410 KN(nYLEDGE OF THE ANCIENTS 



To the mere outline or silhouette, the Corinthian or Sicyo- 

 nian artist, according to Pliny, added strokes to its interior, 

 '-jam tune spargentes tineas intus ; a style wmVh is yet re- 

 tained whenever the quill or the crayon is employed ; and 

 some admirable drawings, in which are still preserved at Home as 

 the production of Polydore of Caravagio, a celebrated pupil of 

 Raphael j the mode of executing which is denominated by the Ita- 

 lians al -grajitto. Our historian then advances to a second f\ 

 regarding the mere outline, and the outline with internal strokes 

 as one and the same, although I cannot but agree with M. Le- 

 tesque, in his very ingenious essay on this subject, (Mem. de 

 1'Instit. Nat. Lit. et B. Arts, I.) that the former must, for a long 

 period, have preceded the latter. This second epoch of I'liny 

 comprises the use of a single colour alone, and its style was, in 

 consequence, denominated by the Greeks, Monochromaton, and is 

 still retained, in modern times, under the appellation of cnmmeo. 

 For this improvement the Uomati historian presents us with two 

 competitors also, without deciding on the superiority of their pre- 

 tensions j Philocles, whom he asserts (o have been of Egypt, and 

 Cleanthes of Corinth. This seems to have been a great improve* 

 ment upon the style of stroke or linear drawing ; for although the 

 former may have been founded upon an observation of the effects 

 of light and shade, and an attempt to introduce such effects upon 

 paper, yet, every attempt must, in the first instance, and by the 

 use of strokes alone, have been harsh and inharmonious ; it must 

 have wanted relief, and been incapable of exhibiting the gradual 

 softness, recession, and rotundity which are every where to be met 

 with in nature. This alone is to be obtained in any high degree, by 

 the introduction of colour, although that colour be, as in the pre. 

 sent instance a monochrome, or simple individual hue, diversified, 

 as we must naturally suppose it to have been, by the gradual ad- 

 mixture of some other substance, which, without presenting any 

 second hue, would progressively modulate its tones ; as when 

 black, for example, is the only tint resorted to, and its different 

 shades are produced by different combinations of white. It is to 

 these melodious combinations of tints, apparently opposite, in which 

 the black alone maintains the supremacy, that the Italians have 

 given the name of chiaro-scuro, or clear obscure. From this 

 advantage gained to the art, it is easy to trace its ascent to the life 

 and harmony of colouring properly so called to the aeras of Panx. 

 nus, Polygnotus, and Zeuxis to the exquisite paintings of the 



