Ulrich Middeldorf 
 
 
 -J 
 
 

AN ESSAY ON PAINTING^ 
 
 WRITTEN IN ITALIAN 
 
 BY COUNT ALGAROTTI 
 
 F. R. S F. S. A 
 
 XaAz7rct rd KctXct. 
 
 LONDON, PRINTED FOR L. DAVIS 
 AND C, REYMERS. MDCCLXIUI 
 
 f. ZA 
 
TO THE SOCIETY 
 
 INSTITUTED IN LONDON 
 
 ^OR PROMOTING ARTS 
 
 MANUFACTURES COMMERCE 
 
 FRANCESCO ALGAROTTI 
 
 When Rome had extended her em- 
 pire into Alia, Africa, and almoft 
 over all Europe, ihe faw her citi- 
 zens arrived at the fummit of mili- 
 tary glory. In their pretentions to 
 fcience, however, the Romans gave 
 place to the Greeks, whom they re- 
 vered 
 
vered as their mailers in the School 
 of Arts. 
 
 England hath eflabliihed her do- 
 minion by fettling as numerous and 
 more diflant colonies-, while conquefl 
 hath difplayed the enngns of her power, 
 and extended her commerce through- 
 out the whole world. Equally refpecl- 
 able in arts and arms, the Engliih na- 
 tion claims the fuperiority alfo in the 
 world of Science; particularly with re- 
 gard to the cultivation of thofe arts, 
 which contribute moil to the flrength 
 and fplendour of a flate. Thefe are 
 Agriculture and Architecture -, one the. 
 ibvereign miflrefs of the polite arts, 
 the other a nurfino- mother to all. 
 Painting, indeed, hath but recently 
 engaged the attention of the Eng- 
 lijn fo far as to infpire them with 
 a defign of contending with the 
 Italians, for thofe'lionours of which 
 
 the 
 
the latter have longboafled an exclusive 
 pofleflion. The defign is, neverthe- 
 lefs, become formidable, in being pro^ 
 moted by a Society, among whom fu- 
 periority in place is only the tribute 
 due to fuperior merit; a Society, infli- 
 tuted by a free people, and compofed 
 of the choicer! public fpirits of their 
 age and country, who, while they 
 generoufly encourage the bed artifts, 
 excite emulation in others, by exhibit- 
 ing the works of all to public view; 
 therein appealing, even from their 
 own judgment, to that of a learned, 
 ingenious and fenfible nation. 
 Under fo diftinguifhed a patronage, 
 it is hardly pofiible this elegant art 
 mould not foon rlourifh in London, as 
 it hath long done in the milder climates 
 of Parma, Venice and Rome. 
 In the mean time, that I may not be 
 wanting, in my bell endeavours, to re- 
 
 ftore 
 
ftore painting to its former fplendour in 
 my own country, I have attempted, in 
 this EfTay, to inveftigate its firft prin- 
 ciples; and to point out thofe ftudies, 
 which are requifite to form a compleat 
 painter, all which the ancient mafters, 
 therefore, actually cultivated. What 
 benefit may hence refult to my coun- 
 trymen, I prefume not to determine: 
 I am not confeious, however, of doing 
 any thing with which I ought to re- 
 proach myfelf, altho', incapable of ex- 
 citing their zeal, I mould awaken fo no- 
 ble a fpirit in the breails of foreigners, 
 or fhould even furnifh them with the 
 means of difputing with us, the prize 
 in view. Motives of univerfal philan- 
 thropy ought, doubtlefs, to prevail 
 over partial and local attachments to 
 particular men or countries. 
 Permit me alfo to add, that, if our Ita- 
 lian painters are foon to be excelled by 
 
 the 
 
Vll 
 
 theEnglifh, in the practice of their pro- 
 fefiion, it behoves us, at leaft, to fhew 
 that we are not inferiour to any peo- 
 ple in the world, in the knowledge of 
 its theory : fo that even our rivals may 
 willingly be inftruclied by us in an art, 
 which hath been the delight and iludy 
 of every polifhed and ingenious nation, 
 in all climates and in all ages. 
 
 Bologna, March 27, 1762, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 r 
 
 Of the firft Education of a Painter. 
 
 5 
 
 Of Anatomy. 
 
 9 
 
 OfPerfpeaive. 
 
 25 
 
 Of Symmetry. 
 
 38 
 
 Of Colouring. 
 
 5 e 
 
 Of the Camera Obfcura. 
 
 60 
 
 Of Drapery. 
 
 66 
 
 Of Landfcape and Architecture. 
 
 7i 
 
 Of the Coftume. 
 
 75 
 
 Of Invention. 
 
 8r 
 
 Of Difpofition. 
 
 103 
 
 Of the Expreflion of the Paflions, 
 
 "5 
 
 Of proper Books for a Painter. 
 
 127 
 
 Of a Friend. 
 
 137 
 
 Of the Importance of the Public Judgement. 
 
 \ 
 
 H3 
 
 Of the Criticifm neceflary to a Painter. 
 
 152 
 
 Of the Painter's Balance. 
 
 155 
 
 Of Imitation. 
 
 171 
 
 Of the Recreations of a Painter. 
 
 174. 
 
 Of the fortunate Condition of a Painter. 
 
 177 
 
 Conclufion, 
 
 185 
 
[ I ] 
 
 I. »» 
 
 A N 
 
 ESSAY 
 
 O N 
 
 PAINTING. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THAT fo few excel in the fciences 
 and liberal arts, mufl, I imagine, be 
 principally attributed to the two fol- 
 lowing caufes : one, the little care that pa- 
 rents generally take to apply their children to 
 thofe ftudies, for which nature feems to have 
 intended them; the other, the misfortune 
 under which young people, even thofe left 
 to the direction of nature, commonly labour, 
 of not being led by the fhorteft and eafieft 
 roads to that perfection, which they are de- 
 firous of attaining. 
 
 B To 
 
* introduction: 
 
 To remove the firft of thefe obftacles, it 
 were to be wifhed, that the deftination of 
 children to this or that employment was no- 
 longer left to the caprice of parents, however 
 fimple and illiterate. Hence it is, that, no 
 regard being paid 
 
 Al fondamento che Natura pone (i)* 
 as the poet exprefTes himfelf, we fee fo many 
 men out of their element, and fuch numbers 
 loft in. the common crowd, who, had their 
 genius been properly confulted, might have 
 diftinguifhed themfelves greatly, and turned 
 out a light and an ornament to civil fociety. 
 It cannot, I fuppofe, be doubted, but that a 
 youth muft make the greateft progrefs in 
 thofe ftudies, in which he is feconded by his 
 natural difpofition ; and the floweft, on the 
 other hand, in thofe, in which he is oppofed 
 By it; an d is? of courfe, obliged to be conti- 
 nually fatiguing and working, as it were^ 
 againPc the current. It is evident, therefore, 
 that one of the principal objects of every go- 
 vernment fhould be the chufing proper ftates 
 of life for the major part of the rifing gene-^ 
 
 (i) To the foundation laid by Nature. 
 
 ration i 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 ration : And a defign of fo much importance 
 might, perhaps, in a great meafure, be ac- 
 complished, were Princes but to place men 
 of penetration in the public fchools ; in or- 
 der to examine and trace out the various in- 
 clinations of the youth who frequent them. 
 By laying before them, from time to time, 
 inftruments of mathematics, of war, of mu- 
 fic, and, in fhort, of all the other arts and 
 fciences -, and by repeated trials of them in 
 the ufe of thefe inftruments, they mould be 
 forced and conftrained to manifeft their feve* 
 ral geniuifes* in the fame manner that the 
 artful UlyfTes, by introducing glittering arms 
 as well as precious jewels to the daughters of 
 Lycomedes, found means of difcovering 
 Achilles, who lurked amongft them in the 
 habit of a female (2). 
 
 The firft obftacle being thus removed, it 
 will be proper to think of removing the fe- 
 cond. This might be done by ordering the 
 education of children in fuch a manner, that, 
 
 (2) Such methods, I find, are taken in Berlin, 
 where a philofopher may confider himfelf at 
 home, and in his own country. 
 
 B 2 like 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 like medicine in the treatment of diforder^ 
 it mould be nothing more than a continual 
 attention to fecond the indications of nature ; 
 to which end alone every thing mould be di- 
 rected. For, furely, nothing can be more 
 abfurd, than, for years together, equally to 
 purfue the felf-fame method of education 
 with boys deftined to the gown, the fword, 
 and the liberal arts ; and, as is too commonly 
 the cafe with us, make them indifcriminately 
 learn thofe very things, which the greateft 
 part of them ought, perhaps, when become 
 men, to forget. The Romans, if we may 
 believe Tacitus, applied their children wholly 
 to arms, to eloquence, to the law, juft as 
 their natural inclinations led them (3). Now, 
 if there is any art, which, befides a natural 
 genius for it, requires a long, uninterrupted, 
 and fteddy application, it is Painting : that 
 art, in which the hand is freely to exprefs 
 the boldeft and moft beautiful conceptions of 
 the fancy : that art, whofe bulmefs it is to 
 
 (3) Et live ad rem militarem, five ad juris 
 fcientiam, five ad eloquentiae ftudium incli- 
 naifet, id univerfum hauriret. In Dial, de 
 Orator, five de cauffis corrupts eloquentize. 
 
 give 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 give relief to plain furfaces, light to dark 
 ones, and diftance to things under the very- 
 hand : to beftow, in a word, life and foul 
 upon a piece of canvas, fo as to impofe upon 
 ©ur fenfes, and make us cry out with the 
 poet, in a fit of wonder and amazement, 
 Non vide me* di me chi vide il vera : 
 He fees not better, nature's felf who {e^s t 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 OF THE FIRST EDUCATION 
 
 OF A PAINTER. 
 
 IT would be madnefs to place a boy, who, 
 after repeated trials, hath difcovered a 
 natural genius for Painting, in the ufual 
 track of ftudy, and fend him, with the com- 
 mon herd of children, to the Latin fchool. 
 Inftead of Latin, he mould be made to 
 learn thoroughly the rudiments of his own 
 tongue ; and inftead of Cicero's epiftles, he 
 ihould be made to read Borghini, Baldinucci* 
 Vafari. This method would be attended 
 with two advantages ; one, that of rendering 
 him mafter of his mother tongue; and 
 thereby freeing him from the difagreeable 
 B 3, -• neceflityv 
 
 Jk / 
 
* OF THE FIRST EDUCATION 
 
 : neceflity, under which many very celebrated 
 painters have laboured, of having recourfe 
 to the pen of others, even to write their let- 
 ters; the other, that of enriching his mind, 
 at the fame time, with feveral -branches of 
 knowledge ufeful to one of his profeflion. 
 •Befides, the frequent mention made in thefe 
 books, of the great efteem in which Paint- 
 ing has been held by men -in the higheft 
 ■fpheres of life, by the Matters of the world ; 
 and of the great honours and rewards 
 conferred by them, in every age, on the 
 profeflbrs of that art, could not but prove a 
 rnoft powerful incentive to the zeal and dili- 
 gence of a young painter. 
 
 It is not a matter of lb little importance, 
 as fome are, perhaps, apt to imagine, upon 
 •what drawings a pupil is firft put to exercife 
 his talents. Let the firft profiles, the firft 
 hands, the firft feet given him to copy, be of 
 the beft matters, fo as to bring his eye arid 
 his hand early acquainted with the moft ele- 
 gant forms, and the moft beautiful propor- 
 tions (4). A youth, employed in copying 
 
 (4) Stultiffim-um credo ad imitandum non op- 
 lima, quxque. proponere., Plin. Lib, I. Epift. v. 
 
 the 
 
OF A PAINTER. 7 
 
 *£he work of a middling painter, in order to 
 proceed afterwards to fomething of Raphael's, 
 having faid in the hearing of a matter, that 
 he did it in order to. bring his hand in ; the 
 mafter as fenfibly as wittily replied, " fay 
 *< rather, to put it out." A painter, who has 
 early acquired a fine ftile, finds it an eafy 
 matter to give dignity to the meaner! features, 
 while even the works of a Praxiteles or a 
 Crlicon are fure to fuffer in the hands of an- 
 other. A veffel will ever retain the fcent, 
 which it has firft contracted. 
 
 It would be proper alfo to make the pupil 
 copy fome fine heads from the Greek 
 and Roman medals, not fo much for the 
 reafons juft now t laid down, as to make him 
 
 Et natura tenaciffimi fumus eorum, quas rudi- 
 bus annis percipimus, ut fapor, quo nova im- 
 buas, durat, nee lanarum colores, quibus fimplex 
 ille candor mutatus eft, elui poflunt, & hsec ipfa 
 magis pertinaciter hasrent, quae deteriora funt. 
 Nam bona facile mutantur in pejus: nunc 
 quando in bonum veneris vitia ? Quintil. Inftit. 
 Orat. Lib. I. Cap. i. 
 
 Frangas citius quam corrigas qua? in pravum 
 ;£nduxuerunt. Id. ibid. Cap, iih 
 
 B 4 acquainted, 
 
8 OF THE FIRST EDUCATION, &c. 
 
 acquainted, if I may ufe the expreffion, with 
 thofe perfonages, which in time he may have 
 ©ccafion to introduce into his pieces ; and, 
 above all, to improve him early in the art of 
 copying from relief. Hence he will learn 
 the rationale of light and fhade, and the na- 
 ture of that chiarofci&o, by which it is, pro- 
 perly fpeaking, that the various forms of 
 things are diftinguimed. To this it is ow- 
 ing, that a boy will profit more by drawing 
 after things in relief, though but meanly 
 executed, than by copying the moll excel- 
 lent drawings. But, whatever he does, care 
 fhould be taken to make him do it with de- 
 light, and finifh it in the mod accurate man- 
 ner. Nothing in the world is fo neceflary as 
 diligence, efpecially at the firft entrance upon 
 any ftudy. Nor muft He ever expect to have 
 the compafTes in his eye, who has not firft 
 had them for a long time in his hand. 
 
 CHAP, 
 
[ 9 ] 
 
 CHAP. II. 
 OF ANATOMY. 
 
 TO afk if the ftudy of Anatomy is re- 
 quifite to a painter, is the fame thing 
 as to afk if, in order to learn any fcience, 
 a man muft firft make himfelf acquainted 
 with the principles of it. It would be throw- 
 ing away time to cite, in confirmation of 
 this truth, the authorities of the ancient 
 matters, and the moft celebrated fchools. 
 A man, who is not acquainted with the form 
 and conftruc~tion of the feveral bones which 
 Fupport and govern the human frame, and 
 does not know in what manner the mufcles 
 moving thefe bones are fixed to them, can make 
 nothing of what appears of them through the 
 integuments with which they are covered ; 
 and which appearance is, however, the nobleil 
 obj eel: of the pencil. It is impoflible for a 
 painter to copy faithfully what he fees, unlefs 
 he thoroughly underftands it. Let him employ 
 ever fo much time and ftudy in the attempt, 
 it cannot but be attended with many and 
 
 great 
 
to G F ANATOMY, 
 
 great miftakes ; juft as it muft happen to a 
 man, who undertakes to copy fomething in a 
 language which he does not underftand, or to 
 tranflate into his own, what has been written 
 in another upon a fubjecl:, with which he is 
 not acquainted. 
 
 It feldom happens, that nothing more is 
 required of a painter than to copy exactly an 
 objecl: which he has before him. In ftill and 
 very languid attitudes, in which every mem- 
 ber is to appear motionlefs and dead, a living 
 model may, no doubt, yield for a long time 
 a faithful image, and prove an ufeful pattern 
 to him. But in regard to geftures any way 
 fudden, motions any way violent, or thofe mo- 
 mentary attitudes which it is more frequently 
 the painter's bufinefs to exprefs, the cafe is 
 quite different. In thefe a living model can hold 
 but an inftant or two ; it foon grows languid, 
 ,and fettles into a fixed attitude, which is pro- 
 duced by an inftantaneous concourfe of the 
 animal fpirits. If, therefore, a painter pof- 
 feffes not fo thoroughly all the principles of 
 Anatomy, as to be at all times able to have 
 immediate recourfe to them j if he knows 
 
 not 
 
OF ANATOMY. iff 
 
 not the various manners in which the feve- 
 ral parts of the human body play, accord- 
 ing to their various pofitions ; living models, 
 far from proving an ufeful pattern to him, 
 will rather tend to lead him aftray, and make 
 him lofe fight of truth and nature, by ex- 
 hibiting the very reverfe of what is required, 
 or at leaft exhibiting it in a very faint and 
 imperfect manner. In living models we 
 often behold thofe parts flow which mould 
 be very quick ; thofe cold and torpid, which 
 mould have the greatefl fhare of life and 
 fpirit in them. 
 
 Nor is it, as fome may be apt to imagine, 
 merely to reprefent athletic and vigorous bo- 
 dies, in which the parts are moil bold and 
 determined, that Anatomy is requifite : It 
 mould be underftood, to reprefent perfons of 
 the moft delicate frame and conftitution, even 
 women and children, whofe members are 
 fmootheft and roundeft, though the parts 
 made known by it are not to be ftrongly ex- 
 prefTed in fuch fubjecb ; juft as Logic is 
 equally requifite under the polifhed infinu- 
 ations of the orator, and the rough arguments 
 
 of the philofopher. 
 
 Bvr 
 
12 OF ANATOMY. 
 
 But it is needlefs to fpend much time in 
 proving, that a painter mould be acquainted 
 with Anatomy ; or in fhewing, how far his 
 acquaintance with it mould extend. For 
 inftance, it is unneceffary for him to enter 
 into the different fy (terns of the nerves ; 
 blood veffels, bowels, and the like ; parts, 
 which are far removed from the fight, and 
 which therefore may be left to the fur- 
 geon and the phyfician; as being a guide 
 in the operations of the former, and in 
 the prescriptions of the latter. It is enough 
 for the painter to be acquainted with the 
 fkdeton : in other words, with the figure 
 and connexion of the bones, which are, in a 
 manner, the pillars and props of the human 
 body ; the origin, progrefs, and fhape of the 
 mufcles, which cover thefe bones ; as alfo 
 the different degrees in which nature has 
 cioathed the mufcles with fat : for this fub- 
 ftance lies thicker upon them in fome places 
 than in others. Above all, he mould know, 
 in what manner the mufcles effect the various 
 motions and geftures of the body, A mufcle 
 
 is 
 
OF ANATOMY. 13 
 
 is compofed of two tendinous and /lender 
 parts, one called the head, the other the tail, 
 both terminating at the bones ; and of an 
 intermediate part, called the belly. The 
 action of a mufcle confifts in an extraordi- 
 nary fwelling of this intermediate part, while 
 the head remains at reft, fo as to bring the 
 tail nearer to the head, and confequently 
 the part, to which the tail of the mufcle is 
 fixed, nearer to that part into which the head 
 of it is inferted. 
 
