223 



BOOK XXXV. 



AN ACCOUNT OF PAINTINGS AND COLOUES. 



CHAP. 1. (1.) — THE HONOUR ATTACHED TO PAINTING. 



I HATE now given at considerable length an account of the 

 nature of metals, which constitute our wealth, and of the 

 substances that are derived from them ; so connecting my 

 various subjects, as, at the same time, to describe an immense 

 number of medicinal compositions which they furnish, the 

 mysteries^ thrown upon them by the druggists, and the tedious 

 minutiae of the arts of chasing,^ and statuary,^ and of dyeing.* 

 It remains for me to describe the various kinds of earths and 

 stones; a still more extensive series of subjects, each of which 

 has been treated of, by the Greeks more particularly, in a great 

 number of volumes. For my own part, I propose to employ a 

 due degree of brevity, at the same time omitting nothing that 

 is necessary or that is a product of Nature. 



I shall begin then with what still remains to be said with 

 reference to painting, an art which was formerly illustrious, 

 when it was held in esteem both by kings and peoples, and 

 ennobling those whom it deigned to transmit to posterity. 

 Eut at the present day, it is completely banished in favour 

 of marble, and even gold. For not only are whole walls now 

 covered with marble, but the marble itself is carved out or 

 else marqueted so as to represent objects and animals of 

 various kinds. No longer now are we satisfied with formal 

 compartitions of marble, or with slabs extended like so many 

 moimtains in our chambers, but we must begin to paint the 

 very stone itself! This art was invented in the reign of 

 Claudius, but it was in the time of Nero that we discovered the 

 method of inserting in marble spots that do not belong to it, 



^ " Officinarum tenebrse ;" probably in reference to the ignorance dis- 

 played by the compounders of medicines, as pointed out in B. xxxiii. c. 38, 

 and in B. xxxiv. c. 25.— B. ^ See B. xxxiii. c. 55. 



3 See B. xxxiv. c. 9. ^ See B. xxxiii. c. 36, 



