[231] Pliny contradicts himself on the subject of parchment. In b. xxxv. he says that Parrhasius painted or drew upon it; but b. xii. c. 10, he ascribes the invention of it to Eumenes, king of Pergamos, who lived after the time of Parrhasius, saying that he invented parchment because Ptolemy, king of Egypt, had prohibited the exportation of paper made of the papyrus. I cannot help believing that parchment was known before the time of Eumenes. He may have improved it, and hit upon a method of rendering it more fit for writing upon. [232] Giotto was born in 1276; his master, Cimabue, in 1240; his gigantic Madonnas are painted on wood. I had no opportunity of examining whether there was linen under the plaster ground. Margaritone was born about 1250; Gaddo Gaddi, 1239, or thereabouts. [233] The Venetians, owing to their commerce with the East, are the most likely of all the Italians to have been influenced by the practice handed down by the Greek painters; and we first find the general use of canvass, especially of very large size, at Venice. [234] Colonel Leake’s Topography of Athens. Additional notes on the temple of Theseus, p. 400. [235] Taylor’s Plato--Phædo. The twelve colours are not named, but further on there is the expression, “all the objects are rendered beautiful through various colours--_purple_ of wonderful beauty, _golden hue_, pure _white_, _emerald_,” &c. [236] Carbonate of lead, with a proportion of oxide. [237] Some of the pictures in the Campo Santo at Pisa have suffered lamentably from the neglect of this caution. The high lights have become absolutely black. [238] See Pliny, book xxxiii. end of ch. 12, and the whole of ch. 13. [239] In the manufactory of porcelain, japan-ware, &c., it is much used. Perhaps Caligula’s chemists flattered him, by pretending to find gold in the orpiment. [240] ---- Twelve galleys with vermilion prores, Beneath his conduct sought the Phrygian shores. Pope’s Iliad, book ii. [241] I have seen the poor gods of the Hindoos of low caste thus rouged. [242] About the year of Rome 249. [243] Cinabrese is praised by Armenino, who wrote in 1600. I do not always mention Armenino when I might; 1st, because I prefer Cennino’s authority; 2nd, because Armenino is a coxcomb whose work I have no pleasure in; and 3rd, because it is useless to multiply quotations. However, he is a writer of value on these matters. [244] Minium--red oxide of lead. [245] The ancients believed that it was really the blood of dragons, which had sucked the blood of elephants, and had died, crushed under the weight of that enormous quadruped. [246] Dragon’s blood is the resin of the “Dracæna draco” of Linnæus. The resin itself is opaque and brittle. The powder is of a crimson colour, insoluble in water. With us it is soluble both in alcohol and in the fixed oils; the ancients, as they had not alcohol, may have used it with oil.