different materials for the purpose of producing a variety of colours, either of drapery or ornaments, was termed polychromic (many coloured) sculpture, and those works which were composed of a variety of stone or marble, were, in like manner, called polylithic (many stones).* It would not be proper to close even this short account of sculpture, without referring to a branch of the art in which the Greeks excelled. Those who have been accustomed only to see the works of ancient statuary in which the ideal characters are represented, remain unacquainted with a very important and interesting class of works of ancient art, namely, the Greek coins and engraved gems. These afford specimens of the singular individuality and minute care with which the artists copied nature in their portraits, and many are nearly as admirable for their beauty and accuracy as the more important works of the statuary. ANCIENT PAINTING. The splendid models of antiquity have left no doubt of the perfection which the art of sculpture had attained, but the more perishable quality of pictures has prevented any such direct evidence reaching us with respect to the powers of the Greek artists in painting. We collect from the work on painting of Pliny the elder, (which was in a great measure compiled from the treatises existing in his time, and from his actual knowledge,) that the art of painting had attained an excellence equal to that of sculpture, and many eminent painters as well as sculptors are enumerated by him. Phidias, so eminent as a sculptor, was, as has been mentioned, also a painter; Apollodorus of Athens is noticed by Pliny as being the first whose painting fixed and absorbed the attention of the spectator, and as being the first who showed the method of discriminating with delicacy the various gradations of shade in painting, and hence obtained the name of the shade painter. Parrhasius also flourished about the same time, and contributed to the advancement of the art; his principal additions were the attention he paid to the symmetry of the human figure, giving improved expression to the countenance, and carefully finishing the extremities. The greatest painter, however, was Zeuxis; his most cele. brated work was the picture of Venus Ency. Metrop. "Sculpture." at Crotona, said to have been executed from a selection of five of the fairest virgins of that city. To these must be added, Aristides, Pamphilus of Macedon, Protogenes, and Apelles, who was the painter of Alexander the Great; who being employed by his master to paint Campaspe, became enamoured whilst taking her portrait, and received her as his reward, at the hands of the magnificent monarch. Of course the expressions of authors as to the excellences of these painters, can only be relative, and furnish no direct criterion for a comparison with the works of modern artists. Much learned controversy has been employed as to the merits and demerits of ancient painting, yet with very few grounds on either side on which to found any arguments. Athough not possessed of any paintings of the great Greek masters, surely it may be inferred that those who had attained such excellence in the art of sculpture, who had discovered the secret of imparting such grace, such nature, such dignity to their statues, and who equally cultivated and admired painting, must also have attained a considerable eminence in that art; their excellence in sculpture may be fairly taken as a key to their standard of taste, with regard to painting. It is, however, probable that they had not that knowledge of colours, which modern chemistry has furnished, nor was the art of painting in oil known, though Sir Joshua Reynolds (no mean authority on such a point) considers that an expression in Pliny as to the mode of painting, by Apelles, does in fact describe the effect of glazing and scumbling, such as was practised by Titian, and which implies a true taste in that wherein the excellence of colouring mainly consists. This interpretation of Sir Joshua Reynolds, on a subject purely technical, has been doubted by some critics, but the critics though learned, do not profess to be painters, or lay claim to any practical knowledge of art. The only specimens from which we can form any decisive judgment, are the remains of pictures found in Herculaneum and Pompeii, and the frescos or paintings in the baths of Titus ; with respect to the merit of the latter, it may be observed as a proof of their excellence, that it is well known, certain of them, on their discovery, were attributed to Raphael. Although these paint ings do not approach to modern art, in respect of their colouring and effect, yet some of them are admitted to be of the very first merit in design: and even these specimens, though they may be received as evidence of the advanced state of the art, cannot be considered as at all exhibiting a type of what probably was the excellence in painting of the great Grecian masters; they were the production of Roman or Greek artists after the art had declined. With respect to the paintings found at Pompeii and Herculaneum, these were small and unimportant country towns, and consequently not likely to possess even what might be regarded as specimens of the best state of the art of the period at which they were executed. The passage in which Lucian invokes the aid of Polygnotus to accomplish his perfect woman, may be cited as evidence of what was then thought to be within the compass of the art. Polygnotus "shall open and spread her eyebrows, and give her that fine, glowing, decent blush which so inimitably beautifies his Cassandra; he likewise shall give her an easy and