pply the third.

A few words only remain to be said. To complete, practically,
agreeability of colouring, there is wanting a more perfect vehicle for
our colours. Much attention has, of late years, been directed to this
subject; and there is every reason to believe not in vain. I wait,
impatiently enough, Mr Eastlake's other volume, in which he promises
to treat of the Italian methods. He has been indefatigable in
collecting materials,--has an eye to know well what is wanted; and, as
a scholar and collector of all that has been written on art, in
Italian, as well as other languages, has the best sources from which
to gather isolated facts, which, put together, may lead to most
important discoveries.

Mrs Merrifield, also, whose translation from Cennino Cennini, and
whose works on fresco painting are so valuable, has been collecting
materials abroad, and will shortly publish her discoveries. The two
proofs to which we are to look are documents and chemistry. The secret
of Van Eyck may have been found out, but its modification under the
Italian practice will be, perhaps, the more important discovery. I am
glad also to learn, that Mr Hendrie intends to publish entire with
notes, the "De Magerne MS." in the British Museum. I believe artists
are already giving up the worst of vehicles, the meguilp, made of
mastic, of all the varnishes the most ready to decompose, as well as
to separate the paint, and produce those unseemly gashes which have
been the ruin of so many pictures.

Whether colour be considered in its agreeability, _per se_, or in its
sympathetic, its sentimental application,--for the attainment of
either end, it is of the highest importance to resume the very
identical vehicle, and the mode of using it, which were the vehicle
and the methods of Titian, Giorgione, and Corregio, and generally of
the old masters. Yours ever,

A----s.

_4th June, 1847._

FOOTNOTES:

[10] Titian's palette was most simple: the great variety in the
colouring of his pictures was effected by the fewest and most common
colours--browns I believe he did not use, of which we boast to possess
so many; the ochres, red and yellow, with his black and blue, made
most or all of his deepest tones, the great depth being given, by
glazing over with the same, and touching in here and there slight
varieties, more or less of the red or yellow, lighter or darker being
used in these repetitions. He