From the death of Alexander, and as a consequence partly of the political disturbances which followed, the decline of painting was con tinuous. Painters indeed met with ample encouragement, but they worked for private rather than public enjoyment, and their attention was directed mainly to a lower class of art,—to that which could be produced rapidly for the glorification of kings and rulers or the gratifi cation of the affluent Instead of representations of the gods, and of the great events of epic verse or Hellenic history, works of the class we now call genre, low and domestic subjects (rhypography), and even pornography (obscene pictures), were eagerly sought. These last became more general as the art fell lower, and painters sought popu larity by novelty of style and familiarity of subject, or gain by making their art the creature of luxury and sensuality ; but even Parrhasius was noted for pictures of a libidinous character. Vase-painting gradually died out in this period; but, on the other hand, mosaic was introduced, and acquired great popularity, and Greek musivarii were in much request for the preparation of mosaics for Rome. Landscape-painting was likewise introduced late, and never flourished among the Greeks, though the art was cultivated by Greek painters for the gratification of their Roman employers.
Some time before the spoliation of Greece, Greek painters had migrated to Rome and found employment there. But as the plunder of the Grecian cities by the Roman generals went on, the passion for works of art among the Romans seemed to increase ; and as the love of art, or the power of rewarding its professors, declined in Greece, Grecian artists betook themselves in constantly increasing numbers to the Roman capital, so that about the end of the republic Rome was spoken of as full of them. Many migrated also to Egypt and Asia, and elsewhere, until such Grecian painters as were left were to be sought anywhere rather than in their native country.
Instead of tracing further the decay of the art, it may be well to speak briefly of the kinds of painting practised and the materials employed whilst Greek painting was in its maturity. The earliest occupation of the painter in Greece, as in Egypt, seems to have been in colouring sculpture; and from the gaudy daubing of the primitive wooden figures of the gods, down to the refined tinting of the most exquisite statues of the greatest of the Greek sculptors, this was always regarded as a branch of the painter's art. Praxiteles himself, according to the well-known story, when asked which of all his statues he preferred, replied, " That in which Nicias had a hand "—Nicias being one of the most eminent painters of his time. What this eireunditio, as Pliny terms the statue-painting of Nicias, really was, will he considered under another head. POLYCHROMY.) Another of the branches of the art for which the painters were always famous— that, namely, of vase-painting—will also be noticed more conveniently elsewhere.
The pictures ordinarily painted by the Greeks up to an advanced stage of the art, appear to have been almost exclusively easel pictures executed in tempera. They were painted chiefly on wooden panels, which bad probably been prepared with a gesso ground; but paintings were also executed on stone, plaster, parchment, and, though not till a late period, on canvas. Glue or size, white pf eggs, and gum were the vehicles commonly used in mixing and applying the colours. Wax was also used, boiled with mastich or mixed with a mineral alkali, so as to be employed as a water-colour medium. The application of wax by means of fire, or encaustic painting, was of later introduction ; for though practised by Pauaias, who is said to have learned the method from Pamphilus, it was not generally adopted till about the time of Alexander. [ENCAUSTIC PAINTINO.] Fresco-painting was also of late introduction, but in the later stages of the art was, either alone or in conjunction with encaustic, much employed in paintings ou walls and ceilings, and generally in works of a decorative character. Vitruvius says that the Greeks attained such skill in the preparation of fresco walls, that, in his time, people were accustomed to cut slabs from them, which could be packed up and carried to any distance. The finer fresco-paintings, according to Vitrtiving and Pliny, were, when finished, covered with an encaustio varnish, which heightened and preserved the colours. Oil as a vehicle appears to have been unknown.
