Humane industry, or, A history of most manual arts deducing the original, progress, and improvement of them : furnished with variety of instances and examples, shewing forth the excellency of humane wit.
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Title
Humane industry, or, A history of most manual arts deducing the original, progress, and improvement of them : furnished with variety of instances and examples, shewing forth the excellency of humane wit.
Author
Powell, Thomas, 1608-1660.
Publication
London :: Printed for Henry Herringman, and are to be sold at his shop ...,
1661.
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Subject terms
Inventions -- Early works to 1800.
Cite this Item
"Humane industry, or, A history of most manual arts deducing the original, progress, and improvement of them : furnished with variety of instances and examples, shewing forth the excellency of humane wit." In the digital collection Early English Books Online. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/A55564.0001.001. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed May 9, 2024.
Pages
descriptionPage 70
CAP. VI.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉:
OR,
The Art of Limning and
Painting.
PAinting comes near an Artificial Mi∣racle,
saith Sir Henry Wotton, to
make divers distinct eminences appear
upon a Flat by force of shaddows, and
yet the shaddows themselves not to ap∣pear,
is the uttermost value and ver∣tue
of a Painter, saith that Learned
Knight.
—miror
Praelia rubricâ picta aut Carbone
velut siRe verâ pugnent, feriant, vitent{que}
moventesArma viri—
This is a lawfull dissembling or coun∣terfeiting
of natural things; it is a witty
descriptionPage 71
and subtile Art, it gives life (in a manner)
to the dead; by this wee see those that
have lived many ages before us in their
true and proper colours, and reade not
onely the shape and stature of their Bo∣dies
but their Attire, Habiliments and
Fashions, which no relation of History
can so well represent unto us or inform
us of. By this wee see our absent
Friends, and call to minde what is farr
out of sight. By this Apelles shewed to
King Ptolomy the servant that brought
him to the Kings Dining-Chamber, by
drawing his picture on a wall wth a coal,
when hee could not finde his person. By
this, antient Histories are acted (in a
dumb shew before us, and every real be∣comes
a book; wherein the most igno∣rant
man can reade something, and un∣derstand
by the pencil what he cannot by
the pen. StGregory spoke right enough
in this: quod legentibus Scriptura, haec Idi∣otis
pictura praestat cernentibus; quia in
ipsa etiam ignorantes vident, q••od sequi de∣beant,
in ipsa legunt qui litter as nesciunt.
And because the eye is a better infor∣mer
than the ear, and conveighs things
more effectually to the minde, and im∣prints
them deeper; therefore some vi∣sible
descriptionPage 72
Representations are as usefull for
our instruction as those things that wee
take in at the ear. Upon this considera∣tion,
that excellent Emblem of Mortali∣ty
called Chorea Mortuorum, or Deaths∣dance,
that was pourtrayed on the wall
of a Church in the Town of Basil in
Germany being decayed with time, was
thought fit (by the Aedills or publique
Surveyors of that City) to be renewed;
ut qui vocalis picturae divina monita secu∣ri
audiunt, mutae saltem Poëseos miserabi∣li.
spectaculo, ad seriam Philosophiam ex∣citentur,
as the new Inscription there
speaks.
This Art had but rude beginnings, as
all others had; the shaddows of men
projected upon the ground or the wall,
gave it birth; whence p••ctures are term∣ed
shaddows, which very name betrayes
their original. A Coal was at first both
the pencil and the colour, and a white
wall was their table and canvas.
Pictorum Calami carbones, maenia
Chartae.
From one colour they rose to ten;
they have decem palmarios colores, as Bul∣linger
saith; ten colours of principal
descriptionPage 73
note, besides others. Painters (of old)
were desired to set a name on every
thing they drew, that men might know
what they meant.
Thus it was, when this Art was yet
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (as Aelian speaks) in its
swathes and cradle. At first they pour∣trayed
but the bare Lineaments and na∣tural
Representations of things in one
solemn posture and scheme called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,
and Aristides the Theban was
the first, qui animum pinxit & sensus,
saith Pliny; that added the Ethick part
of Painting, and expressed the passions
with his pencil; that made his mute ta∣bles
to laugh or weep, smile or frown,
as the drift of his fancie suggested unto
him.
Apelles brought this Art to perfection,
as the same Pliny affirms; for hee sur∣passed
omnes priùs genitos,futurosque
posteà, as hee saith; all that went before
him or ever should come after him. He
painted things that could not be painted,
as Lightening and Thunders, as Pliny re∣lates
of him, l. 3. 6. 10. Paint mee a
voice (saith the Angel in Esdras, and
call back yesterday; intimating both to
be impossible. His Master-piece was the
descriptionPage 74
picture of Venus rising out of the Sea,
and wringing the water out of her di∣sheveled
hair. This was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,
whereof Ovid makes mention,
l. 4. de Pont••.
Ut Venus artificis labor est &
Gloria Coi,Aequoreo madidas quae premi••
imbre comas.
