| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 35.31 | Plin. Nat. 35.32 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 35.33 |
It was with four colours only, [Note] that Apelles, [Note] Echion, Melanthius, and Nicomachus, those most illustrous painters, executed their immortal works; melinum [Note] for the white, Attic sil [Note] for the yellow, Pontic sinopis for the red, and atramentum for the black; [Note] and yet a single picture of theirs has sold before now for the treasures of whole cities. But at the present day, when purple is employed for colouring walls even, and when India sends to us the slime [Note] of her rivers, and the corrupt blood of her dragons [Note] and her elephants, there is no such thing as a picture of high quality produced. Everything, in fact, was superior at a time when the resources of art were so much fewer than they now are. Yes, so it is; and the reason is, as we
have already stated, [Note] that it is the material, and not the efforts of genius, that is now the object of research.
| Pliny the Elder, Natural History (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Plin. Nat.]. | ||
| <<Plin. Nat. 35.31 | Plin. Nat. 35.32 (Latin) | >>Plin. Nat. 35.33 |
