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A 
 
 TREATISE ON ART 
 
 IN THREE PARTS 
 
 (.ONSISTING OF 
 
 ESSAYS ON THE EDUCATION OF THE EVE, 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSPITON, 
 AND LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 HY JOHN RURNET, F. R. S. 
 
 THE WHOT.E I LTATSTR ATE1> ItV I’HOTO-ENGT A'/TNCSi FLOU ORIGIN/T. ETCHINGS 
 
 OF C>:rERRATEI> IICIURES 
 
 From the Italian, Venetian, Fl^mishj, Dutch (irtd English Schools. 
 
 KDITKI) HY 
 
 FRANK V. CHAMBERS 
 
 I’rBI.ISHEH or “the CAJIERa" AM) “ IHT.EETIN 01' i’HOTOG U AI’H Y ' ’ 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 FRANK V. CHAMBERS, PUBLISHER 
 1913 
 
’ ' I 
 
 ) 
 
 TRINTET) BY CHAMBERS PRESS 
 PHIEADELPHIA 
 

 AN ESSAY 
 
 ON 
 
 THE EDUCATION OF THE EYE 
 
 ILLUSTRATED RY PHOTO ENGRAVINGS 
 AND ETCHINGS 
 
 BY JOHN BURNET, F. R. S. 
 
 “ Visual impressions are those which in infancy furnish the principal means of developing the powers of 
 the understanding: it is to this class of principals that the philosopher resorts for the most apt and 
 perspicuous illustrations of his reasoning, and it is also from the same inexhaustible fountain that the poet 
 draws his most pleasing and graphic as well as his sublimest imagery.” 
 
 I)H. ROGET’s RRIIXiEWAIEK TREATISE. 
 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 FRANK V. CHAMBERS, PUBLISHER 
 1913 
 
PUBLISHER’S ANNOUNCEMENT 
 
 In reprinting lJurnet’s famous Art Essays, we have done this 
 with the idea of placing the book before students and lovers of 
 Art and marketing it at a price within the reach of those of 
 moderate means. The illustrations have been taken from the 
 original editions published in 1822, 182(5 and 1837 and the text 
 re-set from new types. No alterations have been made in Burnet’s 
 phraseology and it is verbatim. 
 
 Our original edition we secured after many difficulties, as the 
 book has been out of print for so many years, and it is with 
 gratification that we launch this edition to an appreciate public. 
 
 Frank X . Cha:mi?i:i{s. 
 
 Philadelphia, September. 1913. 
 

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PREFACE 
 
 In prefacing a work of this brief description, where so many branches of 
 the Art of Painting are introduced with little more than an enumeration of their 
 component parts, I ought to apologize, in the hrst instance, for thus attempting 
 to convey atn- information which can be cai-ried int(j practical usefulness in so 
 small a compass; my motive for so doing was to gi\e, if possible, an insight 
 into the intricacies of the Art, without distracting the attention of the I’eader 
 h}" a multitude of examples, whose union often destroys the sti'ong impression 
 of a single illustration. Though the varieties of painting are endless, yet the 
 properties of which these vaiteties are comjiosed are, as in music, few in 
 numher; I have endeavored, therefore, to notice oidy the leading [)rinciples 
 which must be known, and which by reflection and observation can be extended 
 to any infinite series of ramifications. The same simple rules which should 
 regulate the instruction of beginners, I have endea\ ored to iioint out as 
 existing in the highest departments of the Art, communicating by their 
 presence that value which a ^’ein of gold imj)arts to a mass of inferior matter. 
 To some it may appear that the subject is too physically ti’eated. I have been 
 actuated so to do by the custom of the present time, and surely every one 
 ought to know something of the construction of that insti-ument he is in 
 possession of, and of its operations on the mind. In what I have advanced. 
 I have quoted the o{)inions of the best authors to coi-i'ohorate and strengthen 
 my own, thereby hoping to render an Art by which civilized societv is so 
 highly embellished, more known and apj)reciated. 
 
 JOHN lUTRNE'r. 
 
 March 2. 1837 
 

CON T E N T S 
 
 Page 
 
 Measurement 2 
 
 Form 3 
 
 Perspective 3 
 
 Lines 
 
 Diminution *5 
 
 Angles 7 
 
 Circles 3 
 
 Aerial Perspective 16 
 
 Chiaro Oscuro 20 
 
 Invention 24 
 
 Composition 28 
 
 Arrangement 36 
 
 H ARMONY 39 
 
 Form 39 
 
 Chiaro Oscuro 42 
 
 Harmony of Color 44 
 
 Studying from Nature 46 
 

 ) 
 
LIST OF PLATES 
 
 Facing I’age 
 
 Plate 1 18 
 
 Plate II "24 
 
 Plate III 25 
 
 Plate IV 8(5 
 
 Plate IV* 87 
 
 Plate V 42 
 
 Plate VI 48 
 
 Plate VII. 
 
 50 
 
AN ESSAY 
 
 ON 
 
 THE EDUCATION OE THE EYE 
 
 II V 
 
 JOHN BUKNET, E. R. S. 
 
 A country so largely connected with manufactures as this is, 
 we cannot but wonder why the education of the eye has not 
 been more generally cultivated ; obseiwing, as is also the case 
 with the ear, that its education in after-life rarely gives the 
 possessor those advantages which result from a proper direc- 
 tion having been given in youth ; nor do I see why drawing should not accom- 
 pany the elements of reading and writing, the complicated forms of the 
 letters in many languages presenting a more serious obstacle than what is 
 required in the rudiments of drawing ; and I have no doid)t but that a very 
 short time would be sufficient to enable a scholar to draw objects with 
 tolerable correctness. Without this education, not only arc the most valuable 
 advantages often lost,^ but the mind is deprived of one of its chief sources 
 of correct information, and the hand remains in a manner paralyzed and 
 unable to record what the eye takes cognizance of ; whereas, when they 
 advance in mutual contact through a course of early instruction, this diffi- 
 culty is overcome. This ready execution of the hand is to be acquired 
 
 ’ I.ocke, whose attention was turned to this branch of education, says, “when he can 
 write well and quick, I think it may be convenient not only to continue the exercise of his 
 hand in writing, but also to improve the use of it further in drawing, a thing very useful 
 to gentlemen on several occasions, but especially if he travels, as that which helps a man 
 often to express in a few lines well put together what a whole sheet of paper in writing 
 would not be able to represent and make intelligible. How many buildings may a man 
 see, how many machines and habits meet with, the ideas whereof would be easily retained 
 and communicated by a little skill in drawing, which being committed to words are in 
 danger of being lost, or at best but ill retained in the most exact descriptions? I do 
 
2 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 only by constant pi'actice, for, however readily the eye may perceive the 
 form of an object, tbe power of delineating it on the paper or canvas is 
 where the apparent difficulty lies. It is here where its correctness is put 
 to the test. How much constant practice perfects this chain of com- 
 munication between the eye and the hand may be proved by the facility 
 with which a person acquires the power of writing in the dark, or with his 
 eyes shut. This quick communication, however, is not to be purchased at 
 the expense of correctness, which ought to be the greatest consideration ; 
 for if the eye, or ear, falls into a loose, imperfect method of study, the student 
 finds the greatest difficulty in getting rid of such unprofitable groundwork. 
 In advocating the advantages of this branch of education, it is not my 
 province to raise up chimeras, or what might be considered sufficient reasons 
 for deferring it. Those who have the instruction of youth entrusted to 
 them, I am confident, would find it rather an assistance, as it might be 
 given either as an amusement or as a reward of merit ; and, in order to 
 put it in the power of any master to instruct, I shall endeavor to proceed 
 in the simplest manner, and with as few diagrams as the subject renders 
 necessary. 
 
 ^MEASUREMENT. 
 
 To teacb the eye to measure the distance between one object and another 
 ought to be tbe first proceeding. The forms of the lines which bound these 
 spaces, the shapes contained or excluded by such lines, ought to follow, 
 for, as the eye must have something tangible to work upon, it ought to be 
 
 Fig. 1 . 
 
 simple and evident. I should, therefore, commence by a series of dots or 
 points, first two, then three, four and five ; also the angles made by drawing 
 lines from each of several points. A pair of compasses will enable any one 
 
 not mean that I would have your son a perfect painter; to be that to any tolerable degree 
 will require more time than a young gentleman can spare from his other improvements 
 of greater moment; hut so much insight into perspective and skill in drawing as will 
 enable him to reiiresent tolerably on paper any thing he sees, may, I think, be got in 
 a little time.” — Locke’s Thoughts Concerning Education. 
 
 “With regard to the practice of drawing, it will be proper to incite the scholars 
 to industry by showing in other books the use of the art, and informing them how much 
 it assists the apprehension and relieves the memory, and if they are obliged sometimes 
 to write descriptions of engines, utensils, or any complex pieces of workmanship, they 
 will more fully a])prchend the necessity of an expedient which so happily supplies the 
 defects of language, and enables the eye to receive what cannot be conveyed to the mind 
 any other way .” — Preface to the Preceptor. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 3 
 
 to compare their correctness with the original, for, until a pupil can 
 accomplish pretty correctly these preliminaries, it is useless to hasten to 
 more complicated matters. 
 
 FORM. 
 
 As all forms contain more or less portions of a triangle, square or 
 circle, the eye must be taught to comprehend and imitate such objects in 
 their simple forms, in order to fit it for the pui'pose of seeing such qualities 
 when mixed and combined with more complicated figures. 
 
 I would now recommend these forms to be cut out in paper, and 
 viewed in various situations, being set upright, and also viewed in a 
 horizontal position, that the eye may become thoroughly acquainted with 
 the figures in all their variety of shapes, and with the causes of their 
 alterations in form. 
 
 I would also recommend the pupil to draw from a cube and a ball, 
 that the eye may become early accustomed to draw from the real objects, 
 in place of flat surfaces, which will give him a power in drawing from 
 Nature unattainable by any other method. 
 
 Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. 
 
 PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 Many have been deterred from attempting to learn drawing from the 
 dread of encountering so formidable a department of the art as perspective ; 
 whereas, if it is stripped of its geometrical and mathematical intricacies, 
 it will be found a very simple matter, and easy of comprehension." Per- 
 spective, as the word denotes (being a compound of the Latin words 
 
 = Long calculations or complex diagrams aflfright the timorous and unexperienced 
 from a second view, but if we have skill sulRcient to analyze them into simple principles, 
 it will be discovered that our fear was groundless. Divide and conquer is a prineiple 
 equally just in science as in policy. Complication is a species of confederacy which, 
 while it continues united, bids defiance to the most active and vigorous intellect, but 
 
4 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 per, through, and specto, to view), is the art of drawing the several 
 objects as they appear when traced upon a glass, or transparent medium; 
 the art of drawing in perspective, therefore, is nothing more than repre- 
 senting the various objects subject to those laws which regulate their 
 appearance in Nature.® 
 
 LINES. 
 
 All lines are subject to an alteration in their appearance, except two, 
 a perpendicular line and a horizontal one ; and lines are more or less 
 diminished in length according as they depart from the parallel of the 
 base line ; for example, if a person holds a pen or a stick parallel with 
 the eyes, and gradually turns it around, he will see it gradually become 
 shorter, until it assumes a mere spot when it is placed with the point 
 directly toward the eye, as it then covers what is termed the point of sight, 
 being a point immediately opposite the observer’s eye, and upon the 
 horizontal line, which is always of the height of the eyes of the spectator; 
 and, as it is turned around, it will describe innumerable points along the 
 whole line. These are termed accidental points, and vary according as the 
 
 of which every ineri)l)er is separately weak, and which may therefore be quickly subdued 
 if it can be broken. The chief art of learning, as Locke has observed, is to attempt but 
 little at a time; the widest excursions of the mind are made hy short flights frequently 
 repeated." — Doctor Johnson. 
 
 ® It was in the sixteenth century that Perspective, a new branch of optics, was 
 revived, or rather invented; this is more a business of (/eometri/ than optics, and is indeed 
 more an art than a science; but since it is derived from optical principles, and as the 
 use of it is to give pleasure to the eye by a just representation of natural objects, 
 I would do wrong not to give a short account of its rise and progress. The art of 
 perspective owes its birth to painting, and particularly to that branch of it which was 
 employed in the decoration of the theater, where landscapes were prinicpally introduced, 
 and wliich would have looked unnatural and horrid if the size of the objects had not been 
 pretty nearly proportioned to their distance from the eye. We learn from Vitruvius 
 that Agatharchus, instructed by Eschylus, was the first who wrote upon the subject, and 
 that afterward the principles of this art were more distinctly taught by Democritus and 
 Anaxagoras, the disciples of Agatharchus. Of the theory of this art, as described by 
 them, we know nothing, since none of their writings have escajred the general wreck that 
 was made of ancient literature in the dark ages of Europe. However, the revival of 
 painting in Italy was acconqtanied with a revival of this art. The first person who 
 attempted to lay down the rules of perspective was Pietro del Borgo, an Italian. He 
 supposed objects to be placed beyond a transparent tablet, and endeavored to trace the 
 images wliich rays of light emitted from them would make upon it, but we do not know 
 what success he had in this attempt, because the book which he wrote upon the subject 
 is not now extant. It is, however, very much commended by the famous Egnazio Dante; 
 and upon the principles of Borgo, Albert Durer constructed a machine, by which he could 
 trace the jierspective appearance of objects. Balthazar Perussi studied the writings of 
 Borgo, and endeavored to make them more intelligible; to him we owe the discovery of 
 points of distance, to which all lines that would make an angle of 45 degrees with the 
 ground line are drawn. A little time after, Guido Ubaldi, another Italian, found that 
 alt lines that are parallel to one another, if they be inclined to the ground line, converge 
 to some point in the horizontal line, and that through this point also a line drawn from 
 the eye, jiarallel to them, will jiass. These principles put together enabled him to make 
 out a pretty complete theory of perspective." — Priestley’s Optics. 
 
 Since then the Jesnifs’ Perspective, Brook Taylor's, Malton's, and others, have 
 rendered the most difficult and intricate diagrams clear and comprehensible. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 5 
 
 lines run more or less at right angles from the base line. Lines also vary 
 according as they are situated above or below the observer’s eye; for 
 instance, if a book is held up horizontally before the eye, the under cover 
 will be seen when held above, and the lines of its sides appear to run down 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 Horizontal 
 
 line. 
 
 to a point on the horizontal line. When underneath the eye, the upper 
 cover will be seen, and the lines describing the sides appear to rise up to 
 the horizontal line.* Before proceeding further, for the better understand- 
 ing the several lines already mentioned, and showing how they are affected, 
 I shall give an explanatory figure. 
 
 The above represents a cupboard with folding doors. Being placed 
 immediately before the eye, the sides appear to rise and descend to the 
 point of sight, a ; also the door b, from its being opened at right angles 
 with the base line, while the lines of the door c appear to run to the acci- 
 dental point D. This point will vary its situation according as the door 
 is more or less opened, which explains what are termed accidental points. 
 
 Fig. 9. 
 
 * The truth of this may he also deary proved if a person holds up a piece of glass 
 on which a series of lines are drawn, radiating from the center; for by looking through 
 it either u]> a street, avenue, or long room, he will perceive those lines of the pavement, 
 buildings, etc., which are at right angles with the base line, fall in with and cover many 
 of the lines, so drawn on the glass, for as they all run to the point of sight, they will 
 of necessity converge, since the spaces between them diminish as they recede from the 
 spectator. 
 
6 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 DIMINUTION. 
 
 All objects diminish in size as the spectator departs from them, hence 
 two parallel lines seem to approach each other as they recede from the 
 eye ; and this diminution will appear more or less sudden, according as 
 they commence from a near point, or one more removed. For example, if 
 the hand is held near the eye, it w’ill intercept a larger space than when 
 held out at arm’s length. 
 
 Objects diminish in an increased ratio until removed to a certain dis- 
 tance, when the diminution appears less violent. This may be made apparent 
 by the following diagram : 
 
 ft 
 
 Let the line a represent the spectator, and the line b represent a line 
 of pavement. The circular line c, which cuts througli the visual rays® as 
 they approach the eye, will show the diminished ratio as the squares become 
 more distant. And, as they have to be represented upon a plane surface, 
 their proportions will be as the divisions on n. They will, therefore, present 
 the following appearance to the eve. 
 
 Fig. 11. 
 
 When, therefore, objects are commenced too near, they appear out of 
 proportion with the other objects in the work, and, though true according 
 to rule, appear false with regard to their effect upon the eye of the 
 
 ‘ Imaginary lines reaching from various objects to the eye. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 7 
 
 spectator. This is termed violent or sudden perspective, to avoid which 
 a point of distance is chosen that will look agreeable. The breadth of 
 the squares being determined by the diagonal line running to the point of 
 distance where it cuts through the lines of the pavement, which run to the 
 point of sight, the farther this point is removed the more level the ground 
 will appear, as represented in Fig. 12. 
 
 Point of sight. Fig, 
 
 What we have hitherto said more immediately applies to parallel per- 
 spective, so named from all the lines which intersect those running to the 
 point of sight, being parallel with the base line. When, however, a square, 
 or any cubical form, is viewed at the angle, the two sides will not appear 
 to vanish in the point of sight, but run to two points on the horizontal 
 line, called vanishing points; and this mode of treating the subject is 
 called angular perspective. Now, these two points are always at an equal 
 distance from each other, which is one-fourth of a circle. Therefore, if 
 one is determined upon, the other is easily found ; for, as one departs from 
 the point of sight, the other appears to approach it, as any one may 
 perceive by turning around a sheet of paper, or a book, from a situation 
 where one side is parallel with the base line, until it is viewed upon tbe 
 angle. The cause, of this, perhaps, may be more clearly explained by tbe 
 following figure : 
 
 Fig. 11 . 
 
 
8 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 Suppose the circle to represent the line of the horizon, which is the 
 true representation of it when viewed out at sea, or where no obstruction 
 intercepts it, for then the water, coming in contact with the sky, presents 
 a circular horizontal line. If a person, therefore, was placed at n, and, 
 looking to the point a, the line c would be parallel with the base, being at 
 right angles with a, and, consequently, occupying one-fourth of a circle ; 
 but, if he turned in the direction of b, then a and c would become vanish- 
 ing points, though still at equal distances upon the horizontal line, and 
 would appear thus : 
 
 In a panorama, which is a circular canvas, viewed from the center, 
 this mode of measuring the various points is found to agree perfectly with 
 the natural representation of objects. 
 
 If any one takes a drinking glass or cup in his hand, with the mouth 
 of it toward him, and gradually turns it from him, carefully watching it 
 passing through all the elliptical forms, until the brim becomes a straight 
 line in appearance, he will have a correct idea how it is that columns, or 
 other circular objects, assume an oval shape at the top or bottom, accord- 
 ing as they are below or above the eye. Or, if he holds the cup with the 
 side downward, and turns the mouth gradually around toward him, he will 
 perceive the cause why arches, or circular gateways, appear elliptical in 
 a side view. It arises from parts of the circle being more foreshortened 
 than other parts ; that is to say, those parts which come more in the line 
 of the visual rays. For example, let a circle be divided into equal parts, 
 and suppose the eye of the spectator placed at a, those parts which lie 
 in the direction of the rays of vision, b, occupy less space on the line c, 
 which cuts through them, and, when drawn upon a flat surface, would 
 present an appearance like n, Fig. 16. Or imagine a line drawn through 
 the center, parallel with the base line, and whicb accordingly retains its 
 exact length. Those portions of the circular line which lie in the same 
 direction are less diminished, while the other parts, lying in an opposite 
 direction, naturally become subject to the greatest degree of foreshortening, 
 as in Fig. 17. 
 
 Having now gone through the several forms of a triangle, square and 
 circle, I shall here recapitulate the influence of perspective upon their 
 
 Fig, 14 . 
 
 o 
 
 CIRCLES. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 9 
 
 several lines. We have seen that lines are shortened according as they 
 fall in the direction of the visual rays, and retain their original length 
 only when they cut them at right angles. Now, this takes place wherever 
 the objects are placed, whether near the foreground or in the distance, 
 the eye of the spectator being a point from which imaginary lines radiate 
 in any direction, and which are termed rays of vision, and along which 
 imaginary lines all objects are received upon the retina;® and, though in 
 
 Fig. 15. 
 
 painting we are obliged to delineate everything upon a flat surface, yet, 
 properly speaking, the line which cuts through these rays at equal dis- 
 tance from the eye is circular. We have seen also that all objects diminish 
 in size according to their distance from the spectator, and that this 
 diminution is more or less sudden according to the closeness of the spectator 
 to the object. Upon this matter the taste and judgment of the artist 
 is shown, because, though true according to Nature, yet it may be repre- 
 
 Fig. 17. 
 
 ° Kepler, who in 1600 was the discoverer of the seat of vision on the retina, says as 
 to the images of objects being inverted in the eye, it is the business of the mind to trace 
 the progress of them through the pupil, and refer them to those places of the objects 
 themselves from which they seem to have proceeded. 
 
10 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 sented with a very bad effect, and one figure of a group, or one column of 
 a row, may be rendered preposterously large, so as to offend the e}^e, which, 
 though at all times pleased with the truth, yet will be more delighted when 
 that truth is rendered agreeable/ When this distortion takes place in 
 reality, we naturally change our position, until the eye is satisfied; but in 
 painting, the whole being a flat surface, we change our position in vain. 
 
 We have also seen that all horizontal surfaces of objects diminish in 
 breadth as they approach the horizontal line, and regain their true width 
 when they depart from it, either by being immediately above the eye or 
 directly under it, as may be perceived by the following diagram : 
 
 Fig. 18. 
 
 HorizoDta] line. 
 
 Now, this rule applies to all flat surfaces, whether approaching the 
 horizontal line, in consequence of their distance from the spectator, or 
 from being placed at different degrees of height; for, if they reach the 
 eye in the direction of an angle of 45 degrees, which is equidistant between 
 a perpendicular and a horizontal line, they will be diminished in apparent 
 width exactly one-half. If they are viewed at a greater or smaller angle, 
 they will increase or diminish in the same degree. This is also the cause 
 why surfaces of objects whose lines are at right angles with their base 
 
 ’’ Reynolds, in a note upon Fresno;/’ s Art of Paint in;/, says, “The rules of 
 perspective, as well as all other rules, may be injudiciously applied, and it must l)e 
 acknowledged that a misapplication of them is but too frecpiently found even in the works 
 of the most considerable artists. It is not uncommon to see a figure on the foreground 
 represented near twice the size of another which is supposed to he removed but a few feet 
 behind it ; this, though true according to rule, will appear monstrous. This error proceeds 
 from ])lacing the j)oint of distance too near the point of sight, by which means the 
 diminution of objects is so sudden as to appear unnatural, unless you stand so near the 
 picture as the point of distance requires, which would he too near for the eye to 
 comprehend the whole jiicture; whereas if the point of distance is removed so far as 
 the spectator may be sup])osed to stand in order to see commodio\isly, and take within 
 his view the whole, the figures behind would then suffer under no such violent diminution.” 
 
EDTTCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 11 
 
 line increase in length as tliej depart from the point of sight, either to 
 the left hand or to the right, as may be seen by turning the diagram 
 around, and making the line on which the eye of the spectator is placed a 
 horizontal line in place of a perpendicular. This may appear too much 
 a repetition of what has already been said respecting the cause of objects 
 becoming foreshortened ; but, as it is the base on which all rules for true 
 drawing are founded, it must be viewed in every position, that the student 
 ma}^ thoroughly comprehend it. 
 
 When the mind of the student is informed of the various causes oper- 
 ating upon lines so as to change their appearance to the eye, let him 
 look abroad upon natural objects, and contemplate the various changes 
 produced in their forms by their situation, so that his eye may become 
 familiar with those alterations in form, and his mind enriched by a variety 
 of examples ; thus making Nature furnish him with a thousand diagrams, 
 which he ought to draw and write down his remarks upon. He will, by 
 this method, not only educate his eye, but improve his mind at the same 
 time, the study of drawing being intimately connected with observation 
 and reflection. 
 
 Having now endeavored to explain the leading principles of per- 
 spective, I shall proceed to put them into practical application ; but I must 
 premise that it is an essential requisite, before proceeding to delineate 
 any object, that we make ourselves thoroughly acquainted with its general 
 character, otherwise the eye cannot convey to us its image distinctly ; 
 neither can the hand render it with energy or precision. Let us take, for 
 example, the human face, the component parts of which every one is 
 acquainted with ; yet the niceties of distinction in the several features few 
 eyes can perceive, or render with perfect accuracy. This oftcner arises 
 from a want of due examination, so as to be able to guide tlie eye, than 
 from any deficiency in the eye itself ; hence we perceive, in the drawings 
 of children and rude nations, a profile with the eye represented as if 
 viewed in front, or a full view of the face with the nose as if seen in profile. 
 To avoid such incongruities, therefore, the eye must be taught to see the 
 changes which take place, and the mind be made acquainted with the causes 
 of such change.* In illustration of which, if we take a plaster cast or 
 mask of the face, such as is represented in Fig. 19, and draw a line down 
 the center, from the forehead to the chin, we perceive, when viewed directly 
 
 ® Mengs, speaking of design, which he defines as coni])rehending the outline, or the 
 circumference of things, including the jiroportion of their length, breadth and form, 
 says, “This part is composed of two principal divisions, the knowledge of the proper form 
 of a thing, and the manner of seeing it; the one depending upon geometry, the other 
 upon optics: the first implies a knowledge of their optical ai)pearance from the view 
 presented to the sight; this pictorial geometry is necessary to enable the student to 
 delineate with correctness and feeling, and which can only be acquired by careful habit 
 of seeing and drawing with attention. This is the fundamental basis of design, without 
 which it will be impossible to render theoretic knowledge available: for, as in painting, 
 we must express the forms which we see in Nature as tliey present themselves to our 
 sight, and as their beauty depends upon that little, more or less; which decides their 
 character, so a knowledge of that variation enables us to give a true representation.” 
 
12 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 in front, that it presents a straiglit perpendicular line, as in No. 1, though 
 actually full of undulations from passing over the entire profile; but, as 
 these projections and recedings of the line are immediately under each 
 
 Fig. 19. 
 
 No. 1. No. 2. 5- 
 
 ether, they reach the eye in the same manner as if a string was held up 
 before the mask in a perpendicular direction. If, however, the mask is 
 viewed when turned around halfway between a profile and front face, as 
 in No. 2, those parts of the line which recede or project will assume exactly 
 one-half of their true character and projection; while in the profile. No. 3, 
 the line acquires its exact similitude, from its being undisturbed by those 
 laws which regulate perspective. If we were to proceed and examine every 
 feature in the same manner, we should find that the same laws lead us into 
 a correct view of the alterations which take place upon every alteration 
 in position. To exjilain tin’s more clearly, if we take the mask and hold 
 it with the chin toward us, so as to observe the curve on which the mouth 
 is placed, as in Fig. 20, we can easily perceive that a person viewing it in 
 the direction of the lines a b, M'liich would give him a view of the face 
 between a front and profile (or what is termed by artists a three-quarter), 
 would see one side of the lip of its entire length, while the other side, lying 
 in the direction of the visual rays, woidd be reduced to a very small space, 
 as may be perceived by its breadth on the ideal line c, which cuts such rays 
 at right angles. Such, also, is the case with the nose, in the same view of 
 the face ; one side remains undiminished, while the other side forms a mere 
 outline, being seen entirely under the influence of perspective. 
 
 In finishing this part of the essay, I cannot conclude wfithout remind- 
 ing the pupil of tlie extreme importance of the very first preliminaries 
 of the work, teaching the eye the power of measuring the distances between 
 several points, as it is the basis of correct drawing. In drawing a head, 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 13 
 
 if the points wliere tlie eyes, nose and mouth ought to be placed can be 
 correctly put down, one of tbe greatest difficulties w-ill be conquered, and 
 the detail of which each feature is composed rendered easy and effective,® 
 and the same remark applies to the power of combining the several parts 
 of the largest assemblage of objects. Tbe eye marks the distance of one 
 or tw'o leading points, which serve as a station to start from, and by a 
 careful combination of exact dimensions moves over the whole space with 
 a species of ideal trigonometry. Being also educated to observe the varia- 
 tions of the several lines according as they are more or less under the 
 influence of perspective acting upon their form or size, a clear, defined outline 
 w'ill be the result, not only unattainable by any other method, but, even if 
 attained, unaccompanied by the power of judging of its correctness. 
 
 The power of seeing objects correctly is gained by a careful examina- 
 nation of their general appearance, and of the component parts which 
 produce such general appearance. It is necessary, therefore, before pro- 
 ceeding to delineate any object, to observe it attentively in the first instance, 
 to examine it as a whole, so as to be convinced of its great leading features, 
 the various shapes the principal lights take, also the forms of the darks, 
 what occasions them, and why they are darker at one place than at another; 
 
 "Reynolds, speaking of Frans Hals, says, “In his works the portrait painter may 
 observe the composition of a face, the features well put togetlier, as the painters express 
 it, from w'hence that strong marked character of individual Nature, wliicli is so remarkable 
 in his portraits, and is not found in an equal degree in any other painter. If he had 
 joined to this most difficult part of the art a patience in finishing w'hat he had so correctly 
 planned, he might justly have claimed the jilace which Vandyck, all things considered, 
 so justly holds as the first of portrait painters.” In another place he says, “The likeness 
 of a portrait consists more in the preserving the general effect of the countenance than 
 in the most minute finishing of the features, or any of the particular parts .” — Sixth and 
 Fourteenth Discourses. 
 
