32 
some substances, regarding which he sets down only the most 
apparent, and often unimportant characters, as colour, weight, 
locality, &c. 
For the origin of the pigments employed by the Eomans in 
decoration, we must, in a great measure, look to the Grreeks. 
The pictures of the great Grreek Masters are entirely lost. They 
disappeared dm’ing the wars waged by the Eomans with the 
successors of Alexander, and the later Grreek republics. The 
subjects of many of these pictures are described by Pliny and 
other classical authors, and some idea of the manner and style 
of the Greek artists may, I presume, be gained from the 
designs of the so-called Etruscan vases which were executed 
by the artists of Magna Grecia, and some of which are probably 
copies of celebrated works or portions of them; whilst some 
faint notion of their execution and colouring may be gained 
from the paintings in fresco found at Herculaneum and 
Pompeii. It may truly be said that these paintings are not 
of Greek execution, yet we are certain at the period when 
Eome was the metropolis of the world, that the fine arts were 
cultivated in that city almost entirely by Greek artists, or at 
least by artists of the Greek school. Pliny is difiuse on this 
subject in book xxxv., and by comparing his descriptions 
with those of Vitruvius and Theophrastus, it will be found that 
the same materials for colouring were used at Eome and 
Athens. Pliny mentions thirty great painters, whose works 
w^ere known to the Eomans, of these only tw-o are expressly 
mentioned as being born in Italy, and the remainder w^ere 
Greeks. 
Whatever may be theii* origin w^e do know that the coloui’s 
used by the Eomans were brilliant, and the contrasts of the 
frescoes strong, and those competent to form an opinion consider 
them to be of much excellence, and in fact the minor ornaments 
have led to the foundation of the Arabesque style, largely used 
for docoration in modern times. But there is another point of 
riew besides that of art proper, from w'hich they may be view'ed 
by affording information with respect to the nature and chemical 
composition of the colours used by these ancient artists, and it 
is that which I propose to consider. 
