amofig the Ancients, 54 1 



It would be difficult to exprefs more accuratel7, 

 in plainer language, or in fewer words, the light 

 md Jhade* of a picture j the general tone of 

 colouring, and the handlings or (kilful blending 

 and foftening of colours into one another. le 

 fliould feem clear from this paffage, that the 

 ancients paid an attention to the colouring of a 

 pifture as a whole-, and that they not only 

 adjufted the artificial fubordination of lights and 

 ftiades, but the management of the various colours, 

 fo as to produce a diftinft general efFedt. There 

 are, however, many other paffages among the 

 ancient writers, which will induce us to conclude 

 that they were acquainted with the general theory 

 of colouring. Lucian,f in his fine defcription 

 of that fpirited painting by Zeuxis of the male 

 and female Centaurs, after relating the treatment 

 of the fubjedt itfelf, proceeds to notice the tech- 

 nical execution of the pidture : and he praifes 



• I fhould have regarded the Lumen atque umbras of this 

 paffage as ifterely defcriptive of ihe light and ffiade necef- 

 fary to relieve fingle figures, if it were not for the fub- 

 fequent definition of tone. The harmogen of Pliny, I take 

 to mean the handling, or the llile of pencilling, fo as to 

 leave a degree of finifh or otherwife upon the pidlure, 

 rather than what we now call harmony, or the ufe of fuch 

 tints in fuch maiTes or proportions, and in fuch parts of the 

 pidure refpefliveJy to each other as fall well ia unifoa 

 together, and unite to make the painting feem a nuhole as 

 to the colouring of it. 



t In his Zenxis. 



particularly 



