confirmed in our belief in its beneficial quality, by the authorities Mr
Coathupe and Mr Field, the well-known scientific author of
"chromatography;" and we are much gratified to be able to offer an
extract from a letter from Mr Field upon the subject:--"I am accordingly
ready to admit all the uses of Mr Rainier's medium, and go with him in
believing the old painters may have employed it--the Venetians in
particular, who were at that time the medium between Europe and India,
in the latter of which countries borax had been employed in painting
time immemorial." It should here be remarked that Mr Field, in one of
his valuable publications, mentions a mixture of lac and oil by means of
borax in certain proportions. They do not, however, readily mix,
especially in cold weather. The translator does not seem to be aware
that borax is the solvent for lac; she mentions "sulphuric or muriatic
acid," but water with borax alone will dissolve lac before it boils.[7]
We would venture to recommend some experiments with lac dissolved in
borax to water-colour painters. It is by no means improbable that some
of the old Greek paintings are in gum lac; the hardness ascribed to
them, and their brilliancy too, and that they rather chip off than
crack, seem to answer the properties of lac; and it is curious that lac
so dissolved is durable, and not again soluble in water. It _may_
therefore be worth while to try experiments with it, both for solid
painting with white lead, as likewise as an addition of power partially
used for water-colours. We know not if the ancients had any means of
discharging the colour, (though a weak solution, in cases of solid
painting, may not be very objectional,) but shell-lac can now be
rendered perfectly white.

The reader will be disappointed if he expects to find in "Cennino
Cennini" a treatise on art. It is nothing more than a book of
receipts--very minute and circumstantial as to most particulars, while
here and there is a provoking omission; as, for instance, he speaks of a
varnish, but omits to say of what materials composed. However curious
much of the matter may be, the modern painter, who has to send to the
nearest colour-maker for his tube colours, and French brushes, will
think the greater part superfluous, and will smile to be told--"Take the
tails of the minever, (for no other are good,) and these tails must be
baked, and not raw." Nor will he trouble himself with Cennino's list of
colours, though