first, and afterwards Raffaelle, followed this account +of Lucian. Albert Durer also, in his decorative picture, on the walls +of the town hall at Neurembourg, drew from the same source. + +Lucian says that Apelles had been held in esteem by Ptolemy, until the +rivals of Apelles made the king believe that he had conspired at Tyre, +with one Theodotus, against him, and that the defection of Tyre and +the loss of Pelusium were owing to the advice of Apelles. Now nothing +could be more false, Apelles never was at Tyre. But Ptolemy, without +considering this, was about to order him to be beheaded. Afterwards, +when convinced of his innocence, he is said to have given him a hundred +talents, and likewise his accuser for a slave. + +[128] The antique vulgar was no more exempt from the love of the +marvellous rather than the beautiful, than the modern. When the pannel +on which the rival lines were drawn, was afterwards carried to Rome, it +attracted more visitors than the finest works of art which hung along +with it in the palace of the Cæsars, where they and it were burned in +one of those calamitous fires which destroyed the choicest libraries +of Rome, as well as the most precious works of art, collected from the +conquered countries. + +[129] If these were Attic talents, the sum was 9687_l._ 10_s._, +certainly a prodigious sum for one painter to expend upon the works of +another. + +[130] The story is repeated and applied to several other painters in +their horses and dogs; but I believe Protogenes has the prior claim, +and it seems his friend Nealces was his first imitator. He dashed his +sponge at a horse’s month, and produced foam in imitation of that of +Protogenes’ dog. + +[131] See Essay II. This practice of defacing ancient pictures +continues even to our own times. During the civil wars in England it +was very notorious. Canova kept two faces for the sitting statue of +Maria Louisa, one for her family, and one for the world of taste. The +modern changes are generally confined to prints of the heroes of the +day, whose faces, like their names, drive one another out of the market. + +[132] This story is a charge upon the Grapes of Zeuxis, and furnished +the French with the hint for that of the ass attempting to eat some +thistles, in a picture of Le Sueur, or Le Brun, I forget which. + +[133] + + The mariner, when storms around him rise, + No longer on a _painted stern_ relies. + + FRANCIS’ HORACE, B. I. ODE 14. + + +[134] These Magistrates chiefly superintended the police of Athens. + +[135] _Parerga._ This bordering remained in use among the Greek +painters till the revival of art. There is, in the collection of +the _Belle Arti_, at Florence, a Greek picture of Mary Magdalene, +the _parerga_ of which is made up of small groups, representing her +history, from the raising of Lazarus to her death. Among the early +Fleming or Burgundian painters, the Van Eyks followed this practice +with good effect, and the earlier miniature painters, in the borders of +the pages of their missals, did the same. + +[136] Some modern writers have thought that a picture of shipping was +beneath the dignity of the Portico of Minerva; and have laboured hard +to prove that Paralus was a hero; Hemionis a heroine. But Paralus +invented long ships, and the Athenians named their favourite galley, +which was a trireme, after him. Hemionis is another name for Nausicaa, +a sea nymph, or the daughter of a sea king. The vessel named after her +was a long ship, a trireme also; and as the vessels of war of Athens +were sacred to Minerva, what could be a more appropriate ornament for +her portico, than a picture of ships? + +The triremes Paralus and Salamina are mentioned by Thucydides, in +his 3rd book, as performing an eminent service to Athens, in the +Lacedæmonian war. It seems that Paralus, or Paralia, was the name of +the vessel that brought the news of the defeat of Ægospotamos to Athens. + +So much for the opinion that Paralus _may_ be a hero, but _cannot_ be a +ship. + +[137] See Essay II. + +[138] See Greek Anthology. + +[139] This picture was called Stephanopolis, the flower seller, and was +bought at Athens by Lucullus, for two talents of silver, £387. 10_s._ +Whoever has seen the beautiful picture called Titian’s Flora, in the +Florence Gallery, must be reminded of it while reading of the garland +maker of Pausias. + +[140] Some think they were the same; but there seems to have been +an older Nicias than either. Perhaps a Thracian, or a Macedonian. +Omphalion, who was employed by the Messenians to paint a long series of +supposed portraits of their ancient kings in the temple of Æsculapius, +at Messene, was the pupil of a Nicias, I suppose of Nicias of Athens. + + _Pausanias Messenics_, ch. 21. + + +[141] In Lucian’s Dialogue of the Encomium of a House, there is a +description of this picture, in which he says, “the little ones, +unconscious of their fate, sit with smiling countenances, and whilst +they see her holding the sword over them, seem pleased and happy.” + + _Franklin’s Lucian._ + +But surely if they saw their mother brandishing a sword or dagger over +them, her aspect must have frightened them. + + + + + ESSAY V. + + OF THE CLASSIFICATION OF PICTURES. + + The more general any word is in its signification, it is the more + liable to be abused by an improper or unmeaning application. A + very general term is applicable alike to a multitude of different + individuals, a particular term is applicable but to a few. The + latitude of a word, though different from its ambiguity, hath often a + similar effect. + + CAMPBELL. _Philosophy of Rhetoric._ + + +It will be useful to pause a little, between the historic sketch I have +already made of antique painting, and that which is to follow, of the +entire decay, and first faint revival of the Art; and to consider what +branches of painting had been chiefly cultivated by the ancients, and +whether the ordinary classification of pictures can be satisfactorily +applied to their works, or even correctly to the productions of +modern painters. It will not be uninteresting either, to consider the +materials and colours used by the ancient artists, as compared with +those known to the moderns. + +I have already shown the probable origin of painting, its earliest +application to the service of religion, and its use as a method +of recording events among some nations, before the invention of +alphabetical writing. While it was confined chiefly to the latter +purpose, it remained fixed, and incapable of improvement; but as soon +as alphabetical writing was either invented or adopted in any country, +the imitative arts became free, and improved in feeling, spirit, and +expression, as well as in execution. + +While the Grecian states and cities were struggling for national +independence and civil freedom, the arts maintained a severe and almost +awful character, devoted exclusively to religion and patriotism. But +those great objects once attained, society became more polished; a +larger space was allotted to the exercise of the imagination. Various +sects of Philosophers sprang up: a new race of Poets arose; and the +arts losing part of their grandeur with their austerity, began to +partake of the blandishments of those luxurious times, that succeeded +to the great political struggles of the country. + +Painting was capable of assisting the task of the moral teachers, by +her power of expressing passion. She illustrated the dreams of the +poets with graceful compositions, formed no less of imaginary beings +than of real personages; and, for a long period, the Virtues and the +Graces equally presided over the painter’s study. + +But it was natural that, in the great diversity of tastes, some should +seek after the mere ornament that the arts could furnish. Hence the +minor walks of painting began to be cultivated apart from the greater. +And something was found to gratify every spectator in the various +departments of this enchanting art. + +It has been the custom to distribute all the various works of art +into three or four classes, each comprehending a most incongruous +variety[142]. + +The first place is always allowed to HISTORIC PAINTING, which, as now +understood, means everything that is not portrait, or domestic scenery, +or landscape, or flowers, or caricature, from the Last Judgment of +Michael Angelo, down to a sleeping nymph, or a weeping Magdalene[143]. + +PORTRAIT comes next, and even those who have seen Giulio II. are not +ashamed to place in the same class, the _Lord Henrys_ and _Lady Janes_, +Les _Barons de T._, or Les _Comtesses de V._, that annually adorn the +walls of the London and Paris exhibitions. + +With the FAMILIAR LIFE class, as now understood, I do not quarrel; +if the Dutch and Flemings, two centuries ago, far exceeded all we do +in execution, we moderns are much above them in sense and feeling; +in having a story to tell and telling it well. Besides, the words +_familiar life_ admit at once every variety of subject, from genteel +comedy to broad farce. It appears to have been cultivated with some +success by the ancients. + +But the LANDSCAPE class! Surely it is strange to put the Enchanted +Castle of Claude, and the Deluge of Poussin, together with views on +Hounslow Heath, and scenes in the Waterloo tea gardens! Landscape +painting, indeed, seems to be a modern art, as considered by itself; +though it must have been practised for the sake of backgrounds by the +ancients, as I shall have occasion to notice. + +It has pleased the writers upon painting to make a class apart of +ANIMAL PAINTING, and to consider the class as an inferior one. It is +right to separate it: but the inferiority will scarcely be allowed +by those who know the works of Rubens and Snyders. At any rate, the +ancients did not consider it mean, by their praise of the animals of +Nicias and Pausias generally, of the horses of Apelles, and the dogs of +Protogenes, in particular. + +In FRUIT, and FLOWERS, and STILL LIFE, we have again the ancients to +support us. How lovely were the fresh flowers in the Stephanopolis of +Pausias! Then the grapes of Zeuxis, and the curtain of Parrhasius, how +exquisitely finished! + +As to the delineations of animals, plants, minerals, &c., for the +purposes of natural history, they must be considered as combining the +original uses of the graphic art; namely, history writing, with the +practical improvement of modern times; and I shall not make any further +mention of them[144]. + +It is evident that this classification is as absurd and inconvenient, +as it would be in poetry to place under the same head, Homer’s Iliad +and the ballad of Colin and Lucy, because both tell a story. + +If, however, in conformity with long usage, we must preserve these +classes, they ought to be subdivided, so as to dispose works really of +the same order apart from the masses in which they are now confounded. + +I am aware that, however decided the distinction may be between the +great works that must form the example for each subdivision, it will +be difficult to keep the limits so clear, that the exact place of any +particular work may be known and fixed at once; but that is surely a +small evil compared with the present confusion. + +The class HISTORY, has been felt to be so indefinite, that some of +the best writers on art have tacitly divided it into the strictly +Historical and the Dramatic[145]. As far as it goes, the division is +excellent; but it still leaves such masses to be separated, that I +cannot but wish for farther distinctions. For instance, I should wish +not to place in the same class, the taking of Troy by Polygnotus, the +sacrifice of Iphigenia in Aulis by Timanthes, and the single figure of +Ajax by Apollodorus, but to allow each of those to be the example of a +separate division; and quite apart from those, I should wish to place +all allegorical and didactic subjects, as well as those in which the +machinery of superior or inferior natures is introduced. + +Thus, those subjects now clumsily thrown together, under the name of +HISTORY, would come naturally to form four distinct classes, each of +which ought, in strictness, to be again broken into subdivisions. + +The four classes I should propose to call, + + 1st. ETHIC or DIDACTIC. + + 2nd. EPIC. + + 3rd. HISTORICAL. + + 4th. DRAMATIC. + +Each of these will admit of farther subdivision. The Ethical subjects +should be distributed into-- + + The PURELY DIDACTIC; + + The EMBLEMATIC; + + And SATIRE, or the HIGHER CARICATURE. + +Of the EPIC class I should make but two great divisions, each, however, +capable of very marked partition. + + 1st. The CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS SUBJECTS. + + 2nd. The ANTIQUE MYTHOLOGICAL SUBJECTS, whether painted by ancients or + moderns. + + 1st. The CHRISTIAN division depending upon the introduction of Saints, + Angels, and even more awful natures, but _not_ comprehending Christ + while on earth. + + 2nd. The ANTIQUE upon the introduction of the deified heroes and gods + of Paganism. + + The really HISTORICAL class of pictures may be divided into those in + which a whole history is treated in a single picture. + + Those in which a history is treated in a series of pictures. + + Those in which a single point of history forms the picture. + +The DRAMATIC class might comprehend the familiar life subjects; but I +have thought it better to leave those as they have hitherto stood, by +themselves; and to reckon only in this class + + The single actions of higher tragedy: + + Single actions of a mixed character. + +In PORTRAIT painting it will be readily allowed that there are strongly +marked distinctions between + + The HISTORICAL PORTRAIT; + + The SCENIC PORTRAIT subjects; + + And Portraits of common characters. + +The FAMILIAR LIFE class naturally divides into, + + Grave Comedy; + + Light Comedy, or Farce. + +Of Landscape, the distinct varieties are, + + The EPIC LANDSCAPE; + + The HISTORIC LANDSCAPE; + + The Imaginary, or POETIC LANDSCAPE; + + And the mere PORTRAIT LANDSCAPE. + +Animal painters have naturally made two classes: + + The Dramatic; + + And the mere Portrait. + +Of each of these subdivisions, I will point out specimens, which I hope +will support what I have said as to the propriety of a more precise +classification than has hitherto been adopted. Not that I mean to make +a catalogue for every class, though I believe such a thing would have +its use. + +The difficulty of making such a catalogue would be very great, because +the subjects so often force the painter into a greater degree of +relation with neighbouring classes than can be reconciled with any +thing like a strict classification. + + + OF THE ETHIC CLASS. + +At the head of the first, or purely didactic division of this class, I +shall place the picture, or “Table of Cebes,” as it is commonly called. +The picture may have been painted, or it may have existed only in the +imagination of that amiable disciple of Socrates. In either case his +description shows the importance which was attached to painting by the +ancients as an instrument of public instruction[146]. + +He says there was a picture hung in a certain temple, and that one of +the persons attached to the temple was always at hand to exhibit it +to visiters, and to explain its meaning; and he gives the dialogue +between the exhibitor and a visiter at length, that he may introduce +a description of the whole composition, as well as an account of the +moral end of the picture. The action represented is Human Life as a +whole; and the parts are the vicissitudes to which it is subject. + +The ground-work of the table seems to have been a landscape in various +parts, of which the different situations occur most proper for the +purpose of the painter. The landscape is subdivided into separate +enclosures, at the first gate of which is placed the Genius of Human +Life, ushering in those who are about to begin their pilgrimage. They +first meet upon their road with Deception, who offers them the Cup +of Error and of Ignorance; then come Opinions, and Appetites, and +Pleasures to delude them. + +The next great object in the picture is Fortune, who, with her +followers, occupies a considerable space, near which are the Vices, who +naturally lead to the den of Punishment, where they meet with Sorrow, +Anguish, Lamentation, and Despair. + +Some, however, happily reach the dwelling of Repentance, and thence set +forth to seek Education. + +Here again some go astray and entangle themselves with False Education, +by whom they are once more betrayed to the Passions and to wrong +Opinions; but the Happy, by the assistance of Self Command and +Perseverance, reach the mansion of True Education, whom they find with +her daughters, Truth and Persuasion. These introduce them to Knowledge +and the Virtues, who conduct them to the palace of their mother, +Happiness, by whom they are crowned as victors in the race of life. + +The Calumny of Apelles, of which I have copied Lucian’s description in +a note to a former essay, is another example of this kind of painting +among the ancients. + +I shall cite one modern fresco work, now nearly