Excursions in Art and LettersStory, William Wetmore
History
Excursions in Art and Letters
Story, William Wetmore
Arts
In the chapter we are now considering, he begins by saying that,
having already said enough about pictures, he now proposes to append
some account of the plastic art. Then he speaks of Dibutades, and
relates the story of his making the portrait of the girl he loved;
and adds that he first invented a method of coloring his works in
pottery by adding red earth or red chalk. Then follows the passage
about Lysistratus, who used plaster instead of clay to make portraits,
covering it with wax or color to improve the resemblance. After the
passages cited, he goes on to mention other celebrated modelers
(_plastæ laudatissimi_), among whom were Damophilus and Gorgasus,
who were also painters, and who adorned the Temple of Ceres at Rome
by the exercise of both their arts. According to Varro, he says,
everything in the temples was _Tuscanica_,—that is, ancient pottery of
the Etruscan school; and when they were repaired the painted coatings
of the walls were removed and framed. He also mentions Chalcosthenes,
who executed several works in baked earth. He cites Varro again as
saying that Possis at Rome executed grapes, fruit, and fishes with such
truth to Nature that they could not be distinguished from the real
things. Dibutades, he also says, invented a method of coloring plastic
composition by adding red earth.
Throughout the chapter Pliny is not speaking solely of modelers, but
most of those he mentions colored their works. The grapes, fruit,
and fishes of Possis, the works of Damophilus and Gorgasus, the
_Tuscanica_ in the temples, all were colored in imitation of the
objects represented. And besides these he mentions particularly the
Jupiter of Pasiteles, made in clay, “et ideo miniari solitum,”—and
therefore proper for painting in vermilion. He also speaks of
“figlina opera,”—earthenware painted in encaustic,—which were on
the baths of Agrippa in Rome. All this seems to lend probability
to the interpretation of “cera” to mean color and not wax; at all
events, there is not a word about casting, unless the words relating
to Lysistratus can be tortured into such a meaning. What adds still
more to the probability that this was the real thought of Pliny in
the passage cited is the use of the words “effigies” and “argilla.”
“Effigies” in Latin is distinguished from “simulacrum” (which may be
a picture as well as a statue), both being representations indicating
something which shows they are not life itself, the one being flat and
the other colorless; while “effigies” carries the idea of deception
with it, so far as resemblance goes. Thus Cicero says, “Vidistis
non fratrem tuum nec vestigium quidem aut simulacrum, sed effigiem
quamdam spirantis mortui.” So, also, “argilla” means white clay, and
not ordinary clay out of which terra cotta images were made; and
Pliny may have intended by these words to express the idea that
after Lysistratus had made effigies or colored copies of brass or
marble statues, white clay was constantly used, for the reason that
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