Note 2 — ENCAUSTIC: OR, Method of Painting In the Manner of the Ancients.

Though the Abbé does not quote the passage, one may guess it must be the following the count undertook to explain. Pliny lib. xxxv. chap. 11.

“Ceris pingere ac picturam inurere quis primus excogitaverit non constat: quidam Aristidis inventum putant, posteà consummatum à Praxitele. Sed aliquanto vetustiores Encausticæ Picturæ exstitere, ut Polignoti & Nicanoris, & Arcesilai Pariorum. Lysippus quoque Æginæ Picturæ suæ inscripsit, ἐνεκαυσεν, quod profecto non fecisset nisi encaustica inventa.”

Which may be told in plain English thus, “Who first invented to paint with (or in) wax, and burn in (or fix) the picture with fire, is not certainly known. Some think Aristides invented it, and that Praxiteles brought it to perfection; but there were pictures by masters, of a much older date; such as of Polignote, Nicanor and Arcesilaus, all artists of Paros.

“Lysippus writ upon his pictures he burnt in, which he would not have done if the encaustic had not been invented then.”