 There are many motions, to effect: which 
 feveral of the mufcles (for this reafon called 
 co-operating mufcles) muft fwell and ope- 
 rate together, while thofe calculated to ef- 
 fect a contrary motion (and therefore called 
 antagonift mufcles) appear foft and flaccid. 
 Thus, for example, the biceps and the 
 brachiaeus internus labour, when the arm 
 is to be bent, and become more prominent 
 than ufual, while the gemellus, the brachiaeus 
 externus, and the anconaeus, whofe ofHce is 
 to extend the arm, continue, as it were, flat 
 and idle. The fame happens refpectively in 
 all the other motions of the body. When 
 
 the 
 
14 OF ANATOMY. 
 
 the antagonift mufcles of any part operate at 
 one and the fame time, fuch part becomes 
 rigid and motionlefs. This action of the 
 mufcles is called tonic. 
 
 Michael Angelo intended to have given 
 the public a complete treatife upon this fub- 
 ject ; and it is no fmall misfortune, that he 
 never accomplifhed fo ufeful a defign. This 
 great man, having obferved, as we are told 
 in his life by Condivi, that Albert Durer 
 was deficient on the fubjecT:, as treating only 
 of the various meafures and forms of bodies , 
 without faying a word of their attitudes and 
 geftures, though things of much greater im- 
 portance, refolved to compofe a theory, 
 founded upon his long practice, for the fer- 
 vice of all future painters and ftatuaries. 
 And, certainly, no one could be better qua- 
 lified to give anatomical precepts for that 
 purpofe, than he, who, in competition with, 
 da Vinci, defigned that famous cartoon of 
 naked bodies, which was ftudied by Raphael 
 himfelf, and afterwards obtained the appro- 
 bation of the Vatican, the greateft fchool of 
 the art we are now treating of. 
 
 Th§ 
 
OF AN'ATOM Y. i S 
 The want of Michael Angelo's precepts 
 may, in fome meafure, be iupplred by other 
 books written on the fame fubjecl: by Moro, 
 Cefio, and Tortebat; and lately by Bou- 
 ehardon, one of the mofl: famous ftatuaries 
 in France. But nothing can be of equal 
 fervice to a young painter, with the Ieflbns of 
 fome able diifeclior, under whom, in a few 
 months, he may make himfelf mailer of 
 every branch of anatomy which he need ta 
 be acquainted with. A courfe of ofteology 
 is of no great length: and of the infinite 
 number of mufcles difcovered by curious 
 Myologifts, there are not above eighty or 
 ninety, with which nature fenfibly operates 
 all thofe motions, which he can ever have 
 ©ccafion to imitate or exprefs. Thefe, in- 
 deed, he mould clofely ftudy ; thefe he 
 ihould carefully ftore up in his memory, fo- 
 as never to be at the leaft lofs for their pro- 
 : per figure, fituation, office, and motion. 
 
 But there is another thing befides the dif- 
 fjeclion of dead bodies, by which a young 
 painter may profit greatly ; and that is, ana- 
 tomical calls. Of thefe we have numbers by 
 
 feverai 
 
i6* OF ANATOMY. 
 
 feveral authors ; nay fome, which pafs under 
 the name of Buonarroti himfelf. But there" 
 is one, in which, above all the reft, the parts 
 are moft diftinctly and lively exprefTed. This 
 is the performance of Hercules Lelli, who 
 has, perhaps, gone greater lengths in this 
 kind of ftudy than any other matter. We 
 have, befides, by the fame able hand, fome 
 cafts of particular parts of the human body, 
 fo curioufly coloured for the ufe of young 
 painters, as to reprefent thefe parts ex- 
 actly as they appear on removing the inte- 
 guments ; and thus, by the difference in their 
 colour as well as configuration, render the 
 tendinous and the flefhy parts, the belly 
 and the extremities, of every mufcle fur- 
 prifingly dictincl: ; at the fame time that, by 
 the various direction of the fibres, the motion 
 and play of thefe mufcles become very obvi- 
 ous ; a work of the greater!: ufe, and never 
 enough to be commended ! Perhaps, in- 
 deed, it would be an improvement, to give 
 the mufcles various tints ; thofe mufcles ef- 
 pecially, which the pupil might be apt to 
 miftake for others. For example, though 
 
 the 
 
OF ANATO Ivi Y. 17 
 the maffoides, the deltoides, the fartorius, 
 the fafcia lata, the gailerocnemji, are, of 
 themfelves, fufhciently diftinguimable, it is 
 not fo with regard to the mufcles of the arm 
 and of the back, the right mufcles of the 
 belly, and fome others, which, either on ac- 
 count of the many parts into which they 
 branch, or of their being interwoven one with 
 another, do not fo clearly and fairly prefent 
 themfelves to the eye. But let the caufe of 
 confufion to young beginners be what it will, 
 it may be effectually removed by giving, as 
 I have already hinted, different colours to 
 the different mufcles, and illumining anato- 
 mical figures, in the fame manner that 
 maps are, in order to enable us readily 
 to diftinguifh the feveral provinces of every 
 kingdom, and the feveral dominions of every 
 Prince. 
 
 The better to underftand the general ef 1 ^ 
 feci, and remember the number,, fituation* 
 and play of the mufcles, it will be proper to 
 compare, now and then, the anatomical caffs, 
 and even the dead body itfelf, with the living 
 body covered with its fat and fkin; and, 
 above all things, with the Greek ffatues ffill 
 Q in 
 
x3 OF AN'ATOM Y. 
 in being. It was the peculiar happinefs of 
 the Greeks, to be able to characterize anc! 
 exprefs the feveral parts of the human body 
 much better, than we can pretend to do ; 
 and this, on account of their particular appli- 
 cation to the ftudy of naked figures (5), ef- 
 pecially the fine living ones, which they had 
 continually before their eyes. It is well 
 known, that the mufcles moft ufed are like- 
 wife the moft protuberant and confpicuous ; 
 fuch as, in thofe who dance much, the muf- 
 cles of the legs, and in boatmen the mufcles 
 of the back and arms. But the bodies of the 
 Grecian youth, by means of their conftant 
 exertion' of them in all the gymnaftic fports, 
 were fo thoroughly exercifed, as to fupply 
 the flatuary with much more perfect models, 
 than ours can pretend to be. It is not to be 
 doubted, but that, for the fame reafon, the 
 
 (5) Grceca res eit nihil velare; at contra Ro- 
 mana ac militaris, thoraca addere. C. Plin, 
 Nat. Hift. Lib. XXXIV. Cap. v. 
 
 That art, which challenges criticifm, mull 
 always be fuperior to that which {huns it. 
 Webb's Inquiry into the Beauties of Painting. 
 
 Greek- 
 
OF ANATOMY. i 9 
 
 Greek painters attained the higtieft degree of 
 perfection in the figures of thofe pieces of 
 theirs fo much cried up by ancient authors ; 
 and it is a great pity, that we have not 
 even thofe copies of nature to direct: our ftu- 
 dies. For the faults obfervable in the anci- 
 ent paintings, which have been dug up in . 
 great numbers, efpecially within thefe few 
 years, do not fo much tend to prove that the 
 Greeks were any way deficient in this art, as 
 the pieces themfelves, taken all together, 
 that they had carried it to the highefl degree 
 of perfection. For, if in pictures drawn 
 upon walls, which it was therefore impoffible 
 to refcue from fire (6), and in little country 
 towns, and at a time when the art was at 
 
 (6) Sed nulla gloria artificum ell:, niii eorum. 
 qui tabulas pinxere : eoque venerabilior apparefc 
 antiquitas. Non enim parietes excolebant do- 
 minis tantum, nee domus uno in loco manfu- 
 ras, quse ex incendiis rapi non pofTent. Cafula 
 Protogenes contentus erat in hortulofuo. Nulla 
 in Apellis tettoriis pictura erat. Omnis eorum 
 ars urbibus excubabat, pi&orque res communis 
 terrarum erat. C. Plin. Nat. Hill. Lib. XXXV.- 
 Cap. x, 
 
 C % its 
 
i-o OF ANATOMY. 
 
 its loweft ebb (7), there appears, in the opi- 
 nion of the bell: judges, fuch excellence of 
 
 (7) Difficile enim di£tu eft, qunenam caufla 
 fit, curea, quas maxime fenfus noibos impellunt 
 voluptate, et fpecie prima acerrime commovent, 
 ab iis celerrime failidio quodam et fatietate aba- 
 lienemur. Quanto colorum pulchritudine, et 
 varietate floridiora funt in pifturis novis ple- 
 raque, quam in veteribus ? quae tamen etiamfi 
 primo adfpectu nos ceperunt, diutius non de- 
 leftant ; cum iidem nos in antiquis tabulis illo 
 ipfo horrido, obfoletoque teneamur. Quanto 
 molliores funt, et delicatiores in cantu flexiones, 
 et falfae voculae, quam certae, et feverze ? quibus 
 tamen non modo aufteri, fed fi f*epius fiunt ? 
 multitudo ipfa reclamat. Cic. de Oratore, 
 Lib. III. Art. xxv. 
 
 . Ivc; 8e paKhov r, ha(popcc ruv ccvonuv yiv^icti xoAaQcci/T);, 
 hxm ycr>&oyua,\ mm occtlwv rm. el $0 nveq a.pjscc'ia.i yfcc- 
 <Pu) XfUfAxcriv elcyctcyAvoa cc7r>.ug y xa) ovos^iuv in Toif 
 fjuiypcccriv t^wa-cn GraiXtAidW, uxgiGeTi; $e roc~<; yca-ppa,?*;, 
 Xj tto/Xv to %aptE* iv Tecvrctig expvaaif at de ftsT exewccq 
 tvy^cc[AyLa,i pb vjttov, t^eicyuu^uevui, %e (auTOw, crxioL re >£ 
 (part 'GJCiKi.y&QyLevcci, xa,) h ru isjK-qbei run fA,iy(juxruv rw 
 layjuv i^ovaoa. rovrun piv d>j roc.?; ccfxcuolega.it; eoixev 5 
 Ava-iccq xcfla. rr,v ccTrXCrr^ce. >£ r^v %ap* rccTq be ixTreiro- 
 vn[j.svoa<; re >ti nynxulipxiq laouoq. DlOn. Hall- 
 
 carn. in Judicio de Ifaeo, Art. iv. 
 
 defijrn^ 
 
OF ANATOMY. 21 
 
 -clefign, colouring, and compofition, that one 
 would be apt to attribute mofl of them to 
 
 Vel quum Paufiaca torpes infane tabella, 
 Sub tills veterum judex & callidus audis. 
 
 Horat. Lib. II. Sat. vii. 
 
 Sed haec qua? a veteribus ex veris rebus exempja 
 
 .iumebantur, nunc iniquis moribus improbantur. 
 
 Nam pinguntur tedtoriis monftra potius, quam ex 
 
 rebus finitis imagines certae Sed quare 
 
 - vincat veritatem ratio falfa, non erit alienum ex- 
 
 ponere. Quod enim antiqui infumentes laborem 
 
 & induftriam, probare contendebant artibus, id 
 
 nunc coloribus, & eorum eleganti fpecie ccnfe- 
 
 quuntur: & quam fubtilisas artificis adjiciebat 
 
 . operibus autoritatem, nunc dorninicus iumptus 
 
 efficit ne defideretur. Quis enim antiquorum, 
 
 -non uti medicamento, minio parce videtur ufus 
 
 .-efle ? At nunc paflim plerumque toti parietes in- 
 
 ducuntur. Accedit hue chryfocolla, oftrum, ar- 
 
 xmenium : hasc vero cum inducuntur, etfi non ab 
 
 arte funt pofita, fulgentes tamen oculorum red- 
 
 <lunt vifus & ideo quod pretiofa funt, legibus 
 
 excipiuntur, ut a domino, non a redemptore 
 
 xepraefententur. Vitruv. Lib. VII. Cap. v. 
 
 Et inter ha*c pinacothecas veteribus tabulis 
 
 confuunt ., 
 
 Artes deiidia perdidit. 
 
 C. Plin. Nat. Hilt. Lib. XXXV. Ca^/ii. 
 
 Haftenus diclum fit de diemtate artis mo- 
 
 rienti$. Id- ibid, Cap. v. 
 
 C 3 the 
 
22 OF ANATOMY. 
 
 the fchool of Raphael ; what muft we think 
 of the pictures drawn at an earlier period, 
 by their ablefl mailers, and for their moil 
 flourifbing cities and mod powerful monarchs ; 
 of pictures admired in a country like Greece, 
 where every art was brought to fuch a de- 
 gree of perfection, that no paflion could re- 
 fill their, mufick, no fentiments efcape their 
 mimick arts ; of pictures cried up by a Pliny, 
 the foundnefs of whofe judgment in matters of 
 this kind difplays itfelf in^To many pafTages of 
 his works (8) j collected at fuch expence by 
 
 Xunc & purpuris in parietes migrantibas, ' & 
 India conferente fluminum fuorum limum, & 
 draconum & elephantorum faniem, nulla nobilis 
 pielura eft. Id. ibid. Cap. vii. 
 
 Erectus his fermonibus confulere prudentiorem 
 ccepi states tubularum, & quacdam argumenta 
 jnihi obfcura, fimulque cauflam defidiae prae- 
 fentis excutere, cur pulcherrimie artes periiflent, 
 inter quas piclura ne minimum quidem fui vefti- 
 gium reliquiftet. T. Petronii Satyr. Cap. lxxxviii. 
 
 (8) Sicut in Laocoontc, qui eft in Titi Impe- 
 ratoris domo, opus omnibus & piclurae & ftatu- 
 ariffi artis prarponendum. Ex uno lapide eum, 
 Cx liberos, draconumque mirabiles nexus de con- 
 Julius 
 
O F A N ATO M Y. 2$ 
 Julius Casfar (9), of whofe fine tafte the 
 works compofed by ,him, and flill extant, 
 are a moft inconteftable proof. But what 
 evinces ftill better the excellence of the anci- 
 ents in painting, is that to which they ar- 
 rived in ftatuary, her filler art. Both daugh- 
 ters of defign, they both enjoyed in common 
 the fame models, which, more perfect in the 
 happy climate of Greece than in any other 
 part of the glebe, muft have been of as great 
 fervice to the Apelles' and the Zeuxis', in 
 the drawing of their figures, as they were to 
 the Apollonius's, the Glycons, and. the Aga- 
 fies, in carving thofe ftatues, which the world 
 has Hill the happinefs of pofTeiling. Thefe 
 mafters, being befides aiiiited by a proper in- 
 iight into anatomy, and thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with the various play of the mufcles 
 according to the various attitudes of the 
 body, and with the different degrees of 
 
 filii fententia fecere fummi artifices, Agefander, 
 & Polydorus, & Athenodorus Rhodii, &c. 
 
 C. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. XXXVI. Cap. v. 
 (9) Gemmas, toreumata, figna, tabulas ope- 
 ris antiqui femper animofifTime comparaffe. 
 
 Sueton. in C. Jul. Ca?{are Cap. &mjfj} 
 C 4 4iren ,£th 
 
24 OF ANATOMY. 
 
 flrength with which each particular mufcle- 
 was to be exprefled in each particular atti- 
 tude, were thereby enabled to give truth, 
 motion, and life, to all their works. 
 
 There are a great many exercifes, which 
 a young painter mould go through while en- 
 gaged in the ftudy of anatomy, in order to 
 make himfelf more thoroughly mailer of that 
 Science. For example : the thighs of any fi- 
 gure, a Laoco6n for inftance, being given, he 
 fhould add to them legs fukable to that ftate^ 
 in which the mufcles of the thighs are repre- 
 sented, I mean, the mufcles which fcrve to 
 bend and extend the legs, and to effe&uata 
 in them fuch a precife pofitjon and no other^ 
 To the fimple contour of an anatomy, or a 
 ftatue, he fhould add the parts included by 
 it, and give it a fyftem of mufcles conform- 
 able to the quality of that particular contour y 
 for every contour denotes fome one certain at- 
 titude, motion, exertion ; and no other. Ex- 
 ercifes of this kind would foon cftablifh him 
 in the mod fundamental principles of paint- 
 ing, especially if he had an opportunity of 
 comparing his drawings with the fiatue or 
 cafl, from which the parts given him to work 
 
 upon 
 
OF PERSPECTIVE. 25 
 
 upon were taken, and thereby difcovering and 
 correcting his miftakes. This method is very 
 like that ufed by thofe who teach the Latin 
 fiofcgue ; when, ha\'ing given their fcholars a 
 pa(Tao;e of Livy or Caefar already translated into 
 their mother tongue, to tranflate back into 
 Latin, they make them compare their work 
 with the original text. 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 OF PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 THE ftudy of Perfpective mould go 
 hand in hand with that of Anatomy, 
 as not lefs fundamental and necefTary. In 
 fact, the contour of an object drawn upon 
 paper or canvas, represents nothing more 
 than fuch an interferon of the vifual rays 
 fent from the extremities of it to the eve, 
 as would arife on a glafs put in the place 
 of the paper or canvas. Now, the fituation 
 of an object at the other fide of a glafs be- 
 ing given, the delineation of it on the glafs 
 itfelf depends entirely on the fituation of the 
 eye en this fide of the glafs, that is to fay, on the 
 rules of Perfpective ; a fcience, which, conr 
 
 trarj 
 
%6 OF PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 trary to the opinion of moft people, extends 
 much farther than the painting of fcenes, 
 floors, and what generally goes under the 
 name of Quadratura. Perfpeitive, according 
 to that great mafter da Vinci, is to be con- 
 fidered as the reins and rudder of Paint- 
 ing. It teaches in what proportion the parts 
 fly from, and lefTen upon, the eye ; how 
 figures are to be marfhalled upon a plain 
 furface, and forefhortened. It contains, in 
 fhort* the whole rationale of defign. 
 