effaced from the walls +upon which it was painted by Lorenzetti, one of the earliest restorers +of painting in the fourteenth century. + +In the palace of government, in the city of Sienna, this remarkable +picture is still to be traced. In the time of the freedom of the city, +the magistrates could not go daily to their public duties without +passing through the hall where it was painted, to remind them of the +blessings of peace and good government, and the curse of war and +misrule. + +The part that is sufficiently preserved for the design to be +intelligible, is immediately opposite the window. In the centre, +the Almighty Ruler sits, holding a globe; over his head are Faith, +Hope, and Charity; on his left hand are Magnanimity and Justice; on +his right, Prudence, Fortitude, and Peace, each with her several +attributes. Beyond Peace, sits Diligence; above whom is Wisdom. Two +scales hang, one on each side of Diligence, from which angels are +distributing riches and honour to the followers of Diligence and +Wisdom. On the side where Justice and Magnanimity are placed, enough +of the design remains to show the punishment of Crime--the absolving +of Innocence, and generous forgiveness where lenity is possible. +Below these figures a procession of the citizens of Sienna appears to +be moving towards the Almighty Ruler and Protector of their state. +Upon the wall to the left are traced the effects of good government +and public security; on one side cultivated fields, with a busy and +cheerful peasantry, and hard by, a flourishing city, with persons +engaged in trade and commerce, and other occupations of peace. The +rest of the wall is filled up with cheerful landscape, in various +parts of which the social amusements of dancing, hawking, riding, &c., +are enjoyed. The opposite wall did contain a representation of all +the evils of bad government, Vain Glory, War, Famine, Beggary, and +Cruelty[147]. + +The second division of the Ethical class of pictures comprises emblems +and allegories. + +I have already mentioned two remarkable emblematical pictures of the +ancients: the Demos of Athens by Parrhasius, and Euphranor’s popular +estate. To these I will add the allegories of the shield of Achilles, +and the emblems so beautifully imagined on medals, coins, and gems, +besides the innumerable pictures chiefly upon vases referring to the +mysteries of the Pagan worship, particularly as connected with the +passage of the soul from this life, through death, to another. + +The modern painters have also dealt largely in allegory. Not to go +farther back among Christian painters than Giotto, his marriage of St. +Francis with Poverty at Assisi is a striking example; and so are the +figures of the Virtues and Vices, so beautifully designed by him in the +chapel of the Nunziata dell’ Arena, at Padua. + +But passing over innumerable pictures of the kind, I will go at once to +the Sistine Chapel, where Michael Angelo’s Prophets and Sybils demand, +at the first view, a class apart from ordinary historical subjects, +and, as moderns, to stand at the head of that class. Then follow +Prophets and Sybils by Raffaelle; Peruzzi’s all but sublime Sybil at +Sienna, and a thousand more, among which the Allegories of Rubens claim +a distinguished place[148]; not, indeed, for refinement of thought, but +for skill in composition. + +The third division into which I desire to break the class of Ethical +pictures comprehends the higher caricature. + +The ancients certainly practised this species of painting, but I do not +know that the description of any has been preserved. + +There is, however, in Fortefiocca’s life of Cola di Rienzi a very +remarkable account of some which that extraordinary man caused to be +painted, in order to stir up the Romans of his time to a sense of their +degradation[149]. One was painted upon the wall of the palace of the +Capitol, looking towards the Forum; the other near St. Angelo. In both, +the nobles and magistrates of Rome were treated with bitter satire, and +the city and commonwealth represented as in the lowest state of misery. +The effect these caricatures had upon the people may be read in the +original life of Rienzi, written in the vernacular idiom of Rome in his +own time. + +It would be most unjust not to consider, as preeminent in this walk of +art, Hogarth, whose satirical pencil was employed in the chastisement +of vice, and the promotion of virtue. His works are a school in +themselves; and are as far removed, as a “greatest is from least,” from +the mean and filthy caricatures that libel private life, and from the +evanescent exaggerations of political squibs. + + + EPIC PICTURES. + +The examples for the first division of this class, containing +supernatural agents of a Christian character, must, of course, be taken +exclusively from modern works. + +First of these, the Last Judgment of Michael Angelo will occur to every +imagination. With it I will name a work that he himself looked upon +with the highest admiration; the chapel, painted by Luca Signorelli, +at Orvieto, many of the figures of which were adopted by Buonarotti +himself, who, perhaps scarcely ever surpassed in expression the group +of blasphemers struck by the thunderbolt[151]. + +Nor can I omit Raffaelle’s Heliodorus in the Temple: these are +instances of the terrible in this class. + +Of that sublime, the key to which is stillness[152], Raffaelle’s +dispute of the Sacrament is the most perfect example. Though in the +Spanish Chapter-House of St. Maria Novella, in Florence, that elder +painter, Taddeo Gaddi, in a subject of the same kind, has in one or two +figures reached the grand and the awful. + +To the Christian division of the Epic class also belong all those +magnificent pictures which represent the Ascension of Christ, the +Assumption of the Virgin, the Martyrdoms and the Miracles of Saints, +with their supernatural appearances, and also many of the subjects +taken from the Old Testament. + +Michael Angelo’s Creator, in the several acts of calling light out of +darkness, and enduing man with life; and the other great conceptions +in the roof of the Sistine chapel, occupy the first rank among these +works of genius. Raffaelle’s Vision of Ezekiel is conceived in the +same spirit, and his Madonna of San Sisto[153], in my mind, far +exceeds all other Madonnas in glory, though the place is a high one, +which may justly be claimed for Titian’s Assumption[154]. The same +painter’s Peter Martyr[155], Domenichino’s Saint Jerome[156], Francia’s +Saint Sebastian[157], may be named as some of the most important +works which form this grand and very distinct division of the Epic +class of pictures; it also comprehends Raffaelle’s lovely Madonna del +Pesce[158], Christ’s Agony in the Garden by Correggio[159], and all +those pictures where angelic natures are introduced. + +Of examples for the second division, the best and greatest, as far as +we may judge from description, were the works of Polygnotus. When he +introduced the tutelary deity and protecting heroes of Athens into +the battle of Marathon, he was inspired by the same genius that led +Raffaelle in the Stanze to send forth Saint Peter and Saint Paul to +turn back the host of barbarians from Rome. + +The descent of Ulysses to the kingdom of Pluto, is another example of +which I have already spoken. The Wars with the Giants of Mycon, and +some other artists, and all subjects of apotheosis belong to this class. + +I cannot cite the Wars of the Giants by Julio Romano, in Mantua, as a +successful example of a modern rendering of the subject. And, in truth, +after the Pagan gods ceased to be objects of devotion, the Greek and +Roman mythologies were of infinitely too gay a character to inspire a +painter with any but the most jocund and graceful compositions. + +The Parnassus of Raffaelle, and his Psyche of the Farnesina[160], +are charming examples of this. But these should form the chief of a +very delightful class of pictures which cannot justly be called Epic, +but which have fully as little title to their old name of historical +pictures. + +Reynolds called his exquisite pictures of children, fancy subjects. +But the term FANCY, in this sense is grown, very undeservedly, as I +think, into disrepute; or I should say it would designate perfectly +the pictures I am now seeking a name for. Among them are Titian’s whole +families of Dianas and Venuses, of Loves and Graces; the rival Auroras +of Guido and Guercino; Paulo Veronese’s and Luini’s Europas; Annibale +Caracci’s Farnese; Poussin’s classical compositions, and some others +which seem to deserve a place very near the Venus Anadyomene of Apelles +and Zeuxis’ Helen. + +I am aware that I am not adhering strictly to my own classification, +but I have not the presumption to propose an absolute rule. That must +be for some one who, with the authority of a critic and an artist, can +command attention and reverence enough to enforce a new arrangement. + +I must therefore be content to leave the FANCIES as an appendix to the +mythological division of the epic class, and proceed to cite examples +of the three great branches of legitimate historical pictures. + + + HISTORICAL PICTURES. + +Here I know that in the very outset I shall shock all the sticklers for +the unities; for my very first section must consist of whole histories +represented in the same picture; admitting not only a variety of +actions belonging to the history, but even a repetition of the persons +engaged in it when it is essential, or even when it is convenient for +the narrative. + +The second section contains those histories which are related in +a series of compositions, each forming a whole in itself, though +belonging to a cycle. + +And the third section includes those works in which a single point in +history makes the picture. + +First of the first section, I must name the taking of Troy by +Polygnotus, painted in fresco on the walls of the Lesche, at Delphi. +The description I have already given after Pausanias renders any +further account of it unnecessary. + +The next example I shall cite is of the highest character and of the +highest authority. It is the most glorious justification of the breach +of the cold rules of critics, and shows that in some cases to abide by +the unities would destroy the spirit and sublimity of the work. + +I speak now of the transgression and chastisement of man in the roof of +the Sistine chapel, by Michael Angelo. + +In that composition there are not only two parts of the same history +told in the same picture, but the principal figures themselves are +repeated with equal force; and rendered, as to the picture, of equal +importance. And in what other way could the crime and its punishment +have been so closely, so awfully connected? + +It is impossible to go into that chapel without feeling that the +pictures there are formed to make the rule for art, not to receive it; +and that the folly of confining genius by the flimsy laws of ordinary +criticism, is only equalled by that of the tyrant of old, who is +reported to have paved the bed of the ocean where it rolled beneath his +capital with gilded tiles, and to have expected it to reverence the +boundaries of his work. + +But a number of those great men who had laboured in the long neglected +field of painting, and had stirred and loosened the soil, and prepared +it for the hands of Michael Angelo and Raffaelle, appear to have +disregarded the unities whenever the nature of the subject rendered it +convenient, and with excellent effect, as I hope to show when I come to +give an account of their works. + +There is one picture of this kind by an ancient Flemish artist of such +transcendant merit, that I shall endeavour to describe it as a model +for this treatment of historical subjects. The picture is by Hemelink, +and is now in the possession of the King of Bavaria[161]. + +The shape of the picture is long and narrow, and the horizon is placed +very high, by which means room is given for the different actions +represented. One rich and varied landscape fills the whole picture, +forming the back ground to the groupes of actors in the history, which +are placed with consummate skill, and so ordered by means of linear and +aërial perspective, as to produce a most attractive whole, while each +part is carefully dealt with. + +The subject is usually called the Journey of the Three Kings or Wise +Men to worship the Infant Jesus; but the picture has two episodes, the +Adoration of the Shepherds, and the Resurrection and Ascension, one of +which occupies the right side, and the other the left. + +The extreme distance is formed of a ridge of hills, a little in +advance of which three mounts are distinguished, and the ridge is +farther broken by an inlet of the sea, over which the sun is rising +in splendour. The shape of the bay is graceful, and it is enlivened +by ships; the shore has wood and sand, and the termination of a great +road to diversify it. One of the mounts forms a promontory to the left +of the mouth of the bay, which is on the right of the picture. Between +it and the second mount is seen the star, not interfering with the +splendour of the sun, but having a bright distinct light of its own. + +We may suppose it discovered at once by three groupes, apparently +engaged in worship, on the summits of the three mounts. On account +of their great distance, they are just indicated; the only thing +distinguishable in each, being a coloured banner. + +At the foot of the first mount a river winds through the country, and +appears as if it found an outlet to the bay behind a rising ground +near the middle of the picture, on the slope of which, forming also +the middle distance, stands the city of Bethlehem; and outside of the +gates, quite in the foreground, is the place of the Nativity. + +From the country of the kings, a road which crosses the river by a +bridge, leads to Bethlehem, and along this road the kings are seen +advancing, each with his proper attendants, armour, and banner. +Baldassar, the Moor, has a white banner, on which a negro in red is +painted; Melchior, the eldest king, has a blue banner, distinguished by +a golden moon; and Caspar, the third king, has a banner also blue, but +speckled with white stars. + +These, with their retinue, all meet near the bridge, which they cross, +and enter Bethlehem together. The figures are repeated at the meeting +and at the city gates. While in the town, the train of the wise men +disperse themselves through the streets, mixing with the inhabitants, +while in an open corridor, the three kings are seen eagerly conversing +with Herod. Once more they are seen taking leave of him before they +are finally brought to the feet of the infant Saviour, who, seated on +the lap of his virgin mother, receives them with a benignity and grace +worthy of the pencil of Raffaelle himself. + +Of the skilful grouping of the central subject, commonly called the +Wise Men’s Offering, of the beautiful and true action of each person, +the rich dresses of the attendants, the drawing of the figures, and +also that of the horses and camels, it is not my province to speak any +more than of the exquisitely finished execution. Yet all these assist +the history powerfully, and we might have been satisfied that all was +told. + +But the painter did not rest here. On a broad road, winding along a +rocky valley, the kings are once more seen, after having paid their +homage to the Christ, going to their own land by a different way. Some +of their attendants have already reached the shores of the distant bay, +and are preparing the ships to receive their masters. + +Meantime, the effects of Herod’s disappointment are discoverable. +On the other side of the town of Bethlehem, towards the bridge, the +murder of the innocents takes place; it is distant enough to veil its +horrors, near enough to distinguish the facts. But we are assured that +the child, and his mother, and Joseph, are safe; for we see them on the +road to Egypt, on the same side of the picture whence the southern king +arrived. As they pass, an idol, placed upon a column, bows and falls, + + While each peculiar power foregoes his wonted seat. + +And thus the history of the Adoration of the Three Kings, or Wise Men, +with its immediate consequences, is completed. + +Of the two episodes, the smaller preparatory one to the left contains +three scenes, divided from each other by portions of woody landscape. +The most distant is the Annunciation; the middle is the Angel appearing +to the Shepherds; and the nearest, the Adoration of the Shepherds. All +composed and finished, as carefully as the scenes of the main action, +but by skilful management never interfering with it. + +The greater or supplementary episode begins near the foreground, in a +recess of the hills through which the road leads, by which the kings +depart from Bethlehem. Christ is risen, and appears with the banner of +salvation, freed from the garments of the dead! Farther off he appears +to Mary Magdalene in the garden, and then to his mother; and farther +still he walks with the disciples towards Emmaus, where he breaks bread +and blesses it. Hard by, on the mount of the Ascension, the disciples +are kneeling, while the form of Christ is faintly seen through the +glory that mingles with the sky. But the purpose of his being on earth +would not be shown, were not the descent of the Holy Spirit seen on +the right hand. The event in itself has produced a beautiful picture, +and taken, as it should be, along with the great whole to which it +belongs, completes and perfects the history. + +To the three remarkable works I have quoted as examples of histories, +with a variety of events treated in one and the same picture, I might +add many more; but I will content myself with naming a work, too much +neglected by modern travellers, in the chapel of San Felice, in the +great church of St. Anthony, at Padua. It is by Aldighieri, a pupil +of Giotto, and is, unfortunately, darkened by the erection of a huge +insulated marble altar-piece before it. The subject is the Crucifixion. +The journey of Christ to Calvary forms one great preparatory incident, +the crucifixion itself, and its attendant miracles, the main action: +and the casting lots for the sacred vestments, is the concluding +scene.