Distinguishing an original from a copy. THE FRENCH SCHOOL Is not very easily characterized, taking it en masse, since its elements are various, and it comprises within itself several wholly different styles. Of those artists who may be ranked among its ornaments, some have cultivated the Florentine, soine the Roman, some the Venetian manner; while others, with a becoming ambition, have trusted to nature and their own genius. With regard to distinguishing an original painting from a copy, the following directions of Richardson may be useful: There are some pictures and drawings which are seen to be originals-though the hand and manner of thinking are neither of them known-and that by the spirit and freedom of them : which sometimes appears to such a degree as to assure us it is impossible they should be copies. But we cannot say, on the contrary, when we see a tame, heavy handling, that it is not original merely upon that account, because there have been many bad originals, and some good masters have fallen into a feebleness of hand, especially in their old age. The best counterfeiter of hands can rarely do it so well as to deceive a good connoisseur; the handling, the colouring, the drawing, the airs of heads—some, nay, all of these, discover the author; more or less distinctly, however, as the manner of the master happens to be what is highly finished, for example, is more easily imitated than what is loose and free. Copies made by a master after his own work, are discoverable by being well acquainted with what that master did when he followed nature; these shall have a spirit, a freedom, a naturalness, which even he cannot put into what he copies from his own work." Water-colour.-Crayon.-Miniature.-Oil painting. THE DIFFERENT BRANCHES OF PAINTING." The principal modes of painting are Water-Colour, Crayon, Miniature, Oil Painting, Fresco, Encaustic, Elydoric, and Painting on Glass. Water-Colour-sometimes called limning, in which style the colours are prepared with gum or size, and applied with water. The characteristics are clearness and transparency of tint. Crayon in which the colours are ground in gum and water, and formed into small cylinders. When skilfully used, they give a peculiarly soft and pleasing effect. Miniature. Small portraits on ivory or vellum. Watercolours are used in this style. The colours are applied in minute dots, which gives great softness to the gradations of tint. Oil Painting.-Colours ground in oils are not only more enduring, but more forcible in their effects. Fresco. The colours in this method are laid on a wall newly plastered, with which they become incorporated. Encaustic is performed with colours mixed with wax and varnish or water; the word implies executed by fire, and heat is employed in the application of the colours, which are clear and brilliant. Enamel.-A mode of painting with vitrified colours on gold, copper, silver, &c. The operation is performed by fire. The cases of Egyptian mummies are sometimes found ornamented with enamel, which proves the antiquity of this style. Elydoric painting is that in which water and oil are both used in applying the colours. Its principal advantages are, that the artist is able to add the freshness of water-colours, and the Fresco. Encaustic.-Elydoric.-Mosaic.-Glass. high finishing of miniature, to the mellowness of oil painting, in such a manner, that the work appears like a large picture, when seen through a concave lens. Mosaic, or Musaic, as it is sometimes called, is a kind of painting executed with small pieces of glass, or wood, pebbles, enamel, &c., fixed upon any substance with mastic. When an artist commences a work in Mosaic, he cuts on a stone plate a certain space, which he encircles with bands of iron. This space is covered with thick mastic, on which are laid, conformably to the particular design, the various substances intended to be used. Fifteen thousand different shades of colour are employed. The origin of Mosaic work must, apparently, be sought in the East, the rich carpets of which were imitated in hard stone. It is probable that the art was known to the Phœnicians, but to the Greeks its perfection and glory are to be attributed. Glass.—In painting on this material, the paints are mixed with water or turpentine, and being laid on the glass are allowed to dry; the outline is then corrected with a sharp instrument. The glass is then placed in a heated furnace, and the colours are fused into it. The earliest notice of its existence is in the age of Pope Leo III., about the year 800. It did not, however, come into general use till the lapse of some centuries. The earliest specimens differ entirely from those of later date, being composed of small pieces stained with colour during the process of manufacture, and thus forming a species of patchwork or rude Mosaic, joined together with lead after being cut into the proper shapes. Venice, at an early period, was celebrated for her stained glass. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the era of the Gothic architecture, it was very generally applied to ecclesiastical structures. At the same period it had Process of Egyptian painting. It reached considerable excellence in England: of this, the windows of York Minster, the chapel of King's College, Cambridge, and the collegiate chapels and halls of Oxford, executed by native artists, afford sufficient proof. During the fifteenth cen. tury it made great progress under Albert Durer, Lucas Van Leyden, and other eminent artists of that era. Among the celebrated works of this period, are the beautifully painted windows of the church of Gonda, by Dirk and Worter Crabeth. declined in the sixteenth century, owing to the taste for fresco and oil-colours. But it was much used as a decoration for town-halls, the castles of the nobility, and heraldic emblazonry, &c. It was almost lost in the seventeenth, revived in a degree in the eighteenth, while about the beginning of the present century it was restored, with much of its pristine lustre, in Germany and France. Within a few years it has been cultivated in Great Britain and the United States. End Ancient Painting. EGYPTIAN AND ORIENTAL PAINTING. We find the earliest traces of this art in Egypt. Egyptian painting seldom, if ever, attempts more than an outline of the object as seen in profile, such as would be obtained by its shadow. To this rude draught, colours are applied, simply, and without mixture, or blending, or the slightest indication of light and shade. The process seems to have been; first, the preparation Oriental specimens.-Earliest Greek school.-Homeric times. of the ground in white; next, the outline was firmly traced in black; and lastly, the flat colours were applied. The Egyptian artists employed six pigments, mixed with a gummy liquidnamely white, black, red, blue, yellow, and green; the first always earthy, the remaining vegetable, or, at least, frequently transparent. The specimens from which we derive these facts, are the painted shrouds and cases of mummies, and the still more frequent examples on the walls of the tombs. It can furnish no evidence of extraordinary experience or practice, that these paintings still retain their colour, clear and fresh; the circumstance merely shows the aridity of the climate, and that the colouring matters were applied without admixture. In Hindoostan, Persia, and other oriental countries, the brilliancy and variety of the colours are the only recommendation of their specimens of this art. GRECIAN PAINTING. We find the oldest Greek school of painting on the coast of Asia Minor and the islands. Fortunate circumstances here gave an early impulse to the art, the rudiments of which we find, even in the Homeric times, in the coloured carpets and weavings. Homer speaks of painting as being part of the employment of the beauteous Helen, at the time of the siege of Troy, as well as the art of embroidery: "Meantime, to beauteous Helen, from the skies, Her in the palace at her loom she found : The golden web her own sad story crown'd, The Trojan wars she weaved, (herself the prize,) |