A valuable receipt, which every Daguerreian should have in his memory, has been suggested from the fact that one of our fraternity lost his hand by an accidental cut, caused while fitting a likeness in a locket, by the points of copper cutting the palm of his hand, in such a manner as to render amputation necessary. White of eggs is the best antidote against the poison of copper.
For the Daguerreian Journal.
PAINTING—ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY.
BY WILLIAM WALCUTT.
There is no doubt of painting being coeval with written language, or it may be said, that the simple representation of figures, on tablets prepared for the purpose, were the first means used by men to record particular events, actions, and so forth, and may therefore be dated back farther than any written language; and, indeed, may be considered the foundation from which it sprung, it being not improbable, because it is so natural, that the very first dwellers on the earth may have recorded their young history by means of representations of corporeal objects.
Many will say that such rude delineations were not painting, but everything has its beginning. From these simple lines has the perfection of painting sprung, what Artist does not remember the feeble attempts he made at representations when but a child; does he not remember them with pleasure, and did he not then, and does he not now, consider them, feeble as they were, paintings? The first efforts at delineation were painting, without regard to color, or without regard to their truth in delineation. The origin of what may now be called painting, as an art instructive or decorative, is altogether involved in obscurity—authorities differing widely on the subject. Pliny dates its invention to a period antecedent to the siege of Troy, and other writers after. The Egyptians boasted of possessing the art six thousand years before the Greeks, but this has always been doubted. They certainly practised painting at a very early period, and Cambyses destroyed all the monuments of art he found in Egypt, as much as was in his power, which is some argument in favor of the statement; and hence all such monuments as display specimens of the art, must be posterior to his invasion. The remains of Egyptian painting, now extant, are but poor representations of the human, and other figures, showing a meagre advance in the art, being weakly and falsely drawn with no natural grouping or attempts at sentiment. The Phœnicians were an early cultivated people, and have the credit of first inventing letters, and therefore may, by the best authority, lay claim to the invention of painting. King Solomon, one thousand years before Christ, held their ingenuity in such high regard, that he employed them as the master workmen in building his temple, and the scriptures describe the magnificence of the columns and their capitals, and the borders and cornishes and the doors, besides the great brazen sea, supported by twelve oxen. The coins also of this people, that have come down to us, show in design, and execution, a good condition in the arts.
The scriptures abound in references to the arts. When Jacob took away the daughter of Laban, she stole and secreted from search some of her father's household gods. One of the great commandments, is that the children of Israel shall "not make unto themselves any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth." As before mentioned, the temple of Solomon appears to have been richly and elaborately decorated with works of art; and the IV chapter Ezekiel commences with these words: "Thou also son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem." And in the XXIII chapter, 14 verse, it is written thus: "For when she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles about their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads." Also in the VII chapter, 10 verse: "So I went in and saw and beheld every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about." Also in Numbers XXXIII chapter and 52 verse: "Then he shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images."
The Persians, the Arabians, and the Parthians, from their peculiar education, have no claims whatever to the art of painting, a rude representation of the human figure, with them, was considered as vulgar as the appearance of a naked person. Their figures are almost invariably clothed in clumsy draperies, profusely painted. They were worshippers of fire, and used no representations of their deity; and it is a curious fact, that, in their successful invasion of Egypt, they carried away with them no taste for the arts, or imbibed any of the religious principles of that polytheistic country.