marbles. Earl of Aberdeen is explicit with respect to the danger of great part The Elgin of the marbles had they remained at Athens. It does not appear that any unpleasant sensation was created by their removal, but rather the reverse, in the minds of the natives. Some few of the articles, and these the least important, might, perhaps, from their situation and from their position, have been left with safety; and it is to be regretted that these have been taken from their places. On the whole, however, we think it is satisfactorily established, that the far greater part of the glorious works which we now possess would have perished by the hands of the ignorant, had they not been preserved by our ambassador; who, as far as pecuniary considerations are involved, paid highly for them, and who stands, we think, acquitted by the necessity of the case, on the more sentimental grounds of accusation alleged against him. We have, then, we believe, obtained them honestly, and we cannot too highly estimate the value of their possession. Not only must they form an admirable school for our artists, but diffuse among the people at large that sense of high and pure beauty, which will add to their noblest pleasures, and render even their moral feelings more gentle and more exalted. the art of painting. Invention of PLINY, in his inquiries into ancient painting, attributes its inventis to a period long after that in which sculpture was commonly practised both among the Egyptians and the Greeks; for he asserts that it wa unknown until after the destruction of Troy, and that even lineary portraying, or the drawing of the mere outline of a figure, was firs practised by Ardices of Corinth, and Thelephanes of Sicyon. B this opinion is refuted by the testimonies of other writers, who speak of the ancient practice of the art in Egypt, and by the chests of mummies which are still in existence. Plato speaks of painting a having been practised by the Egyptians for ten thousand years; which assertion, though manifestly extravagant, is sufficient to prove that the art had been known by them for a long period. Probably it was neglected about the era of the Trojan war, and afterwards revived in Greece by those who are represented as its inventors. It would be strange if sculpture had, by many ages, preceded the mere pencilling of outlines on a flat surface, in which all testimonies agree that painting originally consisted. In the time of Homer, it is evident that the idea, at least, of representing persons, groups, and events in colours, prevailed; because we find in his works repeated allusions to the working in tapestry the pictures of grand and varied transactions. It is probable, therefore, that lineary painting must have been known in preceding ages. The first painters, indeed, in Greece were mere drawers, and appear not to have practised colouring. This circumstance must be attributed to that simplicity of taste which is so manifest in the ancient sculpture, and that strong bias which existed in the national feeling to singleness of delineation arising from the tendencies of religion. We have already seen how they were led to cast everything into a set and definite form, and to substitute in their poetry beautiful human figures for the objects of inanimate nature. Hence their painting was not only very simple in its beginning, but even in its perfection partook of the qualities of sculpture. Most of their pictures were either single portraits of individuals, or historical groups consisting of a few simple figures, and rarely exhibited any attempts at perspective. Hence the delicacy of shading, which would be found needful for the accurate delineation of a single figure, was carried to a high degree of perfection, while other parts of the art were in their rudest beginnings. Greece. According to the testimony of Pliny, the first painters of Greece Early used no other instrument than a coal to mark out their outlines. The painters of first who made use of colour was Cleophantus of Corinth, who had no other colour than red, which he produced by grinding some kind of brick or earth to powder. Eumarus, a painter of Athens, first distinguished the sexes in his pictures, and gave to male and female their proper lineaments. Cimon the Cleonean, who followed Eumarus, first invented the mode of representing faces as looking on one side, and the folds of vestments and inequalities of surfaces. He seems to have excelled in the knowledge of anatomy, representing, with accuracy never before attempted, the knitting of the joints and the branching of the veins in his figures. The time when these artists flourished cannot be ascertained with precision. There are manifest contradictions in the account given by Pliny. While, in one place, he asserts painting to have been totally unknown at the time of the siege of Troy, in another he asserts it to have arrived at perfection in the time of Romulus, because, about that period, Candaules, king of Lydia, bought of a painter, called Bularchus, a picture for as much gold as it weighed, and hence infers, that "evident and apparent t is that the origin and beginning of the art was of much higher antiquity, and those painters who used but one colour lived a long time before, although it is not recorded in what age they flourished." Certain it is that no painter obtained any great renown in Greece Panaenus. before the age of Phidias. Soon after this, however, it advanced with great rapidity, and several most distinguished artists appeared contending for the highest palm of excellence. Phidias, as we have seen in his life, was himself originally a B. C. 450. painter. After he had left this art, for the exercise