ABSTRACT
The principal subject of Book 35 of the Naturalis Historia is the art ot painting, 365 and the point of departure is stones and soils from which the pigments are extracted. Here, as in Book 34, we encounter a systematic presentation of the contributions of Greece to this art (from § 54 and on), and this leads up to a thorough examination of the different colours, their component parts, use and price (§§29-50). Once more resembling Book 34, this book begins with deliberations on the significance of this subject for the Romans, and Pliny regrets that the art of painting has lost its importance in Rome in his own time when imaginative marble pannelling has succeeded painting as a way of decorating a room. As in the case with bronze, the art of painting is in a state of decadence. It is an ars moriens.
By and large we have now described what is the nature of those metals that are the basis for wealth and those that are related to them. The subject has been so arranged that the vast area that constitutes medicine, the secrets of the workshops and the refinements of chasing, modelling and dying were dealt with at the same time. It remains to tell of an even more comprehen sive series of specimens of the earth itself and of stones that have been dealt with individually in a great number of works, especially by Greek authors. Here we shall make use of such brevity as is in accordance with our plan but without omitting anything necessary and natural.
First we shall speak of what is left to say about the art of painting, an art that flourished in its own time when it was in high demand with kings and nations and itself ennobled others whom it found worthy of preservation for posterity. Today marble has completely ousted it, and so finally has gold, and this not only so that walls are completely covered, but for this purpose marble inlays with winding patterns in the shapes of objects and animals are employed. We no longer care for panels and the large wall surfaces 366 that make the mountains expand in our bedrooms. We have even begun to paint with stones. 367 This was invented under the Emperor Claudius, and in Nero's time they began to alter the characteristics of the stones by inserting pieces that had not previously existed in the marble slabs. Thus Numidian marble might be given egg-shaped insertions, and the Synnadic could boast of purple stripes such as a refined taste (deliciae) wished it to be from the hand of Nature. 368 When the mountains do not suffice, we help them in this manner, and in our surfeit and luxury (luxuria) we constantly take pains so that as much as possible must be wasted when fire breaks out. 369
