218 PAINTING. 
the greateft merit in his own time; and it is probable 
that tliefe artifts had a fhare in executing, or directing the 
execution of, the paintings and ornaments in the baths of 
Titus; and at this period the works of Zeuxis, Parrha- 
fius, Timanthes, Apelles, and Protagoras, were exhi¬ 
bited in Rome, and muft have guided the tafte of the ar¬ 
tifts. The decorations of the baths were intended to be 
feen by torch-light, fo that their colours were brilliant 
and their contraft ftrong; yet thefe are regarded by con- 
noiffeurs as performances of confiderable excellence. In 
thefe, and in other works of the fame age, the effedt of 
the ancient models is obvious, and the various copies and 
imitations that have been made of thefe remains of anti¬ 
quity, have transferred their fpirit into modern art, and 
left little to be defired as to thofe refults which the fkill of 
the painter can command. 
“ There remains, however,” fays fir H. D. “ another 
ufe to which they may be applied; that of making us ac¬ 
quainted with the nature and chemical compojition of the 
colours ufed by the Greek and Roman artifts. The w'orks 
of Theophraftus, Diofcorides, Vitruvius, and Pliny, con¬ 
tain defcriptions of the fubftances ufed by the ancients as 
pigments; but hitherto, I believe, no experimental at¬ 
tempt lias been made to identify them, or to imitate fuch 
of them as are peculiar. My experiments have been 
made upon colours found in the baths of Titus, and the 
ruins called the baths of Livia, and in the remains of other 
palaces and baths of ancient Rome, and in the ruins of 
Pompeii. By the kindnefs of my friend, the celebrated 
Canova, I was enabled to feleft with my own hands fpe- 
cimens of the different pigments that have been found in 
vafes difcovered in the excavations lately made beneath 
the ruins of the palace of Titus, and to compare them 
with the colours fixed on the walls, or detached in frag¬ 
ments of ftucco; and was allowed actually to make ex¬ 
periments upon the colours of the celebrated picture 
Nozze Aldobrandine. But, when the prefervation of a 
work of art was concerned, I made my refearches upon 
mere atoms of the colour, taken from a place where the 
lofs was imperceptible; and, without having injured any 
of the precious remains of antiquity, I flatten myfelf I 
fhall be able to give fome information, not without in- 
tereft to fcientific men, as well as to artifts, and not 
wholly devoid of practical application.” 
Of the Med Colours of the Ancients. —Amongft the fub¬ 
ftances found in a large earthen vafe filled with mixtures 
of different colours with clay and chalk, difcovered in the 
year 1812, in a chamber at that time opened in the baths 
of Titus, there are three different kinds of red: one 
bright, and approaching to orange; another dull red; and 
a third, a purplifh red. On expoiing the bright red to 
the flame of alcohol, it became darker red; and, o_n in- 
creafing the heat by a blow-pipe, it fufed into a mafs, 
having the appearance of litharge, and which was proved 
to be this fubftance by the adfion of fulphuric and mu¬ 
riatic acids: this colour (fays fir H. D.) is confequently 
minium, or the red oxyd of lead. By other procelfes, 
■which are particularly defcribed, he found that the dull 
red colour is an iron ochre, and the purplifh red was 
proved to be an ochre of a different tint. 
In examining the frefco-paintings in the baths of Titus, 
he found that thefe colours had been all ufed, the ochres 
in particular, in the ftiades of the figures, and the minium 
in the ornaments on the borders. He found another red 
on the walls, of a tint different from thofe in the vafe, 
and much bfighter, and which had been employed in va¬ 
rious apartments, and formed the bafis of the colouring 
of the niche and other parts of the chamber in which the 
Laocoon is faid to have been found : this proved to be 
vermilion, or cinnabar; for, on heating it with iron-filings, 
quickfilver was procured. In the pidture already men¬ 
tioned, the Nozze Aldobrandine, the reds are all ochres: 
on thefe reds the adfion of acids, of alkalies, and of chlo¬ 
rine, could difcover no traces either of minium or vermi¬ 
lion in the pidture. 
