FIRST LECTURE,

9

bails of execution, even when the inftrument for whichit was chiefly adapted, had long been laid aflde.

The etymology of the word ufed by the Greeks toexprefs Painting being the fame with that which theyemploy for Writing , makes the flmilarity of tool, ma-terials, method, almofl certain. The tool was a ftyleor pen of wood or metal; the materials a board, or alevigated plane of wood, metal, ftone, or fome preparedcompound; the method, letters or lines.

The firft efliiys of the art were Skiagrams , Ampleoutlines of a fhade, flmilar to thofe which have beenintroduced to vulgar ufe by the ftudents and parafltes ofPhyflognomy, under the name of Silhouettes; withoutany other addition of character or feature but what theprofile of the objedt thus delineated, could afford.

The next ftep of the art was the Monogram , out-lines of figures without light or fhade, but with fomeaddition of the parts within the outline, and from that tothe Mo?tochrom , or paintings of a Angle colour on a planeor tablet, primed with white, and then covered withwhat they called punic wax, flrfl: amalgamated with atough reflnous pigment, generally of a red, fometimes

c dark