When this Apelles came to Rhodes,
where Protogenes (another famous Pain∣ter)
lived, he went to his house, and not
finding him within, he drew with a pen∣cil
a streight line, very small and slender,
and left it as a challenge, and went his
way. Protogenes coming home and find∣ing
this line, did guess that Apelles had
been there, and thereupon drew another
line through the very midst of that line
of Apelles with a different colour, which
was (in effect) an answer to the chal∣lenge;
Apelles returning again to Proto∣genes
his shop, and finding a line most
artificially drawn through the midst of
his, took the pencil and drew a third
line in a different colour, from the two
former, nullum relinquens amplius sub∣tilitati
locum (saith my Author) leaving
descriptionPage 75
no room for further art or subtilty, and
so was Victor in this invention.
However, Protogenes was esteemed
nothing inferior to Apelles, whom Petro∣nius
mentions; Protogenis Rudimenta
cum ipsius naturae veritate certantia, non
sine quodam horrore tractavi, saith Pe∣tronius
Arbiter.
There is a pretty story in the same
Pliny to this purpose, touching Zeuxes
and Parrhasius, two famous Artizans
and Masters of the Pencil in their times:
for Quintilian calls this Parrhasius the
Legislator among the Painters, that is, one
that gave Law to all others in this Art,
l. C. 12. C. 10. Zeuxes for his Master∣piece
hung forth a Table wherein he had
drawn a Boy carrying Grapes in his
hand, which were so lively done, that
the Birds flew to the Table to peck at the
Grapes: But Parrhasius painted a Cur∣tain
upon a Tablet so artificially, that
Zeuxes thinking it had been a Curtain
indeed, stretcht his hand to draw the
Curtain aside, that he might see the pi∣cture
which he thought to be behinde it;
at which error he was so abashed, that he
yielded the best to Parrhasius, adding
this ingenuous confession, That Zeuxes
descriptionPage 76
his piece had deceived but silly Birds,
but that of Parrhasius deceived an Ar∣tist.
The same Zeuxes painted an Old
Woman so lively and so deformed, that
he died with extream laughter at the
spectacle and his own ridiculous fancy
and conceit therein, as Quercetan reports
in his Diaetat. Polyhist.
Pliny makes mention of some Wo∣men
painters; and of one Lala a Vir∣gin
of Cyzicum, that drew her own pi∣cture
by a Glass: and Mountaigue in his
Essaies speaks of a picture which he had
seen at Barleduc that Ren King of Sicily
had made of himself and presented to
the French King Francis the Second.
It is a pretty Art, that in a pleated
paper, and table furrowed or indented,
men make one picture to represent seve∣ral
faces; as one I have seen, that look∣ing
from one place or standing, represen∣ted
Edward the Sixth; from another,
Queen Elizabeth; and from a third
place, King James. Another I read
of, that being viewed from one place,
did shew the head of a Spaniard, and
from another the head of an Ass. This
was the conceit of a Frenchmen (I
descriptionPage 77
believe) who can neither speak well
nor think well of a Spaniard.
One of the late Chancellours of France
had in his cabinet a picture wch presented
to the common beholder a multitude of
little faces, which were the famous An∣cestors
of that noble man; but if one
did look on the said picture through a
Perspective, there appeared onely the
single pourtraicture of the Chancellour
himself: the Painter thereby intimating,
that in him alone were contracted all the
vertues of his Progenitors. So the in∣genious
translator of Pastor Fido in his
Epistle Dedicatory relates.
Painting in Oyle is a modern Inven∣tion,
which was wanting to the full com∣plement
and perfection of this Art;
for hereby Colours are kept fresh and
lively from fading, and pictures are
made to bear against the injuries of time,
air, and age; when their Prototypes and
originals cannot, notwithstanding all the
Fucusses and decorations and Adulteries
of Art among our Women-painters,
who can never repair the decayes of
nature with all their boxes and shops
of Minerals.
descriptionPage 78
The Art of Sculpture or Engraving
in brass (which the French call de taille
Douce) is near of kin to this art, and here∣in
to be preferred before it; for that
when a picture in this kinde is finished
upon a table of Brass or Copper, or the
like mettal, a thousand Copies may be
taken of it (by the help of a Rolling-Press)
in a few hours space, as in Printing,
when one page of a leaf is set and com∣posed,
that one form will serve to make
a thousand more by it, and that in a trice,
whereas a picture in colours is not so soon
copied out.
But the highest piece of perfection in
this art (in my judgement) are those per∣spective
pieces which do represent Tem∣ples,
wherein the vulgar eye discerns no∣thing
upon the Tablet but arched lines
and steps, degrees, or ascents; but with
a Perspective glass you may see (as it
were) the inside of a Temple at ful length
with the arched roofs above, & windows
on each side: Some Statues cast in brass
do shew much wit and art. The brazen
Cow of Myron is made famous by the
Epigram of Ausonius translated out of
Greek, which was so lively done, that
Bulls passing by thought to cover her; as
descriptionPage 79
the Poet (if he do not over-reach) informs
us.
Bucula sum, coelo genitoris facta Myro∣nisAerea, nec factam me puto sed geni∣tamSic me Taurus init, sic proxima bucula
MugitSic vitulus sitiens ubera nostra petit:Miraris quod fallo gregem? Gregis ipse
MagisterInter pascentes me numerare solet.
