ing and fine about the notion in the first place; and in the next they are tempted to it by that slothful feeling too natural to us all. They are terrified at the prospect of the toil required to obtain exactness; not considering that the lives of all those painters who attained eminence furnish instances and recommendations of unceasing industry and application. When these great masters imagined a subject, they first executed a variety of sketches; afterwards a finished drawing of the whole; after that a more correct drawing of every separate part-they then painted the picture, and concluded the whole by retouching it from the life. At the same time a student is not always advancing because he is employed; he must exert his strength in those parts of the art where the real difficulties lie; in those parts which distinguish it as a liberal art, and not in such as may be resolved into the merely ornamental. It is, secondly, a matter of considerable importance, that those drawings on which the young artist first exercises his ability, should be of the very best kind; that the profiles, the hands, the feet, &c., given him to copy be of the first masters, in order that both his eye and his hand may become early acquainted with the most exquisite proportions and the most charming shapes. Thirdly, It would be desirable that the student should copy some of the fine heads to be met with on Greek and Roman medals: he will hence become acquainted (if we may be allowed the phrase) with the personages whom he may in course of time transplant into his pictures; and, above all, improve himself in the important art of copying from relief. Hence, also, he will become initiated into the doctrine of light and shade, and the nature of that chiaro-scuro by which the different forms of things may, justly speaking, be said to be distinguished. The chief divisions of the art of painting are into historical (comprising mystical and allegorical), grotesque, portrait, fancy, animals, fruits and flowers, battles, landscapes, sea views, still life, and architecture. Grotesque paintings are to be found in the celebrated loggia of the Vatican palace at Rome, painted from the designs of Raffaelle, and on the ceiling of the portico of the capitol, carved from those of Michel Angiolo. The other departments are sufficiently explained by their respective names: it may be as well, however, to observe, that the term still life refers to all inanimate objects, and chiefly to household furniture, instruments of use, &c. SECT. II-MODES AND MATERIALS OF PAINT ING. The different methods of painting at present practised are- Oil painting, which is preferable to any other mode, since it allows a complete gradation of tints, in the most enduring of all materials, except those of mosaic. Fresco is performed. with colors diluted in water, and laid on a wall newly plastered, with which they incorporate, becoming often as durable as the stucco itself. See the following section. Crayons, in which colors, either simple or compound, are ground in water, mixed with gum, and made into small rolls of a hard paste, which are then used on paper or parchment. Miniature, consisting of colors prepared with water or gum, and laid on vellum or ivory. A smaller kind of portrait. Enamel, performed on copper or gold, with mineral colors dried by fire. This method is likewise extremely durable. See ENAMEL. Encaustic, executed by the mixture of wax with the varnish and colors. See ENCAUSTIC. Water colors, more properly denominated limning. This is performed with colors mixed with water, gum, size, or paste, on silk, paper, and sundry other materials. Besides these various methods we may add the painting in distemper; namely, with colors mixed with size, white of eggs, or any thin glutinous substance, and used on paper, linen, silk, board, or wall. There are also painting on GLASS (which word see), and clydonic painting, consisting of a mixed use of oil-colors and water. The various pigments at present in use, and fitted for the general purposes of oil painting, are:-Cremnitz white, white lead of different sorts; a fine yellow, recently discovered from chromate of iron; king's yellow or orpiment; patent yellow, Naples' yellow, ochres. Dutch pink, terra di Sienna, yellow lake, red lead, vermilion, red ochre, Indian red, Venetian red, lakes of various kinds, brown pink, Vandyck's brown, umber, burnt and unburnt; terra di Sienna, burnt; Prussian and Antwerp blue, ultra marine, ivory black, blue black, asphaltum. These may be reckoned the chief colors for the palette; there are, however, several others, which are employed for particular purposes, such as verdigris, &c. The oils best adapted to the ends of painting are poppy, nut, and linseed oils; and in this climate a preparation of the latter, by boiling it with some siccative, is in common use. See Ou. We will subjoin two or three observations, made by a quaint old writer on art (Richardson), with respect to the method of distinguishing a genuine picture of one of the old masters from a copy:There are some pictures and drawings which are seen to be originals, though the hand and manner of thinking are neither of them known; and that