The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-08-16 00:00:00

MISCELLANIES.

FINE ARTS.
r:gment .Iclifferc-1 at tl:o Public Sit tints er the Society of Avis,
!Sri •e•, an ! I ettie, hods a Work, intitul4l,
-I* Cauca of the Perfetion of the Luttatkee Ate alma% the
theiks." by M. Ponce •

The perfection c 4 the organ of vision among the
Greeks contributed much to the progress of the art
of drawing. This organ was so pellet! in these
people. Pausanias informs us, that from the promon•
tory of Suuium, distant more than six leagues from
Athens, he could distinguish the plumage of the
helmet and the spear, with which the collossal statue
of Minerva, placed in the citadel, was armed.
That degree of nakedness, which does not offend
decency, in a climate where excessive heat obliges
them to cloath very lightly ; the frequent use of
baths, the tournaments, the combats of gladiators,
and the dances, present incessantly to the artists op-
portunities to admir: nature in all its developements.
fhe beautiful Phrine bathing herself in the presence
of the Greeks, ravished with the sight of her charms
which she offered to their eyes. At that period, the
most beautiful girls of Agrigentum were offered to
Zeuxis to serve as a model for his phturc of Helen.
T.,is facility of procuring models, in a country where
nature is so-pert-eft, was one of the causes, which, no
doubt, had most influence on the perfation of the
arts. The importance there attached to beauty, for
which they had established prizes in many of their
cities ; the care which they took to preserve and in-
crease it, was carried so far, that Alcibiades renounc-
ed the use of his riute, from an apprehension that
this instrument might spoil the beauty of his mouth.
They beheld, as a proof of their passion to beauty,
the courtezan, Lais, subduing all Greece, e...st the
philosopher Aristippus, and the orator Demosthe-
nes ; they al‘zi saw beauty cherished philosophy and
talents, to such an extent, that the beautiful Lais ten•
drily loved the cynic Diogenes.
It was, above all, to the importance attached by
tin Greeks to the fine arts, that painting owed its
proei,.ss, as well as to the custom of including the
stud) of drawing in the course of education. Of all
the nations who have cultivated the arts, none ever
employed their aid with more success. Py means of
the arts, they encouraged refinement, and honoured
bravery and virtue, by exciting those talents. They
seconded the views of the political legislator. in
emulating to enthusiasm the love of one's country
among the people, and propagating among all classes
a laudable and noble emalatir.n.

The view of memorable &Cis, of beautifeil aelions,
public or ptivite, painted under the porticos in the
tribunals, excited imitation ; but thist they might
preserve painting from degradation, and the artists
from the blame of the citizens, those who soiled their
pencils by the rtpreseaticion of obscene ohj.eets, or
barbarous aCtio:,s, were erire.3ed in the public opi-
nion, and this stain WAS indelible.

hr the high reputation enjoyed by the artists, and
the flattering recompences decreed to than by the
state, emulation was supported amongst them. Melt
the most dignified in the republic, and even the phi-
losophers thethselves, cultivated the arts, and con-
tributed to their perfection. The artist, who, having
sacrificed to study the prime of his years, and ac-
quired some celebrity, had no more to fear for his
lot woe, the state provided for him in an honourable
manner ; but the recompenre the most flattering to
him, because glory was the first objea f the artist,
I, as the distiatioa and consideration with which he
was invested. According to Plutarch, the Athenians
paid a sort of divine honour to SiLimon an•l Parrha-
tars, for a beautiful pi6ture arid a fine statue of the-
seus. This apotlieosi intoxicated the first to 5101 a
degree, that he almost irnagirnd himself divin...—
Z,.uxis partook el' hat enthusiasm, in making a pre-
sent of his pilures, her se he said there was tro body
rich enough to buy them.
We may also attribute one of the causes of supe-
riority in the Greek painters to the knowledge which
they had acquired by the profound study of an infi-
nity of objets ; so true it is, that knowledge adds
notch to the talents of the artist. Patilus
after the defeat of Perseus, having demanded of the
Athenians their best philosopher to educate his chil-
dren, and their mast celebrated painter to paint his
vidories, they sent to him Metrodore, as the most
capable person in Greece, to execute b.th. Poly-
gnore, uncertain for a long time what art he ought
to embrace, because nature created him a poet, as
well as a painter, was decided for painting, by the
piZtures presented to his imagination in reading Ho-
rner. Ore viCtory over the enemies of the state was
a triumph :Or painters, who were in some sort the
dispensers of glory, since they found themselves
charged with re-producing the happy events in an
hundred different ways, and recalling the features
of those who distinguished themselves.
It is probable that the Greek painters had a me-
thod of painting, which much more resisted the ac-
tion of air, than that of modern painters. They used
a varnish made of a kind of liquid wax, in which
they embodied their colours, as the piatire of Poly-
gnote, is which the artist represents the victory of
Matadi.- resisted the weather during nine ages,
without any sensible injury or impression from the
r, to which it SVAS exposed till the time that a Ito-
r`4l Proconsul carried it away from the Pecile of
Athens, which it adorned. It must be allowed, how-
ever, that the temperature of the climate contributed
much to its preservation.
Of the th ee principal schools of the Greek paint-
ers, the moat dangerous rival to the Attic school
was that r t Sicyone, where they designed with such
exquisite purity,and to which A ppelles gave so much
celebrity. That of Rhodes, without having obtain-
ed the same reputation, also produced men of great
merit. It is not necessary, however, to adopt the
ridiculous exaggerations, nor the pretended prodi-
giee ascribed to the arts, as reported by Pliny and
some other writers. The most part of these false-
hoods were the work of charaeters, who sought to
give a higher importance to their trade, and thus
liniment the tees that each foreigner was in the cut-
Vitt of ^-7ing.
In sr ff the very reit superiority of the Greek
painters, • . s cannot dissemble that they fail in sums
pr ints, asaich constitute the perferfion of the art,
and have never equalled the statuaries. They pos-
wsed, it is true, in a high degree, the correaness of
er sign, the spirit of charaner, the elegance of forms,
I ? et, • iirjßpcsies are in good style. They equally
• • all bite:es of the art belonging to painting
-1114•;y_. they Lave not all those peculiar to

