THE PAINTER.

This artist paints portraits, historical pieces, landscapes, sea pieces, with shipping, &c. Some Painters have peculiar talents for one
department, and some for others ; but it rarely happens that the same man excels in them all; or even in more than one or two. A Portrait Painter, in large, is, however, frequently well skilled in history, but an artist who paints in miniature, is often unacquainted
with any other part of the profession. Some Painters, who can execute almost any thing else in a masterly manner, have no idea of
shipping, which requires a considerable degree of nautical knowledge.

Painting, which, at the present, time has arrived at a high degree of perfection, appears to have been invented by the Egyptians, at
least as to the four principal colours; the knowledge which they had of chemistry, seems to confirm this opinion, but we cannot
infer from their monuments, or from what is said of them by ancient writers, that they were good Painters ; on the . contrary, Petronius says distinctly, that their painting was bad, and that they corrupted the art.

Painting passed very soon from Egypt into Greece, where were formed, in process of time, the famous schools of Scio, Rhodes, and Athens. What is most astonishing, is, that the first Painters, amongst whom we reckon Polygnotus, used but the four principal
colours. It was Echion, Nichomachus, Protogenes, and after them Apelles, who imitated, with compound colours, all the shades of nature.

The Greeks, with all their skill, were not able to retain painting in that perfection which it bad acquired in the time of Apelles : for in
the age of Augustus, as we are informed by Pionysius of Halicarnassus, it had very much degenerated.

The art of painting was a long time buried in the West, under the ruins of the Roman .empire. The Orientals preserved it with more care, but entirely divested of its former splendour. In the thirteenth century it again appeared in Italy, beneath the pencil of Cirmabus Many Painters acquired repute in the two succeeding ages, but their works are no longer inquired after.

At the end of the fifteenth century, painting was still a coarse art in Italy, two hundred years after its revival. The method of painting in oil had been discovered, but it was in a very rude way.

Ghirlandajo painted in this style, although he surpassed all the Painters of his time : his chief merit .consists in having formed the celebrated Michael Angelo.

The arts and sciences, generally, began to appear with considerable lustre under the pontificate of Julius the Second, Leo the Tenth, and Clement the Seventh, Painting, architecture, and sculpture, had their distinguished men, as well as the belles lettres' ; and Michael Angelo, excited by the reward of Julius, perfected his pencil, and became a great master of his art.

From this period, the progress of painting in many countries of Europe, particularly Italy, Holland, France, and England, has been of the most brilliant kind. Academies have been instituted, societies have been formed, collections have been made, and exhibitions opened, an account of which, and of the illustrious men who have contributed by their works to fill them, would require volumes.

The implements made use of in this art, are a stone and a muller to grind the colours ; an operation which is sometimes performed
with oil, and sometimes with water : hence, the distinction between painting in oil and painting, in water colours. A palette and
palette knife are also required ; the latter to take off the paint from thie stone, and the former, which is made of walnut-tree or
mahogany, is that on which the artist puts his colours for immediate use. The pencils or brushes, are made of camel's hair, badger's
hair, or hog's bristles.

The stick in the Painter's hand is about a yard long, with Cotton wool tied round the end in a piece of soft leather to prevent its scratching the picture. On this the artist rests his right hand, to keep it steady. The canvas for the intended picture is placed on
wooden frame, called an easel, which is so constructed, by means of holes and pegs, that it may be raised or lowered at pleasure.

The cloths prepared for receiving the colours of the Painter are usually denominated primed cloths, and in the general way are got up as a separate branch of business, ready to the Painter's hands,

It will be impossible to describe in the limits of this work the great variety of different articles used for colours in painting, but to give some idea of them we may mention that in painting landscapes, for instance, flake white, white lead, fine light ochre, brown ochre, brown pink, burnt umber, burnt ochre, ivory black, terra de Siena, Prussian blue, ultramarine, terre-verte, lake, Indian red,
Vermillion, king's yellow, &c, &c. are commonly used,

The earnings of an artist cannot be defined : he is paid according to his talents, and to the celebrity which he has acquired. Some persons will require a hundred guineas for a piece which another of inferior merit, or little known to the public, would be glad to perform for one twentieth part of the sum.

To give some idea of the present art of painting in England, according to a list inserted jn the seventh number of the Annals of the Fine Arts, there are five hundred and twenty three Painters in the different departments of the art, amongst whom, it deserves to be especially noted,, are forty three ladies!