by the spirit and freedom of them; which sometimes appears to such a degree as to assure us it is impossible they should be copies. But we cannot say, on the contrary, when we see a tame, heavy handling, that it is not original merely upon that account, because there have been many bad originals, and some good masters have fallen into a feebleness of hand, especially in their old age. counterfeit hands can rarely do it so well as to deceive a good connoisseur; the handling, the coloring, the drawing the airs of heads, some, nay, all of these discover the author; more or less easily, however, as the manner of the mas ter happens to be: what is highly finished, for example, is more easily imitated than what is loose and free. Copies made by a master after his own work are discoverable by being well ac The best quainted with what that master did when he followed nature; these shall have a spirit, a freedom, a naturalness which even he cannot put into what he copies from his own work. To conclude, there is one qualification absolutely necessary to him that would know hands, and distinguish copies from originals; as it also is to any one who would judge well of the goodness of a picture or drawing; or indeed of any thing else whatsoever; and that is he must know how, and accustom himself, to take in, retain, and manage, clear and distinct ideas,' SECT. III.-OF PAINTING IN FRESCO. Of all kinds of painting, fresco is the most durable, the most speedily executed, and the most proper to adorn great buildings. It appears, that most of the fragments of ancient paint ing handed down to us by the Romans are in fresco. Norden, quoted by Winckelman, speaks of the ruins of Egyptian palaces and temples, in which are Colossian paintings on walls eighty feet high. The description which those authors have given of these paintings, of the prepared ground, and of the manner in which the colors have been employed, &c., shows plainly that they have been thus executed. The stability of fresco is demonstrated, therefore, by the existence of these fragments of the highest antiquity. There are no other kinds of painting which could equally have resisted the injuries of the weather, the excessive aridity of certain elements, the moisture of subterraneous situations, and the destructions by barbarians. In making paintings in fresco, the choice of place, when they are without doors, is of the greatest importance. In countries where there is little or no frost, an exposure to the north is the most favorable; and in cold climates a western exposure should be made choice of, because the first rays of the rising sun have a very pernicious effect after frost. The choice of materials is the next thing of importance. To make it durable, the ground is the object of chief attention; and, to make this perfect, the mortar used by the ancients, now unknown, would be necessary. It is easy to perceive that a minute detail of forms, an extensive mixture and gradation of tints, and the merit of a delicate and gentle touch, can make no part of the excellencies of this kind of painting. It cannot bear a close examination like a picture in oil. There is always something dry and rough which displeases. An artist who would flatter himself with success in a fresco placed near the eye would be grossly deceived; a common spectator would find it coarse and badly finished. Fresco is chiefly employed in palaces, temples, and public edifices. In these vast places no kind of painting can be preferred to it; large, vivid in its strokes, and constantly fresh, it enriches the architecture, animates it, and gives relief to the eye from the repetition of the same forms, and the monotony of color, in a place where colored marbles and bronzes are not employed. A fine fresco gives the greatest effect to a lofty building, which serves as a frame and support to this enchanting art, which fixes the attention of every person of sensibility and taste. Fresco has a freshness, splendor, and vigor, not to be found in oil or water colors. A known principle in all painting is, that the coloring is more perfect in proportion as it approaches to the lights and shades in nature. As colors applied to any subject can never reach this degree of perfection, the illusion which painters produce consists in the comparison and opposition of the tones of colors among themselves. If the white of the finest and purest oil appears heavy and gray, compared with great lights in natural whites, it follows, that, in order to copy them with fidelity, the tones which follow the first white must be degraded in an exact proportion. Thus it is necessary that the shades of a picture be considerably deeper than those of the model; especially, if, from the greatest lights to the browns, one hath proportionably followed the distance which is found between the colors on the pallet and the tones of the object copied. Now, if the white of fresco be infinitely more bright than that of oil, the same effect will be obtained in a brown tone. On the other side if it constantly happens that the brown tones of fresco are much more vigorous than those of water colors, and equal even to the browns of oil itself, it is certain that it possesses a splendor and vigor more extensive than any other kind of painting. Thus, in the hands of an artist who is well acquainted with the colors fit for fresco, it is more susceptible of the general effect, and more capable than any other kind of giving projection and the semblance of life to the figures. If we enquire why painting in fresco is now seldom or never practised, we may ascribe it to the great talents required to execute it. 