Chap. 32.] COLOURS USED BY THE ANCIENTS IN PAINTING. 245 



being applied to walls, but is in common use" by way of orna- 

 ment for ships of war, and, indeed, merchant- ships at the present 

 day. As we go so far as to paint these vehicles of danger, no 

 one can be surprised if we paint our funeral piles as well, or 

 if we have our gladiators conveyed in handsome carriages to 

 the scene of death, or, at all events, of carnage. When we 

 only contemplate this extensive variety of colours, we cannot 

 but admire the ingenuity displayed by the men of former 

 days. 



CHAP. 32. — WHAT COLOUES WEEE USED BY THE ANCIENTS IN 

 PAINTING. 



It was with four colours only,'® that Apelles," Echion, 

 Melanthius, and Nicomachus, those most illustrous painters, 

 executed their immortal works ; melinum^" for the white, Attic 

 sil ®^ for the j^ellow, Pontic sinopis for the red, and atramentum 

 for the black f^ and yet a single picture of theirs has sold before 

 now for the treasures of whole cities. But at the present day, 

 when purple is employed for colouring walls even, and when 

 India sends to us the slime^^ of her rivers, and the corrupt blood 

 of her dragons®^ and her elephants, there is no such thing as a 

 picture of high quality produced. Everything, in fact, was su- 

 perior at a time when the resources of art were so much fewer 

 than they now are. Yes, so it is ; and the reason is, as we 



''"^ Called " Inceramenta navium," in Livy, B. xxviii. c. 45. See also 

 Chapters 39 and 41 of this Book. 



'^ Pliny here commits a mistake, which may have arisen from an imper- 

 fect recollection, as Sir. H. Davy has supposed, of a passage in Cicero 

 (Brutus, c. 18), which, however, quite contradicts the statement of Pliny. 

 " In painting, we admire in the works of Zeuxis, Polygnotus, Timanthes, 

 and those who used four colours only, the figure and the lineaments; but 

 in the works of Eehion, Nicomachus, Protogenes, and Apelles, everything 

 is perfect." Indeed Pliny contradicts himself, for he speaks of two others 

 colours used by the earliest painters, the testa trita, or ground earthenware, 

 in Chapter 5 of this Book; and " cinnabaris," or vermilion, in B. xxxiii. 

 c. 36. Also, in Chapter 21 of this Book he speaks of Eretrian earth as 

 having been used by Nicomachus, and in Chapter 25 of ivory black as 

 having been invented by Apelles. 



" These painters will all be noticed in Chapter 36. 



80 See Chapter 19 of this Book, si gee B. xxxiii. c. 56. 



^2 Blue is here excluded altogether, unless under the term " atramen- 

 tum" we would include black and blue indicum, or in other words, Indian 

 ink and indigo. ^^ See Chapter 27 of this Book. 



^ In allusion to ♦' Dragon's blood." See B. xxxiii. c. 38. 



