A manual of fresco and encaustic painting containing ample instructions for executing works of these descriptions : with an historical memoir of these arts from the earliest periods

Front matter

A MANUAL

FRESCO

AND ENCAUSTIC PAINTING.

Chapter I. Page

Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Fresco Painting 1

Origin and Progress of Fresco Painting 3

Greek Fresco and Encaustics 6

Fresco, Encaustic, and Mosaics in the Roman Empire 9

The Arabesque style 13

The Byzantine style 15

Mosaics 19

Progress of Fresco in India and America 25

CHAPTER II. Fresco Painting in the Middle Ages 27

Italian Masonry very defective 33

British and Italian Workmen 34

CHAPTER III. The Preparation of the Walls 35

Brick-lined Walls 38

Lath-grating on Walls 39

Plastering the Walls 40

A fine Surface of great Importance 41

Materials for each Coating 42

Cennini’s Preparation of Lime White for Fresco Painters 43

Frescos executed upon various Sorts of Masonry 45

Frescos of the Carracci 48

Rubble Walls 49

Frescos on Lathing 50

Ashlar, Rubble, Brick, and Stoja, or Lath Surfaces 53

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Page

Methods of preparing the Lime for Erescos 54

Genoese Method of preparing Lime 54

The German Method 56

The French Method 57

The Colours, Brushes, &c., required for Fresco Painting 59

Egyptian Blue, how to prepare that colour 61

The Size or Gluten recommended 64

Method of preparing Caseum 65

CHAPTER Y.

Lime suitable for Fresco Painting 67

Travertine Stone — its Analysis 68

German Limestone 69

Bath Limestone 70

Durdham Downs Stone 71

Causticity of Lime 72

Chemical Analysis of Lime 73

Modes of preparing the Limes 77

Opinion of Limes 78

Dr. Reid on Limes 79

CHAPTER YI.

Advice to prepare the Cartoon Design 82

The Cartoon 83

Methods of preparing the Drawing 85

Laying on the Intonaco 86

Outlining by the Stylus or Pouncing 87

Various Modes of Outlining the Fresco 89

Pouncing more used than the Stylus 90

Laying on the Colours 94

Transparency of Frescos 97

The Process of Glazing 99

Old Palma’s Frescos 100

The Operation of Painting 102

Pasciano’s Method of Fresco Painting 104

Merimee’s Method 108

Palomino’s Retouching Process 110

CHAPTER VII.

Retouching in Distemper objectionable . Ill

The proper Selection of Artists 113

Duty of the Royal Commissioners 114

Tempera injurious 115

Distemper Painting on Fresco 117

Hatching objectionable 119

Fresco Secco 120

Method of Painting in Fresco Secco 121

Genoese Compound Frescos 123

CONTENTS. xix

CHAPTER VIII.

PAGE

Encaustic Painting 125

Count Caylus on Encaustic Painting 127

The Abbe Requeno restores the Art 128

Fresco superseded Encaustic ! 131

Encaustics of the Lower Empire.. 133

Methods of Materials employed in Encaustic Painting 135

Manner of Heating the Wail 136

Laying the Ground or Priming 139

Fresco and Encaustic Painting 141

Comparison of Fresco and Encaustic Painting 143

CHAPTER IX.

Causes of Injury and Ruin to Frescos 147

Prevention of Damp in Walls 148

M. Von Klenze’s Method 149

Another Method of preventing Damp in Walls 151

Oil Painting injurious on Outside Walls 152

Methods to prevent Damp ascending 153

Process for excluding Damp, &c 155

Composition of Wax and Lithargerized Oil 159

Fresco as compared with Oil Painting 160

How to clean Fresco Paintings 162

Frescos spoiled by Damp from above 163

Time necessary for the Execution of Frescos 164

Fallacies in Mural Painting 167

RafFaelle’s Cartoons 171

CHAPTER X.