'Many of our painters,' says Vasari, 'excel in oil and water colors, and yet fail in fresco; because of all kinds this requires the greatest strength of genius, boldness in the strokes, and resolution.' If in an age abounding in great masters it was difficult to excel in this kind, it must be much more so in ours; but we should not require the characters of sublimity and style to which men were accustomed in the time of Vasari. We should execute in fresco as we do in oils; for Italy herself along with Michel Angiolo, and Zuicharo, had Cortonni Giardano and Francischini as middling fresco-painters. And in France, Lafosse, Bon Bologne, and Perur, performed several works in fresco, which might be imitated by the painters of our times. But the real causes for abandoning this art proceed from the want of knowledge and taste in the persons who employ the artists, and from the manners of the age. As a pleasant or licentious conceit, unfinished coloring, and bold effects of shade, are the chief objects of consideration, a very smooth painting, enlivened by gentle touches, completely gratifies the person who pays the price; and therefore the philosophical principles of the art, which require study, are not cultivated. The mechanical process of this useful and beautiful kind of painting is as follows: before painting it is necessary to apply two layers. If the wall on which you are to paint is of brick. the layer is easily applied; but if it is of freestone closely united, it is necessary to make excavations in the stone, and to drive into them nails or pegs of wood in order to hold the first layer. The first layer is made of good lime and a cement of pounded brick, or, which is still better, river sand; this latter forms a layer more uneven, and better fitted to retain the second smooth and polished layer applied to its surface. There should be experiments to discover a layer still more compact, and more independent of the variations of the air; such, for example, as covers the aqueducts and ancient reservoirs constructed by the Romans in the neighbourhood of Naples. you Before applying the second layer, or what are to paint, it is necessary that the first be perfectly dry; for there issues from the lime, when it is moist, a smell both disagreeable and pernicious to the artist. When the first layer is perfectly dry, it is wet with water in proportion to its dryness, that the second layer may the more easily incorporate with it. The second layer is composed of lime, slaked, and long exposed in the air, and of river sand, of an equal grain, and moderately fine. It requires an active and intelligent mason to apply this layer, as the surface must be altogether equal. The operation is performed with a trowel; and the operator requires to have a small piece of wood to take away the large grains of sand, which, remaining, might render the surface uneven. To give a fine polish to this layer, one ought to take a sheet of paper, apply it to the wall, and pass and repass the trowel over the paper. By these means the little inequalities which hurt the exactness of the stroke, and which produce false appearances at a distance, are entirely smoothed. The artist must not lay more than the painter can finish in a day, as this kind of painting must be executed on a fresh ground. The layer being thus prepared, the painter begins his operation; but as painting in fresco must be executed rapidly, and as there is no time to retouch any of the strokes, the painter takes care to provide himself with large cartoons, on which he has drawn, with exactness, and in their full size, the figures which he is to paint, which leaves him nothing to do but to copy them on the wall. The cartoons are composed of several sheets of large paper pasted one on another, neither too thick nor too slender. The painter traces the tracks of the figures on the plaster by passing a steel point over the tracks in the cartoons, or in pricking them. Having thus attained an exact and speedy drawing, it now remains to execute the painting. But it is essential, when one wishes to finish any small work of this kind, in the first place, to be informed of the proper colors, and of those which cannot be used. In general, the colors extracted from earths, and those which have passed through the fire, are the only ones which can be employed in this kind of painting, The colors are white, made of lime, the white of egg-shells, ultramarine, the black of charcoal, yellow ochre, burnt vitriol, red earth, green of Verona, Venetian black, and burnt ochre, There are others which require to be used with great precaution, such as enamel blue, cinnabar, and white marble dust. When enamel blue is used, it requires to be applied instantaneously, and when the