14 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 the size and shape of the smaller component parts, where they are congre- 
 gated most, and where the greatest vacuum is situated; where portions 
 are seen entire, and where they are intercepted. Without the e}^e taking 
 cognizance of all these before proceeding, it will be impossible to give a just 
 representation, either in the detail or in the general effect;^® it will, more- 
 
 Fig. 21, 
 
 over, have a prejudicial influence, inasmuch as it will lead to a style of 
 drawing without feeling, character or decision. One reason why the 
 drawings of eminent artists are superior to all others is the great intelligence 
 every line indicates, the smallest touch being expressive of the character. 
 Another advantage this previous contemplation of the subject has is the 
 storing of the mind with materials for future occasions, when it is necessary 
 to have recourse to the memory. Knowledge in drawing, as well as in 
 other sciences, is having ready a mass of materials, which we can apply to 
 the subject in hand. Drawing much improves us as little as reading 
 much, unless we contemplate and understand as we proceed. Those who 
 have acquired a readiness of hand without correctness and study have but 
 the shadow instead of the substance, and, though to the unlearned their 
 works have the appearance of excellence, yet to educated eyes they seem 
 in the light of forgeries, or like the language of him who talks speciously 
 of a subject he does not understand. After the hand has once acquired 
 
 To illustrate this, we may have recourse to Titian’s bunch of grapes, which we 
 will suppose placed so as to receive a broad light and shadow. Here, though each 
 'udividual grape on the light side has its light, and shadow, and reflection, yet altogether 
 ttiey make hut one broad mass of light: the slightest sketch, therefore, where this breadth 
 is preserved, will have a better effect, will have more the appearance of coming from a 
 master hand — that is, in other words, will have more the characteristic and generate of 
 Nature, than the most laborious finishing, where this breadth is lost or neglected. — 
 Reynolds on Fresnoy, note 40. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 15 
 
 tills delusive dexterity, the student becomes contented, and unable to execute 
 anything correctly in future. Sir Joshua Reynolds remarks that “young 
 men have not only this frivolous ambition of being thought masters of 
 execution inciting them on one hand, but also their natural sloth tempting 
 them on the other. They are terrified at the prospect before them of 
 the toil required to attain exactness. The impetuosity of youth is dis- 
 gusted at the slow approaches of a regular siege, and desires, from mere 
 impatience of labor, to take the citadel by storm. They wish to find some 
 shorter path to excellence, and hope to obtain the reward of eminence by 
 other means than those which the indispensable rules of art have prescribed. 
 They must, therefore, be told again and again that labor is the only price 
 of solid fame, and that, whatever their force of genius may be, there is 
 no easy method of becoming a good painter.” In another place he justly 
 observes that “the first business of the student is to be able to give a true 
 representation of whatever object presents itself, just as it appears to the 
 eye, so as to amount to a deception; and the geometric rules of 'perspective 
 are included in this study. This is the language of the art, which appears 
 the more necessary to be taught early, from the natural repugnance which 
 the mind has to such mechanical labor, after it has acquired a relish for 
 its higher departments.” Also in his first discourse he says : “A lively 
 
 and what is called a masterly handling of the chalk or pencil are, it must 
 be confessed, captivating qualities to young minds, and become, of course, 
 the objects of their ambition. They endeavor to imitate these dazzling 
 excellencies, which they will find no great labor in attaining. After much 
 time spent in these frivolous pursuits, the difficulty will be to retreat, 
 but it will be then too late; and thei’e is scarce an instance of return to 
 scrupulous labor after the mind has been debauched and deceived by this 
 fallacious mastery.” We find in many of the drawings of Michael Angelo, 
 Raffaelle, and even Rubens, some portions carefully studied and finished 
 with the greatest correctness from the model, some difficult passage which 
 required labor and finish to overcome, or some portion of great beauty, 
 
 ” Freedom of execution, or masterly handling, as it is termed, is often taught to 
 pupils that they may apjiear to be making great strides in the art. The master frequently 
 finds his pupil too dull, or too inattentive, to acquire a correct knowledge of his subject, 
 therefore gives him the power of displaying an appearance of dexterity. To an 
 uneducated eye, a sketch of a tree, for example, may be hit off by the pupil with sufficient 
 resemblance to satisfy all parties; the parents see nothing in the original different from 
 the copy, for that which appears to them but a scribbled appearance, in the original 
 indicates to the eye of an artist foliage, branches, and shadows; thus their education 
 seems finished before it is in reality begun, and they leave school without the power of 
 drawing a line. In after-life, when they wish to delineate objects correctly, they find this 
 dexterity rather an incumbrance; the eye, previously debaxiched, is incapable of receiving 
 a true impression ; while the hand, necessarily confined to the several spaces allotted to 
 the different forms, feels cramped and awkward, and obliges them to throw down the 
 pencil in despair. In other branches of science we find this dexterity checked in its 
 infancy. What w'ould be thought of a child who had been taught to run over the keys 
 of a pianoforte without any definite meaning? Or of a master who encouraged the 
 scribbling of a boy to imitate a free hand? I remember an artist wFo always took an 
 opportunity of disconcerting the pretensions of such precocious geniuses in drawing, by 
 laying down a key or a pair of snuffers for them to delineate. 
 
16 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 which nothing but fidelity could represent. From the contemplation of 
 the works of the great painters we perceive a comparative dryness and 
 stiffness in their earlier productions, compared with their later pictures. 
 We, therefore, are naturally led to conclude that we can accomplish by 
 a shorter method what they have shown us to have been their aim — breadth, 
 grandeur and freedom of execution. It will be found, however, that, though 
 a few strokes by the hand of a master often express in his later works as 
 much as the most careful finishing of his early pictures, yet that arises 
 entirely from his having acquired, by long practice, a mastery over his 
 materials, and, by long contemplation, a perfect knowledge of what are 
 the leading features and peculiar character of every object. 
 
 Notwithstanding the foregoing remarks, careful drawing and minute 
 finishing are to be regulated in a great measure by the nature of the work 
 in hand, otherwise these qualities, excellent in themselves, are liable to be 
 caught at, as an excuse for doing something which requires the least 
 exertion of the mind. Though it is absolutely necessary to be able to 
 draw correctly whatever may be placed before you, yet it does not follow 
 that the same labor is to be carried into the subordinate parts, otherwise a 
 long portion of life might be spent in delineating the intricate ramifications 
 of trees and plants, or in mapping out with painful fidelity the hedges and 
 ditches of a whole county. The correctness of wTich it is necessary to be 
 possessed is to be employed in rendering with accuracy the vital portions 
 of all works, frequently leaving the minor passages to be filled up from our 
 general knowledge and practice. How vexatious is it to see young men 
 attending academies and museums, month after month, drawing from antique 
 statues, in place of bestowing their whole care in giving the outline and 
 form correctly, waste their youth in industrious idleness, in representing the 
 flaws and excoriations of the mutilated marble, or in smoothly stippling in 
 a surrounding mass of background ! 
 
 AKRIAT. PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 Lineal perspective being that part of drawing which is produced by 
 the means of lines only, aiudal perspective is made use of to designate those 
 changes which take place in the appearance of objects, either as to their 
 receding or advancing, from the interposition of the atmosphere; there- 
 fore, to the application of this quality the artist is mainly indebted for the 
 power of giving his work the space and retiring character of Nature; but, 
 though tlie eye is at all times pleased and gratified with the power of 
 viewing distant prospects, yet objects require a certain definition to lead 
 the imagination, without perplexing and troubling the mind. Neither are 
 we pleased by sudden jumps from the foreground to the extreme distance, 
 d'lie eye is more delighted, therefore, in being carried over a gradual 
 diminution of many intervening objects, or in searching for outlets through 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 17 
 
 screens of intervening trees or clumps of buildings ; such perforations assist- 
 ing by their framework the distant tone of color with which the most remote 
 objects are nevertheless sufficiently embodied out. Now, though the inter- 
 position of the atmosphere gives us the means of producing the effect of 
 distance in a picture, yet the mind requires a certain variety to hold it 
 in amusement, and a certain appearance of substance to give a reality 
 to the scene. On the other hand, when the atmosphere is deprived of the 
 means of refraction, by reason of its clearness, a false representation is 
 produced, and objects appear nearer than they are in point of truth (as 
 may be perceived in many scenes in Switzerland), and the eye is deprived 
 of the gratification of viewing the outlines of objects through a variety of 
 strengths. When we reflect that the art of painting is an attempt to 
 deceive the eye, in representing upon a perpendicular surface the variety 
 of planes upon which the several objects in Nature are placed; when we 
 reflect that the painter is deprived of many collateral means of assisting 
 the deception, it requires his whole knowledge to he employed in w^orking 
 out the result, lines possessing distinctness of form, bulk and minutia?, 
 light and dark to give them their full force upon the eye, colors unasso- 
 ciated with atmospheric influence, with the reverses of all these assisting 
 by contrast. We must admit that a knowledge of aerial perspective 
 embraces in its effects nearly the whole art of portraying the retiring and 
 advancing of objects. In the works of Albert Cuyp and Claude Lorraine 
 we have many examples of this quality in perfection, where the interpo- 
 sition of the air, whether of a yellow or blue color, imbues every object 
 with its just proportion according to its relative distance from the fore- 
 ground, and the near objects are strengthened by black or red or other 
 colors less in unison wdth the general tone of the picture; also in the 
 foreground of many of the w'orks of Cuyp and others, the student may 
 perceive the shadows under the leaves and stones in the foreground, broad, 
 black and of large, decided forms. Nowq though this is the general char- 
 acteristic of this department, we see in many works of the best artists 
 objects very much diminished in size according to their true perspective 
 distance, yet possessing a force of color little removed from the tints of 
 the objects in the foreground. Neither docs such harshness prevent them 
 keeping their situations. This arises from the very small space they occupy 
 upon the retina, forming so diminished a picture in the eye, even when 
 painted of the size of Nature.^® In historical compositions the most distant 
 
 De la Hire enumerates five circumstances wliich assist us in juclghig of the distance 
 of objects, namely, their aj'parent magnitude, the strength of the coloring, the direction 
 of the two eyes, the parallax of the objects, and the distinctness of their small parts. 
 Painters, he says, can take advantage only of the two first mentioned circumstances, and 
 therefore pictures can never perfectly deceive the eye; hut in the decorations of theaters, 
 they in some measure make use of them ail, different ]ilanes being made use of, and 
 different degrees of distinctness . — Accidens de la I'lie, )). 358. 
 
 ” Speaking of the retina, Dr. Roget says, “Few spectacles are more calculated to 
 raise our admiration than this delicate jucture, wliich Nature has w'ith such exquisite art, 
 and with the finest touches of her pencil, spread over the smooth canvas of this subtle 
 
18 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 objects form often a portion of the story. They are, therefore, to be 
 pronounced with that strength whicli will enable them to assist the painter 
 in producing the desired effect on the mind of the spectator, nor does truth 
 appear at all violated, provided they are not made out with too great pre- 
 cision. In history and the higher walks of the art, where the gi’eatest 
 liberties are allowed, it may be less necessary to notice the conduct of the 
 best artists in this particular ; but we often find it even in landscapes and 
 common representations of natural effects. How often have we observed 
 wood scenes and others prevented from being heavy by the introduction 
 of a few dark touches, and breadth of color and space produced by the 
 small dark of a figure. When, however, the effect of hazy sunshine (such 
 as we see in the works of Cuyp) is to be represented, the most distant objects 
 ought to be rendered with the greatest delicacy ; for, the whole atmosphere 
 being then filled with the refraction of light, the middle-ground objects 
 appear to be made out with a uniform tone or half-tint. Aerial per- 
 spective, therefore, though understood to be subject to rule, is more com- 
 pletely under the control of the painter than lineal perspective. 
 
 I have noticed elsewhere^'‘ how much in reality objects in motion attract 
 the eye of the spectator, with what intelligence the peculiar walk of those 
 we know is communicated even at great distances. This is one reason out 
 of many why we are allowed to pronounce parts of a picture with more 
 strength than other parts, as the mind of the spectator must be arrested 
 with the same force it feels itself acted upon under natural effects. 
 
 The application of aerial perspective, therefore, enables the artist to 
 keep the several objects in their respective situations, and give a natural 
 reality to the most complicated scene. A row of columns will diminish 
 according as they are drawn true to lineal perspective, but it is to this 
 
 Fig. 22. 
 
 some at rest and otliers in motion, yet all accurately represented as to their forms, colors 
 and positions, and followed in all their changes without the least interference, irregularity 
 or confusion. Every one of those countless and stupendous orbs of fire, whose light, after 
 traversing immeasurable regions of S])ace, at length reaches our eye, is collected on its 
 narrow curtain into a luminous focus of inconceivable minuteness, and yet this almost 
 infinitesimal point shall he sufficient to convey to the mind, through the medium of the 
 oiitie nerve and brain, a knowledge of the existence and position of the far distant luminary 
 from which that light has emanated . — Doctor Roget’s Bridgewater Treatise. 
 
 ’■■In Practical Hints upon Light and Shade. 
 
PLATE I 
 
 THE CANAL OF DORT 
 
 Fig, 2. 
 
 by J 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 19 
 
 quality of light and shade that they are indebted for their effect upon the 
 eye. Also, two angles may occupy the same space on the retina, but by 
 this power one is made to approach, and the other to recede, so that one 
 is diminished to the size of a tent, the other increased to a pyramid. 
 
 Fig. 23 . 
 
 In Plate I, Fig. 1, the Canal of Dort, by Cuyp, in the Bridgewater 
 collection, we not only find an excellent example of aerial perspective, 
 but also of that assemblage of lines produced by the repetition of forms, 
 which assists the receding of objects from their diminution, the doubling 
 of the lines in producing richness of effect, and that harmony which arises 
 from one line counteracting another in its direction, giving thereby a general 
 balance to the whole. The effect of aerial perspective upon tlie eye being 
 mainly attributable to the application of shadow to the several outlines, 
 tliereby giving them their approaching or receding character, such arrange- 
 ment is to be chosen which will give them this cpiality, and wliich is to be 
 afterward repeated in smaller portions througli the piece. In accidental 
 combinations in Nature we often perceive this arrangement (as in Fig. 2, 
 Plate I), which ought to be sketched and reflected upon as one of the great 
 means we have of enabling us to cope with her under the disadvantage of 
 working upon a fiat surface. We also find aerial perspective indebted in 
 its effect to the collection of many parts, whose shadows form a mass of 
 half-tint, their distance bringing them in apparent contact, owing to their 
 diminution ; while their softness gives them apparent distance, owing to 
 their want of minute parts, as in Fig. 3, Plate I. 
 
 To go through on every occasion with a variety of examples would, I 
 feel persuaded, only perplex the student. If he comprehends any rule, it 
 is easy to extend it. To those who understand slowly, reflection on one 
 or two diagrams will be of more service than educating the eye without 
 impressing the mind. The real trouble in life, in all professions, is the 
 trouble of thinking, to escape which the most laborious trifling is caught 
 at; but, if fairly grappled with at the outset, everything becomes clear, 
 and, in after-life, that which is a continual annoyance to many becomes 
 one of the greatest gratifications. Why is it that, to the eye of an artist, 
 the drawing of a complicated jfian is rendered clear at a glance, while to 
 others it requires a multitude of figures of reference and a long explanation? 
 
20 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 It is that his mind has been educated in continual intercourse with the eye, 
 and the constant habit of reflecting on cause and effect has rendered a 
 numerous assemblage of lines intelligible to him, which to others uneducated 
 appear like a species of hieroglyphic. 
 
 CHIARO OSCURO. 
 
 Chiaro oscuro, or light and shade, when applied to the management of 
 a picture, takes a range too wide to be explained without the assistance 
 of a multitude of examples, and even then it would be ver}^ imperfect, so 
 endless and multifarious are the changes it assumes, being entirely at the 
 caprice of the painter. Paul Veronese, when questioned about the propriety 
 of accounting for a shadow, answered, “A cloud is passing” ; and Reynolds, 
 sa3's, “The proprieties of a painter are superior to all other considerations,” 
 and, “he whose ahn is to touch the passions must not be too fastidious 
 in pandering to an uneducated eye. The effect is to be produced at any 
 sacrifice ; but tlie painter who accomplishes his purpose with the least 
 violation of truth shows the greatest command of his materials.” This it 
 is which places the works of the great painters beyond the comprehension 
 of the ignorant. They only can judge of external matters, and are pleased 
 when the eye alone is gratified ; whereas the aim is the homage of the 
 educated mind. “Leonardo da Vinci,” Reynolds remarks, “recommends 
 the light side of a group to be brought off a dark ground, and the dark 
 side opposed to a light ground. This, no doubt, was the practice when the 
 arts were in their infancy ; but, had he lived to see what has been produced 
 by the contrary mctliod, he would have altered his opinion.” If relief or 
 distinctness is the aim of the artist, it is certainly tlie best; but, if breadth 
 of effect, he will best accomplish it by combining light with light, and losing 
 the darks of the group in a still darker background. 
 
 Light and shade, therefore, independent of its effects in rendering 
 objects more distinct and intelligible, has other properties, and those of a 
 higher quality. When painting has to take a station in the ranks along 
 with music and poetry, these properties are the means of giving breadth 
 and grandeur of form, tlie effects of bustle or repose, and that peculiar 
 emphasis which particular portions of a composition require. Now, in 
 many situations, wliere such qualities are requisite. Nature offers often 
 little more tlian a suggestion, and upon such hint the artist is obliged to 
 lay the foundation of his whole scheme, and work it out according to the 
 command he lias of his materials, or the quantity he is in possession of. 
 Some compositions being entirely addressed to the mind, while others are 
 confined to a mere gratification of the eye, a greater or less liberty is 
 allowed to be taken with the arrangement of the light and shade according 
 to the nature of the work in hand. Light and shade, or the conduct of the 
 chiaro oscuro of any work, is, therefore, entirely given up to the control 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 21 
 
 of the artist, to be used for the express purpose of rendering his design 
 complete. Wliere he departs too much from the arrangements observable 
 in Nature, it becomes capricious, and loses its effect upon the eye of the 
 spectator. When, on the other hand, the everyday occurrences are adopted, 
 his work becomes common and feeble. Reynolds says justly: “When we 
 
 are required to paint broad, it is not understood that we should paint 
 broader than Nature; but objects are to be so placed that there is scarcely 
 any limit to their breadth of light and shade. In the earlier stages of 
 painting, relief and distinctness were the only requisites sought after. 
 If a round object could be represented upon a flat surface, or any substance 
 so expressed as to induce the spectator to put forth his hand to touch it, 
 as a test of the deception, the height of the artist’s ambition was attained; 
 but, as the art advanced, it was found that painting could achieve more 
 honorable results. The mind was to be acted upon, without stopping to 
 gratify the eye at the threshold of entrance. Coreggio seems to have been 
 one of the first who employed chiaro oscuro in its greatest extent, to give 
 to his compositions that dreamy character which removes them from the 
 “ignorant present,” and which is the result of breadth, and melting of the 
 outline in the tint which surrounds it. If we examine, for example, a room 
 filled with several objects, in open day, the distinctness with which they all 
 present themselves to the eye not only perplexes it in finding a resting 
 place, from each claiming attention, but the quickness with which we are 
 carried from one object to another (from a single glance being sufficient to 
 satisfy our curiosity) destroys that pleasure the mind receives from con- 
 templation ; whereas, the same scene, viewed in the evening, by the light 
 of a fire or candle, exhibits effects more pleasing to the eye and gratifying 
 to the mind, which are entirely owing to the breadth of light and shade. 
 Fewer objects present themselves to the eye, and these few acquiring novelty 
 in their forms, from the shadows floating about. Others, entirely buried 
 in obscurity, amuse the imagination in tracing them into form ; while the 
 large blank spaces present vacuums for the eye to rest and repose upon. 
 Independent of these results, we also know that objects acquire grandeur 
 from their breadth and simplicity of parts, the shadows being more of one 
 strength, and the lights more of one color, two concomitants of greatness. 
 
 the early stages of the art, we find tlic outlines of the Egyi>tian and Grecian 
 figures and ornaments ii])on the walls marked with a broad, deep, shai’ii cut indentation, 
 which, receiving a strong shadow, gave great distinctness. In the next stage, we find that 
 the figures were a little raised, so as to form what is termed basso relievo; and that 
 they were not rounded gradually from the ground, but cut ]ier])endicularly to the surface. 
 In the more advanced state of the art, when the figures assumed a greater projection, and 
 became what is termed alto relievo, where some portions are entirely cut through from 
 the surface, as may he seen in the Elgin marbles, the outlines of those figures less 
 advanced were rounded off, so as to receive less shadow, and thereby give greater value 
 to those in high relief: we also find an attention to the effects of light and shade influence 
 their management of single statues, in the construction of their buildings, and even in 
 the forms of the most trifling utensils. "NVe thus see that the gratification of the eye is 
 one of the chief sources from which the taste of a country emanates, and its perpetuitv 
 is in proportion as it is founded upon the great truths oliserved in the general character 
 of Nature, and its influence on succeeding ages, by its adoption by men of science capable 
 
AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 In entering upon this branch of the art, it will, however, be necessary 
 to confine our remarks, in the first instance, to the effects of light and shade 
 upon the forms of objects, in altering their appearance to the eye of the 
 spectator, without reference to their acting upon the imagination. 
 
 All outlines, without the application of this quality, are deficient in 
 giving a true representation to the eye; for example, two circular outlines 
 without shadow have no distinct meaning, but, by the application of this 
 property, they either become convex or concave bodies.^® 
 
 Fig. 24. 
 
 Fig. 25. 
 
 We also find that objects either project or recede according to the 
 strength of their shadows, and become either solids or vacuums from their 
 shadows falling within or without the spaces marked by their outlines. 
 
 Fig. 27. 
 
 We also find that it often indicates the peculiar character of objects 
 when the outline is hid in consequence of the situation of the spectator, as 
 in Fig. 28. 
 
 of ap]ircciating its value. Even in the dark ages, when truth and simplicity were overlaid 
 and hid by a mass of ornament and an assemblage of minute parts, a combination of 
 beautiful arrangement has arisen out of such Gothic absurdities, which has given to 
 jiainting, sculpture and architecture a fullness of effect unattainable by any other method. 
 The endless and fatiguing portions of minutiae, which lay scattered over the surface, have 
 been collected, and arranged in masses of richness and repose; the spottiness of strong, 
 harsh colors have been softened and sulidued by harmony and opj)osition; while the dry 
 and cold outline of individual form has been adapted to the gratification of the educated 
 eye, founded upon the great principles of truth and simplicity. 
 
 “We judge of the figure and shape of Iiodies chiefly by the variations of light and 
 shade, and our associations taken thence are so strong, as we are easily imposed upon by 
 a just imitation of the liglit and shade belonging to each sliajie and figure in their several 
 situations with resj)ect to the quarter from wliich the illumination proceeds. It is from 
 the associations considered under this proposition, and particularly in the last paragraph, 
 that ])ainting conveys such exact ideas of shapes, figures, magnitudes and distances, and 
 the camera obscura of motion also, by means of impressions that proceed from a plane 
 surface .” — Hartley on Man, on the Sense of Siyht. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 
 Fig. 28. 
 
 In drawings of machinery, this is often of the utmost importance, as 
 information is the only point aimed it. We likewise often find shadow 
 made use of for the enriching of the subject, by making the shadows of 
 complicated objects fall upon a background of an uneven surface, as in 
 Fig. 29. 
 
 Fiz. 29. 
 
 Any work treating of the education of the eye, however short, must 
 necessarily touch upon points spreading over a large range of study, and, 
 of course, occupying a long space of time to become master of. It will, 
 therefore, be difficult to separate those parts which require a power in the 
 mind from that portion which depends more upon the cultivation of the 
 eye, accompanied with very little effort of thinking. Nothing hut early 
 practice can enable the eye to see, and tlie hand to put on paper, the 
 
24 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 various objects necessai'y to painting with readiness and fidelity; as has 
 been remarked by Reynolds, who sa}'s : “A degree of mechanical practice 
 
 must precede theory. The reason is that, if we wait till we are able to 
 comprehend the theory of the art, too much of life will be passed to 
 permit us to acquire facility and power. Something, therefore, must be 
 done on trust, by mere imitation of given patterns, before the theory of 
 the art can be felt.” Yet, nevertheless, the attention should be gradually 
 awakened to observation, otherwise the pow’er of the mind will lie too 
 long dormant to be easily called into action when judgment is acquired, 
 for, as he further observes, “an artist ought to see clearly enough to 
 enable him to point out to others the principle upon which he works, 
 otherwise he will be confined, and, what is worse, he will be uncertain.” 
 In the portion of this essay, therefore, which is passed over, I have 
 endeavored to confine myself merely to that extent of knowledge which 
 every one ought to possess to enable him in after-life to enjoy the beauties 
 of Nature and art, and give him the power of communicating his ideas 
 usefully to others. I shall now endeavor to trace through the higher 
 departments of art those principles of design upon which painting depends 
 for its operation on the mind, and which places it in the same rank with 
 poetry and music. 
 
 INVENTION. 
 
 Invention is the great soul of painting, without which the being in 
 possession of an accumulation of studies is of little avail. We may collect 
 the materials, but Ave cannot build without a plan, nor can we construct 
 that plan without a perfect knowledge on Avhat to raise the superstructure. 
 When Raffaelle was commissioned to paint the apartments of the Vatican 
 Avith representations of Theology, Philosophy, Poetrjq etc., it Avas necessary, 
 in the first place, that he should knoAv not only the origin and foundation 
 of each of them, but also the character and history of those personages 
 who ranked pre-eminent in the several departments of science, that by the 
 combination of such figures he might be enabled to illustrate the subjects 
 in hand ; for it is by this method that the artist shoAvs his imaginative 
 poAvers, for, though this part of the Avork may belong to the poet and 
 historian in an equal degree, yet the mind of an artist, from his habits of 
 flunking and from a knoAvledge of Avhat is Avithin tlie poAver of his art, 
 gives the illustration of the subject a more graphic turn than either 
 
 ” It is the descriptions of poets and historians possessing this cliaracter which renders 
 tliein more striking to the imagination; such as the descri|)tion of tlie I.ast Judgment 
 hy Peter Aretin, which made Michael Angelo regret that he liad composed the subject 
 j)revious to receiving his letter: “Who would not tremble,” he writes, “at taking up his 
 pencil to trace so tremendous a subject? I see, in the midst of innumeralile beings, 
 Antichrist, with features wliich you alone could imagine; I see terror imprinted upon 
 the face of the living; I see the faint traces of the sun. the moon, and the stars, Avhose 
 fires are ]ierce]itihly diminishing. The elements apjiear dissolving. I see all Nature 
 horror-struck, liarren, and gathered u|i in its decreptitude ; I see Time emaciated and 
 trembling, who, arrived at his last stage, is reposing on the dried-up trunk of a tree; and 
 
PLATE II 
 
 Sacrifice at L'tstra. 
 
PLATE III 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 25 
 
 therefore, though the education of an artist’s mind is in many things 
 similar to the education of that of others, yet, in addition, he requires a 
 knowledge of the various methods the great painters have employed to 
 explain and exemplify their ideas ; “for it is only by knowing the 
 inventions of others we learn to invent, as it is by knowing the thoughts 
 of others we learn to think.” Mengs observes that it is invention which 
 makes noble the art of painting, and discovers the force of the artist’s 
 understanding, and that Raffaelle obtained a rank with great poets and 
 orators from this source. Invention being the work of the mind addressed 
 to the mind, composition that of the eye addressed to the sight, yet, though 
 in many things the mind of the poet or historian is similar to the painter’s, 
 the power of the latter is much more limited. The historian may have a 
 hundred pages to convey his story ; the painter has but one. This circum- 
 stance has led mankind in all ages to allow him a greater latitude and 
 license in embodying any representation. His invention, therefore, takes 
 a wide range through the whole features of the event, whatever it may be, 
 and enables him to combine in one focus every means of rendering the story 
 attractive, clear and effective. He invents, therefore, those arrangements 
 which awaken the mind, from their giving rise to an association of ideas. 
 He selects also those points which bear the strongest upon the character 
 of the subject to be represented, and which, from their nature, are most 
 palpable to the eye, to heighten their effect by the judicious introduction 
 of images operating by means of contrast, and endeavors to combine the 
 whole by the most natural and unaffected method. The power of invention, 
 therefore, in a painter, must depend upon his extent of Information, his 
 command of the materials applicable to his art, and a felicitous choice of 
 the particular incidents most striking to the eye. If he Invents from history, 
 it will be necessary to take the most current version of the story for his 
 guide, and engraft upon it those embellishments derived from costume, 
 manners of the people and local scenery, painting everything from Nature, 
 which gives a wonderful appearance of truth and force to the representation. 
 From poetry or allegory a greater liberty of enriching the design will be 
 allowed, as the whole range of ancient and modern fable lies open for his 
 
 while the trumpets of the angels resound through all hearts, I see Life and Death 
 overwhelmed with extraordinary confusion, the one is wearied with lifting up the dead, 
 while the other strikes down the living; behind, I see Hope and Despair conducting troops 
 of the good and the bad. The sky is suffused with the brightest rays. Christ, seated 
 on clouds, is environed with splendor, and with the terrors inspired by the heavenly hosts, 
 his face is resplendent with light, and his eyes, shining with a soft yet terrible fire, fill the 
 virtuous with lively joy, and the wicked with mortal fear. I see the ministers of hell, 
 with horrible countenances, who, surrounded by the glory of saints and martyrs, mock 
 the Caesars and Alexanders of the world, and yet not knowing how to get the better of 
 themselves. I see Renown, with her crowns and palms trodden under foot, thrown down 
 under the wheels of her own triumphant chariots. I hear the Son of God ])ronouncing 
 the last judgmejit; at his voice the good and the bad are separated; the world crumbles 
 to pieces at the peals of thunder. Darkness divides Paradise from the furnaces of hell. 
 In retracing these terrible images, I said to myself, one would tremble as much at seeing 
 the work of Buonarotti as at the day of judgment itself .” — Peter Aretin’s Letters from 
 Venice. 
 
