treatise may contain-surely the publication of it may yet be obtained. "It seems to be the fate of the arts," says M. Mérimée, "that their decadence begins immediately after they have attained near to perfection. This destiny had been already in great part accomplished in Italy, when the chief founder of the French school, Simon Vouet, went thither to study the great masters. Even the traditionary accounts of their processes had either been lost, or had been so corrupted, that the practitioners, who had constantly before their eyes the chef-d'œuvres of Titian, of Raffaelle, and Corregio, were prodigal of their applause to Joseph Arpino." Yet Simon Vouet died in 1641. If, therefore, our author is here speaking of the processes of painting, they surely had not then been lost; for Claude and Poussin (Gaspar) were then showing proofs of a pure vehicle for their colours-singular enough that the two greatest landscape painters, and each in a different way, were born the same year, 1600. That the process, however, has been lost or corrupted, we think is certain, as is proved by chemical experiment, by the general acknowledgement of the experienced eye of taste, and by the universal, though sometimes secret and unacknowledged endeavours of artists to remedy the evident defects of modern methods. We fear, and Professor Tingry has given authority to the caution, that varnishes will only secure a temporary brilliancy-we do not say they should not be used; but something else, we are persuaded, is wanted, wherewith to temper or charge our oils, before varnishes can be with safety used. Something is required which shall destroy that quality in oil, which makes it too often in time acquire a horny appearance. We have seen pictures that have looked well for a year or two, acquire a look, as if they had been painted with old stable lanthorns liquified. M. Mérimée, indeed, says that varnish does not necessarily make the pictures crack, but it is because it is carelessly mixed, or improperly used: if that were the case, there must have been some careless persons and bad varnishes occasionally before a certain date, but we never see before that date the effects we daily witness It would be most desirable that experiments should be made upon un

now.

important parts of old pictures, that the paint should be subjected to every possible chemical test. Do not tell us of experiments and observations, without minute detail. "We learn,' says M. Mérimée, "from these researches, that the colour of those pictures which belong to the first epoch of oil-painting, are mostly of a harder body than those of a later date; that they resist dissolvents much better, and that, if rubbed with a file, they show underneath a shining appearance, resembling that of a picture painted in varnish." Now, could not this paint with a shining appearance be subjected to better test than the file? We will now detail what we saw ourselves, first prefacing the account thus :-A valued friend, now unhappily no more, of ample fortune, leisure, research, and unlimited accuracy and patience, with great chemical knowledge, for many years devoted himself to the subject in question. He had himself a fine collection of pictures by the old masters. His investigation was patient in the extreme. We deeply regret that his papers are not forthcoming. We know it was his intention to have published the result of his enquiry and his experiments. We were in constant communication with him many years, and have still many of his colours, and his vehicles for using them, which he sent to us. He simplified them more and more, and thought himself that he had rediscovered the medium, "Veterem revocavit artem." We know that to speak confidently upon such a subject, is only to insure derision; we will not therefore do so- - indeed we do not know certainly what his discovery, if it be one, was; but we will give it, as we have had it analysed, and every artist may try for himself. But it is now time to say, what we ourselves

saw.

Some paint was scraped off an old picture, laid on some platina and subjected to the blowpipe. The oil went off with a slight explosion, and the result was, that the paint was vitrified. It was positive glass. Before he tried the experiment he assured us it would be so, and that the paint of all the old masters was the same. This led him to use glass of different sorts, and he assured me, the effects on some of the colours which would not stand without it was very striking. At first his vehicle was not facile, but he at last

