Nature and Art, June 1, 1866.] 
FOREIGN ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES. 
19 
furnish you with a coloured drawing, and a 
skeleton-sketch. I claim the student’s attention 
to the numbers by which each line is indicated on 
the latter, and would recommend the adoption of 
the plan in all sketches of a similar kind. 
I have selected my subject for its simplicity. 
It is composed of only four separate masses, and 
these are so arranged as to afford a variety of 
angles, as well as of quantities — no two being 
alike. Repetition of forms, or rather direction 
of lines and sameness of quantity or size, should 
always be avoided ; and with this view the 
artist frequently alters his position. The same 
scene, from different points of view, will assume 
quite a different composition ; therefore, the 
manner in which the several lines constituting 
the forms come together should be most carefully 
studied ; and a point should be selected by the 
sketcher whence they appear to have the most 
graceful bearing, and to intersect each other, with- 
out violent contrasts, at the angles. 
In the outline sketch, the line No. 1 is the 
water-line, and is continued across the paper ; 2, a 
water-line above it, giving the base of the mountain 
on the right hand; 3, the angles of the pro- 
montory ; 4, the angle of the direction of the side 
of the near mountain ; 5 and 6, the angles of 
the summit ; 7, the angle of the central mountain 
from the point over the promontory ; 8, change of 
angle to the top ; 9, also a change of direction to 
the right, notice being taken of its exact incidence 
upon the line 4 ; 10 and 1 1 give the angles of the 
next mountain ; 12 and 13 show the most distant 
hill. O is an imaginary line drawn horizontally 
across the top of the central mountain as a guide for 
the relative heights of the others ; and it is import- 
ant this should be strictly observed. After these 
lines of direction and position are correctly placed, 
the undulating and broken outlines (also numbered) 
are to be given with precision ; seeing that each 
line represents the character of the rocks, and the 
slope of the different surfaces : as, for example, 
in the broken ground of the promontory, the trees 
at its top edge, and the rising ground at the base 
of the near mountain to the right. 
If attention be paid to the method by which 
these several lines follow in succession, much less 
difficulty will be experienced in any after-sketches. 
The boat was put in to fill the vacant space in the 
water, and as a balance to the drawing. 
The pencil outline being complete, it will be 
better to fix it by washing the drawing with plain 
water, or a slight wash of yellow ochre and lake, or 
neutral orange. Cobalt alone is employed for the 
sky, and is taken over the distant mountains and 
top of the near one. A tint of cobalt and lake, 
with a little yellow ochre, is then passed over the 
distant mountains, and changed, for the nearer hill 
and crags, to yellow ochre and lake, with a small 
portion of cobalt to check the brightness of the 
orange tone. Yellow ochre alone is used for the base 
and upper portion of the water, and changed again to 
cobalt about midway to the bottom of the drawing. 
The whole of the paper being covered, the various 
shadows are to be introduced in the distance, and 
also on the large portions of crag on the right. 
Cobalt, lake, and yellow ochre are used in different 
degrees ; and the warm light tones washed in over 
the shadows. Raw umber, gamboge, cobalt, and 
lake are the colours for the herbage on the promon- 
tory, and are put on with a tint of much power, 
changing the character of tone where required. The 
different colours of the broken and rocky surface 
are glazed over the groundwork of grey previously 
laid on. The white bits of stone at the water’s 
edge are most useful in causing the eye to fall on 
that part of the drawing, thereby giving a breadth 
to the whole of the half-tones above, and preventing 
the gleam of light on the near mountain from being 
a spot. For this purpose also, the spots of light at 
the edge and top of the lower range of crag on the 
right are serviceable in drawing the attention and 
giving value to the bright tones of the slopes 
covered with sunburnt grass and heather. The water 
is simply cobalt in a straight wash, and for the 
darker lines a little yellow ochre and lake are to be 
added. If the fingers are placed over the boat, the 
sketch will be seen to want interest and the weight 
of colour at the left and in the deep shadows of the 
rocks to the right will be excessive. It was there- 
fore necessary to overpower these by some object of 
greater strength and by a little bright colour. The 
wdiite, again, gives tone to the surface of the water 
by its colourless contrast. For the bright yellow 
tints, gamboge is employed ; and for the red tones, 
gamboge with lake or rose madder. 
FOREIGN ARCHAEOLOGICAL NOTES. 
A FEW years since, the discovery of rude cari- 
catures of the Crucifixion, scratched on the 
walls of the imperial palace at Rome, which had been 
covered for centuries by an adjoining building, 
created considerable sensation in the. archaeological 
world. A fac simile of one of these scratchings 
appeared in English publications, and was copied 
into M. Champfleury’s history of caricature amongst 
the ancients, published in Paris last year. Ac- 
counts from Pompeii state that similar productions 
have been found there. “ In the palace of the 
Edile Pansa, in the Street of Fortune,” says the 
report, “ has just been found an engraved cross, not 
finished, bearing inscriptions and caricatures re- 
lative to a crucified God.” If this be true, we hope 
some of our countrymen in Italy will furnish us 
with a careful report on the subject; for such 
evidences, although of a painful kind, are highly 
valuable. 
Recent excavations in Egypt have also yielded 
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