her, very thick and jelly-like, and leaving the pipkin exposed,
have been surprised to find no skin upon the surface. Mrs Merrifield
certainly errs in thinking glass, when mixed with oils, opaque. The
blacks of Cennino are from a stone, and opaque; from vine tendrils,
("very black and transparent;") from skins of almonds and kernels of
peaches, ("a perfect and fine black;") and lamp black, from the smoke of
linseed oil. Mr Field observes, that all carbonaceous blacks mixed with
white have a preserving influence upon colours, owing chemically to the
bleaching power of carbon, and chromatically to the neutralizing and
contrasting power of black with white. Leonardo da Vinci in his palette,
the account of which is so unfortunately broken off for lack of paper,
mentions the mixing every colour with black. Yet we have met with many
painters who totally reject it, and fancy it makes their pictures black.
This is very absurd, for black mixed with any other pigment ceases to be
black; and an artist may paint very black pictures without the use of
that pigment. What Titian recommends, one who would be a colourist need
not reject. It seems there was of old much caution that iron should not
touch the colours. Yet there is, we believe, much iron in ochres. Mr
Coathupe has clearly shown, that even Naples yellow does not suffer from
contact with iron, otherwise than by abrasion, by which the steel of the
knife becomes itself a pigment, as on the hone. Modern science has much
enlarged the colour list. There is thus the greater temptation offered
to make endless varieties. It has been remarked in language, that the
best writers have the most brief vocabulary--so it may be, that the best
colourists will have the fewest colours. The rule has been verified in
the old masters of the best time. Cennino Cennini, who always begins
from the beginning, recommends drawing with the pen--his pen, for that
also he tells you how to make, had no slit. O days of Perryian
innovation! It was very well, a vast improvement, almost equal to that
of adding the shirt to the ruffles, to invent one slit--we have them now
with two and with three.

Very strict studies in anatomy were not much in vogue among the early
painters. Our author recommends drawing from nature, and lays down his
canon of proportions of the human body, which will be little heeded by
our academies. The old Italian is not very complimentary to the sex. Mr
Etty will open his eyes with alarm,