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CHAP. IU. 



IMITATIVE ARTS, COMPRISING, DESIGNING, PAINTING, 

 ENAMELLING, I'RINTING, LNGRAVING, SCULPTURE, 

 .POTTERY, AND POKCK L A Itf-M (7DELL1 N G. 



SECTION I. 



Knowledge of the Ancients in respect to the Imitative Artt. 



IT was not, to the philosophy of light, shade, and colours 

 alone, that the ancients directed their attention. They made a 

 practical use of them in the elegant arts of designing and painting, 

 in all the different branches of which they acquired a degree of 

 perfection which may well vie with that of later ages. Those who 

 have studied the history of these arts, as anciently but satisfacto. 

 rily compiled by Pliny, must be convinced, that there is scarcely 

 a style of modern drawing or colouring which was not known to 

 the Greeks ; who united to these exquisite accomplishments all the 

 collateral ramifications of embroidery, tapestry, brocading, da. 

 mask. work, in the time of Homer denominated g|X7raicrra,and every 

 species of mosaic, which, according to the Roman annalist, had 

 a different denomination assigned to each. Thus, we meet with 

 one set of arranged and coloured stones which was called Uthos. 

 trata; another, opus tesselatum ; a third, musivum ; fourth, em. 

 blematical ; and a fifth, vermiculatum ; many of several kinds 

 of which are still carefully preserved in St. Peter's church at 

 Rome, and contribute, in no small degree, to the splendour 

 of that magnificent edifice. Their inlaid works, however, were 

 not confined to stone and marble; they extended to horn, tor. 

 toise.shell, and ivory : and Pliny makes express mention of se. 

 veral exquisite proofs of their taste and ingenuity in inlaying ta- 

 bles, and other furniture, with a mixture of ivory, and woods or 

 barkb differently coloured, so as to produce the effect of a finished 

 picture or medallion. 



From whom the Greeks derived their first knowledge of de. 

 signing we know not. According to Pliny, Telephanes of Sicyon 

 and Ari'ires of Corinth equally contended for the honour} but the 

 species of design he first adverts to, an invention, indeed, prior to 

 the aera that can be ascribed to these artists, is the rude and in* 



