shade. The colours employed are simply red, blue, and yellow ; but
whatever may be their nature they still are brilliant in the extreme,
and appear to have stood remarkably well. There seem to have
been two reds used in these pictures, (for so we may call the several
groups in question,) one a transparent colour resembling madder lake,
the other like that colour with a mixture of vermilion or of some
other bright, opaque red. These colours appear so rich and brilliant,
when sprinkled with water*, that one would imagine they had been
passed over gold leaf, or some similar substance, as we observe
to have been the case in pictures of Giotto and Citnabue,as
well as in the earlier works of the Venetian and other schools.
We are not, however, of opinion that this practice was adopted in the
paintings now, before us, although the brilliancy^ of their colours
would suggest the employment of some such expedient. The yellow
appears equally to have been of two kinds ; an orange colour - was
first used to fill in the outline, and the lights were touched on with a
brighter yellow over it ; the whole together presenting that golden,
sunny hue, so delightful to the eye both in nature and art. The
same process seems to have been adopted with respect to the
blues; but the lights, in this instance, appear rather to have been
made by a mixture of white with the local colour than by a second
blue of a lighter shade.
I t may be inferred from the copies which we have made of these
designs, (which, although they are as good as we could make them,
naturally fall very short of the perfection of the originals,) that the
* An operation which is at present necessary, in order to make them bear out.
drawing of the figures is in excellent style, and the actions at once
expressive, easy, and graceful ; what we have most failed in is the1
expression of the countenances, which, though produced merely by a
single outline, we were wholly unable to copy at all to-our satisfaction;
The characters and features are what are usually called Grecian, and
remind us strongly, in the originals, of those of the figures represented
on some of the most highly finished Greek (or in other words,
Etruscan) vases. . The draperies are well arranged, and exécuted
with great taste and freedom ; they appear, like the other parts of
the compositions, to have been painted at once, without any altera^
tion, and with the greatest facility imaginable. I t will be observed
that the turban has in several instances been adopted; and the
shape of some of these is more oriental than any which we remember
to have seen in Greek designs, I t is singular also that all the
figures appear to have been black, with the exception of that of the
old man in the last group, which has certainly been red; yet there
is nothing either Moorish or Ethiopian in the characters represented ;
which, from the outlines, we should suppose to be Grecian. We
have no solution to offer for this apparent inconsistency; and will
not venture to suggest what may have been the subjects of the
Several pieces. They appCar to represent some connected story; yet
the same persons are not certainly introduced in all, if indeed in any
two of the compositions. In the first group two females, both of
them young, appear engaged in some interesting conversation. The
second may perhaps represent the same persons, but it is difficult to
say whether the rod in the hand of the standing figure is raised for