Painting. We have no means of knowing what progress the art of painting made among the ancient Hebrews, as it is generally supposed that all pictures and images were forbidden by the Mosaic law (Lev. xxvi, 1 ; Numb, xxxiii, 52). In later times their prin- cipal houses were beautifully painted with vermilion (Jer. xxii, 14). Among the ancient Assj'rians this art appears to have been cultivated, as mention is made in Ezek. xxiii, 14, 15, of '■ men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the ChakUvans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to." This description of the interior of the Assyrian palaces completely corresponds with and illustrates the monu- ments of Nimrud and Khorsabad, as brought to light by iSIr. Layard. " The walls were f)f sun-dried bricks, and where they rose above the sculptured slabs they were covered with paintings." See Assyria. Among the Egyptians, from the employment of hieroglyphics, it is supposed that the art of the painter was generally associated with that of the scribe. The painter held his brush in one hand, and his palette or saucer of color in the other. From the representation given of two artists engaged on a painting, it will be observed that though the easel stands upright, they had no contriv- ance to support or steady the hand; hence the Egyp- tian painters appear to have been very careful in trac- ing their outlines with chalk, which they effaced if any imperfection were discovered. It is evident that
PAINTING
539
PAJON
accounts for Paiisar.ias saying bo little about pictures in Gieece. Historical compositions were of course the highest branch of art, though many of the greatest Greek artists, who seem to have excelled in all styles, often treated inferior subjects, and some (as in later times) combined the two highest arts of scul])turc and painting.
"lu the infancy of art, ligures were represented in profile; but afterwards they were rare in Greece; and art, could not reach any degree of excellence until fig- ures in a composition had ceased to be in prolile ; and it was only in order to conceal the loss of an eye that Apelles gave one side of the face iu his portrait of Autigo-
Ancient Egyptian Artists Painting. — Figs. 1 and 2 sketching a calf and an an
telopc on a picture, a, the deuomiuative sign, 6, above. Fig. 4 is coloring £
statue, 3. "H^rrv, 1 1 » • .• i
" The oldest pamtings were also,
the manufacture of images and painted toys was car- I ns Pliny admits, mn-nochromc, or painted of one uniform ried to a remarkable extent, as well as the decoration I '^"'°''' "''? '^"^^ of Egypt; and, indeed, statues in Greece
of mummy-cases. Wilkinson gives the following ac- count of the ancient art :
"Mention is made of an Egyptian painting by Herod- otus, who tells us that Amasis sent a portrait of himself to Cyrene, probably on wood, and in profile ; for the full fiice is rarely represented either in their paintings or bas- reliefs. The faces of the kings in the tombs and temples of Egypt are unquestionably portraits, but they are al- ways iu profile; and the only ones in full face are on wood, and of late time. Two of these are preserved in the British Museum, but they are evidently Greek, and date, perhiips, even after the conquest of Egypt by the Komans. It is therefore vain to speculate ou the nature of their painting, or their skill in this branch of art ; and though some of the portraits taken from the mummies may prove that encaustic painting with wax and naphtha was adopted in Egypt, the time when it was first known there is uncertain, nor can we conclude, from a specimen of Greek time, that the same was practiced iu a Phara- onic age.
"Fresco painting was entirely unknown in Egypt ; and the figures ou walls were always drawn and paiiited after the stucco was quite dry. But they sometimes coated the colors with a transparent varnish, which was also done by the Greeks; and the wax said by the younger Pliny to have been used for this purpose on the painted ex- terior of a house at Stabia may have been a substitute for the usual varnish, which last would have been far more durable under a hot Italian sun.
"Pliny states, in his chapter on inventions, that 'Gy- ges, a Lydian, was the earliest painter in Egypt ; and Euchir, a cousin of Doedalus according to Aristotle, the tirst in Greece ; or, as Theoprastus thinks, Polygnotus the Athenian.' But the painting represented iu Beni Has- san evidently dates before any of those artists. Pliny, in another place says, 'The origin of painting is uncertain : the Egyptians pretend that it was invented by them GOdO years "before it passed into Greece — a vain boast, as every one will allow.' It must, however, be admitted that all the arts (however imperfect) were cultivated in Egypt long before Greece existed as a nation ; and the remaik he afterwards makes, that painting was unknown at the period of the Trojan war, can only be applied to the Greeks, as is shown by the same unquestionable author- ity at Beni Hassan, dating about 900 years before the time usually assigned to the taking of Troy.