Effects of Stained Glass on Fresco 172

Gothic Churches adorned with Frescos 174

Descriptions of Paintings in Fresco by different Masters 176

Frescos by Titian and Pordenone 177

Paul Veronese’s Frescos at Villa Mazer 179

Frescos by Tintoretto, Luini, Guercino, andRazzi 181

Ornamental Frescos 182

Comparative Durability of Colours 184

Very old Frescos at Cremona 186

Methods of detaching Frescos from Walls 190

Appendix

The Royal Commission on the Fine Arts 194

C. L. Eastlake, Esq^, R.A., Secretary 196

The Cartoon Exhibition 197

Declaration of Award 198

Exhibition reopened to the Public 199

Notices of Competition for Sculpture, &c 201

For Specimens of Stained Glass, & c 202

Dimensions of the Halls and Galleries to be decorated 205

Monuments to eminent Civilians (Sir Robert Peel’s Letter) 207

The Frescos at Buckingham Palace 209

On the Influence of the Fine Arts 210

A MANUAL,

Section I, Sketch Of The Origin And Progress Of Fresco Painting, &c

In commencing a description of the method and materials employed in the noble art of Fresco painting, we feel it to be our duty to notice, in the first place, the immediate cause of the important and gratifying results that have been so recently produced in the intellectual class of painting in our native school of art.

That cause, to which we have alluded, was the instituting of 11 The Royal Commission on the Fine Arts;” and we must say, that in whatever quarter that idea may have originated, or by whomsoever the advice to establish that commission may have been suggested to the royal mind, it is quite clear that those who may have advised, and those who carried that advice into effect, eminently deserve the most cordial thanks, not only of the large and influential classes of society, who really value the arts, from being well aware of their high moral influence and intellectual character — but

B

PROGRESS OF FRESCO PAINTING.

they are also fully entitled to the gratitude of the whole nation, for thus affording to British genius a full and fair opportunity of developing its mental energies, and of nobly refuting the pedantic calumnies of some continental writers,* who, with much more solemnity than good sense or practical knowledge of the subject, have laid it down as an incontrovertible dogma, “ that British intellect was incompetent, in the line arts, to produce works of a highly intellectual character, or indeed any above mediocrity.” Of this assertion, and the other plausible absurdities which those prejudiced authors have placed on record, with respect to this important and national concern, it is only necessary for us to say, that they are highly amusing; because, along with displaying very shallow notions with respect to the true philosophy of the human mind in general, they show, in an extraordinary degree, the most profound ignorance of the British character; but the futility of such crude reveries having gradually become evident, and their total dispersion having now been completely achieved by the British artists in the recent cartoon exhibition in Westminster Hall, we shall dismiss the calumniators of British intellect, not with contempt, but complacency; for on other subjects those authors have done good literary service. Besides, as the victory now rests on our side in this intellectual contest, we can very well afford to be in a good humour with the rest of the world.

Having in our preface described the objects which

* The President Montesquieu, The Abbes Winkelman and du Bos, &c. A person named Waagen, from Prussia, has lately been endeavouring to revive the exploded conceits of the writers above mentioned, but he is a mere pedant as compared with them.

PROGRESS OF FRESCO PAINTING.

the Royal Commission had in view, we shall now proceed to show the extreme antiquity of fresco painting, and to lay before our readers its true nature and character, as well as that of “ Encaustic painting,” which resembles fresco so much in all its grander features and appliances, that it may be called “ the younger sister” of this noble art ; the difference between them consisting chiefly in the vehicle employed to fix them on the walls. These vehicles will be noticed among the materials and methods employed in their operations by artists in various countries from very remote ages, and with as much consecutiveness as may be possible, down to the present time.

Section II. Origin And Progress Of Fresco Painting

This splendid mode of beautifying public edifices and first-rate private mansions, has been known to exist practically, from the earliest periods of which any authentic documents relative to the fine arts have reached our days ; and all those data concur in proving, that this art was coeval with architecture, and in strict union as sculpture also was, with that great division of art.

Of these facts — Egypt, that interesting region, which has long been considered as “ the cradle of the arts” affords the most precious and conclusive evidence; proving that the superb temples of that land of early civilization were invariably and extensively adorned with pictorial compositions, in poetry, in history, and portraiture. But as the government of that country was a concentrated hierarchy, that held the arts completely under its control, the Egyptian paintings and

B 2

PROGRESS OF FRESCO PAINTING.

sculpture, always had a direct reference to the religious tenets and public worship of that singular people. Thus the action, expression, and attitudes of the figures representing their deities, or heroes, were restricted within narrow limits and generally incorrect in their proportions, hut in their greatest sculptured works, displaying a simplicity of position, approaching to grandeur of style — yet the attitudes being limited to a very small number — and the forms of men, though not the lower animals, having become entirely conventional, and, as it always happens in the arts, when the study of nature is neglected, those inferior representations of living forms became worse and worse every century after they had passed their meridian, which was supposed to have happened in the time of Sesostris, about 1300 years before the birth of Christ, and from the accession of the Ptolemies, the downward course of Egyptian art was gradual, but never interrupted for a moment.