 Such are the terms, which the matters, 
 beft grounded in their profeffion, have em- 
 ployed to define and commend perfpeclive ; fo 
 far were they from calling it a fallacious art, 
 and an infidious guide ; as fome amongft the 
 moderns have not blufhed to do, infilling that 
 it is to be followed no longer than it keeps 
 the high road, or leads by eafy and pleafant 
 paths (i). But thefe writers plainly mew, 
 that they are equally ignorant of the nature 
 of perfpecT:ive, which, founded as it is on 
 
 (i) Regula certa licet neqacat Profpedlica dici, 
 Aut Complementum Graphidos ; . fed in 
 
 Arte Juvamen, 
 Et modus accelerans operandi, at corpora falfq 
 \ iiu in multis referens, mendofa labafcit : 
 geometrical 
 
OF PERSPECTIVE. 27 
 
 geometrical principles, can never lead its vo- 
 taries aftray, and of the nature of their art, 
 which, without the amflance of perfpective, 
 cannot, in rigour, expect to make any pro- 
 grefs, nay, not fo much as delineate a fimple 
 contour. 
 
 Those, too, who would perfuade us, that 
 the ancient mailers of Greece knew nothing 
 of perfpective, (hew, that they themfelves know 
 little or nothing of painting. They allege, as a 
 proof of this their idle aiTertion, that the rules 
 of perfpeclive are violated in moil of the an- 
 cient pictures that have reached us; as though 
 the miflakes and blunders of middling: artiils 
 were a fumcient ground for calling in que- 
 flion the merit of others, who were allowed 
 to excel in their profefnon. Now, not to 
 infift on the abfurdity of fuch a fuppofition, 
 which we have already expofed, Pamphilus, 
 the mailer of Apelles, and the founder of 
 the noblefl fchool cf all Greece, has affirmed 
 
 Nam Geometralem nunquam funt corpora 
 
 juxta 
 Menfuram depicla oculis, fed qualia vifa: , 
 Du Frefnoy de Arte Graphica. 
 See the annotations of Monfieur de Piles on 
 thefe lines, and cv^i-y other modern treatife. 
 
 in 
 
28 OF PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 in the moft exprefs terms, that, without ge- 
 ometry, painting muft fall to the ground (2). 
 It is well known, befides, that the ancients 
 praetifed the art of painting in perfpec~tivp 
 upon walls, in the fame way that it is now 
 done by the moderns (3); and that one of 
 the walls of the theatre of Claudius Pulcher, 
 reprefenting a roof covered with tiles, w r as 
 flnifhed in fo maflerly a manner, that the 
 rooks, a bird of no fmall fagacity, taking it 
 for a real roof, often attempted to alight 
 
 (2) Ipfe (Pamphilus) Macedo natione, fed 
 primus in piclura omnibus litteris eruditus, prae- 
 
 .cipue Arithmetics, & Geometries, fine quibus 
 rie^ahat artem perfici poffe. C. Plin. Nat. 
 Hift. Lib. XXXV. Cap. x. 
 
 (3) Ex co antiqui, qui initia expolitionibus 
 tuertmt, imitati funt .primum cruibu am mar- 
 
 moreamm varictates & collocationes, deinde co- 
 ronarum, & filaccorum, miniaceorumque cune- 
 orum inter fe varias diftributiones. Poflea in- 
 greffi funt, at etiam sdificiorum figures, co- 
 himnarumquc, & fafligiorum eminentes pro- 
 jeeluras imitarentur : patentibus autem locis, 
 ,uti exedris, propter amplitndinem parietum, 
 icehamm frontes Tragico more, aut Comico, feu 
 ; iatyrico defignarent. Vitruv. Lib. VJI. Cap. v. 
 
 upoii 
 
OF PERSPECTIVE. 29 
 
 upon it (4). We are likewife told, that a 
 dog was deceived to fuch a degree, by cer- 
 tain fteps in a perfpective of Dento's, that, 
 expecting to find a free paiTage, he made up to 
 them in full fpeed, and darned out his brains ; 
 thus immortaiifing by his death the pen- 
 cil of the artift, which had been the occafior^ 
 of it. But, what is ftill more, Vitruvius tells 
 us in exprefs terms, by whom, and at what 
 time this art was invented. It was firft prac- 
 tifed by Agatharcus, a contemporary of JEf- 
 chylus, in the theatre cf Athens ; and after- 
 wards reduced to certain principles, and 
 treated as a fcience by Anaxagoras and De- 
 mocritus (5) ; thus faring like all other arts, 
 
 (4) Habuit & fcena ludisClaudii Pulcri mag- 
 nam admirationem pi&ura?, cum ad tegularum, 
 ftmilitudinem com decepti imagine advolarent. 
 C. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. XXXV. Cap. iv. 
 
 (5) Namque primum Agatharchus Athenis 
 ^Efehylo docente tragoediam, fcenain fecit, & 
 de eo commentarium reliquit. Ex eo monitL 
 Democritus & Anaxagoras, de eadem re fcripfe- 
 rant, quemadmodum oporteat ad aciem oculo- 
 rum radiorumque extenfionem, certo loco centro 
 conftituto ad lineas rations naturali refuonderer 
 
 which 
 
30 OF PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 which exifted in practice before they appear- 
 ed in theory. The thing, I think, may be 
 thus accounted for. Some painter, who hap- 
 pened to be a very accurate obferver of nature, 
 firft exactly reprefented thofe effects which 
 he faw conftantly attend the images offered 
 to our eyes by exterior objects ; and thefe 
 effects came afterwards to be demonftratcd 
 by geometricians as fo many neceflary con- 
 fequences, and reduced to certain theorems : 
 juft as from thofe chef d'eeuvres of the human 
 mind, the Iliad of Homer and the GEdipus 
 "of Sophocles, both built on the moft accu- 
 rate obfervations of nature, Ariftotle found 
 means to extract the rules and precepts con- 
 tained in his art of poetry. It is therefore 
 clear, that, fo early as the age of Pericles, 
 perfpective was reduced into a compleat fci- 
 
 uti de incerta re certa? imagines azdificiorum in 
 fcenarum picturis redderent fpeciem: & quae in 
 direttis planifque frontibus fint nguratas, alia 
 abfeedentia, alia prominentia efTe videantur. 
 Vitruv. in Prxf. Lib. VII. You may likewife 
 confult Difcours fur la Perfpeftive de Panc : enne 
 peinture ou fculpture, par Mr. PAbbe Sallier. 
 Tom. viii. Memoires de l'Academic des in- 
 scriptions, ence - 3 
 
OF PERSPECTIVE. 3 5 i 
 
 cnce ; which no longer continued confined to 
 the theatre, but made its way into the fchools 
 of painting, as an art not lefs necefTary to 
 painters in general, than it had been found to 
 fcene-painters in particular. Pamphilus, who 
 founded in Sicion the moft flourifhing fchool 
 of defign, taught it publickly : And from the 
 time of Apelles, Protogenes, and the other 
 bright luminaries of painting amongft the 
 ancients, it was practifed by the Greek 
 painters, in the fame manner that it was, fo 
 many ages after, by Bellini, Pietro Perugino, 
 and others, down to the days of Titian, Ra- 
 phael, and Corregio, who put the laft hand 
 to painting, and gave it all that perfection it 
 was capable of receiving. 
 
 Now, a painter having formed a fcene in 
 his mind, and fiippofed, as is cuftomary, that 
 the capital figures of this fcene lie clofe, or 
 almoft clofe to the back of his canvas, he is, 
 in the next place, to fix upon fome point oii 
 this fide of the canvas, from which he would 
 chufe his piece mould be feen. But in chu£ 
 ing this point, which is called the point of 
 fight, regard mould be had to its fituation to 
 
 the, 
 
3 2 OF PERSPECTIVE, 
 the right or left of the middle of the canvas ; 
 but, above all things, to its diilancc and its 
 height with refpeet to the lower edge of the 
 canvas j which edge is called the bafe line, 
 and is parallel with the horizontal line that 
 pailes through the eye. For by afTuming the 
 point of Tight, and confequently the horizon- 
 tal line, too low, the planes, upon which the 
 figures ftand, will appear a great deal too 
 {hallow, as, by afTuming it too high, they 
 will appear too fceep, fo as to render the 
 piece far lefs light and airy than it ought to 
 be. In like manner, if the point of fight is 
 taken at too great a diftance from the canvas, 
 the figures will not admit of degradation 
 enough to be feen with fufiicient dhtinclnefs ; 
 and if taken too near it, the degradation 
 will be too quick and precipitate to have 
 an agreeable effect. Thus, then, it appears, 
 that no fmall attention is requifite in the 
 choice of this point. 
 
 When a picture is to be placed on high* 
 the point of fight fhoiild be aflumed low, 
 and vice verfa \ in order that the horizontal 
 
 ine 
 
OF PERSPECTIVE. 33 
 line of the picture may be, as near as pofii- 
 ble, in the fame horizontal plane with that 
 of the fpectator ; for this difpohtion has an 
 amazing effect. When a picture is to be 
 placed very high, as, amongft marry others, 
 that of the Purification by Paolo Veronefe* 
 engraved by le Fevre, it will be proper to 
 aflume the point of light fo low, that it may 
 lie quite under the picture, no part of whofe 
 ground is, in that cafe, to be vifible ; for were 
 the point of fight to be taken above the 
 picture, the horizontal ground of it would 
 appear Hoping to the eye, and both figures 
 and buildings as ready to tumble head fore- 
 moft. It is true, indeed^ that there is feldom 
 any neceffity for fuch extraordinary exact- 
 nefs, and that, unlefs in fome particular 
 cafes, the point of fight had better be rather 
 high than low j the reafon of which is, that, 
 as we are more accuftomed to behold peo- 
 ple on the fame plane with ourfelves, than 
 either higher or lower, the figures of a 
 piece muff, ftrike us moft, when {landing 
 on a plane nearly level with that, upon 
 which we ourfelves {land. To this it may 
 D be 
 
34 OF PERSPECTIVE, 
 be added, that by placing the eye low, and 
 greatly fhortening the plane, the heels of 
 the back figures will feem to bear againft the 
 heads of the foremoft, fo as to render the 
 diftance between them far lefs perceptible 
 than it otherwife would be. 
 
 The point of fight being fixed upon, ac- 
 cording to the fituation in which the picture 
 is to be placed, the point of ' diftance is- 
 next to be determined. In doing this, a 
 painter mould carefully attend to three 
 things : firft, that the fpectator may be able 
 to take in, at one glance, the whole and every 
 part of the compofition ; fecondly, that he 
 may fee it diftinctly ; and, thirdly, that the 
 degradation of the figures, and other objects 
 • ©f the picture be fufficiently fenfible. It 
 would take up too much time to lay down 
 certain and precife rules for doing all this, 
 confidering the great variety in the fizes and 
 fhapes of pictures ; for which reafon I muft 
 leave a great deal to the difcretion of the 
 painter.. 
 
 But there is a point ftill remaining, which. 
 will not admit of the leaft latitude. This is, 
 
 the 
 
OF PERSPECTIVE. 35 
 
 the delineation of the picture, when once the 
 point of fight has been fixed upon. The 
 figures of a picture are to be confidered as fo 
 many columns erected on different fpots of 
 the fame plane; and the painter muft not 
 think of defigning any thing, till he has laid 
 down, in perfpe&ive, all thofe columns, which 
 are to enter his compofition, with the moft 
 fcrupulous exactnefs. By proceeding in this 
 manner, he may not only be fure of not com- 
 mitting any miftake in the diminution of his 
 figures, according to their different diftances, 
 but may flatter himfelf with the thoughts of 
 treading in the fteps of the greateff. mailers, 
 efpecially Raphael^ in whofe (ketches (fuch 
 was his refpecT: for the laws of perfpective) 
 we frequently meet with a fcale of degrada- 
 tion (6). It is to the punctual obfervance 
 of thefe laws, that we are to attribute the 
 grand effecl: of fome paintings by Carpazio 
 and Mantegna, fo carelefs in other refpe£rs ; 
 whereas a fingle fault againft them is often 
 fufficient entirely to fpoil the works of a 
 
 (6) Mr. de Pile. Idee du Peintre parfait, 
 Ch. xix. 
 
 D 2 Guido, 
 
36 OF PERSPECTIVE. 
 
 Guido, in fpite of the fublimity and beauty 
 of his fuperior ftile. 
 
 Now, as the demonstration of the rules 
 of PerfpeCtive depends on the doctrine of 
 proportions, on the properties of fimilar tri- 
 angles, and on the mterfe6tion of planes, it 
 will be proper to put an abridgment of Eu- 
 clid into the hands of the young painter, that' 
 he may underftand thefe rules fundamentally,, 
 and not (land confined to a blind practice of 
 them: But, then, there is nothing, in this au- 
 thor relative to the art of painting, which 
 may not be eafily acquired in a few months. 
 For, as it would be of no ufe to a painter to 
 launch out into the anatomical depths of a 
 Monro or an Albinus, it would be equally 
 fuperfluous to perplex himfelf with the intri- 
 cacies of the higher geometry with a Taylor, 
 who has handled perfpective with that rich 
 grofoundnefs, which, I cannot help thinking, 
 does a great deal more honour to a mathema- 
 tician, than it can poffibly bring advantage 
 to a fimple artrfh 
 
 But though a much longer time were re- 
 ^uifite to become a perfect mailer of per- 
 
 fpec"tive> 
 
OF PERSPECTIVE. 37 
 
 fpeetive, a painter, furely, ought not to grudge 
 it, as no time can be too long to acquire that 
 knowledge, without which he cannot pofiibly 
 expect to fucceed. Nay, I may boldly af- 
 firm, that the fhortefl road in every art is that 
 which leads through theory to practice. It 
 is from theory that arifes that great facility, 
 by means of which a man advances the 
 quicker, in proportion as he is furer of not 
 taking a wrong ftep : whilft thofe, who are 
 not grounded in the fcience, labour on in 
 perpetual -doubt, obliged, as a certain author 
 expreffes it, to feel out their way with 
 the pencil, juft as the blind, with their flicks,, 
 feel for the ftreets and turnings s with which 
 they are not acquainted. 
 
 As practice, therefore, ought in every 
 thing to be built upon principle, the ftudy 
 of Opticks, as far as it is requifite to deter- 
 mine the degree in which objects are to be 
 illuminated or (haded, fhould proceed hand in 
 hand with that of perfpeetive. And this, in 
 order that the fhades, can; by figures upon 
 the planes on which they ftand, may fall 
 properly, and be neither too ftrong nor too 
 D 3 light} 
 
3* OF SYMMETRY. 
 
 light ; in a word, that thofe moft beautiful 
 effects of the chiarofcuro may run no rifle of 
 ever receiving the lie from truth, which, 
 fooner or later, difcovers itfelf to every eye. 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 OF SYMMETRY. 
 
 TH E ftudy of Symmetry, it is obvious, 
 fhould immediately follow that of A- 
 natomy : for it would avail us little to be ac- 
 quainted with the different parts of the hu- 
 man body, and their feveral offices, were we, 
 at the fame time, ignorant of the order and 
 proportion of thefe parts in regard to the 
 whole in general, and each other in parti- 
 cular. The Greek ftatuaries diftinguifhed 
 themfelves above all others, as much by the 
 jufr fymmetry of their members, as by their 
 fkiil in anatomy ; but Polycletes furpaffedthem 
 all by a ilatue, called the Rule, from which, 
 as from a molt accurate pattern, other artifts 
 might take meafures for every part of the 
 human body (7). Thcfe meafures, to fay 
 
 (7) Fecit (Polycletus) & quem Canona arti- 
 fices vocant, lineamenta Artis ex eo petentes, 
 
 nothing 
 
OF SYMMETRY. 39 
 siothing of the books which treat profefTedly 
 of them, may now be derived from the Apollo 
 of Belvedere, the Laocoon, the Venus of 
 Medicis, the Faunus, and particularly the 
 Antinous, which laft was the rule of the 
 learned Poufiin. 
 
 Nature, which in the formation of every 
 fpecies feems to have aimed at the laft degree 
 of perfection, does not appear to have been 
 equally follicitous in the production of indi- 
 viduals. She confiders, one would think, 
 thofe things as ^nothing, which have a begin- 
 ning and an end, and whofe exiftence is of 
 fo fhort a duration, that they -may be faid, in 
 a manner, to come into the world merely to 
 leave it. She feems, in fome fort, to aban- 
 don individuals to fecond caufes -, and if 
 from them there now and then -breaks 
 forth a primitive ray of perfection, it is 
 too foon eclipfed by the clouds of im- 
 perfection that conltantly attend it. Now, 
 art foars up to the archetypes of nature; 
 collects the flowers of every beauty ; 
 
 velut a lege quadam ; folufque hominum artem 
 iple fecifte, artis opere judicatur. C. Pirn. 
 Nat. Haft, Lib.. XXXIV. Cap. viii. 
 
 J) 4 which 
 
40 OF SYMMETRY. 
 
 which it here and there meets with j com- 
 bines all the perfect, models that come in 
 its way ; and propofes them to men for their 
 imitation (8). Thus, the painter, who had 
 before him a company of naked Calabrian 
 girls, traced, as la Cafa ingeniously ex- 
 preiTes it (9), the refpective beauties 
 which they had, as it were, borrow- 
 ed from one £ngle body ; that, by making 
 each of them reftore to this imaginary form 
 what me had borrowed from it, he might be 
 furniihed with a compleat pattern ; rightly 
 
 (8) And imce a true knowledge of nature 
 gives us pleafure, a lively imitation of it, either 
 in Poetry or Painting, muft of neceffity produce 
 a much greater. For both thcfe arts, as I faid 
 
 re, are not only true imitations of Nature, 
 but of the bell nature ; of that which ^ wrought 
 up to a nobler pitch. They prefent us with 
 images more perfeel than the life in any indivi- 
 dual : and we have the pleafure to fee all the 
 fcattered beauties of Nature united, by a happy 
 Chemiitry, without its deformities or faults. 
 Dryden's Preface to his traniiation of Du Fref- 
 noy's Art of Fainting. 
 
 (9) In Galatea. — See alfo the Life of Zeuxis, 
 by Carlo Dati, note xi. 
 
 imagining 
 
OF SYMMETRY. A r 
 
 imagining, that from fuch an union, and of fuch 
 beauties, muft refult the beauty of an Helen. 
 This was likewife the practice of the ancient 
 ftatuaries, when about to form in brafs or 
 marble the flatues of their Gods or heroes. 
 And, thanks to the hardnefs of thefe materi- 
 als, fome of their works, containing united 
 all that pofnble perfection, which could be 
 found fcattered here and there in individuals, 
 fubfift to this day as patterns not only of 
 exact, fymmetry, but of fupereminent gran- 
 deur in the parts, gracefulnefs and contraft 
 in the attitudes, noblenefs in the characters • 
 they fubfift, in fhort, as paragons in every 
 kind, and the very mirrours of beauty (i). 
 
