DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0034
24 HISTORY OF ART. [lECT. ti
colouring, and give a union and tenderness to the
work, inimitable in any other manner.
It is somewhat extraordinary that this mode of ap-
plying colours should have so long remained unem-
ployed, if it was known to the ancients; unless they
thought their own mode superior : but as the pro-
perty of oil is to resist water, whereby oil-painting
is calculated to afford protection from the injuries of
the weather, it still remains surprising that no men-
tion should be made of it, as used for ordinary, or
external, works, at least. And indeed, it seems not
improbable, that if John Van Eyck was not the
inventor of painting in oil, he might revive it, or
apply it to subjects to which ir had not before been
applied, or he might furnish an additional number
and variety of colours ; and so augment its reputa-
tion, and relieve it from that obscurity which had
enveloped it: after his time this manner of painting
was adopted into general use.
About the middle of the fifteenth century, the
Arts received a very considerable augmentation by
the discovery of engraving. It is true, the an-
cients practised, with great success, a kind of sculp-
ture (which has been termed engraving) on precious
stones and chrystals; but the utility of this Art in
furnishing impressions was not known till about
A. D. l46o.
The story of its discovery is thus related. A gold-
smith of Florence, named Muso Finiguera, be-
ing accustomed to take impressions in clay of every
thing he cut in metal, and to procure casts from it
by melted sulphur, observed some of the casts to be
marked
colouring, and give a union and tenderness to the
work, inimitable in any other manner.
It is somewhat extraordinary that this mode of ap-
plying colours should have so long remained unem-
ployed, if it was known to the ancients; unless they
thought their own mode superior : but as the pro-
perty of oil is to resist water, whereby oil-painting
is calculated to afford protection from the injuries of
the weather, it still remains surprising that no men-
tion should be made of it, as used for ordinary, or
external, works, at least. And indeed, it seems not
improbable, that if John Van Eyck was not the
inventor of painting in oil, he might revive it, or
apply it to subjects to which ir had not before been
applied, or he might furnish an additional number
and variety of colours ; and so augment its reputa-
tion, and relieve it from that obscurity which had
enveloped it: after his time this manner of painting
was adopted into general use.
About the middle of the fifteenth century, the
Arts received a very considerable augmentation by
the discovery of engraving. It is true, the an-
cients practised, with great success, a kind of sculp-
ture (which has been termed engraving) on precious
stones and chrystals; but the utility of this Art in
furnishing impressions was not known till about
A. D. l46o.
The story of its discovery is thus related. A gold-
smith of Florence, named Muso Finiguera, be-
ing accustomed to take impressions in clay of every
thing he cut in metal, and to procure casts from it
by melted sulphur, observed some of the casts to be
marked