d for wall decorations
have been found; they may almost be said not to exceed a dozen; but
pavement mosaics are very numerous, and are still seen in the places for
which they were designed and where they have been during many centuries,
as well as in museums to which they have been removed. They are so hard in
outline and so mechanical in every way that they are not very attractive
if we think of them as pictures, and their chief interest is in the skill
and patience with which mosaic workers combine the numberless particles
of one substance and another which go to make up the whole.

Mosaic pictures, as a rule, are not large; but one found at Palestrina,
which is called the Nile mosaic, is six by five metres inside. Its subject
is the inundation of a village on the river Nile. There are an immense
number of figures and a variety of scenes in it; there are Egyptians
hunting the Nile horse, a party of revellers in a bower draped with vines,
bands of warriors and other groups of men occupied in different pursuits,
and all represented at the season when the Nile overflows its banks. This
is a very remarkable work, and it has been proved that a portion of the
original is in the Berlin Museum, and has been replaced by a copy at
Palestrina.

PAINTINGS ON STONE.

It is well known that much of the decoration of Greek edifices was in
colors. Of course these paintings were put upon the marble and stone of
which the structures were made. The Greeks also made small pictures and
painted them on stone, just as canvas and panels of wood are now used.
Such painted slabs have been found in Herculaneum, in Corneto, and in
different Etruscan tombs; but the most important and satisfactory one was
found at Pompeii in 1872. Since then the colors have almost vanished; but
Fig. 14, from it, will show you how it appeared when found. It represents
the mythological story of the punishment of Niobe, and is very beautiful
in its design.

VASE-PAINTING.

Vase-painting was another art very much practised by the ancients. So much
can be said of it that it would require more space than we can give for
its history even in outline. So I shall only say that it fills an
important place in historic art, because from the thousands of ancient
vases that have been found in one country and another, much has been
learned concerning the history of these lands and the manners and customs
of their people; occasionally inscriptions are found upon decorated