 (i) ''H 0io^ 'aA-j etti yyjv e| ivsxvov. slxovat diifwy, 
 <l>a<5W, '/?' crvy bQvi; Toy ®se» o-buptvog. Anthol, 
 
 Nec vero ille artifex, cum faceret Jovis for- 
 rnam, aut Minervae, contemplabatur aliquem, 
 a quo fimilitudinern duceret, fed ipfms in mente 
 iniidebat fpecies pulchritudinis eximia qua?- 
 dam, quam intuens, in eaque defixus, ad illius 
 fimilitudinern artem & manum dirigebat. Cic. 
 Orator. Art. ii. 
 
 Ex aere prccter Amazonem fapra diclam (fecit 
 Phidias) Minervam tarn eximise pulchritudinis, 
 ut forma; cognomen acceperit. C. Plin. Nat. 
 _Hilt Lib. XXXIV. Cap. viii. h\ 
 
|t OF SYMMETRY. 
 In them we behold precept joined with ex- 
 ample; in them we fee where the great Ma- 
 ilers of Antiquity deviated with a happy 
 boldnefs from the common rules; or rather 
 made them bend to the different characters 
 they were to reprcfent. In their Niobe, for 
 inftance, which was to breathe majefty like 
 Juno, they have altered fome parts, that 
 appear more delicate and (lender in their 
 Venus, the pattern of female beauty. The 
 legs and thighs of the Apollo of Belvidere, 
 by being made fomewhat longer, than the 
 common proportion of thefe limbs to the rcil 
 of the body feems to admit, contribute not a 
 little to give him that eafe and freedom, 
 which correfpond fo well with the activity 
 attributed to that deity, as, on the other 
 hand, the extraordinary thicknefs cf the neck 
 adds ftrcngth to the Farneiian Hercules, and 
 gives him ibmething of a bull-!;ke look and 
 robunnels. 
 
 It is the general opinion of painters, that 
 the ancients were not a: happy in rcprefent- 
 ing the bodies of children, as they are allowed 
 to have been in reprefenting thofe of women 
 and men; efpeciallv thofe of their Gods; in 
 which they excelled to fuch a degree, that 
 
 with 
 
OF SYMMETRY. 43 
 
 with thefe Gods were often worfhipped the 
 artifts who had carved them (2). Yet the 
 Venus of Gnidus by Praxiteles was not more 
 famous than her Cupid, on whofe account 
 alone people flocked to Thefpiae (3). To 
 children, fay they, the ancients knew not 
 how to impart that foftnefs and effeminacy, 
 which Fiammingo has fince contrived to 
 give them by reprefenting their cheeks, 
 hands and, feet fomewhat fv/elled, their heads 
 large, and with fcarce any belly. But fuch 
 Criticks feem to forget, that thefe firft fketches 
 of nature very feldom come in the painter's 
 way, and that this puny and delicate ftate has 
 not in its form even the leaft glimmering: of 
 perfection. The Ancients never undertook to 
 
 (2) TTfOG-XVViJVTCli ^OtV OVTOl fJLilx TUV §ZUV. LuCiail. 
 
 in Somnio. 
 
 (3) Idem, opinor, artifex (Praxiteles) ejufdera 
 modi Cupidinem fecit ilium, qui eft Thefpiis, 
 propter quern Thefpise vifuntur. Nam alia vi- 
 fendi caufa nulla eft. Cic. in Verrem, de Signis. 
 
 Ai os Ozcrirnett 'sjpCtb^ov iyyxsi&P.o onx. tqv "EpAfc 
 
 vw TI pai n ehovc, &c. Strabo, Lib. IX. 
 
 Ejufdem eft & Cupido objeclus a Cicerone 
 Verri : ille propter quern Thefpis vifebantur ; 
 nunc in O&aviae fcholis pofitus. C. Plin. Nat. 
 j3ift. Lib. XXXVI. Cap. v. 
 
 reprefent 
 
44 PF SYMMETRY, 
 reprefent children tefs than four or five years 
 old ; at which age the fuperfluous humours of 
 the body being in fome meafure digefled, their 
 members begin to aflume fuch a contour and 
 proportion, as may ferve to point out, what 
 they are afterwards likely to be. This obfer- 
 vation is confirmed by the children, which 
 we meet wiih in ancient bailb relievos and 
 paintings, for they are all doing one 
 thing or another, like thofe moft beautiful 
 little Cupids in a picture at Venice, who 
 are playing with the arms of Mars, and lift- 
 ing up the ponderous fword of that Deity; 
 or that little urchin in the Danae of Caracci, 
 who empties a quiver of its arrows, in or- 
 der to fill it with the golden (hower. Now, 
 what can be a greater blunder in point cf 
 Cofrume than to attribute actions, which re- 
 quire fome degree of ftrength and judgement, 
 to infancy, to that raw and tender age, fo 
 totally unable to govern and fupport itfclf (4). 
 Let a young painter confider the Greek 
 itatues ever fo often, of whatever character 
 
 (4) See Bellori in his lives of Fiammingo and 
 
 ,.ii. 
 
 or 
 
OF SYMMETRY. 4$ 
 
 <3r age they may be reprefented, it is impoffi- 
 ble he fliould ever confider them 
 
 Che non ci fcorga in lor niwva bellezza (5); 
 It is, therefore, impoffible he mould copy 
 them too often, according to that judicious 
 motto placed by Marbtri on his Print called 
 the School. This truth was acknowledged 
 by Rubens himfelf ; for though, like one bred, 
 as he was, in the foggy climate of the Low 
 Countries, he generally painted from the 
 life; in fome of his works he copied the 
 ancients : Nay, he wrote a treatife on 
 the excellency of the ancient flatues, and on 
 the duty of a painter to ftudy and imitate' 
 them. As to the fatirical print or rather pas- 
 quinade of the great Titian, in which he 
 has reprefented a parcel of young monkies 
 aping the groupe ofLaocoonand his fons, he 
 intended nothing more by it than to lafh ther 
 dulnefs and poverty of thofe artifts, who 
 cannot fo much as draw a figure without 
 having a ftatue before them as a model. 
 
 In fa£t, reafon requires, that an artiffc 
 fhould be fo much mafter of his art, as fel- 
 
 (5) Without difeovering new beauties in 
 them. dom 
 
46 OF SYMMETRY* 
 
 dom to ftand in any need of a pattern. T<* 
 what other purpofe is he to fvvcat and toil 
 from his infancy, and fpend fo many days 
 and nights in fluJying and copying the bell 
 models; efpecially the fineft faces of anti- 
 quity, which we are ftill poffeffed of; fuch 
 as the two Niobes, mother and daughter; the 
 Ariadne; the Alexander; the young Nero; 
 the Silenus; the Nile; and like wife the fineft 
 figures; for inftance, the Apollo; the Gladiator; 
 the Venus ; and others; all which (as was faid 
 ef Pietro Fella,) he mould have, as it were, 
 perfectly by heart. With a ftock of excel- 
 lencies like thefe, treafured up in his memory, 
 he may one day hope to produce fomething 
 of his own without a model ; form a right 
 judgment of thofe natural beauties which 
 fall in his way, and, when an occafion offers, 
 avail himfelf properly of them. 
 
 It is very ill done to fend boys to an 
 academy to draw after naked figures, before 
 they have imbibed a proper relifh for beauti- 
 ful proportions, and have been well ground- 
 ed in the true principles of fymmetry. They 
 fhould flrft learn, by frudying the precious 
 remains of antiquity, to improve upon life; 
 
 and 
 
OF SYMMETRY. 4? 
 
 and difcern where a natural figure is faulty 
 through ftiffnefs in the members, or clumfi- 
 jaefs in the trunk, or in any other refpeft -, f» 
 as to be able to correct the faulty part, and 
 reduce it to its proper bounds. Paint- 
 ing, in this branch, is, like Medicine, the 
 art of taking away and adding. 
 
 I must not, however, difTemble, that 
 the methods, hitherto laid down, are at- 
 tended with feme danger ; for by too 
 flavifh an attention to ftatues, the young 
 painter may contract a bard and dry manner; 
 and by ftudying anatomies too fervilely, a 
 habit of reprefenting living bodies as ftripped 
 of their fkin; for, after all, there is nothing 
 but what is natural, that, befides a certain 
 peculiar grace and livelinefs,ponefTes that fim- 
 plicity, eafs and- foftnefs, which is not to ba 
 expected in the works of art, or even thai* 
 of nature when deprived of life (6). PoufTxn 
 himfelf has now and then given into one of 
 thefe extremes, and Michael Angelo very 
 often into the other : But from this we caa 
 
 (6) See the Difcourfe by Vafari at the end 
 
 ©f his lives. 
 
 onl)C 
 
4.8 OF SYMMETRY, 
 only infer, that even the greateft men are riot- 
 infallible. It is in fhort to be confidered as 
 one inftance, among a thoufand, of the ill 
 ufe thofe are wont to make of the belt 
 things, who do not know how to temper 
 and qualify them properly with their con- 
 traries. 
 
 But no fuch danger can arife to a young 
 painter from confining himfelf for a long- 
 time to mere defign, fo as not to attempt 
 colouring, till he has made himfelf mafter of 
 that branch. If, according to a great Ma- 
 fter (7), colours in painting are in re- 
 gard to the eye, what numbers in poetry 
 are in regard to the ear, fo many charms 
 to allure and captivate that fenfe; may 
 we not affirm, that defign is in the fame 
 art, what propriety of language is in 
 writing, and a juft utterance of founds in 
 mufick. Whatever fome people may think, 
 a picture defigned according to the rules of 
 Perfpeclive, and the principles of Anatomy, 
 will ever be held in higher efteem by good 
 nidges, than a picture ill defigned, let it be 
 ever fo well coloured. Another very able 
 
 (7) Pouffin ; in his life by Bellori. 
 
 mafter 
 
OF SYMMETRY. 49 
 
 mafter fet fo great a value upon the art of 
 contour, that, according to fo-me exprefiions 
 of his which have reached us, he confidered 
 almoft every thing elfe as nothing in com- 
 parifon with it (7). And this his judgment 
 may, I think, be juftified by confidering, 
 that Nature, though me forms men of vari- 
 ous colours and complexions, never operates 
 in their motions contrary to the mechanical 
 principles of Anatomy, nor, in exhibiting 
 thefe motions to the eye, againft the geome- 
 trical laws of Perfpe&ive ; a plain proof, 
 that, in point of defign, no miftake is to be 
 deemed trifling. Hence we are enabled to 
 feel all the weight of thofe words, in which 
 Michael Angelo, after he had confidered a 
 picture drawn by the Prince of the Venetian 
 School, addreifed Vafari. " What a pity it 
 is, faid he, that this- man did not fet out by 
 ftudy ing defign ( 8 ) ." As the energy of nature 
 
 (7) Annibal Caracei ufed to fay, Buon con* 
 
 torno, e in mezzo, Give me a 
 
 good contour, and fill it as you pleafe. 
 
 (8) Vafari, in the life of Titian. Which made 
 Tintoret fay, that now and then Titian did 
 
 E mines 
 
50 OF COLOURING. 
 
 fhines rrioft in the fmalleft Tub] eels, fo th* 
 energy of art Chines moft in imitating them. 
 
 C H A P. V. 
 OF COLOURING. 
 
 IT 'muft likewife be of great fervice to a 
 painter defirous to excell in colouring, 
 to be well acquainted with that part of Op- 
 ticks, which has the nature of light and co- 
 lours for its objeft. Light, however flmple 
 and uncompounded it may appear, is never- 
 the'lefs made up, as it were, of feveral diftindt- 
 fubflances ; and the number, and even dofe, of 
 thefe ingredients has been happily difcovered 
 by the moderns. Every undivided ray, let it 
 be ever fo fine, is a little bundle of red, orange, 
 yellow, green, azure, indigo, and violet, rays, 
 which, while combined, are not to be diftin- 
 guifned one from another, and form that kind 
 of light called white ; fo that white is not a 
 colour per ft, as the learned da Vinci (fo far, 
 it feems, the precurfor of Newton) exprefsly 
 
 fome things which could not be done better? 
 but that fome others might have been better 
 defigned. Ridolfi nella vita di Tiziani. 
 
 affirms, 
 
of colouring; 51 
 
 affirms, but an affemblage of colours (9). 
 Now, thefe colours, which compofe light, 
 though immutable in themfelves, and endued 
 with various qualities, are continually, how- 
 ever, feparating from each other in their re- 
 flection from, and paiTage through, other fub- 
 ftances, and thus become manifeft to the 
 eye. Grafs, for example, reflects only green 
 rays, or rather reflects green rays in greater 
 number than it does thofe of any other co- 
 lour; and one kind of wine tranfmits red 
 rays, and another yellowifh rays ; and from 
 this kind of feparation arifes that variety of 
 colours, with which Nature has diverfified 
 her various productions, Man too has con- 
 trived to feparate the rays*of light by making 
 a portion of the fun's beams pafs through a 
 glafs prifm ; for, after pairing through it, they 
 appear divided into feven pure and primitive 
 colours, placed, in fucceffion, one by the other, 
 like fo many colours on a painter's pallet. 
 
 Now, though Titian, Correggio, and Van- 
 dike, have been excellent colourifts, without 
 knowing any thing of thefe phyfical fubtle- 
 
 (9} Trattato d'ell'a Pittura, Cap. civ. 
 
 E 2. ties, 
 
52 OF COLOURING. 
 
 ties, that is no reafon why others mould' 
 neglect them. For it cannot but be of great 
 fervice to a painter to be well acquainted 
 with the nature of what he is to imitate, and 
 of thofe colours, with which he is to give 
 life and perfection to his defigns; not to 
 fpeak of the pleafure there is,, in being able to* 
 account truely and folidly for the various ef- 
 fects and appearances of light. From a due 
 tempering, for example, and degrading of 
 the tints in a picture, from making colours 
 partake of each other, according to the re- 
 flection of light from one object to another, 
 there arifes, in fome meafure, that fublime 
 harmony, which may be confidered as the 
 true mufick of the*eye. And this harmony 
 has its foundation in the genuine principles 
 of Opticks. Nov/, this could not happen in 
 the fyftem of thofe philofophers, who held 
 that colours did not originally exift in light, 
 but were, on the contrary, nothing more than. 
 fo many modifications, which it underwent 
 in reflecting from, or patting through, other 
 fubflances ; thus fubject to alterations without 
 end, and every moment liable to perifh. Were 
 
 that 
 
OF COLOURING. 53 
 
 that the cafe, bodies could no more receive 
 any hues one from another, nor this body 
 partake of the colour of that, than fcarlet, 
 for example, becaufe it has the power of chang- 
 ing into red all the rays of the fun or fky 
 which immediately fall upon it, has the power 
 of changing into red all the other rays re- 
 acted to it, from a blue or any other colour 
 in its neighbourhood. Whereas, allowing 
 that colours are, in their own nature, im- 
 mutable one into another, and that every 
 body reflects more or hfs every fort of co- 
 loured rays, though thofe rays in greateil 
 number, which are of the colour it exhibits, 
 there muft necefTarily arife, in colours placed 
 near one another, certain particular hues, or 
 temperaments of colour. Nay, this influence 
 ©f one colour upon another may be fo far 
 traced, that, three or four bodies of different 
 colours, and likewife the intenfenefs of the 
 light falling upon each being afiigned, we may 
 eaiily determine in what fituations and how 
 much they would tinge each other. We may 
 thus, too, by the fame principles of Opticks, 
 account for feveral other things practiced by 
 painters 5 infomuch that a perfon, who has 
 E 3 carefully 
 
54 OF COLOUklNG. 
 
 carefully obfcrved natural effects with an eye 
 directed by folid learning, fhall be able to 
 form general rules, where another can only 
 diftinguifh particular cafes. 
 
 But, after all, the pictures of the beft co- 
 louring are, it is univerfally allowed, the 
 books, in which a young painter muft 
 chiefly look for the rules of colouring ; that 
 is, of that branch of painting, which contri- 
 butes fo much to exprefs the beauty of ob- 
 jects, and is fo requifite to reprefent them 
 as what they really are. Giorgone and 
 Titian feem to have difcovered circum- 
 stances in nature, which othexs have en- 
 tirely overlooked ; and the laft, in particular, 
 has been happy enough to exprefs them with 
 p. pencil as delicate, as his eye was quick and 
 piercing. In his works w T e behold that fweet- 
 jiefs of colouring which is produced by 
 union ; that beauty which is confident with 
 truth ; and all the infenfible tranfmutations, 
 all the foft tranfitions, in a word, all the 
 pleafing modulations, of tints and colours (i). 
 
 (i) In quo diverfi niteant cum mille colores, 
 Tranfitus ipfe tamen fpe&antia lumina 
 faliit, 
 
 When 
 
OF COLOURING. 55 
 
 When a young painter Has, by clcfe applica- 
 tion, acquired from Titian, whom he can 
 never fufficiently dwell upon, that art, v» hich, 
 of all painters, he has bert contrived to hide, 
 he would do well to turn to Baflano and 
 Paolo, on account of the beauty, boldnefs, 
 and elegance of their touches. That rich- 
 nefs, foftnefs, and frefhnefs of colouring, for 
 which the Lombard School is fo JuftJy cried 
 up, may likewife be of great fervice to him. 
 Nor will he reap lefs benefit by ftudy- 
 Sng the principles and practice of the Flem- 
 mifh School, which, chiefly by means of 
 her varnifhes, has contrived to give a moft 
 enchanting luitre and tranfparency to her co- 
 lours. For, though we mould agree with 
 
 Ufque adeo quod tan git idem eft, tamen ul- 
 tima diftant. Ovid. Metam. Lib. VI. 
 
 Come procede innanzi dall' ardore 
 Per lo papiro fufc an color bruno, 
 Che non e nero ancora, e'l bianco muore. 
 As, in burning paper, a brown colour fepa- 
 rates the black from the white, though at its 
 extremities it cannot be diftinguifliect from ei- 
 ther the black or white. Dante Inf. Cant. xxv. 
 
 E 4 a certain 
 
56 OF COLOURING. 
 
 a certain ingenious Englifh writer, that it 
 belongs only to the Italians to draw beauty 
 well (2), we are not bound to think, with a 
 certain ancient poet, that a Flemmifh com- 
 plexion is any difgrace to a Roman counte- 
 nance (3). 
 
