Encyclopaedia Britannica, or, a Dictionary of arts, sciences, and miscellaneous literature : enlarged and improved. Illustrated with nearly six hundred engravings > Volume 8, ELE-FOR

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©ncauftic might anfwer two purpofcs *, firft, by uniting the ground
Painting, (gc wax j and fecondly, by anfwering the end of
mm'11 {xxg or gum-water, and prevent the colours fioiii llim-
ing too deep into the ground, or running one into an¬
other. When the ground was near dry, I fmoothed
it with a pallet knife, and waihed with milk and egg
where I had oceafion to make it fmooth and even :
when dry I painted it, mixing the colours with com¬
mon water •, this, on being placed horizontally in an
oven only warm enough to melt the wax, tlaked from
the board ; but held fo much better together than any
of the former, that I patted part of it on paper.
“ Exp. 7. Flake-white (or the purett fort of white-
lead) mixed with egg and milk, crumbled to pieces in
the oven, put on the waxed board, as in the laft expe¬
riment.
“ The bad fuccefs which had attended all the former
experiments, led me to confider of what ufe the wax w as
in this kind of painting : and it occurred to me, that
it wras only as a varnilh to preferve the colours from
fading.
“ In order to try this :
“ Exp. 8. I took what the brick-layers call fine
fiuJfi or Tmtt!h (B): to this 1 added a fma11 (iuantityof
burnt alabafter, to make it dry : this it foon did in the
open air ; but before I put on any colours, I dried it
gently by the fire, left the colours ftiould run. When
it Avas painted, I warmed it gradually by the fire (to
prevent the ground from cracking) till it vyas very hot.
I then took white Avax three parts, Avhite refin. one
part; melted them in an earthen pipkin, and Avith a
brufh fpread them all over the painted board, and kept
it clofe to the fire in a perpendicular fituation, that
what wax and refin the plafter Avould not abforb might
drop off. When it Avas cold, I found the colours were
not1 altered, either from the heat of the fire, or paffing
the brufh over them. I then rubbed it with a loft li¬
nen cloth, and thereby procured a. kind of glofs, Avhich
I afterwards increafed by rubbing it Avith a. hard
brulh j which AV.as fo far from fcratching or leaving any
marks on the piaure, that it became more fmooth and
polifhed by it. ...
“ After I had made all the foregoing experiments, in
conyerfation with my honoured ana learned friend Dr
Kidby, a fellow of this fociety, I faid I had been try¬
ing to find out Avhat the encauftic painting of the an¬
cients Avas. Upon Avhich he told me, that there Avas a
paffage in Vitruvius de Arclnteciura relative to . that
kind of painting : and Avas fo good as to tranferibe it
for me from the 7th book, chap. 9. De minii tempe-
ratura. Vitruvius’s words are : At fi quis fubtihor
fuerit, et voluent expohtionem tninuiceaTn fuurn coloreni
retinere, cum paries expohtus et andus fuerit, tunc ccravi
Eunicam liquefaclam igni, paulo oleo temperatem^feta vi-
ducat, deinde pofiea carbomkus 111 ferreo vafie compofitis,
earn ceram apprmie cumpariete, calefaciendo fudorecegat,
fiatque ut percequetur, deinde cum candela hnteifique puns
fubigat, utifigna marmorea nuda curantur. El etc auiem
y.uvri', Greece dicitur. It a obfians cerce Eurnece lone a non
patilur, nee lunce fplendorem, nec foils radios lambendo
eripere ex his poliiionibus coloreni.
“ Which I thus tranfiate : ‘ But if any one is more
wary, and Avould have the polifhing [painting] Avith
vermilion hold its colour, Avhen the wall is panned and
dry, let him take Carthaginian [Barbary] Avax, melt¬
ed with a little oil, and rub it on the wall Avith a hair-
pencil ; and afterwards let him put live coals into an
iron vend [chafing-difh], and hold it clefe to the Avax,
when the Avail, by being heated, begins to Iv.eat 5 then
let it be made fmooth : afterwards let him rub it Avith
a (c) candle and (d) clean linen rags, in the fame man¬
ner as they do the naked marble ftatues. ibis the
Greeks call kaskitj?. Ihe coat of Carthaginian Avax
(thus put on) is fo ftrong, that it neither fuffers the
moon by night, nor the fun-beams by day, to deftroy
the colour.’
“ Being fatisfied, from this paffage in Vitruvius, that
the manner of ufing Avax in Exp. 8. Avas right, I Ayas
now to find if the Avax-varnifti, thus burnt into the pic¬
ture, Avould bear Avafning. But here I Avas a little dif-
appointed for rubbing one corner Avith a Avet linen
cloth, fome of the colour came off; but Avafiung it
Avith a foft hair-pencil dipped in Avater, and letting it
dry without Aviping, the colour ftoed very Avell.
“ A board painted, as in Exp. 8. avas 'hung in the
moft fmoky part of a chimney for a day, and expoled
to the open air in a very foggy night. In the morning
the board Avas feemingly Avet through, and the water
ran off the pifture. This was fuffered to dry Avithout
wiping : and the piClure had not fuffeied at all from
the fmoke or the dew, either in the ground or the co¬
lours ; but Avhen dry, by rubbing it, firft Avith a foit
cloth, and aftenvards Avith a brufh, it recovered its for¬
mer glofs.
“ Sufpe&ing that fome talloAv might have been mix¬
ed Avith the Avhite Avax I had ufed, which might caufe
the colours to come off on being rubbed Avith a A\et
cloth, I took yelloAV Avax Avhich had been melted from
the honeycomb in a private family, and confequently
not at all adulterated : to three parts of this I added
one part refin, and melted them together.
“ Exp. 9. Spanifh-white, mixed with filh-glue, Avas
put for a ground on a board, and painted Avith Avater-
colours only. The board was made Avarm ; and then
the Avax and refin were put on Avith a brufh, and kept
clofe to the fire till the pidure had imbibed all the
varnifh.
Encauftic
Painting.
t f>'\ “ Putty is lime flaked, and Avhile warm, diffolved in Avatcr, and ftraine.d through, a fieve,
(C) “ The account of the method of polifhing [painting] walls coloured with, vermilion gave me great fatis-
fadion as it proved the method I had taken in experiment 8. (which I had tried before I faw or knerv of this
’ in Vitruvius) was right. The ufe of the candle, as I apprehend, was to melt the wax on the walls where
by accident the brufh had put on too much, or afford wax where the brufh had not put on enough, or had left
“fDV* The rubbing tlie waU w;th a linen cloth, while warm, will do very well where there is only one colour
to be preferved ; but where there are many, as in a landfcape, it will be apt to take off feme, or renaer the colour-
ing rather faint; Avhich I found by wiping the Avax oft from a painting Avhile it Avas hot.