among the indents. ryj 



that confidering the late period* when landfcape 

 painting was introduced among the ancients, 

 together with this manifeft imperfedion in point 

 of perfpeftive, of fuch as are yet extant, we 

 cannot help fufpeding the inferiority of the 

 ancients in this refpefl. In perfpedive, as in 

 Chiaro 'fcuro, had good pradice been common, 

 fome traces would have been difcovered in the 

 works of their loweft artifts. 



And yet fome general knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples, and fome degree of - attention to the 

 praftice of perfpedive, cannot well be denied 

 to the ancients. They were good mathema- 

 ticians, f They were excellent architeds 4 fome 

 of them are celebrated for their fkill in fcene 

 painting. II Geminus, the Rhodian, cotempo- 



^ * Non laudando et Ludio qui divi Aagufti ^tate primus 

 mftituit amaeiuflimam parietum piauram, villas et porti- 

 cus, ac topiaria opera, Jucos Nemora, Colles, Euripos 

 amnes, &c. This may indeed imply that he was the firft 

 who painted the walls of houfes, but the other appears to 

 me the true meaning. 



t Witnefs, Archimedes, Diaphantus, Euclid, &c. 



X This is fufficiently evident: it has often occurred to 

 me, however, that the rules of perfpeftive are reverfedinthe 

 refpeftive fituations of the five orders : the niceft wprk and 

 that which will bear the'minufeft infpedtion (the Ionic 

 and Corinthian), are placed at the top, and the doric order 

 at the bottom of a building. 



II Agatharcus, Democritus, Anexagoras. Vitr. pr-»f 

 ad hb VII. Alfo Claudius Pulcher. Plin. XXXV / 

 I Ihall have occafion to quote thefe pafTagea at length. 



rary 