 But whatever pictures a young painter 
 may chufe to ftudy the art of colouring 
 upon, he muft take great care that they are 
 well preferved. There are very few pie- 
 ces, which have not fuffered more or lefs by 
 the length, not to fay the injuries, of time; 
 and, perhaps, that precious patina, which years 
 alone can impart to paintings, is in fome mea- 
 fure a-kin to that other kind, which ages alone 
 impart to medals ; inafmuch as, by giving 
 teflimony to their antiquity, it renders them 
 proportionably beautiful in the fuperftitious 
 eyes of the learned. It muft, indeed, be al- 
 lowed, that, if, on the one hand, this patina 
 beftows, as it really dees, an extraordinary 
 
 (2) In homely pieces e'en the Dutch excell, 
 Italians only can craw beauty well. 
 
 D, of Buckingh. on Mr. Hobbs. 
 
 (3) Turpis Romano Belgicus ore color. 
 
 Proper. Lib. II. Eleg. xvii. 
 degree 
 
OF COLOURING. 57 
 
 degree of harmony upon the colours of a 
 picture, and deftroys, or at leaft greatly leiT- 
 ens, their original rawnefs, it, on the other 
 hand, equally impairs the fremnefs and life of 
 them. A piece, feen many years after it has 
 been painted, appears much as it would do, 
 immediately after painting, behind a dull 
 glafs. It is no idle opinion, that Paolo 
 Veronefe, attentive above all things to the 
 beauty of his colours, and what is called 
 ftrepito (4), left entirely to time the care of 
 harmonizing them perfectly, and (as we 
 may fay) mellowing them. But moft of the 
 eld mailers took that tafk upon themfelves, 
 and never expofed their works to the eyes 
 of the Public, untill they had ripened and 
 fmifhed them with their own hands. And 
 who can fay, whether the Chrift. of Moneta 
 and the Nativity of Baflano have been more 
 improved or injured, (if we may fo fpeak) 
 by the touchings and retouchings of time, in 
 the courfe of more than two centuries. It 
 is, indeed, impoinble to be determined. But 
 
 (4) The literal meaning of this word is 3 
 
 crackling. 
 
 the 
 
5 8 OF COLOURING. 
 
 the ftudious pupil may make himfelf ample 
 amends for any injuries, which his originals 
 may have received from the hands of time, 
 by turning to truth, and to nature which 
 never grows old, but conftantly retains its 
 primitive flower of youth, and was itfelf the 
 model of the models before him. As foon, 
 therefore, as a young painter has laid a pro- 
 per foundation for good colouring by ftudy- 
 ing the befl mailers, he fhould turn all his 
 thoughts to truth and nature. And it would, 
 perhaps, be well worth while to have, in the 
 academies of painting, models for colouring 
 as well as for defigning ; that, as from the 
 one the pupils learn to give their due pro- 
 portion to the feveral members and muf- 
 cles, they may learn from the other to make 
 their carnations rich and warm, and faith- 
 fully copy the different local hues, which 
 appear quite djfHncl: in the different parts of 
 a fine body. To illuftrate frill farther the 
 life of fuch a model, let us fuppofe it placed 
 in different lights ; now in that of the fun, 
 now in that of the iky, and now again in 
 that of a lamp or candle; one time placed in 
 ithe fhade, and another in a reflected light. 
 
 Hence 
 
OF COLOURING. 59 
 
 Hence the pupil might learn all the different 
 effects of the complexion in different circum- 
 ftances, whether the livid, the lucid, or the 
 tranfparent ; and, above all, that variety of 
 tints and half tints, occafioned in the colour 
 of the (kin by the epidermis having the bones 
 immediately under it in fome places, and in 
 others a greater or lefs number of blood- 
 veffels or quantity of fat. An artiff, who 
 had long fludied fuch a model, would run no 
 rifk of degrading the beauties of nature by 
 any particularity of ffiie ; or of giving 
 into that prepofterous fullnefs and floridnefs 
 of colour, which is at prefent fo much the 
 tafte. He would not feed his figures with 
 rofes, as an ancient painter cf Greece flirewd- 
 ly expreffed it, but with good beef; a differ- 
 ence, which the learned eye of a modern 
 writer could perceive between the colouring 
 cf Barocci and that of Titian (5). To practife 
 
 (5) Opera ejus (Euphrancris) font equeftre 
 prrelium : duodecim dii : Thefeus, in quo dixit 
 eundem apud Parrhafium rcfa pallum efle, foum 
 vero carne. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. XXXV. Cap. xi. 
 
 What more could we fay of Titian and 
 Barocci ? Webb, Dial, V. 
 
 in 
 
6o OF COLOURING. 
 
 in that manner, is, according to a great 
 mafter, no better than inuring onefelf to the 
 commifnon of blunders. What flatues are 
 in defign, nature is in colouring; the foun- 
 tain-head of that perfection, to which every 
 .artiit, ambitious to excell, mould conftantly 
 afpire; and, accordingly, the Flcmmifh pain- 
 ters, in confequence cf their aiming folely to 
 -copy nature, are in colouring as excellent, as 
 they are wont to be auk ward in defigning. 
 
 C II A P. VL 
 
 OF THE CAMERA OBSCURA. 
 
 WE may well imagine, that, could a 
 young painter but view a picture by 
 the hand of Nature herfelf, and ftudy it at 
 his leifure, he would profit more by it, than by 
 the mod excellent performances by the hand 
 of man. Now, nature is continually form- 
 ing fuch pictures in our eye. The rays of 
 light coming from exterior objects, after 
 entering the pupil, pafs through the crystal- 
 line humour, and being there refracted, in 
 cenfequence of the lenticular form of that 
 
 part. 
 
OF THE CAMERA OBSCURA. 61 
 
 part, proceed to the retina, which Ties at the 
 bottom of the eye, and ftamp upon it, by 
 their union, the image of the object, towards 
 which the pupil is directed. The confe- 
 quence of which is, that the foul, by means as 
 yet unknown to us, receives immediate intel- 
 ligence of thefe rays, and comes to fee the- 
 objects that fent them. But this grand opera- 
 lion of Nature, the difcovery of which was 
 referved for our times, might have remained 
 an idle amufement of phyfical curiofity, 
 without being of the leaft fervice to the 
 painter, had not means been happily found of 
 imitating it. The machine, contrived for this 
 purpofe, confifts of a lens and a mirror 
 fo fituated, that the fecond throws the 
 picture of any thing properly expofed to the 
 firft, and that too of a competent largenefs, 
 on a clean meet of paper, where it may be 
 feen and contemplated at leifure. 
 
 As this artificial eye, ufually called a Camera 
 Optica or Obfcura, gives no admittance to any 
 rays of light, but thofe coming from the- 
 thing whofe reprefentation is wanted, there 
 refults from them a picture of inexpreffible 
 force and brightnefs 5 and, as nothing is more 
 
 delightful 
 
62 OF THE CAMERA OBSCURA. 
 delightful to behold, fo nothing can be more 
 ufeful to ftudy, than fuch a picture. For, 
 not to fpcak of the juftnefs of the contours, 
 the exa&nefs of the perfpective and of the 
 chiarofcuro, which exceeds conception; the 
 colours are of a vivacity and richnefs that 
 nothing can excell; the parts, which ftand 
 out mod, and are moft expofed to the light, 
 appear furprifingly loofe and refplendent; 
 and this loofenefs and refplendency declines 
 gradually, as the parts themfelves fink in, or 
 retire from the light. The fhades are llrong 
 without harfhnefs, and the contours precife 
 without being fharp. Wherever any reflect- 
 ed light falls, there appears, in confequence 
 of it, an infinite variety of tints, which, with-, 
 out this contrivance, it would be impofiible 
 to difcern. Yet there prevails fuch a har- 
 mony amongft all the colours of the piece, 
 that fcarce any one of them can be faid 
 to clafh with another. 
 . After all, it is no way furprifing, that 
 we mould, by means of this contrivance, 
 difcover, what otherwife we might juftly de- 
 fpair of ever being acquainted with. We 
 
 cannot 
 
OF THE CAMERA OBSCURA. 63 
 cannot look directly at any object, that is 
 not furrounded by fo many others, all darting 
 their rays together into our eyes, that it is 
 impoliible we mould diftinguim all the dif- 
 ferent modulations of its light and colours, 
 At leaft we can only fee them in fo dull and 
 confufed a manner, as not to be able to de- 
 termine any thing precifely about them. 
 Whereas, in the Camera Obfcura, the vifual 
 faculty is brought wholly to bear upon the 
 object before it; and the light of every other 
 object is, as it were, perfectly extinguished. 
 
 Another moil aflonimmg perfection in 
 pictures of this kind is the diminution of the 
 fize, and of the intenfenefs of light and co- 
 Jour, of the objects and all their parts, in 
 proportion to their diftance from the eye. 
 At a greater diftance the colours appear more 
 faint, and the contours more obfcure. The 
 fhades likewife are a great deal weaker in a 
 lefs intenfe or more remote light. On the 
 other hand, thofe objects, which are larger 
 in themfelves, or lie neareft to the eye, have 
 the moft exact contours, the ilrongeit. fhades, 
 and the brighteft colours : all which qualities; 
 
 are 
 
64 OF THE CAMERA OBSCURA. 
 
 are requifite to form that kind of perfpective, 
 which is called aerial, as though the air be- 
 tween the eye and external objects, not only- 
 veiled them a little, but in fome fort gnawed, 
 and preyed upon, them. This kind of perfpec- 
 tive conftitutes a principal part of that branch 
 of painting, which regards the forefhortening 
 of figures, and likewife the bringing them 
 forward, and throwing them back in fuch 
 a manner, as to make us lofe fight of the 
 ground upon which they are drawn. It is, 
 in a word, this kind of perfpective, from 
 which, affifted by linear perfpective, arife 
 
 Dolci cofe a vedere 9 e dolci inganni (6). 
 
 Nothing proves this better than the Ca- 
 mera Obfcura, in which nature paints the 
 objects, which lie near the eye, as it were, 
 with a hard and fharp pencil, and thofe at a 
 diftance with a foft and blunt one. 
 
 The belt modern painters among the Ita- 
 lians have availed themfelves greatly of this 
 contrivance; nor is it poffibie they fhould 
 
 (6) Things fweet to fee, and fweet decep- 
 tions. 
 
 have 
 
OF THE CAMERA OBSCURA. 65 
 have otherwife reprefented things fo much to 
 the life. It is probable, too, that feveral of 
 the Tramontane Matters, confidering their 
 fuccefs in expreffing the minuteft objects, 
 have done the fame. Every one knows of 
 what iervice it has been to Spagnoletto of 
 Bologna, fome cf whofe pictures have a 
 grand and moil wonderful effect. I once 
 happened to be prefent where a very able 
 mafter was fhewn this machine for the firft 
 time. It is impoffibie to exprefs the pleafure 
 he took in examining it. The more he con- 
 fidered it, the more he feemed to be charmed 
 with it. In fhort, after trying it a thoufand 
 different ways, and with a thoufand different 
 models, he candidly confeffed, that nothing 
 could compare with the pictures of fo excellent 
 and inimitable a mafter. Another, no lefs emi- 
 nent, has given it as his opinion, that an 
 academy, with no other furniture than the 
 book of da Vinci, a critical account of the ex- 
 cellencies of the capital painters, the cafts of 
 the fineft Greek ftatues, and the pictures of 
 the Camera Obfcura, would alone be fuf- 
 ficient to revive the art of painting. Let 
 F the 
 
66 OF THE CAMERA OBSCURA. 
 the young painter, therefore, begin as early 
 as poffible to ftudy thefe divine pictures, 
 and ftudy them all the days of his life, for 
 he never will be able fufficiently to contem- 
 plate them. In fhort, Painters fhould make 
 the fame ufe of the Camera Obfcura, which 
 Naturalifts and Aftronomers make of the 
 Microfcope and Telefcope, for all thefe 
 inftruments equally contribute to make 
 known, and reprefent Nature. 
 
 CHAP. VII. 
 OF DRAPERY, 
 
 DRAPERY is one of the moft impor- 
 tant branches of the whole art, and, 
 accordingly, demands the greater! attention 
 and fludy. It feldom happens, that a Painter 
 has nothing but naked figures to reprefent ; 
 nay, his fubje&s generally confift of figures 
 cloafched from head to foot. Now, the 
 flowing of the folds in every garment depends 
 chiefly upon the relief of the parts that lie 
 under it. A certain author, I forget his name, 
 •bferves* that, as the inequalities of a furface 
 
 are 
 
OF DRAPERY. 67 
 
 are difcoverable by the inequalities in the 
 water that runs over it, fo the poflure and 
 fhape of the members mud be difcernible by 
 the folds of the garment that covers them (7)* 
 Thofe idle windings and gatherings, with 
 which fome painters have affected to covef 
 their figures, make the clothes made up of 
 them look, as if the body had fled from un- 
 der them, and left nothing in its place but a 
 heap of empty bubbles, fit emblems of the 
 brain that conceived them. As from the 
 trunk of a tree there iiTue here and there 
 boughs of various forms, fo from one prin- 
 cipal or miftrefs-fold there always flow many 
 lefTer ones : And, as it is on the quality of 
 the tree, that the elegance, compa&nefs or 
 openefs of its branches chiefly depends; it is, 
 in like manner, by the quality of the fluff, of 
 which a garment is made, that the number, 
 order, and fize of its folds muft be determined. 
 To fum up all in two words : the Drapery 
 ©ught to be natural and eafy, fo as to (how 
 
 (7) Qui ne s'y colle point, mais en fuive la grace, 
 
 Et fans la ferrer trap la careffe & PembraiTe. 
 
 Moliere Gloire du Dome de Val de Grace. 
 
 F 2,- what 
 
68 OFDRAPERY. 
 
 what £uf7 it is and what parts it co- - 
 vers. It ought, as a certain author exprefTes 
 , to cover the body, as it were merely 
 to mow it. 
 
 It was formerly the cuflom with fome of 
 our maflers to draw all their figures naked, • 
 and then drape them, from the fame principle 
 that they firffc drew the fkeletons of their 
 figures, and afterwards covered them with 
 mufcles. And it was by proceeding in this 
 manner, that they attained to fuch a degree 
 of truth in expreffing the folds of their dra- 
 pery, and the joints and direction of the 
 principal members that lay under it, fo as to 
 exhibit, in a moft ftriking manner, the atti- 
 tude of the perfon to whom they belonged. 
 That the ancient fculptors cloathed their 
 ftatues with equal truth and grace, appears 
 from many of them that are flill in being,, 
 particularly a Flora lately dug up in Rome, 
 whofe drapery is executed with fo much 
 judgment, and in fo grand and rich a ftile, 
 that it may vie with the fineft of their naked 
 fratues, even with the Venus of Medicis.. 
 The flatues ©f the ancients had fo much 
 
 beauty 
 
OF DRAPERY, 69 
 
 beauty when naked, that they retained a 
 great deal (8) when cloathed. But here it 
 muft be conftdered, that it was ufual with 
 them to fuppofe their originals cloathed with 
 wet garments, ^nd of an extreme finenefs and 
 delicacy, that, by lying clofe to the parts, and 
 in a manner, clinging to them, they might 
 the better mow what thefe parts were. For 
 this reafon, a painter is not to confine himfelf 
 to the ftudy of the ancient Itatues, left he 
 fhculd contract a dry ftile, and even fall into 
 the fame faults with fome great mafcers, 
 who, accuftomed to drape with fuch light 
 fluffs as fit clofe to the body, have after- 
 wards made the coarfefl lie in the fame 
 manner, fo as plainly to exhibit the mufcles 
 underneath them. It is, therefore, proper to 
 ftudy nature herfelf, and thofe modern ma- 
 ilers, who have come neareft to her in this 
 branch, fuch as Paolo Veronefe, Andrea del 
 S.arto, Rubens, and, above all, Guido Reni. 
 The flow of their drapery is foft and gentle, 
 and the gatherings and plaits fo contrived, as 
 not only not to hide the body, but add grace 
 
 (8) Indukur, formofa eft : exuitur, ipfa for- 
 ma eft. 
 
 F 3 and 
 
70 OF DRAPERY. 
 
 and dignity to it. Their gold, filk and wool- 
 len fluffs are fo diitinguimable one from an- 
 other, by the quality of their feveral luftres, 
 and the peculiar light and fhade belonging 
 to each, but, above all, by the form and flow 
 of their folds, that the age and fex of their 
 figures are hardly more difcoverable by their 
 faces. Albert Durer is another great mailer 
 in this branch, infomuch that Guido himfelf 
 was not afhamed to ftudy him. There are 
 itill extant feveral drawings made with the 
 pen by this great man, in which he has copi- 
 ed whole figures from Albert, and fcrupulouf- 
 }y retained the flow of his drapery as far as 
 his own peculiar flile, lefs harfh and (harp, 
 but more eafy and graceful, would allow (9). 
 It may be faid, that he made the fame ufe of 
 Albert, that our modern writers ought to make 
 of the beft Authors of the thirteenth century. 
 
 (9) There is one cf thefe drawings in the 
 pofTeffion of Signor Hercules Lelli, taken from 
 a fmall paflion carved in wood. It is a mofl 
 beautirui piece. And Maicantonio Buriai had 
 once a little book, containing about a fcore 
 Madonas of Albert Durer, copied by Guido. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
1 71 1 
 
 CHAP. VIII. 
 
 ©F LANDSCAPE AND ARCHI- 
 TECTURE. 
 
 "TTT'HEN our young painter has made a 
 ■▼ » fufficient progrefs in thofe principal 
 branches of his art, the defigning, perfpective, 
 colouring, and drapery of human figures, he 
 fhould turn his thoughts to landscape and 
 architecture; for, by ftudying them, he will 
 render himfelf univerfal, and qualified to un- 
 dertake any fubjeft; fo as not to refemble 
 certain literati, who, though great matters 
 in fome articles, are mere children in every 
 thing elfe (1). 
 
 The mod eminent landfcape painters arc 
 Pouffin, Lorenefe, and Titian. 
 
 PoussiN was remarkable for his great 
 diligence. His pieces are quite exotic and 
 uncommon, being fet off with buildings in a 
 beautiful but lingular ftile, and with learned 
 epifodes, fuch as Poets reciting their verfes 
 
 (1) Fontenelle, dans l'Eloge de Boerliaave. 
 
 F 4 t© 
 
72 OF LANDSCAPE 
 to the woods, and youths exercifmg them- 
 felves in die feveral gymnaflic games of anti- 
 quity; by which it plainly appears, that he. 
 ;e indebted for his fubjecls to the de- 
 fci ions of PaufaniaS, than to nature and 
 truth. 
 
