Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

320 COLORES. COLORtS.
the passiig of the Lex Julia, which gave the to the exclusion of all blue (unless we understand
civitas to the socii and the Latin colonies, the by " ex nigris atramento " black and indigo), is
object of establishing Roman and Latin colonies evidently an error, independent of its contradiction
ceased; and military colonies were thenceforward to Cicero; and the conclusion drawn by some from
settled in italy, and, under the emperors, in the it and the remark of Cicero, that the early Greek
provinces. (Plin. Nt. I-list. iii. 4.) These military painters were acquainted with but four pigments,
colonies had the civitas, such as it then was; but is equally without foundation. Pliny himself
their internal organisation might be various. speaks of two other colours, besides the four in
The following references, in addition to those question, which were used by the earliest painters;
already given, will direct -the reader to abundant the testc-trita (xxxv. 5) and cinnabcaris or vermilion,
soturces of information: - (Sigonius, De Jure Arn- which he calls also minium (xxxiii. 36). -He
tiqllo, &c.; Niebuhr, Roman Iistory; Saviginy, mentions also (xxxv. 21) the Eretrian earth used
Uerter das Jus Italiciur, Zeitschr. vol. v.; Tabulae by Nicomachus, and the elephantinuom, or ivoryi/eracleenses. Mlazoc/i,Neap. 1754; Savigny, Der black, used by Apelles (xxxv. 25), thus contraltnimische JTolkssclluss der TJ4Il ton Heraclea; dicting himself when he asserted that Apelles and
and Rudorff, Uteber die Lea Al/anilita tde Coloniis, Niconmachus used but four colours. The above
Zeitsc/hr. vol. ix.; Rudorff, Das Ackej:qesetz von tradition, and the simtplex colr of Quintilian (Orat.
Sp. Tltorics, and Puchta, Ueber den Inhatlt ders Istit. xii. 10), are our only authorities for defining
Leo Rubhria de Gallia Cisalp>ina, Zeitschr. vol. x.; any limits to the use of cololrs by the early Greeks,
Beaufort, Rep. Rom. v. p. 278-308; Madvig, as applied to painting. but we have no authority
Op1useula, De Jure et Conditiosne Coloniarum Poputli whatever for supposiug that they were limited in
Romani, IHauniae, 1834; Zumpt, Ueber den any remarkable way in their acquaintance with
Untersehled der Benennungen, Municipiuis, Colonia, them. That the painters of the earliest period
Prajfeetura, Berlin, 1840.) [G. L.] had not such abundant resources in this departCOLO RES. The Greeks and Romans had ment of art as those of the later, is quite consistent
a very extensive acquaintance with colours as with experience, and does not require demonstrapigments. Book vii. of Vitruvius and several tion; but to suppose that they were confined to
chapters of books xxxiii. xxxiv. and xxxv. of four pigments is quite a gratuitous.supposition,
Pliny's Natural History, contain much interesting and is opposed to both reason and evidence.
matter upon their nature and composition; and [PICTtRA.]
these works, together with what is contained in Sir H. Davy also analysed the colours. of the
book v. of Dioscorides, and some remarks in so-called " Aldobrandini narriage,"' all the reds
Theophrastus (De Lapidibus), constitute the whole and yellows of which he discovered to be ochres;
of our information of any importance upon the the blues and greens, to be oxides of copper; the
subject of ancient pigments. From these sources, blacks all carbonaceous; the browns, mixtures of
through the experiments and observations of Sir ochres and black, and some containing oxide of
Humphry Davy (Phil. Trans. of the Royal Society, manganese; the whites were all carbonates of
1815) on some remains of ancient colours and lime.
paintings in the baths of Titus and of Livia, and The reds discovered in an earthen vase containin other ruins of antiquity, we are enabled to col- ing a variety of colours, were, red oxide of lead
lect a tolerably satisfactory account of the colour- (miniusztn), and two iron ochres of different tints, a
ing materials employed by the Greek and Roman dull red, and a purplish red nearly of the salme
painters. tint as prussiate of copper; they were all mixed
The painting of the Greeks is very generally with chalk or carbonate of lime. The yellows
considered to have been inferior to their sculpture; were pure ochres with carbonate of lime, and
this partially arises from very imperfect inforin- ochre mixed with minium and carbonate of lime.
ationj and a very erroneous notion respecting the The blues were oxides of copper with carbonate
resources of the Greek painters in colouring. The of lime. Sir H. Davy discovered a frit made by
error originated apparently with Pliny himself, means of soda and coloured with oxide of copper,
who says (xxxv. 32), 1"Quatuor coloribus solis approaching ultranarine in tint, which he supimmortalia illa opera fecere, ex albis Melino, ex posed to be the frit of Alexandria; its composition,
silaceis Attico, ex rubris Sinopide Pontica, ex he says, was perfect —" that of embodying the
nigris atramenito, Apelles, Echion, Melanthius, colour in a composition resembling stone, so as to
Necomachus, ciarissimi pictores;" and (xxxv. 36), prevent the escape of elastic matter from it, or the
"Leoentes meminerint omnia ea quatuor coloribus decomposing action of the elements; this is a
facta." This mlistake, as Sir H. Davy has sup- species of artificial lapis lazuli, the colouring matter
posed, may have arisen from an imperfect recollec- of which is naturally inherent in a hard siliceous
tion of a passage in Cicero (Brtutus, c. 18), which, stone."
however, directly contradicts the statement of Of greens there tWere many shades, all, however,
Pliny:-" In pictura Zeuxim et Polygnotum, et either carbonate or oxide of copper, mixed with
Tinmanthem, et eorum, qui non sunt usi plusquam carbonate of lime. The browns consisted of ochres
quattuor coloribhus, formas et lineamenta laudamus: calcined, and oxides of iron and of mainganese, and
at in Echione, Niconmacho, Protogene, Apelle jam compounds of ochres and blacks. Sir H. Davy
pdrfecta sunt omnia." HeIe Cicero extols the could not ascertain whether the like which he disdesign alid drawing of Polygnotus, Zeuxis, and covered was of rarlimal or of vegetable origin; if of
Timanthes, and those who used but four colours; anlimal, he supposed that it was very probably the
and observes in contradistinction, that in Echion, rTyrian or marine purple. He discovered also a
Nicomachus, Protocgenes, and Apelles, all things colour which he supposed to be black wad, or
were perfect. But the remark of Pliny, that hydrated binoxide of manganese; also a black
Apelies, Echion, Melanthius, and Nicomachus used colour composed of chalk, mixed with the ink of
-but four colours, including both. black and white the sepia officimnalis otr cuttle-fish. The transparent