--This is not the place to speak of the pathos Aldighieri has +thrown into the first division, the dignity amounting to grandeur in +the main action, or the skilful grouping and expression of the last +scene. But I think it will be allowed that the painter has done well +to unite the two minor actions with the greater, and thus complete the +history. The examples of one history carried on through a series of +pictures, are so numerous that the difficulty lies in choosing the +most striking. Cimabue’s and Giotto’s lives of Saint Francis at Assisi, +where each event is the subject of a separate picture; and Giotto’s +life of Christ and of the Virgin at Padua, may be thought by some +readers too antiquated to form authorities for the practice. + +To such, therefore, I will recommend the example of Raffaelle in the +Loggie, where the history of the Old Testament is carried on in that +beautiful series of designs which ranges in order along the ceiling of +those magnificent corridors[162]. + +Luini’s series of pictures at Saronno, Andrea del Sarto’s at Florence, +and those of Domenichino at Grotto Ferrata, are among the finest works +of these great masters. Every series contains a history. + +Luini’s are the life of the Virgin. + +Those of Andrea del Sarto relate to the life of Saint John the Baptist, +and are among the most admired of his compositions. + +In one of the pictures at Grotto Ferrata, where Saint Nilus, the +hero of the series, casts out the evil spirit from the demoniac boy, +Domenichino strives not unsuccessfully against the demoniac in the +Transfiguration, where, for once, it must be allowed, that Raffaelle +has fallen below Domenichino in truth of expression. + +My third section of historical paintings is acknowledged by even those +who object to the others. It contains such pictures as show a single +action complete in itself. + +I shall name a few examples among the antique painters, such as the +Ajax struck with the thunderbolt by Apollodorus, and the Infant +Hercules of Zeuxis. I am not sure whether to place the Contest of +Ulysses and Ajax for the Armour of Achilles, in this or the next class. +The pictures of Apelles appear to have been all either portraits +or belonging to the fancies. The Battle of Alexander and Darius, +by Philoxenus, seems, from description, to belong strictly to this +section, and no doubt there are very many others; but, as we are no +where told how many of the subjects were treated, it is impossible to +class them. + +Of modern pictures belonging to this section, the first and greatest +is the Raising of Lazarus by Sebastian del Piombo[163], one of +the finest oil pictures in the world; Raffaelle’s Entombment of +Christ[164]; his Spassimo[165]; Titian’s Christ scourged[166]; +Correggio’s Nativity[167]; Fra Bartolomeo’s Presentation of Christ in +the Temple[168]; Daniel da Volterra’s Descent from the Cross[169]; +Albertinelli’s Salutation[170]; Spagnoletto’s Entombment[171]; the +small picture by Rembrandt of the Adoration of the Shepherds[172]; +Rubens’ famous Descent from the Cross at Antwerp; and a thousand +others, that a moment’s recollection will bring to every body’s +remembrance. There are also a number of profane subjects treated so +as to bring them under this class; particularly Poussin’s Death of +Germanicus, and his Testament of Eudamidas. The great rival designs +of Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo, namely, the Battle of the +Standard and the Surprise at the Bridge, now lost, were, if we may +trust descriptions, and some few remaining fragments, so treated, as +to bring them also into this section[173]; and I think no German would +forgive me if I were to omit Albert Durer’s Massacre of the Christian +Legions by Sapor the second[174]. + +Connected with this class, in the same manner as the Fancies are +with the Epic pictures, is a whole class composed of single figures +of an historical character. Among the first of these is Bellini’s +Christ[175]: several of Raffaelle’s Madonnas find their place here. +His Apostles certainly do[176], as well as his Saint Margaret[177]. +There are many beautiful examples of this kind of picture by Giotto +at Florence, by Luini at Milan and Soronno, and by Bellini at Venice, +especially one in the little church of Santa Maria del Fiore. The +Judith of Allori is likewise a fine specimen[178]; but among the very +finest are Fra Bartolomeo’s Christ, and his Saint Mark[179]. These will +not belong to the pictures where supernatural beings are introduced, +they have too much the character of portraits, and might indeed be +called imaginary portraits; and no doubt the feeling intended to be +excited by the earliest of them was, the belief in their being true +representations of the objects of veneration. Among pictures of this +character are many _Ecce Homos_, of which the most afflicting to look +upon is that of Cigoli[180]; and we must also class here Coreggio’s +beautiful Magdalene[181]. + +The imaginary heads called Sybils, by Domenichino, Guido, and Guercino, +the Magdalenes of Guido, the Cleopatras, Sophonisbas, and Lucretias, +are surely left near enough to their old dignity of historical +pictures, when ranged under the same head with those I have just named. + + + DRAMATIC PICTURES. + +This class is naturally divided into two sections: the higher Tragedy, +and Drama of a mixed character. + +The ancients, from what we learn by description, cultivated both kinds. +For examples of the first we have the Iphigenia of Timanthes; the +Theban mother of Aristides, and the Medea of Timomachus. + +Of the second kind, there were the Feigned Madness of Ulysses by +Euphranor; the Great Sacrifice by Pausias, and several others, which we +can now never know but by description. + +When I speak of the higher tragedy, I do not mean such only where blood +is shed before the spectator, but that grave kind which brings all the +inmost serious thoughts together, and prepares the mind for the sublime +and the terrible. + +I do not fear to name the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci first in +this class. Seen only in its decay, and only to be studied in separate +drawings of the heads, or in Uggione’s copy[182], it still obtains +a power over the imagination that few other works of art ever reach. +The sublime calmness of the Saviour in pronouncing that one of them +shall betray him, allows us for the moment to sympathise with the +heart-struck apostles, who, according to their various characters, +self-confident, or self-doubting, are ready with the words, “Lord! is +it I?” or, “though I die with thee I will not betray thee.” Never was +expression more intense, or action more true. Again we turn to the +Saviour, and feel that in his soul the sacrifice was already complete, +the bitterness of death had been tasted, and the full agony of the +cross endured[183]. + +At Viterbo there is in the church of the Franciscans an altar-piece, +designed by Michael Angelo, and painted by Sebastian del Piombo. It is +composed of two figures only. A very pale moonlight shows the figure of +the Virgin seated on the earth, and pressed close to the body of her +crucified son, which is extended on a white linen cloth before her: her +face is turned upwards in the attitude of prayer. Words cannot convey +an idea of the awful and reverential feelings excited by this picture. + +But Raffaelle is above all others a Dramatic painter. The Miracle of +Bolsena in the Stanze is a marvellous scene. The officiating priest; +the self-convicted, and now convinced, doubter; the reasoning, +calculating spectators on one side; the enthusiastic believers on the +other, all conduce to the great event which is to produce a further and +permanent effect. + +The Incendio del Borgo is another strikingly tragic composition, and +were this a proper place, it would be easy to prove the claims of the +Cartoons to a high rank in the class, but for my purpose it is enough +to name them as belonging to it. + +The Crucifixion by Tintoret is among the grandest Dramatic pictures +I have seen[184]; and there is a picture at Venice which accident +prevented my seeing, but which, if it deserves Vasari’s description, +ranks among the first of this class. “A picture (by Giorgione) in the +college of San Marco, where the turbid sky thunders, the very canvass +trembles, and the figures start and disperse themselves through the +scene in the darkness of the shadow[185].” The subject was the bringing +of the body of Saint Mark to Venice on board of ship. + +A picture by Caravaggio, less seen than it deserves to be, must be +named here. It is in the chapel of Saint John the Baptist attached to +the great church at Malta, and represents the decollation of the saint. +Saint John and the executioner occupy the immediate foreground: a woman +leaving the court of the prison, where the scene is placed, applies her +hands to her ears that she may not hear the fall of the axe; while two +prisoners are looking, with the curiosity of terror, from the grated +window of the gaol. The composition, colour, and expression are all +terrible and highly dramatic. + +To the second, or mixed class of Dramatic pictures, belong many of +Paul Veronese’s great works, such as the Great Supper of Saint Gregory +in the Refectory of the Servites, at Santa Maria del Monte, near +Vicenza: his Marriage at Cana; the pictures in the church of Saint +Sebastian at Venice, and many others. A great number of Tintoret’s +pictures also find their proper place here[186]. Here also I would +place Titian’s Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple[187]; and here +some of Bonifaccio’s beautiful pictures, particularly the Feasting of +the Prodigal Son, a work that, for composition, colour, and expression, +is among the most beautiful I know[188]. I must not omit Andrea +Mantegna’s Triumphs[189], nor Rubens’ imitations of them. Poussin’s +Triumphs of David[190] are certainly dramatic, and so, perhaps, are his +Sacraments[191]. + +But it is time to consider the variety of character among the +Portraits, and to endeavour to class them. + + + OF PORTRAIT. + +By historical portrait, I do not mean merely the likenesses of persons +whose names are to be found in history, or Lely’s and Kneller’s +works would have a chance of overpowering Raffaelle and Titian. +But such portraits as Apelles painted of Alexander, or Protogenes +of the tragic writer, Philiscus, sitting musing in his study, or as +Raffaelle painted of Giulio II[192], and Cæsar Borgia[193], or Titian +of Charles V.[194], and the Doge Grimani[195], or Andrea del Sarto of +the astute Machiavelli[196], or Velasquez of Pope Innocent X[197], +and King Philip[198], to say nothing of Rembrandt’s Burgomasters, or +Rubens’ Duke of Alva, or Vandyke’s Charles I. and his unhappy Queen, +and scarcely less unhappy courtiers. These are all single portraits +historically treated. + +The second division of portraits must comprehend those so treated, +and composed of more than one figure. Such are the Leo X. and his +secretaries at Florence by Raffaelle; Titian’s unfinished Leo with his +two attendants at Naples, and his Cornaro family[199]; Paul Veronese’s +Pisani family in the characters of the family of Darius[200]; Rubens’ +Conversation piece, composed of Grotius, Muersins, Lipsius, and +himself; Vandyke’s Charles I. with his Children; and such is also +Holbein’s family of Sir Thomas Moore. + +But even the nameless persons painted by great men have often a +character and style which belong to historic treatment, and must not +be confounded with what Fuseli aptly calls “the remembrancers of +insignificance,” a class, however, not without merit, for it often +gratifies the affection of friendship, recals pleasing recollections, +and at worst, affords the painter occasions for the study of nature. + + + PICTURES OF FAMILIAR LIFE + +Admit of being distributed into + + Grave familiar subjects; + And subjects of Farce or Caricature. + +That the ancients cultivated this branch of painting, I have already +mentioned, and given an example in Pyreicus, nick-named Rhyparographus, +on account of his pictures of shops and booths, of markets, and those +who supplied them, along with their beasts of burden. Callicles and +Calaces were both painters of little pictures, exhibited along with +plays and interludes, and no small number of painters caricatured the +remarkable public and private men of their times, by representing them +under the forms of animals and insects of different kinds. + +Of the graver familiar life painters among the moderns, Ostade, Jan +Stein, Gerard Dow, Metzu, Terburg, have left innumerable examples, nor +have they failed in the class where Teniers holds the pre-eminence of +broader farce. + +Had I not resolved against naming our own living artists, I should have +great examples to place in both these classes. In caricature, from the +days of Patch and Bunbury to the present time, we have exceeded all +times and nations. + + + LANDSCAPE. + +Of the four distinct kinds of landscape, the Epic landscape in the +hands of Titian or Poussin unites with the grandest subjects of +painting. How admirably the landscape in the Peter Martyr aids the +subject! and in Sebastian del Piombo’s altar-piece at Viterbo, how +grand is the effect of that low horizon and rocky barren distance seen +faintly by the moonlight! Poussin’s Deluge is of the same sublime +character and hue, and as in the other two examples lends force to the +figures to which it is subordinate. + +Of a more cheerful character other landscapes of Titian, some of +Mola, and many of Poussin, which I should call historical, divide the +interest with the figures, or rather the figures gain by being placed +in such scenes; Poussin’s Burial of Phocion[201], his two Israelites +bearing the Bunch of Grapes from the promised Land[202], the Exposure +and the Finding of Moses[203], are but a few of those he has painted of +this character, in which he is the great master. + +The Antique landscapes must sometimes have resembled these, or they +would have been unsuitable to the subjects to which they formed +backgrounds. Rocky, wild, and terrible must have been the island, +and lurid the colour of the sea and sky, in which Apollodorus placed +his Ajax. When gayer subjects peopled the scene, such as the young +Satyrs watching the sleeping Cyclops, we learn that woody scenery was +imitated, and painting for the theatre had accustomed the ancients to +represent buildings and open country. + +In the Imaginative, or poetic landscape, Titian claims the first place. +It is enough to name the Feast of the Gods, began by John Bellini, +but finished, and the whole landscape added, by Titian[204], or the +landscape of the Bacchus and Ariadne[205], and those of the fine +pictures in the Bridgewater Gallery, impressed as they are with the +grandeur of the wild forests and bold mountains of his native province. +Poussin follows him closely in this department, but his excellences are +owing to careful choice and study, combining much of antique feeling +with the rich sources he found in nature. His Calisto[206] is a very +fine example: his Arcadia[207] another, and so, generally speaking, are +all those where he has introduced Bacchanalian subjects. + +Where the landscape itself without accompanying figures is considered, +Claude Lorraine is unrivalled, whether he chooses the sober hue of the +Enchanted Castle[208], or the glowing sunsets seen from the shores of +Italy, with all the riches of architecture and shipping, or softened by +inland landscape such as only Italy can suggest[209]. + +Highly imaginative also are the landscapes of Salvator Rosa, who +is among painters, like the writers of romance among poets, bold, +wild, and interesting. But I must only name Gaspar Poussin, Annibale +Caracci, and Domenichino among the Italian landscape painters, and +then hasten to Rembrandt, whose grand and characteristic landscapes +equal in sentiment and effect his historical works and his portraits. +Nor is Rubens less remarkable: witness his Saint George[210], and the +landscapes of the Munich Gallery. Cuyp, whether representing the cattle +and grazing grounds, or the busy river and canal scenes of his native +country, is inimitable; and Ruysdael and Vanderveldt each stand at the +head of a class far above the painters of mere views. + +Yet views in some hands acquire value, if not dignity. The very truth +of Canaletti’s Venice becomes poetical. And now and then Vernet has +made a seaport fit to gratify the vanity of his master, Louis XIII., in +more senses than one. + +Thus have I endeavoured to distribute into classes that charming +department of the art which the poet loved who hung his bower of +enchantment with + + Whate’er Lorraine light touch’d with soft’ning hue, + Or savage Rosa dashed, or learned Poussin drew. + +It now only remains to speak of the painters of animals. Every body +will at once feel, that if the Greeks counted Apelles, and Pausias, +and Nicias, among their best animal painters, that if Polygnotus chose +to introduce a dog even into the Battle of Marathon, and that if +part of the great fame of Protogenes arose from the manner in which +he painted the dogs and the game in his Ialysus, the moderns have to +boast of Rubens, whose various excellences would have been incomplete +without his hunts of the lion and the boar; and Snyders, though +professing little else, raised his animals to the dignity of history, +by his manner of treating them. I might quote the pampered lap-dogs of +Titian[211], and the graceful favourites of Paul Veronese[212], and +even the tame partridge of the grave John Bellini[213], as well as the +horses of Vandyke and Velasquez, as instances of occasional success in +these things. + +But I cannot regard the diligent Paul Potter as more than a very +excellent cattle portrait painter, so unequal are his choice of subject +and his treatment to his exquisite execution. Of Cuyp’s animals, I can +only repeat what I have said as to his landscape, with which they are +so intimately connected, that they form a part of it; and the same is +true of Adrian Vanderveldt’s. + +This essay has grown to great length, because I have been tempted to a +larger list of instances and examples than I intended; but yet I have +abstained from naming many others well suited to my purpose. Of those I +have quoted, with the exception of antique works, there are not six of +which I have not myself seen the originals. