The Boys' and Girls' Pliny: Being parts of Pliny's "Natural History" edited for boys and girls, with an IntroductionPliny, the Elder
History
The Boys' and Girls' Pliny: Being parts of Pliny's "Natural History" edited for boys and girls, with an Introduction
Pliny, the Elder
Animals -- Juvenile literature; Natural history -- Juvenile literature; Physical sciences -- Juvenile literature
But as for fame, that has been reserved solely for the artists who have
painted pictures; which gives us all the more reason to venerate the
prudence displayed by the men of ancient times. For with them, it was
not the practice to decorate the walls of houses, for the gratification
of the owners only; nor did they lavish all their resources upon a
dwelling which must of necessity always remain a fixture in one spot,
and admit of no removal in case of conflagration. Protogenes was content
with a cottage in his little garden; Apelles had no paintings on the
plaster of his walls; it not being the fashion in their day to color the
party-walls of houses from top to bottom. With all those artists, art
was ever watchful for the benefit of whole cities only, and in those
times a painter was regarded as the common property of all.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE INVENTORS OF THE ART OF MODELLING.
On painting we have now said enough, and more than enough; but it will
be only proper to append some accounts of the plastic art. Butades, a
potter of Sicyon, was the first who invented, at Corinth, the art of
modelling portraits in the earth which he used in his trade. He made the
discovery through his daughter, who, being deeply in love with a young
man about to depart on a long journey, traced the profile of his face,
as thrown upon the wall by the light of the lamp. Upon seeing this, her
father filled in the outline, by compressing clay upon the surface, and
so made a face in relief, which he then hardened by fire along with
other articles of pottery.
Butades invented the method of coloring plastic compositions, by adding
red earth to the material, or else modelling them in red chalk: he, too,
was the first to make masks on the outer edges of gutter-tiles upon the
roofs of buildings; in low relief, and in high relief. In these designs
in terra cotta the ornaments on the pediments of temples originated.
The first person who expressed the human features by fitting a mould of
plaster upon the face, and then improving it by pouring melted wax into
the cast, was Lysistratus of Sicyon, brother of Lysippus, already
mentioned. He first made it his study to give a faithful likeness; for
before his time, artists only thought how to make their portraits as
handsome as possible. The same artist, too, was the first who thought of
making models for his statues; a method which afterwards became so
universally adopted, that there could be neither figure nor statue made
without its model in clay. The art of modelling in clay thus appears to
be more ancient than that of moulding in bronze.
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