' - I ■ - t '■ ■ ' ‘ > ; :S^-i :,t- THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS CONTAINING AMPLE DIRECTIONS EVERY MODE OF PAINTING, IN OIL AND WATER COLOURS ; FOR 0tt0rabtn0 anH iiirojpper^plate |^rinttn0 AND FOR MODELLING AND CASTING; WITH Miscellaneous Receipts^ necessary for the better attainment of these elegant ARTS, LONDON : PRINTED BY AND FOR WILLIAM COLE, No. 10, NEWGATE-STREET, Pric^ One Shillings -ii ■ ' ' / ■■■.■ :.Vf 1 INTRODUCTION. Of all the Arts, termed Imitative, that of Painting deserves the first rank; not merely on account of the diversity of the tints vtrhich it affords, nor for that artful disposition of light and- shade, which often deceives the eye, but for a higher considera- tion; namely, that of portraying nature in the most animated, lively, and interesting manner. It may be defined as the art of representing, by means of lights and shadows, lines and colours, every visible object in nature; and expressing, by the lineaments of the countenance, and attitude of the body, the various emotions of the mind. On a smooth surface may be expressed objects, not only in such a state of projection, and (if the laws of perspective be observed) so effectually, as to de- ceive the eye of the unwary beholder. They may be represented, likewise, in the most enchanting dress, and in a manner capable of affording great delight to the senses. It is an essential charac- teristic of this art, that it addresses itself to the A 2 IV INTRODUCTiaN. mind, and inspires us with pity for a suffering victim; with dread of an impending danger; with courage to imitate an heroic example ; and, in short, appeals to every passion that has a seat in the human breast. From this definition it will naturally be conceived, that the attainment to perfection in the art of Paint- ing is attended with no small difficulty. In this> however, as in other arts, wealth and renown are the rewards of labour and assiduity. THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. ♦ PAINTING IN OIL. We shall first treat on oil painting, which exceeds all other methods in its accuracy of colours, and in its wonderful force and expression. It surpasses miniature and crayon painting in its extended dimensions, whereby most objects of animated mature may be presented as large as life ; by which means the imitation is rendered so complete, and the powers of illusion and deception are so perfected, as to astonish those who are inexpe- rienced in the art. NECESSARY MATERIALS. The materials to be provided are, a palette, a palette^ knife, pencils, tools or brushes, an easel, picture cloths, a maulstick, and oil colours. The palette is used to con^ tain the colour, being held on the left hand while at work, by passing the thumb through a hole near the front. To set the palette, is to place the colours thereon in their proper order. The lighter colours are placed next the hand ; the darker ones next, increasing^ in depth according to their distances from the front, A second row of tints is then formed of the original colours, by mixing these together, in such proportions as to produce tints to suit the subject of the piece. A third row of tints must also be made, which should, if possible, approach nearer the complexion of the piece than the second row. The oil colours are best kept in A 3 6 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. bladders ; and when wanted for use the bladder is to be pricked with a pin, and no more colour squeezed out than is necessary for present use, otherwise it will spoil. The palette-knife is a thin well-tempered blade : its use is to mix and work up the colours on the palette. Pencils are generally of two sorts ; viz. camels’-hair pencils and fitch pencils. Fitch pencils are used by some artists to give a smoothness to their pictures, by working the colours into each other after they have been laid on with the cameFs-hair pencil. This is called scumbling the colours. Others, who wish to give a bold appearance to their works, paint wholly with fitches. Tools are only a larger kind of pencils, not inserted into quills, like the foregoing ; but the hairs are bound round a stick, in the manner as the brushes used by house painters. They are of a stronger nature: some good artists have used no others. There is also another sort of pencils, having very long hairs, used chiefly by painters of shipping, to describe the ropes, &c. The easel is formed various ways, according to the fancy of the artist. Its use is to support the picture, or canvass, upon which the painter is employed. The most common form for it is three straight legs, the longest being behind. In the two front legs are a number of holes, corresponding in height to each other, in order that, when a peg is placed in the corresponding holes of each leg, they support evenly whatever is laid upon them. A slight piece of board is usually placed on these pegs to support small pictures. — Picture-cloths are those substances upon which the picture is painted. They were formerly almost universally of canvass, but some artists, of late, prefer a sort of ticking made for the purpose. Landscape painters generally choose cloths of a very smooth surface. A maulstick is a slender rod of wood, with a ball of cotton, or some other soft substance, tied to one end, whereby it may rest against the picture without damag- ing it. Its use is to support the right hand while at v ork, being held in the left hand with the cotton ball resting against the painting. This implement is not in universal use : many artists wholly reject it, as being pernicious to that freedom of hand necessary to a good painter. THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 7 THE COLOURS. Oil colours are so; called because mixed with oil, as water colours are with water, no others being proper for this branch of painting. Many substances have been discovered by the moderns which answer the intention of the artist; the chief of those in general use, and from which all the variety of tints may be produced, are the following: — Whites: Flake-white, and Notting- ham-white. — Yellows: Yellow-ocher, Naples-yellow, King’s-yellow, &c. — Reds: Carmine, Lake, Indian-red, Light- red, Vermilion, Red -lead, &c. — Greens : Terre- verte. Verdigris; but the best greens are formed by a mixture of blue and yellow, in different proportions. — Browns: Cologne-earth, Brown-pink, Umber, and Terra de Sienna : the two latter are used both raw and burnt. — Blues: Prussian-blue, Ultramarine, and Verditer. — Blacks: Blue-black, and Ivory-black. Any other colour, and its various tints, may be formed from two or more of the foregoing. Green, as before observed, is produced by the union of blue and yellow, observing that the blue be not too deep, if it is, it will form a very dull green. The more blue there is in the composition, the darker will be the green ; and, on the contrary, a greater quantity of yellow makes a lighter green. Orange-colour is formed by the mixture of a bright red and yellow. More red makes it darker, and more yellow lighter. Flesh-colour is compounded of red, yellow, and white, mixed in various proportions, accord- ing to the tint required. For a more florid complexion less white should be used ; while a pallid countenance requires more white, and a swarthy complexion should have a tint of yellow-ocher. Purples are formed of blue and a bright red. If they be produced from a blue and a dark red, some white should be added. Violet-colours may be produced from the same colours as purple, but in violet the red must predominate more than in the purple, whose predominant colour is blue. — Ash-colour: By a mixture of black and white. — Bay -colour : A bright red, with a little brown and black ; as, for instance, Vermillion with a little umber and black. — Carnation- colour : Red and white.— Crimson: The same as the 8 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS, last, but with a greater proportion of red. — Flame- colour : A bright red and full yellow. If the red be not bright, a little white must be added. — Hair-colour : A light and dark yellow, united with brown, black, and white. — Lead-colour: A deep blue and white. — Russet- colour: Black and white. — Scarlet: A dark and light red^ — Pink : A light red, with a little white and yellow. — Sea Green: Yellow, with a small proportion of light blue. — Sky-colour : Light-blue and white ; but, in gene- ral, a sky requires three tints : for the lowest parts, light yellow and white ; for the next higher part, blue and white; and for the upper part, blue alone . — Straws colour : A light and dark yellow, with a small propor- of light red. — Water-colour: Blue and white, heightened with white, and shaded with blue. TO MIX THEM. These directions, well understood, will enable the student to form any other tint he may require. He must always remember, that white mixed with any colour, or with any composition of colours^ always makes them lighter.' But if any colour or tint be too light, it can never he rendered deeper by the addition of black: this would perfectly spoil it. And the best way to deepen a colour or tint when too light, is to paint it oyer with a darker colour of a similar nature, till it be brought to the tone required : this is termed glazing it over : and is also used where great richness is required in any particular colour, as in crimson, &c. ; in which case, when the crimson colour is laid on and finished, the artist glazes it with a coat of lake. Sometimes the picture, or a part thereof, is glazed twice or more, and the lights retouched : by repeated glazings with carmine and lake a bright white has been turned into a crimson. Glazing should always, if possible, be performed with transparent colours. It is, however, a practice not universally adopted, and seldom performed, by artists whose skill enables them to produce an equal efiect without it. To heighten a colour it should be mixed with any. similar colour of a lighter tone, as light red upon dark red; yellow upon light red; white upon yellow, &c. THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 9 Vvhich is preferable to heightening the colours with white only. The oils with which the colours are mixed are of more importance in the art than is generally imagined. From their quality and their intimate mix- ture with the colour, by which they form, as it were, a part of the colour itself, they cannot but have a very great influence on the success of the piece. Those in most general use are linseed oil, nut oil, poppy oil. Linseed oil generally injures light colours ; its use therefore is, or should be, confined to the darker ones : some artists, to render it more transparent, rectify it, by exposing it in a bladder to the sun, but others wholly reject it. Nut oil is in more general use ; it is more transparent than linseed oil ; of a finer quality, works smoother, and is not so subject to change the colours. Poppy oil is generally preferred to the two others, as possessing all the good qualities of the nut oil, but in a higher degree : it is also clearer than the nut oil. To pictures painted in haste, and to preserve others from the injuries arising from the dampness of the weather, dry- ing oil is sometimes used, which is formed by boiling some litharge in linseed oil. Drying oil should, however, be used with caution, and that only when indispensable, as those subjects where it has been admitted are gene- rally found, in a short time, to have the appearance of old, and sometimes of decayed paintings. Though it be absolutely necessary, in many cases, to mix two or more colours together to produce a desired tint, yet the student must be cautioned against too wantonly indulging himself in the mixing of colours ; for it is an undoubted fact, that the more simply the colours are used the easier they work, their appearance is brighter, and they are far more durable than a com- pound colour. For if a permanent colour be mixed with one that is not lasting, the latter destroys the durability of the former. And of those colours which are formed by composition, as green, orange, purple, and the like, that which contains the fewest ingredients is the best. Oil colours afforrf the artist an advantage which the painter in water colours can never possess ; namely, that of retouching any part, or even the whole of his work; thus, black may be recoloured white, 10 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. brown, or any other colour : but this practice is by no means recommended. It is never followed but when indispensable; for the undermost colour, to produce harmony and force, should have some affinity in its tone with the colour laid over it, which circumstance is not always to be expected. PRIMING. The cloth or canvas, upon which the picture is to be painted, is generally first primed. The priming is no more than laying on a smooth coat of colour. It is not of any great consequence what particular tint it is formed of, provided it is rather light than dark. Por- trait painters choose a very thin priming: and many modern artists, whose works have met with general approbation, do not prime their cloths at all. The colours are then to be laid on in their proper places ; after which they are sometimes softened into each other with a clean tool : this operation, or scumbling, is not beneficial to every picture : where strength is required it should not take place, neither should it be used in the finishing touches. PROGRESS OF THE PAINTING. With regard to the progress of a picture, no rule can be given that will universally serve to direct the student, scarce any two masters observe the same mode of pro- cedure : the judgment is the principal guide ; and how- ever two artists may vary from each other in the order of performing their work, they, in the end, produce the same effect as if they had both strictly followed one determinate rule. The only general method that can be recommended is the following : — The outline of the figure must be first faintly sketched with white chalk, and afterwards more correctly formed with the pencil, and any thin transparent colour. The larger parts are next to be laid in with their proper colours, lights, and shades ; which will, by degrees, produce an effect, or give the appearance of a whole. This may be called the first plan of the work, and should have njore than ordinary care and pains bestowed upon it. At this period the colours should be carefully examined and THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 11 compared with each other: their future relations and effects may now be foreseen. The second operation consists in bringing the different colours to their proper and respective tones. Some must be heightened, others kept down, and others again receive tints of different hues from what they possessed at first. The piece now begins to possess some harmony of colouring. In this stage the work is said to have gone through a second plan. The third process consists of the finishing part : force and relief must be added where wanted ; a fresh- ness of tint, given to the carnations, as they are called, or flesh-colour, to produce accurate keeping ; and a few smart touches must be added to conceal the effects of labour, particularly where much pains have been taken with the subject. All large shadows should be nearly of the same tone, according to their situations ; smaller ones are somewhat fainter; and they should all be very thin of colour : the lights of the picture should be bold, distinct, and spirited, and should not want for colour, which renders them more permanent. The artist should always consider the distance at which his piece is to be viewed ; for whatever produces no effect in the situation where the picture is to be placed is labour lost. Those paintings, therefore, which are to be placed in high situations, and also very large pieces, which must con- sequently be viewed at a considerable distance, should have no very minute work, which would not only be lost upon the observer, but, perhaps, by being viewed at a distance, and losing its intended effect, have an awkward and unpleasant appearance. Landscape painters generally begin their work about the centre of the piece; they paint the sky first, and gradually advance from the distant objects to the fore- ground. The back grounds of all objects being treated first, before the object itself, whereby a great deal of trouble is saved, which would be occasioned by painting round the objects. CAUTIONS TO OIL PAINTERS. The following cautions should be carefully attended to by the student: — ^^If a tint be required, while he is at work on a picture, different from any on his pallette, it is 12 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. better to mingle the colours which compose it on the palette with the knife than with a pencil, as the pencil always retains more of one colour than another, when it is used to incorporate them together, and thereby the colour, with a little working, assumes a different hue. One , pencil should always be kept to one colour, otherwise the colours will never appear fresh. Colours should never be teased, that is, mixed too much ; or when, instead of being laid on the canvass at once, they are too much worked about with the pencil. This always injures them, particularly the lighter ones, and makes them lose their brilliancy and just effect. A proper allowance must always be made for that gloss and brilliancy which oil colours possess while wet. The decay of colours is, in a great measure, the con- sequence of too great a quantity of oil : the parts of a picture which first begin to fade are the darker colours, the glazing, and where the colour is thin ; but the lights stand much longer. It is always proper to permit a first coat of colour to be sufficiently dry, before a second is applied. To ascertain when an oil picture is dry, it must be breathed upon pretty strongly, and if it take the breath, it is dry. The palette and pencils, when laid by, should be constantly cleaned with spirits of wine, or oil of turpentine. COLOURING. The reasons why so few painters succeed in colouring are, the great variety of the colours of natural objects, and the different capacities of men to distinguish them : we seldom perceive two flowers, or even blossoms, exactly of the same tint. And still more various are the opinions of mankind with regard to the gradations and combinations of colours, and that in proportion to the perfection of their visual powers and correct habits of judging, from being long accustomed to view tints of different hues. To excel in this branch, the student should make himself acquainted with that part of optics, which treats of light and colours : otherwise be THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 13 will never be able to account for many phenomena of colours which he will observe when he comes to exa- mine the properties and effects of different tints. In the pursuit of this subject he will find that light, simple us it may appear, is a composition of seven different rays, namely : — red, orange, yellow, green, azure, indigo, and violet. Experimental philosophy can ascer- tain the proportional quanty of each of these coloured rays to form a light ; and can also demonstrate the .truth of the assertion by decompounding a ray of light through a prismatic glass, whereby it, however small, is divided into its original primitive colours. Notwith- standing the great success of Titian, Coreggio, Gior- gione, Vandyke, and a few others, who were little in- structed in the physical subtleties of colours, no modern painter should presume to hope for an equal share of excellence, until he be acquainted with those causes in the science of optics, which produce the various effects of colours. Having attained this most essential requisite, the young painter must next study the works of the best colourists ; where he will find the only rules to enable him to express the beauty of objects, as far as relates to th«»ir colours. Titian and Coreggio seeni to have been furnished by nature with the power of distinguish- ing colours, and their various tints, in a manner supe- rior to all other artists ; and thus, consequently, attended to circumstances in their work, rejected by both their* predecessors and their followers. The former, as he did not handle his pencil, so he does not appear to have viewed his objects in the manner of ot her artists. His works display that sweetness of colouring produced by union ; that beauty inseparable from truth ; and all those insensible conversions, soft transitions, and pleas- ing modulations of tints and colours, we observe in the productions of nature. The lustre and transparency also of the pieces of the Flemish school, which give them a most enchanting appearance, may furnish him with some useful hints; though it must be confessed, they are chiefly the effect of varnishes. They are, how- ever, not without their use, as they serve to shew how far colours may be so improved. 14 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. LIGHT AND SHADE. The means/’ says Sir Joshna Reynolds, by which the painter works, and on which the effect of his picture depends, are light and shade, warm and cold colours. 