But if arbitrary interference with the natural progress of the human mind, damped and frustrated the natural genius of the Egyptian people,* by forbidding the exercise generally of those powers of intellect which it is clear they possessed; yet the solidity, and permanence of the works of their hands are truly surprising ; and thus it is that their knowledge and industry have left us the most valuable links in the chain of art, from its earliest dawn of existence ; — of this fact each successive traveller adds volumes of evidence to those already be-

* The recumbent lions in red granite, brought from Upper Egypt by Lord Prudhoe, and presented to the nation, now in the British Museum, are very noble specimens, though somewhat dilapidated, of true and high feeling; the treatment also, as sculptures, is broad and masterly in no common degree.

EGYPTIAN FRESCO PAINTING.

fore the world; from such authentic and valuable sources it is that we find in numerous instances, the frescos of Egypt must have been painted more than two thousand years before the commencement of the Christian era, and yet they retain all the brightness of hue, and freshness of tone, which they received from the painter’s hand; and some of their representations of processions, scenes of domestic fife, animals, &c., not connected with their religious ceremonies, display a range of fancy, and a knowledge of expression, much superior to the paintings found in their public buildings.

In the palmy days of Egypt their frescos were painted upon the smooth, but not polished surfaces of the stone walls, or columns, as it might be required; the vehicle, or liquid employed, was a finely prepared size, formed chiefly of the yolks and whites of eggs, which were intimately blended together with a little vinegar.* This substance, when properly made, forms a very lasting gluten even in our climate, and in the ever dry “ land of Egypt,” it appears to be impervious to atmospheric action, and in fact to yield only to actual violence.

The Egyptian style of fresco painting, it should be remarked, was materially different, like their architecture and sculpture, from that which was afterwards practised in Greece and Etruria; more widely still is this difference seen in the methods and materials adopted in Rome under the emperors, whilst a still greater revolution of ideas and practices is observable in the style of the frescos, which, on the revival of literature and the arts, were called in to adorn the temples of Christianity : and which with a very slow progress, that is to

* It should be borne in mind that the albumen (white of egg), used alone, will crack in a few years.

PROGRESS OF FRESCO PAINTING.

say, in about four centuries, attained under the great Italian masters of the cinque cento to a grandeur of conception, correctness of design, a power of developing the beauty and gracefulness of the human form, together with a truth of expression, unity of action, richness of colouring, and effect, until then unknown in painting, and which up to this time, remain unrivalled.

Section III. Greek Frescos And Encaustics

The Greeks, who appear to have derived some elements of the arts from Egypt, left all competitors behind, by adding their own good taste to the principles of art, then not well established, but of which they attained the true limits in sculpture by the celebrated statue called u the canon of Poly detest In these intellectual pursuits the Greeks were greatly favoured by their free institutions; which happy circumstance, as under the British constitution, left the human mind unshackled, to find its proper level according to its natural tendencies, its moral and mental qualifications.

The greatest painters of Greece were, it appears, frequently engaged in painting grand historical and poetical compositions upon the walls of the temples and other public edifices of their country, as we are informed by Pausanius, Pliny, and other eminent writers. Some few fragments of the Greek frescos* have reached our days, and they exhibit- a vigour of

* In the Royal Museum of France is preserved a portion of an antique mural picture. It represents Apollo and Marsyas; it is painted on a gold ground. Such a ground was occasionally used by the ancients.

GREEK FRESCO PAINTING.

thought and beauty of style characteristic of the principles of Grecian art. The Greek artists for some cause not well explained, gave a preference to “ Encaustic painting” for their largest works on walls. This mode of painting is wholly different in its process from that of fresco, and likewise in ike vehicle with which the colours are combined and united to the wall; — it is by some writers* considered to be more lasting than fresco, besides affording richer tones of colour, and more powerful effects in chiaro-oscuro : an account of this process will be found in Chapter VII. of this work.

Pliny informs us (L. xxxv., cap. 9) that Lysippus the painter, who preceded Pamphilus, the master of Pausias and Apelles, executed a work of this kind at Egina, and that he put an inscription under it, stating that he had himself subjected the work to the action of fire — an agent that appears to have been indispensable to the success of Encaustic painting.

