246 plint's natural HISTORT. [Book XXXV. 



have already stated,^' that it is the material, and not the efforts 

 of genius, that is now the object of research. 



CHAP. 33. AT WHAT TIME COMBATS OP GLADIATORS WERE FIRST 



PAINTED AND PUBLICLY EXHIBITED. 



One folly, too, of this age of ours, in reference to painting, I 

 must not omit. The Emperor Nero ordered a painting of him- 

 self to be executed upon canvass, of colossal proportions, one 

 hundred and twenty feet in height ; a thing till then un- 

 known. ^^ This picture was just completed when it was burnt 

 by Hghtning, with the greater part of the gardens of Mains, 

 in which it was exhibited. 



A freedman of the same prince, on the occasion of his ex- 

 hibiting a show of gladiators at Antium, had the public por- 

 ticos hung, as everybody knows, with paintings, in which 

 were represented genuine portraits of the gladiators and all 

 the other assistants. Indeed, at this place, there has been a 

 very prevailing taste for paintings for many ages past. C. 

 Terentius Lucanus was the first who had combats of gladiators 

 painted for public exhibition : in honour of his grandfather, 

 who had adopted him, he provided thirty pairs of gladiators 

 in the Forum, for three consecutive days, and exhibited a 

 painting of their combats in the Grove of Diana.^' 



CHAP. 34. (8.) THE AGE OF PAINTING; WITH THE NAMES OF 



THE MORE CELEBRATED WORKS AND ARTISTS, FOUR HUNDRED 

 AND FIVE IN NUMBER. 



I shall now proceed to enumerate, as briefly as possible, the 

 more eminent among the painters ; it not being consistent with 

 the plan of this work to go into any great lengths of detail. 

 It must suffice therefore, in some cases, to name the artist in a 

 cursory manner only, and with reference to the account given of 

 others ; 'with the exception, of course, of the more famous pro- ' 



85 In Chapter 2 of this Book. 



s^ From -the construction of the passage, it is difficult to say whether he 

 means to say that such colossal figures were till then unknown in paint- 

 ing, or whether that the use of canvass in painting was till then unknown. 

 If the latter is the meaning, it is not exactly correct, though it is probable 

 that the introduction of canvass for this purpose was comparatively late ; 

 there being no mention of its being employed by the Greek painters of the 

 best periods. 



^^ See B. iii. c.9, B. xiv. c. 3, and B. xvi. c. 91. 



