§ 12, 13. USE OP GREEN. 1 7 



mitted. And thus, in their later monuments, the Egyp- 

 tians so increased the proportions of green they had pre- 

 viously used with red, blue, yellow, white, and black, that in 

 the time of the Ptolemies green was the dominant colour, 

 extending even over the whole capital of a column. The 

 number of their colours was always limited ; these six, some- 

 times with gold, were almost the only ones employed on their 

 monuments; brown, purple, and orange-red were rare, ex- 

 cept on papyri, and to these, in later times, pink was added, 

 with orange-red. The Greeks, in like manner, used green 

 very sparingly for ornamentation in their buildings, where red, 

 blue, yellow and gold, black and purple, with some green and 

 white, were the most common * ; and the favourite colours of 

 the Israelites were blue, scarlet, purple, and gold, sometimes 

 on a blue, sometimes on a white (linen) ground. 



13. The same dominant use of the primary colours may be 

 remarked in the draperies painted by the early masters of 

 Italy. Nor did they attach importance to landscapes ; their 

 subjects were human figures; and as early poetry treats of 

 persons rather than detailed descriptions of scenery, so early 

 painting preferred the human figure. It is only when people 

 become artificial, and have long led the conventional life of 

 towns, that they begin to show an unreasonable preference 

 for rural scenes in painting ; and it is then that the reaction 

 in favour of the natural takes place, which has been so well 

 described by Mr. Kuskin. ("Lectures on Painting," iii.) 



But I am far from wishing to underrate the beauty of land- 

 scape, or from thinking that admiration of scenery misplaced, 

 which is so much felt in this country. And if it be true 

 that the Greeks and Komans of old, or the Italians and others 

 of southern climates at the present day, have not enjoyed 



* See below, § 55 Sections III. and IV. ; and Part II. § 59, 60. 



C 



