Smith, William: A smaller dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities (London, 1871)

PICTURA.

295

PICTURA.

in consequence of the foundation of Constan-
tinople, and the changes it involved, suffered
similar spoliations to those which it had pre-
viously inflicted upon Greece. This was the
period of the total decay of the imitative arts
amongst the ancients. About the beginning
of the second period is the earliest age in
which we have any notice of portrait painters
(imaginum pictores) as a distinct class. Por-
traits must have been exceedingly numerous
amongst the Romans ; Varro made a collection
of the portraits of 700 eminent men. The
portraits or statues of men who had per-
formed any public service were placed in the
temples and other public places ; arid several
edicts were passed by the emperors of Rome
respecting the placing of them. The portraits
of authors also were placed in the public
libraries ; they were apparently fixed above
the cases which contained their writings,
below which chairs were placed for the con-
venience of readers. They were painted also
at the beginning of manuscripts. Several of
the most celebrated ancient artists were both
sculptors and painters ; Phidias and Eu-
phranor were both ; Zeuxis and Protogenes
were both modellers ; Polygnotus devoted
some attention to statuary; and Lysippus
consulted Eupompus upon style in sculpture.
Moreover scene-painting shows that the
Greeks were acquainted with perspective at
a very early period ; for when Aeschylus was
exhibiting tragedies at Athens, Agatharchus
made a scene, and left a treatise upon it.—
II. Methods of Painting. There were two dis-
tinct classes of painting practised by the an-
cients—in water colours, and in wax, both of
which were practised in various ways. Of
the former the principal were fresco, al fresco;
and the various kinds of distemper (a tem-
pera), with glue, with the white of egg, or
with gums (a guazzo) ; and with wax or
resins when these were rendered by any
means vehicles that could be worked with
water. Of the latter the principal was
through fire (Sia. rapo?), termed encaustic
(eyKava-TLK-rj, encaustica). The painting in
wax (KT)poYpa<£i'a), or ship painting [incera-
menia natrium), was distinct from encaustic.
It docs not appear that the Greeks or Romans
ever painted in oil; the only mention of oil
in ancient writers in connection with paint-
ing is the small quantity which entered into
the composition of encaustic varnish to temper
it. They painted upon wood, clay, plaster,
stone, parchment, and canvas. The use of
canvas must have been of late introduction,
as there is no mention of it having been em-
ployed by the Greek painters of the best
periods. They generally painted upon panels
or tablets (iriraxt-s, mvaxia, tabulae, tabellae)

which when finished were fixed into frames
of various descriptions and materials, and
encased in walls. The style or cestrum used
in drawing, and for spreading the wax co-
lours, pointed at one end and broad and flat
at the other, was termed ypaipi? by the Greeks
and cestrum by the Romans ; it was generally
made of metal. The hair pencil (pcnicillus,
pcnicilluni) was termed inroypoufut, and appa-
rently also pa|9<5cW. The ancients nsc<i also a
palette very similar to that used by the mo-
derns. Encaustic was a method very fre-
quently practised by the Roman and later
Greek painters ; but it was in very little use
by the earlier painters, and was not generally
adopted until after the time of Alexander.
Pliny defines the term thus : " ceris pingere
ac picturam inurere," to paint with wax or
wax colours, and to burn in the picture after-
wards with the cauterium ; it appears there-
fore to have been the simple addition of the
process of burning in to the ordinary method
of painting with wax colours. Cerae (waxes)
was the ordinary term for painters' colours
amongst the Romans, but more especially
encaustic colours, and they kept them in
partitioned boxes, as painters do at present.
—III. Pohjchromy. Ancient statues were often
painted, and what is now termed polychrome
sculpture was very common in Greece. The
practice of colouring statues is undoubtedly
as ancient as the art of statuary itself;
although they were perhaps originally co-
loured more from a love of colour than from
any design of improving the resemblance of
the representation. The Jupiter of the Capitol,
placed by Tarquinius Prisons, was coloured
with minium. In later times the custom
seems to have been reduced to a system, and
was practised with more reserve. The prac-
tice also of colouring architecture seems to
have been universal amongst the Greeks, and
very general amongst the Romans.—IV. Vase
Painting. The fictile-vase painting of the
Greeks was an art of itself, and was prac-
tised by a distinct class of artists. The de-
signs upon these vases (which the Greeks
termed \t\kv6oi) have been variously inter-
preted, but they have been generally consi-
dered to be in some way connected with the
initiation into the Eleusinian and other mys-
teries. They were given as prizes to the
victors at the Panathenaea and other games,
and seem to have been always buried with
their owners at their death, for they have
been discovered only in tombs. Even in the
time of the Roman empire painted vases
were termed " operis antiqui," and were then
sought for in the ancient tombs of Campania
and other parts of Magna Graecia. We may
form some idea of their immense value from