26 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 pui*pose of illustration. At the head of this department of the art, by 
 universal consent, and especially by those who have most carefully exam- 
 ined his works, stands Raffaelle. Not only do his inventions embrace the 
 most leading and most striking parts of the story, but he carries the 
 spectator back to its commencement by a chain of the most natural circum- 
 stances, and shows also, by the same felicitous extension of his design, 
 those results which followed its taking place ; thus exhibiting in one page 
 the contents of a volume, such as we see in his “Death of Ananias,” his 
 “Transfiguration,” the “School of Athens,” the “Sacrifice at Lystra” and 
 many others. Lanzi, speaking of this quality of Raffaelle, says: “Various 
 
 writers have mentioned the ‘St. Paul at Lystra,’ one of the cartoons, as 
 an example (Plate II). The artist has there represented the sacrifice 
 prepared for him and St. Barnabas as to two gods, for having restored 
 a lame man to the use of his limbs. The altar, the attendants, the victims, 
 the musicians and the axe sufficiently indicate the intentions of the Lystrians. 
 St. Paul, who is in the act of tearing his robe, shows that he rejects and 
 abhors the sacrilegious honors, and is endeavoring to dissuade the populace 
 from persisting in them ; but all this were in vain, if it had not indicated 
 the miracle which had just happened, and which had given rise to the event. 
 Raffaelle, therefore, added to the group the lame man restored to the use 
 of his limbs, now easily recognized by the spectators. He stands before 
 the apostles, rejoicing in his restoration, and raises his hands in transport 
 toward his benefactors, while at his feet lie the crutches, now cast away 
 as useless. This had been sufficient for any other artist, but Raffaelle, 
 who wished to give a greater appearance of reality, has added several 
 people, who, in their eager curiosity, remove the garment of the man to 
 behold his limbs restored to their natural state.” As the people called St. 
 Paul Mercury, from his being chief speaker, Raffaelle has alluded to this 
 by a statue of IMercury in the elistance, and a figure in the foreground 
 with a chaplet of ivy, bringing in a ram, both indicative of the sacrifices 
 to that god. By the uplifted hands of the restored cripple, and the youth 
 who stretches out his hands to arrest the arm of the sacrificers, we perceive 
 the effect of St. Paul’s persuasions, in the same way as he indicates the 
 conversion to Christianity of the woman of Damaris and Dionysius in the 
 cartoon of Paul preaching at Athens. In the inventions of Raffaelle we 
 find the representation of any event, extending its effects on the several 
 spectators in a variety of wa}"s, producing the most natural action and 
 expression, and all conducive to the illustration of the subject. His rich 
 store of materials from the Greek and Roman antique, with the inventions 
 of those artists who preceded him in the restoration of painting in Italy, 
 enabled him to embellish his design with an endless accumulation of incident, 
 giving chasteness, simplicity and the power of carrying the mind back to 
 times long gone by. No one has possessed so great a command over his mate- 
 rials, or greater address in adapting them to his own purpose. The Greek 
 frems and statues, the Roman basso relievos, the primitive character of 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 27 
 
 the works of Giotto and Masaccio, the grand outline and foreshortening of 
 the figures of Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci, may be all traced 
 through his works, but the inventive genius which has called them into new 
 existence, with a more natural and a more powerful effect on the spectator, 
 is peculiarly his own. 
 
 Invention being more properly a combination of those qualities which 
 affect the mind and awaken sensations in the imagination of the spectator, 
 the inventions of Raffaclle affect different spectators according to their 
 different degrees of taste or cultivation ; whereas the inventions of Paul 
 Veronese, Tintoret and others of the Venetian school, being more addressed 
 to the eye, please and captivate all beholders, from their harmony of light 
 and shade, and their beautiful and gorgeous arrangement of splendid color. 
 With Raffaelle the leading point of the story is boldly and nobly expressed, 
 while its effects are diffused and spread over the countenances and actions 
 of the adjoining figures, and revived and embellished by episodes and rep- 
 resentations of the preceding and following events, acting upon the more 
 subordinate or more extended portions of the composition, such as we see 
 in the “Ananias,” the “Hcliodorus,” the “Sacrifice at Lystra,” the “Attila” 
 and the “Transfiguration.” Thus, what is effected in the one case by the 
 diffusion of light and color is produced by Raffaelle through the medium 
 of the expression and action of his figures. This it is that has gained for 
 him the appellation of the painter of mind, and his making use of those 
 materials from which the taste and cultivation of the mind is derived gives 
 to his works that charm which increases by contemplation, since they revive 
 within us ideas of all the great and beautiful works we have ever beheld. 
 
 Invention being more properly the province of the mind than the eye, 
 perhaps it is unnecessary to dwell longer upon it in this place ; but we 
 must always bear in recollection that the mind of an artist is formed from 
 a contemplation of those circumstances which it will be in his power to 
 make use of, and that is one reason, among others, why I dwell more 
 particularly upon the inventions of Raffaele than upon those of Michael 
 Angelo.^® They are more practical, and can be adopted by those whose 
 Avorks are addressed to the feelings of all classes, or, as Lord Bacon says, 
 “come home to the business and bosoms of most men.” The inventions of 
 
 ” Reynolds, drawing a comparison between Michael Angelo and Raffaelle, says, 
 “Raffaelle had more taste and fancy, Michael Angelo more genius and imagination. The 
 one excelled in beauty, the other in energy. Michael Angelo has more of the poetical 
 inspiration; his ideas are vast and sublime; his people are a superior order of beings, 
 there is nothing about them, nothing in the air of their actions or their attitudes, or 
 the style and cast of their limbs or features, that reminds us of their belonging to our 
 own species. Raffaelle’s imagination is not so elevated; his figures are not so much 
 disjoined from our own diminutive race of beings, though his ideas are chaste, noble, and 
 of great conformity to their subjects. Michael Angelo’s works have a strong, peetdiar 
 and marked character; they seem to proceed from his own mind entirely, and that mind 
 so rich and abundant, that he never needed, or seemed to disdain to look about for foreign 
 help. Raffaelle’s materials are generally borrowed, though the noble structure is bis own. 
 The excellency of this extraordinary man lay in the propriety, beauty and majesty of his 
 characters, the judicious contrivance of his composition, his correstness of drawing, purity 
 of taste and skillful accommodation of other men’s conceptions to his own purpose. 
 
AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 Michael Angelo, on the other hand, elevate the feelings only of the learned, 
 while they appear extravagant and overcharged to the generality of man- 
 kind ; notwithstanding which, this is the spirit which ought to influence the 
 taste and genius of other artists, and which made Raffaelle exclaim that 
 “he thanked God that he was born in the same age with that great man !” 
 We need not go further than refer to his great work of the “Last Judg- 
 ment,” where he introduces Charon ferrying over the souls of the damned, 
 and other allusions to the heathen mythology, which give to the Christian 
 creed the adventitious character of learned fable. On the other hand, 
 Raffaelle grasps his subject with the power of one who relies upon truth 
 and Nature for the effect; and, leaving the regions of poetry and fiction, 
 gives an identity to the scene, founded upon the principle of simple facts 
 being ennobled by the great powers of elevated art. Besides, we must 
 never forget that the public taste is already formed from a contemplation 
 of the many great works now in existence, and which have stood the test 
 of ages, and that it is only by being in some manner conformable to these 
 we can ever hope for a favorable reception. 
 
 COMPOSITION. 
 
 By composition is generally meant the form and arrangement of the 
 several parts considered as a whole ; consequently, the form or plan of any 
 composition is the first process the painter practically commences with. 
 The nature of the subject having been settled, he weighs in his mind the 
 effect to be produced upon the spectator. He, therefore, arranges his 
 figures and objects accordingly, and endeavors to distribute his materials 
 in that form which will best accord with his intention. The illustration 
 of his story, the distribution of his light and shade and color, the localities 
 of the scene, all present their individual interests to his notice, while his 
 
 Nobody excelled him in that judgment with which he united to his own observations on 
 Nature the energy of Michael Angelo, and the beauty and simplicity of the antique. To 
 the question, therefore, ‘Which ought to hold the first rank, Raffaelle or Michael Angelo?’ 
 it must he answered, that if it is to he given to him who possessed a greater coml)ination 
 of the higher qualities of the art than any other man, there is no doubt hut Raffaelle is 
 the first. But if, as Longinus thinks, the siiblime, being the highest excellence that human 
 composition can attain to, abundantly conqiensates the absence of every other beauty, 
 and atones for all other deficiencies, then Michael Angelo demands the preference.” — 
 Fifth Discourse. 
 
 ’’“From time to time there ari.=e unon the earth men who seem formed to become 
 tlie center of an intellectual system of their own; they are invested, like the pro])het of 
 old, with a heavenly mantle, and speak with the voice of ins])iration. Those that ajipear 
 after them are but attendants in their train, seem born only to revolve about them, 
 warmed by their heat and shining by their reflected glory. Their works derive not their 
 strength from momentary jiassions or local associations, but speak to feelings common to 
 mankind, and reach the innermost movements of the soul, and hence it is that they have 
 an immortal spirit, which carries them safe through the wreck of empires and the changes 
 of opiruon. Works like these are formed by no rule, but become a model and rtde to 
 other men. Few, however, among us are permitted to show this high excellence. Ordinary 
 minds must be content to learn by rule, and every good system must have reference to 
 tbe many and not to tbe few.” — Professor Sedgwick’s Discourse on. the Studies of the 
 University. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 29 
 
 imagination embodies them into that congregated form which seems best 
 calculated for his purpose. Here it is that the memory is called into action ; 
 without precedents he cannot judge, without materials he cannot compose. 
 Having now laid down his plan of operations, he applies to Nature to 
 funiish him with the means of giving variety and originality to his work ; but, 
 to bind her to his purpose, lie must have a settled knowledge of what he is 
 seeking, he must have a quickness of eye, to take advantage of accidental 
 arrangements, and a plan of methodizing his ideas, so as to be able to secure 
 what he acquires, without which it will be impossible to produce a composition 
 upon which he can calculate with any degree of certainty as to its effects or 
 its stability, and what be paints one day he may obliterate the next. Com- 
 position not being an inherent quality of the mind, but the result of long 
 acquaintance with the nature and arrangement of the compositions of others, 
 it generally follows that all wayward and capricious compositions, estab- 
 lished neither upon natural grounds nor upon the scientific arrangements 
 of those who have preceded us, seldom outlive their inventors, for, pleasing 
 only by reason of their novelty, tliey gradually lose their interest as that 
 novelty vanishes; or, as Doctor Johnson expresses it, “the Irregular com- 
 bination of fanciful invention may delight awhile by that novelty, of which 
 the common satiety of life sends us all in quest ; the pleasures of sudden 
 wonder are soon exhausted, and the mind can only repose upon the stability 
 of truth.” 
 
 Geometric forms in composition are found to give order and regularity 
 to an assemblage of figures, for, in fact, we can have no idea of form 
 without a portion of distinct shape, which, being arranged so as to make 
 one part of the composition dependent on another for its completion or 
 extension, produces an harmonious assemblage of lines, independent of 
 the aid of light and shade or color. Groups of figures, without some appear- 
 ance of geometrical form apparent to the eye, would produce a confused 
 effect upon the spectator, in whose mind their appearance would indicate 
 one subject as strongly as another, and look picturesque, when such character 
 might be destructive of the impression intended to be produced. We have 
 an excellent example of the infiuence of lines, or arrangement of parts, in 
 the composition of “Attila,” by Raffaellc. We see on one side the rude, 
 irregular descent into the Campania of Rome of the congregated tribes 
 of the Goths and Vandals, leaving fire and desolation in their rear, and 
 hurrying forward with savage wildness ; opposed to which, enters the head 
 of the Christian Church, witli the ministers of the cross, calm, meek, dignified 
 and upright, secure in the protection of heaven, ivhose messengers are seen 
 descending, those noble warriors, St. Peter and St. Paul, spreading by 
 tlielr appearance terror and dismay into the hearts of Attila and his fol- 
 lowers. And thus it is that the painter is enabled, by the assemblage of 
 lines and forms, to produce upon the mind those sensations which the poet 
 effects by a combination of words, or tbe composer of music by an arrange- 
 ment of expressive sounds. 
 
30 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 To simplicity and regularity of form we are indebted for the foundation 
 of what is great and sublime, for, as Johnson expresses it, “sublimity is 
 produced by aggregation, and littleness by dispersion.” In architecture 
 we find this a main cause of grandeur. Burke says: “Vastness in any 
 object, infinity, succession and uniformity of parts in building, or any object 
 in Nature, are all sources of the sublime, succession of uniform parts creating 
 a kind of artificial infinite, and this may be the cause why a rotund has 
 such a noble effect in building.” Having observed before that the archi- 
 tecture introduced into the works of Raffaelle is of a simple and uniform 
 character, it often seems to have been his design to carry out and extend 
 the perspective and general form of his plan by the arrangement and position 
 of his figures, such as we see in his “School of Athens” ; and He Piles says : 
 “He found, in some of his sketches, plans and scales of proportion.” One 
 or two memorandums which I found among the collections of drawings 
 left to Christ Church, Oxford, by General Guise, seem to confirm this obser- 
 vation. The memorandums are written upon the side of sketches illustrative 
 of the remarks, one of which I have given in Plate HI, containing the ground 
 plan, also the figures seen under the influence of perspective; the other, 
 showing a circular arrangement of figures, such as we see in the lower part 
 of the “Transfiguration,” and in the “Death of Ananias,” viz. : 
 
 *“ Addison, noticing how much simplicity of parts and greatness of manner in 
 architecture affect tlie mind, quotes a passage of M. Feart’s Parallel of the Ancient and 
 Modern Architecinre, “I am ohserving,” says he, “a thing which in my opinion is very 
 curious whence it proceeds, that in the same quantity of superficies the one manner seems 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 31 
 
 To Doctor Barnes, of Christ Church, I am indebted for the very great 
 interest he took in enabling me to procure copies of any of the drawings. 
 For the translation of the memorandums, and remarks upon the designs, I 
 am indebted to the kindness of C. L. Eastlake, Esq., R. A., whose intimate 
 knowledge of the compositions of Raffaclle must give his observations addi- 
 tional weight. 
 
 Independent of forms in composition most suitable to the subject, and 
 arranged in the most natural manner, it is of the first consequence that the 
 spectator ought to have such a view of the representation as will be most 
 effective and uninterrupted. This obliges the artist to design those figures 
 in the near part of the composition either in kneeling or stooping positions, 
 that they may not intercept the figures behind, or to elevate those back- 
 ground figures by a higher plane, such as we see in the “School of Athens,” 
 the “Ananias,” the “Incendio del Borgo,” “Elymas the Sorcerer” and others. 
 Or he may compose his piece upon the principle of the “Heliodorus,” which, 
 leaving the space vacant in the middle allows the eye of the spectator to 
 range from the foreground to the distance without interruption ; but, in 
 
 great and magnificent, and the other poor and trifling; the reason is fine and uncommon. 
 I say, then, that to introduce into architecture this grandeur of manner, we ought so to 
 proceed, that the division of the principal members of the order may consist but of few 
 parts, that they be all great, and of a bold and ample relievo and swelling; and that the 
 eye beholding nothing little and mean, the imagination may he more vigorously touched 
 and affected with the work that stands before it.” 
 
 -'Translation of the memorandum on the side of the sketch representing circular 
 composition : 
 
 “It is to be observed, that the first thing to be considered in an historical composition 
 is where the point (id est, the spectator or spectator’s eye) is to be placed, whether in 
 the middle of the work or on one side, and so to determine its situation that the 
 important figures be distinctly visible, and not concealed by others, and then begin the 
 design. It is my opinion, confirmed by the practice of the most skillful men, that the 
 mode explained by a drawing in the margin (is generally fittest), viz.: by contriving that 
 those figures which are nearest to the point should present their backs, those further 
 removed their sides, and so on in perspective, as if a circle were drawn and figures ranged 
 round it, so should an historical composition be designed.” 
 
 In illustration of the above, supposing an action to be represented in a circle, which 
 would be quite natural if the object of attention were in the center, the spectator might 
 either view it so as to be himself without the circle, or be supposed within it. In the 
 latter case, the nearest figures would have their sides toward him, in the former their 
 backs. Thus, when the spectator sees a semicircle, he completes the circle by his forming 
 a part. This arrangement was adopted by the early Italian painters in their sacred 
 subjects, and from its fitness was never abandoned by Raffaelle. The Madonna di Foligno 
 and the Dresden Madonna are remarkable exam]des, as in these pictures the St. Francis 
 in the first, and the Pope Sixtus in the other, turn to the spectator who contemplates the 
 work, and intercedes for them. The object, in short, by this semicircular arrangement 
 was to mix up the spectator with the divine or sainted personages represented, and to 
 make him feel in their presence. 
 
 But in more dramatic representations, in which the spectator might be interested 
 but not a party concerned, Raffaelle adopted the more picturesque arrangement, and 
 after him this was unfortunately applied to devotional subjects. The drawing hy 
 Raffaelle and the note recommend the picturesque arrangement, but as the whole works 
 of the master are the best commentaries on his note, it may safely be affirmed, that he 
 could not have intended this principle to apply to votive pictures; at present, indeed, in 
 this country, when altar pieces, and especially mere assemblages of sacred personages, 
 are rarely painted, the directions contained in Raffaelle’s note may he considered of 
 universal application; it is only in the critical history of the art that they might lead to 
 false conclusions. — C. L. E. 
 
32 
 
 AX ESSAY OX THE 
 
 wliatever form his composition develops itself, it is not more necessary to 
 preserve such form in the strongest character than it is to give the spectator 
 the most pictorial and comprehensive view of the subject. To enable him 
 to judge of this quality, it will be necessary not only to lay down a ground 
 plan, but to model the groups and individual figures, as we know to have 
 been the practice of the best artists, from Michael Angelo and Raffaelle 
 down to the present, which will also, even though roughly executed, suggest 
 the most natural effects of the light and shade."' 
 
 Having decided upon his general form of composition, the several 
 portions of the design next claim his attention. Those portions of most 
 consequence to the illustration of the story are to be brought into notice, 
 while other parts are made subservient, by being thrown into shade or 
 more intercepted by their situations. Action and repose, masses convex 
 and concave, lines regular or picturesque, spaces diminishing or increasing, 
 are all to be combined in producing an harmonious result upon the eye 
 and mind of the spectator. 
 
 We have noticed the peculiar properties of objects under the influence 
 of perspective, viz. : circular forms becoming elliptical, spaces diminishing 
 as they recede, objects intercepting those behind, while those on the fore- 
 ground possess more detail and minutia?. These qualities are, therefore, 
 to be engrafted upon the several portions of the composition, that it may 
 have the appearance of truth, and enable the artist to give his work the 
 firmness of Nature. In selecting examples illustrative of these remarks, it 
 will be sufficient to give one or two of the most palpable, that the student 
 
 ""Translations of the ineinoranduni at the side of the drawing given in Plate III, 
 Fig. 1: 
 
 “This is the mode the painter should observe in composing his histories, so that the 
 disposition of the masses should be unconstrained, as if the composition followed the 
 advancing sight in order that the history or picture may he satisfactory to the spectator, 
 and particularly to the experienced spectator. For if arranged without this rule, the 
 said history will be put together defectively, this (viz.: the mode alluded to) being the 
 true practice adopted by the most skilled and intelligent in the art. This will appear 
 by cons>dting the works of those painters who are most famous; it is from their adherence 
 to this rule that their works have been so much praised, and with the best reason, for 
 this is the true principle.” 
 
 The rule here alluded to, and which is sufficiently explained by the drawing which 
 accompanies it, relates to depth of composition, as opposed to superficial or basso relievo 
 composition; the mere surface is capable in variety, in height, and in width; but these 
 varieties may exist while there is no variety whatever in the plan; the figures should 
 tlierefore occupy the extent of the ground plan as completely as when brought to the 
 surface they appear to ocoipy the height and breadth of the surface or face of the 
 jiicture. Tims the three possible dimensions are occupied, the art being generally concealed 
 iiy avoiding too regular a variety, and by doubling the masses somewhere. It only 
 remains to l)e observed, that of the three applications of varied arrangement, that of the 
 deiplh is the most strictly picturesque, because it most effectually gets rid of the flat 
 surface, and suggests foreshortened limbs and figures, which are most to be met with in 
 the latest works of Titian, Raffaelle, and Michael Angelo; but Corregio, who was from 
 the beginning devoted to gradation in forms (perspective) as well as chiaroscuro, was 
 also an early lover of deptli in composition, and often of foreshortening. — C. L. E. 
 
 r'ig. 2 is part of a Roman basso relievo, from which Raffaelle took the ceremony of 
 the Sacrifice at Lystra. 
 
 Fig. 3 shows his adaptation of the ideas of otliers to his own purpose, being a figure 
 of Masaccio’s, which is converted into his St. Paul preaching. Vide Reynolds’s Twelfth 
 iJiscoiirse. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 33 
 
 may be made aware of their character, after which the whole range of com- 
 position, from the revival of painting down to our own time, will he rendered 
 subservient to his investigation. As it is the character of spaces to diminish 
 as they recede from the eye, we often find in the works of Ralfaelle and 
 others this feature engrafted upon portions of their groups, as in Fig. 2 , 
 part of the “Cartoon of Ananias.” 
 
 Fig. 2 . 
 
 As it is the character of objects to intercept others more or less as 
 they recede from the foreground, and as it is their character also to diminish 
 and possess less of detail by their receding, we perceive this principle carried 
 into the works of the great founders of the art in a variety of ways. We 
 can trace it in the Greek and Roman basso relievos, in the figures and 
 heads of Michael Angelo and Ralfaelle, and in the works of those who have 
 collected from the great stores of Nature and art. The example. Fig. 3, 
 is from Titian, part of a subject formerly in the Church of St. Nicola de 
 Fiari, at Venice, now in Rome. 
 
 This regularity of diminution imparts to a work a character of sim- 
 plicity, and, at the same time, assists the artist in giving depth to his com- 
 position, one figure acting as a background to the other. 
 
 This regularity of diminution not only assists in giving regularity and 
 simplicity to a work, but enables the artist to carry the eye of the spectator 
 into the depths of his composition. We also find it often employed in giving 
 solidity and firmness to those heads or objects nearest the eye, one portion 
 acting as a background to the other, giving to the whole that advantage 
 which arises from the size, detail and firmness of foreground objects in 
 
34 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 Nature. Fig. 4 is a further illustration of the same principle, being part of 
 a design of Rubens, the picture of the “Woman Taken in Adultery,” in the 
 collection of Mr. Miles. 
 
 In following up the examination of composition into its component 
 parts we find it necessary that they should all combine to produce one 
 result upon the spectator. RaflFaelle, in extending his composition into 
 the surrounding parts, employs his whole power in illustrating his story. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 35 
 
 either by episodes which embellish and enrich it, or by figures expressive 
 of the circumstances which have preceded it, or by conveying its effects 
 after completion. Some we perceive engaged in relating the event to those 
 entering, or unable to view it from their situation in the picture. Others 
 of various ages and of different sexes, while they give variety to the work, 
 enable him to develop its effect by a variety of expression and action, by 
 extending the lines productive of such sensations, or lines by a union of 
 several parts leading the eye by their direction to the principal point of 
 the story, or giving bulk and strength to the foreground figures. Add to 
 these, figures repeating by their form the principal points, so as to give 
 those richness by extending their shape, or productive of harmony by their 
 action and expression, emanating from those of the principal actors. These 
 remarks more immediately apply to the mental portion of the work, and 
 of works of the highest department in the art ; but many of them also may 
 be made applicable to other branches, such as the combining of several heads 
 for the purpose of preserving a mass of flesh color, and to prevent spottiness 
 in the effect ; or giving pleasure to the eye by the forms taking pleasing 
 shapes ; or assisting deception by lines combining to give strength and 
 magnitude to the foreground objects, or diminished delicacy to the more 
 distant. In short, a knowledge of the higher requisites of painting is of 
 the greatest importance in all the departments, whether in giving dignity 
 to portraiture, such as Titian’s, or to landscapes, such as his also, and those 
 of Annibale Carrache, Salvator Rosa or Nicola Poussin. Toward gaining 
 perfection in poetry we find writers recommending this course of investiga- 
 tion. Addison says : “A poet should be very well versed in everything 
 
 that is noble and stately in the productions of art, whether it appears in 
 painting or statuary ; in the great works of architecture, which are in their 
 present glory, or in the ruins of those which flourished in former ages. 
 Such advantages as these help to open a man’s thoughts, and to enlarge 
 his imagination, and will, therefore, have their influence on all kinds of 
 writing, if the author knows how to make right use of them.” Reynolds 
 recommends “that all the inventions and thoughts of the ancients, whether 
 
 The same remarks wliich Doctor .Tohnson applies to poetry may be here made use 
 of to indicate the sources of instruction for those who aspire to the higher walks of 
 painting: “By the general consent of critics, the first praise of genius is due to the 
 writer of an epic poem, as it requires an assemblage of all the powers which are singly 
 sufficient for other comiiositions. Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth, by 
 calling imagination to the help of reason. Ejuc poetry undertakes to teach the most 
 important truths by the most pleasing precepts, and therefore relates some great event 
 in the most affecting manner. History must supply the writer with the rudiments of 
 narration, which he must improve and exalt by nobler art, must animate by dramatic 
 energy, and diversify by retrospection and anticipation; morality must teach him the 
 exact bounds and different shades of vice and virtue; from jmlicy, and the practice of 
 life, he has to learn the discrimination of character, and the tendency of the passions, either 
 single or combined; and physiology must su])ply him with illustrations and images. To 
 put these materials to poetical use, is required an imagination capable of painting Nature 
 and realizing fiction. Nor is he yet a poet till he has attained the whole extension of 
 his language, distinguished all the delicacies of phrase, and all the colors of words, 
 and learned to adjust their different sounds to all the varieties of metrical modulation.” — 
 Johnson’s Life of Milton. 
 
36 
 
 AX ESSAY ON THE 
 
 conveyed to us in statues, has reliefs, intaglios, cameos or coins, are to 
 be sought after and carefully studied. The genius that hovers over these 
 venerable relics may be called the father of modern art. The collection 
 of the thoughts of the ancients which Raffaelle made with so much trouble 
 is a proof of his opinion on this subject. Such collections may be now 
 made with much more ease by means of an art scarce known in his time. 
 I mean that of engraving, by which, at an easy rate, every man may now 
 avail himself of the inventions of antiquity.” He also recommends taking 
 another view' of the same figure, either by modeling it or setting a person 
 in the same attitude. This will give the student a quick knowledge, wherein 
 consists the beauty and character of the different great masters ; or by 
 altering it to suit his subject, such as the figure of “St. Paul,” by Masaccio, 
 introduced in “Paul Preaching,” by Raffaelle, or the “Sacrifice at Lystra,” 
 Plate II. To conclude, I can only repeat the words of Sir Joshua Reynolds: 
 “Study, therefore, the great works of the great masters forever. Study 
 as nearly as you can in the oi’der, in the manner and on the principles on 
 w hich they studied. Study Nature attentively, but alw ays with those masters 
 in your company. Consider them as models wdiich you are to imitate, and 
 at the same time as rivals, with whom you are to contend.” 
 
 ARRANGEMENT. 
 