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[142] Fuseli felt the incongruity and inconvenience of throwing +together all the variety of pictures which commonly take the name of +historical paintings, and has judiciously divided, and eloquently +supported the division of that class of pictures into nearly the same +sections as I have proposed. But he looked too disdainfully on all +art which he did not practise, to have great weight; and is on that +account, as well as on some others, less followed than he deserves; he +has not condescended to notice any other branch of painting except the +historical portrait. + +[143] For the truth of this, see any catalogue of either ancient or +modern masters. + +[144] Pliny says, b. xxv. ch. 2, that the Greek authors on Physic, +Cratevus, Dionysius, and Metrodorus, painted every herb in colours; and +under their portraits they couched and subscribed their several names +and effects.--_Holland’s Trans._ + +[145] Reynolds for instance. But Fuseli more particularly, as I have +mentioned in a former note. + +[146] It is worth the reader’s while to turn to an abridged account of +this curious table in Moor’s three Essays. Cebes himself, seated by +the death-bed of Socrates, and learning to hope with something like +confidence for the immortality of the soul, furnishes a beautiful moral +picture, which even the disagreeable translation of the Phædo, by +Taylor, cannot spoil. + +[147] From MS. notes on the old pictures of Italy. Of this class, +there is a magnificent early Flemish picture, of which I never saw the +original: it is Van Eyck’s worship of the Lamb. There is an excellent +description of it in Madame Schopfenhauer’s pleasant volumes on the +ancient Flemish schools of art; and one in a periodical work published +at Brussels, in which there is an etching of the whole subject. + +[148] If painting were not exclusively my subject, I might here mention +a number of ingenious allegorical prints, especially the various dances +of death. + +[149] About the year 1345. I shall have occasion hereafter to notice +these pictures again. But I here subjoin a literal translation of the +description of the first of them. “In the second place the aforesaid +[150]Cola admonished the governors and people to do well by an +allegory, which he caused to be painted on the Palace of the Capitol +opposite the market, on the outer wall above the chamber; the painted +allegory was in this form. There was painted a vast sea, the waves +horrid and much troubled; in the midst thereof was a ship little less +than foundered, without a rudder, without a sail; in this ship, so +dangerously placed, there was a widow woman, clad in black, girded +with the girdle of grief; loose her scarf from her bosom, and her hair +dishevelled as if she wept; she was on her knees, her hands crossed and +pressed to her breast as in prayer, as she were perishing, for such was +her danger; above was written THIS IS ROME. Around this ship, below the +water, there were four sunken ships, their sails fallen, their masts +broken, their rudders lost; in every one a drowned woman, dead. The +first was called Babylon; the second, Carthage; the third, Troy; the +fourth, Jerusalem. The superscription bore, that these cities had been +brought by injustice, first to danger and then to destruction. A label +from the mouths of these four women was inscribed-- + + Thou wast raised high above every sovereignty, + Now we await thy final wreck. + +On the left hand were two islands, on the one a woman sitting in a +posture of shame, with the superscription, THIS IS ITALY; her label of +speech bore-- + + Thou tookest the guardianship of all lands, + And only me thou ownedst for a sister. + +In the other island were four women, their cheeks on their hands, their +elbows on their knees, in most sorrowful action, and saying,-- + + Thou wast accompanied by every virtue, + Now thou art abandoned on the wide sea. + +These were the four cardinal virtues, Temperance, Prudence, Justice, +and Fortitude. + +On the right was a little island in which was a kneeling woman; her +hand stretched to heaven, as in prayer; she was dressed in white, her +name was Christian Faith, and her verse was-- + + Oh! highest father, my lord and conductor, + If Rome perish what becomes of me? + +Above all this, on the right hand, were four orders of animals, with +horns at their mouths, blowing like winds and causing tempests on the +sea, and helping to increase the danger of the ship. The first order +was of lions, wolves, and bears. The inscription bore, _these are the +potent Barons and unjust Governors_. + +The second order were dogs, pigs, and he-goats; their inscription was, +These are evil councillors, the parasites of the nobles. The third +order were rams, dragons, and foxes; their inscription was, These are +the false officers, judges, and notaries. The fourth order consisted of +hares, cats, goats, and apes; their superscription bore, that they were +the populace, thieves, murderers, adulterers, and spoilers. + +Above all was painted heaven; in the midst of which was the divine +Majesty coming to judgment; out of his mouth proceeded two swords, one +pointing one way, the other, the other: on one hand was St. Peter, on +the other St Paul, in prayer. + +And when the people saw this allegory every one marvelled.” + +[150] Rienzi’s nick-name, from Nicolo Rienzi. + +[151] Reynold’s, in his Fifth Discourse, says that Michael Angelo +“never needed, or seemed to disdain, to look abroad for foreign help,” +and contrasts this _originality_ with Raffaelle’s practice of using +occasionally the inventions of his predecessors. But Reynolds, if he +had been acquainted with the work of Signorelli, would have seen that +Michael Angelo took from him, not only single figures of great power, +but at least one group of importance, which he used with little change +in the Last Judgment. + +[152] “BE STILL, AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.” + +[153] At Dresden. + +[154] In Venice. + +[155] In Venice. + +[156] In Rome. + +[157] At Bologna. + +[158] In Spain. + +[159] In the possession of the Duke of Wellington. + +[160] Raffaelle’s engraved designs of the same subject are still more +charming than those of the Farnesina. The decorations of his own villa, +near the Porta del Popolo, and those still existing in Mr. M----’s +villa, on the Palatine Hill, yield to neither. + +[161] Hans Hemelink is said to have been a soldier, who, after +receiving a severe wound, was cured in the hospital at Bruges; and +that the first of his pictures that attracted public attention, he +painted in consequence of a vow made while under cure. Having recovered +his health, and fulfilled his vow at home, he went on a pilgrimage to +Saint Jago de Compostella, in Spain, and was heard no more of. The fine +picture described formed part of the Boiserée collection. There are two +exquisite heads in the Florence Gallery, by Hemelink. + +[162] These designs are the originals of the set of prints usually +called Raffaelle’s Bible. + +[163] In our National Gallery. + +[164] At Rome in the Borghese. + +[165] In Spain. + +[166] At Paris. + +[167] At Dresden. + +[168] At Vienna. + +[169] At Rome, in the church of the Trinità del Monte. + +[170] Florence Gallery. + +[171] At Naples, in the church of San Martino. + +[172] In the National Gallery. The expression in this picture makes +me prefer it to the Woman taken in Adultery. I should have named the +Blinding of Sampson in the Schœnborn collection at Vienna, but for the +atrocious choice of the painter as to the time and action. + +[173] A picture in brown and white, after Michael Angelo’s cartoon, +exists at Holkham. A drawing was made by Rubens of part of the Battle +of the Standard, from which the print published by Edelink was taken. + +[174] This very beautiful work is in the Belvedere Gallery at Vienna. +An excellent copy, by Rottenhamer, is in the King of Bavaria’s +collection. + +[175] At Dresden. When the Russian army was at Dresden, in 1814, this +picture was borrowed for an altar-piece for Alexander’s temporary +chapel: on removing, the picture was packed up and carried off as +lawful plunder, but the curator of the Gallery chose his time and place +of remonstrance so well that it was restored. + +[176] In the church of St Paul’s, without the walls of Rome. + +[177] Now in Russia. + +[178] In the Florence Gallery. + +[179] Both in the Pitti Palace, Florence. + +[180] In the Pitti Palace. + +[181] At Dresden. + +[182] Marco Uggione, a contemporary, made an oil copy, thought very +inferior at the time, but it is now the best memorial of the picture: +it belongs to the Royal Academy. Some works in fresco, of great merit, +by Uggione, are collected in the Brera at Milan. + +[183] Of the innumerable “Last Suppers” painted after this, none +reached this sublimity of expression. Gravity and dignity are the +highest characteristics of the best, such as that of Andrea del Sarto. +Many degenerated into the pure picturesque: and once in the hands of +Tintoret, the subject became almost absurd. + +[184] At Schleissheim. + +[185] The picture was rolled up as it had come from Paris. The +description is from the preface to the third book of the Lives of the +Painters, where in many of the later editions the picture has been +given to Palma. + +[186] Particularly those in the Scuola di San Marco. + +[187] Painted for the Carità, now in the Gallery of the Fine Arts, +Venice. + +[188] Gallery at Venice. + +[189] Several of these are at Hampton Court, others at Munich. + +[190] At Dulwich. + +[191] In the Bridgewater collection. + +[192] At Florence. + +[193] Borghese palace, Rome. + +[194] Vienna, and in Spain. + +[195] Grimani palace, Venice. + +[196] Doria palace, Rome. + +[197] Doria palace, Rome. This pope was of the Panfili Doria family. + +[198] Often repeated. + +[199] Belonging to His Grace of Northumberland, who allows nobody to +see it. The copy by Gainsborough is fine; and is in more liberal hands. + +[200] Pisani palace, Venice. + +[201] In France. + +[202] In the possession of Earl Spencer. + +[203] In the Louvre. + +[204] In the collection of Camuccini, at Rome. + +[205] In the National Gallery. + +[206] In the possession of the Marquis of Westminster. + +[207] In the possession of the Duke of Devonshire. + +[208] In the possession of Mr. Wells of Redleaf. + +[209] Some very fine ones of this description are in the National +Gallery, and some in the Bridgewater Collection. + +[210] In our National Gallery. + +[211] Particularly in the picture of the Child in the Strozzi Palace at +Florence. + +[212] Those pretty greyhounds, which appear under the table in the +Supper at the house of Simon, the study for which Mr. Rogers has, and +which are often, repeated. + +[213] The pretty bird is picking up the crumbs under the table at +Emmaus. + + + + + ESSAY VI. + + ON THE MATERIALS USED BY PAINTERS. + + However admirable his taste may be, he is but half a painter who can + only conceive his subject, and is without knowledge of the mechanical + part of his art. + + REYNOLDS’ NOTES ON DU FRESNOY. + + +When first scholars began to study the works of the ancients, at that +busy period distinguished by the revival of letters and the arts, the +discoveries they made were so new and so surprising, that a kind of +enchanted mist overspread every object in their eyes, and all they +looked back upon was magnified or distorted. + +They found so much wisdom and knowledge in the writings of the +ancients, that they, as is natural, thought that all antiquity was +wise and knowing; and in proportion to their exaggerated esteem for +the ancients, they encouraged a contempt for their contemporaries and +countrymen, at least as extravagant. + +A little consideration would have told them, however, that many +things must continue unaltered in nature, though fashion or accident +should vary the form in all societies, after the first conveniences, +comforts, and luxuries of civilised life have been invented. But here +the pride of unusual learning stepped in, and it would have mortified +the scholar to think that what he pored over by his midnight lamp in +the books of Greece and Rome, could have anything in common with the +manners and occupations of his vulgar neighbours. Thus an ignorance +founded on prejudice was begotten, and has been maintained in part even +to the present day, notwithstanding the stores of common knowledge +opened to us by the discovery of Pompeii and its neighbouring towns. +Scholars and antiquaries rejoiced indeed at the finding of those towns, +because their position, long matter of controversial speculation, was +ascertained; but I very much doubt if they did not also feel something +like mortification, on beholding open proof that the materials and +contrivances of the cooks of these our degenerate days continue +like those of the ancients, and that there is no Greek method of +eating[214]. + +Every day is adding something to the conviction of those who required +proof, that where the end to be answered is the same, the tools and +materials, employed in different ages and countries, cannot choose but +be wonderfully alike. + +This homely way of considering such matters is not, I know, agreeable +to the moderately learned, who think much of small acquirements; but, +to real scholars and philosophers, truth is at all times, and under +every form, acceptable. + +I purpose in this essay to give such an account as I can collect, of +the materials used by painters; the substances upon which they painted, +the pigments they coloured with, the vehicles by means of which the +colours were applied, and the tools employed in painting. + +It would appear, from the judiciously conducted researches of some late +travellers, that some of the earliest coloured work in Egypt is upon +bare sand-stone. Where that rock is of very fine grit the water-colours +seem to have answered well, but where the grit was coarse the work +became gross and uneven. A remedy was therefore applied; a plaster of +very fine lime and some kind of size was spread over the stone, and +the colour applied most probably before the plaster was dry, and so +approaching to fresco painting, which doubtless grew out of that older +manner. The lately opened Etruscan tombs show the same variety; colour +upon the bare sand-stone and colour upon thin fine plaister. + +The advantage of applying colour upon a damp or even wet ground must +have been abundantly apparent, from the success of the painted vases so +early brought to perfection in Greece and Tuscany; and accordingly, in +the earliest pictures