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, Titian, Paul Veronese and Tintoret, were among the first painters who reduced light and shade to a system what was before practised without any fixed principle, and conseq.uently neglected occasionally. From the Venetian painters Ru- bens 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 »When 1 observed an extraordinary effect of light and shade in any picture,. I took a leaf of my pocket-book, and darkened every part of it, in the same gradation of light and shade as the picture, leaving the white paper untouched, to represent the light, and this, without any attention 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 management of their lights. After a few trials 1 found the paper blotted nearly alike *, their general prac- tice appeared to be, to allow not above a quarter of the picture for the light, including in this portion both tire principal and secondary lights *, another quarter to be as dark as possible ; and the remaining half kepf in mezzo- tint, or half shadow. Rubens appears to have admitted rather more light than a quarter, and Rembrandt much less, scarce an eighth ; by this conduct Rembrandt’s light is extremely brilliant, but it costs too much ; the rest of the picture is sacrificed to this one subject. That light will certainly appear the brightest which is surrounded with the greatest quantity of shade, supposing equal skill in the artist. By these means you may likewise remark the various forms and shapes of those lighls, as well as the objects on which they are flung, whether on a figure, or the sky, on a white napkin, on animals, or utensils, THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 15 often introduced for this purpose only: it may be ob- served likewise, what portion is strongly relieved, and how much is united with its ground, for it is necessary that some part (though a small one is sufficient) should be 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 distinction to the work 5 if, on the other band, it is relieved on every side, it will appear as if in- laid .on its ground. Such a blotted paper, held at a distance from the eye, will strike the spectator as some- thing 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 any thing else, for the same principles extend to every branch of the art.’' The highest finishing is labour in vain, unless at the same time there be preserved a breadth of light and shadow ; it is a quality, therefore, that is more frequently recom- mended to students, and Insisted upon, than any other whatever: and, perhaps, for this reason, because it is most apt to be neglected, the attention of the artist being so often entirely absorbed in the detail. FORCE IN PAINTING. To produce force, solidity, and strength, some part of the picture should be as light, and some part as dark as possible. These two extremes are then to be harmo- nised and reconciled to each other, by a proper ^itroduc- tion of gradatory tints and demi-tints. Rubens has left us two examples of this rule, in two pieces j one in the cabinet of the Duke of Rutland, and the other in the chapel of Rubens at Antwerp, which serves as his monu- ment. In both pictures is a female figure, dressed in black satin, with shadows as dark as pure black can make them, but opposed to the extreme of brightness. Both pieces are eminent for their force and brilliancy of effect, and furnish a striking illustration of this rule. Though colouring, considered, as it really is, a mechanical part of the art, may seem not to deserve so great a share of the painter’s attention 5 yet, when we reflect what effects colours arc able to produce on the minds of both the uninformed observer and the critic, the young painter B 2 16 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. will be convinced that its study is, in a manner, indispen- sable. When he reflects that they give the picture its general air at first view, and arrest the spectator’s atten- tion as he passes along the gallery^ or escape his notice from their insipidity, he will no longer hesitate to bestow that study upon them requisite for the completion of his art. He must avoid all trifling or artful play of little lights I as also an introduction of a variety of superfluous tints : a quietness and simplicity must reign over the whole work, which can only be effected by a breadth of uniform and simple colour. THE DRAPERY. Many great artists, whose works have met with general approbation, have never condescended to distinguish the different kinds of drapery. With them the clothing is neither woollen, nor linen, nor silk, satin, nor velvet 5 it is clothing, and nothing more. It is the inferior ^tyle of painting only that marks the variety of stuffs. The art of disposing of the folds of drapery, so that they shall have an easy communication, and gracefully follow each other, with such natural negligence, as to look like the effect of chance, and at the same time shew the figure under them to the utmost advantage, requires the nicest judgement, and makes a very considerable part of the painter’s study. The best and only models for acquiring just ideas of drapery, are nature herself, and, as preparatory thereto, the paintings of those modern masters, who have pour- trayed her with the greatest truth in this branch. The principal of these are Raphael, Paul Veronese, Andrea del Sarto, Rubens, Guido Reni, aud Albert Durer. These artists excelled particularly in giving a graceful flow to their draperies, displaying the form of the wearer’s body, and distinguishing the particular kinds of clothing. The flow of their drapery is soft and gentle ; the gatherings and plaits are so contrived, as not only not to hide the body, but to add to it grace and dignity. The quality of their clothing, whether linen, silk, woollen, or any other article, is as readily distinguished by the form and flow of Clie folds, the light aud shade of the clothing, and its THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 17 ]iistrc, as the age ,and sex of the figures arc known by their countenances. It may appear superfluous to inform the student, that the drapery should correspond to the age, character, and nation of the wearer. Common sense alone would con- vince him of the absurdity of attiring an ancient Grecian or Roman, in the habiliments of a modern English gen- tleman 5 or of omitting to furnish a magistrate with his robes ; or of describing the natives of the South Sea islands with the redundant dresses of Europeans. The general play of the drapery, and form of the folds, should plainly indicate whether the figure.be at rest or in action 5 and if in action, whether that action be beginning or ending 5 whether slow, or quick, or violent : if we observe the flow of drapery in natural objects, we shall soon acquire just ideas of the matter. As we move in a resisting medium, namely, the air, whichever way we move, the drapery will flow the other way, more or less, and that in proportion as our motion is quicker or slower; as the wind, more or less, counteracts our progress; and as our drapery is, more or less, light and flowing. In ascending an eminence the drapery is uniformly pressed downwards by the weight of the superior air ; but, on the contrary, in descending, it is supported and extended by a similar resistance. THE SUBJECT, OR STORY. When the painter has chosen the subject of his intended work, his peculiar skill appears by the manner in w'hich he narrates, if we may so speak, the circumstance of the story. The poet and the historian have, in some respects, great advantages over the painter, in being able to pre- pare the mind of their reader, by a gradual and natural display of such events and accidents as lead him to a full comprehension of the subject handled. The painter, on the other hand, is restricted to one particular action of his story, to absolute unity of time and place. It is, there- fore, incumbent on him to fix on that particular point of his subject which affords the most natural opportunity, not only of expressing his main scope itself, but of con- veying to the spectator an idea of the circumstances which B 3 18 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. precedetl and followed it. Invention must, therefore, b'^ a most important point in the science of painting : arid without an excellence in this part of the art, no man can ever rise to the reputation of a great painter. By inven- tion it is not meant to express the discovery and repre- sentation, on canvass, of the truth of all circumstances, aSJ* they actually took place in the scene presented to the eye, but only all such as are probable. By this probability may be introduced whatever is intimately connected with the subject, and likewise whatever, by its sublimity or beauty, may be most capable of exciting the desired feelings in the mind of the spectator. The painter must be most careful to present no object nor feature to the spectator, which can recal to his mind sensations either contrary, or merely foreign to the great scope of his piece, at the same time that he introduces all such cir- cumstances as are calculated to produce the effects be has in view. DISPOSITION. The disposition of the several parts of a picture ought to be such as to express, in the most lively and obvious way, what the invention of the artist has provided. The chief difficulty in disposition is to produce the most art- ful and ingenious arrangement, at the same time that art shall be utterly imperceptible, and that the whole shall seem to be merely the result of accident. A painter, therefore, must beware of imitating the dry formal manner practised by the earliest modern artists, on the revival of painting ; for they generally arranged their figures like so many couples in a procession : neither must he follow the example of still more modern artists, particularly of the French school, who, unable to express in the genuine language of unsophisticated nature, the passions and feelings of their figures, have represented them in a state of the utmost disorder, and fluttering agitation, as if they were brought together for no other purpose but to quarrel and fight. As a dramatic or epic poem, or in a romance, there must be some hero or heroine,' who sustains the principal SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 19 part in the conduct of the piece, and to whom all the other parts, however subordinate, bear a due relation; so in painting there must be one principal figure which must arrest the eye and observation of the spectator, and to whom all the other figures must appear to be more or less subservient. This effect may be produced in a variety of ways ; as by placing the figure in the front, or some other con- spicuous part of the picture : by exhibiting it, in a man- ner^ by itself ; by making the chief body of light to fall upon it; by giving it the most splendid and brilliant drapery ; or, indeed, by two, more, or all of these methods together. Painters should follow the example of the best dramatic writers, who have generally composed their fable of the smallest possible number of persons; for nothing is so injurious to picturesque effect in painting, nor to dramatic consistency on the stage, as the presence of figures of persons not necessarily connected with the matter represented, and whose appearance there is not obviously and necessarily required. Besides, that a crowded picture is apt to give equal trouble to the spec- tator as a crowded road to the traveller ; both are embar- rassed and perplexed, and their attention is distracted from the main object of their pursuit. Some subjects, however, from their nature, require a greater number, nay, even a multitude of characters ; but still, in these, the figures are to be assembled in groups or masses, iri dif- ferent gradations, all indicating their subordinate relation to one principal group or mass, which ought to occupy, in the composition, a place corresponding to that of the principal figure or personage, in a piece where but few figures are introduced. In breaking a composition into groups, the object is,' that the eye, in passing from one object to another, may, with the greatest ease, compre- hend the whole, by having a distinct classification and conception of the component parts. INVENTION. The invention of a painter consists, not in inventing the subject, but in a capacity for forming the subject in his imagination, in a way best suited to bis art, although 20 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. it be wholly borrowed from poets, historians, or popular tradition. For this purpose he has full as n^uch, perhaps more, to do than if the story itself were to be invented : for he is bound to follow the ideas he has received, and to translate them, as it were, into the language of another art. In this translation lies the painter’s invention. He must, in a manner, new-cast the whole, and model it in his own imagination. Having received an idea of the pathetic and grand, in expression, he is next to consider how to make it correspond with what is touching and awful to the eye. This is a business by itself 5 and here begins the proper invention of the painter, which includes not only the composition, or putting the whole together, and the disposition of each individual part, but also the management of the back~ground, the effect of light and shade, and the attitude of every figure or animal intro- duced, or making a part of the whole. Composition is, therefore, the chief part of the painter’s invention, and by far the greatest difficulty he has to encounter. Every man who can paint at all, can execute individual parts : but to keep those parts in due subordination, as rela- tive to the whole, requires a comprehensive view of the art, which more strongly implies the possession of genius, than, perhaps, any other quality whatever. ILLUSION. It is a maxim universally received among painters, and held up for the guidance of young artists, that they are to imitate nature, and that objects are to be represented so naturally as to seem real. If we enquire to what extent painting may carry this illusion, it will be found that it deceives the eye so much, that the spectator is sometimes obliged to apply his hand, as in moulding, and bas-relief, in order to come at the truth. This deception may be properly employed in representations of fruits, flowers, and other parts of what is called still life ; when so placed, that they can only be seen from particular points of view, and at certain distances. But no picture, containing a number of figures, and properly situated, was ever mistaken for real life. It is true that the por- trait of a person, done by Coypcl, and placed in a certain THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS* 21 direction behind a table, is said to have so completely deceived a number of persons, that they saluted it, taking it to be the person whom it represented ; but inde- pendently of the skill in the execution of the piece, it is clear that the chief part of the illusion arose from the circumstances of surprise and inattention in the specta- tors ; effects which might, in such a case, have been pro- duced by very inferior artists. This species of illusion, however, would be vain, and ought never to be attempted in compositions consisting of many figures, supposed to be at different, and even considerable distances from each other. » There is, however, another species of illusion, which consists in giving to the whole piece, and to each in- dividual part, by means of correct form, and due com- bination of colour, such a resemblance of the truth, that the representation shall excite in the observer all the pleasure to be derived from the original. In this con- sists the genuine truth of imitation ; and this may be executed by pictures on a small scale, as well as in those of a size equal to that of the objects represented, and con- taining any number of figures, at any probable distance, the one from the other. COSTUME. Costume is an Italian term adopted among artists, to express the conformity of the representation of any fact to the fact itself, as handed down to us, or as it may be, on good reason and authority, supposed to have really happened. This conformjty must be very comprehensive, including whatever relates to the manners of the times, to the characters or the persons concerned 5 to their dress and arms, to the customs of the place, the buildings, and style of architecture ; to the animals, to the taste of the people, their wealth, occupations, amusements, &c.^ in fine, to whatever circumstances are peculiar to and cha- racteristig of the fact to be represented. This enumera- tion of particulars shews that the study of costume is no slight undertaking. The artist must carefully consult the historic relations and original movements of the period on which he is employed 3 observing, at the same 22 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. lime, not to shock the eye of the spectator, by displaying such circumstances as would be in too violent opposition to the corresponding incidents and practices of his own day. He must speak, as it were, nothing but the truth, at the same time that he is not expected to unfold the whole truth. As the errors of the most eminent men are always the most dangerous, particularly to beginners, the following strictures on much-admired productions of the late excel- lent President of the Royal Academy, by the pen of a very ingenious writer, cannot fail to be of service to the young artist: — “Mrs. Siddons is represented by Sir Joshua in the character (it is said) of the Tragic Muse : she is placed in an old-fashioned arm-chair : this arm- chair is supported by clouds, suspended in the air. On each side of her head is a figure, not unapt to suggest the idea of attendant imps of an enchantress. Of these figures one is supposed to represent Comedy, and the other Tragedy. Mrs. Siddons herself is decently attired in the fashionable habiliments of twenty or thirty years ago. If this be a picture of the Tragic Muse, she ought not to appear in a modern dress, nor ought she to be seated in an old arm-chair. If it be a portraiture of Mrs. Siddons she has no business in the clouds, nor has she any thing to do with aerial attendants. If this be Mrs. Sid- dons ill the character of the Tragic Muse, the first set of objections will apply, for she is placed in a situation where Mrs. Siddons could never be.^’ “ Again, in the picture of the death of Dido, her sister is introduced, lamenting over the corpse of the unfortunate queen. This is possible; but the artist has also introduced Atropos cutting Dido’s hair with her scisstirs ; a being equally real and apparent in the painting with Dido or her sister. This is an offence against mythological pro- bability.” There is another breach of costume, however comifton among painters, more offensive and inexcusable than that hitherto noticed ; viz. the perpetual and unnecessary display of the naked figure. This is not the place to inquire whether more skill be displayed in painting the human body clothed or unclothed : but if the persons introduced in any picture are exhibited more naked than THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 23 can be justified, by the probability of the times, persons, places, or other circumstances, this manner of treatin^jj the subject is a breach of the costume, proportionate to the deviation. This fault, however, is so common, and authorised by the example of so many of the most eminent artists, that it is hardly noticed, when compared with the more violent offences against science itself, as well as against morality, which have been the opprobrium of the art of painting, in every stage of its progress. The same gross offence against propriety and decorum is too common in pieces of modern statuary, as may be seen in certain monuments lately erected, at the public expense, even in our churches. LANDSCAPE PAINTING. Landscape painting comprehends all objects presented to our view in a prospect of the country, and is com- monly divided into the heroic or historical^ and the rural or pastoral styles ; all others partake more or less of these. By the heroic style is understood those scenes which exhibit whatever is great, sublime, or extraordinary, in nature or in art. The situations must be on a grand scale ; the buildings introduced should be temples, pyra- mids, funeral monuments, altars consecrated to fabulous divinities, palaces or pleasure-houses of regular and splendid architecture, &c. so that if nature is represented not as we actually see her every day, she at least appears as we think she ought to be.