of that in which he was more renowned, his brother, PANAENUS, continued to excel in picture. One of his most celebrated works represented the battle of Marathon, and contained the figures of Miltiades, Callimachus, and Cynegyrus, on the Grecian side, and of Datis and Artaphernes on that of the Persians. He was employed in decorating the wall which surrounded the statue of Zeus Olympius at Elis, and an account of the subjects of the painting which he executed on that occasion is preserved in the ancient descriptions of the statue. These were, Atlas sustaining the heavens and the earth, with Heraclēs relieving him o his burthen; figures of Theseus and Pirithous; emblematic figures, representing Greece and Salamis; Ajax suffering under the reproach of Cassandra; the strife of Heracles with the Nemaan lion; Hyppodamia, daughter of Enomaus, with her mother; Prometheus chained, with Heracles advancing to his assistance; Prometheus delivered by Heraclēs; Achilles supporting Penthesilea dying; and the two Hesperides bearing golden apples. In the time of this artist, prizes were given at Corinth and Delphi for excellence in painting; for one of which he contended with a painter named Timagoras; but it does not appear which of them obtained the victory. Polygnotus. But POLYGNOTUS, who flourished about 420 years before the B. C. 420. Christian æra, just in the dawn of the age of Zeuxis, Parrhasius, and | Timanthes, seems to have contributed more largely to the advance ment of his art than all preceding painters. Before his time, the countenance was represented as destitute of animation and fire, and a kind of leaden dulness pervaded its features. His triumph it was to kindle up expression in the face, and to throw feeling and intellect into the whole frame. He was the Prometheus of painting. He alse first painted the mouth open, so that the teeth were displayed, and occasion given to use that part of the face in the expression of varying emotions. He first clothed his figures in light, airy, and transparent draperies, which he elegantly threw about the light forms of his women. He was, in short, the author both of delicacy and expres sion in the paintings of Greece; but his style is said to have bee hard, and his colouring not equal to his design. This excellent artist was the son of Aglaophon, himself a painter, and born in Thasos, an island of the Egean sea. He followed, for some time, the art of sculpture, but soon devoted himself exclusively to that for which his genius was better adapted. His great works consisted of those with which he decorated the Пouriλn (Pœcilē), a grand gallery and place of exercise at Athens, so denominated from the great variety of its embellishments. For this place he executed a series of Polygnotus. paintings, representing the principal events of the Trojan war. For ais labours on these works, he refused to receive any remuneration From the public, while Mycon, a contemporary artist, who was employed in adorning another part of the same building, was liberally paid for the exertions of his genius. Polygnotus, however, was not without his reward. The sacred council of the Amphictyons, the representatives of all the states of Greece, offered him solemn expressions of gratitude on behalf of the whole commonwealth, and decreed that wherever he should travel he should be entertained at the public expense. One of his pictures, on a tablet, was preserved at Rome, in the gallery of Pompey, representing a man on a scaling-ladder, with a target in his hand, so contrived that it was impossible to tell whether he was going upwards or descending. Pliny informs us, that besides the Mycon, who assisted in painting the Houkin, there was another painter of the same name, whose daughter, Timanthe, excelled in the art professed by her father. APOLLODORUS further prepared the way for the best efforts of Apollodorus painting in Greece. He was the first who carried the disposition of B. c. 410. light and shade, and chiaro-oscuro, to any degree of perfection. His genius was calculated to astonish and rivet the attention. Pliny informs us, that no painter before him could succeed in holding the spectators of his works in the long contemplation of their excellence : Neque ante eum tabula ullius ostenditur quæ teneat oculos." One of his most celebrated pictures exhibited a priest at his devotions, "breathless with adoration;" and another, Ajax struck with fire from heaven. The latter was preserved at Pergamos. It may be observed, that the subject is more bold than any recorded to have been previously chosen by a painter. 66 ZEUXIS, who, with Timanthes and Parrhasius, carried ancient Zeuxis. painting nearly to perfection, was born at Heraclea; but whether at B. c. 400. the city of that name in Macedon, or that near Crotona, in Italy, does not certainly appear. He studied either under Demophilus or Ñeseas, artists respecting whom nothing is known, but that one of them was his master. Soon, however, he far outstripped his instructor, as # Apollodorus intimated in verses expressive of his indignation that Zeuxis should have moulded to his own use all previous inventions, and stolen the graces of the best masters; thus paying a fine involuntary compliment to his highly-gifted rival. Apollodorus, having first practised chiaro-oscuro, could not endure that his glory should be eclipsed by a younger artist, who availed himself of his improvements to rise to a higher degree of excellence. Zeuxis seems to have rapidly arisen to the highest distinction in Greece, and acquired, by the exercise of his art, not only renown, but riches. Of the latter advantage he was more vain than became a man of exalted genius. He appeared |