of any magnitude described as painted in either +country, we recognise genuine fresco painting[215]. + +But walls were not always at hand for the painter; and many were eager +to have pictures which they might transport to other countries than +those of the painter, either for the religious purposes of decorating +temples and fulfilling vows, or purely for the pleasure of possessing +works of art, or, finally, for the purposes of trade. + +A substitute easily occurred. Wooden panels, well seasoned, and smeared +over with plaster, smoothed either with pumice, or some substance +answering the same purpose, were found to answer admirably. Yet even +here it would seem that the Egyptians led the way; for in order to +prepare the coffins of their mummies for their painted decorations, +they were in like manner prepared with a fine plaster of lime or chalk, +exceedingly thin[216]. + +The mummy cases were made of various woods; among others the +Egyptian fig, which is often translated sycamore[217]. From Pliny’s +description[218] it is not certain which of the known figs was the +Egyptian sycamore. The grain is light, close, and tough, and the timber +is best seasoned in water. + +The wood usually employed for panels for large pictures was the heart +of the female larch. Pliny says, that painters have found by experiment +that it is smooth and clean, and not apt to split or warp; he adds that +it will last for ever[219]. Theophrastus speaks of the same wood for +the same purposes, and also of the cornel[220]. The cedar and cypress +appear also to have been used. For smaller pictures it is probable +that a greater variety of trees furnished tables for the painter. +The tablets used in the schools at Sicyon are said to have been of +box-wood. Holly was also particularly fitted for the purpose, by the +closeness of its grain and its durability. The earliest modern Italians +used also the wood of the fig tree well dried and seasoned[221], +besides the larch, ilex, sycamore, and walnut tree. + +The ancients prepared their boards or tablets with a thin ground of +chalk and size of some kind[222], whether a size of flour paste, or +weak carpenter’s glue, does not appear. In the thirteenth century +the painters took the trouble to make the white for laying grounds +themselves. Cennino’s directions on the subject are curious on more +accounts than one. He says, “Take the pinion bones and ribs of +chickens, the staler the better, and, just as you find them under the +table[223], put them into the fire till they become whiter than the +ashes themselves.” After this he gives directions to pound, wash and +dry them thoroughly, and to keep them in a dry paper for use; he allows +certain bones of the sheep also to be used, but, as he always insists +on staleness, I suppose he wishes them to be free from grease[224]. +Cennino’s boards were prepared with great care, washed with many +waters, and pumiced to perfect smoothness; the ground to be laid on +thin and rendered smooth and even with the hand, or, as he says, the +fat part of the thumb. + +So far the boards for the school of Sicyon and those for the school +of Giotto appear to have been much alike. The next step seems to me +also the same. The pupils were to draw very lightly with a metal +point--Fuseli calls the antique one a cestrum--upon the white ground, +and if anything was amiss it was easily effaced. Cennino directs +that the tool should be tipped with silver, whatever metal the main +part might be made of, that it should be moderately sharp, and very +smooth[225]. + +We have not any direct evidence that linen cloth or canvass was used to +paint upon before the reign of Nero, who ordered an immense portrait +of himself to be painted on a linen cloth one hundred and twenty feet +in height. Pliny, who relates the fact, does not say whether it were +stretched on a frame, or whether it covered planks, to prevent, in +some degree, the warping and splitting, to which so many joinings as +would have been necessary in a table of that size must have rendered +them liable. + +Several writers, and particularly Monsieur Durand[226], have imagined +that Pliny says, painting on linen had never till then been heard of. +I think, however, that it is the colossal size of the picture that +had not been heard of because we find that, at that very time, it +was no uncommon thing to decorate the places for the exhibition of +prize-fighters with hangings, on which were pictures of remarkable +fights; these, Pliny expressly says, were painted cloths[227], and, +were it of consequence, I think passages might be collected to show +the great probability that linen cloth was used by painters where works +of little durability were required. The preparation with chalk and size +must have been the same as that for painting on panel. + +The use of linen books, for the registering private affairs is +mentioned as common, before paper made of the papyrus came into general +use[229]. Fronto saw many books of linen preserved in the ancient +archives of Anagni[230]. And even after the papyrus and parchment came +into use, Pliny mentions that several Eastern nations still made their +letters on woven cloth. + + But is your worship’s folly less than mine, + When I with wonder view some rude design + In crayons or in charcoal, to invite + The crowd to see the gladiators fight? + Methinks in very deed they mount the stage, + And seem in real combat to engage: + Now in strong attitude they dreadful bend, + Wounded they wound, they parry and defend. + + FRANCIS’ HORACE, Book ii. Sat. 7. + +We are told that both Parrhasius and Zeuxis were in the habit of making +drawings on parchment[231]. We know also that Greek herbalists drew and +coloured the plants they wrote of in books. It is therefore improbable +that they should have overlooked the light, pliable, yet tough +material, linen cloth. It might seem less lasting than panel; but for +small subjects it was surely preferable either to paper or parchment, +and as the use of it was not unknown for writing upon, why should we +suppose painters so long neglected it? + +The Mexicans, though certainly acquainted with the use of painting +on wood, used also the prepared skin of a small deer, and the paper +made from the Agave Americana; but they preferred cotton cloth, which +they prepared with a white shining earth, as they did their paper and +parchment, and as the Egyptians prepared their coffins, and the Greek +planters their tablets. + +Vasari, whose carelessness is so notorious that nobody now thinks of +depending on anything he says, beyond what it is certain he could +have seen, attributes to Margaritone, about A.D. 1270, the first +use of fine linen cloth, which he says he pasted over his panels to +prevent cracks and rents. But there are many examples of Italian +pictures before Margaritone, where the panel is covered with linen, +whether for the purpose above mentioned, or for the sake of securing +a more equal ground, is of no importance. It is enough if we find the +practice established among those most likely to have inherited at least +the mechanical part of ancient painting. Cennino gives particular +directions for laying down cloth upon panel, and he professes to +teach the practice of Giotto. But Giotto’s first works go back to the +thirteenth century[232], and he adopted the practice of his master, +Cimabue, and learned whatever his friend Gaddo Gaddi could teach him +of the methods of the Greek painters, in company with whom Gaddo had +been employed in decorating Saint Mark’s, in Venice, and Santa Maria +Maggiore, in Rome; and we may hence conclude that Margaritone only did +what older painters had done before. + +Indeed from his personal character it is unlikely that he should have +set the example of a new practice, for he is said to have been weary of +life on account of the new fashions in art that were obtaining towards +the end of his career, and to have envied the younger painters for +their success[233]. + +As the ancient painting on marble appears to have been merely for the +sake of capricious additions to the beautiful variegated veins of +nature, it is not worth naming. + +With regard to the pigments used by the ancients, the greater number +are employed still. All the ochres, the vermilion, white lead, +lamp-black, and so on, appear to have been prepared and applied either +in fresco or distemper, as they are now. With regard to the colours for +pictures on panel also, there appears to be only the difference that +modern improvements in chemistry have introduced. + +It may not be without interest to compare Pliny’s account of colouring +substances in the first century with that of Cennino in the fourteenth, +and these with the list of pigments now employed. It will be more +difficult to collect information as to the vehicles used in painting; +but I do not despair of suggesting to the consideration of the +antiquarian artist a few points which may lead to farther knowledge. + +But, before I proceed, I must notice the common belief, founded, it is +true, upon an expression of Pliny’s, that the ancient painters, even +Apelles himself, used but four colours, and that these were white and +black; and red and yellow ochres. + +The absurdity of the thing ought of itself to have awakened the +spirit of criticism, apt enough sometimes to detect errors. But +this was so marvellous a thing, and raised the ancients so far +above all contemporaries in skill, that the seduction to moderns +was irresistible, so one after another, scholars and critics, have +repeated the four-coloured passage, without regard to the context, +without comparing one assertion of the author with another. + +If the whole passage where the famous sentence is found be read, it +will appear that Pliny is declaiming after his accustomed manner +against the luxury of the Romans, of his time, and particularly their +indulgence in fine colours, their very walls, and ships, and funeral +cars being coloured, as he says, with blue and scarlet of the most +costly kind; while the ancient painters produced their fine works with +only four colours, naming the commonest and coarsest he can recollect +for the sake of contrast; and produces as witnesses, the works of the +painters, Apelles, Echion, Melanthus, and Nichomachus. + +Now, whoever will take the trouble to read a little farther, will find +that Pliny exclaims with as much bitterness against the use of large +earthen dishes as against the luxury of colour; and brings examples +equally forcible to prove that it was wise and virtuous to love little +cups. + +And, again, if the nineteenth book be referred to, what pathetic +complaints of the decline of cabbage eating will be found, and how +monstrous he thought it that a man should buy a fish or a fowl at +market when his forefathers fed upon salad! Then the enormity committed +by Apicius in teaching young Drusus not to like cabbage sprouts so well +as broccoli, and the reprimand of Tiberius addressed to the youth on +the occasion, are good specimens of Pliny’s love for the “wisdom of +his ancestors,” and his little consideration for the great benefits he +himself enjoyed from more modern improvements. Then he laments that +asses may eat thistles while the common people of Rome are debarred +from cardoons and artichokes; and I verily believe, that were his +respect for Cato not in the way, we should have had a philippic against +those who presumed to eat asparagus larger than wheat-straw; but Cato, +it seems, was among the first who had asparagus beds near Rome; so with +one growl at such as devoured the monstrous plants from Ravenna, he +allows that cultivated asparagus may be eaten. + +But Pliny himself contradicts the story of the four colours. In the +instance of Apelles, how could the Venus Anadyomene, she who was rising +from the _green_ or _azure_ ocean, under a bright _blue_ sky, have +been painted with lamp-black, white chalk, ruddle, and yellow ochre +only? Then Apelles lived after Zeuxis; and if Zeuxis painted grapes, +whence got he the green and purple, if none but the four chaste, grave, +and solemn colours were known? What becomes of the monochromes, which +Pliny himself says preceded by far the time of Apelles, yet they were +painted, according to him, with dragon’s blood, a pigment by no means +resembling any of the four orthodox colours? + +But such instances occur at every page. I will point out one more, in +which we have other authority for contradicting him besides his own. He +tells us that Micon painted the temple of Theseus. Pausanias and others +say the same. Now Micon was contemporary with Polygnotus, consequently, +at least 150 years before Apelles’ time. Some of his pictures were +painted flat on stucco within the temple; the rest were coloured +bas-reliefs. But the stucco, though the traces of pictures and subjects +are gone, retains the marks, or rather stains of the colours--so does +the sculpture; and among those colours we find vestiges of bronze +and gold-coloured arms, of a _blue_ sky, and of blue, green, and red +drapery[234]. + +In the catacombs of Egypt, in times long anterior to the great painters +of Greece, blues and greens are as commonly found as yellows and reds. +In the ancient sepulchres of Etruria, blue and green are employed along +with other colours, and sometimes capriciously enough, for there is a +very conspicuous blue horse in one of the chambers. + +But we have an authority far above these. Moses expressly mentions +the colours, scarlet, red, blue, and purple, when he describes the +furniture of the ark of the covenant, and the vestments of the priests. + +With these facts before them, it appears incomprehensible that a single +hasty expression of an author, however respectable, should have been +dwelt upon and adopted almost as an article of faith by painters and +critics in Italy, France, and England. + +If, instead of the expressions of Pliny, writers upon colours had +adopted the words Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates about midway +between the times of Polygnotus and Apelles, we should have had the +orthodox number of colours increased to twelve. + +In the Phædo, in that last beautiful fable which Socrates relates to +comfort his friends, just before he bathes and prepares to drink the +poison, he tells of a world inhabited by the immortals, to whom the +guidance of human affairs is given, as well as of a world prepared for +the spirits of good men; and says, this superior “world, if surveyed +from on high, appears like a globe covered with twelve skins, various +and distinguished with colours, a pattern of which are the colours +found among us, and which our painters use[235].” + +But there would have been nothing marvellous, nothing out of the reach +of other men, in admitting that the greatest painters of antiquity were +provided with a good palette of colours. It was more agreeable to make +them execute extraordinary works with inadequate means, and so keep +them as a race apart, and far excelling what these degenerate days can +produce. + +It would not have been worth while to notice Pliny’s splenetic sentence +on the four colours, had it not been rendered important by the use, +or rather abuse, of it in modern times, and I could not let it pass +unnoticed and uncontradicted, when so many proofs of its want of +foundation were to be found in his own book, and in numberless facts +connected with the most ancient works of art in existence. + +I will now proceed to give such an account as I have been able to glean +from writers in different ages, of the pigments either formerly or now +in use. + +Of the white colouring matters, that most used by modern painters +could not have been of great value to the ancients, unless they had +some oils, or vehicles equivalent, wherewith to apply it; for it turns +black when used in water or fresco painting. I mean ceruse, or white +lead[236]. Pliny speaks of that from Spain as the best for painters; +and he also names calcined ceruse, the use of which was discovered by +the accident of a ship taking fire in the port of Piræus, when the +ceruse in pots which was on board was consequently calcined. It is +remarkable that these pots of ceruse had been brought from Spain for +the use of the Greek ladies, who painted their faces with it. + +Cennino praises the same white highly; but warns fresco painters +against it[237]; and our modern artists use it to temper most of their +colours in oil. + +Next to the ceruse, the ancients valued as white a natural earth from +Egypt, Crete, and Cyrene, which Pliny tells us is said to be hardened +sea foam mixed with mud, and that accordingly minute shells were found +in it. This should be the _meerschaum_, so valued for the bolls of +tobacco-pipes in Germany, but the meerschaum has no shells. He calls it +Parætonum, and says it made the best and finest wash for walls and fine +stucco. There was also a very fine white pigment, made of chalk, ground +with the white glass of which rings and other ornaments were made; it +was therefore called annulare. + +Next to this, as a natural earth, that called Eretria, both raw and +calcined, was valued; and then Melinum, from the isle of _Melos_; which +last was, however, often too unctuous for painters’ use, in which case +it suited the fullers better. + +Giotto’s white was called Bianco di San Giovanni, and seems to have +been composed of the finest lime, repeatedly washed and beaten to +purify it, and then made into small cakes, and dried in the sun. The +natural white earths were also used, especially in fresco painting. + +In modern practice many white earths and some preparations of shells +are used. Besides these, and white lead, there are also preparations of +zinc, tin, and barytes, which are available in different departments of +art. + +Of yellows, it was impossible for any one seeking to miss them, as they +abound in most countries; and those of the most durable and best kinds, +namely the ochres. + +The Attic and Gallic sils or ochres were pale, and were used for lights +by Polygnotus and Micon; but there were many ochres found in Campania +and in the hills not far from Rome, which were used both raw and burnt. +The burning of ochres generally renders the colours more transparent +and darker, so that some of the ochres assume a reddish hue, especially +the Sienna earth. Common yellow ochre, when burnt, is the colour called +light-red, admirable for flesh tints; and so indeed are many of the +other red ochres, whether natural, or artificially coloured by fire. + +The ancients used the ochres of Scyros and Lydia for shadows. The dark +earths from those countries resemble that called umber, produced in +Umbria, the use of which might be unknown to the Greeks[238]. + +These different ochres continue even now to be used, and to them are +added varieties of modern discovery, produced in England, Spain, and +other countries. + +Orpiment, or the sulphuretted oxide of arsenic, was known as a pigment +to the ancients. Its hue, approaching to gold, induced Caligula to +attempt to extract gold from it; and it is said that he succeeded +in procuring a small quantity from some brought from Syria. We are +ignorant how the ancient painters applied it. Cennino says, it is +neither good nor lasting in fresco or distemper; but that with glue or +size, it may be used in other pictures. It is still used by painters, +but is an uncertain colour[239]. + +The most brilliant and most valued red was vermilion. I suppose also +that it was one of the most ancient pigments. Homer says, in the +catalogue of the ships, the twelve galleys of Ulysses were painted +with it[240]; and I suspect that there was some mystical sacredness +attached to it, because it was the custom in Rome, that the first +act of a Censor on entering into office, was to rouge Jupiter’s face +with vermilion[241]. They painted all the gods’ faces with it. Horace +flatters Augustus by making him received among the gods, and drinking +nectar between Hercules and Pollux, with a vermilion face. At Athens, +cords stained with powdered vermilion were employed to drive the +people to the public meetings. The dramatic poets introduced this +custom frequently on the scene; and it would appear that the hindmost +had the worst, those who were caught with their robes stained by the +cords, were fined for non-attendance at their public duties. This same +vermilion was certainly early used by painters, and was much improved, +as Theophrastus says[242], by Callias, an Athenian, who calcined it, +and brought it to its very fine colour. In its rough state it is known +as cinnabar; and hence, both in ancient and modern times, it has been +taken for other mineral reds; and, what is worse, often adulterated +with them. In its pure state, it is a lasting colour. Cennino calls it +_cinabro_. His _cinabrese_ is a red used for flesh when mixed with +white in fresco works; it is made from sinopia, or red bole or ochre, +native in Cappadocia, and of the Bianco San Giovanni[243]. + +Minium, or red lead[244], seems to have been confounded by the writers +on colours with native cinnabar; though the painter would soon have +reason to regret using minium for vermilion, as minium blackens on +exposure to light and air, unless secured by strong varnishes or coats +of wax. + +Of the red earths or ochres Pliny places the sinopia, of which I have +already spoken, first. It is now sold in the shops as Armenian bole, +and is used in some manufactures. Mattioli, quoting from Dioscorides, +says, that the best was considered to be that of a deep liver colour, +smooth, and heavy. Akin to this is the common ruddle or red earth, used +by the ancients as well as the moderns, in the process of gilding; and, +being properly ground and washed, useful in most kinds of painting, but +especially fresco. + +Dragon’s-blood was known to the ancients as a pigment; but, from +Pliny’s account of it, they were clearly ignorant of its nature. +Cennino names it but with contempt, and it is not much valued by the +moderns[245]. + +With the ancients, who do not appear to have known any of the lakes, it +was different; they valued it much, and, it is said, used it for their +monochrome pictures[246]. If they did so, it confirms Fuseli’s account +of the process of painting, or rather of drawing, those pictures. It +is a resin of a warm semi-transparent, dullish red colour; and is best +used as a varnish which darkens on exposure to the air. If this varnish +were laid over the white ground of the monochromes, after the first +process of drawing with the point, the outline would be seen through, +and the indentation made by the point upon the tender chalk ground +being filled up with the varnish, would present a dark outline, the +point being then applied, would cut down to the white ground, and so +produce the light reliefs[247]. + +The other reds known to the ancients appear to have been mostly opaque. + +Cennino mentions Lac or Lake. But it appears that in his days it +was principally procured by discharging the colour from shreds of +scarlet and purple cloths. His editor imagines that he also knew and +recommended gum lac. Be that as it may, neither the ancients nor the +school of Giotto seem to have known anything of the fine lakes; whether +prepared from the Indian gums, from madder, or from other substances, +that enrich the palette of painters, both in oil and water-colours now. +Sir Humphrey Davy, however, seems to think that lake made from madder +may have been known to the ancients[248]. + +Of blue colouring substances, the most beautiful known to the +ancients, as to us, was ultramarine. Pliny says the best of azures +came from Egypt, the second kind from Scythia, and a third from +Cyprus. It is not possible to determine accurately whether all these +were true ultramarine, for it appears that then, as now, it was often +adulterated, and even imitated, by boiling native blue earths with +woad, or by grinding smalt with it. That manufactured in Spain, and at +Puteoli, was entirely artificial[249]. + +It is said, on the authority of Theophrastus, that one of the kings +of Egypt invented the method of making the beautiful Armenian blue, +so precious that kings sent presents of it to each other. And this +corresponds with the value of ultramarine at all times. The Lapis +Lazuli, from which the colour is made, is found in Siberia, and on the +borders of Persia, as well as in China, where the preparation of the +colour has long been known. It is probable that the superiority of the +colour brought from Egypt was owing to the method of preparing it, for +the most genuine kinds were certainly likely to be those of Scythia +and Armenia[250]. + +Of that brought from Scythia there were four preparations of different +degrees of beauty and intensity of colour; and shortly before Pliny +wrote, one Nestor had invented a new preparation from the lightest part +of the Egyptian blue. + +The earliest Christian painters appropriated it to painting the robes +of the Virgin Mary, and called it after her name, and it is much more +probable that those artists inherited the mode of preparing it, than +that it was invented in the still rude times in which the arts began +to revive. I saw in the middle church of the sacred convent at Assisi, +a large jar which had been sent to the painters, Cimabue, Giotto, and +their pupils, full of ultramarine by the Queen of Cyprus[251], for the +purpose of painting that magnificent church. + +Some of the ancient imitations were, as I have said, composed of earth +boiled with woad, those of Cennino’s time were boiled with indigo +instead of woad. + +The blue earths from Germany appear to have been long known, indeed the +cobalt, though that name had not then been given to it, was necessary +for colouring the glasses and pastes used for fictitious gems by the +ancient artists[252]. + +Indigo had been introduced into the west from India not long before +Pliny’s time. Painters had, however, immediately adopted it for shadows +and for strong lines. + +The green colours were procured in great part by the ancients as they +were in the middle ages, and are now, by the mixture of blues with +yellows. There were, however, several green earths in use, and many +oxides of copper, sometimes used in a fluid, sometimes in a solid +state. The principal green earth used by the ancients was chrysocolla, +or borax. Macedonia, Armenia, and Spain, furnished the best raw +material; but the best manufactory appears to have been in Cyprus. One +kind of it, by boiling with dyers’ weed, assumed a golden yellow hue, +and was then called orobites. The best method of using it was, to lay +first a ground of the white earth, parætonum, then to wash that over +with vitriol, and so lay on the chrysocolla, which is very brilliant, +over that ground. The green made from orobites mixed with azure is not +durable, though bright[253]. + +The borax is, doubtless, the terra verde of Cennino, the terre verte of +the moderns; the best is now procured from Holland, where the art of +preparing it is understood. For some ages this art was in the hands of +the Venetians, who imported the borax from India, Persia, and China, +where it is produced at the bottom of some lakes. It is also found in +similar situations in Tuscany[254]. + +But verdigris, variously prepared, was used both by painters and the +manufacturers of glass for ornamental purposes, as well as by surgeons +and physicians for potions and plasters among the ancients. In Giotto’s +time, it entered into the composition of many tints, several of which, +however, faded easily. With the moderns it is not much used, as being +apt to disagree with some other pigments, and difficult of application. + +It was an ingredient in the painter’s black, called atramentum[255]. +However, most of the blacks used were of the soot collected from +burning various substances, such as resin, or pitch, very little +different from common lamp-black, which, mixed with copperas, was +mostly used for writing ink. + +Polygnotus and Mycon made their black of the refuse of the wine-press, +burnt. Apelles used burnt ivory. Of the Indian black[256] the nature or +manufacture was unknown to Pliny, as it is to us. An excellent black +was procured both from the soot and ashes of torch-wood, the soot +adhering to the dyers’ coppers was also sought after, and some painters +imagined that the ashes from a funeral pile were preferable to all. +This is properly treated by Pliny as mere superstition. + +When any of these blacks were used as ink, gum of some kind was added. +For painting on walls size was the necessary vehicle. But vinegar was +in all cases found to be the best ingredient to mix the colour properly. + +Dioscorides says that the soot from glass furnaces was used for ink. + +To these blacks, Cennino adds the burnt stones of peaches, and shells +of almonds, or burnt vine twigs. They were to be mixed with various +vehicles according to the work required. In India a fine black is made +from burnt cocoa-nut shells. + +There was a colour very much used by the ancients for glazing. It was +roset, or purple-red, procured by throwing Tripoli stone into the +vats where fine purple dyes were boiling[257]. To make a fine red in +painting, the ground was laid with sandyx[258], and then glazed with +roset mixed with white of egg. When a fine purple was required the +ground was laid with blue, over which the roset was applied with the +same vehicle. The roset of Puteoli was reckoned the best, though finer +dyes were produced by the Tyrians, Getulians, and Lacedemonians. + +The colour mentioned by Cennino most akin to this, is his _ametisto_, +which he describes as a native mineral colour. + +Armenino talks of a pavonazzo still more like it in its properties. + +We have a purple mineral, found in the Forest of Deane, but in general +our purples and purple browns are now produced from madder, or from +metallic oxides. + +Such is the scanty information I am able to give concerning the ancient +pigments, with any degree of certainty. Various earths were brought +into the market from Germany and Gaul; and it is improbable that the +Cologne, and other rich brown earths, should have been neglected. +Cyprus appears to have furnished the painters’ shops with the greatest +number and variety, both of native and manufactured colours, and no +doubt the Venetians succeeded to her knowledge and skill in this +matter, as they did to her commerce and maritime power[259]. + +I have spoken with more confidence on the subjects of most of the +antique colours than I should otherwise have done, from having a clear +recollection of a conversation I had with Sir Humphrey Davy, just after +he had been engaged in examining several jars of antique pigments +that had been discovered on an estate belonging to the Archbishop +of Tarentum[260]. He told me that not one of those he had examined +differed in substance from those now used for the same purposes. + +It will be very difficult indeed to point out with tolerable +probability the vehicles used for painting by the ancient painters; +certainty, excepting to a very limited extent, is impossible. +Time, which has in some instances spared colours so as to permit a +satisfactory examination into their nature, has uniformly dried up +the substances of the vehicles with which they were laid on; so that +it is only where such things are actually named by ancient authors, +and that is very sparingly, that we can feel any confidence as to the +matter[261]. + +There is, however, a source of probable conjecture which ought not to +be neglected. The use of oils, resins and gums in medicine has been +recorded; and the mixtures of those incidentally named, are so nearly +what we find used among the earliest painters, of whose works we have +any technical account, that it is scarcely possible to believe that +they were overlooked by the ancients. + +For the early pictures on walls, whether the ground were of stone or +stucco, lime-water was doubtless found to be a sufficient binder. +But to adorn the mummy coffins something more than water must have +been required. The Egyptians had the advantage of several native +gum-bearing trees. The Acacia Nilotica, which produces the Gum Arabic; +the Sarcocolla[262], the gum of which Pliny expressly says is used by +painters as well as physicians; and the tree or shrub producing the Gum +Senegal; the Terebinth, yielding the manna thuris, Gum Ammoniac[263] +and Sandarach[264], were likewise all to be found on the borders of +Egypt; and some of these, we know from Herodotus, were employed in +embalming, and therefore very probably as vehicles for the colours with +which they honoured and ornamented the dead. + +The desire of showing respect to the remains of those we have once +loved is a blessed principle of our nature. It is at once the cause +and the effect of that tender care of human life which becomes one +of the first principles of civilisation. It is respect and duty, +bestowed where no selfishness can ever expect a return, and by the very +occupation it forces upon us, breaks the first overwhelming violence of +grief, when the day of death, of which no preparation ever took away +the bitterness, arrives, and allows us time and occasion to exert that +moral resolution necessary to a due submission to the will of HIM, who +knoweth best when to give and when to take away. + +The solemn death-rites of the Egyptians were practised by priests and +physicians, aided by professional embalmers; and their daily practice +must have led to a knowledge of many physiological facts advantageous +to the science of medicine. The search after substances calculated to +preserve the body could not fail to lead to chemical discoveries of +equal value to the arts. The country itself furnished some of these +substances, but Arabia and the neighbouring nations still more. + +Among these, the asphaltum, pissasphaltum, and petroleum, brought from +the Dead Sea, from Babylon, and from the province of Mazenderan, appear +to have been most generally used; and it is a curious fact, that a +substance arising from the partial decomposition of the bodies, mixed +with these mineral substances, should, very early under the name of +mummy, have been employed by Arabian