among the yJncients. ^<ii 



known and univerfally admired among the anci- 

 ents, we fhall have little hefitation in admitting 

 their equality with the moderns fo far as defign is 

 concerned. But Ihould any doubt remain on 

 this point, the drawings from the antiquities of 

 Herculaneum already mentioned, will be ftriking 

 proofs, that truth, elegance and fpirit, in a degree 

 rarely to be met with among the moderns, were 

 habitual even to the common run of artifts in the 

 declining age of ancient painting.* 



The ancients excelled, moreover, not merely in 

 the common and obvious parts of deftgUy but they 

 appear to have had no inconfiderable degree of 

 fkill in the art oi forejhortening. The performance 

 of Paufias is a proof of this. Fecit autem grandes 

 tabulas ficut Jpe£latam in Pompeii Porticihus Bourn 

 immolationem. Earn enim piSturam primus invenit 

 quam pojlea imiiati Junt multi, equavit nemo. Ante 

 omniay cum longitudinem Bovis ojiendere vellet^ adverfum 

 eum pifixit, non tranjverjum^ et abunde intelligitur 

 amplitudo. Dein cum omnes qua volunt eminentia 

 videriy candicantia facianty coloremque condant^ hie 

 totum bovem atri coloris fecit , umbraque corpus ex ipfd 



* It is alfo no flight proof of fkill in defigning, that fo 

 many of the ancient painters, fuch as Paufias, Nicias, &c. 

 undertook large piftures. The moll extraordinary per- 

 formance of this kind was the portrait which Nero caufed 

 to be taken of himfelf upon canvafs (Linteo) whereon he 

 was painted one hundred and twenty Roman feet in 

 height. Plin. XXXV. 33. 



dedit i 



