Old Greek Painters

The methods of these ancien t days were totally different froni those of tho present day and were evidently vastly more durable. Panels of wood were used ;o paint on, sycaruore and cypress, also panels of papier mache, and occasionaly they were forined by gluing three ;hicknesses of canvas together. These panels were usvrally abont 14 incheslong oy 7 inches wide. The artist used liqnid wax instead of oil to mix the colors, which were made, not frorn vegetable, but frorn mineral substauces, and were of raarvelous brilliancy and permanence - blue powdered lapis lazuli, green malachite, red oxide of iron, etc. The colors were laid on in patches, somowhat after the fashion of a mosaic, and afterward blended with an instrument called the cestrum, which appears to bave been a lancet shaped spatula, long handled, with at one end a curved point, at the other a finely dentated edge. With the toothed edge the wax could be equalized and snioothed, while the point was used for placing high lights, marking lips, eyebrows, etc. The final process, which gives the name encaustic to this kind of painting, ■was the burning in of the colors. This was done by the application of a heated surface to the panel, though George Ebers believes that in Egypt the heat of the sun was probably all that was needed to complete the artist's work. -