lime is very moist, otherwise it does not incorporate with the plaster; and, if one retouch with this color, it must be done an hour or more after the first application, to increase its lustre. With regard to the white marble dust, it is apt to turn black if it be not mixed up with a proper quantity of white lime. Cinnabar, which has a splendor almost superior to all other colors, loses it almost entirely when mixed with lime. At the same time it may be employed in places not exposed to the air, with a little degree of care in the preparation. Reduce a quantity of the purest cinnabar to powder, put it into an earthen vessel, and pour limewater on it for two or three times. By this process the cinnabar receives some impression of lime-water, which makes it capable of being employed in fresco-painting. One of the best colors, and the one most used in fresco for the gradation of tints, and for giving the requisite tone, is white of lime. This white is prepared by mixing lime slaked long before with good water. The lime deposits a sediment at the bottom of the vessel; when the water is poured off, this sediment is the white of lime. Another kind of white might be used, the ef fects of which would be known by experience, namely, the white of egg-shells. To prepare this white, one must take a great quantity of shells of eggs, which must be pounded and boiled in water along with a quantity of quick lime; after this, they are put into a strainer, and washed repeatedly with fountain water. The shells are again pounded until the water employed for that purpose becomes pure and limpid; and, when they are in this manner reduced to powder, this powder is grinded in water, and formed into small pieces, and dried in the sun. All the different kinds of ochres make excellent colors for fresco, and take different shades, being previously burned in iron chests. With regard to the Naples yellow, it is dangerous to use it where the painting is much exposed to the air. The blacks of charcoal, of peach stones, and of vine twigs, are good; but that extracted from bones is of no value. Roman vitriol gathered at the furnaces, and called burnt vitriol, ground afterwards in spirit of wine, resists the air extremely well when employed in lime. There is also a red extracted from this preparation somewhat like that produced from lac. This color is very proper for preparing the layers to be colored with cinnabar; and the draperies painted with these two colors will vie in splendor with those painted with fine lac in oil. The ultramarine is the most faithful color; and it not only never changes, but it communicates this precious quality to those colors with which it is mixed. The manner of employing these colors is to grind them in water, and to begin by arranging them into the principal tints to be employed; these are afterwards put into pots; and it is necessary to use many pallets raised at the edges, to form the intermediate shades, and to have under one's eye all the shades required. As all the tints, except burnt ochre, violet, red, and blacks of all kinds, are apt to become clear, the painter must have beside him some pieces of brick or new tile very dry. A dash of the colors is applied to one of these with the pencil, before using them; and, as tile instantaneously imbibes the water, one perceives what the shade will be after the fresco is dry. SECT. IV. OF PAINTING WITH CRAYONS, The student must provide himself with strong blue paper, the thicker the better, if the grain is not too coarse. The knots should be levelled with a penknife or razor, otherwise they will prove exceedingly troublesome. The paper must be pasted very smooth on a linen cloth, previously strained on a deal frame, the size according to the artist's pleasure; on this the picture is to be executed; but it is most eligible not to paste the paper on till the whole subject is first dead-colored. The method of doing this is by laying the paper, with the dead-color on its face, upon a smooth board, when, by a brush, the back side of the paper must be covered with paste; the frame with the strained cloth must then be laid on the pasted side of the paper; after which, turn the painted side uppermost, and lay a piece of clean paper upon it, to prevent smearing it: this being done, it may be stroked gently over with the hand; by which means all the air between the cloth and the paper will be forced out. When the painters want to make a very correct picture, they generally use tiffany or black gauze, strained tight on a frame, which they lay flat on the subject to be imitated, and with a piece of chalk, trace all the outlines on the tiffany. They then lay the canvas to be painted on, flat upon the floor, placing the tiffany with the chalked lines upon it, and with a bandkerchief brush the whole over; this presents the exact outlines of the picture on the canvas. The crayon-painter may also use this method when the subject of his imitation is in oils; but, in copying a crayon picture, he must have recourse to the following method, on account of the glass. The picture being placed on the easel, let the outlines be drawn on the glass with a small camel's hair pencil, dipped in lake, ground