with success. What is indisputable however is, that he was the first who was induced to make such trial of it upon painted walls, and that the plan which he adopted was only of his own invention. But whether he discovered the art, or only the method of applying it, at this period his secret, or something equivalent to it, is pretty well known in Italy. On passing through Imola, I saw, in a private house, two histories of the Life of the Virgin, which had been painted by Cesi in the cathedral of that city, removed thence, and replaced on large new canvass. Had this invention been elicited a few years previously, several of those ancient works might have been preserved, mention of which is now only to be met with in books, to the regret of every lover of the fine arts. Footnote 60: See Il Sig. Ab. Requeno, in his "Essays for the Re-establishment of the ancient Art of the Greek and Roman Painters." Ed. Ven. p. 108. Here too we must give some account of an exceedingly interesting art, as regards that of painting; an art which, after the lapse of centuries, in some degree re-appeared in Italy, owing chiefly to the exertions of an ingenious Spaniard. He resided many years at Ferrara, and was assisted by the artists there in his experiments and undertakings. Some years before, attempts had been made at Paris to recover the method of painting in caustic, or that which the Greeks and Romans succeeded in by the medium of fire.[61] A few words in Vitruvius and Pliny, and these very obscure in our days, and to which various meanings are given by critics, formed the only chart and compass to direct the inquirer. It was known that wax was employed in ancient painting, much the same as oil in the modern; but how to prepare it, to combine it with the colours, to use it in a liquid state, and how to apply fire to the process until the completion of the work--was the secret to be discovered. Count Caylus, who pursued antiquarian researches less for the sake of history than of the arts, was perhaps the principal promoter of so useful an inquiry. The royal Academy of Inscriptions joined him, and offered a public premium for the discovery of a method of painting in caustic, such as should be found worthy of its approbation. Many experiments were at this period made; and philology, chemistry, painting, all united in throwing light upon the subject. Among various methods proposed by three academicians, Caylus, Cochin, and Bachiliere, two of them received premiums, though in some measure the same, and both proposed by the last of the three mentioned names. The whole account may be read in the Encyclopedia, under the head of _Encaustique_. Thenceforward native artists did not fail to make new trials, and practise themselves in pictures _all'encausto_. One of these, who arrived at Florence in 1780, exhibited to me a head, and some portion of the figure, thus painted by himself. I likewise saw him so employed. He had near him a