572 On the Art of Tainting- 



artifts nor connoifleurs) prevent us from viewing 

 them without a mixture of difgufl:. 



Et Pudor averfos texit velamine vultus.* 



I have dwelt thus long upon the fubjeft of 

 coutume becaufe I deem it of great importance 

 to the perfeftion of the art; and the breach of 

 it, the mod palpable fault of the fuperior paint- 

 ers of modern times: fo far as the obfervations 

 relate to the prefervation of public decency, I 

 hope and truft they will meet the concurrence 

 of every friend to the welfare of fociety. 



It has been doubted, whether the ancients 

 were acquainted with the fcience of perspective. 

 And indeed if the remains of ancient painting 

 were alone to decide the queftion, it muft be 

 determined againft themj for the works of the 

 ancient painters now in the poflefTion of the 

 moderns, afford no proof of attention to the 

 rules of perfpe6bive equal to the performances of 

 a modern fign painter. The pifture of the 

 *' Sacrifice," before-mentioned, among the Her- 

 culanean antiquities, and tjie fourth of the prints 

 which Bellori has publifhed and defcribed, taken 

 from the paintings in the fepulchre of the Nafo- 

 nii, are barely tolerable : but the other land- 

 fcapes (almoft the only remaining antique paint- 

 ings which admit of perfpeftive) are grofsly 

 defcdive in this particular. So much fo indeed, 



* Abbe dsj Marfy. 



that 