Minium was known to the Greeks, and was difcovered 
accidentally by means of a fire that took place at the Pi- 
rteus, at Athens: it was firft ufed as a pigment by Nicias. 
Cinnabar, or vermilion, was difcovered by Collias, and 
was prepared by wafhing the ores of quickfilver. It was 
a colour held in great eftimation in Rome at the time of 
the republic: on great feftivals it was ufed for painting 
the face of Jupiter Capitolinus, and likewife for colour¬ 
ing the body of the vidfor in the triumphal proceffions: 
the firft bufinefs of newly-eledled cenfors of the capitol, 
was to fill the place of vermilion-painter to Jupiter. A 
fecond, or inferior fort of vermilion, was formed by cal¬ 
cining the ftone found in veins of lead. This fubftance 
was the fame as our minium, and it was evidently formed- 
from the carbonate of lead. 
Of the Yelloivs. —A large earthen pot, found in one of 
the chambers of the baths of Titus, contained a quan¬ 
tity of yellow paint, which, when fubmitted to chemical 
examination, proved to be a mixture of yellow ochre 
with chalk. There were three different yellows; two of 
them proved to be yellow ochres mixed with chalk in dif¬ 
ferent proportions; and the third, a yellow ochre mixed 
with red oxyd of lead, or minium. 
The ancients had two other colours, which were orange 
or yellow : the auripigmentum, find to approach gold in 
its colour, which was found native in Pontus, and which 
is a fulphuret of arfenic ; and a pale fundarach, faid to 
have been found in the gold and filver mines, and which 
was imitated at Rome by the partial calcination of cerufe, 
and which was evidently mafllcot, or the yellow oxyd of 
lead mixed with minium. Sir H. Davy could not detedl 
the ufe of orpiment in any of the frefco-paintings ; but a 
deep yellow, approaching to orange, which was found in 
the ruins near the monument of Cains Ceftius, proved te 
be oxyd of lead, and confifted of mafficot mixed with mi¬ 
nium. The yellows in the Aldobrandine pidlure are all 
ochres. Our author examined the colours in a very fpi- 
rited pidture on the wall of one of the houfes at Pompeii, 
of a lion and a man ; they all proved to be red and yellow 
ochres. 
Of the Blue Colours.— Different ftiades of blue are ufed 
in the different apartments of the baths of Titus, and fe- 
veral very fine blues exift in the mixtures of their colours. 
Thefe blues are of different hues, according as they con¬ 
tain larger or fmaller quantities of carbonate of lime; 
but, when this carbonate is diflolved by acids, they pre- 
fent the fame body-colour, a very fine blue powder, fimi- 
lar to the heft fmait, or ultramarine, rough to the touch, 
and which does not lofe its colour by being heated to red- 
nefs; but which becomes agglutinated and femi-fufed at 
a white heat. 
Among fome rubbifh that had been collected in one of 
the chambers of the baths of Titus, were found feveral 
large lumps of deep blue frit, which, when mixed with 
chalk, produced colours exactly the fame as thofe ufed in 
the baths, and w'as found to be of the fame compofition. 
The minute quantity of lime found in this fubftance, was 
not fuflicient to account for its fufibility : it was therefore 
concluded that it contained a fixed alkali, which, upon 
examination, was proved to be fulphate of foda. The 
undiluted colour in its form of frit is ufed for ornament¬ 
ing fome of the mouldings detached from the ceilings of 
the chambers in the baths of Titus ; and the w'alls of one 
chamber between the compartments of red marble bear 
proofs of having been covered with this frit, and contain 
a confiderable quantity of it. This is probably the co¬ 
lour defcribed by Theophraftus, as difcovered by an 
Egyptian king, and of which the manufadtory was an¬ 
ciently eftablifhed at Alexandria : it is defcribed by Vefto- 
rius as having been prepared by heating ftrongly toge¬ 
ther land, flos nitri, and copper-filings. Pliny mentions 
other blues from the mines of Egypt, Scythia, and Cy¬ 
prus : thefe were probably different preparations of lapis 
lazuli, and of the blue carbonates and arfeniates of copper. 
Pliny and Vitruvius fpeak of the Indian blue, which 
was 
