Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/114

88 IMPROVEMENT OF BEAUTY.

idea which mankind has formed of beauty, has varied so much, that no precise standard seems to be acknowledged, by which its pretensions can be truly appreciated. Painters and sculptors have resorted to an ideal standard in their own minds, which they form according to the degree of taste and perception with which they arc individually endowed. The unlearned acknowledge its influence as they are impelled, either by sentiment, or those natural feelings which are antecedent to the arts, and independent of science. But in whatever it has been supposed to exist, however varied its form or appearance, the desire to improve it bas been universal, and this desire is shewn no less in the fantastic ornaments with which the early Britons used to paint their bodies, than in the delicate tints which suffuse the lively countenances of their more accomplished descendants. The works of Shaw, Gabriel Sionita, and Marvieux, abound with curious accounts of the manner in which painting has been employed by different nations with a view to perpetuate beauty, to heighten its brilliancy, or to repair the outrages which it has received from its natural enemy{bar|2}}Time. Cleopatra, who captivated Pompey, Cæsar, and Antonine, employed all the treasures of art in ting her natural charms. The Greek, as well as the Roman ladies, were indebted to the more luxurious Asiatics for their knowledge of this accomplishment; and it would appear that they had made considerable progress in the art, from two paints (thee white and red) which we derive from them. Hence the poets have attributed the whiteness of the Europeans to some paint stolen from Juno by one of the daughters of that goddess, and presented by her to the daughter of Agenor. As the wealth and luxury of Rome increased, gallantry introducing new refinements, excited the most diligent researches to promote the art of improving beauty; which, as it became more general, acquired greater perfection. The Greek and Roman ladies made use of a white metallic preparation, which was nothing more than ceruse, or white lead, which still maintains its situation at toilet, although pernicious in the highest degree to health, and producing effects contrary to the purpose for which it is employed; and the exchange was not much better when they substituted in its place a species of argentine talc. For red, they used a sort of vermilion called purpurissus, a beautiful colour approaching to purple, and whose composition and appearance resembles carnation red, or rose pink. It was made with the finest species of white talc, pulverized, and coloured with a strong tincture, taken when hot from the scum of a fish (called purpura, or murex) found in the Mediterranean Sea. This liquor is supposed to be the same as that used by the ancients for dying their celebrated purple. We will not attempt to decide whether the paints employed at present are more or less