 Arrangement, though not partaking of that high quality wdilch distin- 
 guishes composition, yet, nevertheless, embraces a knowledge of those char- 
 acteristic features to be found pervading the general appearances of Nature, 
 and to be employed in giving a truth and vigor to assemblages of lines, 
 shades and colors. All objects wdiose images enter the eye are subject 
 to certain laws, which regulate their form, and assign to them situations 
 in the picture which such forms indicate, and which, having been often 
 observed, have obtained a general consent as to their truth and natural 
 character. To know, therefoi'e, these arrangements observable in Nature 
 is absolutely necessary, that we may employ such knowledge in producing 
 the same results in painting, especially as we find the works of those 
 artists who have thus combined their skill in arrangement give the greatest 
 pleasure to the eye of the spectator. This gratification arises from the 
 several images being depicted in their most characteristic features. In 
 looking abroad upon the face of Nature, for example, in a wide extent of 
 country, where the eye can take a comprehensive observation, we notice 
 toward the horizon a multitude of parallel lines stretching across the land- 
 scape. The lines crossing them, being foreshortened, lose their breadth, 
 wliile the perpendicular lines of objects lose their consequence owing to their 
 diminution from distance; but, as they approach toward the foreground, 
 we perceive that thev gain their ascendancy and become more rugged in 
 the outline and stronger in effect from their shadowed portions being larger 
 and darker, owing to their nearness to the eye. Being acquainted with these 
 
PLATE IV 
 
 /Vt ft/J /-V J' Jpii‘ 
 
PLATE IV* 
 
 ty 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 37 
 
 facts, we can produce such an arrangement as shall have the appearance 
 of truth, and become enabled to heighten in effect the arrangements of 
 natural representation, and, by the addition of colors whose properties 
 belong to near objects, by the addition of light and dark coming in contact, 
 which gives distinctness and firmness, by the introduction of figures and other 
 objects, we can assist the perspective by their assuming forms more or less 
 under its influence, according to their situation. 
 
 We know that quietness and regularity give dignity to part of a com- 
 position while their lines contrast with others expressive of bustle or pictur- 
 esque assemblage of forms. We have noticed this exemplified in the “Attila.” 
 etc. We see it also in Fig. 5, part of the “Heliodorus,” where the heads 
 
 Fig. 5. 
 
 of the figures who bear the chair of the Pope surround him with studied 
 regularity, giving calmness by the arrangement, and firmness by the per- 
 spective appearance of a column upon whose base he is elevated.'* 
 
 This regularity of diminution and perspective effect has been noticed 
 principally in the arrangement of the heads. It is also to be observed in 
 the base lines of the several compositions of the figures, such as we observe 
 upon this side of the “Heliodorus,” where the Pope enters, marking the 
 
 Lanzi, speaking of this work, says, “In the course of this year, 1512, Raffaelle was 
 employed in the second chamber on the subject of Heliodorus driven from the temple by 
 the prayers of Onias the high priest, one of the most celebrated pictures of the place. 
 In this painting the armed vision that appears to Heliodorus scatters lightning from his 
 hand, while the neighing steed is heard amidst the attendant thunder. In the numerous 
 bands, some of which are plundering the riches of the temple, and in others ignorant of 
 the surprise and terror exhibited in Heliodorus, consternation, amazement, joy, and 
 abasement, and a host of passions are expressed. In this work, and in others of these 
 chambers, Raffaelle says Mengs) gave to painting all the augmentation it could receive 
 after Michael Angelo. In this picture he introduced the portrait of Julius the Second, 
 
38 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 line from the foreground to the distance, assisting the perspective by such 
 means as to lead the eye into the depths of the composition, while it gives 
 the appearance of truth and simplicity of natural diminution. See Plate IV. 
 I have given an additional Plate IV*, part of the “Dispute of the Sacra- 
 ment,” where this disposition is more evident. Independent of this mode 
 of arrangement being of use in giving uniformity to irregular portions of 
 a composition, it is of great advantage in directing the eye to the principal 
 parts of the picture by means of the perspective appearance of the line. 
 Also, by producing such arrangement either by the base of the group or 
 the introduction of accidental objects to assist such deceptive diminution, 
 we counteract the effects of false perspective which the base line of the 
 group sometimes produces, for, in conducting the design, the heads and 
 upper portions only of the composition are attended to in the first instance, 
 without reflecting how the parts which come in contact with the ground wdll 
 appear when terminated according to their time position in the picture. 
 
 A knowledge of arrangement enables us yet further to heighten the 
 gratification of the spectator hy engrafting upon the work those forms 
 found in the compositions of the most celebrated artists. This knowledge 
 it is which enables the poet to give so pleasing and vivid descriptions of 
 scenery, often gratifying the imagination more than an actual survey of 
 the scene he describes. As Addison remarks, “He takes indeed the land- 
 scape after her, but gives it more vigorous touches, heightens its beauty and 
 enlivens the whole piece, that the images which flow from the objects them- 
 selves appear weak and faint in comparison with those that come from the 
 expressions.” A knowledge of arrangement enables the artist to follow 
 up and extend lines and forms often only hinted at in Nature. Those parts 
 which possess a strong local character he preserves as leading points to 
 an harmonious assemblage of lines, w'hile portions possessing beauty he 
 enshrines in masses of repose, or surrounds them with forms and colors 
 which add to their effect upon the spectator. Even in the wild, rugged 
 scenes of savage grandeur, where rocks, trees and clouds combine in awful 
 magnificence, a know ledge of arrangement is necessary to preserve this earth- 
 quake-like appearance. In the wmrks of Salvator Rosa the student will 
 find many examples of this mode of arrangement, every part of the work 
 uniting “in dreadful harmony.” To acquire a knowledge of beautiful scenery, 
 founded upon ach'ial perspective, or an agreeable assemblage of lines and 
 
 whose zeal and authority is represented in Onias. He appears in a litter, borne by his 
 grooms, in the manner in which he was accustomed to repair to the Vatican to view 
 this work.” In these heads Ralfaelle has given the portraits of his pupils, M. Antonio 
 and Julio Romano, with the Pope’s secretary, etc. For this anachronism Raffaele has 
 lieen blamed by the critics, without considering that it was the only way the painter had 
 of connecting the Jewish with the Christian church, and exemplifying the temples of both 
 as the sacred depositories for those funds which were to be given out to the widow and 
 the or]ihan poor. Without detracting from the great merit of Ralfaelle, we may rest 
 assured tliat these works were of too much importance not to be watched with the greatest 
 vigilance, and assisted in their moral efficacy by all the learning within the walls of the 
 Vatican. Tliose who wish to see how close Ralfaelle often kept to the history, may 
 examine tlie whole story in II Maccabees, Chapter III. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 89 
 
 forms, he ought to study tlie arrangements of Claude, Cuyp and those of 
 Turner, whose works are filled with the various qualities which constitute 
 the true poetry of painting, and the power of giving extent and magnificence 
 in tlie highest degree. 
 
 HARMONY. 
 
 Harmony in painting is the connection and agreement of one part with 
 another, either as regards form, light and shade or color. This agreement 
 proceeds either from a succession of the same forms in different degrees 
 of distinctness, such as arise when we cast a stone into water, producing 
 a succession of undulating circles, or by one form depending upon its 
 adjoining for its completion and unity, as is the case in poetry r"' or the 
 harshness of isolated forms may be broken down and harmonized with the 
 whole by their being hinted at or faintly repeated in various portions of 
 tlie picture. 
 
 FORM. 
 
 Burke, speaking of beautiful forms, says : “As perfectly beautiful 
 
 bodies are not composed of angular parts, so those parts never continue 
 long in the same right line. They vary their direction every moment, 
 and they change under the eye by a deviation continually carrying on, but 
 for whose beginning or end you will find it difficult to ascertain a point.” 
 All authors from Aristotle to De Quincey having treated of the affections 
 of the mind as if the avenues to each sensation were the same, it will, 
 perhaps, lead us to a more clear definition of the properties which belong 
 to vision exclusively, by confining the observations on form, shade or color 
 to their effects upon the eye. As the forms of all objects enter the eye 
 through a circular aperture, those objects containing a similar continuity 
 of form fall most agreeably upon the organ of vision, and are seen, as it 
 were, at a single glance, while objects possessing sharp angles seem less in 
 harmony with the ffow of light which accompanies their entrance, and require 
 repeated examinations to gain a knowledge of their exact form. For example, 
 if a circle be presented to the eye, we are incontinently carried around the 
 whole circumference, whereas, when we look upon a square or cubical form, 
 it requires four separate examinations, each producing a separate effort. 
 N ow, as the images of all objects are not only viewed through a circular 
 aperture, but are also received upon a circular surface, and as the rays 
 
 Doctor Johnson says, “y\s liarmony is the end of poetical measures, no jiart of 
 the verse ought to he so separated from the rest as not to remain still more harmonious 
 than prose, or to show, hy the disposition of the tones, that it is a jiart of a verse." 
 Further on he remarks, “When a single syllable is cut off from the rest, it must either 
 be united to the line with which the sense connects it, or he found alone. If it be united 
 to the other line, it corrujits its harmony; if di.sjointed, it must stand alone, and with 
 regard to music be superfluous; for there is no harmony in a single sound, because it 
 has no jiroportion to another." — K ambler, No. 90. 
 
40 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 by which such images are conveyed fade imperceptibly as they depart from 
 the center of vision, these may be some of the causes why circular or undu- 
 lating forms fall most agreeably upon the eye, especially if we consider that 
 the organ itself moves, as it were, in a circular motion, by means of its 
 muscles, or, as it is commonly termed, the ball and socket.*® There are 
 other reasons why circular forms are most agreeable to the eye, arising 
 from an association of ideas, such as the soft, circular forms of children 
 and youth, compared with the rigid and angular forms of age ; or flowing, 
 undulating lines, conveying a greater idea of motion than lines crossing each 
 other in abrupt opposite directions. Hannony consisting of a certain pro- 
 portion of one part with another, no figure or shape can be harmonious 
 or agreeable unless this arrangement is complete, so as to produce a unity 
 to the eye, or a balance of one portion with another, such as the prepon- 
 derance of perpendicular lines being counteracted by those running in a 
 horizontal direction, or oblique lines antagonized by opposite obliquities, 
 convex by the presence of concave, all mingling together in regular adjust- 
 ment, as in music we find harmony produced by a combination of sounds 
 different in themselves, yet affecting the mind, through the medium of the 
 ear, with one result. Aristotle, in his “Treatise on Poetry,” says : “Beauty 
 consists in magnitude and order, but no animal, or other thing, can be 
 beautiful that is either too small or too large for the eye to take cognizance 
 of its several component parts at once, as in that case the whole, or unity, 
 is lost to the spectator.” That extension of form so conducive to harmony, 
 and productive of an agreeable effect upon the eye, is often taken advantage 
 of in regulating the boundary line to a composition ; thus, we often see a 
 single head of a child, or a group consisting of an assemblage of curved 
 lines, reach the eye more agreeably through a circular frame, as in that 
 case the sensations which arise from such a combination are not disturbed 
 
 “One of the many points of superiority which the eye possesses over the ordinary 
 
 camera oltscura is derived from its spherical shape adapting the retina to receive every 
 
 portion of the images produced by refraction, which are themselves curved: whereas, had 
 they been received on a plane surface, as they usually are in the camera obscura, a 
 considerable portion of the image would have been indistinct. This spherical form is 
 ]ireserved l)y means of the firm membranes which protect the eye, and which are termed 
 its coats; and the transparent media which they enclose, and which effect the convergence 
 of the rays, are termed the humors of the eye. There are in this organ three principal 
 coats and three humors, composing altogether what is called the globe of the eye. The 
 
 outermost coat, which is termed the sclerotica, is exceedingly firm and dense, and gives 
 
 to the globe of tbe eye the mechanical suj)port it requires for the performance of its delicate 
 functions; it is ])crforated l)ehind by the optic nerve, which passes onward to be expanded 
 into tbe retina. The sclerotica does not extend farther than about four-fifths of the globe 
 of tlie eye, its place in front being supplied Ijy a transjiarent convex meml)rane, called the 
 cornea, which is more prominent than the rest of the eyeball; a line passing through the 
 center of the cornea and the center of the glolie of the eye is called the axis of the eye. 
 The sclerotica is lined internally l>y the choroid coat, which is chiefly made up of a tissue 
 of l)lood vessels for siqiplying nourishment to the eye. It has on its inner surface a layer 
 of a dark colored viscid secretion, known by tbe name of the pigmentum nigrum, or black 
 pigment. Its use is to alisorb all the light which may happen to be irregularly scattered 
 through the eye, in consequence of reflection from different quarters; and it serves, 
 tlierefore, the same ])urpose as the black paint with whicli the inside of ojitical instruments, 
 such as telesco])es, microscopes and camerae ol)scurae are darkened. Within the pigmentum 
 nigrum, and almost in immediate contact with it, the retina is expanded, forming an 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 41 
 
 or interrupted. So, likewise, the sight may be conveyed with greater 
 pleasure, and with an increased perspective effect, through a square or oblong 
 aperture, by having the horizontal and perpendicular lines of the frame 
 repeated as they depart from the eye, in diminished lengths and strengths 
 and magnitude, as in Plate V ; also in the curved and horizontal lines of the 
 
 
 architecture of the “School of Athens,” the “Heliodorus,” etc. This mixing 
 up the frame or opening with the work is often of the utmost importance, 
 even when extended to the effect of light and shade and color, as it breaks 
 
 exceedingly thin and delicate layer of nervous matter, supported by a fine membrane. 
 More than three-fourths of the globe of the eye are filled with the vitreous humor, which 
 has the appearance of a pellucid and elastic jelly, contained in an exceedingly delicate 
 texture of cellular substance. The crystalline humor, which has the shape of a double 
 convex lens, is formed of a denser material than any of the other humors, and occupies 
 the fore jiart of the globe of the eye, immediately in front of the vitreous humor, w'hich 
 is there hollow'ed to receive it. The space which iTitervenes between the lens and the 
 cornea is filled with a watery secretion called the aqueous humor. This space is divided 
 into an anterior and posterior chamber by a flat circular partition, termed the iris. The 
 iris has a central perforation, called the pupil, and it is fixed to the edge of the choroid 
 coat by a white elastic ring, called the ciliary liyament. The posterior surface of the iris 
 is called the uvea, and is lined with a dark brown pigment. The structure of the iris is 
 very peculiar, being composed of two layers of contractile fibers; the one forming 
 concentric circles, the other disposed like radii, between the outer and inner margin. 
 When the former act, the pupil is contracted; when the latter act, the breadth of the iris 
 is diminished, and the pupil of course is dilated. By varying the size of the pupil, the 
 quantity of light admitted into the interior of the eye is regulated and accommodated to 
 the sensibility of the retina. When the intensit)^ of the light would be injurious to that 
 highly delicate organ, the pupil is instantly contracted, so as to exclude the greater 
 portion; and on the contrary, when the light is too feeble it is dilated, in order to admit 
 as large a quantity as possible. The iris also serves to intercept such rays as would have 
 fallen on parts of the crystalline lens less fitted to produce their regular refraction.” — 
 Doctor Royet’s Bridgewater Treatise. 
 
42 
 
 AX ESSAY OX THE 
 
 down tliat harshness which otheinvise attracts the eye Avhile examining the 
 work contained within it.^‘ 
 
 CHIARO OSCURO. 
 
 Tliat harmony which is produced by chiaro oscuro, or by the means 
 of black and white, independent of color, depends upon the quantities of 
 light and dark employed and the disposition of them, sometimes meeting 
 in extremes of opposition, in other portions gliding away with imper- 
 ceptible softness into undefined spaces, the light sometimes falling on com- 
 bined objects, giving out a faint halo around the group; in some instances 
 darting out through the dark masses of shadow in shai'p defined shapes, 
 creating by their whole arrangement that mixture of harsh and tender 
 gradations obseiwable in Nature. The power of producing a variety of 
 pleasing sensations upon the eye mainly rests on the conduct of the chiaro 
 oscuro. Objects are rendered either strong or delicate, according as they 
 advance or retire on the perspective plane of the picture. Parts are forced 
 upon the spectators attention by their clear-defined character, and assisted 
 from contrast by groups of Indistinct images imbued with the properties 
 of middle tint. The quantities of dark that are to be allowed to interrupt 
 or pass within the boundaries of the masses of light, or the size of those 
 portions of light which are found within the dominion of shade, either 
 giving depth to it by contrast or destroying its preponderance by pro- 
 ducing a union with the light, are entirely at the guidance of the artist, 
 whose skill is shown in the management of this difficult department, it 
 being entirely under tbe influence of an educated eye. Neither am I aware 
 that its beauty is felt, unless by those whose tastes are refined by long con- 
 templation of the finest works of those who have excelled in the different 
 branches of painting. We know, as is the case in music, though the ear 
 is capable of acquiring a knowledge of twenty thousand simple sounds, 
 all differing in tone and strength,"® yet this power of distinction is not 
 entirely in the construction of the organ, but arises from long observation. 
 Sir Charles Bell says : “That this variety of sensation does not entirely 
 
 =■ This harmonious comihnation of the picture with its frame induces many artists to 
 finish their works after l)eing framed, thetehy assisting them in giving a greater force 
 and dece])tive appearance to the whole; for though this deceptive aiipcarance is argued 
 against hy some, as belonging only to the infancy of the art, and not api)lieable to the 
 higher w;dks of painting, yet the mind cannot be reached through the medium of the 
 eye unless this deception is carried out to a consideraiile extent; neither, as others reason 
 rnore subtly, is it to be regarded as a diminution of our gratification. Dioramas and 
 panoramas "are both pleasing illusions, on this principle alone. De Quincy says, “When 
 the jiainter includes within a narrow comjiass a vast extent of space, when on a flat 
 surface he bears me through the far off regions of the infinite, and makes the air and 
 light ap]iear to circulate around forms devoid of relief, I find delight in abandoning 
 myself to his illusions. But, nevertheless, I would not liave the frame absent; 7 would 
 wish to know lhat what I see is in fact bat a piece of canvas on a perfectly plane 
 surface." — Essai/ on Imitalion in the Fine Arts, Chap. A7T^. 
 
 Reid’s Inquiry Into the Human Mind, p. 98. 
 
PLAl'E V 
 
 Fig. 3 
 
PLATE VI 
 
 Fig. 1 
 
 Fig. 2 
 
 Rembrandt 
 
 Fig. 3 
 
 Etched by J. Burnet 
 
 FiS' 4 Rembrandt 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 
 depend upon the structure, but is the operation of the sense and intellect 
 conjointly, appears from the long experience which is requisite to give this 
 perfection. Nature is bountiful in providing the means of simple and 
 acquired perception, but the latter is the result of long experience and 
 continued effort, though we have lost the feeling of its being a voluntary 
 effort.” We have already noticed some of the most evident properties 
 belonging to the application of shadow, by which we can easily perceive that 
 a mere outline of a group of figures, or a variety of objects, lies like a 
 map under the eye; but, bj' the judicious application of shadow passing 
 among the several forms, they rise up, and assume their various situations 
 according to their relative distances from the eye of the spectator. We 
 can easily carry our imagination further, and assign a reason why some 
 portions are to be subdued, and others brought into notice; but the art 
 of combining the whole, in a harmonious mass of chiaro oscuro, can be 
 
 acquired only by long investigation into the principles of those who have 
 
 excelled in this captivating and imaginative art. Before entering into an 
 examination of this quality, so productive of pleasure, viewing its effect 
 in painting, it will be necessary to examine its cause, and where it exists 
 in natural imagery, the only sui’e source on which we can build with cer- 
 tainty. When we direct our eyes to any particular object, we observe it 
 distinctly defined, while the surrounding objects produce a fainter impres- 
 sion on the retina. We also perceive, on examination, that we often have 
 been attending to the impression made upon one eye only, either from its 
 more favorable position or from a superior goodness in the organ itself. 
 Nevertheless, a number of lateral images are indistinctly hinted at upon 
 the retina of the other, which, by their softness, give a precision to the 
 
 object of our attention, from contrast, and amuse and assist the imagina- 
 
 tion from a variety of circumstances. We know, also, that there are two 
 rep rcsenat ions, one painted in each eye, and, though they form but one in 
 the mind, yet we cannot shut out entirely those hints which may be convej'ed 
 to the fancy from the faintest impressions unconsciously attended to. Add 
 to which the eye, from fatigue in looking at any object attentively, naturally 
 turns for repose to soft masses of shadow and indistinctness. Without 
 following up this subject too minutely, these may be some of the reasons 
 why particular arrangements of chiaro oscuro please the eye more than 
 others."® We also find that, along with indistinctness, a repetition of form 
 and a completeness or unity of shape are very much under its influence. 
 
 This indistinctness also pleases the eye of the spectator, in the same way in which 
 an unfinished sketch gratifies his imagination ; for as every one has different notions of 
 beauty of form, he is left to fill np the images, and shajie them to his own taste: it also 
 pleases the mind, as it gives a sort of creative power, such as is felt when looking njion 
 a discolored wall, or into the dying embers of a fire. Burke even considers it conducive 
 to sublimity; he says, “Even in painting, a judicious obscurity in some things contributes 
 to the effect of the picture, because the images in painting are exactly similar to those 
 in Nature; and in Nature, dark, confused, uncertain images have a greater power on the 
 fancy to form the grander ]iassions than those have which are more clear and determi- 
 nate .” — Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful. 
 
44 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 as may bo observed by trying an experiment as noticed in note 30,®° which 
 will suggest others to the imagination. But whatever way the student takes 
 to get an insight into this great charm of painting, either in arranging his 
 composition so as to suit any particular effect of light and shade, or in 
 trying various means of disti'ibuting light and shade over his design, let 
 him carefully watch, both in Nature and in art, its various combinations, 
 and endeavor to find out the latent cause of its beauty. As the etchings 
 of Rembrandt embrace this quality in the highest degree, from a mere out- 
 line to the most extensive depth of shadow, they ought to be constantly 
 before him when he has it in his power. They ought to be viewed in every 
 direction, to enable the eye to get acquainted with the proportions of light, 
 dark and half-tint. He ought also to engraft the scheme of chiaro oscuro 
 on designs of his own, that the harmony which exists in these wonderful 
 productions may be transferred, if possible, into new inventions, as in 
 Plate VI. 
 
 HARMONY OF COLOR. 
 
 The power of combining sounds whose united influence shall call into 
 existence, through the medium of the ear, those latent seeds by which the 
 violent or tender passions are excited is too well understood to require 
 explanation. That there exists the same sources of enjoyment in the 
 human mind which are capable of being awakened through the medium of 
 the eye is equally certain, otherwise the painter could not produce, by a 
 combination of color, those effects which surprise or delight the spectator. 
 Locke describes colors as only ideas of the mind apprehended by the 
 imagination, and not qualities that have any existence in matter. Newton 
 says colors have their origin in the different refrangibility of the ra 3 's of 
 light, and are not received from reflections or refractions from natural 
 bodies. Without, however, entering too minutely into the philosophy of 
 colors, it will be necessary to inquire what are the colors which affect the 
 eye most, or from w'hat arrangement hannony arises. We observe that 
 children and rude nations®^ are most attracted by strong colors, from the 
 
 we take a pen and sketch in a row of buildings, trees, etc., running from one 
 side to a point of siglit in the center, blotting in shadows broad and dark on the near 
 objects, and while the ink is wet fold the paper across the point of sight, so as to take 
 off an imj>ression on the opposite side, the eye is not only gratified by a greater mixture 
 of shar]) and soft ])ortions, but by a greater unity, and balance of ])arts, one side with 
 another, and a repetition of the sky line with the lines of the ground; or if we draw in 
 a gronj) of trees and fold the paj>er across at the base of their stems, so as to take off 
 a faint impression, as if reflected in water, the same agreeable sensation will be produced. 
 
 ’’It is evident that gay colors of all kinds are a principal source of pleasure to 
 young children, and they seem to strike them more jrarticularly when mixed together 
 in various waj'S. Whether there be anything in colors which corresponds to the harmony 
 of sound may be doubted; if there be, it must, however, admit of much greater latitude 
 than the harmony between sounds, since all mixtures and degrees of color, unless when 
 the quantity of light overpowers the eye, are ])lea.sant: however, one color may be more 
 so originally than another. Black ajipears to be originally disagreeable to the eyes of 
 children; it becomes disagreeable also very early from associated influences. In adults, 
 the ])leasures of mere colors are very languid, in comjiarison of their present aggregates 
 
EDL'CATIOX OF THE EYE. 
 
 45 
 
 excitement wliicli tliey produce. I)e la Hire says: “Tlie different degrees 
 
 of excitement produced by colors may be observed by keeping the eye shut, 
 after looking at the sun or any luminous object, for the image left upon 
 the retina will be first red, then yellow, then green, and last of all blue.” 
 We also perceive that the effect produced by strong colors may be increased 
 or diminished by bringing them in contact with others of an opposite hue. 
 Large portions of strong blue coming in contact with red or white (for 
 we find the ground color often a great cause of opposition) affect the eye 
 in a different manner from what the same colors produce when in smaller 
 quantities ; or on a ground of a neutral tint, such as w e see in the specimens 
 found in the Egyptian tombs, contrasted witli the same colors distributed 
 over a Persian shawl. In the latter case the rays coming to the eye from 
 every separate color cross each other, so as to ])i'oduce an agreeable l)ai‘- 
 mony.®" In the former case one color makes too strong an impression on 
 the eye to be obliterated easily, impressions remaining of long or short 
 duration, according to the intensity of light or brightness of the object pro- 
 ducing them. Ileynolds mentions three modes of harmony existing in the 
 arrangement of colors ; one where the colors are of a full and strong body, 
 such as w'e find in the works of Raff'aelle, and which he denominates the 
 Roman manner; another the Bologna style, which mixes several colors 
 together so as to produce a general union in the whole without reminding you 
 of the original colors of which they are composed, and which is carried to 
 the greatest perfection in the small works of the Dutch school; the third 
 is the Venetian, w'here the brightest colors are admitted, with the two 
 extremes of warm and cold hues, and the wliole reconciled and harmonized 
 by being dispersed over the picture, presenting to the eye that sensation 
 arising fi’om a bunch of flowers. Each method seems to have its peculiar 
 province allotted to it, corresj)onding to the subject or style of composition 
 in the design, and chiaro oscuro, according as they depart more or less 
 from common representations of Nature, or retain an entireness or severity 
 of outline. Hannony arising from a corresponding agreement of the several 
 
 of jileasure formed by association. However, the original pleasures of mere colors 
 remain in a small degree to the last, and those transfused upon them hy association with 
 other pleasures (for tlie influence is reei]n-oeal without limits) is a eonsideral)le one — so 
 that our intellectual pleasures are not only at first generated, but afterwards supported 
 and resuscitated in ]iart from the ]ileasures affecting the eye, which holds particularly in 
 resjiect of the pleasures afforded hy the beauties of Nature, and hy the imitation of these 
 which the arts of painting and poetry furnish us with.” — Ilar/Iey on Man, Sense of Sight. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton remarks, that when the refrangihility of any ]iarticular ray 
 produce a certain color, he found it iinjiossihle to change that color, if sufliciently large; 
 he could subdue its intensity, by intercejiting its rays hy colored mediums, hut could not 
 change it in specie. (We find this, which is a kind of glazing, was even practiced hy the 
 ancients.) He found a transmutation of colors might be made by a mixture of different 
 kinds of rays, hut in such mixtures the component colors themselves do not apjiear, hut 
 by their mutually allaying each other, constitute a middle color; and, therefore, if, hy 
 refraction, the different rays he separated, colors will emerge different from that of the 
 com])osition. Thus blue and yellow jiowders finely mixed apjiear green to the naked 
 eye, and yet the colors of the conpionent particles are not thereby really changed, hut only 
 blended ; for when they are viewed with a microscope, they still appear blue and yellow. — 
 Priestley's Remarks on Newton's Optics. 
 
AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 pai’ts, we can easily imagine a suitableness in the coloring to preserve such 
 unity. In the early stages of painting, when the figures possessed a dry, 
 continuous outline, we find the colors laid in strong and bright, so as to 
 give relief unconnected with the effect of aerial perspective. As the art 
 advanced, we find colors made use of in the character of chiaro oscuro, and, 
 when foreshortening and perspective effect occupied a large share in the 
 conduct of the work, we perceive that color became more subordinate, and 
 the outline, light and shade and color assimilated with each other in pro- 
 ducing an effect upon the spectator, arising from neither having a pre- 
 ponderance in claiming his attention. In entering upon a diffuse examina- 
 tion of the foregoing remarks, each separate division would require a 
 lengthened essay to particularize the way in which the eye receives delight 
 from the various modifications of color. A work of this brief description 
 can do little more than point out where the various examples are to be 
 met with, and how they are modified and arranged to harmonize with those 
 sensations which exist in the mind, and cannot be altered or diverted into 
 other channels by the caprice or false taste of any one. I would fain hope 
 I have gone further. I have endeavored to prove that those sources of 
 enjoyment which lie dormant in the human mind, and which through the 
 sense of sight are vivified and called into operation, can only, by the 
 cultivation of that sense, be productive of pleasure.®® I have also endeavored 
 to prove the great utility of the education of the eye as a means of general 
 instruction, giving employment to thousands, while it opens those avenues 
 to science which, even to the great power of language, remain as “books 
 sealed and fountains shut up.” 
 
 STUDYING FROM NATURE. 
 
