he bride veiled, with her head modestly bowed
down, is seated on a couch with a woman beside her who seems to be
arranging some part of her toilet, while another stands near holding
ointment and a bowl. At the head of the couch the bridegroom is seated on
a threshold. The upper part of his figure is bare, and he has a garland
upon his head. On the right of the picture an ante-room is represented in
which are three women with musical instruments, singing sacrificial songs.
To the left, in another apartment, three other women are preparing a bath.
This is charming on account of the sweet, serious way in which the whole
story is placed before us; but as a painting it is an inferior work of
art--not in the least above the style which we should call house
decoration.

Although ancient writers had spoken of landscape paintings, it was not
until 1848-1850, when a series of them was discovered on the Esquiline in
Rome, that any very satisfactory specimens could be shown. These pictures
number eight: six are complete, of the seventh but half remains, and the
eighth is in a very imperfect state. They may be called historical
landscapes, because each one has a complete landscape as well as figures
which tell a story. They illustrate certain passages from the Odyssey of
Homer. The one from which our cut is taken shows the visit of Ulysses to
the lower world. When on the wall the pictures were divided by
pilasters, and finished at the top by a border or frieze. The pilasters
are bright red, and the chief colors in the picture are a yellowish brown
and a greenish blue. In this scene the way in which the light streams
through the entrance to the lower world is very striking, and shows the
many figures there with the best possible effect. Even those in the far
distance on the right are distinctly seen. This collection of Esquiline
wall-paintings is now in the Vatican Library.

[Illustration: FIG. 8.--LANDSCAPE ILLUSTRATION TO THE ODYSSEY. _From a
wall-painting discovered on the Esquiline at Rome._]

Besides the ancient mural paintings which have been placed in the museums
of Rome, there are others which still remain where they were painted, in
palaces, villas, and tombs. Perhaps those in the house of Livia are the
most interesting; they represent mythological stories, and one frieze has
different scenes of street life in an ancient town. Though these
decorations are done in a mechanical sort of painting, such as is
practised by the o