thin with oils, with great exactness. After this, take a sheet of paper of the same size, and place it on the glass, stroking over all the lines with the hand, by which means the color will adhere to the paper, which must be pierced with pin-holes pretty close to each other. The paper intended to be used for the painting must next be laid upon a table, and the pierced paper placed upon it; then, with some fine pounded charcoal tied up in a piece of lawn, rub over the pierced lines, which will give an exact outline; but great care must be taken not to brush this off till the whole is drawn over with sketching chalk, which is a composition made of whiting and tobacco-pipe clay, rolled like the crayons, and pointed at each end. When a student paints from the life, it is proper to make a correct drawing of the outlines on another paper, the size of the picture he is going to VOL. XVI. paint, which he may trace by the preceding method. The student will find the sitting posture, with the box of crayons in his lap, the most convenient in which to paint. The part of the picture he is painting should be rather below his face, else the arm will be fatigued. Let the windows of the room be darkened, at least to the height of six feet from the ground; and the subject to be painted should be placed so that the light may fall with every advantage on the face. The features being correctly drawn with chalks, take a crayon of pure carmine, and carefully draw the nostril and edge of the nose next the shadow; then, with the faintest carmine teint, lay in the highest light upon the nose and forehead, which must be executed broad. Then proceed gradually with the second teint, and the succeeding ones, till he arrives at the shadows, which must be enriched with much lake, carmine, and deep green. The several pearly teints discernible in fine complexions must be imitated with blue verditer and white, which answers to the ultramarine teints used in oils. But, if the parts of the face where these teints appear are in shadow, the crayons composed of black and white must be substituted in their place. Let the student be careful when he begins the eyes, to draw them with a crayon inclined to the carmine teint, of whatever color the irises are; he must lay them in brilliant, and at first not loaded with color, but executed lightly. The student must let the light of the eye incline very much to the blue cast, avoiding a staring white appearance, but preserving a broad shadow thrown on its upper part by the eye-lash. The student should begin the lips with pure carmine and lake, and in the shadow use some carmine and black; the strong vermilion teints should be laid on afterwards. He must form the corner of the mouth with carmine, brown ochre, and greens, variously intermixed. If the hair is dark, he should preserve much of the lake and deep carmine teints therein. After he has dead-colored the head, he is to sweeten the whole together, by rubbing it' over with his finger, beginning at the strongest light upon the forehead, passing his finger very lightly, and uniting it with the next teint, which he must continue till the whole is sweetened together, often wiping his finger on a towel, to prevent the colors being sullied. When the head is brought to some degree of forwardness, let the back ground be laid in, which must be done by covering it as thin as possible, and rubbing it into the paper with a leathern stump. Near the face the paper should be almost free from color. The ground, being painted thin next the hair, affords an opportunity of painting the edges of the hair over in a light and free manner in finishing. The above method, properly executed, produces the appearance of a painting composed of three colors, viz. carmine, black, and white, which is the best preparation a painter can make for the producing a fine crayon picture. The next step is, to complete the back ground and the hair; thence proceed to the forehead, finishing downward. 2 H In painting over the forehead the last time, begin the highest light with the most faint vermalion teint, in the same place where the faint carmine was first laid, keeping it broad in the same manner. In the next shade, the student must work in some light blue teints, composed of verditer and white, intermixing with them some of the deeper vermilion teints, insensibly melting them into one another. Some brilliant yellows may also be used, and, towards the roots of the hair, strong verditer teints, intermixed with green, will be of singular service. Cooling crayons, composed of black and white, should succeed these, and melt into the hair. Beneath the eyes, the sweet pearly teints are to be preserved, composed of verditer and white, and under the nose, and on the temples, the same may be used; beneath the lips, teints of this kind also are proper, mixing them with the light greens and some vermilion. In finishing the cheeks, let the pure lake clear them from any dust contracted from the other crayons; then with the lake may be intermixed the bright vermilion; and, last of all, a few touches of the orange-colored crayon, but with caution. The eye is the most difficult feature to execute in crayons, as