MOSAIC PAINTING. This species of representation of objects is supposed to have had its name from its being chiefly employed by the antients in adorning a museion or museum, cabinet or study, dedicated to the muses: amongst the Romans it was called opus musivum. Mosaic or rather musaic painting, if we may so term it, is performed with small picces of marble or other natural stone, cut into parallelopipeds like a die, but twice as long as they are broad or thick. These dies are of every variety of colour, and are fixed in due order in a cement applied to the floor or the wall of an apartment, a table, &c. The mosaic as practised by modern artists is however usually executed with small dies from one half to one quarter of an inch aside, but of greater length, composed of a semi-vitrified paste, tinged with every possible colour tint and shade.

The first step in executing mosaic is to have a correct drawing of the intended picture: a cement or plaster is com posed of hard stone and brick, finely pounded and worked up with gum tragacanth and whites of eggs: this plaster is laid thick on the floor or wall to receive the painting, and only what is sufficient for the work of three or four days applied at one time, that the ground may not dry and harden too much for use. The drawing is then laid on the plaster, and the various outlines impressed on it by a sharp pointed tool, after which the dies, having been previously arranged in small cases, according to their gradations of colours, are lifted out and placed on the plaster in their proper situations, as their tints correspond with those in the original draught, the artist adhering scrupulously to the various lights, shadows, hues, and colours, of his model. The dies are pressed into the ground or cement by applying a rule over a number of them in different directions, to render the surface as regular and even as possible, by which the effect as a painting is much improved.

This operation it is evident must proceed very slowly :

but

:

but when it is executed, the colours being incorporated in the substance of the die, reduced by fire nearly to the state of glass, are never affected by the air, moisture, or any external accident; and they possess a lustre not to be attained in any other mode of painting. In the capitol of Rome was some years ago preserved an admirable specimen of antient mosaic, representing three pigeons sporting on the margin of a vessel of water, of which Pliny has left us a discription it was discovered in the ruins of Adrian's villa near Tivoli. The finest pieces of modern mosaic are also to be seen in Rome, particularly in St. Peter's church, where, s paintings from humidity or the smoke of tapers and Jamps or other causes were liable to be damaged, copies in mosaic of many masterpieces of modern painting have been substituted, in which the design, the colouring, the delicate gradation of tints have been so closely and so skilfully imitated, that, at a proper distance, the eye cannot determine whether what it admires be a painted canvas or a piece of mosaic Adjoining to the church was the place where the operation was carried on, and greatly encouraged by the late Pope Pius the Sixth. One of the niceties of the art is to compose the dies of such substances and in such proportions as shall, after exposure to a violent heat, produce precisely, the tints required: an operation requiring great skill and attention in the persons employed to perform it. Various other modes of imitating natural objects have been practised; we are told that the antient inhabitants of Mexico had arrived at a wonderful dexterity in a sort of mosaic painting performed with the feathers of the great variety of birds with which that region abounds. Similar works have been done in different parts of Europe, and the art of painting, if we hay so speak, with wool, silk, &c. of different hues, has of late years been brought to high perfection in this country. PAINTING IN FRESCO. This is considered to be the

most

most antient, the most speedy, and the most durable branch of the art of painting, as well as the most suitable for ornamenting great edifices. From the fragments that have come down to our times, it appears that the Romans worked much in this way and travellers tell us that in Egypt, colossal figures of vast dimensions are observed on the walls of palaces and temples, incorporated with the substance of the plaster.

In paintings in fresco (so called from the Italian word for fresh) it is first necessary to apply to the wall two or three layers of plaster composed of pounded brick, or of what is still better, river sand and lime. The first layer must be perfectly dry before the second, on which the painting is to be executed, be applied. The second consists of lime slaked in the open air, and left exposed for a year to the weather, mixed with river sand of a grain éven and mo derately fine. This is applied with a trowel on the first layer, whose surface has been previously wetted to make the two unite; and the application requires great skill and care in the artist, that the last surface may be perfectly regular, even and smooth. A fine polish is given to this second layer, by applying a sheet of paper to it, and again going over the surface with the trowel. The artist employed on this preparatory work should lay on only so much ground as the painter can execute in a day, as this kind of painting can only be performed when the ground is fresh laid on, moist and smooth. As the painter must work rapidly, and as there is no time to retouch any of the strokes, he has lying by him large cartoons, on which are correctly drawn, in their full size, the figures to be repre sented, that he may have nothing to do but to copy them on the wall. These cartoons consist of a number of large sheets of strong paper, either single or several sheets pasted together, which are applied to the surface of the plaster, and the various outlines, features, &c. are traced on it by going

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over the cartoon with a small point, or by merely pricking small holes through the paper. When thus an accurate and speedy drawing is obtained, the colours are next applied these are laid on while the plaster is moist, and ought never to be retouched when dry, for those then applied are sure to turn black.

PAINTING IN WATER COLOURS.-This style of painting can only be considered as coloured drawing, in which the white surface of the paper serves for the light. The middle tints are done with transparent colours, and are of course of no thickness of body on the paper. The shadows are first prepared with Indian ink, and afterwards glazed agreeably to the various tints and tones of the objects to be represented. The tints are composed in the same way with those in the style of painting which the French call gouache, and we body colours, with this difference, that white is never employed, and that the colours are laid on very thin.

The objects ought to be represented more brilliant than they are in fact, on account of the Indian ink used in the first wash or preparation, which always diminishes the strength of other colours applied over it. Prussian blue, having a tendency to turn dark or black, ought seldom to be used in this sort of painting.

The very expeditious manner by which the endless va riety of natural objects around us can be thus represented, renders drawing or painting in water colours exceedingly valuable as well as agreeable: and it is from it that many artists have drawn their first knowledge of the effects of colouring.

In painting with body colours, or in gouache, the first thing to be done is to paste the paper on a board of mahogany or walnut-tree made perfectly smooth and even in all directions, pasting another similar sheet on the opposite side, that the board may be equally acted upon, and so kept

from

from warping. When the paper is thus prepared, the outlines are drawn with a black lead pencil, taking care they be sufficiently strong to resist the application of the first colours. The sky of the landscape is then formed with a tint composed of white mixed with Prussian blue, and a very small quantity of red lake to give the air a little warmth. The mountains are done with a stronger tint, mixed with blue and red, to give them some relief from the sky. Trees, rocks, water, &c. are done with their most natural tints, according to their respective distances, and their position with regard to the lights. When this first course is executed, the leaves and other minute parts of the objects in the landscape are introduced; and when the work is done the whole is glazed over with some light transparent tint, to give the several colours their proper union and harmony.

MINIATURE PAINTING. This beautiful branch of the painter's art consists of very small lines, or rather of points and dots done with very simple colours, mixed up with gum, upon paper, ivory, or vellum; ivory, when well prepared, is however by far preferable to paper or vellum. Paintings of this sort are distinguished by the smallness and delicacy of the figures, and the light transparency of the colouring.

In miniature, the first thing to be done is what is called the dead colouring, in which the lights are kept a little brighter, and the shades less dark than they are ultimately to be made; because in dotting on them afterwards the colour is always strengthened, and would thus become at last too forcible. The dotting is performed in different ways by different artists, some making the dots round, others oblong, others again hatch with little light strokes. crossing each other in all directions, which method is themost expeditious, as well as the freest, and therefore deserves to be generally practised.