and Jewish physicians in medicine. +It is still stranger that it should have kept its place in the materia +medica of most nations till very lately, and I question whether it be +yet entirely expunged from them. + +As a colouring matter, the same mummy was highly esteemed, and is +still often used. But it is giving way to other preparations of +asphaltum with wax, oil, or some equivalent substance. The prejudice +which led to the seeking among the costly embalmed bodies of Egypt a +remedy for disease, is akin to that which is not yet quite exploded +even in England, and which leads the vulgar to pass the hand of a +hanged man over scrophulous swellings as a certain cure. From this +strange superstition even Boyle was not so free, but that, in giving +a recipe for some preparation, he mentions the calcined arm bone of a +_hanged_ man reduced to powder as an ingredient! This same prejudice, +or something like it, led the painters of antiquity to rake, as Pliny +says, among the ashes of a funeral pile for a superior black pigment, +and induced more modern artists to use mummy brown. + +The common bitumen or asphaltum, was known by the early physicians to +mix readily with oil, and was much used as an external application; +very ancient artists also varnished their statues of wood or metal with +that mixture, to preserve them from the action of the air[265]. + +But there was a finer substance, called by Pliny an earth, ampelitis, +which being softened in oil worked like wax. Besides the use of the +ampelitis for plasters, the antique men of the world used it to blacken +their eyebrows and colour their hair[266]. + +With these uses of asphaltum and ampelitis, softened or dissolved in +oil, the antique painters must have been familiar, and it is difficult +to imagine that they did not avail themselves of so agreeable a colour +and varnish. It answers, in a great degree, to the account given of +the dark fluid with which Apelles varnished his pictures. It would +certainly preserve them from the effects of dust and wet; it would make +the colours richer, and, at the same time, soften the harshness of the +more glaring ones. + +Pliny enumerates many resins which were to be dissolved in oil before +they could be used as liniments. They are such as flow from the +terebinth, larch, lentisk or mastic, and cypress; besides the pine +or pitch trees. He also names many gums which might be dissolved in +water, or wine, or vinegar, or a mixture of vinegar and wax. Some +of these gums he occasionally names as useful to painters; and it is +not unreasonable to conclude, that those preparations of them with +oil, which would render them so peculiarly convenient as vehicles for +colour, or varnishes for preserving pictures, were not overlooked. + +Such must have been the varnish employed by the Egyptian painters; +the brilliant appearance of which is mentioned in Mr. Clift’s letter, +printed at the end of the first Essay. + +There is the authority of Vitruvius for the ancient use of oil in +painting doors and other wood-work exposed to the weather. + +With regard to ships, it appears that their colours--and we know from +Homer that they were painted in very ancient times--could not have been +laid on with water. I am ignorant how far petroleum, which was known +to Herodotus, was calculated to resist weather, or whether any of the +resins or juices from the various kinds of fir and pine might, by being +mixed with it, render it fit for the purpose. + +Pliny mentions the substance scraped off the bottoms of ships, as a +mixture of pitch and wax, of which a plaster of great efficacy for some +kinds of sores was made. It is clear, therefore, that pitch and wax +were both used to defend the bottoms and seams of the ships from the +effects of the water, and, probably, also to render them smoother, and +so to offer less resistance to the waves. + +But the vermilion-prowed ships must have been painted, and very +probably in the encaustic manner; that is, by laying on the colour or +the wax to defend it, hot; this would answer the double purpose of +shielding the colour, and sending the wax or pitch farther into the +substance of the wood, which would thus be better preserved. Indeed, +until the general adoption of oil as a vehicle for colour, nothing +but the encaustic process could have preserved the figure-heads and +the designs on the sterns of the ancient ships during the shortest +voyage[267]. + +It is a pity that Pliny has not left us a more minute account of the +process of encaustic painting; but it appears to have been so commonly +known and practised in his time, that he has not considered it worth +while to describe it particularly. + +He mentions the doubtfulness of its origin and of its inventor, but +speaks of most of the beautiful works of Pausias as having been +executed in that manner. In a subsequent passage, writing of vermilion +and minium, and of the great luxury at which the Romans of his time had +arrived in fine colours, he mentions that walls coloured with those +expensive pigments were apt to blacken unless defended by a varnish of +wax, for which he gives the following recipe:-- + +“Take white Punic wax, melt it with oil, and while it is hot wash the +painting over with pencils, or fine brushes of bristles, dipped in the +same varnish. When laid on it must be well rubbed, and heated again +with red-hot coals of gall-nuts, held close to it, till the wall may +sweat and fry again, then rub it well with waxed cloths, and then with +clean linen cloths[268].” + +This, I believe, is the longest and clearest account we have of this +method of painting or rather varnishing. But there is another passage +in the same author, from which it would appear that colours were made +up with wax for use. For that case the above varnish would be most +appropriate, and without the inconveniences of such varnishes as are +composed of matters which do not correspond with the nature of the +colours and vehicles they cover. The passage is as follows: “If one +be disposed to make black wax, let him put thereto--i. e. to bleached +Punic wax--ashes of paper, like as with an addition of orchanet, it +will be red. Moreover, wax may be brought to all manner of colours for +_painters_, _limners_, and enamellers, and such curious artificers, +to represent the form and similitude of anything they list. And for +a thousand other purposes men have used thereof, but principally to +preserve their walls and armours withal[269].” + +We know, then, that the ancients used water, white of egg, solutions +of various gums, vinegar and wax, with or without oil. We may infer +also that they used solutions of resinous substances in oil, asphaltum, +and petroleum, because they were well acquainted with preparations of +these, and their application to a variety of purposes. But it would be +rash as useless to assert that they painted with this or that material, +having no positive information on the subject, and no examples of +antique pictures, which can do more than indicate the nature of their +works in fresco or distemper. + +Mr. Raspe, in his ingenious essay on oil painting, as known to the +ancients, has laboured to prove too much, and has therefore not +received all the credit he deserves[270]; but his printing the text +of the monk Theophilus, and of part of Heraclius on the arts of the +Romans, deserves our gratitude[271]. + +Both these authors direct, that colours for painting doors, and for +preparing panel for pictures, should be ground in linseed oil; and they +observe, that all kinds of colours bear grinding in oil. But all cannot +be ground with gum, and therefore white and red lead and carmine must +be ground with white of egg, where oil is not used. When a transparent +painting was required over a ground of oil, then colour mixed with +linseed oil was absolutely necessary[272]. + +The next period at which we know from a contemporary writer what +vehicles were used, is the end of the fourteenth century, or the +beginning of the fifteenth, when Cennino wrote; but he professes to +give the exact process of Giotto, a century earlier, being himself very +old when he composed his work, and having been the apprentice of Taddeo +Gaddi, the immediate pupil, assistant, and, in some particulars, the +rival, of Giotto. + +The usual vehicle or _tempora_ appears to have been the whole egg beat +up with a gill of pure water to each egg, and mixed with the milky +juice of the fig-tree, where it was procurable. + +Several colours, however, could not be used with this ordinary vehicle, +because of the yellow colour of the yolk, which turned the blues green, +and injured some other pigments. In that case, the white of egg +clarified was used, or fine size made of the clippings of parchment, or +even flour paste well, but not too much, boiled. A vehicle of the yolk +of egg alone, for such colours as were not injured by the yellow, was +found to answer equally well in fresco, in distemper, and on panel. + +Though Cennino knew, and perhaps occasionally practised painting in +oil, it is evident that the oil was used by him and his masters chiefly +as a varnish. He directs it to be prepared nearly according to the +recipe of the monk Theophilus; the difference being, that the oil is to +be simmered till one half is evaporated, and the pure resin is to be +added, in the proportion of an ounce to every pound of the raw linseed +oil. + +Armenino, in A. D. 1600, repeats nearly all Cennino says of vehicles; +he adds several compositions, one of which only I shall notice, +because he tells us that he had heard from the scholars of Corregio, +that it was used by that great man. A varnish composed of the purest +turpentine[273], made hot, to which was added an equal measure of +petroleum, was spread over the picture, previously warmed in the sun +or otherwise. This is said to have been thin, lucid, and durable. + +As to modern vehicles, there is no new oil discovered by chemists that +has not been tried, nor any combinations of gums and resins, with oils, +whether fixed or essential. The desire of quickly drying substances +has also produced a variety of vehicles and varnishes, all of which, +in particular cases, and for certain purposes, seem to have answered. +But their use has disappointed the artist in others. Perhaps so great +a variety by tempting to injudicious mixtures, may have caused the +partial failure. + +This is a question, however, for practical artists; my business is only +to relate historically what has been done, not to comment on what is +actually doing, or should be done. + +And now we must inquire what tools were used by antique artists. Here +again Mr. Wilkinson is our best informant. In the unfinished pictures +in some of the catacombs, he saw traces of the use of charcoal points, +and also of red outlines, corresponding not only with the practice +recommended by Cennino, but with what I saw in the Campo Santo at Pisa, +where, the upper stucco having fallen off, upon which the pictures +themselves had been painted while wet, a line drawn in red earth, like +the bole of Sinope, appeared upon the coarser ground, and had evidently +been corrected preparatory to laying the true ground and colour. The +metal points used for drawing by the early Greeks, were most likely +used also by the Egyptians, where required; but the paintings we are +best acquainted with, namely, those on the mummy cases, are outlined, +if not with a pen or reed, with a fine pencil. + +In the curious collection of Egyptian furniture, tools, &c., brought +together by Mr. Sams, there were some palettes; they were oblong, and +had a sort of case at one end for the pencils and brushes, and at the +other a handle. The plates in Rossellini’s Egypt show the manner in +which these were used. + +D’Agincourt gives some tracings from an illuminated MS. Dioscorides, +in the library at Vienna, in two of which we find an artist’s study; +in one, a paintress is at work upon a picture sketched upon a moveable +frame, not unlike those used for needle-work; her colours appear to be +in a box, as water colours would be, and she has a small palette held +in the palm of her left hand. + +The other is a painter employed in drawing a plant; his easel is +three-legged, his paper is pinned or tacked to a widish board, his +palette is like that of the paintress, and his colour box the same; the +pencils seem as fine as pens in both. + +Cennino directs that pencils shall be made either of the tails of grey +squirrels, called Vair[274], answering to sable, or of hogs’ bristles. +He points out with minuteness how to select the longest hairs of the +vair, and how many tails must contribute the longest, in order to make +a good pencil; what is more, he mentions that these soft brushes were +to be used of all sizes, from those which were drawn into the hollow +of a pigeon’s feather, to those requiring a vulture’s quill. As to the +bristle tools, they appear to be exactly what we now use; and the art +of making which appears to be one of those handed down from the Greeks +and Romans, without any change worth notice. + +I have thus endeavoured to bring together what is to be known +historically of the mechanical part of painting. Dry and wet plaster, +that is, distemper and fresco, have been employed in all countries, +from Egypt to Mexico, for grounds. Pannel, prepared with a thin coat +of chalk or plaster and size, has been the next general material. The +painted inner mummy cases, where the linen was prepared with plaster, +are the earliest pictures on linen, so far as we can judge. The linen +painted hangings for prize fighters, and Nero’s famous canvas, show +that the practice of painting pictures on linen was not unknown to the +ancients; but when it was first used as a ground, or if its use ever +became general until modern times, we do not know. + +The early Italian painters used it at first to strengthen and smooth +their pannel; and, I think, the Venetian painters were they who +rendered its use general. + +The most important pigments of the ancients appear to have been +identical with our own. + +The vehicles for colour have afforded matter for very needless +controversy. The ancients generally used water, gums, and white of egg; +they frequently, especially in the later schools of painting, used wax, +often mixed with oil of some kind. They were acquainted with the use of +oil as a varnish, and may have used both it and naphtha to paint with +occasionally. + +As early as the tenth century, oil was often used for particular +kinds of painting; by the fourteenth, attempts were made (I need not +say, without success) to paint with it on plaster; by the end of the +fifteenth century, it had pretty well superseded other vehicles for all +but fresco and distemper upon walls. + +As to the tools, a palette, colour box, soft and hard brushes, +scrapers, &c., of forms and materials differing but little, with a +sponge and pumice stone, were used by all; and very few required more, +when their pigments were once prepared. But the ancient painters, +like the old Italians and Germans, had their colours ground in their +own work-rooms: for this purpose, slabs of porphyry, or some other +hard stone, with mullers to correspond; mortars of marble, or brass, +or iron, with pestles of wood or metal, were requisite; and, in some +cases, the very furnaces for calcining their ochres, or dissolving +their gums, were of their own construction. + +Hence the frequent mention of apprentice boys, who never reached +higher in the art than colour-grinders. Others became mere mechanical +copyists, multiplying in ancient times the actual patterns of +certain gods and heroes, and in later times, favourite saints, or +even whole compositions. But the better sort either equalled or +excelled their masters. Apelles surpassed Pamphilus, Giotto excelled +Cimabue, Raffaelle and Michael Angelo left their masters Perugino and +Ghirlandaio far behind. