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CHAP. 31. (7.)—WHICH COLOURS DO NOT ADMIT OF BEING LAID ON A WET COATING.

Those among the colours which require a dry, cretaceous, coating,1 and refuse to adhere to a wet surface, are purpurissum, indicum, cæruleum,2 melinum, orpiment, appianum, and ceruse. Wax, too, is stained with all these colouring substances for encaustic painting;3 a process which does not admit of being applied to walls, but is in common use4 by way of ornament for ships of war, and, indeed, merchant-ships at the present day. As we go so far as to paint these vehicles of danger, no one can be surprised if we paint our funeral piles as well, or if we have our gladiators conveyed in handsome carriages to the scene of death, or, at all events, of carnage. When we only contemplate this extensive variety of colours, we cannot but admire the ingenuity displayed by the men of former days.

1 "Cretulam."

2 See B. xxxiii. c. 57.

3 See Chapter 39, where this process is more fully described. "'Cerœ,' or 'waxes,' was the ordinary term for painters' colours among the Romans, but more especially encaustic colours, which were probably kept dry in boxes, and the wet brush or pencil was rubbed upon them when colour was required, or they were moistened by the artist previous to commencing work. From the term 'ceræ' it would appear that wax constituted the principal ingredient in the colouring vehicle used; but this does not necessarily follow, and it is very improbable that it did; there must have been a great portion of gum or resin in the colours, or they could not have hardened. Wax was undoubtedly a most essential ingredient, since it apparently prevents the colours from cracking. 'Ceræ' therefore might originally simply mean colours which contained wax, in contradistinction to those which did not; but was afterwards applied generally by the Romans to the colours of painters."—Wornum, Smith's Diet. Antiq. Art. Painting.

4 Called "Inceramenta navium," in Livy, B. xxviii. c. 45. See also Chapters 39 and 41 of this Book.

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