But the chiefest of this art of Foun∣dery
or Imagery was Lysippus, who did
cast one Image of brass so rare and ex∣quisite,
that Artificers called it the Canon,
that is, the rule or standard from whence
all Artists must fetch their Draughts,
Symmetries, and Proportions, as from
the pattern and most absolute Master∣piece.
Of late times the Italians and Germans
do surpass in these Arts, Michael Angelo
Buonarota of Florence, was both an Ar∣chitect,
a Painter, and a Sculptor.
—Veras depingere formas,Naturam ipse doces, victam subigisque
fateri:
descriptionPage 80
Dextra sed ingenio non infoelicior, & teNobilitant Calami, sicut coelo at{que} colores
So one of his countrymen writes of him.
Albertus Durerus of Norimberg was not
inferiour to Apelles, as Wimphelingius
tells us; Van Dijk a Dutchman was very
famous in London, and attained to very
great wealth by his art; Paulus Rubeus
of Antwerp is vivum Europae miraculum,
(if he be yet alive) as an ingenious Tra∣veller
styles him, whose Table of the
Last Judgement was valued at five thou∣sand
Florins; Tabulae oppidorum opidus
emptae; so Pliny of the Curiosities of his
time.
The Art of Painting in Glass, which
they call Annealing, is very ingenious:
when they have layed the colours upon
the Glass, they put the Glass into some
hot Furnace for fifteen or twenty days to
imbibe the colours: This art was known
unto the Ancients, as Bullinger is per∣swaded,
and cites a Distich of Martial
for it;
Non sumus audacis plebeia Toreumata
vitriNostra nec ardenti gemma feritur
aqua.
descriptionPage 81
But the Poet means no such matter there,
but he speaks of certain cups made of
Christal, or some subtiler and finer sort
of Glass which cannot brook hot water,
as common glasses can, but crack pre∣sently
when it is poured into them, as
appears by his words in another Epigram
which give light to this;
Nullum sollicitant hoc Flacce torreumata
furemEt nimium calidis non vitiantur
aquis. l. 12. Epig. 57.
The Aegyptians had a device of ma∣king
pictures in their fine linnen cloth,
which was thus; when they had drawn
the colours upon the cloth, and those pi∣ctures
& fancies they thought fit, nothing
would be seen upon the cloth until they
had cast it into a c••uldron of boyling
water, wherein certain herbs and juyces
had been boiled, and having sokened
them there, in a little while they drew
them forth with perfect and lively pi∣ctures;
so Bulenger de Pictura & Statu∣aria,
lib. 1. c. 12. out of Pliny.
To work pictures not only upon cl••th
out in cloth, to inlay and incorporate
descriptionPage 82
them (as it were) into the very substance
and contexture of the Webb, and that so
lively, as the Pencil can scarce mend
them, as we have seen in Carpets and
Chamber-hangings, which is an art no
less subtile and ingenious then any of the
rest. These are called Picturae textiles
by Tully l. 4. contra Verrem, & by Lucret
l. 2. By this Art we have Fountains, Gar∣dens,
and Forrests in our chambers, Roses
that never fade, Flowers that look fresh
all the year, also Groves and Forrests
that are alwaies green, with all manner
of Beasts and Birds therein, with chases
and Hounds so lively represented, that
there wants nothing but noise and sound
to make up the Game, as Martiall said
of the carved Fishes made by Phidias so
lively, that there wanted nothing but
water to make them swim.
Artis Phidiacae toreuma clarumPisces Aspicis? adde aquas, natabunt;Phidias did these Fishes Limn,Add but water, they will swim.
The Babylonians were the first that
taught this art, as Polydor Virgil acquaints
us: But the Artificers of Arras in Flanders
whence our rich Arras is fetcht, & called
Arras-work, are not thought inferiour
descriptionPage 83
to any Nation in this Workmanship. I
will conclude this chapter with Mosaick
work, which the French call Marhuetrie,
the Latines Musaeum, and Musivum opus,
the Greeks 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, it's a work wrought
with stones of divers colours, mettals,
marble, glass, and all wrought into the
form of knots, flowers, and other devi∣ces,
wtih that excellency of cunning, that
they seem all one stone, and rather the
work of nature then art. The Ancients
were not ignorant of this Art, see Pliny
lib. 36. Nat. Hist. cap. 25. and more co∣piously
in Bulenger, de Pict. l. 1. c. 8.
The picture of La••co and his two sons
with the serpents clasping about their
middle, according to Virgil's descripti∣on
in the 2d of the Aeneis, is now in the
Popes Palace at Rome, and is esteemed the
most absolute piece of Art in the whole
world, and which Mich. Angelo (one that
could well judge of such things) did not
stick to cal artis miraculum, the miracle of
art, as Laurent. Schraderus in l. 2. of the
monuments of Italy. It is a piece of anti∣quity,
mentioned by Pliny, laboured by
three Rhodian Sculptors, that were the
excellentest in their times, as the said Pli∣ny
hath recorded.
Notes
Of Archi∣tecture. Elinguis umbrarum & lumi∣num elo∣quentia; muta line∣••rum po∣esis.