It was with four colours only,[1] that Apelles,[2] Echion,
Melanthius, and Nicomachus, those most illustrous painters,
executed their immortal works; melinum[3] for the white, Attic
sil[4] for the yellow, Pontic sinopis for the red, and atramentum
for the black;[5] and yet a single picture of theirs has sold before
now for the treasures of whole cities. But at the present day,
when purple is employed for colouring walls even, and when
India sends to us the slime[6] of her rivers, and the corrupt blood
of her dragons[7] and her elephants, there is no such thing as a
picture of high quality produced. Everything, in fact, was superior
at a time when the resources of art were so much fewer
than they now are. Yes, so it is; and the reason is, as we
1. four colours only, the figure and the lineaments; but
in the works of Echion, Nicomachus, Protogenes, and Apelles, everything
is perfect." Indeed Pliny contradicts himself, for he speaks of two others
colours used by the earliest painters, the testa trita, or ground earthenware,
in Chapter 5 of this Book; and "cinnabaris," or vermilion, in B. xxxiii.
c. 36. Also, in Chapter 21 of this Book he speaks of Eretrian earth as
having been used by Nicomachus, and in Chapter 25 of ivory black as
having been invented by Apelles.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.