Numerous, indeed, must the painters of the first century have been to supply such demands! But not even one name have they left for posterity to dwell upon. There is no question but that portrait painters abounded. The numerous portraits of the period, in marble, attest it, if we had no other proof. But Nero himself patronised that branch of the art, and ordered a canvas[66], one hundred and twenty feet high, to be strained, whereon his colossal portrait might overlook the city, from the gardens of Marius. But his design was frustrated; the lightning blasted the portrait ere it was finished, and we have not even the name of the painter left, who was to have been immortalized along with the emperor! Some small portraits of this period have been preserved among the catacombs, and it would be a matter of great interest to examine carefully those preserved in the cabinets of Christian antiquities, which fill one long gallery of the Vatican. I had too short a time when there to make any observations worth setting down. My first visit to these precious cabinets was in company with Canova, and my second, after a lapse of eight years, with Maia! They drew my attention to other objects; and as I then hoped to revisit Rome, I was willing to be led by such guides, trusting to the future for an opportunity of forwarding my own particular pursuits. But some other person must now take my place. Infirmity, not age, binds me to my own fire side. Happy that I have been permitted to see so much to occupy my thoughts and time with pleasant retrospect, under circumstances that without occupation would be dreary indeed. In the first century of our era, we may consider painting as a merely decorative art, little better than upholstery, excepting when applied to portraits, for which human vanity will always create a demand. There might also be artists employed to copy the ancient pictures of Greece; and now and then, among that class of painters, one who would, in some original composition, imitate the style and manner of the older masters. This is so natural that it scarcely wants the confirmation of authority to gain belief. But I think we have authority in the notices scattered through the dialogues of Lucian[67], and in the descriptions of pictures by Philostratus[68], who erects his imaginary gallery on the shores of the bay of Naples. But a great change was taking place in the world: the gay and poetical, but licentious belief of Greece and Italy, was fading away. The images and actions of gods and heroes no longer delighted the multitude. A graver, purer, yet more impassioned faith, was gradually advancing through many impediments: and it was long ere its votaries had leisure to convert to its service the glorious arts that had adorned the temples of the old religion.