DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0258
m SCENE PAINTING.
" Of reds, the ancients possessed a species of vermilion or fine cinnabar, a coarser sort of
cinnabar, red lead, various other reds burnt and unburnt, apparently similar to our red ochre,
Venetian red, Spanish brown, burnt terra di Sienna, and scarlet ochre : they had also a substance
alike in colour and in name to our dragon's blood. Their minium was not red lead, but native
vermilion or very fine cinnabar. Their red lead went under the names of minium secunclarium and
cerussa usta. They bad nut carmine or rose-pink, nor the lakes formed from kermes, cochineal,
or Brasil wood ; although they certainly had the cochineal insect and the kermes berry.
"■' The yellow pigments of the ancients were generally the same with our orpiment, king's
yellow, Naples yellow, masticot or massicot, and the yellow ochres of various denominations, as
well as earths tinged yellow. They did not possess turbith mineral, mineral yellow, or gamboge ;
nor do they appear to have known gall-stone as a pigment.
" Of the blue paints they had preparations from the lapis cyanus and lapis armenus; perhaps
also from the lapis lazuli which they possessed, and which I am inclined to think a different stone
from the former. Indigo they had, and bice or smalt, for they made blue glass; but whether
from some ore of cobalt or of wolfram, must be uncertain—perhaps from the former. They had
not Prussian blue, verditer, or litmus, which ue have. We do not use the blue precipitate of the
dyers' vats, nor mountain blue, which they certainly employed.
" Of green colours, they had verdigris, terre verte, and malachite or mountain-green : this last
is not in use among us. Sap-green and Scheele's green appear to have been unknown to them.
Like us they produced as many tints as they pleased from blue and yellow vegetables.
" We have no original purple in use ; that from gold by means of tin, though very good when
well prepared, is too dear, and is unnecessary. The purple of the ancients was a tinged earth.
" Their orange or sandarach (red orpiment) we also possess. Hence there does not appear to
have been any great want of pigments, or any very material difference between the colours they
used and such as we generally employ. Perhaps the full effect of colouring may be obtained
without the use of the exceeding brilliant pigments, by depending more on the proportion and
opposition of tints."
To conclude, the student in painting must, in the course of his studies and practice, not rest
satisfied with observing effects, without endeavouring to discover or to trace their causes : led by
the genuine spirit of philosophical research, he must endeavour to account for the various
appearances he observes in nature ; and the particular cases which seem to be so many exceptions
to the general rules he must carefully store up. for application on future opportunities. " On
the whole, (to repeat the words of Reynolds) there is but one presiding principle which regulates
and gives stability to every art. The works whether of poets, painters, moralists, or historians,
which are built upon general nature, live for ever; while those which depend for their existence
on particular customs and habits, a partial view of nature, or the fluctuation of fashion, can only
be coeval with that which first raised them from obscurity. Present time and future may be con-
sidered as rivals—and he who solicits the favour of the one, must expect to be discouraged by
the other."
SECTION III.
OF SCENE TAINTING.
ALTHOUGH this be a particular branch of painting, yet it may be and generally is united
with sundry other parts of art, such as a knowledge of architecture, of perspective, of landscape,
of
" Of reds, the ancients possessed a species of vermilion or fine cinnabar, a coarser sort of
cinnabar, red lead, various other reds burnt and unburnt, apparently similar to our red ochre,
Venetian red, Spanish brown, burnt terra di Sienna, and scarlet ochre : they had also a substance
alike in colour and in name to our dragon's blood. Their minium was not red lead, but native
vermilion or very fine cinnabar. Their red lead went under the names of minium secunclarium and
cerussa usta. They bad nut carmine or rose-pink, nor the lakes formed from kermes, cochineal,
or Brasil wood ; although they certainly had the cochineal insect and the kermes berry.
"■' The yellow pigments of the ancients were generally the same with our orpiment, king's
yellow, Naples yellow, masticot or massicot, and the yellow ochres of various denominations, as
well as earths tinged yellow. They did not possess turbith mineral, mineral yellow, or gamboge ;
nor do they appear to have known gall-stone as a pigment.
" Of the blue paints they had preparations from the lapis cyanus and lapis armenus; perhaps
also from the lapis lazuli which they possessed, and which I am inclined to think a different stone
from the former. Indigo they had, and bice or smalt, for they made blue glass; but whether
from some ore of cobalt or of wolfram, must be uncertain—perhaps from the former. They had
not Prussian blue, verditer, or litmus, which ue have. We do not use the blue precipitate of the
dyers' vats, nor mountain blue, which they certainly employed.
" Of green colours, they had verdigris, terre verte, and malachite or mountain-green : this last
is not in use among us. Sap-green and Scheele's green appear to have been unknown to them.
Like us they produced as many tints as they pleased from blue and yellow vegetables.
" We have no original purple in use ; that from gold by means of tin, though very good when
well prepared, is too dear, and is unnecessary. The purple of the ancients was a tinged earth.
" Their orange or sandarach (red orpiment) we also possess. Hence there does not appear to
have been any great want of pigments, or any very material difference between the colours they
used and such as we generally employ. Perhaps the full effect of colouring may be obtained
without the use of the exceeding brilliant pigments, by depending more on the proportion and
opposition of tints."
To conclude, the student in painting must, in the course of his studies and practice, not rest
satisfied with observing effects, without endeavouring to discover or to trace their causes : led by
the genuine spirit of philosophical research, he must endeavour to account for the various
appearances he observes in nature ; and the particular cases which seem to be so many exceptions
to the general rules he must carefully store up. for application on future opportunities. " On
the whole, (to repeat the words of Reynolds) there is but one presiding principle which regulates
and gives stability to every art. The works whether of poets, painters, moralists, or historians,
which are built upon general nature, live for ever; while those which depend for their existence
on particular customs and habits, a partial view of nature, or the fluctuation of fashion, can only
be coeval with that which first raised them from obscurity. Present time and future may be con-
sidered as rivals—and he who solicits the favour of the one, must expect to be discouraged by
the other."
SECTION III.
OF SCENE TAINTING.
ALTHOUGH this be a particular branch of painting, yet it may be and generally is united
with sundry other parts of art, such as a knowledge of architecture, of perspective, of landscape,
of