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40 THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT’S JOURNAL. [February 1, 1868. surfaces with pictorial subjects; and in his time a painter named Ludius invented the style of decoration which we now call arboresquc. It was greatly admired and speedily spread, and was used most extensively in the adornment of temples, baths, and palatial houses, not only in Rome, but also in the surrounding cities. The earlier Greek artists, it has been said, used only four colours, white, yellow, red, and black; but, by degrees, others were discovered. The Romans divided colours into two classes, the florid and the grave. The former, on account of their high price, were usually provided for the artist by his employer. The florid colours seems to have been six in num ber, viz., red, green and blue, in four shades. The first, minium, which we call vermillion, or cennibar; the second, chryscola, a carbonate of copper; the third armenium, light blue. Purpuressum, or purple, was a fine white chalk steeped in a purple dye, ranging in various shades between red and blue. Black was of two sorts, natural and artificial; the former an earth, the other two made from the blood of the cuttie fish (sepia), and from burnt ivory. The ancients painted on wood, cloth, parchment, ivory, and plaster, which has been ascertained by discoveries at Pompeii, and Herculaneum, and in the excavations made at Rome. Sir Wm. Gell, in his work on Pompeii, makes mention of a method of painting of which there were but few examples. In a certain chamber there was found a picture which, seen from a distance, presented a town, a tent, and something like a marriage cere mony, but which, at a nearer point of view, vanished into an assemblage of apparently unmeaning blots, so as entirely to elude the skill of the artist who was endeavouring to copy it. Another picture, of a similar kind, presented an entire farm yard, with animals, water, and a beggar, and seemed to invite closer inspection, but which only produced confusion and dis appointment, and proved that the picture could not be copied except by one possessing the skill and knowledge of the ori ginal artist. It is supposed that the ancients were not ignorant of per spective. One Greek author composed treatises on linear perspective, and Vitruvius alludes to the point of sight which he calls acies oculorum, and the point of distance under the name of oculorum extensio. We might conclude that when wealth promoted by almost unbounded conquest, had so greatly increased the luxurious habits of the Romans, painting would have obtained, in common with the other arts, very extensive patronage; but Pliny again informs us that from the time of Augustus to that of Vespasian (a space of about 70 years the number of known painters did not exceed seven or eight, so greatly had the art declined since its migration from Greece into the Imperial City. The early Christians first practised the art of painting in the degenerate manner of the latest Roman period. This, as well as sculpture, they held almost in abhorrence, as being the very essential support of heathenism and idol worship, and as also conducing to sensuality and moral depravity. If they in dulged at all in delineation it was at the most by symbolical representation, such as the sacred monogram—the cross, the anchor, the ship, the palm, the fish, the dove, the lamb, the vine, &c. Afterwards these symbols took a direct picto rial character ; as, for instance, a shepherd, to denote the Good Shepherd; a ship in the midst of troubled waves, to denote the Church striving against the tide of persecution, &c. Suc cessively complete figures were delineated, mostly to repre sent the Saviour, but very wide and traditional in their character. As soon as the papacy was established in Italy, or rather at Rome, the popes began to adorn their churches, the speci mens of ancient Christian art discovered in the catacombs being their types. Charlemagne in France greatly favoured the scheme of reviving the art. as well of science and litera ture, and he would have completed the object had the age been worthy of him. Thcancientpracticeof painting churches by popes he confirmed by law. If a royal church was to be founded the bishops and abbots were responsible for its completion. If in the midst of a campaign an order was issued to build a church one to paint the walls accompanied it, the object of the empe ror being to weaken the remembrance of paganism and its sen sual attractions by greater adornment of Christian churches. The art suffered at the death of Charlemagne, yet notwith standing it was kept alive by ecclesiastics at Rome, Palermo, and Milan, and thus preserved from total decay. Subse quently it sprung up in other parts of western Europe, but Constantinople in the east was the grand rendezvous of Sainters and other artists. In the year 097 the church of St. lark, at Venice, was erected by Byzantine architects. About this time the school of miniature painters became very impor tant, and appears to have been particularly patronized by the emperors of France and Lombardy, but the drawing was very rude and coarse. In the Byzantine empire, although it was better, the style was lifeless, and deficient in proper portion and appropriateness. Although during the dark ages of ignorance that succeeded the fall of the Roman empire, and consequent degradation of the arts, especially of painting and sculpture ; yet, in the 13th century, the dawn of restoration appeared at Sienna. A painter, named Guido, produced for the church of St. Do menico a picture of the Virgin, tho style bearing a striking resemblance to the old Byzantine type, and about the same time another painter appeared at Pisa, who produced a picture of the crucifixion, bearing date 1236, and which was formerly in the church of St. Francesco, at Assisi. In the latter portion of the 13th century another artist, named Nicola Pisano, brought the art into a state of decided improvement upon the former Greek style, and who has taken the first position among the revivalists, primirally as a sculp tor, and afterwards as a painter ; but by general consent the greatest master of the age, and to whom the highest honour is due, was Giovanni Cimabue, who is, by Visari (an author from whom the greatest information has been obtained), desig nated the Father of modern painting. But modern only in rela tion to all the artists -who painted prior to the latter end of the 13th century. His principal work in the chapel of St. Maria Novella, at Florence (his native city), is still in existence. Although his style at first partook greatly of the stiff and life less manner of the Byzantine painters, yet he afterwards exhibited a greater conception of nature, grace, and freedom of handling his pencil, and, it is said, would have proceeded much further had he not been restrained by prescribed rules and types of the Church. There is one of his productions in our National Gallery, the subject being “ The Madonna and Child Enthroned.” This picture was formerly in a church at Florence, and subsequently found its way into England in 1857. Cimabue died in the year 1300. In 1276 another great luminary of the art was born in the neighbourhood of Florence, named Giotto, the son of a shepherd, who bred his son to the same avocation as himself. Soon the young countryman evinced a talent for drawing, amusing himself by copying the objects around him. A sheep which he had drawn upon a tile was shown to Cimabue who, having obtained leave of the boy’s father, took him to Florence, and instructed him in his art. The pupil soon surpassed his master. His design was more pleasing, his drawing more correct, and his colouring softer, than that of Cimabue. The attenuated hands, sharp pointed feet, and staring eyes—all remnants of the Grecian manner, were greatly improved upon by him. His fame spread rapidly, and popes and princes, abbots and eminent citizens gave him employment, and were proud in the possession of his works. He is said to have been the inventor of portrait painting, and produced the likenesses of the poets Dante and Corso Donati. He also composed alle gorical subjects, which he introduced into large buildings. Among the number is one under the church of St. Francesco, at Assisi, fixed over the sepulchre of that saint, representing the three vows of the order, Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience. Other works of his are still to be seen in Florence, Rome, and Naples. He also made a design for a mosaic for the former basalica of St. Peter at Home, having had an allegorical treat ment, representing the disciples in a ship on a turbulent sea ; striving against the winds, which are personified by human forms : the ancient fathers endeavouring to console the voya gers in their distress and danger, and the Saviour standing on a rock, is laying hold of St. Peter, to preserve him from sink ing. It was preserved when the old Basalica was taken down, and although much defaced by time, still adorns the vestibule of the present church. Giotto was also a sculptor and an ar chitect, and designed and constructed the gothic bell-tower adjoining the duomo of Florence. Many of his pictures are still in existence, and one, being a fragment from a wall-paint ing formerly in the chapel of San Giovanni Battesta, in the