The four colours which were the basis of the colouring of the Greeks down to the time of Apelles were-1, white, Mellon earth, or, more rarely, cerussa, white lead; 2, red, ruhrica from Cappadocia, called ainopis; 3, yellow, sil, 60a, from the Attic silver-mines; 4, blacks (probably including blues), stramenta, taAav, from burnt plants or ivory. These were the "colorer austeri," to which were afterwards added the brighter and more expensive colours, " floridi," which were usually furnished to the painter by his employer ; but the palette appears always to have been restricted to a comparatively few well chosen and carefully-prepared colours. This restriction to a few colours was one of the things which satisfied Sir Joshua Reynolds—an indisputable authority in a question of colour—of the superiority of the Greeks as colourists. Another, was their use of atrameutum. "What disposes me," he wrote (Note xxxvii. to Du Fresnoy), " to think higher of their colouring than any remains of ancient painting will warrant, is the account which Pliny gives of the mode of operation 11333( 1 by Apelles ; that over his finished picture ho spread a transparent liquid like ink, of which the effect was to give brilliancy, and at the Fame time to lower the too great glare of the colour : Quod absolute opera atrainento illinebat its tenui, ut id Ileum repercussu elaritatea color= exeitaret;--et cum ration° inagna.ne column' claritas oculontin
aciem offenderet.' This passage; he tells, though it may possibly perplex the critics, is a true and an artist-like description of the of glazing or scinnbling, such as was practised by Titian and the rest of the Venetian painters. This custom, or mode of operation, implies at least a true taste of that in which tho excellence of colouring eon Fists, which does not proceed from fine colours, but true colours, — from breaking down these fine colours, which would appear too raw, to a deep-toned brightness. Perhaps the manner in which Correggio practised the art of glazing was still more like that of Apellea, which was only perceptible to those who looked close at the picture, ' ad masers intend,' dement appartret ;' whereas in Titian, and still more in Raman and others, his imitators, it was apparent on the slightest inspection." Greek painting at its best, there cannot be much doubt, was only a little, if at all, inferior to the sculpture of the same period. The men who saw and appreciated the one admired equally the other. The paintings, equally with the statues, were praised for their grandeur of thought and expression, for their nobleness of design, and accuracy of imitation. Foreshortening and perspective, essential qualities in a pic ture, were understood and practised. So also were the laws of light and shade, though that disposition of light and shadow in masses, which modern writers call chiaroscuro, was probably unknown. Colour, as we have seen, was studied in its subtlest refinements. Whether, as Sir Joshua Reynolds expressed his assurance, "if what has happened in the case of sculpture, had likewise happened in regard to their paintings, and we had the good fortune to possess what the ancients themselves esteemed their master-pieces, we should find their figures as correctly drawn as the Laocoon,' and probably coloured like Titian," we cannot venture to say. We have none of their master-pieces; but the works brought to light since Reynolds wrote, though at best only such as were executed in the decline of art for decorating the provincial residences of affluent foreign patrons, suffice fully to justify his san guine anticipations. The finest ancient picture yet discovered is that known as' The Battle of Issue,' found at Pompeii in 1831, and now in the Museo Borbonico at Naples. It displays great skill in design, knowledge of foreshortening and perspective, and immense vigour of expression, though the execution is inferior to the conception. This is a mosaic, but was probably a copy in imitation of some celebrated painting of an earlier date, as the chief extant remains of Greco-Roman sculpture are known to be copies of famous old statues. Another mosaic of admirable design is that of the Choragus engraved under MOSAIC. The finest extant painting of Grieco-Roman date is that known as the • Abdobrandini Marriage,' found originally on the Esquiline Mount, and now in the Vatican—a fresco-painting executed with great freedom, and excellent both in composition and colour. Equally remarkable in their way are the paintings of ' Achilles Discovered by Ulysses,' found in the House of Castor and Pollux at Pompeii (Zahn, ii., pl. 23); an 'Achilles in a Quadriga,' painted in monochrome; and a `Dirce attached to the Bull,' found in the House of the Grand-Duke at Pompeii in 1833, and, like the preceding, engraved in Zahn. Many others might be mentioned which, if regarded as they ought to be, as late and feeble imitations, would attest sufficiently the high character of Greek painting when in its more flourishing condition. (See engravings in 3Itiller, Denkmalor der Alten Kunst ; ' D'Agincourt, ' Hist. de h'Art par sea 3Ionumens;' 31azois, Pomp big torn. iv.; the ' Mua. Borbonico;' and Zahn, Die Schiiiisten Ornaments and merkwtirdigsten spa Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Stabiae.') Painting in Roam—The Romans had no independent school of painting. We have spoken of the early connection of Greece with Italy and with Magna-Gnecia, and the later migrations of Greek painters into Rome. It was by these mainly, if not exclusively, that the pictures painted in Rome and the provinces were executed, and of which examples remain in the frescoes and mosaics exhumed at Rome, Pompeii, and elsewhere. Pliny, however, speaks of certain Romans who cultivated painting long before Greek pictures wero brought to Rome. C. Fabina Pietor is said to have derived his name from deco rating the temple of Health (a.u.c. 450, B.C. 304). The poet Paeuvins (lac. 219-140) was an artist. The victory of L. Scipio over Antiochus (Lc. 190) was recorded by a picture in the Capitol, as that of M. Vale rius over Iliero had been by an historical painting in the Curia Hostilia (n.o. 261). The first foreign picture publicly exhibited at Rome was after the sack of Corinth by Mummius (n.c. 146), an event which brought many of the finest works of art to the conquering city, however little the victors were qualified to appreciate their real worth. At a later period wo hear of Arellius, Accius, Prism's, and Ludinmu, of whom tho last, in the time of Augustus, painted landscapes, garden scenes, and buildings on the walls of rooms, such as wo see 311 the ruins of Pompeii or the remains of the palace of Nero. Cesar purchased the Ajax' and the Medea' of Timornachua for 80 talents, and at his time a school of some eminence existed at Cyzicus. The breed boom of art which characterises the ago of Hadrian implied a momentary revival of painting, and Aetion (of whom Lucian speaks so highly) must probably be reckoned as his con temporary.