 LcE-ENESE applied himfelf chiefly to ex- 
 prefs the various phenomena of light, efpe- 
 ci ly thofe perceivable in the heavens. And, 
 thanks to the happy climate of Rome, where 
 he liudied and exercifed his talents, he has 
 left us the brighteft fkics, and the richeft 
 and moft glorioufly cloud-tipt horizons that 
 can well be conceived. Nay, the fun him- 
 felf, which, like the Almighty, can be rcpre- 
 fented merely by his effects, has fcarce es- 
 caped his daring and ambitious pencil. 
 
 Titian, the great confidant of Nature, is 
 the Homer of jandfcape. His fcenes have fo 
 much truth, fo much variety, and fuch a 
 bloom in them, that it is impofiible to behold 
 them, without wifhing, as if they were real, 
 to make an excurfion into them. And, per- 
 haps, the fined landfcape, that ever iiTued 
 from mortal hands, is the back ground* of 
 
 his 
 
AND ARCHITECTURE. ff 
 
 his Martyrdom of St. Peter, where, by the 
 difference between the bodies and the leaves 
 of his trees, and the difpofition of their 
 branches, one immediately difcovers the dif- 
 ference between the trees themfelves ; where 
 the different foils are fo well expreiTed, and 
 fo exquifitely cloathed with their proper 
 plants, that a botanift has much ado to keep 
 his hands from them. 
 
 Paolo Veronefe is in architecture, what 
 Titian is in landfcape. To excell in land- 
 fcape, we muft, above all things, ftudy nature. 
 To excell in architecture we muft chiefly regard 
 the fineft works of artj fuch as the fronts of 
 ancient edifices* and the fabrics of thofe mo- 
 derns, who have belt ftudied and beft copied 
 antiquity. Next to Brunellefchi and Alberti, 
 who were the firft revivers of architecture, 
 came Bramante, Giulio Romano, Sanfovino, 
 Sanmicheli, and, laftly, Palladio, whofe works 
 the young painter mould, above all the reft, 
 diligently ftudy, and imprint deeply on his 
 mind. Nor is Vignola to be forgot; for fome 
 think he was a more fcrupulous copier of an- 
 tiquity, and more exa£l than Palladio himfelf ; 
 
 infomuch 
 
74 OF LANDSCAPE, &c, 
 infomuch that mod people confider him as the 
 firil architect among the moderns. For my part, 
 to fpeak of him, not as fame, but as truth 
 feems to require, I cannot help thinking, that 
 rather than break through the generality of the 
 rules contrived by him to facilitate practice, he 
 has, in fome inftances, deviated from the moft 
 beautiful proportions of the antique ; and 
 is rather barren in the diftribution and 
 difpofition of certain members. Moreover, 
 the extraordinary height of his pedcftals 
 and cornifhes hinders the column from mew- 
 ing, in the orders defigned and employed 
 by him, as it does in thofe of Palladio. 
 Amongft that great variety of proportions to 
 be met with in ancient ruins, Palladio has 
 been extremely happy in chufing the beft. 
 Plis profiles are well contrafled, yet eafy. 
 All the parts of his buildings hang well to- 
 gether. Grandeur, elegance and beauty walk 
 hand in hand in them. In fhort, the very 
 blemifhes of Palladio, who was no Have to 
 conveniency, and fometimes, perhaps, was 
 too profufe in his decorations, are pictu- 
 refque. And we may reafonably believe, 
 that it was by following fo great a matter, . 
 
 whofe 
 
OF THE COSTUME. 75 
 
 whofe works he had continually before his 
 eyes, that Paolo Veronefe formed that fine 
 and mafterly tafte, which enabled him to em- 
 bellifh his compofitions with fuch beautiful 
 frructures, 
 
 CHAP. IX. 
 OF THE COSTUME. 
 
 TH E fmdy of Architecture cannot fail, 
 in another refpecT:, of being very ufefui 
 to the young painter ; inafrnuch as it will 
 bring him acquainted with the form of the 
 temples, thermae, bafilics, theatres, and other 
 buildings of the Greeks and Romans. Be- 
 fides, from the baftb-relievos, with which it 
 was cuftomary to adorn thefe buildings, he 
 may gather, w T ith equal delight and profit, 
 the nature of their facrifices, arms, military 
 enfigns, and drefs. The ftudy of Landfcape, 
 too, will render familiar to him the form of 
 the various plants peculiar to each foil and 
 climate, and fuch other things as ferve to 
 characterife the different regions of the earth. 
 Thus, by degrees, he will learn what we 
 
 call 
 
$ OF THE COSTUME. 
 
 call Coftume, one of the chief requifites in a 
 painter ; fince, by means of it, he may ex- 
 prefs, with great precifion, the time and 
 place in which his fcenes are laid. 
 
 The Roman School has been exceedingly 
 ■chafte in this branch. So was the French, 
 as lonp- as it continued under the influence 
 and direction of PoufTin, whom we may juftly 
 ftile the Learned Painter ; whereas the Vene- 
 tian School has been to the lad degree care- 
 lefs, not to fay, licentious. Titian made 
 no difficulty of introducing, in an Ecce 
 Homo of his, pages in a Spanim garb, and 
 the Auftrian Eagle on the fhields of the Ro- 
 man foldiers. It is true, indeed, that once 
 he placed, in the back ground of a Crown- 
 ihg-with-thorns, a bud carrying the name of 
 the Emperor Tiberius, under whom our Sa- 
 viour fullered : but it is likewife true, that, 
 as if he thought it unbecoming a painter to 
 pay any regard to fuch minutiae of learning 
 and the coftume, he mewed himfelf perfectly 
 indifferent about them in all his other works. 
 Tintoret, in a fall of Manna, has armed his 
 res with mufkets. And Paolo Veronefe, 
 
 in 
 
OF THE COSTUME. 77 
 
 in a Laft-S upper, prefents us with Swifs y 
 Levantine, and other ftrange figures. In 
 {hort, he has been fo carelefs this way, that 
 his pieces have been often confidered as fo 
 many beautiful mafquerades. 
 
 I want words to exprefs how much a 
 picture fufFers by fuch loofenefs of fancy, and 
 finks, as a baftard of the art, in the efteeni 
 of good judges. Some people, I am fennble, 
 are of opinion, that fo fcrupulous an cbfer- 
 vance of the coftume is apt to hurt pictures, by 
 depriving them of a certain air of truth arifmg,. 
 they think, from thofe features and habits, to> 
 which we are accuitcmed ; and which are, 
 therefore, apt to make a greater imprefiion,, 
 than can be expected from things dranwfrom 
 the remote fources of antiquity: adding 
 withal, that a certain degree of licence has 
 ever been allowed chofe artilts, who, in their 
 works, mult make fancy their chief guide. 
 See, fay they, the Greeks, that is, the mailers 
 of Raphael and PoufTin themfelves. Dp 
 they ever trouble theix heads about fuch 
 niceties? The Rhodian ftatuaries, for ex- 
 ample, have not fcrupled to reprefent Laocoon 
 
 naked, 
 
1* OF THE COSTUME. 
 
 naked ; that is, the Prieft of Apollo naked 
 in the very act of facriflcing to the Gods, 
 and that, too, in prefence of a whole people, 
 of the virgins and matrons of Ilium (2). 
 Now, continue they, if it was allowable in 
 the ancient ftatuaries to neglect probability 
 and decency to fuch a degree, to have a bet- 
 ter opportunity of difplaying their fkill in the 
 anatomy of the human body, why may it 
 not be allowable in modern painters, the 
 better to attain the end of their art, which is 
 deception, to depart now and then a little 
 from the ancient manners, and the too rigo- 
 rous laws of the coftume ? But thefe reafons, 
 I beg leave to obferve, are more abfurd 
 than they are ingenious. What ! are we to 
 draw conclufions from an example, which, far 
 from deciding the difpute, gives occafion to 
 another (3). The learned are of opinion, 
 that thefe Rhodian matters would have done 
 much better, had they looked out for a 
 fubjecl:, in which, without offending fo much 
 
 (2) See the notes of Mr. de Piles on the 
 poem of Mr. Du Frefnoy. 
 
 (3) Nil agit exemplum, litem quod lite re- 
 
 folvit. Hor. Lib. II. Sat. iii. 
 
 againft 
 
OF THE COSTUME, 7$ 
 
 againft truth, and even probability, they 
 might have had an equal opportunity of dif- 
 plaving their knowledge of the naked. And, 
 certainly, no authority or example whatever 
 fhould tempt us to do any thing contrary to 
 what both decency and the reafon of things 
 require, unlefs we intend, like Carpioni, t® 
 reprefent 
 
 Sogni d'infermi, e fole di romanzl (4). 
 No ! a painter, the better to attain the end 
 of his art, which is deception, ought care- 
 fully to avoid mixing the antique with the 
 modern ; the dorneftic with the foreign 5 
 things, in fhort, repugnant to each other, 
 and therefore incapable of gaining credit. 
 A fpeclator will never be brought to con- 
 fider himfelf as actually prefent at the fcene, 
 the reprefentation of which he has before 
 him, unlefs the circumitances, which enter 
 it, perfectly agree among themfelves, and 
 the field of action, if I may ufe the ex- 
 preffion, in no ibape belies the action it- 
 felf. For inftance, the circumftances, or, 
 if you pleafe, the acceflaries, in a finding- 
 
 (4) The dreams of kck. »en, and the tales, of 
 fools. 
 
 of 
 
So OF THE COSTUME. 
 
 of-Mofes, are not, furely, to reprefent the 
 borders of a canal planted with rows of pop- 
 pies, and covered with country houfes in 
 the European tafte, but the banks of a great 
 river (haded with clufters of palm-trees j with 
 a fphinx or an Anubis in the adjacent fields ; 
 and here and there, in the back ground, a 
 towering pyramid (5). And, indeed, the 
 painter, before he takes either canvas or paper 
 in hand, mould, on the wings of his fancy, 
 tranfport himfelf to Egypt, to Thebes, or to 
 Rome; and fummoning to his imagination 
 the phyfiognomy, the drefs, the plants, the 
 buildings fuitable to his fubje£t, with the par- 
 ticular fpot where he has chofen to lay his 
 fcene, fo manage his pencil, as, by the ma- 
 gic of it, make the enraptured fpe&ators 
 fancy themfelves there along with him. 
 
 (5) Nealces .... ingeniofus & folers in arte. 
 Siquidem cum pnelium navale ^Egyptiorum & 
 Perfarum pinxiffet, quod in Nilo, cujus aqua 
 eft mari fimilis, fa&um volebat intelligi, argu- 
 mento declaravit, quod arte non poterat. Afel- 
 lum enim in litore bibentem pinxit, & crocodi- 
 lum infidiantem ei. 
 
 C. Plin. Nat. Hill. Lib. XXXV. Cap. xi. 
 
 CHAP. 
 
[ 8* ] 
 
 € H A P. X, 
 OF INVENTION, 
 
 AS the operations of a General mould, all, 
 ultimately tend to battle and conqueft ; fo 
 fhould all the thoughts of a painter to perfect 
 invention. Now, the fludies, which I have 
 been hitherto recommending, will prove fo 
 many wings, by which he may raife himfelf, 
 as it were, from the ground, and foar on high, 
 when defirous of trying his flrength this 
 way, and producing fomething from his own 
 fund. Invention is the finding out probable 
 things, not only fuch as are adapted to the 
 fubjecT: in hand, but fuch, befides, as by 
 their fublimity and beauty are moil capa- 
 ble of exciting fuitable fentiments in the 
 Spectator, and of making him, when they 
 happen to be well executed, fancy that it is 
 the fubjecl: itfelf, in its greateft perfection, 
 and not a mere reprefentation of it, that he has 
 before him. I do not fay true things, but pro- 
 bable things ; becaufe probability or verifimi.li- 
 tude is, in fac~t 3 the truth of thofe arts, which 
 G have 
 
g2 OF INVENTION*. 
 
 have the fancy for their object (6). It is, 
 indeed, the bufinefs and duty of both Natura- 
 lifts and Hiftorians to draw objects as they 
 find them, and reprefent them with all thofe 
 imperfections and blemifhes, to which, as in- 
 dividuals, they are fubject. But an ideal Pain- 
 ter, and fuch alone is a true Painter, refembles 
 the Poet : inftead of copying « he imitates ; 
 that is,, he works with his fancy, and repre- 
 fents objects, endued with all that perfection, 
 which belongs to the fpecies, and may be 
 conceived in the Archetype. 'Tis all nature, 
 fays an Englifh poet, fpeaking of poetry: 
 and the fame may be faid of painting, but it 
 is nature methodized and made perfect (7). 
 Infomuch, that the circumftances of the 
 action, exalted and fublimed to the higheft 
 degree of beauty and boldnefs they are fuf- 
 ceptible of, may, though pombie, have never 
 happened, exactly fuch as the painter 
 fancies, and thinks proper to reprefent,, 
 them. Thus, the piety of ./Eneas, and the 
 
 (6) Judgement of Hercules, Introduction. 
 
 (7) Tis nature all, but nature methodiz'd. 
 
 EiTay on Criticifm. 
 
OF INVENTION. 83 
 
 anger of Achilles, are things fo perfect in 
 their kind, as to be merely probable. And 
 it is for this reafon, that poetry, which is 
 only another word for invention, is more 
 philofbphical, more inftruclive, and more en- 
 tertaining than hiftory (8). 
 
 Here it is proper to obferve, what great 
 advantages the ancient had over the modern 
 painters. The hiftory of the times they lived 
 in, fraught with great and glorious events, 
 was to them a rich mine of the moft noble 
 fubj eels, which, befides, often derived no fmall 
 fublimity and pathos from the Mythology, 
 upon which their Religion was founded. 
 So far were their Gods from being imma- 
 terial, and placed at an infinite diftance above 
 their worfhippers; fo far was their Religion 
 from recommending humility, pennance, and 
 
 (8) aio tCj ^\,"Ko7Q^aTe^ov *£ crwaSWrFgov <aroW»; vro> 
 fixs er*v, ri jxsv y«£ ooitjcr»5 pscXhoy ret xxb'hu, ij it 
 »ro;»« t« xctd' ittctroy 'hiyn, 
 
 De la foi d'un Chretien les myfteres terrible* 
 D'ornements egayez ne font point fufceptibles : 
 L'Evangile a l'efprit n'offre de tous cotes, 
 Que penitence a faire, & tourments meritez. 
 Defpreaux Art. Poet. Chant. III. 
 G 2 felf- 
 
84 OF INVENTION. 
 
 felf-denial, that, on the contrary, it appeared" 
 calculated merely to flatter the fenfes, inflame 
 the paflions, and poifon the fancy. By 
 making the Gods partake of our nature, and 
 fubjecling them to the fame paflions, it gave t 
 man hopes of being able to mix with thofe, 
 who, though greatly above him, refembled him, 
 notwithstanding, in fo many refpecls. Befides, 
 thefe Deities of theirs were in a manner vi- 
 fible, and to be met at every ftep. The fea 
 was crowded with Tritons and Nereids, the 
 rivers with Naids, and the mountains with 
 Dryads. The woods fwarmed with Fauns 
 and Nymphs, who, in thefe obfcure retreats, 
 fought an afylum for their ftolen embraces. 
 The moft potent empires, the moft noble 
 families, the moft celebrated heroes, all de- 
 rived their pedigree from the greater Divi- 
 nities. Nay, Gods interefted themfelves in 
 all the concerns of mankind. Apollo, the 
 God of long arrows flood by the fide of 
 Hector in the fields of Troy; and infpired 
 him with new ftrength and courage to batter 
 down the walls, and burn the fhips of the 
 Greeks. Thefe, on the other hand, were led 
 n>n to the fight and animated by Minerva, 
 
 preceeded 
 
OF INVENTION. £5 
 
 proceeded by terror, and followed by deatht 
 Jove nods, his divine locks fhake on his im- 
 mortal head ; Olympus trembles. With that 
 countenance, which allays the tempeft, and 
 reflores ferenity to the heavens, he gathers 
 kilfes from the mouth of Venus, the delight 
 of Gods and of men. Among the ancients, 
 every thing fported with the fancy; and in 
 thofe works, which depend entirely on the 
 imagination, fome of our greateft mailers 
 have thought they could not do better than 
 borrow from the Pagans, if I may be allowed 
 to fay it, their pictures of Tartarus, in order 
 to render their own drawings of Hell more 
 linking and picturefque. 
 
 After all, there have not' been wanting 
 able inventors in point of painting among 
 the moderns. Michael An°;elo, notwith- 
 {landing the depth and boldnefs of his own 
 fancy, is not aihamed, in fome of his com- 
 pofitions, to Dantize (9); as Phidias and 
 
 (9) Concerning this we have a lingular anecdote 
 in the annotations, with which Monfignor Bot- 
 tari, to whom the polite arts are fo much in- 
 debted, has illuftrated the life of Michael Angelo. 
 