 Objects drawn from Nature possess a v'ery characteristic difference 
 from those drawn from the combinations of fancy, or from those images 
 presented to the imagination. We find in sketches from Nature many 
 minute circumstances, a truth and precision, a variety and beauty, that 
 objects drawn from memory, or those images under the guidance of the 
 mind only, have no pretension to. The latter possess the general appear- 
 ance merelv like the confused cliaracter of Nature presented to indistinct 
 vision, or, if made out with detail, the minutia' contain a select set of touches 
 or forms, become agreeable from habit, which constitutes mannerism. Such 
 imperfections can be avoided only by having accustomed the eye in the 
 
 ” Addison remarks, tliat a man of ]iolite imagination is let into a great many 
 pleasures that the vulgar are not eapahle of receiving. He can converse with a picture, 
 and find an agreeable eom])anion in a statue. He meets with a secret refreshment in a 
 description, and often feels a greater satisfaction in the prospect of fields and meadows 
 tlian another does in the jiossession. It gives him, indeed, a kind of jiroperty in 
 everytliing he sees, and makes the most rude uncultivated parts of Nature administer to 
 his pleasures: so that he looks upon the world as it were in another light, and discovers 
 in it a multitude of charms tliat conceal themselves from the generality of mankind. — 
 Spectator, No. 411. 
 
EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 
 
 47 
 
 first instance to a scrupulous exactness in delineating objects from Nature, 
 as one or two parts left out may destroy the richness and variety of lines, 
 and an unequal proportion of the forms may deprive tlie copy of the truth 
 and beauty of the original. These peculiarities are also to be examined 
 and contemplated upon, that this character may be engrafted upon works 
 of imagination. Reynolds says : “I very much doubt whether a habit of 
 drawing correctly what we see will not give a proportionate power of 
 drawing what we imagine.” 
 
 To educate the eye to accomplish this it is necessary, in the first 
 instance, to select such objects as are simple in their forms, that the eye 
 may perceive them distinctly, and make them gradually give place to others 
 more complicated, to fit the eye and the hand to a variety of lines. It is 
 also of the first importance that the drawings he made sufficiently large, 
 that an opportunity may be given for filling up the various spaces with 
 the minute parts, and also to prevent the hand acquiring a cramped or 
 little manner of drawing. It is also of equal importance that the object 
 chosen for representation be such as can he compared with the original, 
 to test the exactness of the copy. Much injury and fallacy has arisen 
 from not attending early to a proper mode of study. How often, for 
 example, do we perceive in those who draw landscapes the incapability of 
 drawing the human figure with any degree of correctness. This arises 
 entirely from careless drawing in the first instance. A tree may be imper- 
 fectly drawn, yet look sufficiently true to please most spectators ; but the 
 human figure possesses proportions, the want of which can be easily detected ; 
 but, had we an opportunity of comparing the tree with the original in 
 Nature, we should discover tlie resemblance to he equally imperfect, for an 
 eye capable of drawing correctly can draw any object presented to it, 
 Avhether simple or complicated. Educating the eye in the first instance in 
 tlie elements of lineal and aerial perspective gives it a clearer insight into 
 the causes of the changes of form and shadow observable in all objects, while 
 drawing from the objects themselves in place of copies gives it a power 
 of perception^^ and a knowledge of embodying forms in composition quite 
 unattainable by any other method. When w'e consider that the images of 
 objects dwell upon the retina only while the eye is directed to them, and, 
 like the pictures on the table of the camera obscura, instantaneously vanish 
 when we turn to something else, we may perceive the necessity of keeping 
 each several part sufficiently long under examination before delineating it, 
 
 Doctor Jurin observes, that the eye, as well as other parts of the frame, acquires 
 strength and perfection from frequent use of the muscles, as is noticed in the eyes of 
 sportsmen, travelers, sailors, etc., who see better at long distances; while those whose 
 professions lead them to close examination, see better at small distances: but drawing 
 from Nature, espeeially distant prosi)ects, perfects the eye in both these extremes, as 
 we have to carry the vision to examine objects far off, and immediately transfer it to 
 a near examination on the paper close to the eye, for this organ is wonderfully provided 
 w'ith the means of ehanging the crystalline lens, both for pushing it forward from the 
 retina, and rendering it more convex when viewing near objects; and also for drawing 
 it more within the vitreous humor and rendering it flatter when examining distant objects. 
 — See Doctor Jurin on Distinct Vision, and Potlerfield on the Eye. 
 
48 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 that the mind may be put in possession of its form and color, so as to 
 retain it in the memory not only while copying it, but with such an impres- 
 sion as will improve and enrich the imagination with a multiplicity of 
 imagei’y. Those who advocate the study of Nature, without educating the 
 eye in the first instance, are not aware that it is the superfices of things 
 only which present themselves to' the outward vision, and, without a monitor 
 to direct, the art would always be in its infancy.®® A tree drawn by a 
 beginner represents a flat image, like a plant or a piece of sea weed dried 
 between the leaves of a book. A figure represents but the section of one, 
 for even if the foreshortened portions were perceived, he is incapable of giving 
 them the perspective appearance, or lifting it from the ground by means 
 of the application of light and shade. The first restorers of the art in 
 Italy advanced but little beyond the flat brasses that supplied them with 
 the means of design. Even in the hands of Giotto and Masaccio fore- 
 shortening was but little attended to, and then from a want of light and 
 shade to give the parts their relative situations, looked cramped and feeble. 
 It was not till the master minds of Leonax'do da Vinci and Michael Angelo 
 grappled with the subject that difficulties disappeared. Those portions 
 of the figure were no longer represented in profile views, but advanced or 
 receded from the spectator, and whole groups, in place of looking like a 
 continuous frieze, were turned around and sunk in the depths of the com- 
 position by means of lineal and aerial perspective. Raffaelle, by taking 
 advantage of the works of those who had preceded him, carried the art to 
 a state of perfection which the study of Nature, notwithstanding his constant 
 application to her, never could have enabled him to achieve. The contem- 
 plation of the fine works of antiquity created elevated visions of ideal com- 
 position, while his constant application to Nature for the details enabled 
 him to give a reality and identity to the creations of his imagination. With- 
 out the eye being made acquainted with the beauties of those who have 
 advanced the art to its present state, either progressively, by studying the 
 best works, or by commencing a course of drawing froixi antique sculpture, 
 it will be impossible to select what is beautiful in Nature, or be able to choose 
 one point of view more interesting than another. It will also be Impossible 
 to combine a variety of objects, unless we have a knowledge of those prin- 
 ciples upon which the various woi’ks are constructed that have given satis- 
 faction ; for, though, as is the case with music, the varieties are endless, 
 vet the science is simple, and to be perceived by those who investigate the 
 arrangements of harmony. He who attempts to study from Nature unas- 
 sisted by education, in the first instance, will find himself often mistaken 
 
 36 “Cicero remarks, that not to know what has been transacted in former times, Is 
 to continue always a child. If no use is made of the labors of past ages, the world 
 must remain always in the infancy of knowledge. The discoveries of every man must 
 terminate in his own advantage, and the studies of every age be employed on questions 
 which the past generation had discussed and determined. We may with as little reproach 
 borrow science as manufactures from our ancestors; and it is as rational to live in caves 
 till our own hands have erectetl a jialace, as to reject all knowledge of architecture, which 
 our understandings will not supply .” — Doctor Johnson. 
 
EDUCATIOX OF THE EYE. 
 
 49 
 
 in liis results ; neither will he arrive at so certain or so expeditious a method 
 of delineating objects with truth and feeling, as he will be continually in 
 dread of falling into error. Leonardo da Vinci says : “Theory is the great 
 
 director of exj)eriinent, the only interpreter of the works of Nature, which 
 is never wrong. It is our judgment which is sometimes deceived, because 
 we are expecting results which experiment refuses to give. We must consult 
 experiment and vary the circumstances till we have deduced general rules, 
 for it alone can furnish us with them, and general rules direct us in our 
 inquiries into Nature and the operations of art. They keep us from deceiv- 
 ing ourselves and others by promising ourselves results which we can never 
 obtain.” 
 
 This is the expei’ience which enables the artist to select and combine, 
 to leave out or add to the various appearances presented to his eye. Why 
 is it, for example, that the portrait painter, when his sitter is placed before 
 him, turns the head, first to one side, then to the other, and contemplates 
 it also under a variety of effects of light and shade It is to observe the 
 best arrangement of the features, to select that view of the head which 
 develops the greatest character and the most beautiful points. To enable 
 the eye to make these selections it is necessary to combine with the study 
 of Nature the study of the works of those eminent men who have preceded 
 us. The works of Titian will convince the student how' much quiet grandeur 
 is to be produced by simplicity and breadth. The works of Vandyke exem- 
 plify the art of arrangement and a beautiful distribution of the features, 
 also the art of uniting the several parts by means of light and shade, or dis- 
 position of the hair, or subordinate accessories. This power of planning 
 out or adjusting the several parts to the best advantage may be acquired 
 by long contemplation of the various combinations observed in Nature; 
 but a reference to the etchings by Vandyke, and the prints after him, will 
 facilitate the student in his inquiries. We know that Rubens advised Van- 
 d3'ke and Valasquez to study the works of Titian as the best means of arriving 
 at perfection in portrait painting; and so uniform has been this mode of 
 acquiring correct knowledge that the works of Reynolds or of Lawrence 
 ma}" be studied as the best means of shortening labor, these artists having 
 adopted the principles existing in the works of their great predecessors 
 so as to suit the fashion and taste of their own times, but along with such 
 stud^" bringing their own genius to the incessant contemplation of Nature; 
 for, as Bacon observes, “to spend too much time in studies is sloth ; to 
 use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly 
 by their rules is the humor of a scholar. They perfect Nature, and are 
 perfected by experience, for natural abilities are like natural plants that 
 need pruning by" study, and studies themselves do give forth directions too 
 much at large, except they be bounded in by experience.” 
 
 The art of studying from Nature may be, therefore, considered as 
 implying that which we perceive through the medium of our own eyes, and 
 those things made apparent through the spectacles of other men, for seeing 
 
50 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE 
 
 Nature does not merely mean seeing the exact length and breadth of any 
 object, but means the power of discerning her beauties and defects, those por- 
 tions which are to be preserved and the mode of heightening their effect upon 
 the eye of the spectator, and the several parts which operate detrimentally to 
 the general arrangement of the whole, which are to be intercepted by other 
 objects, or left out entirely.®® For, as the accidental combinations of Nature 
 are thrown together uncontrolled by the likings or dislikings of any one, 
 the greatest study is necessary, so as to form a complete work which shall 
 possess all the appearance of chance combined with the most skillful adjust- 
 ment ; for example, what a variety of appearances do not the effect of light 
 and shade produce upon the same scene, viewed at various times of the 
 day, or seen under the advantages or disadvantages of accidental arrange- 
 ments of objects. This power of discemment is, therefore, to be acquired 
 by the study of the works of those who have excelled in the different depart- 
 ments of the art, and afterward perfected in searching out and contem- 
 plating the beautiful combinations which lie scattered in the endless varieties 
 of Nature. This mode of study alone can enable one artist to surpass 
 another in the power of selection, and the same scene, bald and ineffective 
 in the hands of one, may be rendered full and of rich effect by another who 
 has watched a more favorable arrangement, and wlio has followed up and 
 completed the various hints derived from accidental combinations, as in 
 Plate VII, Figs. 1 and 2. 
 
 Thus the study of Nature is conducive to perfect the education of the 
 C 3 'e, b^' careful investigation of her Avorks ourselves, and by being able to 
 comprehend and appreciate the works of those who have most successfully 
 studied her; and this not in a lukewarm or superficial manner, but with 
 that noble enthusiasm Avhich stimulated the genius of iVIichael Angelo through 
 a long life, and, even when deprived of the power of vision from old age, 
 made him order his attendants to convey him to the gardens of the Medici, 
 that he might feel and pass over with his hands the glorious remains of 
 Grecian art on whose statues he had founded his own education. 
 
 Nothinp: can be so iinphilosophical as a supposition that we can form any idea of 
 beauty or excellence out of or beyond Nature, which is and must be the fountain-head 
 from whence all our ideas must be derived. This being acknowledged, it must follow, of 
 course, that all the rules which this theory, or any other teaches, can be no more than 
 
 teaching the art of seeing Nature. The rules of art are formed on the various works of 
 
 those who have studied Nature most successfully; by this advantage, of observing the 
 various manners in which various minds have contemplated her works, the artist enlarges 
 his own views, and is ta\ight to look for and see what otherwise would have escaped his 
 observation. It is to be remarked, that there are two modes of imitating Nature; one of 
 which refers for its truth to the sensations of the mind, and the other to the eye. Some 
 schools, such as the Roman and Florentine, appear to have addressed themselves principally 
 to the mind; others solely to the eye, such as the Venetian, in the instances of Paul 
 Veronese and Tintoret; others, again, have endeavored to unite both, by joining the 
 elegance and grace of ornament with the strength and vigor of design; such are the 
 schools of Bologna and Parma. All these schools are equally to be considered as 
 
 followers of Nature. He wlio jiroduces a work analogous to the mind or imagination of 
 
 man is as natural a painter as he whose works are calculated to delight the eye; the 
 works of Michael Angelo or Julio Romano, in this sense, may be said to be as natural as 
 those of the Dutch painters. — Keiinold't’s Notes Upon Fresnoy’s Art of Painting. 
 
PLATE \TI 
 
 2 . 
 
 EccJiAd 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 
 
 ON 
 
 COMPOSITION IN ART 
 
>1 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 
 
 ON 
 
 COMPOSITION IN ART 
 
 II.Ll^STUATED }iY 
 
 Examples from the Great Masters 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ITALIAN, FLEMISH, DIM'CH AND ENGLISH SCHOOLS 
 
 BY JOHN BURNET, F. R. S. 
 
 “ Invention is one of the great marks of genius: but, if we consult experience, we shall find that it is by 
 being conversant with the inventions of others tliat we learn to invent, as, by reading the thoughts of 
 others we learn to think." SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 FRANK V. CHAMBERS, PUBLISHER 
 1913 
 
1‘RINTEl) KY CHAMIJERS PRESS 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
PREFACE 
 
 'I'he Plates hereto annexed were orifrinally intended to illustrate the first 
 part of a Practical Essay on Paintin^pr, which I have long’ had in contemplation 
 to publish ; but have delayed, fi’oin year to }"ear, from its interruption to my 
 professional engagements, from doubts respecting its utility, and a love of ease 
 which, after the day’s employment, suggests a more natural recreation than 
 the investigation of an abstruse study ; I now publish the plates with a few 
 loose hints thrown together, in the hope of their being useful. Should they 
 be thought of advantage to the youngei’ students of painting, in directing 
 theii’ minds to a i-egular mode of investigating the inti’icacies of the art, I 
 shall follow them with others illustrative, in the first instance, of Light and 
 Shade, and, ultimately, of the arrangement of Color. On the contrary, should 
 the work not be considered a desideratum, l)v publishing only a first part, 
 I escape a heavy responsibility’ and expense — a tax to which I do not wish that 
 either my vanity or my love for the fine arts should subject me. 
 
 JOHN BURNET. 
 
 March 25, 1822 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 
 
 OX 
 
 COMPOSITION IN ART 
 
 KV 
 
 JOHN R UR NET, E. R. S. 
 
 COMPOSITION. 
 
 Composition is the art of arranging figures or objects, so as to adapt 
 them to any pai’ticular subject. In composition four requisites ai*e neces- 
 sary : that the story be well told ; that it possess a good general form ; that 
 it be so arranged as to be capable of receiving a proper effect of light and 
 shade, and that it be susceptible of an agreeable disposition in color. The 
 form of a composition is best suggested by the subject or design, as the 
 fitness of the adaptation ought to appear to emanate from the circumstances 
 themselves ; hence the variety of compositions. 
 
 The point of time being fixed upon, the action, expression, and inci- 
 dental circumstances oblige us often to determine on a particular arrange- 
 ment, that we may be enabled to place the most interesting objects in the 
 most prominent places. Unless our attention be directed to such arrange- 
 ment in the first instance, we shall often be obliged to put an emphasis on 
 an insignificant object, or throw into repose an interesting point of the 
 action, when we come to consider their relation to a good effect of light 
 and shade. 
 
 To secure a good general form in composition it is necessary that it 
 should be as simple as possible. A confused complicated form may hide 
 the art, but can never invite the attention. Horace, in his Art of Poetry, 
 inculcates the same doctrine, ‘‘‘Denique sit quod vis, simjdex duntaxat et 
 unum.” Whether this is to be produced by a breadth of light and shade, 
 which is often the case with Rembrandt, even on a most complicated outline. 
 
2 
 
 PRACTICAL HIXTS OX COMPOSITIOX. 
 
 or by the simple arrangement of color, as we often find in Titian, or by the 
 construction of the group in the first instance, evident in many of Raffaele’s 
 works, must depend upon the taste of the artist ; it is sufficient to direct 
 the younger students to this particular, their minds being generally car- 
 ried away by notions of variety and contrast. 
 
 In giving a few examples of compositions, I have confined myself to 
 the four simple and principal forms ; not only from their being most pal- 
 pable, but also from their possessing a decided character, wdiich is at all 
 times desirable. To those wdio imagine that such rules tend to fetter genius, 
 I shall merely quote Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose M'orks, if properly under- 
 stood, render all other writings on the subject of painting superfluous. 
 “It must, of necessity, be that even works of genius, like every other effect, 
 as they must have their cause, must likewise have their rules ; it cannot be 
 by chance that excellencies are produced with any constancy or any cer- 
 tainty, for this is not the nature of chance ; but the rules, by which men of 
 extraordinary parts and such as are called men of genius work, are either 
 such as they discover by their own peculiar observations, or of such a nice 
 texture as not easily to admit being expressed in words ; especially as artists 
 are not very frequently skillful in that mode of communicating ideas. 
 I insubstantial, however, as these rules may seem, and difficult as it may be 
 to convey them in writing, they are still seen and felt in the mind of the 
 artist ; and he works from them with as much certainty as if they were 
 embodied, as I may say, upon paper. It is true these refined principles 
 cannot be always made palpable, like the more gross rules of art ; yet it 
 does not follow, but that the mind may be put in such a train that it shall 
 perceive, by a kind of scientific sense, that propriety which words, partic- 
 ularly words of unpracticed writers such as we are, can but very feebly 
 suggest.” (Sixth Discourse.) 
 
 To assist in putting the mind in such a train is all that these examples 
 aim at ; and to render apparent to the young artist what he will find 
 wrapped up in theoretical disquisition. 
 
 The specimens here given merely happened to be in my possession ; 
 there are many others that will serve the student, perhaps better, for 
 illustration, which he ought by all means to procure, or make sketches of ; 
 as it is only by rendering himself master of the subject that he can hope 
 to avoid the commonplace effects which swim upon the surface, and, being 
 palpable, are adopted by every one whose judgment cannot carry him into 
 the intricacies of the art. 
 
 Concealing the art is one of its greatest beauties ; and he best can 
 accomplish that who can discover it under all its disguises. I ought, how- 
 ever, to caution the young artist on this head, not to be too fastidious in 
 trying to conceal wfiiat can be obvious only to a small number; for, in 
 endeavoring to render his design more intricate, he may destroy character, 
 simplicity and breadth; qualities which affect and are appreciated by every 
 
 one. 
 
PRACTICAI. HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 3 
 
 ANGULAR COMPOSITION. 
 
 Exptanation of Plate I. 
 
 Fig. 1. — In commencing a composition, it is customary to mark the 
 middle of the space, for the purpose of arranging those points we consider 
 of most importance to the subject; dividing the picture for the regulation 
 of the masses of light and shade, of ascertaining and fixing the horizontal 
 line, etc. This mode of constructing the composition is often suggested 
 from the perspective effect requiring a length of line, thereby obliging us 
 to place the point of sight at one side of the picture; sometimes from the 
 group requiring a large space ; which a diagonal line secures, as in the 
 “Elevation of the Cross,” by Rubens, or from the conduct of light, as in his 
 picture of the “Descent from the Cross,” etc. 
 
 Cuyp, in adopting this mode of composition in most of his pictures 
 which are generally “Sunset” or “Sunrise”), places the focus of light at the 
 bottom of the sky, thereby enabling the distant part of the landscape to 
 melt into it by the most natural means ; m bile the strongest part of his sky, 
 being at the opposite angle, produces the greatest expanse, and mixes and 
 harmonizes with the dark side of the picture. Thus the eye is carried 
 round the composition, until the two extremes are brought in contact, the 
 most prominent with the most retiring. 
 
 In compositions constructed on this principle (particularly where the 
 landscape occupies a large portion), many artists carry the lines of the 
 clouds in a contrary direction, to counteract the appearance of all the 
 lines running to one point. Thus using the darks of the clouds, etc., to 
 antagonize, as it is termed, may apparently produce a better equipoise, but 
 sacrifices many advantages ; for we observe in many of the pictures of Cuyp, 
 Rubens and Teniers, where the figures, landscape and sky are all on the 
 same side of the composition, that a rich and soft effect is produced ; the 
 strong light and dark touches of the figures telling with great force against 
 a background of houses, trees, etc., which are prevented from being harsh 
 and cutting, by mixing their edges with the clouds, or dark blue of the sky. 
 Th is doubling of the lines (if I may so express it) gives a picture that rich 
 fullness which we often perceive in a first sketch, from its possessing several 
 outlines. Those who imagine that by thus throwing the whole composition 
 on one side a want of union will be produced will be convinced of their 
 error by perceiving how small an object restores the lialance ; since, by its 
 being detached and opposed to the most distant part, it receives a tenfold 
 consequence. 
 
 Pi.ATE 1 — Figs. 3 and — In these compositions Potter has made use 
 of the sky as a background, by which mode the high lights of his group have 
 more value, and it is rendered less harsh and cutting; which is the case 
 with his famous picture of “The Bull,” the figures in which are brought up 
 against the light sitle of the sky. If deception and strong relief were all 
 
4 
 
 PEACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 he aimed at, he has gained them both, though at the expense of some of the 
 higher qualities of the art, “a melting and union,” as Reynolds terms it, of 
 the figures with the background. The art is now too far advanced to allow 
 us to be gratified with violent contrast ; and a small portion of the group, 
 coming firm off the ground, is found to be sufficient to give the appearance 
 of natural solidity to the whole. 
 
 Fiff. 5 . — The original of this sketch, a small etching by Ostade, ought 
 to be in the possession of every artist, for its beautiful arrangement of 
 light and shade, and the skillful way in which they are woven together. As 
 I ought to have noticed above, that the principal mass of light in out-of- 
 door scenes (both in Nature and the best masters) is generally placed in the 
 sky, or upper part of the picture, I may here remark, that in interiors 
 (especially such as are constructed upon this plan) it is generally reversed, 
 the roof and background being reserved for a mass of shadow and repose. 
 Ostade, in his compositions, displays such an ingenuity in their construction 
 as to render his pictures an endless source of gratification and study to 
 the artist. In some of his works the art is so completely hid as to make 
 it difficult to say whether his background or figures were the first composed. 
 We have not only objects intercepting each other in the most natural and 
 picturesque manner, but the figures carried up against them ; thus coming 
 in contact with various forms, different in size, distance and color. This, 
 when done with judgment, gives a rich and inartificial effect. On the con- 
 trary, in the pictures of Teniers, we often find a number of objects cast 
 down in one corner, evidently for the mere purpose of being painted; which, 
 however, from their situation, their picturesque arrangement and the 
 mechanical skill of the execution, acquire a force, natural sharpness and 
 beauty, that amply compensates for the ostentatious display of such excel- 
 lencies. Tenler’s backgrounds are also totally different from Ostade’s 
 principle ; his figures being generally surrounded with black spaces of shadow 
 or half-tint. When a story is to be told that requires the spectator to 
 be directed to the heads and hands for expression and action this breadth 
 is more allowable; but breadth, as Mr. Fuseli justly observes, ought never 
 to have the appearance of “flatness or insipidity.” It is observable that, 
 in an exhibition where there are a number of objects to distract the atten- 
 tion, those pictures please us most on which the eye is allowed to rest, from 
 their possessing a vacant space; but those very pictures uniformly look 
 blank and unfurnished when hung up singly in a room. 
 
 Plate I — Fig. 6. — Claude, in many of his compositions, displays very 
 little address in bringing up his strong dark against the light. In him, it 
 often looks like unaffected primitive simplicity ; but it might not be so con- 
 sidered in an artist of the present day. When Claude introduces a figure 
 for such purpose, or in order to give a retiring delicacy to his distance, 
 we often find it of a strong dark blue, which serves also to bring down the 
 same color from the opposite angle of the sky, thereby producing a union 
 between both sides of the picture. 
 
PLATE I 
 
 J'c'hr: ^wr-nft Sc 
 
PLATE II 
 
PRACTICAT, HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 5 
 
 Plate II — Fig. 1 . — As this is merely a further illustration of the prin- 
 ciple noticed in Plate I, I can only refer to the remarks contained in the 
 explanation of that plate. I may here, however, point out the length of 
 line produced by the cattle, goats, etc., as it assists the perspective effect 
 in conveying the eye into the picture, serving also as a base line for the 
 landscape to rest upon. When the sun is placed near the point of sight 
 we sometimes see shadows made use of for the same purpose. A straight 
 line is often necessary also for the sake of variety ; and when architecture 
 is not present we must get it how and where we can. 
 
 Fig. — Rubens m this landscape has carried the lines of the clouds, 
 trees and ground, all in the same direction ; and, from his placing the sun 
 near the point of sight, even his shadows take the same course. When the 
 most prominent or strong dark of the foreground is detached from the 
 side of the picture, it has not only a less formal appearance, but acquires 
 a force from its being cut out on both sides by light ; as we shall find when 
 we come to treat of Chiaroscuro. The lights also acquire a force and bril- 
 liancy from their being surrounded with dark, and the extent of the distance 
 and continuity of the line are not altogether interrupted. 
 
 Fig. 3 . — In this subject, “Huntsman Going Out in the Morning,” we 
 have the principal group of a complete form in itself, yet forming a part 
 of a whole, in consequence of its being carried round by the two dogs in the 
 foreground, and connected by the principal dog in the other group turning 
 round to the noise. As it is a doubt in the minds of some artists how far 
 it is agreeable to the rules of composition to admit a figure complete in 
 itself as a portion of a group, I shall only observe here, that, as far as form 
 is concerned, their objection cannot apply; and as to individual parts, 
 we see not only heads and hands complete as to form and light and shade ; 
 but we find that even an ejm is capable of possessing all the characteristic 
 beauties of the art. In fact, this application of it in the abstract, as well 
 as in the aggregate, pervades everything. 
 
 An object must not only appear to possess those properties adapted 
 by Nature for its purpose and protection, but also those qualities which 
 have been found by the experience of the best masters productive of beauty ; 
 this renders it a source of gratification ; and it is then said to be true to 
 Nature and art. For example, if we examine an eye turned from the light, 
 we perceive a breadth of chiaroscuro ; the white, or cornea, producing a 
 mass of light, the iris and pupil a mass of shade. We find each of these 
 focused, and a small portion of the strong dark and strong light brought 
 inj contact ; and the light passing through the iris gives it its transparency, 
 and serves instead of reflected light to clear up the shadow ; the watery fluid, 
 in the bottom of the eye and on the under eyelid, gives us that portion of 
 minute finish necessary in all works of art, to which even the protecting 
 hairs contribute. We have here a picture complete in itself ; but if we 
 carry our examination to the surrounding lines in the orbit we perceive a 
 harmonious communication and extension of its form, lights and darks, by 
 
FRACTICAT. HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 which its harshness is softened and diffused, and it becomes a part of the 
 composition of the whole countenance. 
 
 Plate II — Fig. — I have given a gradual advancement of the most 
 prominent and dark part of a composition, until, in this example, we have 
 the strongest point brought into the center. In the original, “The 
 Embarkation of the Prince of Orange,” the two principal figures are 
 dressed in strong red, and strong black, and are the most cutting part of 
 the group; and, from their being brought into the center and against 
 the most retiring part, and surrounded by light, Cuyp has rendered them 
 of the greatest importance, though occupying only a very small portion 
 of the picture. 
 
 ANGULAR COMPOSITION. 
 
 Plate III — Fig. 1 . — The plan of composition I have here taken up is 
 in the form of a diamond ; wdiich we find often adopted, either as a complete 
 group, or as forming part of a more complicated arrangement. In com- 
 mencing a composition, I have mentioned, “that it is of importance to mark 
 in those points most necessary to our purpose.” For example, when a story 
 is to be told, the heads and hands, the seats of action and expression, are 
 often referred to each other for the completion of form or extension of 
 light; as by such means the eye of the spectator is led to the commencement 
 and operation of the incident. After arranging the principal points, wLat 
 are called the “secondary” require the greatest consideration ; whether for 
 the repetition of the lines, extension of the form or conduct of the light and 
 shade. Sometimes we are actuated by our requiring a second or third group 
 for the better illustration of the story, which naturally leads us in the direc- 
 tion that affords us the greatest space; sometimes by the principal group 
 demanding a considerable portion of the ground for a mass of shadow, 
 beyond which a strong point is required, as a link of communication between 
 the figures and the background. By making this point the strongest of a 
 secondary group of objects, either from its size, lights or darks, the eye 
 is carried into the most remote circumstances, which become a part of the 
 whole, from the principal group, being made to depend upon such point for 
 tlie completion of its form, the extension of the light, or the repetition of 
 color. 
 