every part must be expressed with the utmost nicety, to appear finished; at the same time that the painter must preserve its breadth and solidity while he is particularising the parts. To accomplish this, the student should use his crayon in sweetening as much, and his finger as little as possible. When he wants a point to touch a small part with, he may break off a little of his crayon against the box, which will produce a corner fit to work with in the minutest parts. When the eye-balls are sufficiently prepared, the shining speck must be made with a pure white crayon, which should be first broken to a point, and then laid on firm; but, as it is possible they may be defective in neatness, they should be corrected with a pin, taking off the redundant parts, by which means they may be formed as neat as can be required. The difficulty, with respect to the nose, is to preserve the lines properly determined, and at the same time so artfully blended into the cheek as to express its projection, and yet no real line to be perceptible upon a close examination; in some circumstances it should be quite blended with the cheek, which appears behind it, and determined entirely with a slight touch of red chalk. The shadow caused by the nose is generally the darkest in the whole face. Carmine and brown ochre, carmine and black, and such brilliant crayons, compose it best. The student having prepared the lips with the strongest lake and carmine, &c., must with these colors make them completely correct; and, when finishing, introduce the strong vermilions, but with caution. This, if properly touched, will give the lips an appearance equal if not superior to those executed in oils, notwithstanding the seeming superiority the latter has, by means of glazing, of which the other is entirely desti tute. When the student paints the neck, he should avoid expressing the muscles too strong in the stem; nor should the bones appear too evident on the chest. The most necessary part to be expressed is a strong marking just above the place where the collar bones unite; and, if the head is much thrown over the shoulders, some notice should be taken of the large muscle that rises from behind the ear, and is inserted into the pit between the collar bones. All inferior muscles should be avoided. In coloring the neck, let the student preserve the stem of a pearly hue, and the light not so strong as on the chest. If any part of the breast appears, its transparency must also be expressed by pearly teints; but the upper part of the chest should be colored with beautiful vermilions delicately blended with the other. Dark blue, purple, black, pink, and all kinds of red draperies also should be first tinged with carmine, which will render the colors much more brilliant than any other method; over this should be laid on the paper the middle teint, except the dark masses of shadow, which should be laid on at first as deep as possible; these, sweetened with the finger, will exhibit a masterly breadth, which the lesser folds, when added, ought by no means to destroy. With the light and dark teints, the smaller part, are next to be made with freedom, executing as much with the crayon, and as little with the Enger as possible; in each fold touching the last stroke with the crayon, which stroke the finger must never touch. In the case of reflections, the simple touch of the crayon will be too harsh, therefore fingering will be necessary afterwards, as reflected lights are always more gentle than those which are direct. With respect to reflections in general they must always partake of the same color as the object reflecting, but in the case of single figures, it may be useful to make some particular observations. In a blue drapery, let the reflections be of a greenish east; in green draperies, make them of a yellow teint; in yellow, of an orange; in orange, reflect a reddish cast; in all reds, something of their own nature, but inclined to the yellow black should have a reddish reflection; the reflection of a reddish teint will also present purples to the best advantage. Of whatever cofor the drapery is, the reflection on the face must partake thereof, otherwise the picture, like paintings on glass, will have but a gaudy effect. Linen, lace, fur, &c., should be touched spiritedly with the crayon, fingering very little except the latter; and the last touches even of this, like all other parts, should be executed by the crayon, without sweetening with the finger. : The methods above recommended have been practised by the most celebrated crayon-painters, whose works have been held in public estimation; but the knowledge of, and ability to exe cute each separate part with brilliancy and truth, will be found very insufficient to constitute a complete painter, unless he unite them with each other by correctness of drawing, propriety of light and shadow, and harmony of coloring. To ac complish this, the student should carefully avoid finishing one part, till he has properly considered the connexion it is to have with the rest. MATERIALS.-The perfection of the crayons consists, in a great measure, in their softness; for it is impossible to execute a brilliant picture with |