540 On the Art of 'Painting 



Thefe praifes, however, relate chiefly to the 

 ftile of colouring of the ancient painters, as ex- 

 erted upon fingle figures or particular tints. It 

 niay therefore be doubted, whether the ancients 

 were poffelTed of the art of diftributing their 

 colours through the whole of a pidure fo as to 

 produce an harnnony and general tone of colour- 

 ing fimilar to that which we admire in the 

 Lombard and Flemifh fchools. I confefs I am 

 not perfedly decided upon this point. The 

 prefent remains of ancient paintings do not 

 appear to warrant any fuch conclufion, but their 

 authority is very fmall when alleged againji the 

 general or particular merit of the ancient artifts ; 

 being undoubtedly the works of inferior hands. 

 I incline however, upon the whole, to think that 

 the ancients did attend to this technical branch 

 of colouring, chiefly upon the authority of the 

 extrafls I am about to adduce. 



Indeed the modern technical exprefllons ap- 

 pear borrowed from the following pafTage of 

 Pliny,* which I have been almofl: tempted to 

 regard as decifive on the fubjeft. "Tandem Jeje ars 

 ipja difiinxity et invenit Lumen atque umbras, 

 differentia colormt alternd vice feje excitante. Dein 

 adjeSlus eft fplendor; alius hie quam lumen -y qutm 

 quia inter hoc et umbram ejfet appellaverunt tonon, 

 Commiffuras verb color um et tranfitusy harmogen. • 



• XXXV. II. 



It 



