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CHAP. 7. (4.)—ROMAN PAINTERS.

Among the Romans, too, this art very soon rose into esteem, for it was from it that the Fabii, a most illustrious family, derived their surname of "Pictor;" indeed the first of the family who bore it, himself painted the Temple of Salus,1 in the year of the City, 450; a work which lasted to our own times, but was destroyed when the temple was burnt, in the reign of Claudius. Next in celebrity were the paintings of the poet Pacuvius, in the Temple of Hercules, situate in the Cattle Market:2 he was a son of the sister of Ennius, and the fame of the art was enhanced at Rome by the success of the artist on the stage. After this period, the art was no longer practised by men of rank; unless, indeed, we would make reference to Turpilius, in our own times, a native of Venetia, and of equestrian rank, several of whose beautiful works are still in existence at Verona. He painted, too, with his left hand, a thing never known to have been done by any one before.3

Titidius Labeo, a person of prætorian rank, who had been formerly proconsul of the province of Gallia Narbonensis, and who lately died at a very advanced age, used to pride himself upon the little pictures which he executed, but it only caused him to be ridiculed and sneered at. I must not omit, too, to mention a celebrated consultation upon the subject of painting, which was held by some persons of the highest rank.

Q. Pedius,4 who had been honoured with the consulship and a triumph, and who had been named by the Dictator Cæsar as co-heir with Augustus, had a grandson, who being dumb from his birth, the orator Messala, to whose family his grandmother belonged, recommended that he should be brought up as a painter, a proposal which was also approved of by the late Emperor Augustus. He died, however, in his youth, after having made great progress in the art. But the high estimation in which painting came to be held at Rome, was principally due, in my opinion, to M. Valerius Maximus Messala, who, in the year of the City, 490, was the first to exhibit a painting to the public; a picture, namely, of the battle in which he had defeated the Carthaginians and Hiero in Sicily, upon one side of the Curia Hostilia.5 The same thing was done, too, by L. Scipio,6 who placed in the Capitol a painting of the victory which he had gained in Asia; but his brother Africanus, it is said, was offended at it, and not without reason, for his son had been taken prisoner in the battle.7 Lucius Hostilius Mancinus,8 too, who had been the first to enter Carthage at the final attack, gave a very similar offence to Æmilianus,9 by exposing in the Forum a painting of that city and the attack upon it, he himself standing near the picture, and describing to the spectators the various details of the siege; a piece of complaisance which secured him the consulship at the ensuing Comitia.

The stage, too, which was erected for the games celebrated by Claudius Pulcher,10 brought the art of painting into great admiration, it being observed that the ravens were so deceived by the resemblance, as to light upon the decorations which were painted in imitation of tiles.

1 Or "Health." It was situate on the Quirinal Hill, in the Sixth Region of the City.

2 "Forum Boarium." In the Eighth Region of the City.

3 Holbein and Mignard did the same.

4 Q. Pedius was either nephew, or great nephew of Julius Cæsar, and had the command under him in the Gallic War; he is mentioned by Cæsar in his Commentaries, and by other writers of this period.—B.

5 Originally the palace of Tullus Hostilius, in the Second Region of the City.

6 Asiaticus, the brother of the elder Africanus.—B.

7 It was beforethe decisive battle near Mount Sipylus, that the son of Africanus was made prisoner. King Antiochus received him with high respect, loaded him with presents, and sent him to Rome.—B.

8 He was legatus under the consul L. Calpurnius Piso, in the Third Punic War, and commanded the Roman fleet. He was elected Coasul B.C. 145.

9 The younger Scipio Africanus.

10 We learn from Valerius Maximus, that C. Puleher was the first to vary the scenes of the stage with a number of colours.—B.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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