We also learn a curious fact from Solinus (L. I., p. 49), who states that the celebrated painter Apelles, had painted a temple at Pergamos, and that some years after his death, the temple having been from some cause neglected for a time, bats and noxious insects did mischief to the pictures — until at length the people of Pergamos, being determined to preserve these masterpieces of art, bought for a very large sum, the dead body (preserved) of one of those serpents called basilisks, and had it suspended by golden cords in front of the works of Apelles, that the sight of it might drive away the obnoxious creatures, and thus assist in preserving this portion of the public wealth.

Pliny also informs us that Polygnotes had executed * Vide Emmeric David, “ Iiistorie de la Peinture.”

PROGRESS OF FRESCO PAINTING.

several paintings upon tlie walls of a temple of the Thespii; after many years tlie pictures were damaged, and the Thespians sent to invite Pausias to restore them, which he did admirably. Many more facts might be adduced from ancient writers, to show how much this art was honoured by the most enlightened people of antiquity, but these will serve to display the honest pride with which the Greeks regarded and preserved the works of high art in the respective states of their confederacy.

The Phoenicians also, then the most commercial people in the world, who have rightly been styled “ the universal traders,”— -they were likewise, we are told from high authority, “ cunning workmen;” and that their knowledge in the sculptor’s art must have been very considerable, is evident if only the fact of Hiram king of Tyre having cast the brazen sea for the Temple of Solomon be considered; for the knowledge of art must have been considerable, and of long cultivation amongst the people who were capable of producing so ponderous a work, which, indeed, even in our days would be considered a very difficult casting.

The numerous fleets of merchantmen from Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, &c., carried the arts from Egypt and Palestine into Asia Minor, Etruria, and the coasts of the Mediterranean generally; and may have, as long since has been conjectured, extended their commercial enterprise even to the great Western Continent afterwards rediscovered by Columbus, at a period long antecedent to the Christian era ; which intercourse was afterwards lost, and even the memory of it forgotten, in consequence of the destruction of the Carthaginian power and nationality by the Romans,

FRESCO, ENCAUSTICS, AND MOSAICS.

which eventually annihilated their commerce, and of necessity put an end to their cultivation of the fine arts ; although they carried the germs of them into various countries, where, having been matured, they have in a lapse of ages beautifully developed their high moral and intellectual qualities to the honour and profit of those nations who have had the wisdom to give them due encouragement.

Section IV. Fresco, Encaustic, And Mosaics, In The Roman Empire

In this section we approach much nearer to the theory and practice of these arts, than could be obtained from the earlier authorities; and we also find unhappily that they were less respected here, than in other lands.

The Romans, an insatiate, and always a semi-barbarous people, amongst whom the arts of civilization never had much extension, did not look upon the fine arts at any time with admiration, or even respect, if we except architecture, which the wealthy amongst them appear to have considered merely as a vehicle for displaying their vain and ostentatious love of exhibiting their wealth. Even this art they picked up from the Greeks, and soon corrupted its grand and simple principles, and fashioned it to their own climate and purposes. Still it was in the hands of Greek workmen, who being supplied with large means, derived from the plunder of other nations, erected numerous and sometimes grand edifices, both public and private, but never with the purity of taste that ever distinguished genuine Greek architecture.

B 3

PROGRESS OF MOSAICS

Painting and sculpture, however, never were looked upon "by this semibarbarous race, as intellectual pursuits ;* the Roman people were too coarse-minded to conceive how these peaceful arts could confer wealth and honour upon a nation without fighting for them ; u dull as night, and dark as Erebus,” in every thing but war and rapine, they looked upon the arts as merely decorative occupations, which required nothing more to carry on their operations than mechanical skill, and a power of dexterous manipulation ; and to this classification the very noble arts of fresco painting, encaustic painting, and sculpture, were consigned.

That ingenious and tasteful people the Etruscans, were the first who introduced fresco painting and the other arts at Rome. Greek artists afterwards brought in a grander style, and an improved practice, which was tolerated under the pagan emperors ; and from the specimens discovered at various times, these paintings were evidently executed at an era when the Greek style had not yet been overlaid by the barbarous corruptions which submerged it in the age of Constantine. For when the arts which had been cultivated from their birth to maturity by the Greeks, and had long honoured, adorned, and enriched Greece and “ its beautiful Isles,” were dragged as captives at the chariotwheels of the Roman conquerors, to serve in ornament-

* That very fact proves the low tone and confined calibre of Rome’s national mind — brute force was their only implement. And even Virgil (not a Roman) encourages them to despise the sculptures and other liberal arts of Greece; and tells them to “ be satisfied with being the conquerors of nations and masters of the world.” Where are now their conquests or mastership of the world? The glories of Greek arts have survived them all. Greece is a free nation, and Rome is sunk in imbecility.

