CHAP. 5.—THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE ART OF PAINTING. MO-
NOCHROME PAINTINGS. THE EARLIEST PAINTERS.
We have no certain knowledge as to the commencement of
the art of painting, nor does this enquiry fall under our consideration.
The Egyptians assert that it was invented among
themselves, six thousand years before it passed into Greece; a
vain boast, it is very evident.[1] As to the Greeks, some say
that it was invented at Sicyon, others at Corinth; but they
all agree that it originated in tracing lines round the human
shadow.[2] The first stage of the art, they say, was this, the
second stage being the employment of single colours; a process
known as "monochromaton,"[3] after it had become more
complicated, and which is still in use at the present day.
The invention of line-drawing has been assigned to Philocles,
the Egyptian, or to Cleanthes[4] of Corinth. The first
who practised this line-drawing were Aridices, the Corinthian,
and Telephanes, the Sicyonian, artists who, without making
use of any colours, shaded the interior of the outline by
drawing lines;[5] hence, it was the custom with them to add to
the picture the name of the person represented. Ecphantus,
the Corinthian, was the first to employ colours upon these
pictures, made, it is said, of broken earthenware, reduced to
powder. We shall show on a future[6] occasion, that it was a
different artist of the same name, who, according to Cornelius
Nepos, came to Italy with Demaratus, the father of the Roman
king, Tarquinius Priscus, on his flight from Corinth to escape
the violence of the tyrant Cypselus.
1. This period for the invention of painting by the Egyptians is evidently
incorrect; but still there is sufficient reason for concluding that
there now exist specimens of Egyptian art, which were in existence previous
to the time of the earliest Grecian painters of whom we have any
certain account.—B.
2. All the ancients who have treated of the history of the art agree,
that the first attempt at what may be considered the formation of a picture, consisted in tracing the shadow of a human head or some other object
on the wall, the interior being filled up with one uniform shade of
colour.—B.
3. From the Greek monoxrw/maton "single colouring."—B.
4. He is mentioned also by Athenagoras, Strabo, and Athenæus.
5. Called "graphis," by the Greeks, and somewhat similar, probably, to
our pen and ink drawings.
6. In Chapter 43 of this Book.—B.