among the Ancients.' 581 



The fame praife however can hardly be af- 

 forded them as landjcape ;paintersy a branch of 

 the art adopted at a late period, and in which 

 the ancients appear to have been Angularly defi- 

 cient. Ludius, in the time of Auguftus, is men- 

 tioned by Pliny as the firft profeffed landfcape 

 painter, and the kind of praife given to him, does 

 not convey to a modern reader any very high 

 idea of the tafte of the author^ or the fkill of 

 the painter.* 



I have before obferved that our only know- 

 ledge of the ftate of painting among the ancients 

 muft be derived from exprefiions in the works of 

 ancient authors, or the remaining performances 

 of ancient artifts. Both thefe fpecies of evidence 

 (fo far as I have found) are decidedly unfavour- 

 able to the pretenfions of the ancients as land- 

 fcape painters. Ludius is the only perfon whom 

 I can find mentio;ied as having attended to this 

 branch of painting : he lived in the time of 

 Auguftus Casfar, when the art of painting was 

 rather declining than advancing: we hear of no 

 fubfequent painter of his fchoql : the terms in 

 which he is mentioned do not exhibit that know- 

 ledge of the fubjeft which is confpicuous in the 

 cxprefiions of Pliny, when he notices the perform- 

 ances of eminent painters in other ftyles : it js 



• Hon fraudando et Ludio, &c. already quoted from Plin. 

 XXXV. 37. 



P p 3 alfo 