4lie first, its the material and linear perspelllve, bar-
111011Y,' the chins obscura, and the art of grouping
their figures. Their species of composition had a
pet feEt analogy to their bas reii,:fs. They were wholly
intent on giving correaness to their figures, as much
in expression as the simplicity of their attitudes ;
they usually introduced but a small number in their
piaures. always isolated the one from the other, and
disposed upon one and the same plan.
To prove what we have advanced, it will be well
to observe, that Polygnote, so much celebrated,
in-
scribed on his piaere the names of each figure: this
proves also the custom he had of placing the figures
one behind the other. A's opinion supported by
Quintilian, who says, ", That a painting cannot
answert if it be crowded ; because, when painters
assemble many objeas in a piatue, they must tak •
care to distinguish them by space, that the shadows
may not fall on the bodies. It is necessary to re-
mark, that the piaures of antiquity, which obtained
the most celebrity, are those which contain only a
single figure, as the ildAte of Protogenes, the Verims
of Appelles, the Giacera of l'ausias, the /Idea of
Zeuxis, and the Curra,,dra of Polygnote.
We must be 'Astonished rhat many model n authors
have advanced that the Greek Painters understood
perspeEtive, since the descriptions which they have
themselves given, prove the contrary. They in this
perfeallt correspond with the fragments which re-
main to us in Herculaneum, and the Baths of Titus,
the origin of which is traced to the date of its exist-
ence, by all the works of the Greek Painters, and
where their manner was copied by all those who had
any norion of the arts.
Another convincing proof of what we have ad-
vanced is, that the artists painted neithci sea nor
land views. It is also certain that in no Gr,•ek Dic-
tionary tan be found any word synonirnous with the
first of these species, and none of the authors who
have described their piEtures mention any thing of
the subjea. Were we only to go by the proofs
afforded in the trifling fragments to be found in the
ruins of two monuments abovementioned, it would
be easy to ascertain that these painters had not the
smallest notion of the elements of linear perspeetive,
since none of their pianres have any determinate
point of view, and in all their views they almost
always present the objeas above which ought to be
below.

We tb:nk it impossible not to regard the painters
of Herculaneum, and those of 'f bermes of Tite, as
contemporary works, and the faithful imitations of
the Greek painters.
l'he great reputation enjoyed by the painters of
Attica at that time, suuiciently proved by the authors
of that date, does not permit us to doubt that the
paintings of those monuments are but the works of
Greek painters, or, at least, of Roman painters,
their pupils and imitators. There still existed some
pictures of Appelles, as the destrudlion of Hercula-
neum ; Stace tells us, that the country-house of
Pollius Felix, situated at Sorrento, fifteen miles
from Vesuvius, was ornamented with the finest
works of Appelles, &c. The writers of the eighth
century inform us that the celebrated libtary of
Constantinople, burned in 726, by Leon l'lsaurin,
contained all that antiquity had produced of the
most beautiful pi Lures and statues. At Rome, then,
the painters of the first age of arts knew the Greek
painters, and consequently profited by the lights of
the at fists of that country, u well as the discoveries
they might make in order, harmony, and per-
speCtive.
It appears then cert.sin that the most celebrated
Greek painters, such as Protogenes, Appelles, and
others, although very able painters, had not arrived
in their art to the sublimity, which was attained in
the sctleture of Phidias and Pi axiteles. In this
counts y, sculpture has always been superior top
as, two centuries ago, in the low commies,
it took the lead of sculpture.
Although this discussion may appear in some
sort out of our subjeCt, we believed it necessary to
advert to it here on account of its importance, and
with a view to draw back the publ.c opinion on this
head to some ideas which have appeared to us more
analogous to the truth of these faCts.