PAINTING. 



389 



painting in pastel, and oil painting (q. v.). In refer- 

 ence to the ground upon which the picture is mack:, 

 we have tapestry painting and wall painting, glass 

 and porcelain painting, &c. 



History of Pairing. Painting naturally divides 

 itself into the ancient and modern, because there is a 

 decided difference between the two periods of the art. 

 Of an oriental art of painting before the Greek and 

 Roman, not much is to be said, as respects those qua- 

 lities which make painting truly a fine art. In a full 

 history of painting, indeed, the considerable perfec- 

 tion to which the Egyptians had carried the art of 

 representation, and the incomparable excellence 

 which they had reached in some branches of the 

 technical parts of the art, would require to be treated 

 of. Art, in the true acceptation of the word, says a 

 connoisseur, can be attributed only to the idealizing 

 nations, who have borrowed their cultivation from 

 the Greeks ; beyond this limit we find only fantastic 

 colouring to animate large masses or to supply the 

 deficiencies in picture-writing, yet always calculated 

 for a sense dull in respect to the beautiful, capable of 

 being affected only by glaring colours, and subject to 

 the rules of custom and worship. Only in countries 

 where alphabetical writing existed, could painting 

 elevate itself to a fine art. Wherever painting re- 

 mained faithful to its first object, that of conveying 

 historical information, it was obliged to sacrifice the 

 beautiful to the significant. In Egypt and Mexico, 

 the art of painting seems to have been chiefly intend- 

 ed to convey certain information by a bare imitation 

 of objects. The early Hindoo was indemnified, by 

 the variegated charms of the colours which his coun- 

 try afforded, for the want of purity and correctness of 

 drawing. With the ancient Persians, also, the art of 

 painting was undoubtedly what it is still, an irregular 

 mixture of colours, fantastic images, without design 

 and keeping. With the Egyptians, who so decid- 

 edly influenced the civilization of the Greeks, 

 the art of painting was chiefly the offspring of re- 

 ligious wants, and stood in a close yet subordinate 

 relation to sculpture and architecture. Egyptian 

 pictures are found, of the most ancient times, on 

 the walls of temples and in tombs, on the covers and 

 coffins of mummies, and on the rolls of papyrus. 

 Belzoni and Champollion agree as to the great beauty 

 which these pictures, still brilliant on the walls, im- 

 part to the venerable monuments of Egypt. They 

 are hieroglyphic or historical representations, painted 

 works of sculpture, consisting of deeply cut lines, 

 filled with colours or metals, as is the Isiac table a 

 most important monument of that species. The pic- 

 tures on the walls and catacombs are colossal figures, 

 painted wilh deep outlines, and surrounded by smaller 

 pictures. In these also the claims of taste appear 

 subordinate to the clearness of expression, and the 

 durability of the colours, which are laid on without 

 half lints and shades. At a later period, this Egyp- 

 tian painting became common in Rome. See among 

 other W(prks, Bottiger's Ideen zur Archaologie der 

 Malerei (vol. i. Dresden, 1811). We find the eldest 

 Greek school of painting on the coasts of Asia Mi- 

 nor and the islands. Fortunate circumstances here 

 gave an early impulse to the art, the rudiments of 

 which we find even in the Homeric times, in the 

 coloured carpets and weavings. A representation of 

 the defeat of the Magnesians (719 B.C.), by Boular- 

 dms, is mentioned as the first considerable picture ; 

 yet the accounts which we have of it are probably 

 exaggerated. From this source the Greek colonies in 

 Italy and Sicily are said to have received the germs 

 of art. In Greece Proper, also, we find the art of 

 painting originally a companion of sculpture for re- 

 ligious purposes. The idols of the original savage 

 Greek were most probably coloured, so that, even in 



later times, it was long before the Greek could re- 

 solve entirely to give up colouring his statues. The 

 last remnant of tin's was the colouring of the eyes, or 

 the making them of enamel and stones. It was long 

 before painting appeared in sacred pictures indepen- 

 dent of the plastic art. The cornices of the temples, 

 the relievi of the pediments, the galleries, &c. were 

 originally painted. The proper art of painting must 

 have proceeded from drawing, which commenced with 

 fixing the outlines of shadows. From drawings the 

 first step was to monochromes. The next step was to 

 point the contours with one colour, then to represent 

 the roundness of the body by light, shade, and gradation 

 of colour. The most ancient remnants of this way of 

 painting are the pictures on vases with black figures, 

 similar to silhouettes. This manner was continued 

 till late. The style, which was used in painting on 

 coloured wax tables, prepared skins of animals, and 

 smoothed tablets of boxwood, sufficed for the linear 

 drawing, which, according to the anecdote of Apel- 

 les (q. v.) and Protogenes, must have reached great 

 perfection among the Greeks. The polychrome, the 

 drawing with different colours, supposed a more 

 artificial instrument the brush, moved by the hand 

 with greater ease and freedom. Among the few 

 artists of this period, whose names have come down 

 to us, is Penasnus, the cousin and assistant of Phidias. 

 He was the first who contended for the prize of 

 painting at the public games at Corinth and Delphi. 

 His wall pictures in the Athenaeum at Elis, his pic- 

 tures in the temple of Jupiter at Olympia, the paint- 

 ing of the Poecile in Athens, with the battle of Ma- 

 rathon, together with his portraits of the Greek and 

 Persian generals in several pictures, have brought his 

 name to us, as well as his painting and ornamenting 

 of the statue of Jupiter. In general, we must ob- 

 serve that the Persian invasion of Greece makes an 

 epoch in the art of painting, as in every other fine 

 art in Greece. Perhaps it was at an earlier period that 

 Mycon painted. He was the rival of Polygnotus, 

 and also ornamented the Poecile and the Theseum with 

 representations of the battles of the Amazons and 

 Centaurs. In Polygnotus of Thasos the art of paint- 

 ing attained independence about 420 B. C. His 

 merit consists in a greater and livelier expression, 

 in variety of drapery and symmetrical distribu- 

 tion of figures. In the distribution of light and 

 shade, Apollodorus of Athens (404 B. C.) seems to 

 have much advanced the art. Zeuxis (q. v.), about 

 378 B. C. elevated the art to beauty ; he exhibited 

 a canon of beauty in his famous Helen. His rival, 

 Parrhasius of Ephesus, inclined more to grace, or 

 the female expression of beauty. His pure propor- 

 tions and his graceful colouring rendered him famous. 

 Timanthes of Samos attained the highest degree of 

 perfection in expression. Apelles (q. v.) connected 

 with the utmost truth of nature a flattering colour- 

 ing, and is called a master in portrait painting. 

 After him painting sunk into artificial prettiness and 

 insipidity, and even devoted itself to the representa- 

 tion of ordinary and vulgar subjects (typarography) . 

 Among the Romans, this art awakened little interest. 

 At an early period, they knew only the paintings of 

 the Etruscans ; and Fabius, who was surnamed pic- 

 tor, stands alone in the annals of Roman art. At a 

 later period, the Greeks became the teachers of the 

 Romans, when their civic virtue had already gone, 

 and luxury had taken its place. Many monuments 

 of the ancient art of painting have been discovered 

 in the tombs and baths of Rome, Pompeii, and other 

 places of Italy, which consist chiefly of fresco paint- 

 ings and mosaic work. The number of existing 

 monuments of Greek and Roman painting, however, 

 is so small, that the inquirer must often be satisfied 

 with mere conjectures, assisted by comparison with 