 G 3 Apelles 
 
86 OF INVENTION. 
 
 Apelles may be faid formerly to have ho- 
 merized (i). Raphael too, tutored by the 
 
 It is as follows. " We may fee how much he 
 ftudied Dante by a copy of this author, (the 
 firft edit, with the comment of Landino) in 
 his pofTeflion. On the margins, which were 
 left very broad, Bonarotti had drawn with a pen 
 every thing contained in the poems of Dante, 
 and, among the reft, an infinite number of the 
 rnoft excellent naked figures, in the moft ftriking 
 attitudes. This book got into the hands of Anto- 
 nio Montauti of Florence, an intimate friend of the 
 celebrated Abbate Antonio Maria Salvini, as ap- 
 pears from many letters written by the latter to 
 the former, and printed in the collection of the 
 Florentine pieces in profe. Montauti was by 
 profeflion a ftatuary, and a very able one ; and 
 fet the greateft efteem upon this volume. But 
 having ordered, on his departure from Florence 
 to fill the place of furveyor to the church of 
 St. Peter's at Rome, that all his marbles, 
 bronzes, books, &c. mould be fent after him 
 by fea, under the care of one of his pupils, 
 the veiTel, in which they were, periihed, 
 unfortunately, in a ftorm between Leghorn 
 and Civitta Vecchia, and, along with her, 
 Montauti's pupil and all his effects, among the 
 reft this ineftimable volume, which, alone, would 
 have done honour to the library of the greateft 
 monarch." Greeks, 
 
OF INVENTION. 87 
 
 Greeks, has found means, like Virgil, to ex- 
 tract the quinteflence of truth ; has feafoned 
 his works with grace and noblenefs, and ex- 
 alted nature, in a manner, above herfelf, by 
 g 1 ing her an afpecl more beautiful, more 
 animating, and more fublime than fhe is, in 
 reality, accuftomed to wear. In point of in- 
 
 (1) Phidias quoque Homeri verfibus egregio 
 didto alluiit. Simulacro enim Jovis Clympii 
 perfe&o, quo nullum prasftantius aut admira- 
 bilius humanze fabricate funt manus ; interro- 
 gatus ab amico, quonarn mentem fuam dirigens, 
 vultum Jovis propemodum ex ipfo coelo petitum, 
 cboris H icamentis effet amplexus : Illis fe verfi- 
 bus, quafi magiftris, ufum refpondit : Iliad. 1. 
 'H tCj y.vxv^-iy vie oQsvn vivcs K.go»w 9 
 *A(dcp6<Tieu 0' apae. yciiTcu ivre^wfavlo ohukI 1 ^ 
 K^aTo? aV ctQotvxToio* uiymv $ EXeXifs* tkrfurirbt* 
 Valer. Max. Lib. III. Cap. vi. exemplo ext. 4. 
 Fecit Apelles & Neoptolemum ex equo puo-- 
 nantem adverfus Perfas ; Archelaum cum uxore 
 & filia, Antigonum thoracatum cum equo ince- 
 dentem. Peritiores artis prasferunt omnibus ejus 
 operibus eumdem Regem fedentem in equo : 
 Dianam facrificantium virginum choro mixtam ; 
 quibus vicifTe Homeri verfus videtur, id ipfum 
 defcribentis. 
 
 C. Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib, XXXV. Cap. x. 
 G 4 vention* 
 
*8 OF INVENTION. 
 
 vention, Domenichino and Annibal Caracc* 
 come very near Raphael, efpecially in the 
 pieces painted by them in Rome ; nor does 
 Pouffin fall very fliort of him in fome of his 
 pictures, particularly in his Efther-before- 
 AfTuerus, and his death-of-Germanicus, the 
 richeft jewel belonging to the Barberine fa- 
 mily. Of all the painters, who have ac- 
 quired any extraordinary degree of reputa- 
 tion, no one ftudied lefs to fet off his pieces 
 by bold and beautiful circumftances, or was 
 more a ftranger to what is called poetical 
 perfection, than Jacopo BafTano. Among 
 the numberlefs inftances I could produce of 
 his careleflhefs this way, let it fuffice to 
 mention a Preaching-of-St. Paul painted by 
 him in a place, near that of his birth, called 
 Maroftega. Inftead of reprefenting the A- 
 poflle, full of a divine enthufiafm, as Ra- 
 phael has done, and thundering againfl the 
 fuperftitions of the heathen in an affembly 
 of Athenians; inftead of exhibiting one of 
 his auditors ftruck to the quick, another 
 perfuaded, a third inflamed; he makes him 
 hold forth, in a village of the Venetian ftate, 
 
 to 
 
OF INVENTION. 89 
 
 to a parcel of poor peafants and their wives, 
 w ho take not the leaft notice of him ; the 
 women efpecialiy, who feem to mind nothing 
 but the country labours, in which he had 
 found them employed. After all, this is an 
 admirable piece, and would be a perfect one, 
 had the painter not difgraced it fo m»ch by 
 the poverty of his ideas. 
 
 With regard to invention, painting and 
 poetry refemble each other i*o much in many 
 other refpects, belides that of combining in 
 every action all the beauty and elegance it 
 will admit, that they well deferve the name of 
 lifter arts. They differ, however, in one 
 point, and that too of no fmall importance. 
 It is this. The poet, in the reprefentation 
 of his ftory, relates what has already hap- 
 pened, prepares that which is ftill to come, 
 and fo proceeds, ftep by ftep, through all the 
 circumftances of the action; and to operate 
 the greater effect on his hearers, avails him- 
 felf of the fucceiiion of time and place. The 
 painter, on the contrary, deprived of fuch 
 helps, mult be content to depend upon one 
 fingle moment. But what a moment ! A 
 
 moment, 
 
9 o OF INVENTION. 
 
 moment, in which he may conjure up, at 
 once, to the eyes of his fpectator a thoufand 
 objects ; a moment, teeming with the moft 
 beautiful circumftances that can attend the ac- 
 tion ; a moment, equivalent to the iucceiTive 
 labours of the poet. This the works of the 
 greateft matters, which are every where to 
 be feen, fufficiently evince; among others, 
 the St. Paul-at-Lyftra, by Raphael, whom 
 it is impoflible not to praife as often as 
 this picture is mentioned. In order to 
 give the fpectator a thorough infight into 
 the fubject of this piece, the painter has 
 placed, in the front of it, the cripple already 
 reftored to his limbs by the Apoftle, fired 
 with gratitude towards his benefactor, and 
 exciting his countrymen to yield him all 
 kinds of honour. Round the cripple are 
 fome figures lifcing up the fkirt of his coat, 
 in order to look at the legs reduced to their 
 proper fhape, and acknowledging by geftures 
 full of aftonifhment the reality of the miracle ; 
 an invention, fays a certain author, a pro- 
 feflcd admirer of antiquity, which might 
 
 have 
 
OF INVENTION. qt 
 
 have been propofed as an example in the 
 happieft age of Greece (2). 
 
 We have another fhining inftance of the 
 power of painting to introduce a great variety 
 of objects on the fcene at the fame time, and 
 of the advantage it has in this refpeel: over 
 poetry, in a drawing by the celebrated la Fage, 
 which, like many other pieces of his, has 
 not as yet been engraved, though worthier, 
 perhaps, of that honour than any other per- 
 formance of the kind. This drawing reprefents 
 the defcent of iEneas into Hell. The field is 
 the dark caverns of Pluto's kingdom, through 
 the middle of which creeps (lowly the muddy 
 and melancholy Acheron. Nearly in the 
 center of the piece appears ./Eneas with the 
 golden bough in his hand, and with an air of 
 aftonifhment at what he fees. The Sybil, 
 
 (2) The wit of man could not devife means 
 more certain of the end propofed ; fuch a chain 
 of circumitances is equal to a narration : And I 
 cannot but think, that the whole would have 
 been an example of invention and conduct, even 
 in the happieft age of antiquity. 
 
 Webb, Dial. VII. 
 who 
 
 • 
 
€>a OF INVENTION. 
 
 who accompanies him, is anfwering the 
 fjueftions which he afks her. The perfonage 
 -there is the ferryman of the pitchy lake, by 
 which even the Gods themfelves are afraid 
 to fwear. Thofe, who crowding in to the 
 banks of the river, numberlefs as the leaves 
 fhaken oft" the trees by autumnal blafts, ex- 
 prefs, with out-itretched hands, an impati- 
 ence to be ferried to the oppofite fhore, 
 are the unhappy manes, who, for want 
 of burial, are unqualified for that hap- 
 pinefs. Charon, accordingly, is crying out 
 to them, and with his lifted up oar driving 
 them from his boat, which has already taken 
 in a number of thofe, who had been honour- 
 ed with the accuftomed funeral rights. Be- 
 hind i^Eneas and the Sybil we difcover a 
 confuted groupe of wretched fouls, lamenting 
 bitterly their misfortune in being denied a 
 paflage; two of them wrapt up in their 
 clothes, and, in a lit of Mefpair, funk upon a 
 rock. Upon the firfi lines of the piece Hands a 
 third groupe of uninhumed (hades, Leucafpes, 
 Orontes, and, in the mictft.qf them, the good 
 ♦Id Palinurus, formerly mafter and pilot of 
 
 die 
 
OF INVENTION. 93 
 the Hero's own veffel, who with joined hands 
 molt earneftly defires to be taken along with 
 him into the boat, that, after death, at leaft, 
 he may find fome repofe, and his dead body no- 
 longer remain the J port of windo cjid waves.. 
 Thus, what we fee fcattered up and down 
 in many verfes by Virgil, is here, as it were, 
 gathered into a focu?, zic.d concentered by the 
 ingenious pencil of the painter; fo as to form a 
 fubject well yvortbji of being expofed, in more 
 fhapes than one, to the eyes of the public (3). 
 
 (3) Ibantobfcuri foia fub nofte per umbras, 
 Perque domes Ditis vacuas & inania regna, &c. 
 HincviaTartarei quse fert Acherontis ad undas: 
 Turbidus hie cceno vaflaque voragine gurges 
 ^Efxuat, &c. 
 
 iEneas miratus enim motufque tumultu, &c. 
 Cocyti ftagna alta vides, ilygiamque paludem, 
 Dii cujus jurare timent, & fallere numen. . 
 Ike cmnis quam cernis inops inhumataque 
 
 turba eft : 
 PortitorilleCharon,hiquosvehitundafepulti,&c.- 
 Quam multa in Sylvis Autumni frigcre primo 
 Lapfa cadunt folia, &c. 
 Stabant orantes primi tranfmittere curfum, 
 Tendebantque manus rip*e ultcrioris amore; 
 Nayita fed triflis nnnc hos, nunc accipit illos, 
 
 When- 
 
94 OF INVENTION. 
 
 When a painter takes a fubject in hand, b£ 
 ithiftorical, be it fabulous, he fhould careful- 
 ly perufe the books which treat of it, imprint 
 well on his mind all the circumftances that 
 attend it, the perfons concerned in it, and 
 the paffions with which they muft have been 
 feverally animated ; not omitting the particu- 
 lars of time and place. His next bufinefs is to 
 create it, as it were, anew, obferving the ruls 
 already laid down for that purpofe. From 
 what is true chufing that which is moil ftrik- 
 ing, and cloathing his fubjecl: with fuch ac- 
 celFary circumftances and actions, as may 
 render it more confpicuous, pathetic and no- 
 ble, and beft difplay the powers of the in- 
 ventive faculty. But, in doing this, great 
 
 Aft alios longe fummotos arcet arena, &c. 
 Cernit ibi macftos, & mortis honore carentes 
 Leucafpim &Lyciaeduc~torem claflis Orontem,&c. 
 Ecce gubernator fe fe Palinurus agebat, &c. 
 Nunc me fludlus habent, verfantque in litore 
 
 venti, &c. 
 Da dextram mifero, & tecum me tolle per undas, 
 Sedibus ut faltem placidis in morte quiefcam. 
 
 Virgil. 
 
 This drawing is in the pofleffion of the 
 author of this EfTay. 
 
 difcretion 
 
O F I N V E N T I ON. 95 
 
 difcretion is requifrte :, for, let his imagina- 
 tion grow ever fo warm, his hand is never to 
 execute any thing that is not fully approved 
 by his judgment. Nothing low or vulgar 
 fhould appear in a lofty and noble argument - x 
 a fault, of which fome of the greateft 
 mafters, even Lampieri and Pouffin, have 
 been now and then guilty. 
 
 The action mull be one, the place one, 
 the time one. I need not, I believe, fay any 
 thing of thofe painters, who, like the writers 
 of the Chinefe and Spanifh theatre, cram a 
 variety of actions together, and fo give us, 
 at once, the whole life of a man. Such blun- 
 ders, I flatter myfelf, are too grofs to be feared 
 at prefent. The politenefs and learning of 
 the age feem to demand confiderations of a 
 more refined nature, fuch as, that the epi- 
 fodes introduced in the drama of a picture, 
 the better to fill and adorn it, fhould be not 
 only beautiful in themfelves, but indifpenfably 
 requifite. The games, celebrated at the 
 t©mb of Anchifes in Sicily, have a greater 
 variety in them and more fources of delight, 
 than thofe, that had been before celebrated at 
 the tomb of-Patroclvw under the walls of 
 
 Troy. 
 
96 OF INVENTION. 
 
 Troy. The arms forged by Vulcan for, 
 ./Eneas, if not better tempered, are at leaft 
 better engraved than thofe, which the fame 
 God had forged feveral ages before for Achil- 
 les. Neverthelefs, in the eyes of judges, 
 both the games and the arms of Homer are 
 more pleafing than thofe of Virgil, becaufe 
 the former aie more neceflary in the Iliad, 
 than the latter in the JEneid. Every part 
 mould agree with, and have a relation to, 
 the whole. Unity mould reign even in 
 variety, for in this beauty confifts (4). This 
 is a fundamental maxim in all the arts,, 
 whofe object it is to imitate the works of 
 nature. 
 
 Pictures often borrow no fmall grace 
 and beauty from the fictions of poetry. 
 Albani has left us, in feveral of his works, 
 fufficient proofs of the great mare the belles 
 lettres had in refining his tafte. But Raphael, 
 above all others, may, in this branch too, be 
 confidered as a guide and matter. To give 
 
 (4) This puts me in mind, of what I once 
 
 heard a man of letters and great learning fay, 
 
 Abfolute beauty is one, deformity manifold. 
 
 Delia Cafa nel Galatea. 
 
 but 
 
OF INVENTION. 97 
 
 tut one inftance out of many ; what a beau- 
 tiful thought was it to reprefent the river 
 himfelf, in a P affage-of- Jordan v fupporting 
 his waters with his own hands, in order to 
 open a way to the army of the Ifraelites! Nor 
 has he difplayed lefs judgment in reviving, in 
 his defigns engraved by Agoftino of Ve- 
 nice (6), the little loves of Aetius, playing 
 with the arms of Alexander conquered by 
 the beauty of Roxana (7). 
 
 Among the ancients ? Apelles and Parrha- 
 fms were tbofe who difHnguifhed them- 
 
 (6 J The original Italian fays, by Marco Anto- 
 nio. We are 'indebted to the noble Author for this 
 correction , communicated by a private letter, as footi 
 as he was informed of this tranflation being in the 
 prefs. 
 
 (7) Er/fwGt $i t>j? slaw®* aXKoi I'guTiq <Ea'<jticrw U> 
 roT; cttXoic t« 'Ah^ct^a, cMo ft-£> 7yv hofx^v aura 
 jptgoikc, &c. Lucian. 
 Les folatres plaifirs dans le fein de repos, 
 Les amours enfantins defarmoient ce heros : 
 L'un tenoit fa cuirarTe encor de fang trempee^ 
 L'autre avoit detache fa redoutable epee, 
 Et rioit en tenant dans fes debiles mains 
 Ce fer, l'appui du trone, & Peffroi des humains. 
 Henriade, Chant. IX. 
 H felves 
 
9 S OF INVENTION. 
 
 felves mod in allegorical fubjec*h; in 
 which the inventive faculty {hews itfelf 
 to the greateft advantage : The firft by his 
 picture of calumny (8); the fecond by 
 that of the genius of the Athenians (9). 
 That ancient painter, called Galaton, gave 
 likewife a fine proof of his genius in this 
 branch, by reprefenting a great number of 
 poets greedily quenching their thirft, in the 
 waters gufhing from the mouth of the fub- 
 lime Homer. And to this Allegory, accord- 
 ing to Guigni, Pliny has an eye, when he 
 calls that prince of poets, the fountain of 
 wits (1). But it is, after all, no way furprif- 
 
 (8) See Lucian upon calumny, and the XXth 
 note of Carlo Dati, in the life of Apelles. 
 
 (9) Pinxit (Parrhafius) Demon Athenienfium 
 argumento quoque ingeniofo. 
 
 C. Plin. Nat. Hill. Lib. XXXV. Cap. X. 
 (1) Nonnulli quoque artifices non vulgaris fo- 
 lertiae famam captantes longius petitae inventio- 
 ns gloriam praecpue fibi amplexandam puta- 
 bant. Ita Galaton pictor, telle JEliano var. 
 Hift. XIII. 22. pinxit immenfum gregem poeta- 
 rum limpidas atque ubertim ex ore Homeri re- 
 dundantes aquas avidiffime haurientem. Hanc 
 
 ing, 
 
OF INVENTION. 99 
 
 ing, that we fhould often meet fuch fine 
 flights of fancy in the ancient artifts. They 
 were not guided in their works by a blind 
 practice ; they were men of polite educa- 
 tion \ converfant with the letters of the age 
 in which they lived ; and the companions, 
 rather than the fervants, of the great 
 men who employed them (2). The fineft 
 
 imaginem repraefentavit Ovidius III. Amorum, 
 Eleg. 8. 
 Afpice Maeoniden, a quo ceu fonte perenni, 
 Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis. 
 Manilius quoque circa initium libri fecur.di de 
 Homero : 
 
 Cuj ufque ex ore profufo 
 
 Omnis pofleritas la.tices in carmina duxit. 
 
 Plinius denique lib. XVII. Nat. Hiit. Cap. v. 
 videtur eo refpexiffe, cum Homerum vocat, fon- 
 tem ingeniorum. 
 
 De Piftura Veterum, Lib. III. Cap. i. 
 (2) The ftatuaries of Greece were not mere 
 mechanics ; men of education and literature, 
 they were more the companions than fervants of 
 their employers : Their tafte was refined by the 
 converfation of courts, and enlarged by the lec- 
 ture of their poets : Accordingly, the fpirit of 
 their fludies breathes through their works. 
 
 Webb, Dial. IV. 
 H 2 allegorical 
 
^ioo OF INVENTION. 
 
 allegorical painter among the moderns was 
 Rubens ; and he was, accordingly, much ce- 
 lebrated for it. The beft critics, however, 
 find fault with his uniting, in the Luxem- 
 burg Gallery, the queen-mother, in council, 
 with two Cardinals and Mercury (3). Nor 
 is there lefs impropriety in his making Tritons 
 and Nereids, in another piece of the fame 
 gallery, fwim to the queen's vefTel through, 
 the galleys of the knights of St. Stephen. 
 Such freedoms are equally difguflful with the 
 prophecies of Sannazaro's Proteus, concern- 
 ing the myftery of the incarnation ; or the 
 Indian kings of Camoens, reafoning with 
 the Portuguefe on the adventures of Ulyf- 
 fes. 
 
 The beft modern performances in piclu- 
 refque allegory are, certainly, thofe of Pouf- 
 
 (3) In the fine fet of pi&ures, by Rubens, 
 in the Luxemburg gallery, you will meet with 
 various faults too, in relation to the allegories. 
 
 the Queen-mother, in council, with two Cardi- 
 nals and Mercury, &c. Polym. Dial. XV1IL 
 
 fin. 
 
