The process is as follows: Having powdered a plate of metal with pounded white enamel, it is placed on the fur nace until melted into a white uniform glazing; the same is then done to the other side; metallic colours are then prepared of a more fusible nature than the white enamel ground already put on; the colours are rubbed down in oil, and applied in the usual mode of painting. After this, the plate is put into the furnace, and the process of paint ing and melting repeated as often as is necessary, with this precaution, that some pounded transparent glass is mixed with all the colours to assist their fusion, and by in creasing this fusible addition in proportion as the work is repeated : It is the last laid on colour only that melts, hav ing been thus rendered more fusible than the one that pre ceded it. The greatest difficulty in this sort of painting is, like that of fresco works, many of the colours being quite different in appearance when applied, from what they become after being fused. But this is a difficulty that a little practice is able to overcome.
Francis the First was the first French monarch who seemed to consider the improvement of the arts as an ac quisition desirable for the glory of his country ; and ac cordingly, with commendable zeal, he drew to Paris all the Italian artists that his bounty could induce to settle there. Francis had the merit of carrying on a successful rivalry in this pursuit with Henry the Eighth of England, who made proposals to the same painters, but not with the same effect, as he proved unsuccessful in all his attempts. Rosso, a very excellent painter of Florence, was of this number, who passed his best days in France, decorating the palace of Fountainbleau, and painting the deeds of his patron Francis. He likewise obtained the assistance of Primaticcio, from Bologna, who was the first to introduce fresco painting into France; he likewise worked at Foun tainbleau, in great rivalry with Rosso. His general know ledge in the fine arts was the means of diffusing consider able improvement into the taste of the country, by procur ing for the king a considerable supply of sculpture and bronzes from his native country ; thus rearing the first germ of a taste for the antique, and the style of the Roman school of painting.
The first native painter of France, whose name we find recorded, is Jean Cousin, who copied the manner of Pri maticcio, and wrote on the subject of design. His pic tures are not without merit in composition and expres sion. He painted a last judgment, of which there are engravings, and was likewise a glass-stainer and statuary.
Freminet, about the same time, imitated the manner of Michael Angelo, and Blanchard that of Titian, whose works are still to be seen pretty numerously in Paris and its neighbourhood. But the greatest painter that France ever produced, was Nicholas Poussin, although he acquir ed and continued to prosecute his art principally in Italy, nor did there appear any thing at all national in his man ner of painting. He is, notwithstanding, called the Ra
phael of France. He was a correct and learned artist, and much devoted to the study of the antique, which led him to a grand simplicity of manner, though often dry and un interesting. Mythology and ancient fable were his favou rite subjects, and these his profound knowledge of every thing connected with the history and manners of the an cients enabled him to handle in a manner pure and classi cal, so much so, that he seemed far more at home in the society of Ovid's creation than the beings of his own age. From this circumstance, his pictures never offend by the incongruities so often exhibited in these allegorical and fabulous representations, where we find the scenes of every day life, and the familiar accompaniments of sober truth, peopled by the beings of pure fiction in all the wild trans mutations of Ovid's fancy. In Poussin's pictures every thing is of a piece; the landscape accords with its occu piers, and there is nothing to bring the mind back to re ality. Poussin returned to Paris with a view to establish himself there, and would no doubt have had considerable influence in forming the taste of his countrymen ; but a disagreement with his rivals Vouet, Fouquier, and made him resolve to quit it again, and retire to Rome, where he continued to prosecute his art till his death in 1665, Simon Vouet, the great persecutor and rival of Poussin, established a considerable school in France. He was a man of vigorous and active genius, painting with surpris ing facility and invention, but unfortunately with rather a slender foundation of knowledge or study. His ardour. however, set the energies of his pupils afloat ; and, al though his manlier was not much imitated, he was the means of stirring up the genius, and preparing the way for an improvement of taste among his countrymen. Like Raphael, he painted many cartoons for the tapestry works, though they do not appear to have had sufficient merit for preservation like those of the great master. Vouet would, doubtless, have become a great painter, had the vivacity and promptitude of his genius allowed him to mature his talent. He was in the custom of sketching his subjects with careless rapidity, and either allowing them to be painted up by his pupils, or himself hastened through the laborious process of finishing, with the impatience of a mind that sighed for something new to exercise its fancy upon. This is a rock upon which the genius of many a promising artist has been wrecked. Run away with by the notion that the exalted merit of their art lies in the operations of invention and mental energy alone, they ne glect the indispensable acquirements of practical know ledge and dexterity in giving that substance to their effu sions which can alone render them available.