 Fig. H . — In designs constructed upon this plan (especially of the Dutch 
 School), we generally find the lower part of the form strongly pronounced, 
 either by color, or by light upon a dark ground, or vice versa ; this gives 
 tlie group a firm foundation, and also enables the artist to keep the other 
 objects in their proper situations as to distance from the eye. I wish 
 particularly to direct the student‘s attention to this particular, as a doc- 
 trine, founded upon the rays of vision, has been attempted to be estab- 
 lished, viz.: tliat objects as they recede from the center of the picture, 
 either to the sides or bottom, ought to be deprived of part of their force of 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 7 
 
 light and shade and color. This is neither Nature nor art. If the subject 
 requires those objects to be kept subordinate, true art does not deprive them 
 of their natural force by robbing them of their lights, darks or colors; it 
 renders them less obtrusive by the ground which surrounds them, or sub- 
 stitutes other objects of a less attractive quality. 
 
 Plate III — Fig. 3 . — By making the circumstance from which the story 
 springs a strong point (either from suitation, force or color), and sur- 
 rounding it with those objects more immediately connected, and most illus- 
 trative of its effects, the picture explains itself at a glance ; which is one 
 of the strong distinctions of painting from poetry — the one proceeding in 
 a circuitous route to hide the denouement, and keep hold of the attention, 
 the other proclaiming instantaneously the beginning and end of the story. 
 I do not mean that the circumstance ought always to occupy the center, 
 any more than that the hero should always occupy the center ; but as it is of 
 use to explain the cause of his action and expression, it has, in my mind, a 
 prior claim to consideration. 
 
 Plate III — Figs. and 6 — Plate IV — Fig. 5 . — We have the strongest 
 light coming in contact with the strong dark in the most cutting manner, 
 in the knee and leg of the falling figure, the arm of the man writing and 
 in the head of the infant Christ. When this can be done without inter- 
 fering with the breadth of light, it is of the greatest consequence, both on 
 account of its giving a thickness or rotundity to the group, and also because 
 it enables us to keep the most projecting points and the most retiring in 
 their proper places by analogy to one another. I am aware that the man- 
 agement of light and shade often requires a sacrifice of this principle ; where 
 we can accomplish our object without such a sacrifice it has always the most 
 natural appearance. Many accidental combinations and beautiful effects 
 of Nature arise not merely from their possessing a good general form and 
 a pictorial arrangement of light and shade, but also from the most pro- 
 jecting points being often assisted by a combination of a harsh cutting line, 
 strong dark and light, or opposition of local color, and hence they strike 
 tlie artist as being applicable to painting; these being the means he finds 
 frequently adopted by the best masters. It is only under such favorable 
 circumstances that the artist can enter the lists with Nature ; and, having 
 but a flat surface to work upon, he is warranted in availing himself of every 
 assistance science can afford. In arranging objects scientifically, to give 
 tliem at the same time the appearance of natural accident, is one of the 
 perfections of the art. 
 
 As the best practical hints are derived from accidental combinations in 
 Nature, whose sudden changes prevent the possibility of sketching, the mind 
 ought to be trained to the most regular and even mechanical mode of arrang- 
 ing the ideas ; that in an instant we may be able to determine whether the 
 effects, which we perceive, depend upon a particular form, upon particular 
 arrangement of the light and shade, or upon the manner in which the hot 
 and cold colors are brought in contract. By thus tracing effects to their 
 
8 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 proper causes we secure the principal points as a sort of shorthand notes 
 to guide and assist the memory. This practice will also open a road of 
 communication hetween the eye and the operations of the mind, which 
 neither a hasty sketch nor the most learned dissertation can, separately, 
 produce. At first it may seem more difficult than it really is ; but a few 
 trials will convince the student of its practicability, especially as the effects 
 that strike him to be the most pictorial are generally the most simple. 
 
 Plate III — Fig. Jf .. — The cards lying on the ground, in this subject, 
 indicate the cause of the quarrel; and the figure entering from an adjoining 
 apartment gives us a hint of the noise generally attending such brawls. 
 As a moral is here introduced, I shall make a few remarks (otherwise irrel- 
 evant to the purpose) in this place. When a picture possesses a moral, it 
 is certainly a great advantage, provided we are not disgusted by its vul- 
 garity, as is the case in the representation of drunkenness, etc., in some of 
 the Dutch School, or by affected sentiment, as in many of the present works 
 of all the schools. The moral must also never injure the picture in its higher 
 requisites. In the early ages, representations of vice were necessary as 
 strong lessons of morality ; but as mankind grew more enlightened, they 
 were referred to books, not pictures, for improvement. Besides, an artist 
 ouglit always to recollect that he paints for the higher, not for the lower, 
 classes of men ; and as his business is to convey pleasure, not pain, a little 
 intercourse with society will convince him that men in all ranks have often 
 enough to vex them, or to produce a variance with their fellow creatures, 
 without hanging up on their walls representations tending to Increase either 
 the one or the other feeling. The absence of these considerations in an artist 
 (of which we see daily proofs) dooms his works to that neglect which he 
 ascribes to the want of encouragement to the arts generally. Representa- 
 tions of tragical events also (though possessing a fine moral or sentiment) 
 have received but little patronage in this country ; whether it is that they 
 are not suited to the character of the nation, who, though not averse to the 
 representation of a tragedy on the stage, are unwilling to choose a constant 
 companion from sucli a class, or that there are few of those connoisseurs 
 whose feelings arc completely absorbed in the contemplation of high art, is 
 a question which this is not the proper place to discuss ; the fact is, however, 
 indisputable. 
 
 Plate III — Fig. 6 . — As this composition consists of a single figure, 
 I shall notice here the method Met/.u has taken to render it a part of the 
 whole, especially as we shall have to refer to other plates, when we come 
 to treat of light and shade and color. The figures dressed in black and 
 white, coming in contact and contrast in the strongest manner ; the black 
 is repeated by the hat, and diffused by the black marble in the floor, the 
 wliite is referred to the white marble in the floor and collected into a mass 
 hv tlie wliite wall ; the carpet, which is of red and warm colors, focused 
 at the light by a stick of wax, is repeated by the back of the chair, and 
 carried up by the outside of the window on the edge of the picture, which 
 
PLATE III 
 
PLATE IV 
 
 n Sc . 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 9 
 
 is painted of a pale red ; the forms are echoed and repeated with the same 
 simplicity, and the picture frame on the wall, from being smaller than the 
 frame of the window, serves at the same time to assist the perspective effect ; 
 even the fastening of the casement is not without its use in the composition. 
 In thus obliging a design to depend on its ground for support, consists the 
 principle of union and harmony ; but, as I have at present only to draw the 
 student’s attention to the arrangement of form and that portion of com- 
 position that arises from the repetition and connection of lines, I shall notice 
 one good plan among many others, which is to mark in strongly those 
 points in the ground which of necessity must be introduced from natural 
 circumstances, at the same time contriving the group so that those points 
 become of the greatest consequence to the composition. This often gives 
 a characteristic stamp of Nature to the whole. 
 
 Plate III — Fig. 7 . — We have here the strong dark point coming in 
 contact with the light ground in the most cutting manner ; which is more 
 naturally accounted for by its being the most projecting; as it is the inside 
 of an empty drinking cup, it perhaps indicates the commencement of the 
 story as well as any other means. 
 
 Plate IV — Fig. 1 . — As an outline can give us little idea of this 
 arrangement, I may be allowed to observe that the four points of light are 
 the upper halves of both the figures (being of a pale yellow), the white 
 dog and a light wall above the fireplace brought in contact with a black 
 powder horn. 
 
 Plate IV — Fig. 2. — Ostade’s pictures have the peculiarly valuable 
 property of looking well at a distance, thereby attracting the attention of 
 the spectator toward them. When we come nigh to examine we find that 
 this is produced by their possessing a decided mass of light, obtained by 
 means of a light wall, sky, etc. His heads and hands form a number of 
 luminous spots in a mass of half-tint, and are rendered of more value by 
 the introduction of blue and dark draperies ; this requires much considera- 
 tion, in order that these spots may take agreeable and decided forms to 
 prevent confusion. In Ostade’s works it is rendered the more easy, as he 
 has seldom any particular story to interfere with the arrangement. His 
 pictures call to my mind a passage in Hervey, which appears like the lan- 
 guage of a painter, so completely consonant is it to the principles on which 
 he constructs his work. Speaking of the stars, Hervey says, “On a care- 
 less inspection you perceive no accuracy or uniformity in the position of the 
 heavenly bodies, they appear like an illustrious chaos, a promiscuous heap 
 of shining globes, neither ranked in order nor moving by line ; but wdiat 
 seems confusion is all regularity ; what carries a show of negligence is 
 really the result of the most masterful contrivance.” 
 
 Fig. 3. — P. de Laer, from his long residence among the Italian painters, 
 has constnicted most of his pictures, though generally in the low w'alks of 
 art, on the most regular and severe principles of their grandest composi- 
 tions. As this regularity is considered by some to be incompatible with 
 
10 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 the negligence of arrangement which they suppose necessary to the pic- 
 turesque, I shall here make a few observations on that doctrine. I consider 
 it to be false, and not tenable, when referred to the operations of Nature; 
 for we find her conducting and exhibiting the most beautiful appearances 
 and effects in the humblest and most trifling of her works by the same laws 
 that regulate her in the formation of the most sublime. Abernethy says, 
 “That work is beheld with admiration and delight, as the result of deep 
 counsel, which is complicated in its parts, yet simple in its operations, 
 where a variety of effects are seen to arise from one principle operating 
 uniformly.” When we refer to the great masters in poetry we find that the 
 “Idyls” of Theocritus are not less regular than the “Iliad” of Homer; or 
 the “Georgies” and “Eclogues” of Virgil than the “^iieid.” The English 
 pastorals have failed in giving pleasure, not by the regularity of their con- 
 struction, but in consequence of their not being founded on truth; the lan- 
 guage and scenery not being that of Nature in such situations. 
 
 Let me here caution the student against supposing that I mean gross- 
 ness and vulgarity as proper accompaniments in his representations of 
 common Nature ; he must conevy such scenes to us with the appearance of 
 their having passed through a susceptible and amiable mind, anxious to 
 render Nature agreeable, not to make her disgusting. 
 
 In the work of the best painters in the lower walks of the art, there 
 are numberless examples of this regularity. Even Wouvermans, whose soft 
 and delicate touch seems ill suited to severe regularity of form, or light 
 and shade, has received an advantage by its adoption ; his best pictures 
 being founded on the simple construction of his rival. A regular form can 
 alwa_ys be rendered sufficiently irregular by the means of light and shade ; 
 and if P. de Laer’s pictures possess this property of light and shade too 
 decidedly for such a purpose, we must recollect that from his painting upon 
 a dark red ground (as was used at the time by many of the Italians) his 
 works often look harsh; the lights, from being thickly painted, having 
 resisted the influence of the ground, while his half tints are absorbed and 
 indented in the shadow. 
 
 As the student will have occasion to refer to the prints after the dif- 
 ferent designs here given, I beg leave to remark, that, in most of the Italian 
 prints which I compared with the original pictures, I found the character- 
 istic points often not attended to. The strong lights wanted their value, 
 either from the shadows being deficient in their proper strength and quiet- 
 ness, or from the introduction of aericl perspective (a circumstance seldom 
 influencing the conduct of the great masters either of the Italian or Vene- 
 tian schools), or from the manner in which the strong darks and lights were 
 brouglit in contact. I believe sufficient has already been written on engrav- 
 ing, nor am I against its being considered a liberal translation ; the beauty 
 of lines is, perhaps, the only substitute engravers can give for the alisence 
 of colors ; but surely it is not too much to request, that a strong red, or a 
 strong blue (however ornamented by lines), be referred to its proper scale. 
 
PLATE V 
 
 
 ' '///////'.ifZ/r// 
 
 
 H ^.2 
 
 CoTtisfic. 
 
 Fi^-5 
 

I'KACTICAL HINTS OX COMFOSITIOX. 
 
 11 
 
 either as the extension of light, or the production of shadow. These errors 
 seem to have arisen from contemplating the picture in the twilight, for the 
 more easy detection of the light and shade ; a most fallacious method ; for, 
 in such case, the most projecting and the most retiring colors are rendered 
 similar. 
 
 Plate IV — Fig. 5 . — As in Fig. 2, we may observe this form influ- 
 encing the arrangement of the whole group ; we have here the heads com- 
 posed on the same principle, and repeating each other with a simplicity 
 which is safe only in the hands of the best painters. I have mentioned 
 regularity as a quality to be found in the most sublime subjects in painting; 
 but to infer from that that regularity constituted sublimity were as absurd 
 as to say irregularity constituted the picturesque. 
 
 CIRCULAR COMPOSITION. 
 
 We come now to speak of the Circular Form of Composition, which is 
 applicable to the highest walks of art from its simplicity and extensive 
 sweep ; and to the lowest, from its being finely adapted for the purposes of 
 light and shade. 
 
 Plate V — Fig. 1 . — In this Cartoon we have a fine specimen of this 
 form of composition. In the design a strict adherence to the plan laid 
 down has secured a decided character to the picture. With Raffaelle this 
 seems to have been invaribaly of the first importance ; his worst composi- 
 tions have always a strong feature to recommend them. In this design we 
 have the figures gradually declining from the sides to the center of the 
 circle on the foreground, which enables the spectator to view the whole of 
 the persons employed ; to assist which arrangement Raffaelle has placed the 
 Apostles on an elevated plane; and, by placing the principal in the center, 
 has enabled them to acquire that consequence their diminution would other- 
 wise have deprived them of. The regularity of the composition is also 
 increased by the division of the group into seven figures on each side, and 
 no one, except Ananias and Sapphira, performs an action that is not 
 repeated. Thus simply has Raffaelle contrived not only to tell his story, 
 but also those circumstances which preceded and followed it. This regu- 
 larity will strike the student as being particularly suited to religious sub- 
 jects; but a few attempts to make such uniformity appear a natural emana- 
 tion will compel him to exclaim with the poet: 
 
 “Within that circle none durst walk but he.” 
 
 As I shall have occasion to speak of the repetition of form as being 
 no less essential toward the production of harmony than the repetition of 
 color I may call the student’s attention to it in this place. In compositions 
 embracing many figures a repetition of form and action is often found to 
 be indispensable ; a single figure, in such case being found too small to give 
 importance to any action is referred to the next for assistance ; as, in col- 
 oring, one color is often made to depend upon the adjoining for its shadow 
 
12 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 or enlargement. But, independently of its acquiring a consequence by such 
 extension, harmony requires that a strong action should be, as it were, 
 broken down and diffused through the group. In writing this is generally 
 the case, and the reader is prepared for one sentence by what has preceded 
 it. This simplicity and harmonious communication is to be found in Nature, 
 in the antique, in the best Italian masters and in many of the Dutch, par- 
 ticularly Ostade. It is seldom to be met with in the French school, which 
 is fond of sudden contrast, and insulated action, light and color. 
 
 Plate V — Fig. 2 . — In compositions of out-of-door scenes this circular 
 form of arrangement is often the only opportunity we have of procuring 
 a mass of shade so necessary to the group in a pictoral point of view. I 
 am aware that some sculptors consider the arrangement of their figures 
 degraded by any attention to the picturesque effect of light and shade, 
 which to painters seem more extraordinary, as sculptors have not the 
 means of local color to produce it. With sculpture, however, it is not our 
 province to interfere; I shall only observe that such reasoning never seems 
 to have influenced Coreggio. The most picturesque arrangements in form, 
 and in light and shade, are to be found in his grandest compositions. We 
 have here six heads placed in the most unequal manner, numerically speaking; 
 the shadow is increased by the dark blue dress of the Virgin, and the two 
 most projecting points by the light drapery of the Magdalen and the strong 
 red of St. Jerome; yet this picture is not less sublime than that of “The 
 Doctors of the Church” (Fig. 3), where the six heads are placed in the 
 most regular manner ; four around the altar and one at each side, for the 
 purpose of connecting the lower and upper half of the picture ; the con- 
 sultation of the doctors and the vision expressive of the subject of their 
 research. The prominent points in this work are the same as in Fig. 2, the 
 figure with the book being in a strong red, and the other in white. 
 
 Plate VI — Fig. 1 . — In this subject Rubens displays all the easy 
 fluency of a great master, who would consider such a design only as an 
 amusement. The manner in which the figures are interwoven with each 
 other, the mode resorted to, to assist the projecting and retiring points, 
 and the velocity with which the whole appears to move, are all worthy of 
 the artist’s attention. 
 
 Fig. 2 . — The student may compare this admirable design of West’s, 
 “The Death of General Wolfe,” with Fig. 4, “The Death of St. Jerome,” 
 as Dominichino has adopted the same means to produce his mass of shadow 
 in the middle of the group, and to bring it in contact with the light on the 
 principal figure. 
 
 Fig. 3 . — As I shall have occasion to refer to the examples of this great 
 master of light and shade in their proper place it would be unfair to make 
 any observations on him here, wdicre he appears, as Milton would express 
 it, “short of his beams.” I may, however, remark that, from his making 
 use of mean materials he often destroys the beauty of that structure which 
 the splendor of its light is so well calculated to adorn. 
 
PLATE VI 
 
PLATE MI 
 
 rj: Shp^.et-J'c. 
 
PKACTICAI. HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 13 
 
 Fig. 5 . — As the merits of tliis composition liave been descanted on by 
 every critic, being a subject well suited for a display of the powers of 
 eloquence, I shall merely offer one or two practical remarks. Raffaelle has 
 made the principal figure of the lower group (an interesting young female) 
 detach itself from the ground by a strong warm light cutting against the 
 shadow, and by a dark blue mantle coming in contact with the light ; by her 
 addressing the Apostles, and pointing to the demoniac, the two sides are 
 united, and the figures are so linked together that the e^ye is carried round 
 until we arrive at the most projecting points, the hands and feet of 
 the Apostle with the book. The Disciples express their inability to perfonn 
 the cure; and, by two of them pointing to the mount, refer the people to 
 Christ, Avho has retired thither to pray. This is the arrangement, but it 
 was not alone by the expression or arrangement of his figures that Raffaelle 
 holds his rank in the art; it was also by the hold and original conception of 
 his subject. He has here displayed the vision of the Transfiguration in 
 the most sublime manner, and by raising his figures from the ground (one 
 of those movements of the mind which are above restraint) has stamped 
 them with the strong feature of immortal beings. i\Ir. Fuseli luminously 
 describes them rising like “a flame” ; if not too metaphorical, he might 
 have said, “like a bright flame issuing as if from a sacrifice, and ascending 
 unto God.” 
 
 Plate VII. — It is not only necessary that a group should have hol- 
 lows for the reception of shadow, but also projections for the light to rest 
 upon ; it not only ought to possess a good general form in the outline which 
 defines it, but the figures must also be linked together in such a way as to 
 lead the spectator in among them. They must appear to have room to 
 stand upon, and every figure must keep his place in its relative distance 
 from the eye; hence a form composed of a concave and convex line has been 
 often adopted as the simplest and best, and possessing the greatest variety 
 of advantages. That it is so generally used will cease to surprise us, when 
 we find it applicable both to the regularity of Raffaelle and the irregularity 
 of Rembrandt. 
 
 Plate VIII — Fig. 1 . — In this design, “The Landing of Charles II,” 
 West has placed the principal figure in the middle of the picture. Com- 
 mencing his composition at the nighest point, he carries on his group until 
 it ends in the distance. Neither in the situation of the hero, nor in the 
 form of the group, does he seem solicitous to hide the science. He has 
 brought the nigh point in contact with the shadow, and strengthened it by 
 the female whom the boy accompanies, being dressed in strong dark; when 
 this is brought sharp off the ground, as is the case also in Fig. 2, it 
 enables us to keep the other figures in their places better than by dimin- 
 ishing the firmness of their shadows or colors. 
 
 Fig. H . — “Cattle Returning Home in a Shower.” In this composition 
 the principal light falls on the convex part of the group, and the depth of 
 the shadow is assisted by the local color of the objects placed in it. The 
 
14 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 goat in the foreground is connected to the rest by some white flowers of 
 an elder bush, which cannot be expressed in an outline. As this is from 
 a design of my late brother’s I cannot allow this opportunity to pass with- 
 out expressing the great loss I feel in not having his assistance, not only 
 in these notes, but in everything connected with the art ; though practicing 
 painting but for a short time of a short life, his strength of mind, his flne 
 eye for color, and a taste for the beauties of pastoral painting, convince 
 me the English School has lost one that would have been an ornament to 
 that department of the science. 
 
 Fig. 3 . — Is a repetition of the same form. 
 
 Plate IX. — This plate consists of Wilkie’s admirable composition of 
 “The Blind Fiddler,” “The Salutation of the Virgin” by Rembrandt, and 
 “A Dance” by Ostade. I shall leave it to the student’s own judgment to 
 investigate the various forms on which these compositions depend. 
 
 By making the principal heads depend upon one mode of arrangement, 
 the general appearance of the group on a different mode, the background 
 on a third, and so on with the minor points (provided they all tend to the 
 assistance of one another), his composition will not only have intricacy 
 without confusion, but that variety which is so characteristic in Nature. 
 A beautiful combination in Nature will often appear to evade every rule 
 by her being perfect in every mode of examination. All her varieties 
 emanate from a straight line and a curve. A judicious arrangement of 
 objects possessing these various forms gives the strongest natural appear- 
 ance to a picture ; nor ought the artist to leave out rashly what he may 
 conceive to be void of beauty. In coloring, harsh tints are admitted to 
 produce harmony in the other colors ; and the most picturesque arrange- 
 ments often depend on the presence of what might be otherwise considered 
 ugly forms. 
 
 As I have made use of the terms “beautiful and agreeable arrange- 
 ments,” it is proper to give an explanation of the sense in which they arc 
 applied. By a beautiful arrangement I mean a proper adaptation of 
 those principles that arrest a common observer, and give a pleasureable 
 sensation, which to a cultivated mind increases (not diminishes) by the 
 investigation of the cause which produces it. For example, a beautiful 
 appearance in Nature affects the savage and the philosopher from their 
 sensations merely as men ; but a painter, whose life is spent in a constant 
 competition with Nature in producing the same effects, receives a tenfold 
 gratification in following her through those assemblages which to the world 
 beside are, as it were, “a fountain setled and a book shut up.” Hence, in 
 art, a beautiful arrangement must be a selection of those forms, lights 
 and colors that produce a similar result ; and the taste of an artist is shown 
 in heiehteninff their effect bv the absence of those circumstances which are 
 found by experience to produce the contrary. Did an investigation of the 
 means pursued by the great masters tend to abridge an artist’s pleasurable 
 sensations, instead of being the most favored, he would be rendered the 
 
PLATE Mil 
 
 I'Uue 8. 
 
 fT'/’ n I^iivn (7'jc. 
 
PLATE IX 
 
 I'j.itfO. 
 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION. 
 
 15 
 
 most miserable of beings ; but the opposite is the case, as by such means he 
 is taught an alphabet that enables him to understand the language of 
 Nature. It may be supposed that in my search after so desirable an object 
 I have perused all the works written to define Beauty and Taste, and which 
 endeavor to circumscribe with a line that endless variety and omnipresence 
 which make Nature a source of gratification to all nations under every 
 alteration of the mind; but as I wish to avoid all controversy on the subject, 
 which we often find merely renders the most sublime truths more obscure, 
 I shall only remark that, as far as painting is concerned, the authors of 
 many of these works have done an irreparable injury. Artists generally 
 prefer the opinions of untutored children to the remarks of the most learned 
 philosophers, whose advancement in other sciences really seems to increase 
 their ignorance of this. If I have explained my definition of the terms 
 sufficiently for the artist’s comprehension I am satisfied. To explain them 
 to others would be equally impossible as that those others should be able to 
 define them to us. The mind must have received its education through the 
 medium of the eye, not of the ear, to enjoy the faculty of conceiving such 
 ideas, or the power of tracing them to their original source in Nature or 
 in art, as a test of their truth. 
 
 Before I conclude I have to apologize for the paucity and brevity of 
 these observations, and beg the reader’s constant reference to the plates as 
 the only method of making myself correctly understood. Painting is a 
 practical branch of philosophy, and can only be rendered clear by satis- 
 fying the observations of the eye, as well as the refiectlons of the mind; this, 
 perhaps, is one reason why so much has been written on the subject with- 
 out those truths being made sufficiently obvious, which the writers wished 
 to demonstrate. 
 
 I have also been anxious to avoid tautology, as it will be necessary to 
 go over, in a great measure, the same ground, when I come to treat of 
 Light and Shade, and Color; when many observations which appear to be 
 omitted here will present themselves, from belonging more properly to those 
 divisions of the work. 
 
 I must also caution the young artist against supposing that these 
 modes of arrangement are given for his imitation ; I merely wish him to 
 be acquainted with the advantages any particular composition possesses, 
 that in adopting any invention of his own he may engraft upon it those 
 or similar advantages. A design that has nothing but novelty to recom- 
 mend it is a conceit, not a composition. The student in painting can hope 
 to derive advantage from theory only when rendered obvious bv ocular 
 demonstration. One great cause of the obscurity which envelops the art 
 is the criticism of those whose ideas on the subject are obscure — to free 
 the ic'orld from their influence is perhaps impossible ; but the artist must 
 free himself. 
 
I 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 
 
 LIGHT 
 
 ON 
 
 AND SHADE 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS 
 
 ON 
 
 LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 IM.t^STRATKI) HV 
 
 Examples from the Italian, Flemish and Dutch Schools 
 
 HV JOHN BURNET, F. K. S. 
 
 “The highest finishing is labor in vain, unless at the same time there be preserved a breadth of light 
 and shadow.” Rkynoi h’s Notfs on Dl Frfsnov 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 FRANK V. CHAMBERS, PUBLISHER 
 1913 
 
PKINTEI) HY CHAMBERS PRESS 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
PREFACE 
 
 I am now induced to take up the third part of the Practicai> Hints ox 
 Painting, from the encoura^’ement the first has met with ; but more esjieciall}' 
 from tlie approbation of many of our best jiainters, who are undoulitedly the 
 best judges of the utility of the work. In this part, treating of the conduct 
 of the light and shade, I shall follow the same mode as before, merely throwing 
 out hints as the}’ occur, without any relation to connection, or a regular treatise. 
 The mind is naturally fond of variety, and by leading it through a succession 
 of images, provided their advantages are shovii and explained, the end of 
 instruction is accomplished. There is no fixed mode for conveying instruction; 
 those things which appear to the reader to be useful, he will connect in his own 
 mind by a chain of reasoning, shorter than the shortest which could be furnished 
 by writing ; and the longest dissertation to prove the existence or utility of 
 that which appears of no advantage would be unavailing. 
 
 I have endeavored to trace the effects, as much as jiossible, to their first 
 causes operating in various ways on the minds of the different artists who have 
 adopted them, whether they were guided by rules, or imitative instinct, we 
 cannot now determine ; nor is it my wish to inculcate any doctrine where the 
 student has a bettei- mode of his own to serve as guide. Let him, however, 
 always bear in mind, that in painting, as in other things, to use the words of 
 Dr. Johnson, “ The accidental compositions of heterogeneous modes are dis- 
 solved by the chance which combined them, but the uniform simplicity of 
 primitive cjualities neither admits increase, nor suffers decay." 
 
 JOHN BURNET. 
 

 
PRACTICAL HINTS 
 
 ON 
 
 LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN BURNET, E. R. S. 
 
 Before proceeding to investigate light and sluide in their various 
 intricate situations it may be pro])er to jiotice a few of the more palpable 
 and self-evident combinations, and for the bettor comprehending of which 
 I shall divide them into five parts, viz.: light, half-Iiglit, middle-tint, half- 
 dark and dark. When a picture is chiefly composed of light and half-light 
 the darks will have more force and point; but, without the help of strong 
 color to give it solidity, it will be apt to look feeble; and when a ])icture 
 is composed mainly of dark and half-dark the lights will be more brilliant; 
 but they will be apt to look s])otty for want of half-light to spread and 
 connect them ; and the piece be in danger of becoming black and heavy ; 
 and when a ])icture is composed chiefly of middle-tint, the dark and light 
 portions have a more eapial chance of coming into notice; but the general 
 effect is in danger of being common and insipid. 
 
 Taght and shade arc capable of producing many results, but tbe three 
 })rinci])al are relief, harmony and breadth. By the first the artist is 
 enabled to give bis works the distinctness and solidity of Nature. The 
 second is the result of a union and consent of one part with another ; and 
 the third, a general breadth, is the necessary attendant on extent and mag- 
 nitude. A judicious management of these three pro])crties is to be found 
 in the best pictures of the Italian, Venetian and Elcmish Schools, and ought 
 to emj)loy the most attentive examination of the student; for, by giving 
 too mucb relief, he will j)roduce a dry hard effect ; by too mucb softness and 
 blending of the parts, wooliness and insipidity, and in a desire to preserve 
 a breadth of effect he may ])roduce flatness. 
 
