This homely way of considering such matters is not, I know, agreeable to the moderately learned, who think much of small acquirements; but, to real scholars and philosophers, truth is at all times, and under every form, acceptable. I purpose in this essay to give such an account as I can collect, of the materials used by painters; the substances upon which they painted, the pigments they coloured with, the vehicles by means of which the colours were applied, and the tools employed in painting. It would appear, from the judiciously conducted researches of some late travellers, that some of the earliest coloured work in Egypt is upon bare sand-stone. Where that rock is of very fine grit the water-colours seem to have answered well, but where the grit was coarse the work became gross and uneven. A remedy was therefore applied; a plaster of very fine lime and some kind of size was spread over the stone, and the colour applied most probably before the plaster was dry, and so approaching to fresco painting, which doubtless grew out of that older manner. The lately opened Etruscan tombs show the same variety; colour upon the bare sand-stone and colour upon thin fine plaister. The advantage of applying colour upon a damp or even wet ground must have been abundantly apparent, from the success of the painted vases so early brought to perfection in Greece and Tuscany; and accordingly, in the earliest pictures of any magnitude described as painted in either country, we recognise genuine fresco painting[215]. But walls were not always at hand for the painter; and many were eager to have pictures which they might transport to other countries than those of the painter, either for the religious purposes of decorating temples and fulfilling vows, or purely for the pleasure of possessing works of art, or, finally, for the purposes of trade. A substitute easily occurred. Wooden panels, well seasoned, and smeared over with plaster, smoothed either with pumice, or some substance answering the same purpose, were found to answer admirably. Yet even here it would seem that the Egyptians led the way; for in order to prepare the coffins of their mummies for their painted decorations, they were in like manner prepared with a fine plaster of lime or chalk, exceedingly thin[216]. The mummy cases were made of various woods; among others the Egyptian fig, which is often translated sycamore[217]. From Pliny’s description[218] it is not certain which of the known figs was the Egyptian sycamore. The grain is light, close, and tough, and the timber is best seasoned in water.