- This style is an agreeable species of illusion, a sort of enchantment, when handled by an artist of genius and understanding. In this branch N. Poussin has been particularly successful. The rural style, on the other hand, represents countries rather as they appear from the hand of nature, than when improved by men. There she is seen simple, without ornament, and without artifice j being, as Milton says. When unadorned^ adorned the most. In this style the varieties of situation are infinite : sometimes, extensive and o[^en ; at others, confined and embarrassed. In one 24 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. scene, the shepherd appears with his flock; in another, the solitary hermit, or the prowling beast of prey. A landscape comprehends a great variety of parts, such as situations or openings^ accidents of weathevy aiVy cloudsy offskips and mountainSy verdurCy rockSy fieldsy terracesy buildingsy watery fore-groundsy plantSy trecsy and figures, SITUATIONS, OR OPENINGS. These are the view or prospect of a country, and re- quire great skill in putting together, so that although only a portion of them be seen, yet the imagination is left abundant scope to extend the scene in all directions, without restraint, according to the specimen furnished by the painter, whether it be open or close, mountainous or level, cultivated and inhabited, or wild and desert. If the artist, however, has chosen to represent a flat regular country, he must, by the distribution of his objects, and a judicious arrangement of his shadows, give to the view that variety and interesting appearance, which nature had refused it. Extraordinary situations never fail to please, even when the colouring has been but indifferently executed, so as to appear unfinished : but common objects, or scenes, demand all the magic of a Claude or a Moreland to render them interesting. In whatever man- ner, however, this part be performed, nothing contributes to heighten the effect so much as the introduction of some accident, ingeniously contrived, and suited with probability to the scene. ACCIDENTS. Accidents in painting are various, such as withdrawing the sun’s beams by the interposition of a cloud, so that some parts of the prospect shall be enlightened, while others are obscured ; and, although it be impossible to represent motion in painting, yet admirable hints may be obtained, from observing the strong effects of dense clouds passing over the face of a country, and producing the most characteristic lights and shades,. THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 25 THE SKY AND CLOUDS. In the language of the painter, the sky means the ethereal firmament above us, or rather the air in which we breathe, and where clouds and storms are produced. The sky is of a blue colour, drawing more to a white as it approaches the earth, on account of the intervention of vapour hovering along the surface of the ground, which being penetrated by the light, communicate it to objects, in a greater or less degree, according to their distance from the eye. It is to be observed, however, that this light being yellowish or reddish at sun-set, those objects partake not only of the light, but of the yellow' or red colour ; consequently the yellow light mingling with the blue sky, gives it a tint more or less greenish, as the yellow colour is more or less deep. This observation is universal and infallible : but there are many others which the painter must make on the ground, marking them with his pencil as they occasionally appear. The property of clouds is to be thin, and of an airy texture ; their shapes, though of endless variety, ought to be carefully observed and studied from nature, as they presei)t themselves to the eye. In order to make them look thin, in a picture, the grounds over which they pass ought to be made to unite with them, as if the clouds were transparent, especially towards their edges; but if the clouds are to be represented of considerable thickness, then the reflections from them must be so managed, that without entirely destroying their transparency, they may be made to unite with other clouds in their neighbour- hood. Small clouds, in a painting, seldom have a good effect, and betray a feebleness of manner in the artist, excepting when they are so near one to another, as, in a general way, to be considered as forming only one object. Upon tbc wliole, it must be remembered, that the charac- ter of the sky is to be luminous, and that consequently all objects on the earth must be inferior in brightness. The artist must also recollect, that although the sky be luminous, it is not always equally bright in all places, nor to be so represented. On the contrary, he must distribute his lights in such a manner, that its greatest force may fall upon one place of the piece ; and also to make this c 26 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. bright place still more distinguished, or to give it more relief and effect, by contrasting it with some object on the ground, such as a tree, a tower, or other elevated body, of an obscure colour. This principal light might be also heightened, by an arrangement of clouds possess- ing a borrowed light, or inclosing it between them, whilst their own obscurity is gradually communicated to all the surrounding objects. Of this artifice we have many examples in the performances of the Flemish school. OFFSKIPS AND MOUNTAINS. The o^skip is closely connected with the appearance of the sky, by which its strength or faintness is determined : that is to say, the offskips are darkest when the sky is most charged with clouds, and most enlightened w'hen it is brightest. The shapes and lights of the sky are often intermixed with those of the mountains, by the appear- ance of clouds parsing between their ranges, at a great distance j thereby affording room for the artist to produce very picturesque effects, particularly when these moun- tains are so elevated as to have their summits and slopes covered with snow, interspiersed with jnasses of bare rock, in suitable situations. In representing the distances of mountains, care must be taken to round them off by proper gradations of tints, so that those which are intended to appear at the greatest distances from one another may be given with the greatest difference of colours. Their contours must be so deli- cately defined as not to appear like different pieces of scenery, or painting, placed one behind another, and so attached to the canvas, VERDURE, OR TURFING. The green colour of the surface of the ground, is pro- duced by the herbs and plants covering it. This admits of great diversity, according to the nature of these plants, and the season of the year, which occasions great changes in their appearance. This variety supplies the painter with an opportunity of adorning his work with an infinite variegation of tints, all tending to give a strong air of truth to his imitations. THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 27 ROCKS. The varieties of rocks, in respect to colour, form, and composition, are infinite ; but, still, in all these varieties, there are certain characteristic features, by which a rock is distinguished in its natural state, and which can only be known by sedulous observation of the real objects. Some present themselves in easy sloping banks, sur- rounded with shrubs; others, in huge blocks project, or threaten to fall down a precipice. At one time they ap- pear in one vast mass, or lie scattered in detached frag- ments, But whatever be the diversity of their shapes, the crevices in their surface, the breaks and hollows running inwards, the shrubs, the moss, the stains pro- duced by time, their sudden changes and irregularity of outline, their roughness of exterior appearance render them peculiarly picturesque: the painter all the while taking' care, in representing them, not to overstep the modesty of nature, by assigning to his rocks situations, forms, or colours, such as are not generally observed. A rock by itself has a tendency to inspire melancholy, from the idea of solitariness: but when ornamented with herbs, shrubs, or overhanging trees, it breathes a more animating air. When accompanied by water, falling or gushing from their sides, or even peacefully bathing their feet, rocks become a source of the highest delight to all lovers of unsophisticated nature. BUILDINGS. Buildings of all sorts are highly ornamental in land- scape, whether Greek or Roman, Gothic or more modern ; but such edifices, while entire, and in a state of perfect preservation, however beautiful or magnificent in them- selves, are by no means adapted to landscape representa- tion: they are not picturesque ; a term better understood than defined, because it stands for a peculiar feeling, born with us, but susceptible of great cultivation and improve- ment. WATER. Water is to a landscape, whether real or represented, what the circulating blood is to the animal frame ; it is c 2 28 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. its life and soul. The appearance of waters are very various ; at one time the impetuous torrent overflows its banks, and spreads devastation on every hand j at another, the stream tumbles headlong from a precipice, and rebounds, as if returning to its former situation, tilling the air with vapour; again^ as if confined in its too narrow channel, the water gushes out, dividing into a multitude of silvery rills, whose motion and music de- light the eye and ear of the observer. Here it flows calmly over \is sandy bed : there it seems to forget to move, reflecting, as a natural mirror, the objects in its neighbourhood. Water never presents the images of objects as they really exist, except when i^ is perfectly still and unruffled ; for whenever, by the current of the water over even a gentle slope, or by the eftect of the wind, the surface is broken into a continued succession of very small waves, whose sides are differently inclined to the spectator’s view, then the images of surrounding objects are reflected in so many various directions, that the objects themselves appear broken and disturbed, both in shape and colour. FORE-GROUNDS. Fore-grounds 'may be composed in various ways: some- times as representing the opening of a spacious valley, naturally conveying the eye to the chief objects placed at a distance ; af others they are ornamented with flowers or shrubs, beautiful in themselves, and characteristically displayed : figures, or other objects, suited to the descrip- tion of the scene represented. When shrubs and bushes, or trees appear in the fore-ground, they ought to be re- presented with such a regard to the general truth of their shape, foliage, colours, &c. as to be immediately dis- tinguished from all others : but this attention it is not required to extend to such a degree of minuteness as to resemble the drawings of a professed botanist. FIGURES. Figures represented in a state of absolute inaction, are very unfit for the painter, as they seem to have no busi- THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. . 29 ness whatever in the scene. The best way, therefore, for the painter is to present his figures in such situations and attitudes, that the spectator may conclude, however erroneously, that the figures were the chief object in the artist's mind, and that the landscape was only considered Jo be a necessary adjunct to the figures. One considera- tion of great importance is, that the figures be pro- , portionate to the trees and bushes, houses, or other well- known objects near which they are supposed to be placed, that they may appear neither pigmies nor giants, but real beings, in the midst of real scenery. Should the figures, however, be smaller than due proportion requires, the efiect will be better than if they were too large, as in this case the surrounding objects will acquire an air of magni- tude, one of the sources of grandeur. TREES. These furnish one of the greatest beauties of landscape, on account of their variety of sorts and forms, in trunks, branches, and foliage; the vigour and freshness of their growth when young, the picturesque effects they produce when old, and the light airy appearance they present when animated with varieties of graceful or violent motion. The different sorts of trees demand the painter's utmost attention, that they be presented to the spectator with such features as to leave him in do doubt to what sorts they belong ; whether oaks, elms, ashes, planes, firs, poplars, willows, &c. &c. THE YOUNG ARTIST's STUDY. When the young artist has made a multitude of sepa- rate sketches, or a studj/y as it is called, of whatever objects, or parts of objects, he thinks may properly appear in his future works, these drawings or copies ought to be arranged under certain heads, or according to the several subjects with which they are connected, in order to be consulted and brought forward, as proper materials for his projected compositions. It is true^ that in order to produce a good effect, even with the most abundant supply of the best materials, the artist must be c 3 30 * THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. born with sense, genius, and taste ; but these endow- ments may be highly improved by cultivation, observing the practice of the greatest masters, in their choice of natural objects, and their manner of disposing them, so as to produce the most picturesque effects, without seeming to depart from the chaste sobriety of nature. COLOURS USED IN LANDSCAPES. 1. Fine White 2. Common White 3. Fine light Ochre 4. Brown Ochre 5. Brown Pink 6. Burnt Umber 7. Ivory Black 8. Prussian Blue 9. Ultramarine 10. Terre Verte 11. Lake 12. Indian Red 13. Vermilion 14. King's Yellow The principal tints are as follow : — 1. Light Ochre and White 2. Light Ochre, Prussian Blue and White 3. Light Ochre and Prus- sian Blue 4. The same made darker 5. Terre Verte and Prus- sian Blue 6. Brown Pink and Prus- sian Blue 7. Brown Pink and Brown Ochre 8. Brown Pink, Ochre, and Prussian Blue 9. Indian Red, and White 10. Ivory Black, Indian Red, and Lake, PORTRAIT PAINTING. The chief things to be attended to in portrait painting are, the ah' and identity, colouring, attitude, and dress. The identity of a portrait relates to the lineaments of the countenance, the head-dress, and the size of the person. The lineaments of the face depend on the cor- rectness of the drawing, and the exact agreement of the several features, and other parts ; all combining to shew the face in such a manner, that the picture may be a faithful copy of the mind and body of the original. tHE St:HOOL OF FI>JE ARTS. m It is of the utmost importance to a portrait, that the j)arts be well put together. The features must corre- spond, each contributing its due proportion to the gene- ral expression: thus, the mouth must not appear to «mile while the eyes are sad, and so on, exhibiting an unnatural and ridiculous air of the countenance. Al- though the various ways of arranging the hair may properly be considered as a part of dress, yet, as it con- stantly appears to us in conjunction with the face, it is so closely connected with it in our imaginations, that attention to the colour and distribution of the hair be- comes a very important part of the artist’s business. The head attire of an acquaintance to which we have been accustomed, so much contributes to the likeness, that we scarcely know the person in a different wig, hat, &c. It is, therefore, necessary to take the hair of the head-dress to accompany and set off the face. ‘ It has often been a question, whether the portrait painter should attempt, in his representations, to correct any natural defects in his original. Likeness being the essence of portraits, it would seem that we ought to imitate defects as well as beauties, since thus the imita- tion will be more complete : but the greater number of persons, although they approve this in theory, show evidently that they by no no means desire to reduce it to practice, particularly in portraits of their own per- sons. And here it seems to be but fair, that some com- plaisance should be shewn to them by the artist, as it is very possible to make a picture resemble the original, without giving any offence : for the likeness consists in the just agreement of the painting with the natural features, so that one may be at no loss to recognise the identity of the face, and the general character of the person represented. All deformities, therefore, when the air and resemblance maybe preserved without them, may fairly be either corrected or omitted, particularly in portraits of women or young persons. Thus, a nose somewhat awry may be restored ; a meagre neck, a high shoulder, &c. may be adapted to an agreeable air and attitude, without running palpably into extremes^ This, however, must be done with great discretion, . lest by endeavouring to correct nature on all occasions, the 32 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. painter acquire a habit of deviating from his original, and of giving to all his w^orks one general manner. attitude and posture. Persons ought to be represented in such postures and attitudes as are most suitable to their ages, tempers, qualities, and other peculiar circumstances. Thus old men and women should be grave and majestic ; and, in general, women ought to appear with a noble simplicity and modest cheerfulness, for modesty ought ever to be the characteristic of the fair sex, possessing a charm infinitely beyond artifice and coquetry. Attitudes are of different sorts, according as the person is in motion or at rest. Motion is most suitable to young persons, but rest is applicable to all. Motions demand great skill in the artist, not c-nly in the arrangement of limbs, but in seizing such accidental appearances as are the effect of motion, and by which alone motioh can be re- presented in painting; such as the hair and drapery being throwm into positions, which, from observation, we know them to assume, in different degrees of motion. On the other hand, a person at rest is not to appear as entirely inactive, or as one who sits for no other purpose but merely to have his picture made. Figures at rest in the open air, or in a situation where the wind may have access to them, may likewise acquire a share of the animation properly created by motion, by the action of the wind on the hair and drapery. But in whatever situation or attitude the figures are represented, they must appear naturally, and totally devoid of affectation, which produces the same disgust when discovered in a painting, as in the living original ; and from this affec- tation, but too common in the world, arises a great obstacle to the artist’s success, in giving correct, and at the same time natural and graceful likenesses. FLESH COLOURS. Flake white, or fine white, is the best we have. It ought to be ground with the finest poppy oil that can be procured: and the defects of this colour are more frequently occasioned by the quality of the oil, than of THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 33 the while itself. White is a kindly working colour, which comes forward with reds and yellows, but retires with blues and greens. It is the nature of all whites to sink into the ground on which they are laid, on which account they ought to be lead on white grounds. Ivory black is an exceeding fine colour, which mixes well with the others, and is the genuine shade for blues. It is ground with linseed oil, and when used with dry- ing oil and sugar of lead, is a cold retiring colour. Ultramarine is the finest blue that can be found ; it is of a tender retiring nature, and never glares, but is a beautiful glazing colour; ultramarine is used with poppy oil. Prussian blue is a very fine kindly working colour. It is ground with linseed oil 5 but nut oil seems more proper for this purpose. It should never be used in the flesh, but answers well in the eyes, and in green tints. Light ochre is a friendly mixing colour, and of great service in the flesh. It is usually ground with linseed oil, but nut oil would be better. All yellows are strengthened by reds, and weakened by blues and greens. Light red (light ochre burnt) mixed with white, pro- duces an excellent flesh colour. It is clean and beauti- ful, and works kindly, although too strong for whites, and is apt to grow darker. This colour should be ground and used with nut oil. Vermilion ought never to be employed, unless it be made of genuine native cinnabar. It will not glaze, but is a fine colour when glazed upon. It is ground with! linseed oil, and ought to be used with drying oil. Carmine is the most beautiful crimson colour that we know, being a middle colour between vermilion and lake. It is a fine working and glazing colour, and ought to be ground with nut oil, but used with drying oil. Lake is a deep red, but tender, and unites readily with others ; as it is not of a strong body, it should be increased with Indian red, and is an admirable glazing colour. It is ground with linseed oil, and used with drying oil. Indian red is a strong pleasant working colour, but 34 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. does not glaze well, and falls a little when mixed with white. This red is ground and used in the same way as lake. Brown pink is of no great body, but it glazes well. In the flesh it ought not to join or mix the whites, to avoid producing a dirty warm colour ; therefore their joinings should be blended with some cold middle tint. In glazing shadows this brown pink should be laid on before the other colours by which it is to be enriched. As it is one of the colours employed in finishing, it ought not to be used alone in the first painting. It is usually strengthened with burnt umber, and weakened with terre verte ; and is ground with linseed oil, and used with drying oil. Burnt umber is a good warm brown strong colour, and works well ; of great use in painting hair, and mixes finely with the warm shade. The principal tints for the flesh are the following, all formed out of the colours just mentioned : — The light red tint, made of light red and white, is an excellent ground for the flesh : and with the shade tint, is employed to make out the flesh, in the manner of the ehiaro oscuro. As this colour is too strong for white, and apt to grow darker, it ought to be improved by the addition of a little vermilion and white, to suit the fairness of the complexion. In this state it is still called the light-red tint, and should not be confounded with the vermilion tint. Vermilion tint is only vermilion and white mixed to a middle tint, which is the brightest light-red that can be made ; and agrees well with the white, the light-red, and the yellow tints. Carmine tint is carmine and white mixed to a middle tint. This is the most beautiful of all reds for the cheeks and lips. It is one of the finishing colours, and not to be used in the first painting, but laid on the finishing colours, without mixing with them. Rose tint is a compound, of white and the red shade, and one of the most delicate clean tints used in the flesh, for clearing up the heavy colours : in changing it mixes and sympathizes kindly with the others. Yellow tint is formed of various substances, some- THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 35 times of Naples yellow and white, and also of light ochre and white, which is a good working colour. As the ochre is too strong for the white, care must be used in employing it. This tint follows the light-red tints, but ought to be laid before the blues : should too much of it be applied, the ground may be restored by the use of the light-red tints. Blue tint is composed of ultramarine and white, brought to a light azure, and is a pleasant working colour for blending the gradations. It follows the yel- lows, and with them forms the greens : with red it forms the purples. The blue tint is of great service in blend- ing and softening the lights, to produce keeping. Lead tint is made of ivory black *and fine white, mixed to a middle degree: this is a good retiring colour, and of great use in the gradations, and in the eyes. Green tint consists of Prussian blue, light ochre, and white. This ought to be used sparingly in the middle tints, as it dirties the lights : it is generally used in the red shadows, when they are too strong, and does not unite well with other colours. Shade tint is made of lake, Indian red, black, and white, mixed up to a fine murrey colour of a middle tint. It is an excellent ground for shadows, and hence it has its name ; with the lights it produces a beautiful clean colour, inclining to the reddish pearl. As it con- sists of friendly working colours, the shade itself is of the same nature, and may be easily changed by the addition of other colours. Red shade is made of lake, with a very small portion of Indian red, and is a delightful working colour, and glazes well : it strengthens the shadows on the shade tint, and when wet receives the green and blue tints very agreeably. It is often used as ground for dark shadows. Dark shade consists of ivory black and a small quan- tity of Indian red : it mixes kindly with the red shade, and unites agreeably with the middle tints of the dead colouring. It is an excellent glazing colour for the eye- brows and the darkest shadows, and in general one of the best working colours used in painting. 