442 COSMOS. 



of the master-works of JEschylus and Sophocles, gradually 

 enlarged this branch of art,* by increasing the demand for 

 an illusive imitation of inanimate objects, as buildings, woods, 

 and rocks. 



In consequence of the greater perfection to which sceno- 

 graphy had attained, landscape painting passed amongst the 

 Greeks and their imitators, the Romans, from the stage to 

 their halls, adorned with columns, where the long ranges of 

 wall were covered, at first, with more circumscribed views,f but 

 shortly afterwards with extensive pictures of cities, sea-shores, 

 and wide tracts of pasture-land, on which flocks were graz- 

 ing.;!: Although the Roman painter, Ludius, who lived in the 

 Augustan age, cannot be said to have invented these graceful 

 decorations, he yet made them generally popular, animating 

 them by the addition of small figures. || Almost at the 

 same period, and probably even half a century earlier, we find 

 landscape painting mentioned as a much practised art among 

 the Indians during the brilliant epoch of Vikramaditya. In 

 the charming drama of Salmntala, the image of his beloved is 

 shown to King Dushmanta, who is not satisfied with that 

 alone, as he desires that " the artist should depict the places 

 which were most dear to his beloved, the Malini river, 

 with a sandbank on which the red flamingoes are standing; a 

 chain of hills skirting on the Himalaya, and gazelles resting 

 on these hills." These requirements are not easy to comply 

 with, and they at least indicate a belief in the practicability 

 of executing such an intricate composition. 



In Rome, landscape painting was developed into a separate 

 branch of art from the time of the Caesars ; but if we may 



* Particularly through Agatharcus, or at least according to the rules 

 he established. Aristot. Poet., iv. 16; Vitruv., lib. v. cap. 7, lib. vii. in 

 Praef. (ed. Alois Maxim us, 1836, t. i. p. 292, t. ii. p. 56); compare 

 also Letronne's work, op. cit. p. 271-280. 



f On Objects of Rhopograpliia, see Welcker ad Pldlostr. Imag., 

 p. 397. 



Vitruv., lib. vii. cap. 5 (t. ii. p. 91). 



" Hirt., Gescli. der bildenden Kunste bei den Alien, 1833, s. 332; 

 Letronne, pp. 262 and 468. 



|| Ludius qui primus (?) instituit amcenissimam parietum picturara 

 (Plin. xxxv. 10). The topiaria opera of Pliny, and the varietates 

 topiorum of Yitruvius, were small decorative landscape paintings. The 

 passage quoted in the text of Kalidasa occurs in the Sakuntala, act vi. 