IX THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

mg Rome and other Italian cities, they were looked down upon by those military barbarians ; and these ennobling arts, with their possessors, were regarded in no other light than as mechanical , and mechanics. Thus misunderstood and maltreated, they naturally sank to a level with the heavy and gross ideas and requirements of their new masters ; consequently a barbarous system, of adorning the palaces and mansions of the wealthy Romans put gradually to flight every vestige of good taste in the pictorial art, and then gaudy colouring, mosaics, and gilding in profusion, usurped the place of intellectual beauty, grace, truth of nature, and expression.*

The constantly increasing progress of luxury contributed also to the degradation of good taste, genuine art was attacked, as it were, vitally. Pliny and Vitruvius have strongly expressed their regret, that the wealthy people of their time, who ornamented their immense mansions with paintings, preferred the false splendour of gaudy colours of the most rare and costly description, to the mental fascinations of fine compositions, or nobleness of expression and purity of design. “The ancient masters,” say these authors, “were admired for the real beauties seen in their works; whilst those of the present period are only distinguished by the enormous outlay in which they involve their employers.” This vicious practice originated when painting, having departed from its moral and true character, was looked upon merely as a simple means of decoration. Heliogabalus, Gaflienus, and Aurelianf

* Even at this period some works of art were executed in fresco and mosaics, by Greek artists, which would be creditable to any age of Greek art.

t The barbarian who ordered the sublime Longinus to be assassinated for having dared to defend his country’s independence.

PROGRESS OF MOSAIC PAINTING.

especially, as well as their successors, favoured this movement by their inordinate ostentation and love of vulgar parade. Gold and vermilion were plentifully distributed through the paintings with which the walls of the palaces were covered , not adorned, and these gaudy incidents formed the chief merit of those works in the eyes of the ignorant judges of art. Quite satisfied if he could dazzle the eyes of his admirers, the painter neglected to elevate the thoughts and speak to the heart; soon, therefore, the canons transmitted down, for that purpose, from the ancient schools being neglected were forgotten.

It was that strange desire for novelty and for extraordinary things, which began in the time of Augustus Cassar, that led a great many of the rich patricians to prefer the fantastical patterns, which ornamented the drapery stuffs of India, to the poetical, elevating, and expressive subjects of the Greek artists. Similar to this was that vulgar love of display, which commenced just previous to the reign of Claudius, and infected the Romans with a strong desire to employ mosaic painting, which previously had been only used for floors, to decorate the walls, and soffits of arches in their great mansions. And in this mechanical art Commodus caused the portrait of Pescenius Niger, to be executed. The brightness of the marbles, fine stones, gilding, and coloured glass, which entered into the composition of this sort of pictures,* and, perhaps, the extravagant price of the work was a further inducement to shallow minds,

* This false taste will recall to the minds of some of our readers the celebrated observation of Apelles to his pupil, who had painted Helen decked out in a profusion of jewellery, “ O young man,” said the judicious artist, “ not being capable of making the lady handsome, you have made her rich,”

THE ARABESQUE STYLE.

which could not consider any thing fine that was not rich and gaudy.

SECTION Y.

ARABESQUE.

It was in the times of Marc Antony and Augustus/ that the style known as Arabesque painting was originally introduced at Rome. The models, or patterns for this class of ornament, came originally from India to Egypt, where the Ptolemies had established manufactories of printed cloths, of a very similar sort to those known as “ India patterns.” It has generally been believed that Arabesques are of much later date, but the mention of it expressly by Vitruvius, Apuleius, and Claudian, leave no doubt on the subject. The firstmentioned writer complains seriously of this new style of painting, which he considered to be equally contrary to the true principles, as it is to the moral tendencies of art. These Arabesques presented to the eye, little more than what we call, laying in the first painting, or dead colouring of a subject, and by no means offered careful and exact imitations of the objects intended to be represented ; but, to make up for its want of true beauty, it was made to glow with gold, azure, and scarlet, — the tints of the emerald, the ruby, the sapphire, amethyst, and beryl, were mingled in the greatest profusion amongst innumerable and equally unintelligible devices; the

* At this time also, painting on walls in size colour (afterwards yarnished) was introduced at Rome. At the same period, luxury required that the apartments which were not hung with the richlycoloured cloths of India, should be completely covered with ornamental paintings.

