213 
PAINTING. 
at any great degree of excellence in any part of that 
country, previous to the conqueft of Greece by the Ro¬ 
mans; and it muft ftill remain a doubt, whether Etruria 
or Calabria was the parental abode of the arts of Italy. 
They appear certainly to have received more cultivation 
in the former of thofe diftridfs than in the latter, parti¬ 
cularly fculpture; at leaft, there is fomething like evi¬ 
dence of the culture of it in Pliny, w ho mentions, “ that 
the little brazen images, difperfed all over the country, 
were w rought in Tufeany in very ancient times.” 
Whencefoever it were that Rome acquired the little 
tafte (he felt for art, or rather the flight degree of emula¬ 
tion which animated her citizens to enter the paths of 
tafteful cultivation, it is certain, that, during the period 
of her exiftence as a republic, the impetus was very weak, 
and the progrefs, of courfe, of little or no extent. The 
pradfice of painting after the days of Pacuvius, before 
mentioned, was held to be effeminate and difgraceful ; 
and it was not fubfequently engaged in by any refpedfable 
men. The refult, of courfe, was a teftimony to the wif- 
dom of the Greeks; who, in order to enhance the merit 
of the art, ordained, that none but fuch as Roman pride 
excluded fliould prefume to pradlife it. From being re¬ 
garded as contemptible, it adlually became fo ; whereas 
in Greece, being railed in rank and efteem, it became 
truly worthy of both. But what this powerful city could 
not acquire by her own genius, {he endeavoured, after 
her generals became acquainted with the riches of Greece 
and Sicily, to treafure up from the fpoils of thofe coun¬ 
tries. Some of thofe generals to increafe the fplendour 
of their triumphs, and others for private or for public 
ornament, carried pidtures as well as ftatues to Rome, and 
exhibited them to the people; and others again caufed 
pidlures to be painted of their fuccefsful battles, to fti- 
mulate the admiration and applauf'e of the people; and, 
thus tacitly acknowledging the value of the art, upbraided 
their fellow-citizens for negledting the cultivation of it. 
It would be natural to fuppole that, when the fierce- 
nefs and feverity of republican independence gave way to 
the fuavity and more refined manners of a court devoted 
to one perfon ; when literature and fcience were highly 
cultivated, and the example of Greece was before them ; 
that the Romans would not fail to blend the purfuit of 
the elegant arts with the refined luxuries in which they 
indulged. But that does not appear to have been the 
cafe to any great degree. Had it been fo, Pliny, who 
does not eafily lofe fight of the honour of his country, 
would not have failed to mention it; particularly as it 
came fo near the time in which he lived. He gives only 
the names of a few painters then pradtifing, or who had 
pradfifed, being native artifts; and accompanies it with a 
lamentation “ that the art was dying.” Lib. xxxv. cap. 5. 
As no preparation of art had previoufly taken place 
powerful enough to aid the plans of the ftate, when Au- 
guftus law' the ufe to be made of painting by a monarch, 
he very wifely endeavoured to adopt what was ready to 
his hands; and caufed two pictures, painted by Apelles, 
of Alexander vidtorious, and triumphant, to be carried 
to Rome, and placed confpicuoufly in the forum ; images 
of his own power and exaltation, which Claudius Csefar 
more openly proclaimed, when he ordered the heads of 
both pidtures to be cut out, and Auguftus’s portrait 
placed injheir (lead. But the Romans, and Roman em¬ 
perors, whatever fubjedfs they may have created for the 
pencil, found little native talent able, or fufficiently in- 
terefted, to convey them to pofterity in an honourable 
manner by painting ; and, even in fculpture, their beft ar¬ 
tifts were low indeed in comparifon with the Greeks; at 
leaft, no Roman artifts’ names of great repute are handed 
down to us. Both arts were diverted to unworthy ob¬ 
jects : they continued to fall in every valuable quality, 
and painting moft of all; till at length the irruptions of 
the northern nations put an end to both Grecian and 
Roman efforts; and barbarifm, from which Greece is not 
yet redeemed, ufurped the ftations of luxury and refine- 
• Vol. XVIII. No. 1236. 
ment. For near a thoufand years, did the glorious title 
of the cultivator of intelledtual power, the leader among 
nations, in whatever was moft adapted to do honour to 
human nature, appertain to that highly favoured country : 
for a period approaching two thoufand, has fhe fuffered 
degradation and depreflion, even almoft to annihilation. 
