Hercules, Venus, and Apollo, are illustrations of it in sculpture. Hence the judicious artist purveys for his palette at least two pigments of each colour, one eminent for delicate beauty, the other for depth. Of the importance of beauty in colours and pigments there can be no dispute, since it is equally a maxim in colouring as of sounds in music, that if individual colours or sounds be disagreeable to the eye or ear, no combination of them can be pleasing either in melody or harmony-succession or conjunction.

TRUTH OF HUE is a relative quality in all colours, except the extreme primaries, in the relations of which blue, being of nearest affinity to black or shade, has properly but one other relation, in which it inclines to red, and becomes a purple blue; it is therefore a faulty or false hue when, inclining to yellow, it becomes of a green hue: but red, which is of equal affinity to light and shade, has two relations, by one of which it inclines to blue, and becomes a purple-red or crimson; and by the other it inclines to yellow, and becomes an orange-red or scarlet, neither of which are individually false or discordant; yet yellow, which is of nearest affinity to white or light, has strictly but one true relation by which it inclines to red, and becomes a warm yellow, for by uniting with blue it becomes a defective green-yellow. Thus greenness is inimical to truth of hue in these primaries, agreeably to the law or regulation by which green is as naturally adapted to contrast as it is inept to compound with colours in general. The other secondary and tertiary colours, having all duplex relations, may incline without default to either of their relatives.

TRANSPARENCY is an essential property of all glazing colours, and adds greatly to the value of dark or shading colours; indeed it is the prime quality upon which depth and darkness depend, as whiteness and light do upon opacity or reflecting power. Opacity is therefore the antagonist of transparency, and qualifies pigments to cover in dead-colouring or solid painting, and to combine with transparent pigments in forming tints; and hence also semitransparent pigments are qualified in a mean degree both for dead colouring and finishing. As excellences therefore, transparency and opacity are relative only-the first being indispensable to shade in all its gradations, as the latter is to light. The natural and artificial powers, or depth and brilliancy, of every colour lie within the extremes of black and white; it follows therefore that the most powerful effects of transparent colours are to be produced by glazing them over black and white: as however few transparent pigments have sufficient body or tingeing power

for this, it is necessary rather to glaze them over deep reflective or opaque colours of their own hues.

WORKING WELL depends principally upon fineness of texture and the quality called body in colours; yet every pigment has its peculiarities in respect to working both in water and oil, and these must become matters of every artist's special experience; and some of the best pigments are most difficult of management, while some ineligible pigments are rich in body and free in working;-yet accidental circumstances may influence all pigments in these respects, according to the artist's particular mode of operation and his vehicle, upon the affinities of pigments with which depend also their general faculties of working, such as keeping their place, crispness or setting-up, and drying well; but these latter and other qualities and accidents of pigments have little of a general nature, and will be particularly considered in treating of the individual characters of pigments: it may however be remarked, that crispness, setting-up, and keeping their place and form in which they are applied, are contrary to the nature of many pigments, and depend in painting with them upon a gelatinous texture of their vehicle;-thus mastic and other resinous varnishes give this texture to oils which have been rendered drying by the acetate or sugar of lead;-simple water also, albumen, and animal jelly made of glue or isinglass, give the same property to oils and colours; bees'-wax has the same effect in pure oils. White lac varnish, and other spirit varnishes, rubbed into the colours on the palette, enable them also to keep their place very effectually in most instances. This is important also, because glazing cannot be performed unless it be with a vehicle which keeps its place, or with colours which give this property to the vehicle, as some lakes and transparent colours do.

FINENESS OF TEXTURE is gotten by grinding and levigating extremely, but is only perfectly obtained by solution—and this few pigments admit of;—it merits attention, however, that colours ground in water in the state of a thick paste, and others, such as gamboge, in strong solution in water and liquid rubiate, &c. are miscible in oil, and dry therein firmly ; and in case of utility or necessity, any water-colour in cake, being rubbed off thick in water, may then be diffused in oil, the gum of the cake acting as a chemical medium of union to the water and oil without injury. And pigments, which cannot otherwise be employed in oil or varnish, may be thus forced into the service, and add to the resources of the painter in oil.

In such case, however, the steel palette-knife should be employed with caution.

