490 



SCIENCES AND SOCIAL ARTS. 



[PART IV. 



quartz of Ceylon being less favourable to such works than 

 the sandstone of Cuttack, or the trap formations of the 

 western ghauts. 



Oil-painting. In decorative art, carving and mould- 

 ing in chunam were the principal expedients resorted 

 to. Of this substance were also formed the "beads 

 resplendent like gems ; " the " flower-ornaments " resem- 

 bling gold ; and the " festoons of pearls," that are more 

 than once mentioned in describing the interiors of the 

 palaces. 1 Externally, painting was applied to the dago- 

 bas alone, as in the climate of Ceylon, exposure to the 

 rains would have been fatal to the duration of the colours, 

 if only mixed in tempera ; but the Singhalese, at a very 

 early period, were aware of the higher qualities possessed 

 by some of the vegetable oils. The claim of Van Eyck 

 to the invention of oil-painting in the 15th century, has 

 been shown to be untenable. Sir Charles L. Eastlake 2 

 has adduced the evidence of ^Etius of Diarbekir, to prove 

 that the use of oil in connection with art 3 was known 

 before the 6th century ; and Dioscorides, who wrote 

 in the age of Augustus, has been hitherto regarded as 

 the most ancient authority on the drying properties of 

 walnut, sesamum, and poppy. But the Mahawanso 

 affords evidence of an earlier knowledge, and records 

 that in the 2nd century before Christ, " vermilion paint 

 mixed with tila oil," 4 was employed in the building of 

 the Euanwelle dagoba. This is, therefore, the earliest 

 testimony extant of the use of oil as a medium for paint- 



1 Mahawanso, ch. xxvii. p. 163. 



2 EASTLAKE'S Materials for a His- 

 tory of Oil Painting, ch. i. p. 18. 



3 AethlS BijSXi'ov iarptKOV. 



* Tila or tala is the Singhalese 

 name for sesamum from which the 

 natives express the gingeli oil. SIB. 

 CHARLES L. E\STLAKE is of opinion 

 that " sesamum cannot be called a 

 drying oil in the ordinary acceptation 



of the term," but in this passage of 

 the Mahawanso, it is mentioned as 

 being used as a cement. A question 

 has been raised in favour of the claim 

 of the Egyptians to the use of oil in 

 the decoration of their mummy cases, 

 but the probability is that they were 

 coloured in tempera and their per- 

 manency afterwards secured by a 

 varnish. 



