no 



course must make it apprar larger to us when viewed 

 on the horizon, than when seen in the zenith." 



7. Most of the learned deny the ancients the advan- 

 tage of having known the rules of perspective, or of 

 having put them in pr; ctice; although Vitruvius makes 

 men t ion of the principles of Democritus and A naxagoras, 

 respecting that science, in a manner that plainly shows 

 they were not ignorant of them. " Anaxagoras and 

 Democritus,'' says he, " were instructed by Agatarch- 

 us the disciples of Eschylus. They both of them taught 

 the rules of drawing, so as to imitate from any point 

 of view the prospect that lay in sight, by making the 

 lines in their draught, issuing from the point of view 

 there, exactly resemble the radiation of those in nature, 

 insomuch that, however ignorant any one might be of 

 the rules whereby this was performed, yet they could 

 not but know at sight the edifices, and other prospects 

 which ottered themselves in the perspective scenes they 

 drew for the decoration of the theatre ; where, though 

 all the object's were represented on a plain surface, 

 yet they swelled out, or retired from the sight, just as 

 objects do endowed with all dimensions." Again he 

 says, u that the painter, Apatarius, drew a scene for 

 the theatre at Tralles, which was wonderfully pleasing 

 to the eye, on account that the artist had so well ma- 

 naged the lights and shades, that the architecture ap- 

 peared in reality to have all its projections." Plato, 

 in two or three places of his dialogues, speaks in such 

 * a manner ot the effects of perspective, as makes it 

 evident that he was acquainted with its principles. 

 Fiiny says, u that Pamphiitis, who was an excellent 

 painter, applied himself much to the study of geometry, 

 and maintained, that without its aid it was impossible 

 ever to arrive at perfection in that art:" which holds 

 certainly true with respect to perspective. And a 

 little farther he uses an expression, which can allude 

 to nothing but pvrspei tiu- ; when ho says, u that 

 Apelk-s tell short oi Asclepiudorus in the art of laying 

 dowu distances in his pamtiugs," jLucian^ in iiis Uia- 



