522 On the Art of Painting 



dedit ; magna prorfus arte in aquo extantia ofiendens et 

 in confraSlo Jolida omnia.* None but a good 

 painter would have ventured to exhibit the 

 animal thus facing the fpeftator, and ftill lefs 

 would have hazarded the dark colour of the 

 animal and of the ground, unlefs he had been 

 fomevyhat acquainted with the principles and 

 efFeft of light and fliade.j- 



Toward the latter period of the art, it became 

 falhionable to ornament the apartments of private 

 houfes as well as the walls of temples with frefco 

 paintings. Mod of the ancient paintings now 

 remaining are of this kind j and the ceilings as 

 well as the walls were decorated with paintings. 

 In this purpofe, it is well known, that confiderable 

 Ikill in the art of forefhortening is necelTary, and 

 as the cuftom was common, we may therefore 

 very reafonably conclude, that the ancients at- 

 tained to great excellence in this, as well as in 

 the whole of defign. 



Nor will it be difficult to (hew that the ancient 

 painters were not inferior to the moderns, in 

 EXPRESSION : the department of painting which 

 moft dircdly applies to the feelings of mankind 



• Plin. XXXV. 40. 



f Pliny, fpeaking of a piflure of Jupiter among thofe 

 of Apelles, obferves Digiti eminere 'videntur et fulmen extra 

 tabulam ejfe. In all probability the arm here was fore- 



ihortened. 



at 



