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Ur-Leccicon^ Miiuchen, 17 vols. 8vo^ not jei completed ; and the lectures of Fuseli upon ancient painting, and of Flaxraan npon sculpture. Other works have been written upon general and particular subjects bearing more or less upon painting, such as those of Heyne, Meyer, Hirt, Hermann, Kugler, Volkel, Jacobs, Creuzer, Grund, Caylus, Levesque, Millin, D’Hancarville, Quatremere de Quincy, Inghirami, Visconti, Millingen, and others, too numerous to mention here. Of the celebrated work of Winckelmann, Gcschiehte der Kunsl des AlterthumS) only a very small portion is devoted to painting.
III. Painting in its earliest state. The legends relating to the origin of painting in ‘Greece, though they may have no real historical value, are at least interesting to the lovers of art. One legend, which is recorded by Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 12. s. 43) and is adverted to by Athenagoras (Legat. pro Christ. 14. p. 59, ed. Dechair), relates the origin of the delineation of a shadow (ovaa, <7/<:/a7pa<£>7?, Pollux, vii. 128), which is the essential principle of design, the basis of the imitative and plastic arts. The legend runs as follows : — The daughter of a certain Dibutades, a potter of Sicyon, at Corinth, struck with the shadow of her lover who was about to leave her, cast by her lamp upon the wall, drew its outline (umbram eos facie lineis circumscripsit) with such force and fidelity, that her father cut away the plaster within the outline, and took an impression from the wall in clay, which he baked with .the rest of
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his pottery, (Diet, of Biog. s. v.} There .seem to be, how.ever, other claimants to the honour of having invented skiagraphy ((TKiaypa<f>ia). Athenagoras (1. c.} mentions Saurias of Samos, who traced his horse’s shadow in the sun with the point of his spear, and Crato of Sicyon, w-hom he styles the inventor of drawing or outline (ypatytK’f)’), for he was the first to practise the art upon tablets with prepared grounds («/ irivaici AeAeu/cwyUez^o). Pliny (H.N. vii. .57) mentions upon the testimony of Aristotle, that Eucheir (Eu%eip), a relation of Daedalus, invented painting in Greece. (Diet, of Biog. s.v.) Although Pliny’s account (ff. N. xxxv. 5) of the origin and progress of painting in Greece is somewhat circumstantial, his information can still not be considered as .authentic matter of history ; and the existence of several of the most ancient artists, mentioned by Pliny and many Greek writers, is very questionable. Besides those already spoken of, we find mention made of Philocles of Egypt ; Cleanthes, Ardices, and Cleopliantus, of Corinth ; Telephanes of Sicyon, Eugrammus, and others. (Upon the meanings of some of these names see Bottiger, Ideen zur Arch’dologie, p. 138, and Thiersch, Epoch. &c.5 note 22, and Diet, of Biog. art. Cheirisophns.}
Sculpture is generally supposed to be a more ancient art than painting; but this arises from an imperfect comprehension of the nature of the two arts, which are one in origin, end, and principle, and differ only in their development. Design is the basis of both, colour is essential to neither, nor can it be said to belong more particularly to the latter (ypa^iK’f]) than to the former (7rAa<m/c^). Coloured works in plastic, in imitation of nature, were in ancient times as common, and probably more so, than coloured designs: the majority of the illustrations upon the vases are colourless. The staining of the human body, or the colouring of
images, is the common notion of the origin of paint-ing ; but simple colouring^ and painting^ strictly speaking, are quite distinct ; the distinction between " to colour," %pw£e«/, colorem inducere, and " to paint," £o>ypa<pe?f, pine/ere, delineare. (Pollux, vii. 126.) The colouring of the earlyv wooden images, the ancient £(Wa, or the ep/xcu, the ?raA-AaSfa, and the ScuSaAa, must certainly have preceded any important essays in painting, or the representation of forms upon an even surface by means of colour and light ^md shade combined. But this is no stage in the art of painting, and these figures were most probably coloured by the artists who made them, by the old irAdo-rai or IpjUoyAi^ar, themselves ; the existence, however, of the art of design is established by .the existence of the plastic art.
We will now as briefly as .possible consider the gradual development of .painting, and the information relating to its progressive steps, preserved in ancient writers. The simplest form of design or drawing (ypafyuc’f]} is the outline of a shadow, without any intermediate markings, or the .shape of a shadow itself (a silhouette}, in black, white, or in colour (umbra hominis lineis circuinducta} • this kind of drawing was termed (Ticiaypa<pia. But this simple figure or shade, crida. (ovaaypc^u/za), when in .colour was also essentially a monochrom (ftoi/o-Xp^aroy). The next step was the outline, the " pictura linearis," the monogram dj.ov6ypajjifj!,ov) • this is said to have been invented by Philocles of Egypt or Cleanthes of Corinth, but first developed in practice by Ardices of Corinth and Telephanes of Sicyon: it was the complete outline with the inner markings, still without colour ; such as we find upon the ancient vases, or such as the celebrated designs of Flaxman, which are perfect monograms. These outlines were most probably originally practised upon a white ground (eV irli/aKi AeAevKctfjueVw)., for Pliny remarks that they were first coloured by Cleophantus of Corinth, who used " testa trita,"’ by which we should perhaps understand that he was the first to draw them upon a coloured or red ground, such as that of the vases-(Plin. H. N. xxxv, 5.)
The next step is the more perfect form of the monochrom, alluded to above ; in this, light and shade were introduced, and in its most perfect state it was, in everything that is essential, a perfect picture. . These " monochromata " were practised in all times, and by the greatest masters. Pliny, speaking of Zeuxis (H. N. xxxv. 36), says, " pinxit et monochromata ex albo ;" esc albo, that is, in gray and gray, similar to the chiariscuri of the Italians. They are described by Quintilian (xi. 3. § 46), " qui singulis pinxerunt coloribus, alia tamen eminentiora^ alia reductiora fecerunt." They were painted also red in red. Pliny (H. N. xxxiii. 39) tells us that the old masters painted them in vermilion, " Cinnabari veteres, quae etiam nuno vacant monochromata., pingebant," and also in red lead, but that afterwards the rubrica or red ochre was substituted for these colours, being of a more delicate and more agreeable tint.
Hygiemon, Dinias, and Channadas. are mentioned by Pliny (//. N. xxxv. 34) as having been famous ancient monochromists ; their age is not known, but they most probably practised the simpler form, such as we find upon the most ancient vases. Four monochroms in the latter style, red in reel, were discovered in Herculaneum. (7/3