flowing dress, with all its delicate waving, partly clinging to her body, partly fluttering in the wind." There is every reason to suppose from the minute descriptions of Pliny, Pausanias, and Quintillian, that in the essential parts of invention, expression, grace, and character, the painters rivalled the sculptors, but in the modern invention of grouping, and the union and separation of groups, and in the modern accompaniments of perspective for representing the distance of given objects, in beauty of landscape and back ground, together with the extreme refinement in colouring, it is probable they were deficient. On these points the descriptions afford no grounds for conclusions. The attempts at back ground in the pictures of Herculaneum are generally puerile, and the most beautiful productions of ancient painting which have come to us, are figures relieved off plain grounds, or rather blended into them. The decline of Grecian sculpture may be dated from the age of Lysippus. From that time no improvement took place, and though many beautiful specimens were produced after this period, they added nothing to the perfection or developement of the art. On the establishment of the Roman Empire in Greece, the Greek artists sought an asylum in Rome, and there continued to practise sculpture, which was patronized by the Romans as a matter of luxury and ornament, not from the motives and with the feelings that gave rise to the excellence which the art had attained in Greece. CHAPTER III. On the Sculpture of the Romans. THE progress of the arts has in all ages nearly corresponded to that of letters; the best works of art were in the best time of Grecian literature, and the merit of the ancient Roman sculpture, imitated from the Greeks, or executed by Greek artists, was nearly in the same proportion of excellence, as the works of the Roman authors bear to the works of the Greeks, which they imitated. After the conquest of Greece, the collection of works of art became a passion and a luxury amongst the rich, and several of the Roman emperors were patrons of artists: amongst these Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines were the most distinguished. The celebrated Torso Farnese, the group of Laocoon, and that of Cupid and Psyche, which have come down to our times, are by some considered as the productions of the times of the early Roman emperors. The works executed after the time of Augustus are chiefly portraits, which, though excellent in their kind, do not partake of the grandeur and invention of the great Greek masters. Amongst the principal compositions of Roman sculpture, are the arches raised to Titus, Trajan, Severus, and Constantine. " They breathe," remarks Flaxman, "the spirit of the people they commemorate, which was conquest and universal dominion; they owe no inspiration to the muses, urge no claim to the epic or dramatic, they are the mere paragraphs of military gazettes, vulgar in conception, ferocious in sentiment; on the columns and arches, the principal objects are mobs of Romans cased in armour, bearing down unarmed, scattered Germans, Dacians, or Sarmatians, soldiers felling timber, driving piles, building walls or bridges, carrying rubbish, shouldering battering rams, killing without mercy, or dragging or binding captives." These just observations may, with equal truth, be applied to the taste which guided Napoleon in the choice of the monuments, such as the brazen column in the Place Vendome, which he selected to commemorate his triumphs. Statues and works of art were considered as articles of luxury, and were eagerly collected by the rich from the conquered provinces, but there are no productions, by known Roman artists, which can at all come in competition with those of Greece. As a proof of the ignorance and barbarous feelings of the Romans on the subject, Mummius, on the sacking of Corinth, said to those to whose care the specimens of art were intrusted to bring away, if they were lost, they should be bound to replace them by new ones. Caligula, who was a collector, displayed both his taste and knowledge, by ordering the heads of the gods and warriors to be struck off, and his own portrait stuck in their place. Works of art were, in fact, chiefly looked on as spoils to swell the triumph of the general. The rapacity of the Romans in plundering the conquered countries is particularly exemplified in the speech of Cicero against Verres, where he accuses him of not having left a single statue, gem, or any other specimen of art unplundered, and states that Syracuse under his government had lost more statues than it had soldiers in the victory of Marcellus. Marcus Scaurus, when ædile, decorated his temporary temple with 3000 statues. Eleven thousand exquisite works of Greek and Etruscan sculpture adorned Rome in the time of her splendour; and Petronius, alluding to the taste for these ornaments and to the profusion of them, observes, that it was easier to meet a god in Rome than a man. The Townley collection, the Egyptian antiquities, the Elgin marbles, the casts of the gina marbles, the Phigalian marbles, together with the splendid and rare collection of Greek Coins in the British Museum, and the fine collection of casts at the Royal Academy, afford ample means for tracing the rise and progress of ancient sculpture. It is to be regretted that there has not hitherto been published some arranged catalogue of the works of ancient art which are accessible in this country, with such observations as might guide the student or the amateur in his inquiries. CHAPTER IV. On the Revival of the Art of Sculpture. THE fine arts continued gradually to