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P A I N r 
and employed, encauftic painting, in the ancient ages of 
their greatnefs and fplendour. This fa ft lias been de¬ 
duced from valuable fragments of the bandages and co¬ 
verings of mummies painted in this manner. A mummy 
of this kind is mentioned in a treatife entitled “ Antichita 
della Pittura encaufta ;” Rome, 1797. No oil-painting, 
it is faid, perhaps only two or three hundred years old, 
exhibits a white paint that has kept fo well as that feen on 
the fragment to which we have alluded ; and this cir- 
cumftance fufficienily proves the valuable advantage 
which that method poflefi'es when compared with the 
common oil-painting. The wax, inftead of becoming 
black by the contaft of the atmofphere, as drying-oil 
does, acquires increafing whitenefs, and, according to its 
natural quality, is not decompofed in the air, and does 
not ftrongly attraft the oxygen of the calces, or metallic 
afhes, which are commonly ufed in painting. That beau¬ 
tiful white, which may be obferved in the Egyptian en¬ 
cauftic above mentioned, is, as the author of the treatife 
juft mentioned apprehends, nothing elfe but a fimple 
earth, and, according to his chemical experiments, a’chalk, 
(creta,) which is alio unalterable. If we confider this 
encauftic fragment, fays our author, as belonging to the 
epoch of the firft violent change which the religious fyf- 
tem of the Egyptians experienced, it will be a fpecimen 
of painting about 2500 years old ; for fuch is the number 
of the years that have elapfed fince Cambyfes overturned 
the ceremonies and religious worfhip of the Egyptians, 
not only by the fword, but by the Hill more powerful 
weapons of ridicule. Dead bodies were embalmed there 
in the time of Herodotus ; but the cloth in which they 
w'ere wrapped, or the bandages bound round them, were 
no longer painted with facred charafters. The bodies 
were only enclofed in wooden cafes, which were more or 
lefs ornamented. If Bochart and Menage be not mifta- 
ken, the name mummia is derived from muim, which fig- 
nifies wax; and one might therefore believe, that the 
drefs of embalmed bodies was thus named becaufe wax 
was employed for painting it; and thence it would fol¬ 
low, that the fragment in queftion may be claffed among 
the oldeft. Petronius praifes the frefh appearance which 
the valuable works of Zeuxis and Apelles had, even in 
his time; but Cicero, on the other hand, fpeaks of the 
paintings of the ancients having fuffered from blacknefs. 
The former is fuppofed to have fpoken of wax-painting, 
and the latter is prefumed to have alluded to paintings in 
oil. Theauthor, whofe fentiments weare now exprefling, 
detached twenty-four grains of the encauftic painting 
from the above-mentioned Egyptian fragment; and, in his 
mode of examining it, the mixture of 100th part of a fo¬ 
reign fubftance would have been difcovered with the 
greateft certainty: he muft, he fays, have perceived the 
refill of Requeno, nor could the alkali of Bachelier and 
Lorgna have efcaped his notice. But in this Egyptian 
encauftic Jie found nothing except very pure wax, though he 
varied his analyfis in every known method. 
From the words of Vitruvius above cited, it appears 
that the Romans, who copied the Grecian procefs, which 
was borrowed from the Egyptians, mixed the wax with an 
oil to make it pliable under the brufh, but no maftic, al¬ 
kali, or honey, as fome have imagined, was employed ; 
what this oil was, it is not eafy to afcertain. It does not 
appear that they ufed thole fat oils which are commonly 
called drying-oils, becaufe they could have employed 
thofe as we do, without the addition of wax, which would 
have been altogether fuperfluous. Fat oils which do 
not dry would not have been proper for that purpofe, as 
they would have kept the wax continually in a foft ftate. 
Our author luppofes, that the Egyytians, in order to ufe 
wax in their encauftic painting, muft have combined it 
with an ethereal volatile oil, of which no traces fliould 
afterwards remain ; and that, though they might be un¬ 
acquainted with the art of feparating ethereal oils from 
the many fubftances which they contain, they-certainly 
were acquainted with a very volatile thin oil produced by 
riNG. 
nature, and which in various places iflues from the earth. 
