o 14 
PAINTING. 
.afterwards destroyed by lightning. This was 
tiie only work which is particularly mentioned 
by antient authors to have been painted on 
cloth.. * 
In the. time of Claudius and Nero, the arts 
had considerably degenerated, and in the de- 
c.ine and fall ot the Roman empire they were 
neglected and lost for many centuries. ' 
The best authority to be consulted on the 
state. ot Grecian and 'Roman painting, -is the 
relation Pliny in his 35th book of .natural 
history ; where the reader will find a complete 
list ot the Greek and Roman painters, and of 
their works, arranged in their due classes of 
merit. 
/Elian, Pausanias, Quinctilian, Velleius 
Paterculus, and Cicero, may also be referred 
to for instructive accounts of various works of 
fhe Greek masters^ 
Of ihe methods of painting , and colours 
employed by the antients. 
Ihe paintings of the antient artists were 
• either moveable, or on the ceilings or com- 
partinents of buildings. According to Plinv, 
the most eminent painters were employed on 
moveable pictures. The latter were' either 
on fir-wood, larch, box-wood, or canvas, as 
in the instance or the colossal picture men- 
tioned above, and sometimes on marble. 
When they employed wood, they laid on 
first.ii. white ground. Among the antiqui- 
ties tP Herculaneum are four paintings on 
•white marble. 
I heir immoveable paintings on walls were 
•either in fresco, or on the dry stucco in dis- 
temper. Indeed, all the antient paintings 
may be reduced to, first, fresco-painting ; 
secondly, water-colour or distemper-painting ; 
and thirdly, encaustic painting. 
I he antient fresco-paintings appear to 
have been always on a white stucco-ground. 
Ihe outlines of the antient paintings on 
fresco, were probably done at once, as ap- 
pears from the depth of the incision, and the 
boldness and freedom ot the design. 
In general, the antiems painted on a dry 
ground, even in their buildings, as appears 
from the Herculaneum antiquities, most of 
which are executed in this manner. At 
Rome and Naples, the first (deepest) coat is 
of true Puzzolana (of the same nature with 
the terras now used in mortar, required to 
keep out wet), about one finger thick ; the 
next of ground marble, or alabaster, and 
sometimes of pure lime or stucco, in thick- 
ness about one-third of the former. Upon 
this they appear to have laid a coat of 
black, and then another of red paint ; on 
which last the subject itself was executed. 
Such seems to have been their method of 
painting on walls ; but in their moveable 
pictures, and in the performances of their 
first artists, and where effect of shade and 
light was necessary, they doubtless used 
•white. 
The colours employed, they seem to have 
mixed up with size: this appears to have 
made the colours so durable and adhesive, 
that the ancient paintings lately found, bear 
washing with a soft cloth and water, and 
sometimes even diluted aquafortis is employ- 
ed to clean their paintings in fresco. Pliny 
says, that glue dissolved in vinegar, and then 
dried, is not again soluble. 
What the encaustic painting of the an- 
tients was, has been much disputed. From 
the works of Vitruvius ami Plinv, it appears 
evidently that it was of three kinds : 
first, where a picture painted in the com- 
mon way, was covered with a varnish of wax 
smelted, diluted with a little oil, and laid on 
warm with a brush; 
Secondly, where the colours themselves 
were mixed up with melted wax, and the 
mixture used while warm ; and 
thirdly, where a painting was executed 
on ivory by means of the oestrum or vin- 
culum. 
Some experiments on this last method by 
Mr. Colebrook may be found in the Phil. 
Trans, vcl. 51 and more particular direc- 
tions in Muntz’s treatise on encaustic paint- 
ing. See Encaustic. 
It appears from antient writings of the 
best authority, that in the earliest and pur- 
est times of this art, the painters used few 
colours, perhaps not mire than four. Rut 
no certain conclusion can be drawn, that the 
more early among the great painters of the 
antients, such as ApoRodorus, Zeuxis, Ti- 
manthes, Ac. had no more colours than 
four to use, merely because they did not 
use them. On the contrary, it may be 
conjectured with some degree of probabi- 
lity, from their chasteness in. design, and 
from the complaints Pliny makes of the 
gaudy taste of the Roman painters, that the 
Greeks in general were designedly chaste in 
their .colouring, and not so merely from ne- 
cessity. 
Of white colouring substances, the antients 
had white lead variously prepared, a white 
from calcined egg-shells, and a preparation 
from cretaceous and argillaceous earths. The 
moderns, in addition, have magistery of bis- 
j ninth, little used; and ought to have the 
j calces of tin and zinc. 
