I have seen the first trials, as made by the Ab. Requeno himself, or by artists directed by him, in possession of his Excellency Pignatelli at Bologna, who added to the discovery no small share of information and patronage. But it was not to be expected that a new kind of painting could be perfected by means of a single studio. Aware of this, the author of the work thus expresses himself: "At the moment when a resinous gum shall be found better, that is, more white and hard, and equally soluble with wax and water as those employed by me, the pictures and caustics will become more beautiful, consistent, and durable. I am not a painter by profession, nor do I merit any particular commendation among dilettanti. My pictures have been conducted solely for the purpose of shewing a method of painting with ease and consistency in wax, without oil, without glue, and by means of gums only, with wax and water." On this account he thenceforward invited professors to join in promoting his discovery, and lived to witness its effects. Omitting to speak of the chemists who aided in throwing light upon the progress of this art,[62] the pictoric school at Rome undertook in a manner to promote and bring it to its last degree of perfection. At that period lived counsellor Renfesthein, the friend of Mengs and of Winckelmann, a man of exquisite taste in the arts of design, and ever surrounded by numbers of artists, who either received from him the benefit of his advice, or commissions from foreigners, private persons, and sovereigns. To these he proposed sometimes one, sometimes another method of the caustic art; and in a short time he beheld his cabinet filled with pictures on canvass, on wood, and on different kinds of stones, which he had already submitted to every proof, by putting them under ground, in water, and exposing them to every variety of weather without injury. From this time the new discovery spread to different studii, and was communicated successively to the Italian cities, and to foreign nations. Entire chambers have thus been painted by caustic, a specimen of which is seen in that which the Archduke Ferdinand, governor of Milan, caused to be thus decorated in his villa of Monza. And in ornamental paintings and landscape this art may hitherto boast still more attractions than in figures. All however must be aware that it has not yet attained that degree of softness and finish possessed by the ancients in their paintings in wax, and in oil and varnish by the moderns. But where many unite to perfect it, it may be hoped that some Van Eyck may rise up, who will succeed in discovering, or more properly in perfecting that which "all artists had long looked for and ardently desired."[63]