DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5596#0152
126 ANCIENT ART.
afterwards Tlieodoric died. Bight years after, the
tesseras which composed the body suddenly became
disunited and dropped off, and his nephew and suc-
cessor Atalaricus died. Some time after, the lower
part of the body fell away, and Theodoric's daughter
Amalasuntha also died. The remainder of the pic-
ture, from the thighs to the feet, fell down while
the G-oths were besieging Eome, so that there was
nothing left of it ; and from this the Romans
augured that as the G-oths might be called the feet
of Tlieodoric, his power was now entirely gone,
and that they might look for victory." 1
The Greeks were, at a recent period, proclaimed
to be ignorant even of chiaroscuro. " But for this
calumny," says Opie, " there appears not the
shadow of a foundation : the works of their poets,
orators, and philosophers abound with allusions to,
and passages in the most lively manner describing
its effects." 3 It would puzzle some of our painters
who boast in the discoveries and perfection of their
art, were we to tell them that even the process
of painting in oil, alleged to have been invented by
Van-Eyck in the fifteenth century, is clearly shown
by Lessing to have been practised by the ancients.3
1 Be Bcllo Goth. i. 24.
2 This question has been amply settled by the discovery of
ancient fresco paintings.
3 Be VAntiqitite de la Peinture a VSuite, prouvce par le Moin
Tkeophile.
afterwards Tlieodoric died. Bight years after, the
tesseras which composed the body suddenly became
disunited and dropped off, and his nephew and suc-
cessor Atalaricus died. Some time after, the lower
part of the body fell away, and Theodoric's daughter
Amalasuntha also died. The remainder of the pic-
ture, from the thighs to the feet, fell down while
the G-oths were besieging Eome, so that there was
nothing left of it ; and from this the Romans
augured that as the G-oths might be called the feet
of Tlieodoric, his power was now entirely gone,
and that they might look for victory." 1
The Greeks were, at a recent period, proclaimed
to be ignorant even of chiaroscuro. " But for this
calumny," says Opie, " there appears not the
shadow of a foundation : the works of their poets,
orators, and philosophers abound with allusions to,
and passages in the most lively manner describing
its effects." 3 It would puzzle some of our painters
who boast in the discoveries and perfection of their
art, were we to tell them that even the process
of painting in oil, alleged to have been invented by
Van-Eyck in the fifteenth century, is clearly shown
by Lessing to have been practised by the ancients.3
1 Be Bcllo Goth. i. 24.
2 This question has been amply settled by the discovery of
ancient fresco paintings.
3 Be VAntiqitite de la Peinture a VSuite, prouvce par le Moin
Tkeophile.