DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0147
SCHOOLS OF PAINTING.
1SS
picture :—" We may instantly distinguish Ulysses by his severity and vigilance ; Menelaus "by
his mildness ; and Agamemnon by a kind of divine majesty. In the son of Tydeus is expressed
an air of freedom; Ajax is known by his sullen fierceness; and xAmilochus by his alertness. To
give to these such sentiments and actions as are natural to their peculiar characters, is the ethic
of painting. The Medea of Timomachus is also an instance of excellent expression. Ausonius
speaks of it in the highest terms, as displaying, in the most striking manner, the mingled ex-
pressions of anger and maternal fondness.
We are not warranted in bestowing equal commendations on the colouring of the ancients;
though there is no doubt but they particularly studied this part of the art, and arrived in it to a
considerable excellence : but as the praises of ancient authors on this head relate chiefly to the
stvle as exerted upon single figures or particular tints, it may be doubted whether they possessed
the art of distributing their colours, through the whole of the piece, so as to produce that har-
mony and general tone of colouring which we admire in the works of the Lombard and Flemish
schools. From the writings of Pliny, Lucian and Plutarch, we rna}r collect that the ancient
, painters of Greece understood the rationale of colouring. Pliny mentions tone of colours, and the
handling, or what we now call harmony. Lucian, in his description of the male and female Cen-
taurs, by Zeuxis, after describing the treatment of the subject, proceeds to notice the technical
execution of the picture; and he praises in particular the truth and delicacy of the drawing, the
perfect blending of the colours, the skilful shading, the scientific preservation of size and magni-
tude, and the equality and harmony of the proportions throughout the whole piece. Plutarch
also observes that ct painters increase the effect of the light and splendid parts of a picture, by the
neighbourhood of dark tints and shades." And Maximus Tyrius says that u bright and vivid
colours are always pleasant to the eye ; but this pleasure is always lessened if you omit to accom-
pany them with somewhat dark and gloomy." These and other testimonies evince a knowledge
of the use of dark and cold tints, even in a brilliant tone of colouring: but the best ancient
painters appear to have preferred a chaste and sober style to the more gaudy and flattering one
of later times.
Very good artists and eminent critics among the moderns have denied the ancients any know«
ledge of the ehiaro scuro, because it is not met with in any of those remains which have come to
our hands. The Abbe du Bos, on the contrary asserts that they equalled in this part of the art,
the most celebrated among the moderns; grounding his opinion on the assertions of Pliny
and other ancient writers, concerning the delightful distribution of light and shade. It appears
however, on the examination of the greater part of the passages from antiquity, that the ancient
painters understood at least what relates to the light and shade of single figures, without include
jng what is now called the elaro obscuro. The remains of ancient artists, which have come to
our hands, are indecisive upon this subject, as they are the productions of an inferior class, and
may be considered, as Sir Joshua Reynolds justly observes, " as on the same rank with the paint-
ings that ornament our public gardens." .
With regard to the art of grouping their figures, critics are generally of opinion that the ancient
painters are far excelled by the moderns. In the remaining antiquities we meet with few exam-
ples of this most difficult branch; and among the many paintings enumerated by Pliny, Lucian and
Philostratus, none of them is praised for this excellence. From the paucity of the figures introduced
into the generality of the ancient pictures, there is no reason to suppose that they attended much
to this, with the moderns, very material branch of the art: but there is sufficient reason to believe
2 m thej
1SS
picture :—" We may instantly distinguish Ulysses by his severity and vigilance ; Menelaus "by
his mildness ; and Agamemnon by a kind of divine majesty. In the son of Tydeus is expressed
an air of freedom; Ajax is known by his sullen fierceness; and xAmilochus by his alertness. To
give to these such sentiments and actions as are natural to their peculiar characters, is the ethic
of painting. The Medea of Timomachus is also an instance of excellent expression. Ausonius
speaks of it in the highest terms, as displaying, in the most striking manner, the mingled ex-
pressions of anger and maternal fondness.
We are not warranted in bestowing equal commendations on the colouring of the ancients;
though there is no doubt but they particularly studied this part of the art, and arrived in it to a
considerable excellence : but as the praises of ancient authors on this head relate chiefly to the
stvle as exerted upon single figures or particular tints, it may be doubted whether they possessed
the art of distributing their colours, through the whole of the piece, so as to produce that har-
mony and general tone of colouring which we admire in the works of the Lombard and Flemish
schools. From the writings of Pliny, Lucian and Plutarch, we rna}r collect that the ancient
, painters of Greece understood the rationale of colouring. Pliny mentions tone of colours, and the
handling, or what we now call harmony. Lucian, in his description of the male and female Cen-
taurs, by Zeuxis, after describing the treatment of the subject, proceeds to notice the technical
execution of the picture; and he praises in particular the truth and delicacy of the drawing, the
perfect blending of the colours, the skilful shading, the scientific preservation of size and magni-
tude, and the equality and harmony of the proportions throughout the whole piece. Plutarch
also observes that ct painters increase the effect of the light and splendid parts of a picture, by the
neighbourhood of dark tints and shades." And Maximus Tyrius says that u bright and vivid
colours are always pleasant to the eye ; but this pleasure is always lessened if you omit to accom-
pany them with somewhat dark and gloomy." These and other testimonies evince a knowledge
of the use of dark and cold tints, even in a brilliant tone of colouring: but the best ancient
painters appear to have preferred a chaste and sober style to the more gaudy and flattering one
of later times.
Very good artists and eminent critics among the moderns have denied the ancients any know«
ledge of the ehiaro scuro, because it is not met with in any of those remains which have come to
our hands. The Abbe du Bos, on the contrary asserts that they equalled in this part of the art,
the most celebrated among the moderns; grounding his opinion on the assertions of Pliny
and other ancient writers, concerning the delightful distribution of light and shade. It appears
however, on the examination of the greater part of the passages from antiquity, that the ancient
painters understood at least what relates to the light and shade of single figures, without include
jng what is now called the elaro obscuro. The remains of ancient artists, which have come to
our hands, are indecisive upon this subject, as they are the productions of an inferior class, and
may be considered, as Sir Joshua Reynolds justly observes, " as on the same rank with the paint-
ings that ornament our public gardens." .
With regard to the art of grouping their figures, critics are generally of opinion that the ancient
painters are far excelled by the moderns. In the remaining antiquities we meet with few exam-
ples of this most difficult branch; and among the many paintings enumerated by Pliny, Lucian and
Philostratus, none of them is praised for this excellence. From the paucity of the figures introduced
into the generality of the ancient pictures, there is no reason to suppose that they attended much
to this, with the moderns, very material branch of the art: but there is sufficient reason to believe
2 m thej