Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/809

 departments ; Nicomachus and Aristides of Thebes, the former remarkable for boldness of execution, and the latter, according to Pliny, the greatest master of expression in all Greece ; Theon of Samos, and Athenion of Maronea, besides many others, extending over more than a century. Of these the most famous was Apelles, whose celebrated contest of drawing with Protogenes (each in turn dividing the other's line longitudinally by a thinner line) is frequently cited by ancient critics as an illus- tration of the degree of technical skill acquired by each artist. From the time of Alexander art rapidly deteriorated, and subsequent to the middle of the 3d century B. C. scarcely anoth- er name of note occurs. In the place of my- thological or epic stories, the artists painted caricatures, low or domestic subjects of the class called genre, and obscene pictures, or con- tented themselves with reproducing feeble copies of the works of their predecessors. At the period of the Eoman conquest painting exhibited little vitality, and the spoliation of public buildings and galleries to adorn the porti- coes and temples of Rome tended to crush the art everywhere in Greece. Greek paintings were executed in distemper, with glue, milk, or white of egg, and in encaustic, upon wood, clay, plaster, stone, parchment, and during the latest period upon canvas. Wooden panels with a ground of plaster were most commonly employed, and in the late stages of the art fresco painting attained some perfection. Va- rious species of varnish appear to have been known, and Pliny says that Apelles was in- debted for his brilliant coloring to a liquid which he calls atramentum, with which he covered his pictures ; whence Sir Joshua Rey- nolds has concluded that he was a master of the art of glazing. Down to the time of Apelles four principal colors were used, white, red, yellow, and black, from which all the ne- cessary hues and tints were composed. The " Aldobrandini Marriage," now in the Vatican, supposed to resemble a picture by Echion of the Sicyonian school, the "Achilles discov- ered by Ulysses" and "Achilles surrendering Briseis," both found at Pompeii, and a few others, although probably feeble imitations of older works, sufficiently attest the high charac- ter of Greek art in its prime. The mosaic of the cam del Fauno at Pompeii, representing the " Battle of Issus," now in the museo nazio- nale (formerly lorionico) in Naples, is the finest ancient picture extant, with respect to composition, foreshortening, and perspective. Of Etruscan painting, as exemplified by speci- mens found in sepulchral chambers at Tarquinii, Csere, and elsewhere, little need be said. It is essentially Greek in its style and characteristics, and to a limited extent shows similar stages of development and decay. The Romans received their art directly from Greece, and, though eager and intelligent collectors of the works of the early masters of that country, had no inde- pendent school of painting. There does not 795 seem to have been a single Roman painter of eminence ; but inferior Greek artists abounded in the Italian peninsula, and particularly in the capital, and the best Roman paintings were probably executed by them in the degenerate style which marked the decline of the art in Greece. These consisted chiefly of portraits, ornamental or decorative work (under which head may be included landscapes), and copies of the masterpieces of antiquity. The Romans were the first to cultivate portrait painting as a distinct branch of the art. To such a depth of degradation did painting finally descend among them, that it was practised chiefly by slaves, and the painter was estimated by the quantity of work he could do in a day. But the treasures of art accumulated in Rome by successive generals and emperors, from the time of Marcellus downward, made the city, as Cassiodorus has expressed it, " one vast won- der." Most of these were in turn transferred to Constantinople by Constantine and his suc- cessors, and the remainder disappeared in con- flagrations or in the disorders which marked the period of the exarchate. Not one authen- ticated painting by any of the great masters of antiquity is now known to be in existence. In one respect the practice of painting in Italy differed from that in Greece. In the latter country the art was essentially religious, and was mainly confined to temples and public buildings; but the Romans early familiarized it with the household, and no dwelling, wheth- er palatial or strictly domestic, was considered complete unless every apartment or portion had its painted decorations signifying the use for which it was designed. "While art in its ancient seats was thus passing through the last phases of what has been called its " age of decrepitude," Christianity had taken root in many parts of the world; and although the new religion, unlike the old, needed no direct alliance with art, and its followers, in their de- testation of paganism, denounced the carvers of graven images as servants and emissaries of Satan, the influence of so many previous ages of refinement could not be at once effaced, and the early Christians before the time of Con- stantine attempted the visible representation of sacred personages and actions, by means of symbols and mystic emblems. Thus the lamb typified Christ; the vine and its branches, Christ and his disciples ; the fish, baptism ; the ship, the church; and the cross, redemption. But the art even to this limited extent was practised not for the pleasure it would excite, but as a means of inculcating religious princi- ples; and when, as Christianity gained con verts, it became safe to venture beyond thi limits of mere symbol, and to depict Christ ad the Good Shepherd, care was taken to eschew the beauty of features and body lavished by pagan artists upon the representations of their deities. Indeed, while Jewish converts pre- ponderated in the early church, the Saviour was represented, on the authority of certain