2 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS OX 
 
 Relief is most necessary in large works, as their being seen from a 
 greater distance than easel pictures prevents their looking harsh or cutting, 
 and gives them that sharpness and clearness of effect so necessary to coun- 
 teract heaviness. Not only the works of Raphael and those of the Italian 
 school possess this quality, hut we find it in the greatest perfection in the 
 pictures of Paul Veronese arid Tintoret ; and even the larger works of Titian 
 and Corregio have a flatness and a precision which we look for in vain in 
 the succeeding school of Caracci and their disciples, Guido excepted. 
 
 Harmony or a union of the different parts of a composition depends 
 upon the intermediate parts serving as a link or chain, either by conveying 
 a sensation of the same colors with those in immediate contact, or by neu- 
 tralizing and breaking down the harsh asperities of the two extremes, and 
 thus producing a connection or agreement. 
 
 Ri’eadth of effect is only to be produced by a great extent of light or 
 shade pervading the picture. If an open daylight appearance is intended, 
 such as we see in Cuyp, etc., it will be best produced by leaving out part 
 of the middle-tint, and alloM’ing a greater spread of light and half-light; 
 this will also give the darks the relative force which they possess in Nature. 
 If a breadth of shadow is required, such as we find in Rembrandt, etc., the 
 picture ought to be made up of middle-tint and half-dark. In the one treat- 
 ment the darks ought to tell sharp and cutting, which is the characteristic 
 of strong davl ight ; in the other the lights ought to appear powerful and 
 brilliant, enveloped in masses of obscurity. 
 
 The influence of shadow upon any composition, when carried beyond 
 the necessary deptb for the relief or distinct marking of the several parts, 
 is breadth, from its absorbing many of the half-tints and rendering the 
 darks less cutting; and repose, from there being fewer of the outlines 
 visible ; hence arises a certain grandeur attendant upon space, and an 
 agreeable sensation, from the spectator being allowed to exercise his own 
 fancy in embodying indistinct forms. Thus the gloomy solitude of a wood 
 is increased by the absence of tbe twittering light through the trees, the 
 absence of tbeir harsh color, and the distinct form and crisp marking of 
 the leaves. Rembrandt has carried this property of shadow beyond the 
 ho])e of any improvement, and by this means has clothed the most trifling 
 subject with a portion of sublimity. If we allow ourselves to be influenced 
 by the association of ideas it is capable of imparting a greater degree of 
 horror to any subject of terror, as imaginary dangers appear greater than 
 real, being augmented by the operations of the mind. iNIilton has made use 
 of tliis (juality in describing tbe situation of the fallen Angels: 
 
 “From those flames 
 No light, but rather darkness visible 
 Served only to discover sights of woe.” 
 
 And dhtian in his picture of “The iMartyrdom of St. I>aurence,” 
 which otherwise is disagreeable from its being cold and black. 
 
IJGHT AND SHADE 
 
 a 
 
 Having thus defined some of tlie characteristic features of sliadow, the 
 efiects of light in a great measure explain tliemselves, being in most instances 
 of an opposite nature. Its cheerful influence operates on the mind of the 
 spectator, either when viewing the festivities of a village holiday or when 
 he beholds it diffused over the general face of Nature, it may l)e termed the 
 Allegro in Painting. 
 
 Expeanation of Peate I, Fig. 1. 
 
 If light, collected into a focus by means of a lens, be thrown obliquely 
 upon a wall it will explain to us one of its principal properties, ujion which 
 many artists have founded their principles of light and shade. Where the 
 bundles of rays are collected the light is increased in brightness, and when 
 they become more diffused and spread out it naturally becomes more feeble. 
 
 Plate I. Fig. i. 
 
 losing itself in half-tint. In this example we have some of the most essential 
 qualities of light as applicable to the purposes of painting. We have a 
 principal light, which, being pi'oduced by tbe collecting of the rays, leaves 
 that portion of the ground the darkest which comes in contact with it, 
 thereby assisting its brightness. We have an innumerable variety of gra- 
 dations, until the light is dissipated and lost. Some artists maintain, and 
 justly, that every light, h owever small, ought to have a focus, or one part 
 brighter than another; and as we find this to be a general law in Nature 
 it is surely safe ground to go upon. For the same reason we ought to have 
 one portion of a dark more decided than the rest. If these two extremes 
 are brought in contact we make them assist each other, one becoming 
 brighter and the other darker from the effect of contrast. If they are 
 placed at the opposite sides of the picture we have greater breadth and a 
 more equal balance. Let us now examine how these properties have been 
 made use of in the management of the light and shade of a picture. If, for 
 example, we take a head by Rembrandt we find the principal light or focus 
 in the upper part of the face (which he often, to render more luminous, 
 surrounds with a black bonnet or hat, and even this he keeps of a cold tone, 
 to give more value to the flesh) ; the light is then allowed to fall down on 
 the figure, jiroducing thereby a union and an appearance of his light giving 
 
4 
 
 PRACTICAI. HINTS ON 
 
 out rays of the same line as itself. If we follow him in the conduct of some 
 of his larger compositions we find the same principle adopted, whether 
 they consist of many figures, such as the hundred Guilder print, or 
 of few, as in the small “Nativity” in the National Gallery; thus 
 rendering the most complicated compositions subservient to the simplest 
 principles of light and shade. A few experiments on a ground of a middle- 
 tint, with a pencil filled with white, and another dipped in black, will give 
 the student an insight into all the changes capable of being produced upon 
 this principle. 
 
 Ptate I, Fig. 2. 
 
 If a diagonal line he drawn through the picture, and the extreme dark 
 and extreme light be placed at opposite sides, we must of necessity have 
 the greatest breadth of effect. If a balance or union between the twm sides 
 he wished there is no other way but by borrowing a portion of the one and 
 exchanging it for a portion of the opposite ; and not only may this practice 
 he made use of for the harmony of the whole, but the light and the shade 
 will be thus rendered more intense by the force of opposition. Now, 
 whether the dark which is carried to the light side be very small, or very 
 large, and, vice versa, we have the groundwork of some of the most powerful 
 
 Plate I. Fig. 2. 
 
 and most natural effects in painting. If the light is placed near the horizon, 
 as in evening skies, for example, such as it frequently is in Cuyp, we see 
 it rising upward until lost in middle-tint in tlie upper part of the picture, 
 ami the middle-tint descending into shadow by means of trees, figures, etc., 
 thus making a sweep around the picture, and tlierehv affording the greatest 
 opportunity for breadth of elfect. If the two extreme points are connected 
 by intermediate figures, so as to form hut one group, we have the greatest 
 firmness, as the light part of the group will he relieved by a dark ground, 
 and the dark part of the group by a light ground; if we pursue tlie contrary 
 practice, and place tlie dark jiart of the group on the dark ground, and 
 the light part of the group on the light ground, we have more breadth and 
 softness of effect. There is no want of examples, either in Nature or in 
 pictures, to warrant our following either mode. 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 O 
 
 Plate I, Fig. 3. 
 
 Soiiietinics we find tlic prijicipal light in tlie center of the picture 
 gradating to tlie extremities with a l)order of dark binding in the whole. 
 By this mode the light has great brilliancy, especially if a small portion 
 of dark is brought in contact with it. This melting of the light into shadow 
 has been carried to great perfection by Corregio and Rembrandt, who 
 most frequently relieved the dark side of their figures by a still darker 
 background, which Reynolds ( who has adopted this mode in so many of 
 his works) mentions as giving a rich effect. 
 
 If this method is pursued in the management of the light on a hand, 
 or a single head, it is equally applicable, as in a more extensive work. In 
 the landscapes of Claude, who has often placed tlie sun near the center of 
 his compositions, we find the light managed upon the same broad principle, 
 gradating to the sides of his canvas by means of buildings, ships, etc.. 
 
 with often a clump of dark trees jutting into the mass of light, thereby 
 giving it its brilliant character, and serving at the same time to convey 
 the dark sides into the picture. If he reminds us occasionally of Rem- 
 brandt, it arises from his great breadth of effect ; if of Corregio, it is the 
 soft union of his lights with the shadow. A few walks in the evening, in 
 the twilight and at night, in scenery where Nature has an opportunity of 
 showing her various effects, will put the student in possession of a power 
 to unravel all her mysteries. We do not know whether Claude, Corregio and 
 Rembrandt were acquainted with the works of one another, hut we have 
 the most evident proofs that they were well acquainted with the principle by 
 which Nature produces her most striking effects; and a breadth of light 
 and shade, soft and subdued tones of color, and every requisite for form- 
 ing the mind of an artist, is still to be found in the same school in which 
 they studied. 
 
6 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 Plate I, Fig. 4. 
 
 If the lights are to predominate in a picture from the ground being 
 low in tone it is of the utmost consequence that they should not only be 
 varied in form and magnitude, but that they should produce an agreeable 
 arrangement in the picture, seeing that they will attract greater notice 
 than when the ground is lighter. 
 
 I shall here take the liberty of introducing a passage from Reynolds’ 
 works, as nothing can exceed it in utility and justness of observation. In 
 his notes upon Fresnoy, speaking of light and shade, he says: “The same 
 rules, which have been given in regard to the regulation of groups of 
 figures, must be observed in regard to the grouping of lights ; that there 
 shall be a superiority of one over the rest, that they shall be separated 
 and varied in their shapes, ,and that there should be at least three lights ; 
 the secondary lights ought, for the sake of harmony and union, to be of 
 nearly equal brightness, though not of equal magnitude with the principal.” 
 
 { 
 
 A 
 
 
 - w 
 
 
 ' > - 
 
 
 
 Plate I. Fig. 4. 
 
 The Dutch painters pacticularly excelled in the management of light 
 and shade, and have shown, in this department, that consummate skill which 
 entirely conceals the appearance of art. 
 
 “Jan Steen, Teniers, Ostade, Dusart and many others of that school 
 may be produced as instances and recommended to the young artist’s 
 careful study and attention. 
 
 “The means by which the painter works, and on which the effect of 
 his picture depends, are light and shade, and warm and cold colors. That 
 there is an art in the management and disposition of those means will be 
 easily granted, and it is equally certain that this art is to be acquired by 
 a careful examination of the works of those who have excelled in it. 
 
 “I shall here set down tlie result of the observations which I have 
 made on the works of those artists who appear to have best understood 
 tlie management of light and shade, and who may be considered as examples 
 for imitation in this branch of art. 
 
 “Titian, Paul Veronese and Tintoretto were among the first painters 
 who reeluced to a system what was before practiced ivitbout any fixed 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 / 
 
 principle, and consequently neglected occasionally. From the Venetian 
 painters Rubens extracted his scheme of composition, which was soon 
 understood and adopted by his countrymen, and extended even to the minor 
 painters of familiar life in the Dutch school. 
 
 “When I was at Venice the method I took to avail myself of their 
 principles was this: When I observed an extraordinary effect of light and 
 shade in any picture I took a leaf of my pocketbook and darkened every 
 part of it in the same gradation of light and shade as the picture, leaving 
 the white paper untouched to represent light, and this without any atten- 
 tion to the subject or to the drawing of the figures. A few trials of this 
 kind will be sufficient to give the method of their conduct in the manage- 
 ment of tlieir lights. After a few experiments I found the paper blotted 
 nearly alike; their general practice appeared to he, to allow not above 
 a quarter of the picture for the light, including in tliis portion both the 
 principal and secondary liglits ; anotlier quarter to be as dark as possible, 
 and the remaining half kept in a mezzo-tint or half-shadow. 
 
 “Rubens appears to have admitted rather more light than a quarter, 
 and Rembrandt much less, scarce an eighth ; by tliis conduct Rembrandt’s 
 light is extremely brilliant, but it costs too much ; the rest of the picture 
 is sacrificed to this one object. That light will certainly appear the 
 brightest which is surrounded with the greatest quantity of shade, sup- 
 posing equal skill in the artist. 
 
 “Ry this means you may likewise remark the various forms and shapes 
 of those lights, as well as the olijects on which they are Hung; whether a 
 figure or the sky, a white napkin, animals, or utensils, often introduced 
 for this pui*pose only. If may be observed, likewise, what portion is 
 strongly relieved, and how much is united with its ground; for it is neces- 
 sary that some part (though a small one is sufficient) should he sharp and 
 cutting against its ground, whether it be light on a dark or dark on a 
 light ground, in order to give firmness and distinctness to the work; if, 
 on the other hand, it is relieved on every side, it will appear as if inlaid 
 on its ground. Such a blotted paper, held at a distance from the eye, will 
 strike the spectator as something excellent for the disposition of light and 
 shadow, though he does not distinguish whether it is a history, a portrait, 
 a landscape, dead game, or anything else ; for the same pi’inciplcs extend 
 to every branch of the art. 
 
 “Whether I have given an exact account, or made a just division of 
 the quantity of light admitted into the works of those painters, is of no 
 very great consequence; let every person examine and judge for himself; 
 it will be sufficient if I have suggested a mode of examining pictures this 
 way, and one means at least of acquiring the principles on which they 
 wrought.” 
 
 This is so admirable as to need no comment, and ought never to be 
 lost sight of, as upon the management of light and shade depends the 
 general look of the picture. 
 
,s 
 
 PKACTICAL HIXTS ON 
 
 Plate I, Fig. 5. 
 
 As a wall or flat surface recedes from the light it necessarily becomes 
 darker, and as the outline is more or less defined it has the property of 
 advancing or receding. These may seem to be properties too evident to 
 every one to need any explanation ; but when we see a foreground, in place 
 of coming flat up to the edge of the frame, appear to slope down like a 
 declivity, we must either suppose that the painter knew not the principle 
 
 Plate I. Fig. 5. 
 
 of assisting the perspective by means of light and shade, or had not the 
 faculty of seeing Nature. When we consider that Nature spreads out her 
 landscape ujion a horizontal plane, and that we have to compete with her 
 upon an upright surface, we shall find we have not only to call in to our 
 aid strong light, coming in contact with sharp dark, warm colors, and such 
 as have the property of advancing, but to subdue the more distant part 
 of the ground by soft shadow and retiring cool tints. 
 
 Plate I, Fig. 6. 
 
 Wlien the composition is kept dark, forming a mass of shadow in the 
 center of the canvas, the light is often conducted round it by means of the 
 sky, water, or liglit foreground ; and as the dark becomes in a manner iso- 
 lated, it receives great A'igor and imjiortance. As tliis is the lawerse of Fig. 
 d, we find the same simple broad principle predominant, and whether it be 
 com])osed of a clum}) of trees, or the dark dress of a whole-length figure, 
 we find the management guided by the same rules ; only if a portrait, the 
 circumstance of the face coming liglit ofi' the background reipiires tbe feet 
 or base of the figure to tell dark on the ground, for the sake of firmness; 
 and if any jiart is more lost in the background than another, it perhaps 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 9 
 
 ought to be the middle portion of tlic figure. If a clump of trees, such as 
 we often find in Claude, is to be represented, their stems shoot out from a 
 ground of the same darkness, thereby producing a union of the trees with 
 
 Plate /. Fig. 6. 
 
 the shadow which they cast on tlie ground. As a light in the center of dark 
 tints must thereby acquire an increased consequence, so a dark in the middle 
 of light tints receives the same importance. 
 
 Plate I, Fig. 7. 
 
 I have noticed in another place the union of one part of the picture 
 M'ith another by means of a repetition of the light; it will therefore be 
 unnecessary to say anything further upon such management. I may, how- 
 
 Plate I. Fig. y. 
 
 ever, observe that it is not only of service to repeat the light, but also that 
 it should be of the same color; accordingly we observe in Cuyp, whose 
 principal light is often yellow, that it is carried into the dark part of 
 
10 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS OX 
 
 tlic picture by means of yellow drapery, a cow, sheep, or a few touches of 
 golden color, according as he wishes such extension of his light, large or 
 small. If the principal light is cold, such as hlue and white, we find it 
 repeated cither by a reflection in water or a figure dressed in the same cold 
 tint. Portrait painters generally make use of the light in the sky to repeat 
 the lights of their head and hands hy making it of the same color. 
 
 Plate II. 
 
 Rembrandt, from his first commencement in the art, seems to have 
 been always solicitous to represent the brightness of light at the sacrifice 
 of every other quality ; and in his first works it often forms a circum- 
 scribed spot, for, as Reynolds justly observes, “that light must appear the 
 brightest which is surrounded by the greatest quantity of shade”; but 
 
 Plate II. Fig. l. Rcuibrandt. 
 
 though this conduct enables tlie artist to give light one of its strong char- 
 acteristics, whether it be the sun, a candle, fire, etc., yet there are other 
 [irojierties quite as essential, and more easy to contend with, which are its 
 effects on the different objects it illuminates. Rembrand’t close attention 
 to Nature soon led him to expand Ins principle; for example, he perceived 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 11 
 
 tlie flame of a candle exceeded in briglitness everytliing around it in a ten- 
 fold ratio, which conld he expressed only hy darkening the whole, and 
 leaving the light in a spot, and therchy extinguishing its influential effect: 
 hut if the candle itself was hid the appearance of every object under its 
 influence was not only more easily given, hut the effect of the whole became 
 more deceptive and natural. His extending of the light through the pic- 
 ture gradually became more enlarged, and even his deepest shadows are 
 illuminated hy streaks of red or rich brown running into them, which ( from 
 his principal light being of a warm tone) and keep up a connection without 
 destroying the breadth of light and shade. 
 
 In Fig. 1 of this Plate, “Christ Restoring the Daughter of Jairus,” 
 we have a principle upon which many of his pictures sire constructed, viz. : 
 a ray of light falling into an apartment, and received upon a light object 
 which, as in Nature, reflects hack the rays, and illuminates the surrounding 
 objects, giving thus his principal light the properties of light itself. The 
 shadows of all olijects receiving such direct rays we sometimes see strongly 
 
 Plate II. Fig. 2. Rembrandt. 
 
 defined, as is the case in Nature, and indeed we often find Rembrandt plac- 
 ing objects for the express purpose of producing such shadows, which gives 
 the appearance of truth to the whole effect; at other times we find the 
 shadows swallowed up in the splendor of the light, as if afraid of dis- 
 turbing its breadth. Sometimes we find his strong light, his strong dark 
 and his hot and cold colors all focused at one point ; and at other times 
 his darks employed to clear up the middle-tint, and his strongest colors 
 made the means of uniting his light with the shade. In short, whatever was 
 
12 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 his practice, he seems always to have had some end to accomplish, and 
 when we find him departing from what would he the effect in Nature under 
 such circumstances we may rest assured that such departure did not arise 
 from ignorance. We often see the attempts of de Hooge and others of 
 representing light confined to its effect in the sky or on the objects out of 
 doors, while it is but sparingly admitted on the figures seen within the apart- 
 ment ; on the contrary, Rembrandt’s figures are lighted up with a splendor 
 which extinguishes every other subordinate light, and which we often cannot 
 account for upon the common principles of Nature. 
 
 The subject below, in Plate II, is from a picture in the Louvre, and 
 shows how small a portion of light sometimes engaged Rembrandt’s solic- 
 itude. He has employed the edge of the frame work, the dark under the 
 cradle, and the dark dress of the figure to give it its value. The curtain 
 is a dull red, and is carried into the picture by the dress of the child being 
 of the same color. 
 
 IT .ATE III, Figs. 1 and 2. 
 
 Figs. 1 and 2 represent the “Taking Down From the Cross” and the 
 “Presentation in the Temple.” Daulby, in his catalog, mentions two 
 states of the original etchings more worked upon ; but I find, on examina- 
 tion, they are merely tlie plates left without being much wiped, thereby 
 
 Plate 111. Fig. i. Rembrandt. Plate III. Fig. 2 . Rembrandt. 
 
 holding tlie crosier, and a liglit at the torch in the “Taking Down From 
 the Cross,” the copper being made clean at those places. In many of the 
 varieties of Rembrandt’s etchings he has got credit for effects supposed 
 to he produced by much labor, whicli were the result of tlie printing alone. 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 1.‘3 
 
 casting a stain over the whole, except a high light on the cap of the figure 
 In the “Descent From the Cross” he has kept the principal light in the 
 upper part of the picture in contact with the strong dark; in the other it 
 is kept below, and is carried upwards by a chain of communication to the 
 head of the crosier. Where the light is at one side, or low down in the 
 picture, such as in the “Wise Men’s Offering,” in the king’s collection, 
 there is greater space for a breadth of shadow than when the light is kept 
 in the center, as was the principal of most of his first works. In some of 
 his designs he seems to have allowed the entire half of his canvas for 
 repose, and to have confined his composition, with all its lights, and darks, 
 and colors, to the other half. A ery little often serves to connect the two. 
 The dark manner of Rembrandt has advantages over every otlier, if kept 
 within due bounds, as it enables the painter to give a rich tone to his colors 
 without their appearing heavy, which more feeble backgrounds would not 
 admit of, unless the colors are to stand as darks instead of lights ; accord- 
 ingly we find Titian, Tintoretto, Giorgione, Rembrandt and our own 
 Reynolds all swayed by the same opinion. 
 
 Plate III, Fig. 3. 
 
 \\dien the light part of the composition is placed upon the dark side 
 of the background, and the dark part upon the light side, greater firmness 
 and solidity are produced, and a more ccjual balance is kept up. The con- 
 
 Plate III. Fig. s. J^andyke. 
 
 trary method has more breadth and softness of effect, but unless the liglit 
 part is of a different hue from the light ground upon which it may be 
 })laced, and the dark part is of a warmer or colder tone than the shadow 
 
14 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 which surrounds it, there is a danger of their losing their substance and 
 becoming flat. Vandyck, in this composition, has made the colors of his 
 figures assist Ids arrangement of light and shade ; the white dress of the 
 cliild and the yellow dress of the queen make the principal light ; the white 
 is repeated by the cap, ruff, etc., of the other figures ; the yellow is carried 
 across by tlie embroidery upon the king’s dress, and spread out upon the 
 underpart of the sky ; the darks are made up of the dark dress of the king 
 and tlie child’s dress, which is a dull green ; the latter tint is carried across 
 the picture by part of the curtin turned up, of the same color; the curtain 
 itself is a dull yellow and brown, serving as a ground to the queen’s dress ; 
 tlie red cloth of the table is repeated by tbe two chairs ; the floor being 
 a dark neutral tint gives a firmness to the bottom of both the figures. If 
 the student, in examining the light and shade of a picture, remarks what 
 colors are resorted to for such purpose, in a few trials he will find that 
 which at first appears complicated and difficult to unravel will become easy 
 and beneficial, serving to strengtlien Ids powers of reflection in the highest 
 degree. 
 
 Plate III, Fio. 4. 
 
 Tlie dark forming the greatest mass of shadow of the picture is often, 
 before being brought in contact with the extreme light, increased and 
 collected to a point by some object whose local color conduces to such pur- 
 
 riate in. Fig. 4. l\Ict::u. 
 
 pose, as in the example here given; wliere the black dress of tlie female is 
 brought, at its darkest portion, in contact with the liglitest portion of the 
 white dress. Tins serves to give air to the deepest shades of the back- 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 15 
 
 ground and greater firmness to tlie object so relieved. The collecting to 
 one head of all the light, and all the dark, of a piece, gives the artist the 
 greatest force of the palette. To enable the other side of the picture to 
 keep up with so much vigor, Metzu has thrown his strong color into the 
 scale, and brought his red and blue in contact, by a glove lying upon the 
 chair, at the point nearest the eye. The warm color is taken to the other 
 side by a dog, etc., and the white of the female repeated by a handkerchief 
 the man holds in his hand, his neckcloth, etc. 
 
 Plate IV, Fig. 1. 
 
 In a single head we often have hut one light ; it is therefore necessary 
 to get it to harmonize with the shadow, either in the background or upon 
 
 Plate IV. Fig. i. Rembrandt. 
 
 the dress. Rembrandt, accordingly, freipicntly painted the light of the 
 dress of the same color as the shadow side of the face, thereby keeping up 
 
16 
 
 PKACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 a union and simplicity. In Fig. 2 we have the hands making a second 
 light; and in Fig. 3 we have three spots of light, the shirt and ruffles of 
 both hands ; this is the Titian Reynolds thus mentions in the description 
 of the Dusseldorf gallery, and which is now in Munich : “A portrait of a 
 gentleman, by Titian, a kitcat, one hand a-kimbo, the hand itself not seen, 
 only a bit of the ruffle ; the other, the left, rests on what appears to be his 
 sword; he is looking off. This portrait has a very pleasing countenance, 
 but is not painted with much facilit}^, nor is it at all mannered ; the shadows 
 are of no color ; tlie drapery being black, and the ground being very near 
 as dark as it prevents the arm a-kimbo from having a bad effect. It is 
 no small part of our art to know what to bring forward in the light and 
 what to throw into shade.” 
 
 The linen in this picture, and most others of Titian, is light and 
 cutting, the flesh forming the half-light. Reynolds, talking of the “Descent 
 From the Cross,” by Rubens, says : “He well knew wliat effect white linen, 
 opposed to flesh, must have, with his powers of coloring; and the truth is 
 that none but great colorists can venture to paint pure white linen near 
 flesh ; but such know tlie advantage of it.” In Remlirandt we generally find 
 the same treatment, altiiough I have often observed tlie linen kept cool 
 when near the face. To give the flesh a luminous character he often intro- 
 duces cool tints coming near it, and when he can find nothing else, uses the 
 shadows of linen for sucli purpose. In Vandyck’s early Italian manner we 
 find the linen much brighter than in his later works, where it became more 
 of a leaden cast. 
 
 Pt.ate IV, Figs 4< and 5. 
 
 We sometimes find the liglit of the sky introduced for the purpose of 
 repeating the lights of the heads and hands, as in Fig. 4 ; sometimes to 
 spread and enlarge the lights of the head, and give it more consequence, as 
 in Fig. 5. To assist the hand in keeping its situation in this picture he has 
 defined it by the hat and sliadow on the chair. As it is of the utmost con- 
 sequence that every object should keep its relative distance with regard 
 to the eye of the spectator it is a good method to define those parts we 
 wish to advance by a dark shadow coming in contact with them, and to 
 surround the retiring portions with a ground of a less opposing character; 
 as we know lines strongly and sharpl^^ defined will approach, and those of 
 a softer nature will retire. Such blots are afterwards to be accounted for 
 by the contrivance of the artist; in this consists tlie application of the 
 background of the figures, one of the most difficult and essential portions 
 of the art. 
 
 As liglit and shade determine the concavities or convexities of all 
 objects, without them the most intelligent outline would be but as a map 
 or fiat surface. If, for example, we take a cup and examine the influence 
 of light .and shade upon it we find in Nature those principles which artists 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 17 
 
 have applied to many purposes in painting. We perceive the near edge 
 strongly defined hy the light side coming in contact with the shadow, 
 which becomes darker as it descends into the cup ; we have the dark side 
 brought firmly off the light, thus giving it the simplest and most effective 
 means of a true representation of its character. This may appear too 
 evident to notice in a work of this Nature, which iloes- not profess to give 
 the mere rudiments of the art ; hut I am convinced that the most intricate 
 principles of painting emanate from very few sources, and that these 
 
 Plate IV. Fig. 4. 
 
 Vandyke. 
 
 Plate IV. Fig. 5. 
 
 Vandyke. 
 
 sources are of a very simple Nature. Every thing within our view is filled 
 with examples, and the mind of the student requires only to he directed to 
 an examination and investigation of the subject before commencing any 
 work or while in the progress. He must not only know what is his inten- 
 tion, hut must he in posssession of the best method of expressing such 
 intention. 
 
18 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 Plate V, Fig. 1. 
 
 When a sliadow is carried throiigli the middle of tlie picture we have 
 not only an opportunity of giving a breadth of effect, hut the receding 
 
 Plate V. Fig. i. P. Nolpe. 
 
 portion of the sky and perspective of the ground are assisted by their 
 sharpness being swallowed up in repose; see this principle noticed at Fig. 
 1, Iff ate V. 
 
 Plate \ , Figs. 2 and 8. 
 
 W1 len the principal light is kept at one side we have an opportunity 
 of introducing a larger portion of shadow than when the light is in the 
 center, which is often of the first consequence, especially if repose is 
 required in the work. 
 
 W1 len, as in Fig. 2, a multitude of small objects are introduced into 
 a picture, or when the general arrangement consists of many figures, it is 
 impossible to get a breadth of light and shade, unless many of them are 
 united together of the same strength, so as to form a mass of light, or of 
 dark ; hut which to do with skill is one of the greatest difficulties ; for unless 
 the science is in some measure concealed it is no longer science. In the con- 
 fusion of a battle, for example, it is unlikely that two or thrcT' white horses 
 should he collected, so ;is to form a mass of light; and yet we see in Sal- 
 vator Rosa and Wouvermans this method adopted ; or in a representation 
 of dead game it is equally improbable that we should always find a swan 
 
I>IGHT AND SHADE 
 
 19 
 
 for the same purpose, as in Weeninx. To obviate such apparent artifice of 
 tlie painter we find P. Veronese, Tintoretto and others making use of the 
 sky or light buildings for a principal mass in their large works, consisting 
 of many figures. In the small works of the Dutch school we find the light 
 upon a wall, or on the ground, or in a window, in indoor subjects, and 
 the sky, etc., in open daylight, made use of for this purpose. 
 
