5 1 6 On the Art of Painiing 



with celeftial fplendour far excelling the colours 

 of the rainbow. In the I'yrrheni the fea monfter, 

 raifed by Bacchus, was of a fea-green colour. And 

 in the Hunters, a moft exquifite purple is men- 

 tioned as the colour of one of their cloaks. 



" How much more fplendid, fays Cicero,* 

 ** in brilliance and variety of colours, are the 

 " paintings of modern days, than thofe of the 

 " ancients ! but however attradive at firft view, 

 " they are not fo permanently pleafing." 



But not to multiply quotations from ancient 

 authors concerning paintings that no longer 

 remain, it will be fufficient to refer to the paf- 

 fages noticed below, -j- from modern defcriptions 

 of difcovered antiques, which fully confirm the 

 fame point. 



Indeed, no certain conclufion can be drawn 

 that the more early among the great painters 

 of the ancients, fuch as Apollodorus, Zeuxis, 

 Timantes, &c. had no more colours to ufe than 



the 



• Quanto colorum pulchrhudine et varietate floridiora 

 funt in pifturis novis pleraque quam in veteribus ! quas 

 tamen etiamii primo afpeftu nos ceperunt, diutius non 

 del'.'flant. De Orat. 3. 



+ Among the Alcuni Ob/ervazioni at 'the end of the firft 

 and fecond volumes of the Antiquities of Herculaneum, 

 publjfted. by order of the king of Naples, mention is 

 made of painted peacocks and doves among the other 

 reliques. 



Montfaucon (Suppl. a I'Antiq. p. 161.) defcribes 3 

 beautiful painted ceiling in frefque, from which it appears 



not 



