During the time that Rome was governed by kings, the laws of Numa were observed, which considered it as sacri legious to have any representations of their divinities exhibited for adoration in the temples. They had some rude statues of clay, as appears by Plutarch, but merely for ornamenting their houses; and these were the work manship of Etruscan slaves. After the arrival of the Greek artists, however, we hear no more of the Etruscans. The works of sculpture, from their more portable nature, were the first spoils of the fine arts that reached Rome, by means of every succeeding praetor or commander, as the process of subjugating Greece gradually advanced. As the pictures were both less numerous than the works of sculpture, and as they were chiefly painted in fresco, and attached to the walls of temples and houses, the removal of them was sufficiently troublesome to defeat their pur pose. The first of them found its way to Rome, from an accident which was singularly characteristic of the very low state of knowledge of the arts at that time prevalent even among the higher classes of the Romans When the Roman general Mummius captured and sacked the city of Corinth, the works of art of every kind were scattered about as rubbish on the streets, and ex posed to the licentious sport of the soldiery ; the pictures they made use of as tables, which happened to bring one of them under the notice of the general ; the subject was that of Bacchus, and pleased him so much that he pro posed to carry it off. As the picture was regarded as one of the public monuments, and very much valued by the Greeks, they offered a large price for its ransom, rather than be deprived of what they considered an honour to their city. The ignorant Roman, surprised at the offer of so large a sum for a mere picture, conceived, as the un taught Arabs of our day, that it must be gifted with some secret virtue ; he therefore refused the price, and carried the picture to Rome, where he no doubt experienced some disappointment to find its only virtue to consist in the excellence of the artist's skill, to which his ignorance had blinded him. This accomplished Roman imposed an injunction upon the person who was charged with the transport of the picture to Rome, which might be trouble some for a carrier of our days to fulfil ; namely, that if the picture was lost or injured on the way, the carrier was bound to paint one equally good.
It was about four hundred years before the Christian :era, that the Greek artists began to paint in Italy. Their works were executed chiefly un plaster, the great indes tructibility of which appears from what Pliny mentions of the preservation of some of them to his day.
Few works of painting are at all alluded to in the early history of Rome ; and, in fact, until a love of ease and ele gance had crept in, and begun to supplant the more aus tere habits of a nation solely bent on conquest, until the luxurious days of the emperors, decorations of any kind were considered as unbecoming of their notice. Statuary, and carvings on gems and metals, were the first species of the fine arts that obtained favour ; so that the sluice once opened to admit the stream, it flowed in with con stantly increasing volume. But so extraordinary was the
profusion of statues in Greece, which, like a marble population, absolutely vied in number with its inhabitants, that Roman rapacity was readily supplied, without seem ing to diminish, for a long time, their apparent numbers, in the great magazine of Greece.
The first native artist of Rome, whose name is record ed, was Fabius, surnamed Pictor, who lived about three hundred years before the Christian xra. The account given of his performances does not say much for their excellence. Neither he nor his art were held in high estimation ; for the Romans seem not only to have been quite indifferent to both, but even undervalued those per sons, who testified any inclination to encourage or culti vate what appeared to them so very insignificant an ac quirement. Yet their generals, on their return from con quest, found in it so ready a means of keeping their fame alive in the public mind by exhibiting representations of their achievements, that they employed the itinerant art ists of Greece to paint their battles, and hung them up in the market-places for public inspection. These were pro bably often indifferent enough, as it appears that the gene rals frequently attended in person to explain to the pas sengers what was meant to be represented ; and to gather, themselves, whatever tribute of praise the rabble were pleased to bestow upon them. Pacuvius is mentioned as a skilful painter, whose great accomplishments, as a man of science and a poet, not only obtained esteem for himself, but went far to gain reputation for the art he practised : he is said to have contributed much towards the improve ment of the Roman taste. He was followed by Turpilius, a Roman knight, and, according to I'liny's account, a good painter, remarkable for the peculiarity of painting with his left hand. Near the age of Augustus, who was the first that enriched Rome with any considerable collection of pictures, and had them publicly exhibited, there was a Roman painter of the name of Arelius, and after him Ludius, a painter of landscapes and sea-ports, who was much employed to ornament the town and country houses of the wealthy Roman citizens with trellis work. Amu lus painted for Nero, who introduced all sorts of extrava gances; amongst others, that Colossus of pictures, to which even the gigantic portraits of St. Christopher, which decorate the walls of German convents, must yield the palm in magnitude. It was one hundred and twenty feet high, intended as a portrait of the emperor, and paint ed upon cloth, from the difficulty of preparing plaster of sufficient extent of surface. This whim is supposed to have given rise to the practice of painting on canvas, which does not appear to have been in use before that period, if we except the custom of the Egyptians in paint ing the linen coverings of their mummies.
Historians mention Marcus Aurelius as having added to his other accomplishments that of being a good draughtsman : Labeo, the proconsul of Narbonne, was ridiculed by the Romans for condescending to seek amuse ment in painting. To these may be added Pinus and Nis cus, which sums up the scanty catalogue of the native artists of ancient Rome.