36 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. COLOURS FOR BACK GROUNDS. White, black, Indian red, light and brown ochres^ Prussian blue, and burnt umber, from which the prin- cipal tints are formed; viz. — Pearl, made of black, white, and a little Indian red. Lead, of black and white, mixed up to a dark lead colour. Yellow, of brown ochre and white. Olive, consisting of light ochre, Prussian blue, and white. Flesh-colour, nrade of Indian red and white, mixed to a middle tint. Murrey, consisting of Indian red, w'hite, and a little black, mixed to a kind of purple, of a middle tint. Stone- colour, of white, umber, black, and Indian red only. Dark shade, made of black and Indian red only. Painting of back grounds is divided into two parts, the first lay, and the finishing tints. In the first lay the learner is to begin from the shadowed side of the head, painting first the lights ; thence go to the shadows and gradations, which should be done with a large tool of middling stiffness, in a sparing way, with the dark shades and white a little tinged with those colours requisite to give it somewhat of the proper hue, but nearly of the proper tone and strength. The warm dark shadows ought to be laid before the colours that are to connect with them, by means of the dark shade and umber, with drying oil ; for if those colours were first laid they would injure the tran^arency, in which the greatest beauty consists. The more the first lay is driven, the easier it will be to change it with the finish- ing tints, which may then be laid with greater body. The second part of the first lay ought to follow immediately, whilst the colours of the first part are wet and flowing, beginning with the lights, and heightening and finishing with warmer colours, accompanied with fine tender cold tints. The lightest part of the ground is nearest to the shadowed side of the head, and generally governs the rest of the ground. It should be done with a variety of light, warm, clear colours, varnishing and losing their strength imperceptibly in the gradations. These ought to be laid with a sort of cloudy touch, and not appear in distinct spots ; observing never to conceal too much of the first lay, which is to be regarded as the THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 37 principal colour. From the lights the next step is to the gradations and shadows; for when the lights are properly adapted to bring forward and support the head, it is not difficult to fall from these into any sort of shadows that may be best suited to the work. The whole must then be blended and softened with a long large tool, which, together with the body of the drying oil, will mingle and sweeten the whole in such a man- ner as to give it a finished appearance. It is to be noticed, however, that in drying, the tints will sink and lose a little of their strength and beauty. The grounds, whether walls, &c. ought, if possible, to be finished at one painting ; but if any alterations should be neces- sary they may be glazed with a little of the dark shade, well driven with drying oil; on which the proper improvements may be made by some light touches of the requisite colours. The dark shadows may likewise be strengthened and improved by glazing, after the figures are nearly finished, lest they should appear too strong. SCENE PAINTING. Although this be a particular branch of painting, yet it generally is, and always ought to be united with other parts of art, such as architecture, perspective, landscape, statuary, &c. ; and for this reason it requires in the artist an extent and variety of knowledge far be- yond what is commonly supposed. It is a good prac- tice in this branch to draw the intended scenes by day- light, that they may be the more accurately designed, and that the painter, or his assistants, may have oppor- tunities of examining, at proper distances, the effects produced by the outline and other boundaries, before the v^ork is filled up with colour and shaded ; which last part of the process is best performed, for a similar reason, by candle-light, as it is by this light that the scene is to be exhibited; and the effects of candle-light on certain colours, (blue and green for example,) as well as on the shading, the perspective, the relief of the figures, and other circumstances of great importance to the 38 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. intended effect, are too well known to require any illustration in this place. In theatrical decorations the artist ought, as much as possible, to avoid joining imita- tions of nature with nature itself; that is, he ought never to introduce, as component parts of these deco- rations or scenes, living men, horses, or other animals, or real trees, fountains, cascades, statues, &c. for such combinations indicate either a depraved taste, or igno- rance and want of genius. Another point in which scene painting is often improperly conducted, is when the landscape, street, house, or other scene represented, does not correspond to the characters, and times of the action carrying on in them. This incongruity is as great an error as any that can be committed in the dress and appearance of the characters, or in any other branch of the costume; and has a great tendency to destroy the effect of the theatrical exhibition. MOSAIC PAINTING. This species of representation of objects has its name probably from its being chiefly used by the ancients in adorning their studies, cabinets, or museums; and vestiges of it are frequently discovered in this country, as well as in every other where the Romans were esta- blished : it is, by their writers, commonly called opus musivum. Mosaic painting, if it may be so called, is performed with small pieces of marble, or other natural stone, cut into parallelopipeds, in breadth and thickness resembling a die, but twice as much in length. These dies are of every variety of colour, and fixed in due order, in a cement applied to the floor or wall of--the apartments. The modern mosaic is generally executed with small pieces of half-vitrified paste, of every possi- ble gradation of colour. The first part of the operation is to have a design or drawing of the intended picture, from which the mosaic is to be copied. A cement or plaster is made of hard stone pounded, and brick dust, worked up with gum tragacanth and whites of eggs, which is laid thick on the wall to receive the painting, and only w hat is sufficient for the work of three or four THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 3D days is applied at a time, that it may not dry and harden too much for use. The design upon paper is then applied to the plaster or ground, and traced with a sharp point : after which the dies, as they may be termed, previously arranged in small cases, according to their various gradations of colour, are lifted with a pair of pliers, and placed in their due situations, one close to another, the artist keeping strictly to the lights, shadows, tints, and colours of the original design. The dies are pressed into the cement or ground, by applying a ruler over a number of them in different directions, that their surface may become as regular and even as is possible, by which the effect is much improved. This operation, it is evident, must proceed very slowly ; but when it is executed, the colours being incorporated in the substance of the die, reduced by fire nearly to the state of glass, are never to be affected by the air, moisture, or any external accident ; and they possess a lustre not to be attained by any other branch of the art of painting. PAINTING IN FRESCO. Painting in fresco is considered as the most ancient, the most speedily executed, and the most durable branch of the art, as well as the most suitable for orna- menting great buildings. From the fragments that have come down to our times, it appears that the Romans worked much in this way; and the travellers in Egypt tell us of colossal figures, painted on walls of palaces and temples in that country, eighty feet high. Fresco paintings are chiefly employed in palaces, tem- ples, and other public edifices ; and in such situations, it is preferable to any other, from the size^ the boldness of design, and the freshness of colouring of the figures. They have, in particular, an admirable effect in the roof of a dome, and transport the imagination far beyond the limits of the building. Fresco painting is usually executed in the following manner : — It is necessary to apply to the wall two layers for the ground work ; when thi^ is a brick wall, D 2 40 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. these Jaj'ers are easily applied ; but when it is of stone, holes are made in it, to receive large nails or wooden pegs to hold fast the first coating of the ground. The first layer is made of good lime and a cement composed of pounded brick, or of w hat is still better, river sand, which makes a surface more rough and uneven than the pounded brick, and therefore better suited for re- taining the second layer. The first layer ought to be perfectly dry before the second, on which the painting is to be done, be applied. The second layer consists of lime slaked in the open air, and left exposed for a year to the weather, mixed with river sand, moderately fine, and of an equal grain. This is applied with a trowel to the first layer, whose surface has been previously wetted, to make the two unite, and requires great skill and dexterity in the artist, that the last surface may be made perfectly even and regular. A fine polish is given to this second layer by applying a sheet of smooth paper to it, and again going over the paper with the trowel, to remove even the smallest inequalities, which would give a false appearance to what is to be painted on them, according to the position and distance of the spectator. The artist employed on this preparatory work, is to lay only so much ground as the painter can execute in a day ; as this kind of painting can only be performed when the ground is fresh laid on and smoothed. When the layers are thus prepared the painter begins his work : but as he must work rapidly, and as there is no time to retouch any of the strokes, he must have by him large cartoons, on which are drawn, with cor- rectness, and in full size, the figures to be painted, that he may have nothing to do but to copy them on the wall. The cartoons are a number of sheets of large strong paper, either single, or several folds pasted to- gether, as may be most suitable to the painter^s purpose. These cartoons are applied to the surface of the wall, and the various outlines, features, &c. are traced on the plaster, by going over the cartoon with a steel point, or merely by pricking small holes through the paper. When in this manner an accurate and speedy drawing is obtained, nothing remains but to execute the paint- THE SCHOOL OF FINE A UTS. 41 ing. The colours are laid on while the layer of plaster is moist, and they ought not to be retouched when dry, with other colours mixed with the white of eggs, gum, &c. as has sometimes been practised ; as these last are sure to turn black, and none but such as are laid on the moist plaster retain their hues. The colours commonly used are a white, made of lime slaked a long while before it is employed in the painting, and the dust of white marble ; ochres, both red and yellow; verditer, lapis lazuli, smalt, black chalk, &c. all which substances are simply ground down and worked up with water; and most of them grow brighter as the plaster dries. The brushes and pencils used are long and soft, that they may not scratch or raise the painting. The colours ought to be full, and flowing freely from the tools ; and great care must be taken that the design be perfect at first, since no alteration can be made after the work is diy, nor any colour added or changed. It may easily be understood, that delicacy of touch makes no part of this kind of painting. PAINTING IN WATER COLOURS. The chief materials in painting with water colours are, gum arabic, pencils, a palette, commonly made of ivory : but a Dutch tile, or any other well-glazed sur- face, of a light colour, will serve the purpose; an ivory palette knife, because iron or steel is injurious to the colours. In beginning to paint, the arfst is to have before him all the colours ready for use; a palette to mix them on; a paper to lay under the hand to avoid soiling the work, as well as to try the pencils and colours on it; also a large brush or fitch to wipe off the dust when the colours are dry. The colours must at first be laid on thin ; to be deepened or mellowed afterwards as may be necessary. The quicker they are laid on, the more equal and the cleaner they will appear. Care must be taken that no dust mixes with the colours, for which pur- i>3 42 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. pose the shells containing the colours, and the palette, as well as the paper, ought to be well wiped before they are used, with the fitch. When the work is finished, or when it is intermitted or laid aside for a time, the pencils should be well cleaned in warm pure water. In painting the face, it is proper to have some carnation or flesh colour mixed up with gum water, in a shell by itself : if the complexion be fair, mix vermilion and flake white: if it be dark or swarthy, then add a little raasticot, English ochre, or both. The flesh-colour ought always to be lighter than the complexion intended to be represented, because, in afterwards working on it, the tone of the colours will be lowered. In the cheeks and lips, a mixture of lake and red lead, or carmine, as may be most suitable, may be used; and indigo, or ultramarine with white, will answer for the veins, the skin below the eyes, or other parts where a blueish tint is required. In executing landscapes with water colours, at first a dead colouring must be laid over the piece, as smoothly as can be done, leaving no part uncovered, and per- formed with a bold hand : this, although apparently coarse, will afterwards produce a good effect: and such an appearance must not discourage the artist ; for this roughness may easily be softened down, by the gradual application of the other colours, and the due heighten- ing or lowering the shadows. It is proper, in some places, to lay on strong touches, bringing them all equally forward, tempering and sweetening the colours with a pencil sharper than the former, that no spots or hard edges of the original touches may remain, but that all the shadows may be soft and smooth, gliding and blending gently into one another. No part of the work ought to be carried far on before the others; but the whole should be brought up together as nearly as possible. When the dead colouring is prepared, the first thing to be done is, the painting of the distances and other places where the lightest tints are to appear, such as the sky, the sun- beams, &c. ; then come the yellowish rays of light, executed with masticot and white ; next the blueness of the sky, with ultramarine, bice, or smalt alone; the colours deepening THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 43 as the parts rise up from the horizon, unless the atmos- phere be charged with tempests. The tops of the most distant mountains are wrought so faintly as to seem to lose themselves in the air : the same rules apply to all other objects at a distance, where they can be but im- perfectly and confusedly observed. In colouring trees, boughs, branches, &c. the dark shades are first touched in, and the lighter leaves, &c. are to be raised above the darker j the uppermost of all to be done the last. The extremities of the leaves are to be touched very lightly; and the darkest shadows set off with sap- green and indigo. TINTING OF PRINTS. This is a branch of water colouring, in which regard must be had to the quality of the paper on which the prints are executed; for this is sometimes of such a nature that ordinary water colours, and even body colours, will sink into it, unless previously prepared with a solution of alum, or with some other strengthen- ing substance. The strength and consistence of the colours to be applied to the print must be proportioned to the quantity and nature of the ink on the paper. If it be intended only to stain the print, the engraved parts will answer well for the shadows, and to preserve the keeping of the drawing : but when the print is to be highly coloured, the engraving, although necessary to guide the placing of the colours, may often be kept down, and in some degree concealed by the body of colour. Whites ought to be left out wherever it can be done, as in the lights, or other parts of a tint ap- proaching to the lights ; the colours applied being so thin and transparent as to supersede the necessity of introducing white colours. In the same way black ought to be left out ; or, if indispensable, it should be used sparingly and as gently as possible. In doing the broad lights and shades, the same methods of working and mingling the colours must be adopted, and neither white nor black admitted, without an absolute necessity, arising from the general tone of the engraving and 44 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. colouring of the print. The outlines of the several objects must be softened down by the colouring, that the sudden hard effects of the engraving may be kept from the eye. Prints are likewise first washed with simple water colours, and afterwards finished with body colouring, wliich has a very good effect. TINTED DRAWINGS. Drawings may also be tinted in the following man- ner : — Sometimes they are outlined wdth a black-lead pencil, and stained; the sky and distances in the land- scape are done over with a thin wash of colour ; and the ground and front objects with body colours, the whole is then v/rouglit up to proper effect with stronger colours alone, or united with Indian ink. At other times drawings are more completely outlined and washed with Indian ink; after which the whole is finished with the requisite colours. Drawings, per- formed with colours alone, seldom have a good effect, their glare destroying that repose and harmony without which no representations of natural objects can please. In whichever method draAvings are done, the lights require more finishing than the shades; in which a broad manner of pencilling has usually an excellent efiect ; and by a due attention to the management of the middle tints, the beauty of the drawing will be fully attained. FLOWER PAINTING. To acquire some proficiency in painting flowers, nature must be constantly and carefully studied, endea- vouring to discover among the colours on the palette, or in the shells and cups, such original or compound tints as will come the nearest to the real objects. Much useful instruction may also be obtained by studying and imitating the best drawings or paintings of flowers, to learn by what practices and arrangements of colours the various tints of the original may be best imitated. THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 45 In general, flowers are drawn and laid in the same way with all other figures ; but the manner of complet- ing and finishing them is different: for they are first formed by large strokes and traces, made and turned in the way the smaller strokes are to be placed in the finishing, which is done by very fine small strokes, without cross-hatching or dotting, unless, as is the case in some kinds of flowers, the surface of the natural object be spotted. These very fine small lines must be repeatedly gone over with the pencil, until all the parts, both dark and bright, have received their whole force. As an example of flower painting, it will be sufficient here to show how roses are done. When the contour and several leaves are sketched, if it be for a red rose, trace these outlines with carmine, touched with a very pale lay of carmine and white. Then the shadows are to be done with the same colours, but with less white ; afterwards with carmine alone, strengthening it more and more by repeated touches, according to the dark- ness of the shades. This is performed by large strokes of the pencil at first, and finished by finer strokes of the same colour, all lying precisely in the same direction and inclination with the leaves of the rose you copy, or with the strokes of the engraving, if you follow a print : taking care to blend the dark and light parts, heighten- ing the brightest parts of the leaves, and illuminating them wdth white and a little carmine. The hearts of the roses are made darker than the rest ; and a little indigo must be mixed with the other colours, for shading the first leaves, when the flowers are full blown, to give them an air of being somewhat decayed. The best dead colouring for the seed is gamboge, mixed with a little sap-green for the shadows. ' Variegated roses, or those streaked with different colours, ought to have the ground paler than others of one colour, that the streaks or variegations may be the more apparent. These are laid on with carmine, darker or lighter, according to the point of light falling on or reflected from the leaves of the flowers. White roses are laid wdth white, and formed and finished in the same way with the red: making use of black, white, and a little bistre ; the seed is shown more yellow than 4a THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. that of the red rose. Yellow roses are painted by applying a lay of masticot, and shading them with gamboge, gall-stone, and bistre ; the brightest parts heightened with masticot and white. The stalks, leaves, and buds of roses, of all kinds, are formed with verditer, in which is mixed a small proportion of gam- boge and masticot ; and for the shades sap-green is added, diminishing the other colours as the shades grow deeper. The leaves have more of a blue tinge on the outside than on the inside, and therefore must be dead coloured with sea-green, or sap-green mixed with the shade-green ; and the fibres on the outside must be made brighter than the ground, but those on the inside darker. The prickles upon the buds of roses are painted with gentle touches of carmine laid in different directions j and those on the stalks are formed with verditer and carmine, and shaded with carmine and bistre ; the lower part bf the stalks being made redder than the top. Miniature painting consists of very small lines, or rather points or dots, done with very thin simple water colours, on vellum, paper, or ivory. Paintings of this sort are distinguished from other kinds, by the small- ness and delicacy of the figures, and the lightness of the colouring, and therefore require to be nearly examined. The colours principally used in miniature painting, are — MINIATURE PAINTING COLOURS. Carmine Ultramarine V erditer Indigo Gall-stone