Art-Jottings In Art-Studios.

Ezekiel says : " I AA'ent in , ancl saw , and beheld every form of creeping things , ancl abominable beasts , ancl all the idols of the house of Israel , pourtrayed on the Avail round about . " And again : " She saw men pourtrayed upon the Avail , the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed in vermilion , girded AAith girdles upon their loins , exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads , all of them princes to look at , after the manner of the Baby lonians and Chaldeans . "

NOAV , considering that great statues AA'ere erected in Babylon , the arts must have existed amongst the Babylonhins long before the period here referred to . Of late years quite a reA'ohition has taken place in our ideas on this subject , from the deciphering of the hieroglyphs ; ancl we are UOAV assured of the extreme antiquity of art in ages hitherto considered almost fabulous . From the art of Asia Ave haA'e been used to turn to that of Egypt ; but it noAv seems certain that this latter people AA'ere

preceded in their knoAA'ledge by the Ethiopians . When , then , Ave have distinct eA'idence of the existence of Egyptian art more than eig hteen centuries before Christ , how Avonderfully old must have been that of the Ethiopians AA'hich thus preceded it ? Lord Prudhoe discoA'ered the remains of an ancient city of great magnificence some ei ghty miles aboA'e Dayola , Avhich he supposes to haA'e been the capital of Tirhakah mentioned in . the Bible . Here he found some splendid remains of art-Avork .

Again : it is UOAV evident that as early as the nineteenth century before Christ the Avails ancl temples of Thebes AA'ere decorated AA'ith paintings ( as Avell as sculptures ) , commemorating personal ancl historical events . The period at AA'hich these pictures Avere placed there is not knoAA'n , but it is quite certain that they Avere there at the expulsion of the shepherd kings , ancl this Avas before the time of Moses . To revieAv the Avork of more of the nations of antiquity is not IIOAV our purpose ,

suffice it if Ave have shown the antiquity of the art itself , because it only brings us to consider the Avords of Haydon : " 'The beginning of art AA'as the same in all nations . They might improve each other ; but Ave do not believe that painting was eA'er originall y brought into one nation by another , or that there ever existed any , where it has not always been more or less known from the remotest period of their history . " Then we are led to ask ourselves , What AA'as this " same beginning " ? Surely , according to the record of the volume of the Sacred LUAV , the craft practised ancl handed CIOAVU to their descendants b y Jabal , Jubal , Tubal-Caiu , ancl tlie other immediate descendants of the Father of the human race—Adam .

We must IIOAV turn to the more practical side of our subject , that is , the modes by which mural-decorations haA'e been , and UOAV are , produced . The ancient Greeks , then , employed two methods , " Encaustic " ancl " Distemper . " The former , as its name implies , called in the aid of heat ; Avhilst the latter AA'as simply our " tempera , " -for the vehicle of Avhich they employed colour dissolved in Avater mixed Avith glue .

In tho " Encaustic " ( IveKavaev [ burnt in ] , as the Greeks put on all their " encaustic " pictures ) process they employed Avax . In this Avax , properly smoothed ancl prepared , they dreAv the required subject AA'ith the " stylus . " After a little time some of them A'entured to fill in this outline Avith black , AA'hen a result AA'as obtained similar to our profile drawing , Avhich they called sKiaypa / j . / xaTa ( skiagrams ) , from O-KM ( shade ) and ypajioi ( to draAv ) . Next came a man Avith more extended aspirations , AA'I IO invented the

jiovoypamxa ( monogram ) , from / xouos ( only ) , that is , a picture in outline only . Soon came the use of " positive colour , " Avhich Avas introduced , according to Pliny , by Cleop hantus of Corinth ; he ground up ancl used a red' brick . This discovery Avas called / wvoxf . oip . % ( monochrome ) , that is , single tint , and AA-US employed to represent flesh . Next came tie Avhite ground ( the lime ancl plaster of the Egyptians , ancl the " gesso " of the Italians ) coA'ered with Avax . Ancl then soon folloAved the rest of the coloursderived

, from different earths , and thus To \ vxpap . a ( polychrome ) , many coloured , Avas formed . The art , having obtained its materials , soon advanced to excellence . " HOAV long , " says Fuzeli , " the brush assisted only the oestrum , ancl when it superseded it , cannot be ascertained ; it cannot be proved that it eA'er entirely superseded it , ancl there is every reason to believe thev were always combined . "