PAINTING.

99

PAINTING.

Its original is to be traced up to that known source, fromwhence most of those arts which humanize society and lenda polish to life first had being. It will he recollected, thatin one of the preceding articles, where the first astronomicalobservations are mentioned, a passage in Diodorus Siculus isquoted, where he speaks of bricks burnt in the fire withvarious colours, representing the natural appearance of menand animals; which is the first fact upon record. As thisoccurred on the building of Babylon, it is as remote an originalas we are, perhaps, authorized to depend upon; althoughit is extremely probable it might be traced to an anteriordate: which conclusion though made from inference alone,we are allowed to suppose must of necessity have been thecase; as a knowledge of the nature of pigments must firsthave been ascertained before the Chaldtean artists couldhave been informed what colours would fade, or what wouldwithstand the operation of the enamelling process in theintense heat necessary to produce the effect. They must, atleast, have understood the difference between vegetable co-lours, which are the first presented to the senses, and mostprobably were the first which were used, and those afforded bythe mineral kingdom, which alone were proper for the ope-ration they performed. Therefore the arts of painting andchymistry, we should presume, must have made consider-able progress anterior to the erection of that tower.

The next people, who in point of time as well as ofimportance, offer themselves to the notice of modernEuropeans, are the Egyptians; and their perfection in theuse of the various colours which constitute the compoundidea we entertain when we think of painting, is wellknown and appreciated; when we may any day consult ourjudgment by inspecting those beautiful specimens of theireternal mode of colouring, we have in the exhibition onmummy-cases in the British Museum , and other depositoriesof that species of antique preservation. The third peoplewho excelled in giving a beautiful and tasteful variety tosurfaces in colouring and effect, were the Etrurians, orHetrurians, a people anciently inhabiting a district of Italy ,now known as Tuscany . Of the perfection to which theybrought the art, we may form an adequate and proper judg-ment by inspecting those beautiful vases preserved in theHamiltonian collection, in the British Museum , and also in

h 2