24 Inquiries into the encaustic Painting of the Ancients. 



Wax, therefore, was the vehicle of t'le colours of ihe ancients. 

 The dryuig oils supplied its place, iour centuries a£ o ; and it is 

 to John of Bruges that this discovery has been referred, which 

 has been since generally adopted. Now that we knovv :is merits 

 and delects, we must be permitted a few reflections on its just 

 value. 



The drying oils may of course be mixed with great facility 

 v,-ith colours, forming with them a very manageable article: the 

 finest and most delicate tints may tlms be given : the painting 

 in oil dries quickly, and the work of the artist is never tbereby 

 suspended; l)ut on the other hand, the drying oils become yel- 

 low when they come in contact vviih the air, and spoil the 

 purest colours; the white becomes yellow; the blues, with the 

 exception of ultra-marine which is almost indestructible, become 

 green ; the tints hold out irregularly, the transparent tints are 

 obliterated by age. The coats of paint superposed, ac in a dif- 

 ferent way ; speedily tbere is no more harmonv in the tones, in 

 the shadings, nor among the various parts. The oil which is 

 dried, progressively and constantly becomes resinous, cracks, 

 scales off, and falls from the canvass in consequence of shrinking. 

 All these defects are inseparable from the use of drying oils; and 

 if the works of some schools have partly escaped these altera- 

 tions, it is to the use of a small nunlber of inalterable colours that 

 we owe their preservation. Most of the fine pictines of our 

 museums now exhibit nothing to our admiration but correct- 

 ness of drawing, fine harmony of composition, character and 

 expression in the figures ; for the painting, properly speaking, 

 no longer exists, and the authors of some of these fine works 

 would not know their own pictures, if they saw them at pre- 

 sent. 



We must therefore adopt some other method of painting, if 

 we are animated with the noble ambition of working for po- 

 sterity; and we shall hazard a iew observations on the use of 

 wax, as a method of preparing canvass, and afterwards serving 

 as a vehicle for colours. 



The ancients prepared the base of their pictures with a coat- 

 ing of coloured or colourless wax, which they made even by ap- 

 plying heat to it : they afterwards painted over it : " Item muris 

 ohducelant cerce loricam, in eaqiie plngebanf,''' says Vossius. It 

 appears that they sometimes used oil to soften the wax ; which 

 was attended with the inconvenience of making the latter run 

 when a \varin body was brought close to it, with a view to unite 

 and polish the coat. Thus Vitruvius, in speaking of this pro- 

 cess, makes use of .he words sudare cogat ; which proves that 

 the oil is detached, and forms an obstacle to the junction of 

 the wax ; an inconvenience which I have experienced on re- 

 peating 