J _ Of blacks, the antients had preparations 
j similar to lamp, ivory, blue, and Frankfort 
j hUck ; also to Indian ink, and common writ- 
ing ink ; and they used what we do not, the 
j precipitate of the black-dyers’ vats. 
I The antients possessed a species of ver- 
j railion, or fine cinnabar, a coarser cinnabar, 
i red lead; various earths burnt and unburnt’ 
I apparently similar to our red ochre ; Vene- 
i I‘ an re d, Indian red, Spanish brown, burnt 
j terra di Sienna, and scarlet ochre ; they had 
i rilso a substance alike in colour and in name 
j to our dragon s-blood. See Colours. 
| The yellow pigments of the antients were 
j generally the same with our orpiments, king’s 
i yellow, Naples yellow, &c. They did not 
| possess turbeth mineral, mineral yellow, or 
gamboge; nor do they appear to have known 
ot gall-stone as a pigment. 
Of blue paints they had preparations from 
the lapis syanus, and lapis armenus. Indigo 
they had, and perhaps bice and smalt ; for 
they made blue glass, but whether from some 
ore of cobalt or of wolfram must be uncer- 
tain ; they had not Prussian blue, verditer, 
nor litmus, which we have. We do not use 
the blue precipitate of the dyers’ vats, nor 
mountain blue, which they certainly em- 
ployed. 
Of green colours they had verdigris, 
terra vert, and malachite, or mountain green. 
1 lie latter is not in use among us. Sap 
grwen, green verditer, and Scheeld’s green. 
appear fo have been known to them : like 
us, they procured as many tints as they 
pleased, from blue and yellow vegetables. J 
We have no original purple in use : that 
from gold, by means of tin, though very 
good when well prepared, is too dear per- 
haps, and unnecessary. Their purple was 
a tinged earth. Their orange of Sandarac, 
(red orphrient) we also possess. Hence 
there does not appear to have been any 
gieat want of pigments, or any material dif- 
ference between the colours they used, and 
such as we generally employ. 'Perhaps the 
tml effect of colouring may be obtained 
without the use of exceeding brilliant pig- 
ments, depending chiefly on the proportion 
and opposition ot tints. 
Ihe antients could not know any thin" 
about the spirit varnishes, distillation beiim 
a modern invention; but they were mi- 
doubtedly acquainted with the use of the 
better oil varnishes, that is, with the use and 
ellect of resinous gums, dissolved in boilinjr 
inspissated oils. 15 
One of the best preserved mummies in the 
l-i itish Museum, has an astonishing bright- 
ness ot colours on the outside of the coffin. 
1 fiousands of years have not impaired them - 
liiey are as fresh as if they had been laid on 
yesterday. 
From an accurate observation of one of 
those mummies belonging to the university 
°, Cambridge, it appeared that the varnish 
which covered the colours could not be dis- 
; solved, nor in the least affected by common 
: water, and that it equally resisted the dis- 
solving powers of the strongest spirits ; hence 
it is reasonable to conclude, that the coffins 
of the mummies were not covered with size 
whites of eggs simple gums, or any prepara- 
11011 of wax, but with a fine transparent oil- 
varnish. It was discovered at the same time 
the colours themselves were not prepared or 
mixed with oil ; tor where the external 
glossy skin was damaged, broken, or rubbed 
of even common water would wash the co- 
lours away, and affect the chalk ground 
under them. 
Pliny has described the general and par- 
ticular effects of the varnish of Apelles, under 
the name of atrament, so distinctly, that no- 
oody can mistake the thing, or the mixture 
he is speaking of. He has mentioned the 
shining glossy skin of the varnish, which ex- 
cites the brightness of the colours, and pre- 
serves them against dust ; lie observed, that 
this skm was laid on so thim, that it could 
not be discerned at any distance ; nor was 
fie less accurate in reporting the particular 
effects of that mixture which Apelles made 
use of ; it harmonized, and lowered the tone 
of the brightest florid colours in an inipei^ 
ceptible manner, ami the whole appeared as 
it it had been seen through isinglass. The 
chemists and connoisseurs are fully of opi- 
nion that no liquid substance or mixture of 
any kind is fit to produce these effects be- 
sides the oil-varnishes ; and if there are not 
Apelles and the Greeks were certainly ac- 
quainted with these varnishes : a fact, which 
might be strongly urged in behalf of their 
knowledge of colours. 
1 ho black outlines of the figures of the 
most ancient Greek paintings yet extant 
that is, on Etruscan vases, are so sharp, so 
thick, and drawn in so easy and masterly a 
manner, that one cannot help looking upon 
