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

~914 PICTURA. PICTURA.
the only one that had experienced no great change; brated works; they are alluded to by Ovid (Trist;
for works of the highest class in sculpture were still ii. 525), and are mentioned by many other ancient
produced there. The course of painting seems to writers.
have been much more capricious than that of sculp- There are two circumstances connected with the
ture; in which masterpieces, exhibiting various earlier history of painting in Rome which deserve
beauties, appear to have been produced in nearly mention. One is recorded by Livy (xli. 28), who
every age, from that of Pheidias to that of Hadrian; informs us that the Consul Tib. Sempronius GracA decided decay in painting, on the other hand, is chus, dedicated in the temple of Mater Matuta,
repeatedly acknowledged in the later Greek and upon his return from Sardinia, B. C. 174, a picture
in the best Roman writers. One of the causes of apparently a singular description; it consisted
of this decay may be, that the highest excellence of a plan of the island of Sardinia, with reprein painting requires the combination of a much sentations of various battles he had fought there,
greater variety of qualities; whereas invention and painted upon it. The other is mentioned by Pliny
design, identical in both arts, are the sale elements (Hf. N. xxxv. 7), who says that L. Hostilius 5Manof sculpture. Painters also are addicted to the cinus, Bs.c. 147, exposed to view in the forum a
pernicious, though lucrative, practice of dashing off picture of the taking of Carthage, in which he had
or despatching their works, from which sculptors, performed a conspicuous part, and explained its
from the very nature of their materials, are ex- various incidents to the people. Whether these
empt: to paint quickly was all that was required pictures were the productions of Greek or of Roman
from some of the Roman painters. (Juv. ix. 146.) artists is doubtful; nor have we any guide as *to
Works in sculpture also, through the durability of their rank as works of art.
their material, are more easily preserved than The Romans generally have not the slightest
paintings, and they serve therefore as models and claims to the merit of having promoted the fine
incentives to the artists of after ages. Artists, arts. We have seen that before the spoliations of
therefore, who may have had ability to excel in Greece and Sicily, the arts were held in no colnsisculpture, would naturally choose that art in pre- deration in Rome; and even afterwards, until the
ference to painting. It is only thus that we can time of the emperors, painting and sculpture seem
account for the production of such works as the to have been practised very rarely by Romans;
Antinous, the Laocoon, the Torso of Apollonius, and the works which were then produced were
and many others of surpassing excellence, at a chiefly characterised by their bad taste, being mere
period when the art of painting was comparatively military records and gaudy displays of colour, alextinct, or at least prinlcipally practised as mere though the city was crowded with the finest prodecorative colouring, such as the imajority of the ductions of ancient Greece.
paintings of Rome, IIerculaneum, and Pompeii, There are three distinct periods observable in
now extant; though it must be remembered that the history of painting in Rome. The first, or great
these were the inferior works of an inferior age. period of Glaeco-Roman art, may be dated fiom
XV. Roman Painzting. The early painting of the conquest of Greece until the time of Augustus,
Italy and Magna Graecia has been already noticed, when the artists were chiefly Greeks. The second,
and we know nothing of a Roman painting inde- from the time of Augustus to the so-called Thirty
pendent of that of Greece, though Pliny (H. AN. Tyrants and Diocletian, or from the beginning of
xxxv. 7) tells us that it was cultivated at an early the Christian era until about the latter end of the
period by the Romans. The head of the noble third century; during which time the great nmahouse of the Fabii received the surname of Pictor, jority of Roman works of art were produced. The
which remained in his family, through some paint- third comprehends the state of the arts during the
ings which he executed in the temple of Salus at exarchate; when Rome, in consequence of the
Rome, B. c. 304, which lasted till the time of the foundation of Constantinople, and the changes it
emperor Claudius, when they were destroyed by involved, suffered similar spoliations to those which
the fire that consumed that temple. Pacuvius also it had previously inflicted upon Greece. This was
the tragic poet, and nephew of Ennius, distin- the period of the total decay of the imitative arts
guished himself by some paintings in the temple of amongst the ancients.
Hercules in the Forum Boarium, about 180 B. C. The establishment of Christianity, the division
Afterwards, says Pliny (I. c.), painting was not of the empire, and the incursions of barbarians,
practised by polite, andls (honestis manibus) amongst were the first great causes of the important revothe Romans, except perhaps in the case of Turpi- lution experienced by the imitative arts, and the
lius, a Roman knight of his own times, who exe- serious check they received; but it was reserved
cuted some beautiful works with his left hand at for the fanatic fury of the iconoclasts effectually to
Verona. Yet Q. Pedius, nephew of Q. Pedius, destroy all traces of their former splendour.
coheir of Caesar with Augastus, was instructed in Of the first of these three periods sufficient has
painting, and became a great proficient in the art, been already said; of the second there remain still
though he died when young. Antistius Labeo also a few observations to be made. About the beamused himself with painting small pictures. ginning of the second period is the earliest age in
Julius Caesar, Agrippa, and Augustus were which we have any notice of portrait painters
among the earliest great patrons of artists. Sue- (imaginsum pictores), as a distinct class. Pliny
tonius (Jul. Caes. 47) informs us that Caesar ex- mentions particularly Dionysius and Sopolis, as the
pended great sums in the purchase of pictures by most celebrated at about the time of Augustus,
the old masters; and Pliny (H. N. xxxv. 40) or perhaps earlier, who filled picture galleries with
mentions that he gave as much as 80 talents for two their works. About the same age also Lala of
pictures by his contemporary Timomachus of By- Cyzicus was: very celebrated; she painted, however,
zantium, one an Ajax, and the other a Medea me- chiefly female portraits, but received greater prices
ditating the murder of her children. These pictures, than the other two. (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 37, 40.)
which were painted in encaustic, were very cele- Portraits must have been exceedingly numerous