This oil was either that called naphtha, which is an 'ex¬ 
ceedingly volatile oil, that entirely flies off and evapo¬ 
rates, without leaving a Angle trace behind ; or the com¬ 
mon fpirit of turpentine, which would very well anfwer 
the purpofe. The encauftum, thus formed, was ufed in 
the time of the Romans to cover parts w'hich had been 
already painted, either with water-colours or in frefco ; 
and it was alfo, as tve have reafon to believe, the fub¬ 
ftance with which Apelles daubed over his paintings, and 
which, according to Pliny, made them appear as if co¬ 
vered by a thin plate of talc or tranfparent felenite, and 
gave the colours a wonderful foftnefs. It might ftill be 
employed for preferving paintings in water-colours, or 
on plafter, and fculptured pieces of marble. 
The ancient art of encauftic painting, after having been 
long loft, was reftored by count Caylus, a member of the 
Academy of Infcriptions in France; and the method of 
painting in wax was announced to the Academy of Paint¬ 
ing and Belles-Lettres in the year 1753 ; though M. Ba¬ 
chelier, the author of a treatife “ De l’Hiftoire et du Se¬ 
cret de la Peinture en Cire,” had aftually painted a pic¬ 
ture in wax in 1749 > an d he was the firft who communi¬ 
cated to the public the method of performing the opera¬ 
tion of inuftion, which is the principal charafteriftic of 
the encauftic painting. The count kept his method a 
fecret for fome time, contenting himfelf with exhibiting 
a pi6iure at the Louvre in 1754, reprefenting the head of 
Minerva, painted in the manner of the ancients, which 
excited the curioftty of the public, and was very much 
admired. In the interval of fufpenfe, feveral attempts 
were made to recover the ancient method of painting. 
The firft fcheme adopted was that of melting wax and oil 
of turpentine together, and ufing this compofition as a 
vehicle for mixing and laying-on the colours. But this 
method did not explain Pliny’s meaning, as the wax is 
not burnt in this way of managing it. In another attempt, 
which was much more agreeable to the hiftorian’s de- 
fcription of encauftic painting, the wax was melted with 
ftrong lixivium of fait of tartar, and with this the co¬ 
lours were ground. When the pifture was finiftied, it 
was gradually prefented to the fire, fo as to melt the wax ; 
which was thus diffufed through all the particles of the 
colours, fo that they were fixed to the ground, and fe- 
cured from the accefs of air or moitture. But the method 
of count Caylus is much more fimple: The cloth or 
wood which he defigned for the bafis of his pifture, is 
waxed over, by only rubbing it Amply with a piece of 
bees-wax ; the wood, or cloth, ftretched on a frame, be¬ 
ing held horizontally over, or perpendicularly before, a 
fire, at fuch a diftance, that the wax might gradually 
melt, whilft it is rubbed on, diffufe itfelr, penetrate the 
body, and fill the interftices of the texture of the cloth, 
which, when cool, is fit to paint upon ; but, as water¬ 
colours, or thofe that are mixed up with common water, 
will not adhere to wax, the whole pifture is to be firft 
rubbed over with Spanifn chalk or white, and then the 
colours are applied to it; when the pifture is dry, it is 
put near the fire, whereby the wax melts, and abforbs all 
the colours. Phil. Tranf, vol. xlix. 
Mr. j. H. Muntz, in a treatife on this fubjeft, has pro- 
pofed feveral improvements in the art of encauftic paint¬ 
ing. When the painting is on cloth, he direfts it to be 
prepared, by ftretching it on a frame, and rubbing one 
fide feveral times over with a piece of bees-wax, or vir¬ 
gin-wax, till it is covered with a coat of wax of confider- 
able thicknefs. In fine linen, this is the only operation 
necefiary previous to painting; but coarfe cloth muft be 
rubbed gently on the unwaxed fide with a purnice-ftone, 
,to take off all thofe knots which would prevent the free 
and accurate working of the pencil. Then the fubjeft is 
to be painted on the un waxed fide with colours prepared, 
and tempered with water; and, when the pifture is fi~ 
nifhed, it muft be brought near the fire, that the wax may 
melt and fix the colours. This method, however, can 
only 
