ties believe that the wall-painting of Prima Porta, in Rome, was
executed by Ludius. It represents a garden, and covers the four walls of a
room. It is of the decorative order of painting, as Pliny well understood,
for he speaks of the difference between the work of Ludius and that of
the true artists who painted panel pictures and not wall-paintings. After
the time of Ludius we can give no trustworthy account of any fine, Roman
painter.

[Illustration: FIG. 5.--ETRUSCAN WALL-PAINTING.]

The works of the ancient painters which still remain in various countries
are wall-paintings, paintings on vases, mosaics, paintings on stone, and
certain so-called miniatures; and besides these principal works there are
many small articles, such as mirrors, toilet-cases, and other useful
objects, which are decorated in colors.

We will first speak of the mural, or wall-paintings, as they are the most
important and interesting remains of ancient painting. We shall only
consider such as have been found in Italy, as those of other countries are
few and unimportant.

The Etruscan tombs which have been opened contain many beautiful objects
of various kinds, and were frequently decorated with mural pictures. They
often consist of several rooms, and have the appearance of being prepared
as a home for the living rather than for the dead. I shall give you no
long or wordy description of them; because if what I tell you leads you to
wish to know more about them, there are many excellent books describing
them which you can read. So I will simply give you two cuts from these
Etruscan paintings, and tell you about them.

Fig. 5 is in a tomb known as the _Grotta della Querciola_. The upper part
represents a feast, and the lower portion a boar-hunt in a wood, which is
indicated by the few trees and the little twigs which are intended to
represent the underbrush of the forest. If we compare these pictures with
the works of the best Italian masters, they seem very crude and almost
childish in their simplicity; but, if we contrast them with the paintings
of the Egyptians and Assyrians, we see that a great advance has been made
since the earliest paintings of which we know were done. The pose and
action of the figures and their grace of movement, as well as the folding
of the draperies, are far better than anything earlier than the Greek
painting of which there is any knowledge; for, as we have said, these
Etruscan works are essentially Greek.

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