decline with the Roman power, until they were included in the common destruction of every thing that was great and civilized. From the fifth to beyond the tenth century, the works of ancient art became a prey to barbarism and superstition, and were buried under the ruins of those temples, forums, and palaces which they had adorned. During the long interval that succeeded the fall of the western empire, letters and the arts were equally neglected. As a proof of the completeness of the devastation, it is sufficient to observe, that on making excavations to get at the ancient buildings, the base of them has usually been found to be from ten to fifteen feet below the present surface, the whole of the overlying mass being composed of fragments of buildings, columns, statues, &c. It was at this time, that the fine architectural monuments of Rome were converted into fortresses by the contending ba rons. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the city was so encumbered with ruined buildings, that two horsemen could scarcely pass abreast in any of the streets. Its state of destitution may be understood in the lamentation of Petrarch, That Rome was in no place less known than in Rome itself." So entirely were the monuments destroyed, that in the beginning of the fifteenth century, Poggio Bracciolini noticed only six statues amongst all the remains of former grandeur. Petrarch, who had done so much for the revival of literature, was also one of the first who shewed a taste for the ancient works of art, and was himself a collector of Greek and Roman medals. Rienzi also, who had formed the plan of regenerating his country, and restoring the ancient republican form of government, is supposed to have first conceived this idea, from the continued contemplation of its monuments of ancient grandeur. Poggio Bracciolini, the discoverer of the works of Vitruvius, the friend of Lorenzo de Medici, and one of the most accomplished men of the age in which he lived, was also one amongst the earliest, on the revival of civilization, duly to appreciate the great merit of the works of antiquity, and like his patron Lorenzo de Medici formed a collection of them. He writes thus to a friend: "My chamber is surrounded with busts of marble, one of which is whole and elegant, the others are indeed mutilated, and some are even noseless, yet they are such as may please a good artist. With them and some other pieces which I possess, I intend to ornament my country seat." Again, (writing to one who was commissioned to procure statues for him :) " Different persons labour under different disorders. That which powerfully affects me, is an admiration of those productions of eminent sculptors, to which I am, perhaps, more devoted than becomes a man who may pretend to some share of learning, Nature, it is true, must always excel her copies; yet I trust I shall be al lowed to admire that art which can give such expression to inert materials, that nothing but breath seems wanting." Cicero, had a similar admiration of, and desire to possess whatever specimens of Grecian sculpture could be procured this appears from his letters to Atticus, whom he commissions to buy for him all that were to be had, for the purpose of ornamenting his study and gallery; adding, I am so passionately devoted to these objects of refinement, that while all others blame me, you only give me any assistance.* After the destruction of the Roman empire in the west, such of the Italian republics as were situated on the seacoast, were, by reason of their commerce, the first to revive in power and riches; and many of the maritime towns of Italy were fast increasing in civilization before the regenerating warmth had reached Rome. The Venetians, as early as 1085, in rivalry of Sta. Sophia at Constantinople, built St. Mark's: Mr. Flaxman states, that the mosaic pictures in the interior, are from Greek paintings of the same age. The cathe dral of Pisa was finished in 1092, and soon after this, those of Verona and some others were completed. The influence, however, of barbarism and superstition had continued the work of destruction in some parts of Italy, long after the arts had begun to be cultivated in more favoured spots: schools of *M. Fuseli considers that it appears from Cicero's works, that, notwithstanding his admiration of art, he had little real taste for painting and sculpture; but having a general taste for nature, and with his usual acumen, comparing the principles of one art with those of another, he frequently scattered useful hints, or made pertinent observations. painting were established as early as the eleventh or twelfth centuries.* It will be found, on a careful inquiry, that the elements as well as the perfection of the arts have always been received either immediately or intermediately from the Greeks by Western Europe. But this has been denied by Vasari, and, as far as concerns the Greek Christian paintings, does not seem to have been even suspected by Winkelman, who was one of the most authentic and voluminous writers on works of art. In support of this very interesting point it is stated, that the first beginning of modern art is not to be so absolutely reckoned from the commencement of the eleventh century, when society began to be settled in Europe, as from the reign of Constantine, when Christianity became the established religion of the empire. Then it was that painting and sculpture ceased to be employed on the Pagan gods, and their powers were engaged to adorn the churches built by Christian emperors with representations of the persons and events of sacred history. The Christians, during the reigns