PROGRESS OF ARABESQUE PAINTING.

whole interior of the state apartments in those great edifices were made to resemble walls and ceilings covered with gold, and inlaid with the most brilliant and costly of the precious stones. Amongst the Mahometan nations, this florid style of decoration has always been in high reputation, and has been employed extensively in their mosques, palaces, and harems. The Moors in Spain were the greatest admirers and patronizers of this dazzling nonentity of painting, and they have left in that laud of misrule some of the finest specimens of their fancy in this art : of these remains of Moorish magnificence, the celebrated palace of the “ Hambra,” near Cordova, not only is the most remarkable as to its architecture, but is also the finest specimen of Arabesque work in existence.*

This great corruption of taste continued, and rather increased under the various successors of Augustus ; of that fact, the remains of such of their gorgeous palaces as time and violence have spared, give sufficient evidence. The baths of Titus, of Carracalla, and those stupendous Thermae of Dioclesian.f and his palace at Salona, or Spalatro, which cover a space of fifteen acres,

* A most accurate and satisfactory knowledge of this splendid ruin may be obtained by consulting Mr. Owen Jones’s admirable and valuable work on this interesting subject.

f From Maximin to Dioclesian, the greater part of the emperors erected monuments, the dimensions and richness of which may well astonish us. In every province and city they consecrated portraits and statues to themselves. A statue of silver was erected to Claudius II., which weighed fifteen hundred pounds; likewise one of gold, ten feet high. Tacitus consecrated three statues of silver to the memory of Aurelian; Gallienus ordered a statue of himself to be erected larger than the colossal one of Nero, with a quadrigia proportionate to that immense figure. He died, however, before it was completed, and the work was abandoned.

THE BYZANTINE STYLE.

are imposing monuments of Roman grandeur. They present to the eye extensive and regular plans, majestic vaultings, grandeur of profiles, and a profusion of the richest ornaments, sufficient to astonish and confound in some degree the human mind. But good taste has evidently not been always the guide to the mind in the construction, and still less in the decoration of the several parts of these edifices; the fragments of sculpture are in a feigned, affected style, and incorrectly drawn, showing that bad taste prevailed in every walk of art.

SECTION YI.

THE BYZANTINE STYLE.

The various causes of this decay in art, acquired still greater force under the successor of Dioclesian, whose accession to the purple made important and extensive changes in the religion and policy of the Roman empire.

Constantine, who became a convert to the Christian religion, did not adopt either the true spirit or the manners of a Christian.*

* Directly after having overthrown Maxentius, who was a pagan, he allowed the cities in Africa to dedicate temples to the princes of the Flavian family, and to allow the base and grovelling senate of Rome to decree divine honours to himself ; more ostentatious than Dioclesian, who, in that respect, had far surpassed all his predecessors, Constantine was vain enough to wear constantly rich robes of gold tissue, a golden diadem loaded with pearls, a gold collar and bracelets, &c. The princes, his sons, were attired in a manner equally effeminate and oriental. On his entry into Rome, after having defeated Maxentius, he caused medals to be struck (a. d. 315, &c.) to commemorate his victory. On these he is represented with his head veiled, and qualified as Divus Constantinus , Sol invectus comes , &c. ; Euseb. Yit. Const. Eutrop., &c.

PROGRESS OF THE BYZANTINE STYLE.

Instead, therefore, of displaying these features so very essential in the character of a truly Christian believer, this emperor was possessed with an extraordinary desire, a sort of cacoetlies for city and church building. If, therefore, to conduct the arts to the highest state of perfection, it be sufficient, as sometimes has been advanced, to distribute amongst these professors great works whereon to exercise their talents, — the reign of Constantine would have been one of the most glorious in the annals of the arts; for the emperor choosing to remove the seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium* an ancient Greek town on the Bosphorus, rapidly raised an enormous city for that purpose. Here, then, was an incident never to be forgotten — which gave an opportunity to the artists of Greece and Italy to develop all the resources of their genius.f This master of the world, who was most anxious that the Rome of his creating should quite eclipse the grandeur of the ancient capital of his empire, dispersed his treasures profusely in its embellishments. The extensive marble quarries of Phrygia, and the Island of Preconnessus were already exhausted in this object. Not less than fourteen palaces, for the emperor, his sons, and his ministers; an equal number of temples for Christian worship ; a vast forum surrounded by a peristyle, terminated by two grand triumphal arches; within it a lofty column with a colossal statue of the emperor; a second forum equally vast, called Augustczum ; a