Yellow ochre Dutch pink Gamboge Lake Rose pink Vermilion Red lead Brown red Red orpiment THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS, 47 Naples yellow Pale masticot Deep yellow masticot Ivory black Lamp black Leaf gold and silver Genuine Indian ink Bistre or wood soot Raw umber and burnt Sap-green Verdigris Flake white Crayons of all colours Gold and silver shells Where writing is to appear through the painting, the following transparent liquid colours are used; viz. — Lake, Blue, Yellow, Grass-green, Dark-green, Purple, Brown. By mixing a little of the gall of an ox, of a carp, or of an eel, particularly the last, with the green, gray, black, yellow, or brown colours, any greasiness in them will be entirely removed, and they will acquire a beautiful brightness and lustre. This preparation makes the colours stick better on the vellum, and prevents them from scaling. These colours are commonly diluted in small ivory cups, or sea shells, with water in which gum arabic and sugar-candy are dissolved. To know whether the colours be properly gummed, the artist has only to give a stroke of the pencil on his hand, or a piece of paper, &c. : if the colour, when dry, chaps and scales, there has been too much gum used ; and, on the contrary, if the colour can be rubbed off with the finger, too little has been mixed with it. Too much gum makes the colour hard and dry ; and when the painter wishes to give to his colours a greater darkness than they natu- rally possess, he has only to add a greater quantity of gum than would be requisite for other purposes. The palette used in miniature painting is of very smooth ivory, and about the size of the hand, on which the colours for the carnation, or naked parts of the picture, are ranged in the following way : — the middle of one side of the palette is covered with a large quan- tity of white, being the colour most used : and round the edges, beginning at the left hand, are these ; viz. masticot, Dutch pink, orpiment, yellow ochre, green, TO MIX THE COLOURS. LAYING THE PALETTE, 48 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. blue, vermilion, carmine, bistre, and black. The green here mentioned, is a composition of equal quantities of verditer, Dutch pink, and white ; and the blue is made in the same way, with ultramarine, indigo, and white, worked to a very pale hue. On the other side of the palette, white is spread in the middle, and the other colours necessary for the draperies, or other parts, are arranged around it. CHOICE OF PENCILS, &C. As the delicacy of this work depends much on the goodness of the pencils, great care is requisite in select- ing them. In order to make a good choice, wet the pencil a little, and if the hairs keep close together when turned on the finger, making but one point, the pencil is good ; but if they do not keep close, and divide into different points, some longer than others, the pencil is good for nothing. The hairs may likewise be too long, feeble, and sharp pointed : in this case they ought to be shortened and blunted with a pair of scissars. Dif- ferent sorts of pencils ought also to be provided: the larger for laying the grounds, or dead colouring, and the small ones for the finishing. It is necessary in working to put the pencil just between the lips, moisten- ing and pressing the hairs together with the tongue, in order to give them a compact point, and to take off a little of the colour when the pencil is too full. There is no danger in this practice, from the qualities of the colours, excepting in the use of orpiment, which is a combination of arsenic with sulphur. The practice here recommended is especially necessary in dotting and finishing, particularly in the carnations, that the touches may be neat and clear, and not too much charged with colour. In doing the draperies and other parts, it is sufficient to draw the pencil to a point on the edge of the shell, or upon the paper employed on the picture to support the hand. The light is of great importance in this sort of paint- ing ; it ought to enter the room by only one window, and the table and desk ought to be placed near it, in such a position that the light may come in on the left THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 49 hand, and never in front, or on the right. In working, the first thing to be done is the dead colouring, laying on the colours with free strokes of the pencil, in the smoothest manner possible, as is practised by painters in oil, but without giving it all the strength of the finishing : that is, the lights must be a little brighter, and the shadows less dark than they are ultimately to be made; because in dotting on them afterwards, the colour is always strengthened, and would thus at last become too forcible. Dotting is performed in various ways, and most painters have particular methods of their own. By some the dots are made round, by others oblong ; some artists again hatch with little light strokes, crossing one another in all directions, until the work at last has the appearance of being done with dots. This last method is the most expeditious, as well as the boldest, and ought to be practised by all artists, in order to acquire the habit of working in a soft and plump way, by which the dots are, in some measure, lost in the ground, and no more of them is seen but just as much as to give the work the look of being dotted. The hard dry manner of working is the reverse of this, and ought never to be used. It is done by dotting with a colour much darker than the ground, and when the pencil is not well moistened, which makes the piece appear rough and uneven. The colours should likewise lose themselves in one another, in such a way, that their joinings shall never be observable ; they ought, therefore, to be allayed and softened by delicate touches of another colour partaking of both. When the piece is finished they may still be enlJ^ned by some small touches on the extremities of the lights, with a colour still lighter^ which must be lost and drowned with the rest. CRAYON PAINTING. By crayons we understand, in general, all coloured stones, earths, or minerals and substances used in drawing and painting in pastel; whether these sub=» E 50 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. stances are used in their original consistence, and only cut into long, narrow slips for use, or beaten and re- duced to a paste with gum water. The red crayons are made of red chalk, or blood stone ; the black crayons of black lead and charcoal, sawed into the proper shape. Crayons of all other colours are compositions of earths reduced to a paste. These several substances, or compositions of colours, must be cut into the proper size, after they are prepared, that they may be rolled into pastels for the convenience of using them. Painting with crayons requires, in many respects, a different treatment from that with oil colours ; because all colours used, when dry, are naturally of a warmer complexion than when they are wet with oils, &c. Hence it is, that in order to produce a rich effect, a much greater proportion of cooling tints are requisite in crayons than with oils, &c. and to an inattention to this circumstance may be attributed the failure in crayons of otherwise eminent painters in oil colours. In painting with crayons, the student is to be provided with strong blue paper, the thicker the better, if the grain is not too rough, or full of hard knots. Such knots, found in even the best paper, must be levelled down with a penknife, and then the paper is pasted down yery smooth on a linen cloth, previously strained on a wooden frame of the requisite size: on this frame the picture is to be executed, although it answers very w'ell not to paste on the paper until the subject be all dead coloured. The paper, when dead coloured, is laid on its face on a smooth board or table, and then the back part is brushed over with paste, and the frame with the strained cloth is laid on the pasted side of the paper, which adheres to it, and being turned up, is gently and neatly pressed to unite in all parts. When this paste is per- fectly dry, the artist may proceed with the painting, in which the pasting renders considerable service ; for the crayons will adhere better to the paper after than before that operation, and consequently give the picture a firmer and brighter body of colour. The young artist will find a sitting posture the most convenient for painting with crayons, holding the box of colours on his knees. That part of the picture on THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 51 which he is at work should be somewhat lower than his face, otherwise the arm will be fatigued by being kept in too elevated a position. The windows ought to be darkened for at least six feet above the ground ; and the subject to be painted should be situated in such a manner that the light may fall with every advantage on the face, avoiding too much shadow, which seldom has a good effect on portraits, particularly when the face possesses much delicacy. In other parts of his work, respecting the attitude, age, and manner, back-ground, embellishments, &c. the observations suggested, when treating of portrait painting in general, may be attended to in working with crayons. When the whole head is covered over, or dead coloured, the whole must be sweetened and blended together, by rubbing it over with the finger very lightly, taking care to wipe it clean in passing from one colour or tint to another : but this sweetening and softening has its bounds ; for, if it be carried too far, the work will assume a meagre look, and have more the appearance of a drawing than a solid painting, where nothing but a good body of colour can produce a rich effect : this renders it sometimes necessary to lay on a fresh quantity of crayon. When the head is tolerably advanced, the back-ground is to be begun, but in a different way, for it is laid on very thin, and rubbed in with a leather stump. The parts bordering on the face should be almost free from colour altogether, which will give a great relief and air of body to the head, and leave it in the artist’s power to finish the hair with freedom and delicacy. The greatest difficulty in working with crayons is to execute the eyes, where every part is to be done with the utmost delicacy, to have a finished appearance, com- bined with breadth and freedom in the touch ; for which reason the crayon, instead of the finger, should be chiefly used in softening the colours ; and a fine point may be obtained from the minute parts, by break- ing off a bit of the crayon. When the eye-lashes are dark, carmine and brown ochre, or carmine and black are used ; and the corners of the eye are done with light touches of carmine, lake, or vei*milion ; observing always, that too much red here, or in any other part of E 2 62 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. the eye, gives the appearance of soreness, and has an offensive effect. The pupil of the eye is done of the purest lamp black, and between it and the lower part of the iris, the light is strong, but carefully diffused round the pupil, and lost in the shade. When the eye-balls are thus advanced, a bright speck is made with pure white crayon, sharpened or broken to a fine point. THE DRAPERIES. Black, dark blue, purple, pink, and all red draperies, are first touched with carmine, to give a brilliancy to the other colours ; then the middle tint, excepting in the masses of shade, which are to be laid at first as deep as possible : these softened with the finger in working will represent the broad folds, to which the smaller folds are afterwards to be added. These smaller parts are done with light and dark tints, working as much with the crayon, and as little with the finger as possible; the last stroke in each fold being done entirely with the crayon, and never touched with the finger or sweetener. In doing the reflected lights the touch with the crayon will be too harsh, therefore the finger is to be used, as reflected lights are always less distinct and marked than direct lights. In general, the reflects must partake of the colour of the reflecting objects. When the drapery is blue, the reflects must be of a greenish cast ; in a green drapery they are yellowish ; in yellow of an orange tint ; when red the reflections are of the same colour, inclining to yellow ; black gives a reddish reflection ; and purples generally produce a reddish i tint. It is to be observed, that whatever may be the ; colour of the drapery, the reflections on the face must partake of it. Linen, lace, furs, &c. are to be done with the crayon, and sparingly touched with the^nger, excepting sometimes in furs; and all are finished entirely without any fingering. The young artist should never finish any one part in particular, but bring on the whole piece at the same time, stopping frequently and examining his work at dift'erent distances, or taking the opinion of sensible friends, who are no artists themselves, to discover the THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 6^ due connection of each part with those around it, and with the whole composition. TO FIX THE COLOURS. In order to succeed in this operation, the picture should be placed vertically^ or rather a little inclined from the perpendicular, upon the easel, or a chair, or against a wall, to keep it steady. A pocket brush should be provided, with the hairs of a middling length, and a small iron rod, six or seven inches long, of a triangular form, bent at one end. Then take a pint of the clearest water, into which are to be put two large pieces of the best isinglass, cut very small, to be placed in a sand bath, until the isinglass be quite dissolved ; then strain the liquor through a piece of fine linen, to purify it from any grosser parts. When this is used, it is poured into a saucer, and mixed with twice its quantity of the best spirits of w ine. While the mixture is about milk- warm, dip the brush in it, and pass it several times over the bent end of the small iron rod, drawing it tov/ards you, so as to press the hairs to- gether ; this forces the greatest part of the liquor to fall off, and leaves the hairs only moistened ; then holding the hairs of the brush towards the picture, at a distance of eight or ten inches, apply to the hairs the bent end of the rod, and drawing it towards you, the several liairs, as they escape and return to their original posi- tion, will throw off the moisture adhering to tliem, and thus produce on the painting a sort of imperceptible shower, which will penetrate the crayons, and fix them to the canvass. W^henever the brush is dry, it is again dipped in the saucer, and the operation is continued, beginning at one corner, until the whole surface has been done over. When the whole has been moistened with this shower or dew, let it dry, and then repeat the operation twuce or more, if you think it has not sutFi- ciently been done at first. The purpose of this is merely to unite the several particles of the crayons, and thus, in some measure, to prevent their being rubbed off by any accidental touch. As crayons will not bear to be rubbed, it is an error to suppose that E 3 54 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. they can be varnished, which would utterly confound and change the colours. There are, however, many crayon paintings which cannot be fixed in this manner, owing to the glue, pumice, or other substance that may have been introduced ; or from the sketch having been varnished : the application of this shower or sprinkling may, nevertheless, be useful in giving fresh brilliancy to the colours of the picture. PAINTING IN ENAMEL. Of all the modes of painting, none is more solid and durable than enamelling ; for time, which consumes all things, has no sensible effect on the beauty or the bril- liancy of this work. The process is performed on metal plates covered with a white coat of enamel. Gold is often used for this purpose; but copper, when well managed, is almost as good. These plates are made concave on one side, and convex on the other ; and are, usually, round or oval. Enamel is composed generally of vitrified substances, interspersed with others not vitrified; so that it pos- sesses all the properties of glass except its transparency. The basis of all enamels is a pure glass, ground up with a fine calx of lead or tin, prepared for the purpose, with the addition commonly of white salt of tartar. These ingredients baked together, with powders of different colours, afford enamels of all kinds. From Gold, are framed the Scarlets, Purples, Pinks, and Violets; from Silver and Antimony, the Yellows; from Copper, the Greens; from Cobalt, the Blues; from Iron, the Reds, Blacks, and Browns; and from Tin, the Whites. These colours are the bases, or rather the materials, of which those used in enamel painting are composed. PREPARATION OF THE COLOURS. The colours are to be reduced to the finest powder, and afterwards ground down with water with all pos- sible care, each upon separate glasses. They should be THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 55 ground only in small quantities at a time, because the extreme separation of their particles greatly aids the required changes, when in a state of fusion, and im- proves their brilliancy and fine polish. They are after- wards left to dry upon a plate of glass, covered with paper, to preserve them from dust ; and then, like the colours used in miniature painting, they ought to be put into small phials, well stopped. When the colours have been thus well ground with water, they are to be mixed with thickened essential oil of lavender on a piece of glass or agate, until they feel as soft as oil under the muller; they are then arranged in small heaps, on another piece of glass, and placed in a box where no dust may enter. Under this piece of glass is laid some white paper, that the different colours may be the more visible. To prevent the colours from being soiled, and one from mixing with another, be careful, after using any of them, to wipe the glass with a piece of linen rag, dipped in spirits of wine. The simple colours ought to be placed on the upper part of the pa- lette, and the mixed colours on the lower part ; observ- ing, that the palette should be renewed every morning, as the colours are never so good when the oil has eva- porated and lost part of its fluidity. When the palette is thus in order, wipe with apiece of fine linen and spirits of wine, the enamelled plate ; then with a black-lead pencil draw very faintly the outline of the subject, and pass a linen cloth lightly over the whole, to remove any of the grosser parts of the lead remaining on the plate. If this be not done, when the work is exposed to the fire, the small particles of the pencil, broken off in the shape of a fine powder, will rise up in bubbles, and remain tinged with the colours to be afterwards laid on. When this operation is over, a second outline is drawn, more strongly expressed than the first, with deep purple. This second outline should be as correct as possible, because when it has passed through the fire it is very difficult to efface the most trifling touch. It is of use here to have a piece of hard wood, pointed like a pencil, with which the outline may be corrected, by moving the colour more to the right or the left, as may be necessary. 