of those emperors by whom they were persecuted, were obliged to perform their sacred worship in sepulchral chambers, which were ornamented with portraits and subjects from scripture; but when Santa Sophia and the church of the apostles were built, these were embellished by statues and mosaics: in proof of which Bosius, in his Roma subterranea, exhibits Christian sarcophagi sculptured with scriptural subjects. Monier also, in his history of painting, gives large quotations from the fathers concerning the excellent paintings of sacred subjects in the eastern churches from the fourth to the eighth centuries. Thus showing that though the arts were degraded, yet they continued to a certain extent, (for the purposes of religious ornament,) to be cultivated throughout that period, which was devoted to the destruction of the finer specimens of ancient art. There are still remaining in the libraries of the emperor of Austria and King of France, Greek paintings, executed in the middle ages, of great beauty; but beyond all the Greek paint ing and sculpture now existing, those of the Nativity in Santa Maria Maggiore, at Florence, the transfiguration, resur Flaxman's Lect. † Ibid. rection, and glorification, particularly deserve notice; because they are the examples as to the particular mode of treating these subjects, which were universally followed by the Italian artists, till after the time of Raphael and Michael Angelo. These positions of Mr. Flaxman have been thus minutely stated, in order to remove a general and popular impression of the total extinction of art, and its sudden revival. M. D'Agincourt devoted a long period to researches in the catacombs at Rome, which had been formerly used by the early Christians, during the times of persecution, as places of worship, and which were, as before stated, ornamented with paintings and sculpture relating to religious subjects; and it is probable his splendid history of art during the middle ages, recently published, affords ample evidence to support Mr. Flaxman's opinions. We have not, however, been able to procure a copy of the original work for the purpose of consulting it. It may be added that Cimabue, and Faft his contemporary, both studied under Greek artists. Nicholas and John Pisani executed marble pulpits, enriched with basso relievos and statues, in several of the cathedrals in Italy, in the middle of the thirteenth century, in many of which (observes Mr. Flaxman) are occasionally seen an originality of idea and a force of thought seldom met with when schools of art are in the habit of copying from each other. 66 The next distinguished restorer of sculpture to be noticed was Donatello, a Florentine, some of whose works, both in bronze and marble, might be placed beside the best productions of ancient Greece without discredit. "The bronze statue of a boy, in the gallery at Florence, is so delicately proportioned and so perfectly natural, that it is excelled only by the best works of antiquity in certain exquisite graces peculiar to the finest monuments of Greece, but which are not to be attained or expected from the endeavours of lately resurgent genius;" his marble statue of St. George also, is a simple and forcible example of the expression of sentiment and nature which the lifeless and formal figures of the earlier artists never attained; it stands upright, equally poised on both legs, its hands resting on the shield before it. Michael Angelo was so much struck by the excellence of this work, that, after admiring it for some time in silence, he suddenly exclaimed, "MARCH!" From the time of Donatello, (passing over some inferior artists,) we come to the period at which Michael Angelo began to study, and by his perseverance and genius carried the art of sculpture to the higheat perfection which it has attained since the time of Phidias. It may be interesting here to remark, that it is not, perhaps, generally known that England was almost the first, on the revival of the arts, to cultivate sculpture, and that we possess some of the earliest and finest specimens of the art. Sculpture, observes Mr. Flaxman, continued to be practised in this country with such zeal and success, that in the reign of Henry III. efforts were made deserving our respect and attention even at this day. The cathedral of Wells was finished before 1242; the sculpture upon the west front of which presents the noblest and most useful and interesting subjects possible to be chosen; on the south side, above the west door, are alto relievos representing the creation in its different parts,* the deluge, and the important acts of the patriarchs. Companions to these on the north side, are alto relievos of the principal circumstances in the life of our Saviour. Above these are two rows of statues in niches, larger than nature, of kings, and queens, and nobles, patrons of the church, saints, bishops, &c. from its first foundation to the time of Henry III. Near the pediment is our Saviour coming to judgment, attended by angels and his twelve apostles. The upper arches on each side along the whole of the west front, and continued on the north and south ends, are occupied by figures rising from their graves, strongly expressing the hope, fear, astonishment, stupefaction or despair inspired by the presence of the Lord and Judge of the world in that awful moment. In speaking of the execution of such a work, due regard must be paid to the circumstances under which it was produced, in comparison with those of our own times. There were at the period neither prints nor printed books to assist the artist: the sculptor could not be instructed in anatomy, for there |