474 



SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[Part IV. 



Hence even the most modern embellishments m the 

 temples have an air of remote antiqnity. The colonrs 

 are tempered with gnm ; and but for their inferiority 

 in drawing the human figure, as compared wdth the 

 Egyptians, and their defiance of the laws of perspective, 

 their inharmonious tints, coupled with the whiteness 

 of the ground-work, would remind one of similar pecu- 

 liarities in the paintings in the Thebaid, and the caves 

 of Beni Hassan. 



Fa Hian describes in the fourth century precisely 

 the same series of subjects and designs which are deh- 

 neated in the temples of the present day, and taken 

 from the transformation of Buddha. With hundreds of 

 these, he says, painted in appropriate colours and ex- 

 ecuted in imitation of fife, the king caused both sides 

 of the road to be decorated on the occasion of religious 

 processions.^ 



and almost the rapidity of maclii- 

 neiy, endless facsimiles of pictiu'es 

 in rigid conformity with a recognised 

 code of instructions drawn up under 

 ecclesiastical authority and entitled 



'Epprii'iid rijg Zioypai! ikijc, " The 

 Guide for Painting," a literal trans- 

 lation of which lie has pviblished. 

 This very curious manuscript con- 

 tains minute directions for the 

 figures, costume, and attitude of the 

 sacred characters, and for the pre- 

 paration of many hundreds of histo- 

 rical subjects required for the de- 

 coration of churches. The artist, 

 when solicited by M. Didron to 

 sell " cette bible de son art," na- 

 ively refused, on the simple gi-onnd 

 that " s'il se depouillait de ce livre, 

 il ne poun-ait plus rien faire ; en 

 perdant son Guide, il perdait son 

 art, il perdait ses yeux et ses mains " 

 (ib. p. xxiii.). It was not till the 

 fifteenth century that the painters of 

 Italy shook themselves free of the 

 authority of the Latin church in 

 matters of art. The second council 

 of Nice arrogates to the Roman 

 church tlie authority in such mat- 

 ters still retained by the Greek j 



" non est imaginum stinictm-a picto- 

 rum inventio sed ecclesiae catholicfe 

 probata legislatio et traditio." In 

 Spain, the sacro-pictorial law, under 

 the title of Pictor Ckristiamis, was 

 promulgated, in 1730, by Fray Juan 

 de Ayala, a monk of the order of 

 jNIercy ; and such subjects are dis- 

 cussed as the shape of the true cross ; 

 whether one or two angels should sit 

 on the stone by the sepulchre ? and 

 whether the Devil shoidd be drawn 

 with horns and a tail ? In the Na- 

 tional Gallery of London there is a 

 painting of the Holy Family by Be- 

 nozzo Gozzoli, and Sir Charles L. 

 Eastlake has permitted me to see a 

 contract between the painter and his 

 employer A.D. 1461, in which every 

 figure is literally " made to order," 

 its attitude bespoke, and its place 

 in the composition distinctly agreed 

 for. One clause, however, contem- 

 plates progress, and binds the painter 

 to make the piece his chef-d'oeuvre — 

 " che detta dipentm-a exceda ogni 

 buona dipintura infino aqui facto per 

 detto Benozzo." 



1 Foe Koue Ki, ch. xxxviii. p. 335, 