56 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. When the outline is done to satisfaction, and every- thing is draTO in its proper situation, then the work, must for the first time be exposed to the fire. If any air-bubbles have arisen, or any part of the colour re- mains rough, take a small piece of oil-stone, or a steel point, and rub the place, but not going very deep, till the white ground appear ; after which the plate is to be put into the fire, to repolish the part that has been rubbed, and fit it to be repainted. When this second out- line is finished, and the plate has been again wiped with a cloth dipped in spirits of wine, begin to paint the strongest shadows with a mixture of dark purple, dark yellow, and a little blue ; by means of these three colours, is produced the same warm tone as what is drawn from burnt terra di sienna and indigo. The method of applying the colours in enamel is the same as in miniature painting on ivory, with this dilference only, that as oil takes more time to dry than water, the enameller has more time to work his colours, after they are applied to the plate. When the artist has placed and softened one touch, he must leave it and wait till it is again passed through the fire; otherwise the too great quantity of oil, confined under the second coat of colour, will, in the moment of fusion, make the upper ones bubble, and prevent them from polishing. It is to be observed, that all the colours, when they come out of the fire, ought to have nearly the same degree of polish. PAINTING ON GLASS. The colours used in painting or staining glass, are very diflferent from those employed in working with oil or water colours. Of these the following are some ex- ample^: — Blacks are obtained by a mixture of scales of iron, scales of copper, and jet, all in equal quantities, reduced to a fine powder. For blues, take of powdered blues one pound, salt of nitre half a pound, well mixed together. For carnation, take of red chalk eight ounces, iron scales and litharge of silver each two THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 57 ounces, gum arabic half an ounce ; mingle these ingre- dients in water, and grind them together, leaving them to settle for a fortnight in the vessel. For green, take red lead one pound, copper scales one pound, flint five pounds ; put them, with some nitre, in a crucible, in a very strong fire, and after they are melted and cold, grind the mass to a fine powder. For gold colour, take silver one ounce, antimony half an ounce, melt them down, and grind the mass, adding to the powder fifteen ounces of yellow ochre, and then reducing the whole to a fine powder, by grinding them in water. For purple, take red lead one pound, white lead one pound, white flint five pounds, brown ochre one pound, and one- third of a pound of sal nitre; calcine and melt them down together, and reduce them to powder. For red, take jet four ounces, litharge of silver two ounces, red chalk one ounce, powder and mix them. For white, take jet two parts, and white flint ground fine one part, and mix them together. For yellow, take Spanish brown ten parts, silver leaf one part, antimony half a part, and calcine them together in a crucible. In the windows of ancient churches are frequently seen the most beautiful and lively colours, far exceed- ing those employed by modern artists. In the art of painting on glass, as practised, or rather as it ought to be practised, the first thing to be done is to draw and colour the subject on paper ; then the artist chooses such pieces of glass as are clear and smooth, to receive the several parts, and distributes the drawing to suit the pieces of glass, making the contours or bounding lines of the figures fall in the joinings of the several pieces, that the carnations or other bright and transpa- rent parts of the work may not be covered by the lead joinings of the glass. When this distribution is made, each piece of the glass is marked corresponding to that part of the paper-sketch to which it belongs ; thus the design is transferred from the paper to the glass, fol- lowing all the lines and strokes as they appear through the glass, with the point of a pencil. When these strokes are dry, which may be in a couple of days, the work now consisting only of black and white, is lightly washed over with gum arabic, urine, 58 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. and black; and this is repeated several times, according to the deepness of the shades, taking care not to apply a new coat of wash until the former be quite dry. The lights are improved, by rubbing off, with a wooden point, the colour in the proper places. The other colours are applied with gum arabic, much in the same way as in miniature painting; observing always that the yellows are to be managed with great precaution, for they are very apt to blend and incorporate with the other colours, and thereby spoil the whole work : they are also the only colours that penetrate through the sub- stance of the glass, when exposed to the action of the fire ; all others, particularly the blues, remaining on the surface, or only penetrating a short way within it. When the painting is performed in this manner, the glasses are carried to the oven or furnace, to be annealed or baked. This furnace is made of brick, from twenty-four to thirty inches square. An aperture is made six inches from the bottom, to receive the fuel ; a grate is placed across the furnace like a flooring, above which is another aperture to admit the pieces of coloured glass. This grate supports an earthen pan, in which the pieces are laid in the following manner ; in the bottom of the pan are placed three strata or layers of pulverised quick-lime, separated by layers of old broken glass, to preserve the painted pieces from re- ceiving too much heat, when they are laid horizontally on the uppermost stratum of quick-lime. Each stratum of the painted glass is separated from the one above it by a layer of the same powdered quick lime, and the uppermost stratum is covered with lime in the same way. The whole furnace is then covered with a broad flat tile, and closely stopped or luted all round, leaving only a few small holes to serve for chimnies. The fire for the first two hours should be moderate, but increased as the annealing or baking goes on, for ten or twelve hours more, when the process will be finished. At the conclu- sion of the whole, the fire, which at first is made of charcoal, is made up with live wood, that the flame may surround and cover the pan of glass, &c. and even come out at the little chunney holes. Trials of the state THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 5 ^ of the glass are made by taking out pieces placed in the pan for this purpose, at the small aperture in the fur- nace ; and when the annealing or coction is thought to be sufficiently advanced, the fire is extinguished as speedily as possible, to prevent the glasses from being broken, and the colours from being burnt, dissipated, or changed. ENGRAVING. This art had its origin, as it now exists, at no earlier a period than about the middle of the fifteenth century. The ancients practised engraving on precious stones and crystals with very good success ; some remains of their ingenuity in this way are yet extant, and are equal to any productions of modern times; but the art of en- graving on copper and wood was not known till long after the invention of painting in oil. The different kinds of engraving on copper are the following : — 1. Engraving in strokes with a point, the copper-plate being covered with a ground, and the strokes afterwards corroded with aqua-fortis. This is called etching. 2. In strokes with the graver alone, unassisted by aqua fortis. In this case, the design is traced with the sharp tool called dry point upon the plate, and the strokes are cut in the copper by the graver. This is generally called engraving ivith the tool and dry point only. 3. In strokes or lines, but which are first etched with aqua-fortis, and then finished with the graver, by which the two former methods are united. This mode is the most universally practised, and has also the best effect. 4. In dots, without strokes, which are performed w ith the point upon the wax or ground, and then bitten in with aqua-fortis, as in etching ; but they are after- wards harmonized and softened with the graver, by making several small additional dots between them. Sometimes this mode of engraving is effected with the graver only, unassisted by the point, which is very often the case in the flesh and the finer parts of portraits. 5. In dots, which are first etched as the foregoing, 60 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. but afterwards harmonised with the dry point, performed by a little hammer instead of the graver. This operation is now nearly exploded. 6. In mezzotintOy which is performed by covering the plate with a strong dark ground, or deep shade, and tracing by means of a toothed tool, and corroding the dots with aqua-fortis. The parts which are to be light are then rendered more or less smooth by the scraper, according to the degrees of light they are to represent. 7. In aquatinta, which is a newly-invented method of engraving, but has suddenly attained a degree of perfection seldom the lot of recent discoveries : the out- line is first etched, and the plate afterwards corroded, but in a different manner from either etching or mezzo- tinto, as will be explained hereafter. Engraving in strokes, or lines, with the tool, is un- doubtedly the most ancient method, and is still retained for many useful and valuable purposes. For though etching be performed with a great deal more ease and expedition, and has several other advantages, yet the strokes or lines are by no means so regular and exact as those wrought by the graver. For this reason, where great precision is required, engraving with the tool is preferred ; as in the execution of portraits, where the most minute parts must be expressed according to the original subject, without the least deviation, or varying the effect, either by that masterly negligence and sim- plicity in some parts, or those bold sallies of the imagi- nation and hand in other parts, which give such spirit and force to historical painting. THE GRAVING TOOLS. The principal instruments used in engraving with the tool are grav^ers, scrapers, a burnisher, points, or needles, compasses, an oil stone, and a cushion, or sand- bag, for bearing the plate. Gravers are of two sorts, the square and the lozenge ; several of each kind should be provided. The square graver is used for cutting broad and deep strokes, and the lozenge for the more fine and delicate ones. They should be about five inches and a half in length, including the handle. The scraper is used principally in scraping down the shades THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 61 in mezzotinto ; it is also serviceable in softening* the parts, or clearing away the bur which arises in en- graving, The burnisher is of service to polish the plate, and to take out any false strokes or scratches it may have received. It is about seven inches in length, and made of fine steel, well polished. The burnisher is formed at one end, and the scraper at the other, each about one inch and a quarter long from the point. The point, or, as it is generally called, the dry-point, has been lately introduced into engraving. It is a tool like an etching point, and which, being drawn hard on the copper, cuts a fine stroke, and raises a bur ; when the bur is scraped off, there remains a more soft and delicate stroke than could be effected by any other means. — Compasses are very useful to take distances, propor- tions, strike circles, &c. They should be of brass, with steel points, well tempered. The oil-stone is used to whet the graver and point upon ; it should be of the Turkey sort. The cushion is a bag of leather, filled with sand. Its use is to support the plate in such a manner, that it may be turned every way with ease ; it should be of the size that will best suit the plate it is intended to bear ; it is of a round form ; the most com- mon size is about nine inches over, and three inches thick. DIRECTIONS FOR ENGRAVING. The copper-plate being laid upon the cushion, the graver is to be held in the hand in such a manner, that the handle of the graver may rest in the hollow of the hand, and the fore-finger extended upon the back of the graver towards the point. The point of the graver being applied to the plate, it must be used in a proper direction for producing the figure of the lines intended ; observing, in forming straight lines, to hold the plate steady on the cushion ; and where they are to be finer, pressing more lightly, but using greater force where they are to be broader and deeper. In making circular and other curved lines, the hand and graver are to be held steadily, and the plate turned upon the cushion against the graver ; though, in some cases, the plate and graver must be both moved at the same time one against the F 62 THK SCHOOL OF FIXL ARTS. other: without a facility of moving the plate as w^ell as the graver, it will be impossible to make any circular or curved line with ease and neatness. When part of the work is done, it will be necessary to scrape off the bur which rises in the work ; which must be done with the scraper, passing it gently, in the most level direction, over the plate, which will take off' the roughness ; great care must be taken not to incline the edge of the scraper or tool used in such a manner, that it may take the least hold of the copper, which would produce false strokes or scratches in the work. When the part which is done is to be examined, rub it with the oil-rubber, which is a roll of felt dipped in oil, and which, by filling the strokes with black, will show^ them, when the plate is wiped, to the best advantage. But it must be remembered, that loo much oil rubbing injures very fine work, as does also too much scraping, the latter most particularly. Tlie graver must always be carried as level as pos- sible with the surface of "the plate ; for otherwise, or if the fingers slip between them, the line produced, w^he- ther curve or strait, will become deeper and deeper in the progress of its formation ; which will prevent the student from acquiring the habit of making strokes at one cut, that will be fine at the ends and larger in the middle, and also renders it necessary to retouch the lines, to bring them to that state. It is very necessary, therefore, for all who attempt this art to acquire the habit of forming strokes that may end as lightly as they began ; and if it be necessary to widen the stroke, or render it deeper in any part, it is to be done by retouch- ing it in that part with the square graver. Strong broad strokes are formed by making two or more parallel lines with the graver, and then breaking them into one. When the work is finished, if any scratches appear, any false strokes, or if it be necessary that any part should be obliterated, such parts may be rubbed out with the burnisher, and the part cleared with the scraper ; afterwards it is to be lightly polished with the burnisher. The plate is lastly to be rounded off at the edges and corners, by using first a rough file, and afterwards a smoother one, and then polishing the edges with the burnisher. THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 63 111 order to forai a proper idea of engraving in strokes, Me may observe, once for ali, that any line may be crossed by another line, or any number of lines by any other number of lines : but it is not every intersection or cross- ing that is graceful. For instance, if a number of parallel lines in an engraving be crossed by others running nearly in the same direction, they will form by their intersec- tions areas of a sharp and disagreeable lozenge shape, which is proper only in certain instances : and, if the first lines be crossed by others at right angles, the areas formed by their intersections will be so many squares 5 which always possess a certain hardness of appearance, and are proper only to some particular subjects : consequently, excellence in the art, and elegance of appearance, consist in neither of these forms solely, but in a medium between them, or a junction of these and other methods. For, in a well executed engraving, we observe, in some places, some of the following modes, and, in the whole piece, all the subsequent varieties, and not, unfrequently, many others purely the invention of the engraver; 1, single lines, sometimes of considerable length ; 2, lines crossed by others at a pleasant lozenge shape, not too acute ; 3, lines crossed at right angles, where a kind of obscurity is wanted ; 4, two courses of lines crossing at a lozenge, and intersected with a third in a lozenge course, but more soft and tender than either of the other two; 5, lines crossing each other at right angles, intersected by a third course of lines at a lozenge, which soften the squares, and render the work more elegant ; 6, strong lines of a firm colour, at a considerable distance from each other, with a fine line between them; tliis is called interlining \ 7, firm lines like the former, hut crossing each other, and also interlined ; 8, round dots, often made in the flesh, and where soft shades are required; 9, long dots made with the graver for the same purpose ; 10, long dots crossing each other, or a kind of short broken lines; 11, lines of dots crossed by fine thin lines; 12, very fine thin lines made by the dry point in the light parts of the piece. Some of these methods, or similar ones introduced, accord- ing to the judgment of the engraver, produce that won- derful eftect, richness, and character we so much admire in excellent prints, and which no other manner of engrav- F 2 64 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. ing can boast of ; it is also further enriched by a judicious mixture of etching, engraving, and the work of the dry- point. It must be allowed, that a person unacquainted with perspective, will be unable to express the proper grada- tions of strong and faint colours, and to throw bfick the iigures and objects of bis picture to their proper distance. And without a knowledge of architecture, he will never understand the due proportions of the several orders, which the painter often entrusts to the discretion of the engraver. It is worthy of remark, also, to the engraver who would desire to excel, in order to preserve equality and union in his work, that he sketch out the principal objects of his piece before he undertakes to finish them. With regard to the intersections of the lines of the graver, though (as before observed) they must not be crossed in too lozenge a direction, particularly in the representation of flesh, and in picturesque designs, yet we must except the case of clouds, tempests, waves of the sea, the skins of rough hairy animals, the leaves of trees, &c. where this method of crossing may be admitted. But, in avoiding the lozenge intersections, we must be careful of falling into the square, or right-angled crossings, which would have too much the appearance of the hardness of stone. The graver should be guided by the action of the figures ; and the shape of the objects should also be considered, in what manner they advance towards, or recede from the eye of the observer. The risings or cavities of the mus- cles should also be noticed, making the strokes wider and fainter in the lights, and closer and firmer in the shades. Thus the figures will appear whole and finished : the hand should also be lightened in such a manner, that the out- lines may be formed and terminated without being cut too hard. Though the strokes generally break oft where the muscle begins, yet they ought always to have a certain connection with each other ; so that the first stroke may often serve, by its return, to make the second, which will shew the freedom of the graver. In the flesh, particularly the lighter parts, and middle tints, the effect may be produced by long pecks of the graver, rather than faint lines j but some prefer round dots for this purpose : others use dots a little lengthened THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 65 by the graver 5 the best method, however, is to combine all those three ways together with judgment, for which no better direction can be given than carefully to examine the work in some excellent engraving. To produce the effect in the hair and beard, the principal grounds and chief shades should be sketched first, in a careless man- ner, w'ith a few firm strokes, which are afterwards finished at leisure with finer and thinner strokes at the extremities. In representing architecture, the work ought not to be rendered very black, except the subject be old ruinous buildings: because edifices being constructed generally of white marble, or stone, they reflect a light on all sides, and therefore do not produce very dark shades. Sculpture being generally formed of white stone, is governed by the same rule : and it must be observed in engraving from the work of the statuary, white points must not be put in the pupils of the eyes of figures, as in engravings after paint- ings ; neither must the hair or beard have that freedom as in nature, where the locks appear flowing; because, in sculpture, no such appearance can take place. The representation of different substances require 'not only different forms of lines and dots, but different modes of intersecting the lines, to produce a natural appearance. A great variety obtains both in the shades and lights of the different sorts of clothing ; linen requires finer and closer lines than other sorts, and should also be executed with single strokes, or without interlining. Woollen-cloth should be engraved w'ith only two strokes, which should generally be wide apart, in proportion to the coarseness of the cloth ; but when the strokes are crossed, the second should be less than the first, and the third less than the second. Silk, satin, and many other shining substances, produce flat and broken folds, and should, therefore, be engraved more hard, with straighter lines than others, and wdth one or two strokes, as their colours are more bright or brown ; and the first strokes should also be interlined wdth smaller ones. Plush and velvet are also expressed in the same manner. Metals, and con- sequently ancient armour, are represented by clear single strokes interlined. In architecture, the strokes which form the rounding f3 66 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. object should tend to the ])oiiit of sight ; in whole columns, perpendicular lines should be used as much as possible 'y and, if a cross stroke is introduced, it should be at right angles to the first stroke, and wider and thinner. In representing mountains, the strokes should be straight, in the lozenge manner, frequently discontinued, or broken, to represent sharp, craggy points : they should also be accompanied with long points, or dots: but rocks should be formed by cross strokes more square and even. All distant objects should have very faint and tender shadows, and be somewhat obscurely defined : the greater their dis- tance is, the more indistinct they must appear. Calm still waters require straight strokes parallel to the horizon, interlined with finer ones, omitting such parts as, in consequence of gleams of light, exhibit the shining appearance of water ; and the forms of objects reflected from the water arc expressed by the same strokes re- touched more strongly or faintly, as occasion may require, and even by some that are perpendicular. Agitated waters, the waves of the sea, &c. should be done with the first strokes following the figure of the waves, which should be interlined, and the cross stroke should be very lozenge. Cascades are represented by strokes following the direction of the water in its fall, which should also be interlined. In representing clouds, when they appear thick and agitated, the graver may turn in every direction, accord- ing to their form and agitation : but dark clouds, which require two strokes, have their strokes crossed more lozenge than the figures, the second strokes being wider than the first: flat clouds that are hardly visible, in a clear sky, are formed by strokes parallel to the horizon, but a little waving ; if they be crossed with second strokes, these should be more or less lozenge; and when they approach the extremities, the hand should be light- ened in such a manner that their ends may not form any outline. In representing a flat clear sky, straight parallel strokes must be formed, without the least winding. With regard to landscape, it must be observed in general, that etching has a far better effect than engrav- ing, on account of the freedom of the work, and the ease which appears in etching above what is seen in engrav- THE SCHOOL OF FINE AUTS, 67 ings ; therefore the trees, rocLs, earth, herbage, &c. should always be etched, or, at least, as much as conve- niently can be doijej nothing left for the graver but the perfecting, softening, and strengthening. And, in most subjects whatever, the shadows ought to be etched, and the lighter tints finished with the graver, dry-points, &c. WHETTING AND TEMPERING THE GRAVER. It is necessary that the artist understand how to choose a good graver, to whet it when requisite, and to temper it when too hard. The two sides, which form what is called the belly of the graver, are more or less angled, and their extremities form the point. When ground, the breadth of the end is termed its face. In whetting the graver, great address and care