[1819] This period for the invention of painting by the Egyptians is evidently incorrect; but still there is sufficient reason for concluding that there now exist specimens of Egyptian art, which were in existence previous to the time of the earliest Grecian painters of whom we have any certain account.—B.
[1820] All the ancients who have treated of the history of the art agree, that the first attempt at what may be considered the formation of a picture, consisted in tracing the shadow of a human head or some other object on the wall, the interior being filled up with one uniform shade of colour.—B.
[1821] From the Greek μονοχρώματον, “single colouring.”—B.
[1822] He is mentioned also by Athenagoras, Strabo, and Athenæus.
[1823] Called “graphis,” by the Greeks, and somewhat similar, probably, to our pen and ink drawings.
[1824] In Chapter [43] of this Book.—B.
[1825] Ajasson remarks, that a great number of paintings have been lately discovered in the Etruscan tombs, in a very perfect state, and probably of very high antiquity.—B.
[1826] There would appear to be still considerable uncertainty respecting the nature of the materials employed by the ancients, and the manner of applying them, by which they produced these durable paintings; a branch of the art which has not been attained in equal perfection by the moderns.—B.
[1827] Caligula.
[1828] See B. iii. c. 8.