Yet her prefent inhabitants are reprefented by travellers 
as ftill the fame animated and ardent race, although bend¬ 
ing to the ftrong hand of power, and, unhappily, under t ie 
influence of a government and religion, whofe tenets for¬ 
bid the extenfion of human knowledge, and whofe power 
is upheld by ignorance and fuperftition. 
Italy, overcome by the fame wild anarchy with Greece, 
groaned not under the weight of the defpotic fpoiler 
more than half the time which her predeceffor in the race 
of nations has bowed, ere the dawnings of fcience beamed 
upon her, and roufed her from the ftate of torpor to which 
flie had been reduced. Even then, Greeks had the ho¬ 
nour of ftimulating her to the cultivation of her native 
powers; till at length that flame was kindled, which, by 
a gradual accumulation of ftrength, w'armed Italian 
breads, and excited them to emulate in arts thofe whom 
their forefathers had fubdued in arms. But the country 
being then under the controul of a fyftem of religion 
which forbade the introdudfion of images into her tem¬ 
ples, the courfe and application of ftudy was neceflarily 
changed, and the art of painting became the principal 
object of attention ; whereas that art, highly as it was 
prized and cultivated by the Grecians in the latter pe¬ 
riods of their exiftence as a ruling power, had remained, 
as we have feen, for a great length of time nearly un¬ 
employed ; v. hilft the fifter-art of fculpture, being moft 
fubfervient to the purpofes of an idolatrous religion, was 
cultivated in fo extraordinary a manner, that the accu¬ 
mulation of its produdlions in ftatues, bas-reliefs, &c. 
both in bronze and marble, became prodigious, and not 
to be imagined by thofe unacquainted with the fadf. Pau- 
fanias fpeaks of 2827 entire ftatues, in the places which he 
travelled through, as remaining in his time, beiides nu¬ 
merous other works of fculpture ; and this was only in a 
part of Greece, and not till after the Romans had, for 
300 years, been plundering the country of innumerable 
beautiful produdfions. Rhodes, it is faid, could boalt of 
3000 ftatues of brafs ; and Nero took, from Delphos 
alone, 500 ftatues. The caufe of this vaft accumulation 
of fculpture is apparent, in the patronage that art de¬ 
rived from the government and the prielthood; who 
found it an ufeful inftriiment in moulding the people to 
their wifltes. They were well acquainted with its influ¬ 
ence upon the minds of men, when fkilfully applied in 
exciting their fympathies, ftimulating their emulation, or 
aflifting in compelling their devotion. The foundation, 
therefore, of the fuper-excellence of this art among the 
Greeks, does not lie very deep for our refearch. What 
elfe could be the refult of fo much and fo conftant an 
employment, for a connedted feries of hundreds of years, 
the conlequent emulation which muft enfue, where fo 
many competitors entered the field; and when, in addi¬ 
tion to the influence of government, fo many eftablilh- 
ments of a religious order were anxious to become con- 
fpicuous, by employing them ? By its means the prieft- 
liood were enriched, and exalted in the eyes of their 
countrymen; adorers were drawn to their fhrines; and 
their favourite divinities more generally worfhipped. 
The fame fentiments and principles, always prefent to 
the ambitious and powerful, and which, under happy au- 
fpices, re-adt for the benefit of the people, operated near 
a thoufand years afterwards upon the government and 
church of Rome; when, by the revival of fcience and of 
art, thefe falutary means of ltrengthening themfelves fell 
into their hands. But, as the lecond commandment of 
the decalogue, by which they were, or rather ought to 
have been, controlled, prohibited the worfhip of images; 
their attention was diredfed to the ufe-which might be 
made of painting, and fculpture was confined to monu- 
3 I mental 