is requisite: — ^The two lower angles of the graver are to be laid flat upon the oil-stone, and rubbed steadily, until they are as bright as a mirror, and till the belly rises gradually ; so that when the graver is laid flat upon the plate, the light may be perceived under the point ; otherwise it will dig into the copper, and it will be impossible to use it with freedom. The face is next to be whetted, which is done merely by laying the face of the graver flat upon the stone, with the belly upwards, and rubbing it steadily upon a moderate slope, until it acquire a very sharp point, which may be tried on the thumb-nail ; observing that the stone be supplied with oil during the whole time. Gravers, as sold in the shops, are generally too hard for use, which may be known by the frequent breaking of their points. When this is the case, they should be tempered, by holding them on a red-hot poker, till they change to a light straw colour, and then dipping them in oil : or they may be held in the flame of a candle, and cooled in the tallow. The gravers, which are so soft as to yield to a file, are good for nothing. ETCHING, AND PREPARATION OF GROUNDS. Etching, is a species of engraving, and of a more modei ti invention than that performed by the tool only. It is efficted principally by the corrosive quality of aqua-fortis^i 68 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. the copper-plate being first covered with a resinous ground, which preserves the metal from the action of that powerful menstruum, while other parts of the plate are exposed to its influence, by lines drawn, with proper in- struments, through the ground : and by the greater or less action of the acid on the plate different excavations are efiected, and the plate is rendered capable of display- ing the different tints of light and shade, or all the beauties of the chiaro oscuro. The first operation in this art is the laying on the ground. Several recipes have been given for the forming of this composition 5 and among those who profess the art there is a great diversity in their preparation of the ground. It is an article of great importance to the engraver, and deserves his prin- cipal consideration. Here we give the composition of the most generally approved grounds, leaving the artist to his own choice or experience. REMBRANDT’S GROUND. Take of asphaltuin, burnt, half an ounce, and the same quantity of gum mastic; pulverise or beat them to a fine powder, and add them, by degrees, to one ounce of virgin-wax, melted over a gentle fire, stirring the com- position till the whole be thoroughly incorporated : which, when intimately compounded, pour into clean water, and make it into balls for use. When this ground is used, it should be laid on the plate very thin ; and the plate must not be made too hot. callot’s ground. Take a quarter of a pound of virgin-wax, and two ounces of asphaltum, the same quantity of mastic, one ounce of resin, one ounce of shoemaker’s wax, half an ounce of common pitch, half an ounce of varnish ; melt the wax, and add the other ingredients as before, and when incorporated pour it into water. GROUND IN FREQUENT USE. To a quarter of a pound of virgin-wax add the follow- ing ingredients : two ounces of asphaltum, one ounce of THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 69 amber, and one ounce of mastic. The asphaltum and mastic must be reduced to a very fine powder, as before, and gradually mixed with the wax, which is melted over a gentle fire. The composition is then poured into water, and made into balls as the others. Some use a ground formed only of six ounces of virgin wax, four ounces of mastic, and two of asphaltum, prepared as above directed. The ground should differ in consistence according to the temperature of the weather, being made harder in summer, and of a softer nature in cold weather, TO LAY ON THE GROUND. When the ground is to be laid on, the plate must be heated to a sufficient degree, either over a charcoal fire, or by a fire of common coal, so that it may not be smoked. For this purpose a hand- vice is fixed to the most convenient part of the plate, by which it may be held in the hand. When the plate changes colour, or rejects the fluid, when spit upon, it is sufficiently heated. The ball of ground is then rubbed on, being tied in a piece of thin silk ; and, as it is rubbed gently over the plate, the heat melts the composition through the silk, and the rubbing is continued till it be distributed over every part. The ground is then to be beaten with the dabber, (which is a piece of cotton tied up in silk) to render it perfectly smooth, and uniformly thin through- out. Great dexterity is required in dabbing the ground, to render it of an uniform thickness ; for, if some parts be thicker than others, it will deceive the engraver in his etching, and biting-in of his work. The ground is next to be smoked, by holding it over the flame of a lamp, which emits a copious vapour, or two or three common candles united together will answer the pur- pose ; observing to move the plate about, so that the smoke may pervade every part. The plate being cold will be ready to receive the outlines of the print, or drawing, which is to be traced on the ground in the following manner : — TO TRACE THE DRAWING ON THE PLATE. Rub the back of the print, draw'ing, or design, of which you intend to engrave a plate, with the scrapings 70 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. of red chalk, or flake white or black lead po\t'der, or any other substance which will readily impart a legible mark, then place this coloured side of the drawing upon the ground of the copper-plate, making it fast at each corner with soft wax. Place the small board, called the etching-hoard^ over that part of the drawing upon which you are not employed, to rest your hand upon; and, with a blunt etching-needle, trace lightly the out- lines of the drawing, and also the breadth of the shadow. The back of the drawing, which is coloured, will communicate similar lines to the ground of the copper-plate. The tracing must not be performed too heavily, otherwise the ground will be broken. During the operation of tracing it is necessary frequently to lift up one corner of the drawing, to examine whether every part be traced, before the drawing be taken off the plate ; as then it would be very difficult to replace it in its former position. The tracing being completed, the drawing is to be removed, and the subject is ready for etching. THE ETCHING. The principles of etching are very simple, and are easily peformed by those who have but a moderate pro- ficiency in the art of design, being little more than drawing the outlines through the ground upon the cop- per with a pointed needle. There are several of these instruments employed in the art, according to the breadth of the strokes required to be made. They are nearly similar to sewing needles; but stronger, and inserted into handles from four to five inches long. They are formed with various points; some being round, and others oval, which have each their separate use. The former being used for fainter, and the latter for darker strokes. Having laid a piece of silk or linen next the plate, and over that the etching-board, proceed to etch the work, beginning with the fainter works, which are to be worked closer, and with a sharper pointed needle ; next proceeding to the darker points, which must be etched wider, and with a blunter needle. In buildings and architecture in general, straight and parallel lines THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 71 should be drawn with a straight or parallel ruler, unless the etcher have a very steady hand, and have had con- siderable practice. Lines, drawn in etching, may, in general, be crossed by other lines, if required. Two parallel lines, drawn close together, will unite into one when biting, and form one strong line of great breadth and colour. This mode of making black lines is very serviceable in dark fore-grounds in landscape, and sometimes has a good effect in architecture: but, in historical subjects, etching is chiefly used to prepare the figures for the graver, which it performs with much facility, and gives the piece an appearance of greater freedom than could otherwise be effected. Etching, though expeditiously performed, has several advantages above engraving. It is true, that it pos- sesses a certain roughness of appearance, compared with engraving, and therefore does not suit subjects which require a gloss or lustre: but it has an excellent effect in most representations of uncultivated nature, as in landscape, the broken and loose touches of fore- grounds, the barks of trees, &c. It very happily expresses the ravages of time in old buildings, ancient castles, mouldering walls, and the like. The freedom of its appearance renders it very appropriate for ex- pressing the leaves of trees, light clouds, &c. It is very valuable for possessing a true, even, and uniform colour, for which it may be depended upon more than the w^ork of the graver only ; by which quality it obtains in the blue parts of skies, and also where an even tint is wanted in new architecture, back-grounds to por- traits, and many other grounds where the parallel ruler is used. DIRECTIONS FOR BITING. The work being etched, the plate is next to be cor- roded with aqua-fortis : a border of soft wax (composed of melted beesLwax, tempered with one-third or one- fourth of its quantity of Burgundy pitch, or with a little Venice turpentine and tallow) is to be raised upon the plate, round the work, in the form of a mound or wall, to inclose the aqua-fortis, and prevent its running oflT. A gutter is usually made at one corner of the plate, for 72 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. p6uring off the aqua fortis, when requisite, but which is stopped up with a little wax or tallow, during the time the aqua-fortis is to remain on the plate. The plate being thus bordered, some common refiner’s aqua- fortis is to be mixed with half its quantity of w^ater, and poured gently upon the plate, till it rises about a finger^s breadth above the surface of the ground ; when, if all things have been rightly conducted, it will be seen that the menstruum will soon begin to exert itself in the hatches wdiich have been more strongly touched : but the more faint strokes will appear for some time clear, and of the colour of the copper. The aqua-fortis must, therefore, continue on the plate till it appears to have acted on the tender and finer parts of the work. And during the time it remains on the plate it should be gently agitated by a feather, with which the operator should cleanse away the foulness of the verdigris that gathers in the hatches, when the aqua-fortis exerts its influence : by which means the hatches will be cleansed, and the menstruum will act with greater force, and more equally on every part of the plate. When the work is sufficiently bitten, pour off the aqua-fortis, and wash the plate carefully with water : when dry, scrape off part of the ground from some of the faintest parts of the work, to see if it be sufficiently corroded ; and if it be not bitten enough, stop out the part you have examined with a hair pencil dipped in a mixture of Venetian varnish and lamp black; and when that is dry pour on the aqua-fortis again. When the faint parts of the work are excavated to a proper depth, stop them out with the Venetian varnish, and proceed to rebite the stronger parts, by pouring on the aqua-fortis again ; and proceed to stop out other parts, and again bite others, if requisite, till the whole work is sufficiently corroded. Then warm the plate to take oflf the border of soft wax ; after which make it sufficiently hot to melt the ground, then, by pouring on it a little olive oil, the whole may be wiped oflf with a linen rag. The ground being taken oflf, the plate is to be well rubed with the oil rubber, and wiped clean ; lastly, it is to be finished with the graver and the other dry tools, if the subject require it, which is generally THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 7.1 the ease. In biting a plate the greatest attention is necessary : for if it be under-bitten, or in other words, if the parts have not attained their proper depth of colour, there is usually no other remedy than that of following every line with the graver, in order to blacken it : on the other hand, if a plate be over-bitten it can never be rendered neat and delicate, though ever so much time and skill be bestowed upon it ; but if it be bitten only a little above the colour intended, a few strokes of the burnisher will generally reduce it to a perfect tint. If any scratches or false strokes happen in the work- ing, they are to be stopped up with the Venetian var- nish and lamp black, by which means they will be defended from tlie action of the aqua fortis. ENGRAVING IN CHALK. This method of engraving may be considered as a method of etching in dots, since the preparation of the plate, laying the ground, tracing the subject, &c. is the same as in etching. The principal difference is, that instead of lines, as in etching, the drawing, shadows, &c. consist of a mixture of varied and irregular dots, as freely as can possibly be done, yet carefully,- and made more or less soft, so as to resemble the grain produced by the chalk on paper. For every stroke of the chalk on paper may be considered as an infinite number of adjoining points, which are the small eminences of Ihe grain of the paper, touched by the chalk in passing over it. The plate being prepared, and the ground laid as in etching, the drawing to be imitated may be counterproved on the ground of the plate. If this can- not conveniently be done, black lead pencil, or red chalk, must he applied to ^'arnished or oiled paper ; by which means all the traces of the drawing may be trans- ferred lo the ground. The outlines of the drawing must be formed in the etching by points, which will create dots, whose size and distances must be determined by the quality of the strokes^ of the original drawing. In e 74 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. forming the lights and shades, it is necessary to dis- tinguish between those hatches which serve to express the perspective of the object, and those which form the ground thereof. The principal hatches must be more strongly marked ; the middle tints, if etched, marked lightly, or they may be left to be finished by the , dry needle and graver after the ground is taken off, which will give them a greater degree of softness. In apply- ing the aqua-fortis, the artist should be careful not to corrode the lighter parts too much. When these parts are sufficiently bitten, they may be stopped up with the turpentine varnish and lamp black ; and the aqua-fortis may be applied again to bite the stronger parts ; and it may be observed, that if the dots which compose the shade burst into each other, it will not injure the work, except they form too hard a spot, or too considerable a black. When the ground is taken off the plate, it will be necessary to interstipple with proper points in the flesh, and softer parts of the work, which will produce a more delicate effect than can ever be attained with the aqua-fortis alone : the strongest shades will also require additional strength, and must, therefore, be deepened by slight strokes of the graver. The graver is the only tool that can be depended upon in finishing small subjects which require neatness. The best manner of preparing it is by changing its situation in the handle, so that the belly part of it, which was lowermost, becomes upper- most; then, by turning the handle in the hand, the point acts upon the copper from a greater elevation, which is preferable ; as dots only, and not strokes, are required, the tool is managed in this position with much greater ease and freedom. This part of the operation consists only in covering the copper with dots in a man- ner, lighter or heavier, j)roportionate to the colour re- quired. When one covering of dots is scraped off, another must be inserted, and sb on ; by this repetition, a proper grain and sufficient masses of shade are pro- cured. Though the process is tedious, it requires no very great skill in the artist: care,. attention, and prac- tice, will enable him to succeed. In large subjects, and also in those where a general effect only is wanted, and great exactness is not required, THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS, 75 some persons use various tools for facilitating their work, such as wheels having single or double rows of teeth at their edges, cradles resembling a mezzotinto grounding-tool, (but made with teeth) and sometimes others constructed according to their own minds : but these tools, though more expeditious than the graver, seldom produce a very good effect, and can never be depended upon, in any degree, for accuracy or neatness. It will sometimes happen, particularly to him who is not well practised in the art, that those parts which were intended to be dark fail in their proposed effect, which is sometimes the fault of the tool, the ground, or the aqaa-fortis, but more frequently of the inexperience of the artist. When this is the case, the plate may be re-bitten by heating the plate, and, at a convenient part thereof, melting a quantity of ground, and with a dabbei* carefully by degrees transplanting it, by beatirig it gently to Lhe parts proposed, so that the surface only of the copper may be covered, and the hollows or excava- tions of the work may be free and clean. When the plate is cold, it may be rebitten with aqua-fortis as be- fore. It is advisable not to smoke it in this oj[ieration, lest the heat of the candle or lamp melt the ground into the work. This method of re -biting the work is used not only in engraving in chalks, but in every species of engraving where aqua-fortis is used, and in every kind of etching, and is among the secrets of the superior engravers. To clean engraved strokes, they should be washed with a little spirit of turpentine ; if the dirt is of long standing, soap-lees poured on the plate while it is heating will be very effectual. MEZZOTINTO SCRAPING. The great facility with which mezzotintos are exe- cuted is evident from the nature of the operation; fpr it is much easier to scrape or burnish away parts of a dark ground, corresponding with any design sketched upon it, than to form shades upon a light ground by an infinite number of hatches, strokes, and points, which G 2 76 THIi SCHOOL OF FINE AiiTS. iMUsi all terminate with exactness on the outline, as well as differ in their force and manner, as is the case in the other kinds of engraving: the method of scraping in mezzotinto, consequently becomes much more easy and expeditious than any other manner of engraving. The instruments used in this kind of engraving are cradles, or grounding tools, with a fine crenelling on the edge, scrapers, and burnishers. DIRECTIONS FOR THE GROUND. The plate must be prepared and polished in the Same manner as for other work; and afterwards divided equally by lines parallel to each other, which are to be traced out with very soft chalk. The distance of these lines should be about one-third of the length of the face of the cradle, or grounding-tool, which is to be used ; and they should also be marked with capital letters, or strokes of the chalk, to distinguish thenf from one another. The cradle is then to be placed exactly be- tween the two first lines, and passed forwards in the same direction with them, being held as steady as possible, and pressed upon with a moderate force, rocking it from end to end, till it has completely hacked all that part of the plate between those two lines. The same operation must be repeated with re- spect to all the other lines, till the instrument has thus passed over the whole surface of the plate, and rendered it uniformly rough throughout. Other lines must be then drawn from the extremities of the other two sides, in the same manner, and at the same distance from each other, as the first set of lines ; these lines intersecting the first at right angles, ‘will, with them, form squares. The same operation must be repeated with the cradle, between this second course of lines, as in the case of the first. New lines must then again be drawn diagon- ally to the former, and bisecting the aforesaid squares, and the cradle passed betwixt them as before: when the first diagonal operation is performed, the diagonal lines must be crossed at right angles by other lines, as the former, and the cradle passed betwixt them in the same manner. The plate haying undergone the action of the cradle, according to the disposition of the first THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 77 order of lines as above, a second set of lines must be formed, having the same distances from each other as the first But they must be so placed as to divide those already made, into spaces one-third less than their ■whole width ; i, e. every one, after the first on each side, will take in one-third of that before it ; e, g. be- ginning at A, of which the first third must be left out; a third of B will consequently be taken in, and so of the rest. These lines of the second order must be marked with small letters, or lessser strokes, to dis- tinguish them from the first : and another ground must be laid on the plate, by hacking it with the grounding tool, between each two of the second order of lines. When this second operation is finished, a third order of lines must me made; the first of which, e. g*. in A, must omit two thirds of it, and consequently take in two- thirds of B, &c. By these means the original spaces will be exactly divided into equal thirds ; and the cradle must be again employed betwixt these lines as before. When the whole of this operation is finished, it is called one turn ; but in order to produce a very dark and uniform ground, the plate must undergo the repetition of all these several operations for above twenty times ; beginning to pass the cradle again betwixt the first lines, and proceeding in the same manner through all the rest. TRACING AND SCRAPING, The plate being thus prepared with a proper ground, the sketch of the design, or outline, must be chalked on it, by rubbing the back of the paper or drawing with chalk, and tracing the outline with a pointer, as in etching. It is also proper to overtrace it afterwards with black lead or Indian ink, to iiave a more distinct and permanent sketch. The