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  The account we have given in the preceding pages, of the nature and
manufacture of the colours employed by the Roman decorator, will enable
the reader to account for many apparently contradictory statements which
will
be found in   our description  of the state of art among this people.   
   An
elegance and richness of design, and a gaudiness of finishing, without regard
to the harmony or tone of colours, are so rarely united in the works of
modern artists, that we are surprised to hear that in any age they could
have
formed the characteristics of the best, as well as of the inferior productions
of a people singularly successful in the cultivation of all the arts.
   In the decoration of dwellings, the Roman artists, if we may judge from
remaining specimens, were accustomed to pay much more regard to the amount
to be expended than those who now have the same task to perform.        
 Thus
in the habitations of the rich and opulent, we find the greatest exuberance
of design and costliness of material, while in' those occupied by the less
wealthy citizens, a coarse imitation of the styles adopted by the higher
classes was executed in less expensive materials.     To reduce the rich
and
luxuriant foliage and characteristic ornaments of the costly style, so that
the
expense of decoration should not exceed the intended expenditure of persons
in the various ranks of society, was a difficult task, and one which could
not, in all cases, be accomplished without a considerable sacrifice of design
and elegance.    To this cause, as well as to the employment of inferior
artists, may be traced the extreme paucity of invention and meanness of
effect observed  in  some of the ancient works.       Many examples of this
inferior style of decoration have been found among the ruins of Hercu-
laneum and Pompeii, as well as others of a more enriched character; but
as both these cities were far distant from the capital, it is not improbable
that the most costly specimens they contain were inferior to many which
had been executed at Rome.
   The Arabesque, a style of which we have already spoken, may perhaps be
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