simplified it that it became perfectly So. We once said to him, "it is supposed the Venetian masters used water; if this medium, therefore, be substantially the same as theirs, you may dip your pencil in water as well as in oil.* He thought a moment and replied, "I think you might;" upon which we tried the experiment, and found we could with facility dip the brush in oil or water as we pleased, and paint with either. We painted rather a large picture with it, and using water; after a few months, wishing to paint over the canvass, we tried to rub down the surfacewith pumice-stone-itwould not touch it, and with a razor-we might as well have scraped a stone wall. In this state, a friend coming in, saw the picture (an artist), and thought it was an old picture destroyed by cleaners. We have now some of the the last medium he sent us; we know not if it be the same we painted the picture as above with, but we suspect it is. This we have had anaÎysed, and are told it is borax. We rather suspect it had, in very small proportion, something else with it, at least, so we are told; and our friend offered once to supply us with two substances which we were to have made up by a chemist; but he changed his mind and supplied us himself. We therefore invite artists and scientific persons who take an interest in the subject, to try borax in every way they may please. But the following method was given us by our friend :Equal quantity by weight to measure of oil of the impalpably pounded powder borax, having been first made into glass. This mixture will have the richness of varnish, be very pleasant to use, and will, if so required, by being made thicker, stand up on the palette. We have mended an old picture or two with it, with perfect success. To those who may reject this without trying, or those who trying may abandon it, and consider their labour lost, we have only to say, that we had rather the one should indulge his prejudice, and the other suffer the inconvenience of a little loss of time, than that we should withhold a knowledge of any thing which might by possibility be beneficial to art. And let the fact be tested, if the paint of the old masters does vitrify-if it does, it is no wonder if, under the file, it presents a shining appearance, and may

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It is not

be the " Glassa Romana." at all improbable that the "Arte Vetraia," known so long before painting in oil, may have supplied Van Eyck with his discovery; and it is remarkable that the most celebrated places for the manufacture of glass, are the most celebrated for painting in oil-Holland and Venice. And the Chemical Dictionary informs us (not having any idea of a medium for painting), that in Holland and Venice the art of purifying borax was kept a secret.

Though we have expressed our doubts as to the correctness of M. Mérimée's conclusions, we would by no means speak positively against bis varnishes, provided they be hard; but we do think that varnishes alone will not have that good effect upon the oil, which is required to give that pure jewellery to the pigments. The book should be in every artist's hands. It is a very useful little volume, and contains, concentrated, a great deal of practical as well as entertaining information. The theory of colours, the French and English chromatic scales, may be with great advantage practically applied. The best colourist will be the first to see their value. We had been acquainted with the scale of Moses Hans from Mr Phillips' valuable lectures. The theories, French and English, in this little volume, are very clearly explained. Mr Taylor's historical sketch of the English school, though capable of advantageous enlargement, is very well done, and perhaps, as it is, is best suited to the work. Tingry's work is invaluable; every artist should have it. Nor should the curious treatise of Leonardo da Vinci be unreadthough unconnected, the information is great, and probably, on examination, the scientific and philosophical views may be found generally correct. His account of his palette is provokingly broken off by that great marplot, Good Intention. The whole passage is so curious that we are tempted to extract it. "Though the mixture of colours one with another do almost admit of an infinite variety, yet must it not be passed over without a few transient remarks. Accordingly, in the first place, I shall lay down a certain number of simple colours as a foundation; with each of these mixing each of the rest, one by one, afterwards two by two, and three by three, proceeding thus to an entire mixture

of all the colours together; afterwards I shall begin to mingle these colours over again, two by two, then three by three, four by four, and so to the end. Upon those two colours shall be laid three, and to those three shall be added three more, afterwards six, and so on, continuing this mixture through all the proportions. Now, by simple colours, I mean such as cannot be made or supplied out of the mixture of any other colours. White and black I do not reckon among colours-the one representing darkness and the other light; that is, the one being a mere privation of light, the other, mere light itself either original or reflected. I shall not omit to speak of these however, their use being of the last importance in painting, which is nothing in effect but a composition of lights and shadows, that is of bright and obscure. After white and black come green and yellow, then azure after tanned or ochre, then violet and lastly red-these eight being all the simple colours in nature. I now proceed to speak of their mixture. In the first place, mix black and white together, then black and yellow, and black and red, afterwards yellow and

black, yellow and red, &c. But because paper begins here to fail me, I shall treat at large of the mixture of colours in a work by itself." This may furnish some useful hints, but we know not what arm could hold a palette, to hold the mixtures. He should be a Briareus in the art who would attempt it, with no inconsiderable sized palette on every thumb. There are painters of the English school, to whose serious attention we would recommend the following admirable advice, particularly such as convert parrots and macaws into miraculous landscapes. As the advice is not ours, but Leonardo da Vinci's, it may not be scorned.

"That which is beautiful is not always good; this is intended for certain painters, who are so taken with the beauty of their colours, that they can find no room for shadows, never using any but what are slight and almost insensible. These people have no regard to that force and relievo which figures receive from a bold shadow, and are somewhat like your fine talkers, who use abundance of good words, but without any meaning."-That we may not be in that predicament, " Verbum non amplius."

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