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[214] I have mentioned the antique picture before, that proves that the +ancient Italians _horsed_ the boys and used the rod, just as was done +ten years ago in England (and may be still in remote counties), as the +best way of improving the memory. I have the authority of Pausanias, +that boys used strings to set off their tops, and that young ladies +played at what Scotch children call chuckie stanes, in Old Greece. + +[215] Pantænus, the brother of Phidias, used a plaster or stucco in the +Temple of Minerva at Elis, mixed with milk. This should be something +like the beautiful marble-like stucco or _chunam_-work of India. I once +saw a floor laid at Madras, among the materials of which were jaggree, +or coarse sugar water and milk. Ram Raz, in his treatise on Hindu +Architecture, says: + +“_Chunam_, intended for fine plastering and ornamental works, is +ground by women on an oblong granite stone, and a cylindrical upper +stone about four inches in diameter; the mixture is sometimes ground +two, three, and four times, to bring it to the required fineness and +purity. In all the operations of _chunam_-work, _jaggery_ water, i. +e. a solution of molasses or coarse sugar, is invariably added by the +builders, and its use appears to have prevailed from the remotest ages. +There are various opinions among the modern practitioners regarding +its usefulness, but those who have had the most extensive practice in +building hold it as an indispensable ingredient in the formation of a +durable and hard cement; and it is stated that the operator evidently +perceives the dissolvent property of the _jaggery_ water, on its being +tempered with the prepared mortar.” + +[216] I must make an undignified, though I believe an intelligible, +comparison--the plaster is very like that applied to wooden dolls of +the old school, and which children used to call _alabaster_. I believe +it was made of finely pounded marble, and was largely used in the +manufacture of Saints for Roman Catholic churches. + +[217] Our sycamore is a maple, and its fruit is not eatable. + +[218] Book xiii. ch. 7. + +[219] Book xvi. ch. 39. + +[220] Theophrastus died B.C. 208 years, at the age of 107. + +[221] Cennino Cennini trattato della Pittura, ch. 6. + +[222] In the 13th book and 12th chapter of Pliny’s Natural History, +he tells us the size or paste used by bookbinders was made with fine +wheaten flour, boiling water, and a little vinegar, which is our common +shoemaker’s paste. And in book xi., chapter 39, we learn that the +stronger glue was made, as now, of the hides of cattle boiled down. +He says _bull’s_ hide makes the strongest glue. The ancients seem +to take some strange things for granted. A bull is stronger than a +cow--therefore--his hide makes stronger glue. An English mechanic would +have tried the experiment. + +[223] This tallies with Erasmus’ description of English houses at +nearly the same period, in one of his letters. + +[224] This white is phosphate of lime. + +[225] The tool, and the outline produced by it, were no doubt +legitimately descended from the antique CESTRUM and SKIAGRUM of Fuseli. +There is an unfinished picture by Giovanni Bellini, in the Florence +Gallery, in which the white ground on the board is visible. The marks +of the tool are also distinct, a little indented, and the shadowed +part is hatched. Over this there is a brown transparent colour, which +has thickened in the indented lines and hatchings, rendering the +lines darker; had he hatched again through the transparent ground to +the white ground in the lights, we should have had, as I conceive, a +perfect monochrome. + +[226] In his Histoire de la Peinture Ancienne, wherein he has printed +what he calls the thirty-fifth book of Pliny, with his translation; but +he has left out what pleased him, and inserted other parts of the work, +and omitted the numbering of the chapters, so as to render it difficult +to detect his want of fidelity. + +[227] Book XXXV. ch. 7. A passage in one of Horace’s Satires describes +pictures, whether on cloth or wood, suspended at the entrances to the +public shows at Rome, nearly as we should now describe the pictures +exhibited for the same purposes by Gingel and his ingenious brethren, +to invite spectators to their itinerant playhouses, and such as the +lamented Pidcock used to allure them to the shows of elephants and +tigers. + + If some fam’d piece the painter’s art displays, + Transfix’d you stand, with admiration gaze[228]; + + +[228] In the original the painter’s name is mentioned; it is Pausias of +Sicyon. + +[229] Pliny, Natural History, Book xiii. ch. 11. + +[230] Libri sacri scritti in tela di lino, sorta di volumi antichissimi +molte di quali vide Frontone custoditi in Anagni.--MICALI. _Storia +degli Antichi Popoli Italiani, page 32._ + +In Wilks’ History of the South of India, there is an account of the +cudduttum, curruthum, or currut, used as books in that province. It +is a strip of cotton cloth, covered on both sides with a mixture of +paste and charcoal. The writing is done with a pencil of lapis ollaris, +called balopium, and may be rubbed out like that on a slate; the cloth +is folded in leaves like a pocket-map, and tied up between thin boards +painted and ornamented. This mode of writing was anciently used for +records and other public papers, and in some parts of the country +is still employed by merchants and shopkeepers. It is very durable, +indeed probably more so than either paper, parchment, or the palm leaf. +Colonel Wilks supposes it to be the linen or cotton cloth on which +Arrian states that the Indians wrote. + +[231] Pliny contradicts himself on the subject of parchment. In b. +xxxv. he says that Parrhasius painted or drew upon it; but b. xii. c. +10, he ascribes the invention of it to Eumenes, king of Pergamos, who +lived after the time of Parrhasius, saying that he invented parchment +because Ptolemy, king of Egypt, had prohibited the exportation of paper +made of the papyrus. I cannot help believing that parchment was known +before the time of Eumenes. He may have improved it, and hit upon a +method of rendering it more fit for writing upon. + +[232] Giotto was born in 1276; his master, Cimabue, in 1240; his +gigantic Madonnas are painted on wood. I had no opportunity of +examining whether there was linen under the plaster ground. Margaritone +was born about 1250; Gaddo Gaddi, 1239, or thereabouts. + +[233] The Venetians, owing to their commerce with the East, are the +most likely of all the Italians to have been influenced by the practice +handed down by the Greek painters; and we first find the general use of +canvass, especially of very large size, at Venice. + +[234] Colonel Leake’s Topography of Athens. Additional notes on the +temple of Theseus, p. 400. + +[235] Taylor’s Plato--Phædo. The twelve colours are not named, but +further on there is the expression, “all the objects are rendered +beautiful through various colours--_purple_ of wonderful beauty, +_golden hue_, pure _white_, _emerald_,” &c. + +[236] Carbonate of lead, with a proportion of oxide. + +[237] Some of the pictures in the Campo Santo at Pisa have suffered +lamentably from the neglect of this caution. The high lights have +become absolutely black. + +[238] See Pliny, book xxxiii. end of ch. 12, and the whole of ch. 13. + +[239] In the manufactory of porcelain, japan-ware, &c., it is much +used. Perhaps Caligula’s chemists flattered him, by pretending to find +gold in the orpiment. + +[240] + + ---- Twelve galleys with vermilion prores, + Beneath his conduct sought the Phrygian shores. + + Pope’s Iliad, book ii. + + +[241] I have seen the poor gods of the Hindoos of low caste thus rouged. + +[242] About the year of Rome 249. + +[243] Cinabrese is praised by Armenino, who wrote in 1600. I do not +always mention Armenino when I might; 1st, because I prefer Cennino’s +authority; 2nd, because Armenino is a coxcomb whose work I have no +pleasure in; and 3rd, because it is useless to multiply quotations. +However, he is a writer of value on these matters. + +[244] Minium--red oxide of lead. + +[245] The ancients believed that it was really the blood of dragons, +which had sucked the blood of elephants, and had died, crushed under +the weight of that enormous quadruped. + +[246] Dragon’s blood is the resin of the “Dracæna draco” of Linnæus. +The resin itself is opaque and brittle. The powder is of a crimson +colour, insoluble in water. With us it is soluble both in alcohol and +in the fixed oils; the ancients, as they had not alcohol, may have used +it with oil. + +This was probably the crimson colour which the Frenchman, mentioned +in the little account of Pompeii, published by the Society for the +Diffusion of Knowledge, bought of the workmen employed in excavating +the town, and used with success as a body colour. He does not appear to +have analysed it, or in any way endeavoured to ascertain its nature, +for the benefit of art. See vol. ii., p. 56. + +[247] See note to p. 8. + +[248] The colour of the mantle of the Ganymede in the ancient fresco +belonging to Sir M. W. Ridley looks like discoloured lake. + +[249] Sir Humphrey Davy, in his paper in the first part of the volume +of the Philosophical Transactions for 1815, on the colours used in +painting by the ancients, says, that the artificial blue found in the +baths of Titus is a frit made by means of soda, and coloured with oxide +of copper. He imagines it to have been the blue invented by an ancient +king of Egypt mentioned in the text, and the same also with that +cœrulium, the art of making which was brought from Egypt to Puteoli, by +Vestorius. That was made by heating together sand, flower of nitre, _i. +e._ soda, and filings of copper. + +[250] Certain balls of a fine blue colour have been brought from the +Egyptian tombs since Sir Humphrey Davy’s paper was written. I do not +know whether they have been analysed, but their appearance is like that +of the frit found in the baths of Titus. + +[251] She was of the Lusignan family, and is buried at Assisi. + +[252] It is to be regretted that Baron Bertholdy did not live to +complete and publish his essay on the glass and paste of the ancients, +as applied to the production of cameos, intaglios, &c., in imitation +of true gems. He had collected a great mass of materials, and had had +some very beautiful specimens engraved. Among other fragments, I saw in +his possession, in 1819, several handles of drinking-cups, on which the +maker’s name and place of residence, namely, Sidon, were stamped before +the glass was cold, some in Greek, some in Roman letters. + +Mr. Hatchet has analysed many of the ancient glasses and pastes; but he +did not find cobalt in any of them. In some very ancient beads found +in one of the oldest tombs of Egypt, he found the colouring matter +was manganese. Yet Davy speaks of a blue glass which appeared to him +to be tinged with cobalt as common among the ruins of Rome; and says, +moreover, that on analysing different ancient transparent blue glasses, +he had found cobalt in all of them. + +[253] Pliny, book xxxiii. ch. 5. + +[254] Borax is a salt with excess of soda. The ancients used it as we +do, as a flux, and a solder for metals. + +[255] Also used by shoemakers to blacken leather shoes. + +[256] Most probably Indian ink. + +[257] Purple dye, the purple of Puteoli, was not procured simply from +the shell-fish, but was mixed with the juice of madder and the megalob +berries. Hence, probably, the superior quality of the pigment. + +[258] Sandyx is a colour procured by calcining common ruddle and +sandarach together. Sandarach is a red substance found near, and in +silver mines. An island in the Red Sea produced a great deal. Sandarach +is also gum from the juniper, but Pliny means the mineral.--Book xxxv. +ch. 6. Virgil, however, must mean the juniper when he says, that +browsing upon sandarach rendered the fleeces of the sheep red. + +[259] The early establishment of the manufacture of glass and the +beautifully coloured Venetian beads in Murano, where a remnant of +the art still exists, I think warrants my supposition. The Queen of +Cyprus’s gift of ultramarine to the church of Assisi, may be taken +as a proof, that so late as 1300 the island had not lost its colour +manufactures. + +[260] This was later by four years than his examination of the colours +found in the baths of Titus, the paper upon which in the Philosophical +Transactions I have quoted. + +[261] The word vernix (varnish) was entirely unknown to the ancients. +Lyttleton, in his Latin Dictionary, says it is derived from the fact, +that in the spring, _ver_, the juniper, begins to yield its resin; and +that juniper, or gum sandarach, was the first substance from which true +varnish was prepared. He ought to have added in Europe: for certainly +true varnish was used in China long before the period at which he +places the first use of the word vernix, and, as will appear by the +text, I have no doubt that the thing, if not the name, was known by our +ancients in Europe also. + +[262] Supposed the Penæa sarcocolla; the gum is in the form of small +whitish grains, of a bitter sweetish taste; it is almost entirely +soluble in water. + +[263] Supposed to be produced by a species of ferula. It is soluble in +water and in vinegar. + +[264] The resin of the juniper. + +[265] Pliny, b. xxxv. ch. 15. + +[266] Pliny’s account of ampelitis appears to agree with that given by +Field, in his Book on Colours, of some specimens of native asphaltum, +brought to him direct from Persia. It did not dissolve with oil or +turpentine, but ground well with drying oil, and made a fine colour. + +For ampelitis, see Pliny, b. xxxv. c. 16. + +[267] A boat, or ship-builder, when he _pays_ the bottoms of his +vessels with boiling pitch, is really painting in the encaustic manner. + +[268] B. xxxii. ch. 7. The word here translated _waxed cloths_, is +literally _candles_; but, as candles were made of wax, I adhere to +Holland’s expression, as giving Pliny’s meaning. + +[269] B. xxi. ch. 14. The wax so coloured was the finest white punic +wax; we must not forget that waxen images were among those exhibited in +funeral processions. + +[270] In his quotations from Vitruvius and Pliny he unaccountably +translates _red wax_ for _Punic wax_. Now Pliny says expressly that +Punic wax was the whitest of all, and particularly describes the manner +of bleaching it. + +[271] The work of Theophilus was composed certainly not later than A. +D. 1000, probably earlier; that of Heraclius, de Artibus Romanorum, was +written about the same period. Raspe published Theophilus under the +title of “Theophilus Monacus de omni scientia artis pingendi, e codice +manuscripto Collegii Trinitatis Cantabrigiensis.” + +[272] Linseed oil does not dry well without management, any more than +the nut oils. Theophilus directs that it should be simmered in a new +pipkin over a slow fire (but by no means boil), till one-third was +evaporated; then powdered fornice, _i.e._ resin from the pitch-tree, +stirred in; and observes, that every kind of painting glazed with this +becomes glossy and durable. Thus the simple oil varnish was known and +used at least as early as the eleventh century, four hundred years +before the Van Eycks. + +A ground, named by Theophilus, and afterwards by Cennino, for +cementing panel, was composed of powdered lime and cheese,--the chief +ingredients, if I am not mistaken, of Vancouver’s and other strong +cements. + +[273] Venice turpentine, perhaps. + +[274] A term now, I believe, only used in heraldry, either in English +or French. In Rome they now make pencils of the fine hair of kids. + + + THE END. + + + LONDON: + BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. + + + + +ERRATA. + + +Page 19, line 6, for _Trimuti_ read _Trimurti_ + 52, in the note, l. 3 from bottom, for _Sira_ read _Siva_ + 107, l. 6, for _cotemporary_ read _contemporary_ + 144, l. 11, for _Nausictæa_ read _Nausicaa_ + 163, bottom line, for _cotemporary_ read _contemporary_ + 167, l. 12, the same the same + 209, l. 5, for _Guileo_ read _Giulio_ + 225, l. 9, omit the full stop + 253, in the second note, for _terula_ read _ferula_ + + + + + JUST PUBLISHED + BY EDWARD MOXON, + DOVER STREET. + + + I. + + _In 3 Vols. price 1l. 7s. 6d. cloth_, + + THE PROSE WORKS OF CHARLES LAMB. + + + II. + + _Price 7s. 6d. cloth_, + + THE POETICAL WORKS OF CHARLES LAMB. + + + III. + + _In 2 Vols. price 14s. cloth_, + + SPECIMENS OF ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS: + WITH NOTES. + BY CHARLES LAMB. + A New Edition. + + + IV. + + _In 2 Vols. price 18s. boards_, + + LETTERS, CONVERSATIONS, AND + RECOLLECTIONS + OF + SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. + + + V. + + _Price 4s._, + + ION. 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SERJEANT TALFOURD. + + + + + Transcriber’s Notes + +Obvious punctuation errors and omissions have been corrected. + +The errata have been corrected. + +Page 31: “a peculiar rythm” changed to “a peculiar rhythm” + +Page 35: “hieroglyhic painting” changed to “hieroglyphic painting” + +Page 59: “a singulur use” changed to “a singular use” + +Page 87: “Poco polvere son” changed to “Poca polvere son” + +Page 139: “Lists of Votive Statutes” changed to “Lists of Votive +Statues” + +Page 140: “Cenino Cennini’s curious work” changed to “Cennino Cennini’s +curious work” + +Page 145: “in the from of a” changed to “in the form of a” “Boticelli +first, and aftewards Raffaelle” changed to “Botticelli first, and +afterwards Raffaelle” + +Page 148: “himself to to his friend” changed to “himself to his friend” + +Page 172: “seen Guilio II.” changed to “seen Giulio II.” + +Page 175: “by Timanthus” changed to “by Timanthes” + +Page 195: “Rafaelle himself” changed to “Raffaelle himself” + +Page 206: “it it enough to” changed to “it is enough to” + +Page 210: “example in Pireicus” changed to “example in Pyreicus” + +Page 226: “di volumi autichissimi” changed to “di volumi antichissimi” +“Autichi Popoli Italiani” changed to “Antichi Popoli Italiani” + +Page 228: “noboby now thinks” changed to “nobody now thinks” + +Page 252: “gum sanderach” changed to “gum sandarach” + +Page 261: “he unaccountbly” changed to “he unaccountably” + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75528 *** |