and Matth. Piccioni, Marcel. Provenzale, who died 1693; La Valette, 1710; Nic. Brocchi, 1713; Phil. Cocchi, Nic. Onuphrio, Bern. Regolo, Funo, Guil. Palat, Franc. Fiano. Some thirty or forty years since, France possessed in Paris a school of artists in mosaic, directed by M. Belloni. Since when, the Russian and Venetian manufactories, the former under the direction of Sig. Bonefede, and the latter of Dr. Salviati, have become famous. The principal works which may be consulted on the theory and practice of mosaic are the following:-Ciampini, On the Mosaics of Sacred and Profane Buildings, Rome, 1690, 1699, two vols., folio. Furietti, On Mosaics, Rome, 1752, 4to. The above works were written in Latin; a French translation of them appeared in Paris in 1768, in 8vo, entitled Essai sur la Peinture en Mosaïque, par M. de Vielle; ensemble une Dissertation sur le Pierre Spéculaire des Anciens: which work comprehends treatises on the origin of mosaic, on the etymology of the word, on the different methods of the Greek artists, &c. Paciaudi, in his book De Sacris Romanorum Balneis, Rome, 1748, has also treated of this subject, so likewise has Buonarotti in his Observations on the Glass of the Ancients, 4to, Florence, 1716. Piacenza, in his first vol., of his edition of Notizie dei Professori del Disegno da Cimabue in quâ, by Baldinucci, 4to, Tor., 1768, has inserted an intelligent paper on the subject of mosaics. Fougeroux de Bondaroy devotes a por

tion of his work Recherches sur les Ruines d'Herculanum, Paris, 1770, 8vo, to a treatise Sur la Fabrique des Mosaïques. Caylus has also treated of them in his Essai sur la Manière de Peindre en Marbre, in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, vol. xxix. Gurlitt, a German author, has published a dissertation on the same subject.

The most curious works containing descriptions and explanations of antique mosaics, are:-Opus Musivum erutum ex Ruderibus Villa Hadriani, Florence, 1779. Observations sur la Mosaïque des Anciens,à l'occasion de quelques Tableaux en Mosaïque, qui se trouvent à la Galerie des Peintures de l'Electeur Palatin, by the Abbé Hæffelin, in the Comment. Histor. Academiæ Theodoro Palatinæ, vol. v., No. 3, p. 89, Mannheim, 1783, 4to. This author compares mosaics in glass and stone with the pictures executed among the native Americans in feathers of birds, and also with tapestry. Explication de la Mosaïque de Palæstrine, by the Abbé Barthelemy, Paris, 1760, 4to; and also in the Memoirs of the Academy, vol. xxx. Kircher, in his Latium, and Montfauçon, in the fourth vol. of his Supplément de l'Antiquité expliquée, gives an analysis of that celebrated monument of art. Osservazioni di Ennio--Quirino Visconte, su due Musaïci antichi istoriati, Parma, 1788, 4to. Description de la Mosaïque trouvée à Séville. Mosaïque d'Italica, by Alexandre la Borde, 1802, containing excellent plates. Salzenberg's work. The

Lectures of A. H. Layard, M.P., Nov. 1868, and Matthew Digby Wyatt, F.S.A, March, 1862, at the Royal Institute of British Architects. Reports on the Paris Universal Exhibition, 1867, vol. ii.; On Decoration, by Matthew Digby Wyatt, F.S.A.

OIL-PAINTING.

UNTIL the invention of oil-painting, attributed to Van Eyck, painters were chiefly occupied in decorating the walls of public buildings, and were restrained in the treatment and effect of their works, within well-defined limits, by architectonic conditions and method of execution. The introduction of oil-painting, however, gradually changed the whole character of pictorial art; for it rendered the painter independent of the architect, and released him from those limitations. Pictures on panel and canvas gradually increased in number as architecture and mural painting declined. For a time, the "motives" which influenced the great mural painters in their monumental works, were transferred to their easel-pictures. Evenness of plane, or slight depth of perspective in the grouping of the figures, which is suited to compositions designed for the walls of large buildings, was preserved in the oil-pictures of Raphael, Da Vinci, Domenechino, and others, and gave that distinctive largeness of character which has been designated the grand style."

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But as painters gradually withdrew from mural decoration, they diverged from its simplicity, and availed themselves of the greater license which is possible in oil-painting. The more the influence of architecture over the painter waned, the greater became the excesses of the painter in composition, colour, and effect, till at last, the variety of ways in which oil-colours could be manipulated, dissipated all system in their use, as well as of any common tendency and grand aim in art. At this juncture a return to mural painting and the simple style of design and execution which it involves, would be highly beneficial, and would not only raise the aim and style of pictorial art, but improve the very practice of oilpainting itself for a temporary abandonment of the more facile method might be profitably occupied in considering whether the true method of oilpainting has not been lost, seeing that the old masters produced, with even a more limited scale of pigments, much more potent and magical effects than since. The traditions of oil-painting, I am inclined to think, lapsed about the time of Lely. I am now merely referring to the method of painting; for, from Lely's time there may be observed a want of that well-sustained solidity and determinateness of execution which mark his own and his predecessors' works, however widely they may differ in subject and treatment.

The solidity and determinateness alluded to, is