 Gerard Douw, notwithstanding his extreme finish, contrived to pre- 
 serve that breadth of light and shade which his instruction in the school 
 of Rembrandt had empowered him to do ; and in small works this breadth 
 of effect is the more difficult to retain, seeing that there is so little space 
 for the middle-tints, darks, lights and reflected lights to be observed in 
 Nature, and withal, for a certain bluntness in the outline, to prevent the 
 several objects from looking like small models. Reynolds, in his notes to 
 
 Plate r. Fig. 2. G. Dow 
 
 Fresnoy, to illustrate this (piality, says: “We may have recourse to Titian’s 
 bunch of grapes, which we Mill suppose placed so as to receive a broad 
 light and shadoM"; here, though each individual grape on the light side of 
 the bunch has its light, and shadoM’, and reflection, yet altogether they make 
 but one broad mass of light; the slightest sketch, therefore, M'here this 
 breadth is preserved. Mill have a better effect. Mill have more the appear- 
 ance of coming from a master hand — that is, in other Mords, muII have more 
 the characteristics and generale of nature than the most laborious finishing 
 M'here this breadth is lost or neglected.” One method among many M'hich 
 M’e sometimes find Gerard Doinv adopting, so as to convey an appearance 
 of high finishing, and yet preserve the breadth of Nature, is to give the 
 texture or surface of an object M’ithout altering the tints. For example, 
 in painting a piece of carpet or tapestry he seems to have laid in his broad 
 lights and shadoM's, and, M'hile Met, applied a piece of fine cloth, so as to 
 leave an impression of the threads over the M’hole, then in the high lights 
 to have touched each thread M'ith light, and in the shadow M’ith dark touch- 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 ing, which, did the lines accord with the undulation of the folds, would have 
 given a true appearance of the breadth and detail of Nature. 
 
 The art of giving a finished look to a picture is one of the most diffi- 
 cult departments of painting, for under it is implied the exact strengthening 
 of the different shades and colors, which defines their relative situations in 
 the picture, the introduction of and detailing the minute parts, without 
 disturbing the great breadth of the whole, and the giving to different sub- 
 stances their several and proper characters. The term finish, when 
 applied to coloring, implies giving to the representations of objects that 
 exact tone which the objects themselves possess in Nature under the same 
 circumstances, either by repeated glazings with transparent washes, or by 
 a careful mixture of the colors on the palette in the first instance. 
 
 Plate V. Fig. S- Corregio. 
 
 As the principle of placing the light at the side of the picture has 
 already been noticed at Plate III, I shall, in adverting to Fig. 3 of the 
 present plate, merely mention the color. 
 
 The principal light is composed of the white and blue garments of 
 Christ, and repeated in the sky, it being of the same cool tint; the warm 
 light of the angel makes the principal for the head and hands of Christ, 
 and is repeated by a torch carried by figures in the distance. So much 
 cold color being admitted on the lights requires the shadows to he kept 
 warm, to prevent the picture from looking heavy ; accordingly we find 
 Corregio has kept the darks of a rich brown; Rembrandt, who was master 
 of this department of art, when his light is cool makes his shadows the 
 hotter the darker they become; Rubens, who formed his style of coloring 
 upon the Venetian, seems to have been guided by the same opinion. In 
 one of his maxims he says : “Begin by painting in your shadows lightly, 
 taking care that no white is suffered to glide into them; it is the poison 
 of a picture exce])t in the lights ; if ever your shadows are corrupted by 
 the introduction of this baneful color, your tones will no longer he warm 
 
I.IGHT AND SHADE 
 
 21 
 
 and transparent, but heavy and leady. It is not the same in the lights, 
 they may be loaded with color as much as you think proper.” Whoever 
 examines the works of the great colorists will find this impasting of the 
 lights, and keeping the shadows rich, juicy and transparent was their uni- 
 versal practice. The original of this subject, which is in the possession of 
 the Duke of Wellington, has this character, as, indeed, have all the works 
 from Corregio’s own hand. Opie, in his lectures, gives a clear definition of 
 Corregio’s management of chiaroscuro, as follows : 
 
 “By classing his colors and judiciously dividing them into few and 
 large masses of bright and obscure, gently rounding off his light, and 
 passing, by almost imperceptible degrees, through pellucid demi-tints and 
 warm reflexions, into broad, deep and transparent shade ; he artfully con- 
 nected the fiercest extremes of light and shadow, harmonized the most 
 intense opposition of colors, and combined the greatest possible effect with 
 the sweetest and softest repose imaginable.” 
 
 Plate VI, Fig. 1. 
 
 I have noticed in another place that when the darks of the group are 
 brought off the light side of the background greater firmness is obtained, 
 and more vivacity, which latter is the peculiar cliaracter of daylight. 
 Cuyp, by placing his figures in such a position as to throw long shadows 
 across the picture, gives a great appearance of sunshine. If the strong 
 darks are placed on the delicate half-light, instead of on the strong light. 
 
 Plate VI. Fig. i. Cuyp. 
 
 they have greater force, as the ground has a more retiring quality; the 
 strong colors have also a more natural appearance, as in the event of 
 colors being opposed to the glare of light their brilliancy is destroyed. 
 
 A few small touclies of light are sufficient to convey the light into the 
 dark side of the picture, and to take off' the heaviness of the shadows. In 
 compositions, when the background is very dark, we find shining sub- 
 stances, sucli as mirrors, metal, armor, etc., employed, as they take on a 
 sharp light, and thereby connect the shade with the light without destroy- 
 ing its breadth ; on the contrary, they add to its depth. 
 
22 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 Plate VI, Fig. 2. 
 
 When tlie light part of the group is placed upon the light side of the 
 ground, provided there can be sufficient firmness given, we must of neces- 
 sity have a greater breadth of effect. Vandyck has, in this picture, kept 
 the principal light upon the sleeve of the jacket (w'hich makes the most 
 prominent point), and has diffused it upon the sky. The cool tints of the 
 shadows of the jacket and part of a blue ribbon detach it from the under- 
 paid of the sky, which is warm. The warm coloring of the boy, and the 
 cloak whicli lie carries, and the king’s breeches being of a dull red, assist 
 
 Plate VI. Fig. 2. l^andykc. 
 
 the arrangement. The warm colors are carried into the shadow side of 
 the picture by the dun color of the horse, the stump of the tree and the 
 saddle cloth. The cool blue of the sky mixes with the foliage of the trees, 
 and prevents it from interfering with the hat, which has greater point in 
 consequence, and balances the shadow side of the picture, besides drawing 
 the attention of the spectator to the head. The warm color of the flesh 
 necessarily detaches itself from the cool ground; but in such situations we 
 often find Huhens and alt his pupils bring strong blue in contact with the 
 head, which gives it a great value and a luminous effect. We thus perceive 
 a light figure may be strongly relieved even by a light background, provided 
 the colors are opposed to each other ; thereby preserving the greatest 
 breadth of light. 
 
 Plate VI, Fig. 3. 
 
 We have in this subject the dark of the group brought oft’ the light 
 part of the ground with great firmness, and a very large portion of the out- 
 line sharp and cutting, which, though it may give the strong feature of 
 natural objects, has a harsh appearance at first sight. Whether it be that 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 23 
 
 in real objects their actual existence enables tbein to harnionize with the 
 harshest effects of light and shade; or that the I'eal separation of one part 
 from anotlier, admits of a strength of color incompatible with a flat sur- 
 face, such as an outline on canvas, is worthy of the student’s examination ; 
 as in Nature he will often find the most distant parts of an object more 
 sharp and cutting than the nearest outlines, and yet keej) their situation. 
 To represent this on canvas requires the most scientific management ; as 
 a work may have tlie strength and freshness of Nature, without being a 
 just representation, when the situation of one part with regard to another 
 is taken into the account. 
 
 Plate VI. Fig. s. P. Potter. 
 
 Potter in this picture (in whicli the objects are of tlie natural size) 
 lias made use of the simplest and firmest principles, as regards light and 
 shade. We have the group strongly defined by part of it coming liglit 
 off' a dark ground, and dark off a light one; we have the composition taking 
 a decided form in one direction, and the light running across it in another; 
 we have therefore the strong look of Nature, which consists of simplicity, 
 decision, and strength. 
 
 In the early masters we have these qualities often in a high degree ; 
 and had they loss of an inlaid flat appearance, would lie more valuable than 
 the more harmonious softenings of modern light and shade ; hut we must 
 never forget that objects in Nature are more or less round, that they are 
 delicate as well as forcible, and that the harshest colors are under the in- 
 fluence of light and shade. 
 
 Plate ^T, Fig. d. 
 
 d'he light part of the groiqi is here brought in contact with the light 
 part of the background, and the shadow assisted in its strength by the 
 local colors of the objects placed within it. The yellow cow, which makes 
 the light, is surrounded by others of a dull red and brown, ivbicb are 
 relieved by a still diarker ground. This gives a great breadth to the group. 
 The cool color of the iqiper part of the sky is carried across the picture 
 
24 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 by the grass and leaves being of a cool green ; the dark sharp marking of 
 the horns, eyes, etc., gives a lightness and finish to the whole, as it allows 
 the broad lights and shadows to have more union. In Cuyp the local color 
 
 Plate VI. Fig. 4. Cuyp. 
 
 of his objects, whether hot or cold, is kept up undisturbed by the light 
 and shade ; this gives great breadth and the distinctness of Nature in open 
 daylight. 
 
 Plate VI, Fig. .'5. 
 
 In tliis subject we have the light figure upon the dark ground, and 
 vice versa. In Nature we often perceive strong effects arising out of simple 
 and decided principles, which, if sketched at the time, will be of the utmost 
 value to the student, by giving him an insight into the science of light and 
 shade; and will often serve as a key to commence with in forming larger 
 
 Plate F/. Fiy. 5. 
 
 combinations. Reynolds mentions a mode of composing by taking a figure 
 from some celebrated master, and designing others to correspond with it ; 
 thereby imparting a grandeur of style to the whole. So, by commencing 
 with somctliing sketched from Nature, we give a decided look of truth to 
 tlie other parts of the picture. 
 
I.IGHT ANJJ SHADE 
 
 25 
 
 Many painters model their groups for the purpose of obtaining a true 
 representation of the light and shade. Small figures, however rude in form, 
 will serve this purpose, and give the artist many invaluable hints. 
 
 Tintoretto and Corregio, both great masters of chiaroscuro, are known 
 to have availed themselves of this method ; and the student must have a 
 most erroneous idea of his art who imagines excellence can be obtained 
 without the assistance of every auxiliary. The most teamed arrangements 
 of light and shade may astonish, but there is a chann in the chairoscuro of 
 Nature which carries irresistible sway. 
 
 Plate VI, Peg. 6. 
 
 In this subject we have the dark group brouglit off the light shade of 
 the background in the simplest and most decided manner ; and the principles 
 of light and shade made applicable to giving the strong look of Nature, 
 viz. : breadth and solidity to the ground, and light and extent to the sky. 
 Rembrandt has often been accused of being artificial in his effects, hut he 
 never misses his aim, either in representing the splendid emanations of light, 
 or the quiet depths of shadow; the peculiar character of an object, either 
 in texture or in color, and that appearance familiar to the recollection of 
 every one; but to convey whicli, either in poetry or in painting, is only 
 in the power of a few. 
 
 Plate VI. Fig. 6. Rembrandt. 
 
 Rembrandt seems always to have taken up a leading feature in his 
 works, and never to haA^e lost sight of it. The varieties in his prints are but 
 corroborations of this ; as in his anxiety for its preseiwation we trace him 
 destroying every impediment, either by covering doAvn or burying whole 
 groups in shadow, or by leaving in an unfinished state otlier groups, wdth 
 a mere outline to define them. For example, if we take the first state of 
 the print of the great “Ecce Homo,” we perceive he has made Christ in 
 the center of a group, in a quiet broad mass of light, Avith the strong darks 
 gradating from him, right and left, and surrounded by masses of half-tint. 
 

 PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 He has then etched in the principal group, commencing with the figure 
 addressing the multitude, and terminating with the right hand of Pilate. 
 This portion being in strong light, interspersed with a variety of strong 
 darks, acquires by this means great brilliancy and agitation. We have, 
 therefore, the quiet character of Clirist preserved, and his superiority main- 
 tained, by his forming the center of one group and the apex of the other, 
 rising, as Fuseli describes it, “like a pyramid from the tumultuous waves 
 below.” 
 
 If we take his print of the “Angels Appearing to the Sliepherds,” in 
 the first state we find a broad mass of shadow running through the center 
 in a diagonal line, thus giving it its greatest magnitude. In the upper 
 part is preserved tlie principal light, radiating from a center, with a multi- 
 tude of children sporting in its beams, and out of which tlie angel addresses 
 the shepherds across tliis gulf of shadow. The second light, which is in 
 the lower portion of the print, he lias, in the next state, cut up by a number 
 of darks and lights, irregularly dispersed, thus conveying the appearance 
 of confusion and terror to the shepherds, tlieir herds and fiocks, which are 
 represented fiying in all directions. Tliese two examples out of many, which 
 the student will discover by his own examination, will suffice to show that 
 light and shade may he made to contribute to the character and fitness of 
 the subject, and tliat of this adaptation of it, Rcmlirandt holds unrivalled 
 possession. 
 
 Plate VII. 
 
 When a picture is chiefly composed of light and half-tint, the darks 
 of the figures must necessarily tell with great force, from their being so 
 little of half-shade to rob tliem of their value; the mid-day sun filling with 
 intense light every particle of the atmosphere gives tliat luminous appear- 
 
 Platc VII. Fig. i. -I. Vandivclde. 
 
 ance, which is so strongly characteristic of an out-of-door effect, the dark 
 local colors of the figures, fi’om tlie absorption of the rays, retain undimin- 
 ished power, and give that firmness and vivacity to the scene which prevents 
 it from looking feeble. In Nature, figures, from their upright position, have 
 a greater conseciuence from the flat shadows being weakened by the light 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 27 
 
 of the sky falling into them ; for, seeing that the whole heavens are filled 
 with light, it is showered down and reflected in all directions. Also, from 
 their being in motion, they attract the eye ; a circumstance to he noticed by 
 the artist, who has to give them their relative value on canvas, as they 
 possess in reality. The consideration of all tlicsc circumstances influences 
 
 many painters in giving the darks the full force of the palette. As a gen- 
 eral character and the leading features of strong daylight are to he pur- 
 chased at any sacrifice, critics who do not sufficiently investigate these 
 matters may complain of want of air, but the student, by a close attention 
 to the subject, will not easily be scared liy the cry of “sans vapeur.” 
 
 Birds in the air, l)oats on the water, figures on the sands, cornfields, 
 or light roads, have all this characteristic feature in a high degree, from 
 the middle-tint being on so light a key. 
 
 Plate VII. Fig. 
 
 A. Vandivelde. 
 
 Plate VII. Fig. 5. Claude. 
 
 Cuyp often accomplishes this by the general tone of the picture being 
 varm, and his shadows lirownish, thereby allowing his blue draperies and 
 cool blacks to have greater point. P. Veronese and Rubens have many pic- 
 tures on the same principle. 
 
PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 28 
 
 Opposition of color is of great importance in the treatment of pictures 
 on a liglit key, as it gives great relief and distinctness without cutting up 
 the breadth of light ; such as blue upon a warm ground, or red upon a cool 
 one, bright yellow upon a cool gray, etc. In No. 3, Claude has made great 
 use of such opposition. The general appearance of the picture is warm, 
 the dark blue of the water is carried across the piece by tbe dark blue 
 draperies of some of the figures, and is suffused upon the upper part of 
 the sky. The red is interspersed upon the boats and the draperies of the 
 other figures ; and, warming the near part of the buildings, is repeated at 
 the top by a figure looking over the balcony and two red flags upon the 
 blue of the sky. He has placed t\vo blue flags upon the w'arm part of the 
 sky to repeat the cool color. 
 
 Pictures painted on a dark key have already been noticed as possessing 
 many advantages, which have led our greatest colorists to its adoption. 
 But as low-toned pictures are apt to look heavy and black, unless richness 
 of shadows, or sharpness of lights be preserved, so pictures painted on a 
 light key are apt to look flat and unfinished unless the greatest circum- 
 
 Plate J’ll. Fig. 4. J. Ostade. 
 
 spection be used. In Nature, the intense light of the sky, and the atmos- 
 phere, which is filled with its innumerable refractions, spread a luminous 
 cbaracter over the whole scene; to represent which the artist can employ 
 only a greater degree of whiteness, a very inadequate quality, and hence 
 the great difficulty of imitating the splendid brightness of midda\" or the 
 brilliant effects of an evening sky. In treating the one, unless the delicate 
 varieties of the half-lights are attended to with the greatest care, the pic- 
 ture will look crude and unfinished ; for the tints being so nearly allied to 
 each other, the exact sharpness to define them, and their exact tone, either 
 by repeated scumbling or mixing them to the proper tint in the first 
 instance, require an attention and study of tlie most refined quality, without 
 which the shadows will be powdery instead of pearly, or the lights white 
 instead of luminous. In the other arrangement the yellow tones may become 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 29 
 
 solid and foxy, if deprived of the delicate cool tints so necessary to prevent 
 their appearing too hot, and to give the whole that tremulous unsteady 
 appearance which light possesses in Nature. 
 
 Tdght pictures, from the tenderness of their light and shade, require 
 the colors opposed to each other, whether blue opposed to red, or yellow to 
 cool gray, to be managed with tlie greatest delicacy ; otherwise their strength 
 
 Plate VII. Fig. 3. Ciiyp. 
 
 will destroy all appearance of light and air. In light pictures strong colors 
 can stand only as middle-tint, or for leading the light into the shade, but 
 can ajipear as lights only by being relieved by strong shadow. We often 
 find them, as in P. ^^cronese, etc., standing as darks, or made use of to give 
 objects an appearance of solidity, without breaking up the general mass 
 of light in the picture. 
 
 Plate VIII.. 
 
 P:: ^ 
 
 • • •• • ••• ^ 
 
 I shall here recuf tp ytuc. Atibje'cf • "df * Iniddle-tint for the purpose of 
 taking a general view of the various modes of arrsinging this important 
 branch of light and shade; as upon the strength of the middle-tint depends. 
 
 Plate VIII. Fig. i. 
 
 Hondekooter. 
 
30 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 in a great measure, the general look of the picture. By the middle-tint is 
 meant tlie medium between the extreme dark and extreme light ; but as such 
 a scale is too gross to take in all the gradations lying between so opposite 
 qualities, I liaA^e, for the sake of clearness, made use of intennediate links, 
 viz. : half-dark and half-light. If we take a ground of a shade composed 
 chiefly of half-dark and middle-tint, and introduce the strongest lights, we 
 shall find it necessary to introduce a portion of half-lights to spread and 
 break down their harshness. If the extreme dark is placed upon the middle- 
 tint it will, by contrast, render it more in union with the half-light; if it 
 he placed on the half-dark, a breadth of shadow' and softness will be the 
 result. Harshness of effect in treating pictures upon a dark scale arises, 
 most commonly, from the want of sufficient quantities of middle-tint and 
 half-light, thereby causing the principal light to be too much defined, as 
 we frequently observe in the works of iMichael Angelo Caravaggio. 
 
 Plate VIII. Fig. 2. Wouverthdns. 
 
 Rembrandt and Corregio excelled all others in the introduction of 
 demi-tints, which illuminate their deepest shadows. In their works and in 
 Nature we perceive the lowest tones of middle-tint are removed from black- 
 ness, either by their warmth or the introduction of some positive black or 
 blue, to produce an apyiearance of air floating within them. 
 
 d’hc exact (piantity of middle-tint must depend upon the arrangement 
 of the subject and the taste of the painter, but it is absolutely necessary 
 to prevent it from always interposing between the extreme light and extreme 
 dark. 
 
 d'his invariably gradual declination of the light into the shadow is one 
 cause of the insipid look of most of Vanderwerf’s works, nor is it, as Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds justly observes, consonant with the effects in Nature. 
 Variety demands some portion of the composition to be sharj) and cutting; 
 and richness is to be obtained only by a continual changing of portions 
 coming sometimes dark and sometimes light off the ground ; this endless 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 31 
 
 variety in Nature can be imitated only by tliis intricate weaving of the out- 
 line witli tlie background; so tliat the same sound principles which guide 
 the conduct in the treatment of the whole may be traced in the management 
 of the detail. 
 
 Middle-tint, in pictures painted on a light key, ought to be in some 
 measure robbed of its consequence, either by the Introduction of reflected 
 lights or positive half-lights ; for if it occupies too large a portion of the 
 canvas the work must of necessity lose its characteristic feature. We must, 
 therefore, depend upon some other agent to prevent the picture being flimsy, 
 and void of that solidity which is so inherent in the most deliacte of Nature’s 
 works. Accordingly we find small sharp darks introduced, the value of 
 which has been noticed in another place, and ( what is of the utmost 
 importance) a sharp edge to the lights and half shadows throughout the 
 whole. 
 
 The light pictures of Teniers and C.'uyp are full of this precision in 
 the touch, a flatness in the shades, a sharpness in the handling and a dis- 
 tinctness in the most approximate colors; by this alone a general breadth 
 can be preserved, and the most splendid light (even of a sky) filled with 
 a multitude of forms. 
 
 Plate VIII. Fig. 
 
 Teniers. 
 
 In this notice of middle-tint or ground of the picture 1 may appear to 
 have recapitulated what has already been said in other parts of the work, 
 but my anxiety to put the student in possession of every information in 
 my power urges me to place it before his eyes in every point of view. 
 
 ddie management of light and shade, as I’elates to a whole, ought to be 
 always present in the student’s mind, as it is from inattention to this alone 
 that a work is often destroyed in its progress. In the commencement of a 
 picture those parts only are strongly defined, or marked in, which are of 
 the greatest importance, and the other portions are left in a broader and 
 
32 
 
 PRACTICAL HINTS ON 
 
 less obtrusive state. But in the progress of the work the proper subordi- 
 nation of the latter is often injuriously diminished. 
 
 The general character of an object is its most important feature, and 
 this is to be preserved at the price of every other quality, if it cannot be 
 retained upon other terms ; as it is this which is imprinted on the mind of 
 every one, and which is, therefore, paramount to all its other properties. 
 If the object does not possess this feature upon the canvas it cannot 
 attract or interest the spectator, as in all probability its other properties 
 are unveiled except to the artist alone, who has examined it attentively. 
 For example, in a portrait, when we see the head alone finished, it often 
 pleases more than when the work is complete ; our attention is led involun- 
 tarily to the countenance, which would be the case were we introduced to 
 the original; and this preponderance, which exists in Nature, must of neces- 
 sity become less when in the finished work the other portions of the picture 
 have received a greater consequence. The importance of the countenance, 
 the general character of the flesh, viz. : its transparency, breadth of local 
 
 Plate VIII. Fig. 4. 
 
 color, luminous appearance, etc., may be all lost from the injudicious 
 introduction, in the other parts of the picture, of lights, darks and middle- 
 tints, in the artist’s anxiety for richness of effect, or in his wish to give 
 splendor and harmony by the strength or variety of his colors. 
 
 In sketching a landscape from Nature, when we have time only to put 
 down the leading features, detailing such objects alone as are striking or 
 interesting, we find the spectator often more satisfied from feeling a corre- 
 sponding sensation from the truth of the representation imprinted on his 
 mind than when, in a more finished work, the painter has destroyed the great 
 breadth and luminous character of the sky for the purpose of mixing the 
 shadows of the clouds with the trees, etc., to counteract flatness, or when 
 he lias subdued the strength of his colors for the sake of taking off their 
 harshness. When he begins to define the different parts for the sake of 
 finish, unless he has the treatment of the picture as a whole constantly before 
 his eye, the expansive look of the sky, the fresh and decided appearance of 
 Nature in the colors, the gray tones and softmarkings of the aerial per- 
 spective may all disappear, and give yilace to requisites of an inferior kind. 
 
LIGHT AND SHADE 
 
 33 
 
 In all objects in Nature there is something predominant, and which 
 alone has struck the observation of every one. If the artist gives that he 
 brings his object at once home “to men’s bosoms,” and without which his 
 greatest labor is but industrious trifling. The character of an object de- 
 pends upon a particular color, a particular touch, a pax-ticular concentration 
 or diffusion of light, according to its form or substance ; to obtain which 
 ought to be the constant study of the student, as it is the language of his 
 art, and the only language universally understood. 
 
 I have in these brief notices of the art of light and shade endeavored 
 to point out the various modes of establishing a scientific arrangement of 
 its powers, and applying them to any subject the student may have in 
 hand. The changes are infinite ; but, by an attentive examination of the 
 effects in Nature or in art, he will find the sources from which they arise 
 
 Plate J^T7I. Fig. 5 , Frank Hals. 
 
 few and simple. Opie, in his lectures, speaking of chiaroscuro, strongly 
 recommends the study of the several masters who liave excelled in this 
 department of the art: “By studying the works of tlie great masters of 
 chiaroscuro he will, by degrees, become acquainted with all the artifices of 
 contrasting light to sliade, color to color, to produce relievo, of joining 
 light objects together, and dark objects together, in masses, in order to 
 give splendor and breadth of effect; of gradually sinking some objects 
 wholly or partly in shadow, and losing their outlines in the ground, to pro- 
 duce softness and harmony; and of making, in other places, abrupt breaks 
 and sharp transitions, to produce vivacity and spirit. He will also learn 
 their rules for shaping their masses, and of adapting them in regard to 
 force or softness to the nature of the subject, whether grave or gay, sul)- 
 lime or terrible. By this he must be directed when to give his light the 
 form of a globe, or when to send it in a stream across his canvas ; when 
 to make a dark mass on a light ground, or a light mass on a dark ground ; 
 when he may let his light die away by imperceptible gradations, when 
 diffuse it in greater breadth and abundance, and when it may more properlv 
 
34 
 
 be concentrated into one vivid flash.” This is so excellent, and embraces 
 so many of the best modes of the management of light and shade, that the 
 student, wlio can comprehend them and put them in practice, requires no 
 farther instruction in this part of the art. He will be in possession of a 
 key to unlock the richest stores of Nature; he will be in possession of a sort 
 of shorthand to note down her most fleeting effects ; and by understanding 
 the cause which gives them existence, rivet them in his memory. Without 
 having accustomed himself to this mode of arranging his observations his 
 life will be spent in an endless search after that which is continually passing 
 before his eyes. 
 
 Light and shade, considered as a means of producing a deception, by 
 making parts of the picture advance, and other parts retire, so that every- 
 thing may keep its relative situation, as regards tlie distance from the 
 spectator, is a necessary attendant upon perspective. It is, however, often 
 violated in the best works, for the purpose of giving a general breadth, or 
 
 Plate VIII. Fig. 6. Titian. 
 
 of preserving tlie light in a good shape; but, when compatible with both of 
 these, it is of the utmost consequence; and the painter can enter into a 
 competition with Nature only by a perfect knowledge of the best modes of 
 adapting it to such purpose. 
 
 Richness of effect, either by a mixture of the light and shade, so as to 
 give an appearance of doubling to tlie outline, or by relieving the outline 
 by a ground possessed of a variety of strengths and distinctness of form, 
 surrounded by flatness, when we wish any part to attract notice, or to pre- 
 serve the expression undisturbed, are both under the dominion of chiaroscuro, 
 to whose control tlie whole army of colors yields implicit obedience. 
 
 4'he application of light and shade, in a poetical point of view, is 
 capable of creating an association of ideas, without which the imagination 
 of the spectator would experience nothing but disappointment. For example, 
 if we represent a scene remarkable for disasters or shipwrecks, the mind is 
 excited, and an expectation raised, which none but an artist imbued with 
 
;35 
 
 the poetry of the art can gratify, by clothing tlie scene in all the ominous 
 effects of elemental strife; whether the shadow 
 
 “Strangles the traveling lamp: 
 
 That darkness doth the face of earth entomb, 
 
 When living light should kiss it?” 
 or 
 
 “The sky seems to pour down stinking pitch. 
 
 Hut that the sea, mounting to the welkin’s cheek. 
 
 Dashes the fire out.” 
 
 Shakespeare, who was possessed of all the ])oetry of the art, clothes 
 his scenery with those circumstances which awaken a thousand pleasing or 
 awful sensations as the subject may retpiire; whether 
 
 Whether 
 
 or when 
 
 “The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night. 
 Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light.” 
 
 “The glorious sun 
 
 Stays in his course and plays the alchemist; 
 Turning with splendor of his precious eye 
 d’he meagre cloddy earth to glitte ring gold.” 
 
 “Light thickens ; and the crow 
 INIakes wing to the rooky wood.” 
 
 or when he bids 
 
 “Thick night 
 
 Hall herself in the dunnest smoke of hell.” 
 
 We have him adopting the softness and breadth of Corregio, the 
 splendor and gorgeous effects of Veronese, Rubens or Cuyp, or the ominous 
 twilight and midnight darkness of Rembrandt or iMichacl Angelo Cara- 
 vaggio. His light and shade is the chiaroscuro of Nature passing through 
 a mind susceptible of its finest impressions, and capable of placing such 
 effects before the eye of the spectator, “unshorn of their beams,” 
 paired in their sublimity. 
 
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