stand tions to its use established, although it may the most necessary tests upon which its durability is to be presumed. It is upon the test of time, and not according to their beauty or other qualities, that we have pronounced a preference of antient to modern, and of natural to artificial, pigments. Those known to have been employed by the antients are, for the most part, natural pigments, while the pigments of modern discovery are almost entirely productions of art. Upon these and other points. of durability, &c. the tables of Chap. xxii. may be consulted. As to the individual permanency or fugitiveness of pigments, we have noted them under their respective heads as they occur in the following chapters, and in what respects they are affected by vehicles we have remarked in a chapter on Vehicles. CHAPTER VI. ON THE GENERAL QUALITIES OF PIGMENTS. "Je vois bien,' Damon dit, 'que vous voulez que le peintre ne laisse rien échapper de tout ce qui est de plus avantageux dans son art.'"—Du Pile: Dial. p. 9. Hitherto we have treated of colour only, which is the universal quality of pigments, and of its relations, physical causes, and changes; there remain, therefore, for discussion the more material properties, upon which depend the various uses, excellences, and defects of pigments. The general attributes of a perfect pigment are beauty of colour, comprehending pureness and richness, brilliancy and intensity, delicacy and depth, -truth of hue,—transparency or opacity, well-working, crispness, setting-up or keeping its place, and desiccation or drying well; to all which must be superadded durability when used, a quality to which the health and vitality of a picture belong, and is so essential, that all the others put together without it are of no esteem with the artist who merits reputation: we have, therefore, given it a previous distinct consideration. No pigment possesses all these qualifications in perfection, for some are naturally at variance or opposed; nor is there any pigment that cannot boast excellence in one or more of them. Beauty, delicacy, purity, and brilliancy, are commonly allied in the same pigment, as are also depth, richness, and intensity in the beauty of others; and some pigments possess all these in considerable degree: yet delicacy and depth in the beauty of colours are at variance in the production of all pigments, so that perfect success in producing the one is attended with some degree of failure in the other, and when they are united it is with some sacrifice of both;—they are the male and female in beauty of colour; the principle is universal, and the Hercules, Venus, and Apollo, are illustrations of it in sculpture. Hence the judicious artist purveys for his palette at least two pigments of each colour, one eminent for delicate beauty, the other for richness and depth. Of the importance of beauty in colours and pigments there can be no dispute, since it is equally a maxim in colouring as of sounds in music, that if individual colours or sounds be disagreeable to the eye or ear, no combination of them can be pleasing either in melody or harmony, succession or conjunction. Truth of hue is a relative quality in all colours, except the extreme primaries, in the relations of which blue, being of nearest affinity to black or shade, has properly but one other relation, in which it inclines to red, and becomes a purple blue; it is, therefore, a faulty or false hue when, inclining to yellow, it becomes of a green hue but red, which is of equal affinity to light and shade, has two relations, by one of which it inclines to blue, and becomes a purple-red or crimson; and by the other it inclines to yellow, and becomes an orange-red or scarlet, neither of which are individually false or discordant; yet yellow, which is of nearest affinity to white or light, has strictly but one true relation by which it inclines to red, and becomes a warm yellow, for by uniting with blue it becomes a defective greenyellow. Thus greenness is inimical to truth of hue in these primaries, agreeably to the law or regulation by which green is as naturally adapted to contrast as it is inept to compound with colours in general. The other secondary and tertiary colours, having all duplex relations, may incline without default to either of their relatives. Transparency is an essential property of all glazing colours, and adds greatly to the value of dark or shading colours; indeed it is the prime quality upon which depth and darkness depend, as whiteness and light do upon opacity or reflecting power. Opacity is, therefore, the antagonist of transparency, and qualifies pigments to cover in dead-colouring or solid painting, and to combine with transparent pigments in forming tints; and hence also semitransparent pigments are qualified in a mean degree both for dead colouring and finishing. As excellences, therefore, transparency and opacity are relative only the first being indispensable to shade in all its gradations, as the latter is to light. With regard to transparent and opaque pigments generally, it is worthy of attention in the practice of the oil painter, that the best effects of the former are produced when they are employed with a resinous varnish; as opaque pigments are best employed in oil, and the two become united with best effect in these united vehicles. The natural and artificial powers, or depth and brilliancy, of every colour lie within the extremes of black and white; it follows, therefore, that the most powerful effects of transparent colours are to be produced by glazing them over black and white: as, however, few transparent pigments have sufficient body or tingeing power for this, it is often necessary to glaze them over tints or deep opaque colours of the required hues. There is a charm in transparent colours which frequently leads to an undue use thereof in glazing; but glazing, scumbling, and their combined. process must be used with discretion, according to the objects and effects of a picture. The effects of the first is of a gay character, and is more powerfully effective when contrasted by the sadness of dry scumbling and solid painting. Glazed colours are rendered much more resplend |