scraping is then performed by paring or scraping away the grain of the ground in various degrees, so that none of it is left in the original state, except in the touches of the strongest shade. The general method of proceeding is similar to that of draw- ing with white upon black paper. The masses of the strongest light are first begun with, and scraped pretty smooth ; and some parts, where there is no shade, as G 3 78 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. the tip of the nose, &c., are burnished, and those parts' which go off into light in their upper part, but are brown below. The ne^t lower gradations of shade are then scraped down, after which the reflections are entered upon ; the plate is next to be blackened with a printer's blacking ball, made of felt, in order to discover the eflTect ; and then the work is proceeded with again, ob- serving always to begin every part in the places where the strongest lights are to be introduced. AQUA-TINTA ENGRAVING. This method of etching on copper is a modern inven- tion ; more easy in its operation than any manner of en- graving or etching hitherto known, and produces a more beautiful and soft effect, resembling a drawing in water colours, or Indian ink, of a more soft and delicate nature than mezzotinto. In this branch of etching, nearly the whole of the work is performed by the corrosive quality of the aqua-fortis on the copper : for after the mere outline is obtained, there is no use for the graver, needles, burnisher, scraper, or any other tool; the different shades being effected by the greater or less action of the aqua-fortis on the copper ; the fainter parts, having been sufficiently bitten, are stopped up, while the menstruum again exerts itself on the next stronger shades ; and these are again defended by the varnish, while the still darker shadows are corroded. DIRECTIONS. The copper-plate must first have a common etching ground laid upon it, and the outlines of the design etched thereon, and bitten with the aqua-fortis, as di- rected in the operation of etching. The ground must then be softened with a little grease, (the plate being gently warmed if necessary,) and wiped with a linen rag, suffering as much grease to remain on the plate as to take off’ the glare of the copper. Now carefully and sparingly sift a layer of powdered resin and asphifltum 79 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. Tjpon the surface of the plate, which will sufficiently ad- here to the copper by reason of the grease left thereon; then strike the other side of the plat^ pretty briskly against the edge of the table or desk, which will dis- charge from it all the loose and superfluous powder ; next hold tlie back of the plate, by means of a hand- vice, over a chafing-dish of charcoal, till it become so warm, that it cannot be held against the back of the hand without exciting pain ; the powder will now adhere firmly to the copper, and will not unite together, if the plate be not too hot. ^ When the plate is cold, with a hair-pencil dipped in Venetian varnish, mixed with lamp black, cover all those parts of the piece which are to be left perfectly white, or where there is no shade. Raise a border of wax round the plate ; and having reduced the aqua-fortis to a proper state, by diluting it with vinegar or water, pour it on the plate, and let it remain there for about five minutes, which will be sufficient to produce the first or lightest tint. The spirit must then be poured off, the plate washed in water, and set on its edge to dry. With the varnish now stop up all the lightest shades, and pour on the aqua-fortis as before for the second tint ; and after letting it stand about five minutes, pour it off, and again wash and dry the plate. Proceed in the same manner for the third tint, and also for the following, if more than three be required, until the darkest shade be produced. Sometimes a bold open ground is required in part of the work ; when this is the case, another ground must be laid on that part of the plate, by sifting coarse powder or even resin alone thereon, and the plate must be heated to a greater degree. All the other parts of the plate are then to be stopped up with the varnish, and the aqua- fortis suffered to act only where the coarse ground is laid, and where consequently the shade will be much bolder. The sky and distant objects in landscape, which require to be faint, are also performed by a second ope- i^tion ; but with this difference, that they require finer powder, and to be laid on with a finer sieve ; the plate must likewise be less heated than in the general method. When any parts require to be higher finished, as is some- 80 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. times the case in the trees, and in objects in the fore- ground, the plate must be entirely cleansed from grease by rubbing it wjth some crumbs of bread ; a common etching ground is then laid thereon, and the work finished with the needle or point, and bit in with aqua- fortis ; and sometimes finished with the dry point only, in which manner it^may be rendered as neat as possible. PREPARATION OF THE POWDER FOR AQUA-TINTA GROUNDS. Take of asphaltum and fine transparent resin equal parts, and pound them separately. Through a muslin sieve, sift upon a sheet of paper a thin stratum of the asphaltum, upon which sift a similar layer of the resin ; upon this again another layer of asphaltum, and so on alternately, continuing these alternate layers till both -of the powders are exhausted ; then pass the mixture through the same sieve once or twice, or till both appear to be sufficiently incorporated, when it is ready for use. Instead of this powder, some use gum sandarach only. But when the above mixture is used, it is absolutely necessary that the resin and asphaltum be sufficiently mixed together, otherwise they will not act equally on the copper, and by that means greatly deceive the artist. Aqua-tinta is so expeditious a method of etching, that it will produce on a large plate, in one week, the effect of two months labour at some kinds of engraving. It is generally objected, that the work is but shallow on the copper; however, when skilfully executed, and care- fully treated by the printer, it is sufficiently lasting. It possesses a very even and uniform colour; smooth, and free from blemishes ; and has a very good effect in land- scape in particular, of every kind ; applies very well to architecture, and back-grounds in general ; — in the latter form ; viz. in back-grounds and distant objects, it has been successfully introduced by several good en- gravers in their large pieces, where the whole work was intended to pass for an engraving. THE SCHOOL OF JINE ARTS. 81 DESCRIPTION OF THE ROLLING-PRESS. • The rolling-press consists of two parts, the bor project, like the letters on print- ing types ^ and the mode of printing is the same with that used in letter-press printing. The wood used in this spe- cies of engraving is commonly box, very smoothly planed. The design is drawn upon the wood itself with black-lead ; and all the wood is neatly cut away with gravers and other tools, excepting where the lines are drawn. The art of engraving on wood is, in appearance, ex- tremely simple ; like every thing else, however, in the way of engraving, it is very difficult to execute well. — Accordingly, few artists have hitherto excelled in it. By the Bewicks, Hughes, Branston, and Sears, however, and a few other artists, engraving on wood has of late years been brought to great perfection. This art cannot be THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. S3 made to supply the place of eiifrraving on coppers it is, iieFcrtheless, very useful for geometrical and some other 6gures for oooks ; because the wooden blocks are intror 4nced among the letter-press, and printed off along with the types. The durability of wot d cuts is their great re- commendation ; it being known that no less than 320,000 copies have been work^ off, without the least injury to the cut. MODELLING AND CASTING. In order to procure a copy or cast from any figure, bust, medal, &c., it is necessary to obtain a mould, by pressing upon the thing to be modelled some substance which, when soft, is capable of being forced into all the cavities or hollows of the sculpture. When this mould is dry and hard, some substance is to he poured into it, which will fill all the cavities of the mould, and represent the form of the original from which the mould was taken. The particular manner of moulding depends upon the form of the subject to be worked upon. When there are no projecting parts but such as form a right angle with the principal surface of the body, nothing more is re- quired than to cover it over with the substance of which the mould is to he formed, taking care to press it well into the cavities of tlie original, and to take it off clean, and without bending. The substances used for moulding are various, accord- ing to the nature and situation of the sculpture. If it may be laid horizontally, and will bear to be oiled without injury, plaster of Paris may be advantageously employed, which may be poured over it to a convenient thickness, after oiling the subject, to prevent the piaster from stick- ing. A composition of bees’-wax, resin, and pitch, may also be used, which will be a very desirable mould, if many casts are to be taken from it. But if the situation of the sculpture be perpendicular, so that nothing can be poured upon it, then clay, or some similar substance, must he used. The best kind of clay for this purpose is that which is 84 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. used by the sculptors for making their models with: it must be worked to a due consistence^ and having been spread out to a size sufficient to cover all the surface, it must be sprinkled over with whiting, to prevent it from adhering to the original. Bees^-wax and dough, or the crumbs of new bread, may also be used for moulding some 5|inall subjects. When there are under-cuttings in the has-reliefy they must be first filled up before it can be modelled, other- wise the mould could not be got off. When the casts are taken afterwards, these places must be worked out with a proper tool. When the model or original subject is of a round form, or projects so much that it cannot be moulded in this manner, the mould must be divided into several parts ; ^nd it is frequently necessary to cast several parts sepa* l ately, and afterwards to join them together. In this case, the plaster must be tempf*red with water to such a con- sistence, that it may be worked like soft paste, and must be laid on with some convenient instrument, compressing it so as to make it adapt itself to all parts of the surface. When the model is so covered to a convenient thickness, the whole must be left at rest till the plaster is set and firm, so as to bear dividing without falling to pieces, or being liable to be put out of its form by any slight vio- lence j and it must then be divided into pieces, in order to its being taken off from the model, by cutting it with a knife with a very thin Llade; and being divided, must be cautiously taken off, and kept till dry. But it must be observed, before the separation of the parts be made, to notch them across the joints, or lines of division, at proper distances, that they may with ease and certainty be pro- perly put together again. The art of properly dividing the moulds, in order to make them sepaiate from the model, requires more dexterity and skill than any other thing in the art of casting, and does not admit of rules for the most advantageous conduct of it in every case.— Where the subject is of a round or spheroidal form, it is best to divide the mould into three parts, which will then easily come off from the model ; and the same will hold good of a cylinder, or any regular curved figure. The mould heing. thus formed, and dry, and the parts THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 85 put together, it must be first oiled, and placed in such a position that the hollow may lie upwards, and then filled with plaster mixed with water* and when the cast is perfectly set and dry, it must be taken out of the mould, and repaired when necessary, which finishes the operation. In larger masses, where there would otherwise be a great thickness of the plaster, a core may be put within the mould, ill order to produce a hollow in the cast, which both saves the expense of the plaster, and renders the cast lighter. In the same manner, figures, busts, &c., may be cast of lead, or any other metal, in the moulds of plaster or clay ; taking care, however, that the moulds he perfectly dry; for should there be any moisture, the sudden heat of the metal would convert it into vapour, which would jiroduce an explosion by its expansion, and blow the melted metal about. METALLIC CASTS FROM ANIMALS, INSECTS, OR VEGETABLES. Prepare a box of four boards, sufKcienlly large to hold the animal, in which it must be suspended by a string; and the legs, wings, &c. of the animal, or the tendrils, leaves, &c. of the vegetable, must be separated, and ad-’ justed in their right position by a pair of small pincers. A due quantity of plaster of Paris, mixed with talc, must he tempered to the proper consistence with water, and the sides of the box oiled. Also a straight piece of stick must be put to the principal part of the body, and pieces of wire to the extremities of the other parts, in order that they may form, when drawn out after the matter of the mould is set and firm, proper channels for pouring in the metal, and vents for the air, which otherwise, by the rare- faction it would undergo from the heat of the metals, would blow it out, or hurst the mould. In a short time the plaster will set, and become hard ; when the stick and wires maybe drawn out, and the frame or coffin ih which the mould was cast taken away ; and the mould must thep he put first'into a moderate heat, and afterwards, wdien it is as dry as can be rendered by that degree, removed into a greater, which may be gradually increased till the whole 86 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. be red hot. The animal or vegetable inclosed in the mould will then be burnt to a coal, and may be totally calcined to ashes, by blowing for some time into the charcoal and passages made for pouring in the metal,. and giving vent to the air j which will, at the same time that it destroys the remainder of the animal or vegetable matter, blow out the ashes. The mould must then be suffered to cool gently, and will be perfect ; the destruction of the sub- stance included in it having produced a corresponding hollow. But it may, nevertheless, be proper to sbgke the mould, and turn it upside down; also to blow with the bellows into -each of the air vents, in order to free it wholly from any remainder of the ashes ; or where there may be an opportunity of filling the hollow with quick- silver, it will be found a very effectual method of clearing the cavity, as all dust, ashes, or small detached bodies, will necessarily rise to the surface of the quicksilver., and be poured out with it. The mould being thus prepared, it must be heated very hot when used, if the cast is to be made with copper or brass, but a less degree will serve for lead or tin. The metal being poured into the mould, must be gently struck, and then suffered to rest till it be cold; at which time it must be carefully taken from the cast, but without force; for such parts of the matter as appear to adhere more strongly must be softened, by soaking in water till they be entirely loosened, that none of the more delicate parts of the cast may be broken off or bent. When talc cannot be obtained, plaster alone may be used ; but it is apt to be calcined by the heat used in burning the animal or vegetable from whence the cast is taken, and to become of too incoherent and friable a tex- ture. Stourbridge, or any other good clay, washed per- fectly fine, and mixed with an equal part of fine sand, may be employed. Pounded pumice-stone and plaster of Paris, in equal quantities, mixed with washed clay in the same proportion, is said to make excellent moulds. TO TAKE A CAST FROM A PERSON’S FACE. The person whose likeness is required in plaster must lie on his back, and the hair must be tied back, so that none of it covers the face. Into each nostril convey a co- THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 87 nical piece of stiff paper, open at both ends to allow of breathing. The face is then lightly oiled over in every part with salad-oil, to prevent the plaster from sticking to the skin. Procure some fresh burnt plaster, and mix it with water to a proper consistence for pouring. Then pour it by spoonfuls quickly all over the face, (faking care the eyes are shut,) till it is entirely covered to the thicli- uess of a quarter of an inch. This substance will grow sensibly hot, and in a few minutes will be hard. This being taken off, will form a mould, in which a head of clay may be moulded, and therein the eyes may be opened, and such other additions and corrections may be made as are necessary. Then, this second face being anointed with oil, a second mould of plaster must be made upon it, consisting of two parts joined lengthwise along the ridge of the nose ; and in this a cast in plaster may be taken, which will be exactly like the original. TO TAKE CASTS FROM MEDALS. Ill order to take copies of medals, a mould must first be made ; this is generally either of plaster of Paris, or of melted sulphur. . After having oiled the surface of the metal with a little cotton, or a camel’s-hair pencil dipped in oil 'of olives, put a hoop of paper round it, standing up above the surface of the thickness you wish the mould to be. Then take some plaster of Paris, mix it with water to the consistence of cream, and with a brush rub it over the surface of the medal, to prevent air-holes from appearing ; then imme- diately afterwards make it to a sufficient thickness, by pouring on more plaster. Let it stand about half an hour, and it will in that time grow so hard, that you may safely take it off j then pare it smooth on the back and round the edges neatly. It should be dried, if in cold or damp weather, before a brisk fire. If you cover the face of the mould with fine plaster, a coarser sort will do for the back j but no more piaster should be mixed up at one time than can be used, as it will soon get hard, and cannot be softened without burning over again. Sulphur must not be poured upon silver medals, as this will tarnish them. 88 THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. To prepare this mould for casting sulphur or plaster qf’ Paris in, take half a pint of boiled linseed oil, and oil of turpentine one ounce, and mix them together in a bottle 5 when wanted, pour the mixture into a plate or saucer, and dip the surface of the mould into it ^ take the mould out again, and when it has sucked in the oil, dip it again. Repeat this till the oil begins to stagnate upon it; then take a little cotton wool, hard rolled up, to prevent the oil from sticking to it, and wipe it carefully off. Lay it in a dry place for a day or two> (if longer the better,) and the mould will acquire a very hard surface from the effect' of the oil. To cast plaster of Paris in this mould, proceed with it in the same manner as above directed for obtaining the mould itself, first oiling the mould with olive oil. If’ sulphur casts, are required, it must be tnelted in an iron ladle. ANOTHER COMPOSITION. Melt eight ounces of sulphur over a gentle fire, and with it mix a small quantity of tine vermillion ; stir it? well together, and it will dissolve like oil ; then cast it; into the mould, which is first to be rubbed over with oil. When cool, the figure may be taken, and touched over' with aqua-fortis, and it will look like fine coral. ANOTHER METHOD WITH ISINGLASS. Dissolve isinglass in water over the fire ; then with a hair pencil lay the melted isinglass over the medal, and when you have covered it properly, let it dry. When it is hard, raise the isinglass up with the point of a knife, and it will fly oft' like horn, leaving a sharp impressioa of the medal. The isinglass may be made of any colour by mixing the colour with it, or you may breathe on the concave side, and lay gold leaf on it, which, by shining through, will make it appear like a gold medal. But if you wish to imitate a copper medal, mix a little carmine with the isinglass, and lay gold leaf on as before. THE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS. 89 TO BRONZE PLASTER FIGURES. Lay the figure over with isinglass size till it holds out, or without any part of its surface becoming dry or spotted ; then with a brush, such as is termed by pain- ters a sash tool, go over the whole, observing carefully to remove any of the size (while it is yet soft) that may lodge on the delicate or sharp places, and set it aside to dry. When it has become so, take a little very thin oil gold-size, and, with as much of it as just damps the brush, go over the figure, allowing no more of this size to remain than what causes it to shine. Set it apart in a dry place, free from smoke ; and after it has remained there forty-eight hours, the figure is prepared for bron- zing. The bronze, which is almost an impalpable powder, (and may be had at the colour shops, of all metallic co- lours,) should be dabbed on with a little cotton wool. After having touched over the whole figure, let it stand another day ; then, with a soft dry brush, rub off all the loose powder, and the figure will resemble the metal which it is intended to represent, and possess the qua- lity of resisting the weather. 90 INDEX. Page Aqua-tinta Engraving - - - - - - 78 Bronzing - -- -- -- -89 Colours for Back Grounds ----- 36 Costume - - - - - - - - 21 Crayon Painting - 49 Drapery ---16 Engraving - -------59 in Chalk 73 on Wood - 83 Etching 67 Flesh Colours 32 Flov^^er Painting 44 Ground^, Preparation of, for Engraving - - 67 Invention - -19 Landscape Painting ------ 23 Light and Shade 14 Medals, to take Casts from 87 Mezzotinto Scraping - - - - - - 75 Miniature Painting ------ 46 Modelling and Casting ----- 83 Mosaic Painting 38 Oil Colours -7 — Painting - - - - - - -.5 Painting in Enamel - 54 in Fresco ------ 39 on Glass - 66 Portrait Painting - 30 Scene Painting 37 Study, the young Artist's 29 Tinted Drawings - - - - - 44 Tinting of Prints - 43 W ater Colours 41 Printed hy William Cole, 10 , Neivgate-stroet * • ,‘-1 4