FIRST LECTURE.

21

I fhall referve my obfervations for a fitter moment. Ofhis colour we know little, but it is not unreafonable tofuppofe that it emulated the beauties and the grandeurof his defign ; and. that he extended light and (hade tomaftes, may be implied from his peculiar method ofpainting monochroms on a black ground, adding the-lights in white (*).

The correctnefs of Parrhafius fucceeded to the geniusof Zeuxis . He circumfcribed his ample ftyle, and byfubtle examination of outline eflablilhed that ftandardof divine and heroic form which raifed him to the au-thority of a legiflator from whofe decifions there was noappeal. He gave to the divine and heroic character inpainting, what Polycletus had given to the human infculpture, by his Doryphorus ; a canon of proportion.Phidias had difcovered in the nod of the Homeric Ju-piter the chara&eriftic of majefty, inclination of the head :this hinted to him a higher elevation of the neck be-hind, a bolder protrufion of the front, and the increafedperpendicular of the profile. To this conception Parrha.-fius fixed a maximum ; that point from which defcendsthe ultimate line of celeftial beauty, the angle within which

moves

(i) ‘ Pinxit et monochromata ex albo.’ Pliny , xxxv. 9. This Ariftotle,Poet. c. 6 . calls