In Stabia and Pompeia the very meatiest houses seem to have been painted ; and the reason why there are some paintings in the temples, theatres, and other public build ings, is, because the poverty of these bourgs, for they were not towns, did not admit of the more costly decorations of statuary and bronzes ; with which it was the practice to ornament the public buildings of their towns. as well as the houses of the wealthy citizens of Rome, to the ex clusion of painting on the walls, which appears only to have been resorted to when better could not be had. The very few morsels of sculpture that have been found in Stabia or Pompeii seem to prove this fact, when we find such profusion to exist among the ruins of Rome and other large cities, where, on the contrary, paintings appear to have been as rare. It scents to prove very clearly, that these paintings can have no claim to be ranked among the works of good masters, or to form any rule for judging of the state of the arts at that period ; except the favourable inference to be drawn from finding such works in so in significant a place, from which Nv c are entitled to conclude, that those of first rate artists must have been very su pet loc. We find great ease and accuracy of outline, as well as much good taste, in their simplicity and repose, and the display of chiaro scuro, where even the nicety of reflected lights is attended to, as is quite obvious, not withstanding that considerable negligence is apparent in the execution : and this is a pretty conclusive fact as to their being copies. As to the colour, little can be said, nor could we have expected much from the painted walls of a village. But the node in which Pliny discriminates the excellencies of colouring, in the works of the great masters, shows that they were fully alive to all its intri cacies. In discussing the merits in point of colouring of the rival pictures of Ajax, this delicate distinction is drawn by ancient critics, that the one appeared to have been fed on roses, and the other on the more substantial food of man.
As these ancient specimens were painted in fresco, it required considerable nicety to detatch them uninjured from the wall ; and would hat, e probably failed had it not been for the uncommon thickness of the plaster. The mode of proceeding was by first firmly encasing the pic ture in a box, before beginning to detach it ; a deep groove was then hewed out in the wall all round, so as to enable the whole mass upon which the picture was painted to be sawed off ; thin slates were then glued to the back, to give it solidity. One of the pictures found at Resina is in teresting, as it represents the interior of a Roman abode, with the family in various postures, and different articles of furniture in the room : we see here the style of do mestic clothing in use among them, which appears ex ceedingly simple and loose. Another of the pictures re presents a concert, which is likewise interesting and in structive. There are, besides, a great profusion of beau tiful arabesques, and amusing figures in the grotesque style. Some of the manuscripts which were recovered from the lava, and are now preserved in the museum at Por tici, contains a few vignettes, which are clumsy enough in point of execution, but remarkable for brilliancy of colour. There are no specimens of ancient pictures, except those preserved in this museum, upon the authenticity of which any reliance can be placed ; the avidity of gain having oc casioned the fabrication of these articles of antiquarian research to a very great extent, than which nothing can be considered as more unpardonable among the various hoaxes practised on the virtuoso. We can excuse any liberties taken with the wonted credulity of antiquaries, if it goes no farther ; but what merely tends to, mislead in point of history, and for sordid motives alone, is de testable.
With the notice of these scanty remains we may close the sketch we have endeavoured to give of the ancient history of painting ; merely subjoining an enumeration of the different modes practised among the ancients, and reserving any observations on their merits, which we may have occasion to make, until we come to draw the parallel between their qualities and those of modern artists.
The more knowledge we obtain of the practice of the ancients, the more we find that there are very few things now known which they do not seem to have been equally acquainted with ; for there arc wonderfully few inventions which amount to more than the revival of Cornier disco veries. Of the various modes of painting, consisting of oil, fresco, water colours, both body and transparent, mosaic, enamel, glass, porcelain, tapestry, and w hat the French call pastel and camayeux, there is but the first which is peculiar to modern practice ; although, even with regard to it, there is reason to suspect that the var nish used by Apelles and his successors was not very dif ferent from oil painting. If not actually in possession, they were at least upon the very threshold, of the discovery. From the appearance of the paintings on the mummies of ancient Egypt, they must have possessed an uncommonly perfect species of oil varnish, which completely supplied the deficiency of oil colour in their paintings. Pliny gives a description of this varnish ; but it is doubtful whether the ancients ever mixed it with the colour itself, which, strictly speaking, is what constitutes oil painting.
Until the seventh century before the Christian xra, the Greeks seem to have been confined to the simple opera tion of designing with only one colour, to which the colour of the ground formed a relief; this was called by them monochromatic, and camayeux by the French, or imitation of basso-relievo in its simple shading. It is a species of painting very pleasing in its effect, if a judicious selection is made of the two colours, so as to harmonize. Some of the Egyptian hieroglyphics or picture writing is execut ed in this manner ; the Etruscan vases also furnish abun dant examples of it, consisting of a simple coloured back ground of black or orange, upon which the figures are drawn in contrast with the ground colour. They have sometimes a little heightening of effect by sharp touches of white, a circumstance which, however, makes them cease to be monochromatic. Engraving and pencil draw ing are, properly speaking, of the same species, and what the Italians call chiaro scuro drawing, as it is literally the representation of the effect of light and shade, deprived of the presence of colour. When well executed, there is a chasteness and modesty in this sort of performance which is exceedingly captivating. It was much practised by Michael Angelo, Raphael, and the great masters of those schools, who did not make colouring the chief object of their pursuit. The charm of simplicity was so much in creased by the use of only two colours, that, when the an cients began to introduce more into their works, it was looked upon as degrading the art, and was confined at least to the use of a very few, in which case called polychromatic. This simplicity of colouring, which is even exhibited by the ancient specimens already alluded to, led to the idea that the ancients were not in possession of many colours. But we must not forget what the nature of these specimens are, (as probably copies of basso relievos,) perhaps more a proof of the chasteness of their taste than of any scantiness in their knowledge of colours ; for we find both Cicero and Pliny lamenting the corruption of taste in their day, by the introduction of a gaudy mode of painting, abounding in variety of colours, mote than grace and purity of taste.