With respect to DESICCATION OR DRYING, the well-known additions of the acetate or sugar of lead,* litharge, and sulphate of zinc, called also white copperas and white vitriol, either mechanically ground or in solution, for light colours; and japanner's gold size, or oils boiled upon litharge, for lakes, or in some cases verdigris and manganese for dark colours, may be resorted to when the colours or vehicles are not sufficiently good dryers alone; and it requires attention, that an excess of dryer renders oil saponaceous, is inimical to drying, and injurious to the permanent texture of the work. Some colours, however, dry badly from not being sufficiently edulcorated or washed, and many are improved in drying by passing through the fire, or by age. Sulphate of zinc, as a dryer, is less powerful than acetate of lead, but is preferable in use with some colours, upon which it acts less injuriously; but it is supposed, erroneously, to set the colours running; which is not positively the case, though it will not retain those disposed to move, because it wants the property the acetate of lead possesses, of gelatinizing the mixture of oil and varnish. These two dryers should not be employed together, as frequently directed, since they counteract and decompose each other by double election,-forming two new substances, the acetate of zinc, which is an ill dryer, and the sulphate of lead, which is insoluble and opaque. The inexperienced ought here to be guarded also from the highly improper practice of some artists, who strew their pictures while wet with the acetate of lead, or use this substance otherwise in its crystalline or granular form, without grinding or solution, which, though it may promote present drying, will ultimately effloresce on the surface of the work, and throw off the colour in sandy spots.

It is not always that ill drying is attributable to the pigments or vehicle,— the states of the weather and atmosphere have great influence therein. The oxygenating power of the direct rays of the sun renders them peculiarly active in drying oils and colours, and was probably resorted to before dryers were added to oils, particularly in the warmer climate of Italy, in which the very atmosphere is imbued with the matter of light to which the drying property of its climate may be attributed. The ground may also advance or retard drying, because some pigments, united either by mixing or glazing,

This is the Saccharum Saturni of the old chemists, and the Saturnus Glorificatus of the alchymist, celebrated for its uses in forming pastes for artificial gems, for drying oils, &c.

are either promoted or obstructed in drying by their conjunction. The best practice in this respect is to sponge the picture previously to painting thereon with soft water, and in damp weather with weak aqueous solution of the acetate or sugar of lead. The various affinities of pigments occasion each to have its more or less appropriate dryer; and it would be a matter of useful experience if the habits of every pigment in this respect were ascertained; siccatives of less power generally than the above, such as the acetate of copper and the oxides of manganese, to which umber owes its drying quality, and others might come into use in particular cases. Many other accidental circumstances may also affect drying; and among these none is more to be guarded against by the artist than the presence of soap or alkali, too often left in the washing of his brushes, which, besides other ill effects, decompose and are decomposed by acetate of lead and other dryers, and retard drying, in streaks and patches on the painting; in all which cases however the odium of ill drying falls upon some unlucky pigment. To free brushes from this disadvantage, they should be cleansed with the oils of linseed and turpentine.

To all other good qualities of pigments it would be well if we could in all cases add that of being INNOXIOUS;-as this however cannot always be, and good pigments are by no means to be sacrificed to the want of this property, while no pigment that is not imbibed by the stomach will in the slightest degree injure the health of the artist; common cleanliness, and avoiding the habit of putting the pencil unnecessarily to the mouth, so common in water-painting, are sufficient guards against any possibly pernicious effects from the use of any pigment.

H

CHAP. VII.

ON COLOURS AND PIGMENTS INDIVIDUALLY.

"Parmi les couleurs artificielles le peintre doit connoître celle qui ont amitié ensemble, (pour ainsi dire,) et celle qui ont antipathie; il en doit sçavoir les valeurs séparément, et par comparison des unes aux autres.”—Du PILE, DIALOGUE, p. 6.

HAVING defined and exemplified colours generally, and discussed briefly their relations, causes, and general attributes, we proceed to the more particular and practical part of our work-the powers and properties of colours and pigments individually; a subject so pregnant with materials, and of such unlimited connexions, that volumes might easily be inflated to little purpose with vague instructions to prepare bad colours, while good ones may be obtained at less expense-with the history of antient and modern colours, and the biography, if we may use the term, of individual pigments; while our design is merely to sketch simply and briefly their characters and uses, so as to bring the student to a knowledge of his materials by the shortest course: and this we purpose to do in the order suggested by their relations and the foregoing distribution, under their distinct heads.

In so doing we have introduced more illustrations of the poetic uses of colours than might appear necessary; because, in the absence of examples from paintings, or those of nature, they may serve to lead the mind into acquaintance with the expression and powers of colours in the abstract, and to fix them as impressions habitually on the mind of the artist by whose taste and feeling they are to be applied; at the same time we have rendered our quotations as brief as the sense would admit, which in many of the instances is of wider reference than could have been exhibited without swelling our illustration beyond reasonable bounds; yet we would willingly call the attention of the student in the widest reference possible to the