 
OF INVENTION. ior 
 
 fin, who availed himfeif, with great difcretioa 
 and judgment, of the vaft treafures, with * 
 which, by a clofe ftudy of the ancients, he 
 had enriched his memory. On the other 
 hand, le Brun his countryman, has been very 
 unhappy this way. Ambitious to have every 
 thing his own, inffead of allegories, he has 
 filled the gallery of Verfailles with enigmas 
 and riddles, of which none but himfeif was qua- 
 lified to be the CEdipus. Allegory muft be in- 
 genious, it is true ; but then it muft be equal- 
 ly perfpicuous ; for which reafon, a painter 
 {hould avoid all vague and indeterminate al- 
 lufions, and like wife thofe to hiftory and hea- 
 then mythology, which are too abftrufe to 
 be underftood by the generality of fpectators. 
 The beft way, in my opinion, to fymbolize 
 moral and abftra£t things, is to reprefent 
 particular events •> as Caracci did, by advice 
 of Monfignore Agucchi, in the Farnefian 
 palace (4). For example, what can better 
 exprefs a hero's love towards his country, 
 than the virtuous Decius confecrating 
 himfeif boldly to the ' infernal gods 3 in or- 
 
 (4) See Bellori's Life of Caracci. 
 
 H 3 der 
 
102 OF INVENTION. 
 
 tier to fecure victory to his countrymen over 
 their enemies ? What finer emblems can we 
 defire, of emulation, and an infatiable third 
 for glory, than Julius Caefar weeping before 
 the ftatue of Alexander in the temple of 
 Hercules at Gades ; of the inconftancy of 
 fortune, than Marius fitting on the ruins 
 of Carthage, and receiving, inftead of the 
 acclamations of an army joyfully faluting 
 him Emperor, orders from a lienor of Sexti- 
 lius to quit Africa ; of indifcretion, than 
 Candaules, who, by fhewing the naked 
 beauties of his wife to his friend Giges, 
 kindled a paffion,. that foon made him repent 
 his felly ? Such reprefentations as thefe re- 
 quire no comment j they carry their explana- 
 tion along with them. Befides, fuppofmg, and 
 it is the worfl we can fuppofe, that the painter's 
 aim in them fhould happen not to be un- 
 derfiood, his piece would ftill give delight. 
 It is thus that the fables of Ariofto prove 
 fo entertaining, even to thofe, who under- 
 ftand nothing of the moral couched under 
 them 5 and likewife the /Eneis, though all 
 
 do 
 
OF .DISPOSITION. 103 
 
 do not comprehend the allufions and double 
 intent of the poet. 
 
 CHAP. XI. 
 OF DISPOSITION. 
 
 SO much for Invention. Difpofition, 
 which may be confidered as a branch of 
 invention, confifts in the proper ftationing of 
 what the inventive faculty has imagined, fo as 
 to exprefs the fubjecl: in the moft lively man- 
 ner. The chief merit of Difpofition may be 
 faid to confift in that diforder, which, wearing 
 the appearance of mere chance, is, in fact, 
 the moft fludied efFecl: of art. A painter, 
 therefore, is equally to avoid the drynefs of 
 thofe ancients, who always planted their 
 figures like fo many couples in a proceffion ; 
 and the affectation of thofe moderns, who 
 jumble them together, as if they were 
 met merely to light and fquabble. In 
 this branch Raphael was happy enough to 
 chufe the juft medium- and attain per- 
 ftioru The difpofition of his figures is al- 
 H 4 way 
 
104 OF DISPOSITION. 
 
 ways exactly fuch, as the fubjecT: requires. 
 In the battle of Conftantine, they are con- 
 fufeclly cluilered with as much art, as they are 
 regularly marfhalled in ChrifVs commitment 
 of the keys to Saint Peter, and conftituting 
 him Prince of the Apoftles. 
 
 Let the inferior figures of a piece be 
 placed as they will, the principal figure 
 fnould ftrike the eye moft, and ftand out, as 
 it were, from among the reft. This may 
 be effected various ways, as by placing it 
 on the foremoft lines, or in fome other con- 
 fpicuous part, of the piece; by exhibiting it, 
 in a manner, by itfelf; by 'making the prin- 
 cipal light fall upon it; by giving it the 
 moft refplendent drapery; or, indeed, by 
 feveral of thefe methods, nay, by all of 
 them together. For, being the hero of the 
 pi&urefque fable, it is but juft that it mould 
 draw the eye to itfelf, and lord it, as it were, 
 over all the other objects (6). 
 
 (6) Prenant un foin exacl:, que dans tout {on 
 ouvran-e 
 Elle joue aux regards le plus beau perfonnage, 
 
 According, 
 
OF DISPOSITION. ic£ 
 
 According to Leon Batifta Alberti, pain- 
 ters fhould follow the example of. Comic 
 Writers, who compofe their fable of as few 
 perfons as poffible. For, in fact, a crowded 
 picture is apt to give as much pain to the 
 fpeclator, as a crowded road to the traveller. 
 
 Some fubje&s, it muft be granted, require a 
 number, nay, a nation, as it were, of figures. 
 On thefe occafions, it depends entirely on 
 the (kill of the painter to difpofe them in 
 fuch a manner, that the principal ones may 
 always make the principal appearance ; 
 and contrive matters fo, that the piece 
 be not over-crowded, or want convenient 
 refts and paufes. He muft, in a word, take 
 care that his piece be full, but not charged. 
 In this refpecl, the battles of Alexander by 
 Le Brun are mafterpieces, which can never 
 be fufficiently ftudied; whereas nothing, on 
 the other hand, can be more unhappy than 
 the famous Paradife of Tintoret, which co- 
 vers one entire fide of the Great Council 
 Chamber at Venice. It appears no better 
 
 Et que par aucun role au fpedlacle place 
 Le Heros du Tableau ne fe voye eiFasce. 
 
 Msliere la Gloire du Dome de Val de Grace, 
 
 than 
 
io6 OF DISPOSITION. 
 
 than a confufed heap of figure?, a fv/arrr, a 
 cloud, a chaos, which pains and fatigues the 
 eye. What a pity it is that he did not difpofe 
 this fubjecl: after a model of his own, now in 
 the Gallery of Bevilacqua at Verona! In 
 this laft, the feveral choirs of Martyrs, Vir- 
 gins, Bifhops, and other Saints, are judicioufly 
 thrown into fo many clufters, parted here 
 and there by a fine fleece of clouds; 
 fo as to exhibit the innumerable hoft of 
 heaven drawn up in a way, that makes 
 a moft agreeable and glorious appear- 
 ance. There goes a ftory to our purpofe 
 of a celebrated mafter, who in a draw- 
 ing of the Univerfal Deluge, the bet- 
 ter to exprefs the immenfity of the wa- 
 ters that covered the earth, left a corner of 
 his paper without figures. Being afked, if 
 he did not intend to fill it up : No, faid 
 he j don't you fee that my leaving it empty is 
 what precifely conftitutes the picture ? 
 
 The reafon for breaking a compo- 
 sition into feveral groupes is, that the 
 eye, paffing freely from one objecl to an- 
 other, may the better comprehend the whole. 
 
 But 
 
OF DISPOSITION. 107 
 
 But the painter is not to flop here; for 
 thefe groupes are, befides, to be fo artfully 
 put together, as to form rich clutters, 
 give the whole compofition a fingular air of 
 grandeur, and afford the fpeclator an oppor- 
 tunity of difcernmg the piece at a diftance, 
 and taking the whole in, as it were, at a 
 fingle glance. Thefe effects are greatly pro- 
 moted by a due regard to the nature of colours, 
 fo as not to place together thofe which are 
 apt to pain by their oppofition, or diffract by 
 their variety. They mould be fo judicioufly 
 difpofed as to temper and qualify erch other. 
 A proper ufe of the Chiarofcuro is likewife of 
 great fervice on this occafion. The groupes 
 are eafily parted, and the whole picture acquires 
 a grand effect by introducing fome ftrong 
 falls of (hade, and, above all, cneprincipal 
 beam of light. This method has been fol- 
 lowed with great fuccefs by Rembrant in a 
 famous picture of his, repreienting the Virgin 
 at the foot of the Crofs on Mount Calvary, 
 the principal light darting upon her through 
 a break in the clouds, while the reft of the 
 figures about her ftand more .or lefs in the 
 fhade. Tintoret, too> acquired great repu- 
 tation 
 
xoS OF DISPOSITION. 
 
 tation as well by that brifknefs, with which 
 he enlivened his figures, as bv his mafterly 
 manner of (hading them; and Polidoro da 
 Caravaggio, though he fcarce painted any 
 thing but baiib-reiievos, was particularly far 
 mous for introducing with great fkill the 
 effects of the chiarofcuro, a thing firft at- 
 tempted by Mantegna in his triumph of Ju- 
 lius Cefar. It is by this means, that his 
 compofitions appear fo ftrikingly divided into 
 different groupes, and, amongft their other 
 perfections, afford fo much delight through 
 the beautiful difpofition that reigns in them. 
 
 In like manner, a painter, by the help of 
 perfpective, cfpecially that called aerial, the 
 oppofition of local colours, and other con- 
 trivances, which he may expecl: to hit upon 
 by ftudying Mature, and thofc who have beft 
 Studied her before him, will be able not only 
 to part his groupes, but make them appear 
 at different di fiances, fo as to leave fufficient 
 palfages between them. 
 
 But the greateft caution is to be ufed in 
 the purfuit of the methods here laid down; 
 cfpecially in the management of the chiarof- 
 curo, 
 
OF DISPOSITION. 109 
 
 euro, that the effects attributed to light and 
 fhade, and to their various concomitants, may 
 not run counter to truth and experience. This 
 is a capital point. For this purpofe, a painter 
 would do well to make, in little figures, 
 as Tintoret and Pouffin ufed to do, a model 
 of the fubjecr. that he intends to reprefent, 
 " and then illuminate it by lamp or candle 
 light. By this means he may come to know 
 with certainty, if the chiarofcuro, which he 
 has formed in his mind, does not clafh with 
 the reafon of things. By varying the height 
 and direction of his light he may eafily 
 difcover fuch incidental effects, as are mod 
 likely to recommend his performance, and fo 
 eftabliih a proper fyftem for the illuminating 
 of it. " Nor will he afterwards find it a diffi- 
 cult matter to modify the quality of his 
 fhades, by fcftening or ftrengthenmg them 
 according to the fituation of his fcene, 
 and the quality of the light failing upon 
 it. If it mould happen to be a candle or 
 lamp-light fcene, he will then have nothing 
 to do but confider his model well, and faith- 
 fully copy it. 
 
 In 
 
no OF DISPOSITION. 
 
 In the next place, to turn a groupe ele- 
 gantly, the beft pattern is that of a bunch of 
 grapes, adopted by Titian. As, of the many 
 grains, which compofe a bunch of grapes, 
 fome are ftruck directly by the light, and 
 thofe oppofite to them are in the fhade, 
 whilft the intermediate ones partake of both 
 light and fhade in a greater or lefs degree ; 
 fo, according to Titian, the figures of a 
 groupe fhould be lb difpofed, that, by the 
 union of the chiarofcuro, feveral things may 
 appear, as it were, but one thing. And, in fact, 
 it is only from his having purfued this me- 
 thod, that we can account for the very grand 
 effect: of his pieces this way, in which it is 
 impoffible to ftudy him too much. 
 
 The Mannerifts, who do not follow nature 
 in the track of the mailers juft mentioned, are 
 apt to commit many faults. The reafon of 
 their figures cafling their fhades in this or that 
 manner feldom appears in the picture, or at 
 leaft does not appear fufficiently probable. 
 They are, befides, wont to trefpafs all bounds 
 in fplafhing their pieces with light, that is, 
 in enlivening thofe parts, which we ufually 
 
 trem 
 
OF DISPOSITION. in 
 
 term the deafs of a picture. This method, no 
 doubt, has fometimes a very fine effect. ; but it 
 is, however, to be ufed with no fmall difcretion, 
 as otherwife the whole lofes that union, that 
 paufe, that majeftic filence, as Carracci ufed 
 to call it, which affords fo much pleafure. 
 The eye is not lefs hurt by many lights {bat- 
 tered here and there over a picture, than the 
 ear is by the confufed noife of different per- 
 fons fpeaking, all together, in an AiTembly (7). 
 Guido Reni, who has imparted to his 
 paintings that gaiety and fplendour in which 
 he lived, feems enamoured with a bright and 
 open light ; whereas Michael Angelo da Ca- 
 ravaggio, who was of a fallen and favage dif- 
 
 (7) Let breadth be introduced how it will, it 
 always gives great repofe to the eye; as on the 
 contrary when lights and ihades in a compofition 
 are fcattered about in little foots, the eye is con- 
 ftantly difiurbed, and the mind is uneafy, efpeci- 
 allyifyou are eager to underitand every object 
 in the compofition, as it is painful to the ear, 
 when any one is anxious to know what is faid in 
 company, where many are talking at the fame 
 time. Hogarth's Anal, of Beauty. 
 
 pofitioa 
 
lis OF DISPOSITION. 
 
 pofition (8), appears fondeft of a gloomy and 
 clouded fky ; fo that neither of them were qua- 
 lified to handle indifferently all fubje&s. The 
 Chiarofcuro may likewife prove of great fer- 
 vice to a painter in giving his compofition 
 a grand • effect. ; but, neverthelefs, the light 
 he chufes muft be adapted to the fituation of 
 the fcene, where the a£tion is laid: nor 
 would he be lefs faulty, who in a grotto or 
 cavern, where the light entered by a chink, 
 ihould make his (hades foft and tender, than 
 him, who fhould reprefent them ftrong and 
 bold in an open fky-light. 
 
 But this is not, by many, the only fault 
 which mannerifls are apt to be guilty of in 
 hiftorical pieces, and particularly in the difpo- 
 {ition of their figures. To fcy nothing of 
 their favourite groupe of a woman lying on 
 the ground with one child at her breaft, and 
 another playing about her, and the like, 
 which they generally place on the firft lines 
 of their pieces, nor of thofe half figures in 
 the back ground peeping out from the hoi- 
 
 {8) In pi&uris alios horrid'a, inculta, abdita, 
 & opaca; contra alios nitida, laeta, colluiirata 
 deleclant. Cic. de Orator. 
 
 lows 
 
OF DISPOSITION. 113 
 
 lows contrived for them, they make a com- 
 mon practice of mixing naked with cloathed 
 figures j old men with young ; placing one 
 figure with its face towards you, and another 
 with its back ; they contraft violent motions 
 with languid attitudes, and feem to aim at op- 
 position in every thing ; whereas oppofitions 
 never pleafe, but when they arife naturally 
 from the fubjecl:, like antithefes in a difcourfe. 
 
 As to forefhortned figures, too much af- 
 fectation in ufing or avoiding them is equally 
 blameable. The attitudes had better be com- 
 pofed than otherwife. It very feldom happens 
 that there is any occafion for making them fo 
 impetuous, as to be in danger of lofing their 
 equilibrium ; a thing too much pradlifed by 
 fome painters, who may be aptly compared 
 to thofe mad Divines, who in their ftrange 
 conceits fubtilize themfelves almofl into 
 downright herefy. 
 
 In regard to drapery, equal care fheuld 
 be taken to avoid that poverty, which makes 
 fome mafters look, as if, through mere pe- 
 nury, they grudged cloaths to their figures , 
 and that profufion, which Albani imput- 
 I cd 
 
ri 4 OF DISPOSITION. 
 
 ed to Guido, faying that he was rather a 
 taylor than a painter. The ornaments of 
 drefs mould be ufed with great fobriety, and 
 it will not be amifs to remember what was 
 once faid to an ancient painter : " I pity you 
 greatly; unable to make Helen handfome, 
 you have taken care to make her fine (9)." 
 
 Let the whole, in a word, and all the differ- 
 ent parts of the difpofition, poffefs probability,, 
 grace, coftume, and the particular charac- 
 ter of what is to be reprefented. Let nothing 
 look like uniformity of manner, which does not 
 appear lefs in the compofition, than it does 
 in colouring, drapery, and defign ; and is, as 
 it were, that kind of accent, by which 
 painters may be as readily diflinguifhed, as 
 
 -(9) 'AwiXX>>s 5 £vy£uq><&' §icurdyi.ttQS rtra. tt f*x- 
 fiijrwv 'Ekifluj otofAofli UToXvjgvaor ypa^/ctfla. il /xti- 
 
 mtvMxaf. Clem. Alex. Paedag. Lib. II. C. xiL 
 »p. Junium de Pi£t. Vet. Apelles in Catalogo. 
 Poets, like painters, thus unflcilPd to trace 
 The naked nature and the living grace, 
 With gold and jewels cover ev'ry part, 
 And hide, with ornaments, their want of art. 
 Pope's Effay on Crit. 
 foreigners 
 
OF DISPOSITION, lis 
 
 foreigners are, by pronouncing in the fame 
 manner all the different languages they hap- 
 pen to be acquainted with. 
 
 CHAP. XII. 
 
 OF THE EXPRESSION OF THE 
 PASSIONS. 
 
 THAT language, which, above all 
 others, a painter fhould carefully en- 
 deavour to learn, and from nature herfelf, is 
 the language of the paffions. Without it the 
 fineft works muft appear lifelefs and inani- 
 mate. It is not enough for a painter to be 
 able to delineate the moft exquifite forms, 
 give them the moft graceful attitudes, and 
 compofe them well together : it is not enough 
 to drefs them out with propriety and in 
 the moft beautiful colours. It is not enough, 
 in fine, by the powerful magic of light 
 and (hade to make the canvas vanifh. No, 
 he muft likewife know how to cloathe 
 his figures with grief, with joy, with fear, 
 With anger; he muft, in fome fort, 
 Write on their faces, what they think, 
 I 2 and 
 
ti6 OF THE EXPRESSION 
 and what they feel ; he muft give them life 
 and fpeech (i). It, is indeed, in this branch 
 that painting truely foars, and, in a manner, 
 rifes fuperidr to herfelf ; it is in this branch fhe 
 makes the fpe&ator apprehend much more 
 than what fhe exprefles. 
 
 Th£ means, employed in her imitations 
 by painting, are the circumfcription of 
 terms, the chiarofcuro, and colours; all 
 which appear folely calculated to ftrike the 
 vifual faculty. Notwithstanding which, fhe 
 contrives to reprefent hard and foft, rough 
 and fraooth furfaces, which are objects 
 of the touch; and this by means of cer- 
 tain tints, and a certain chiarofcuro, which 
 has a different look in marble, in the bark 
 of trees, in downy and delicate fubftances. 
 Nay, fhe contrives to exprefs found and 
 motion by means of light and fhade, and 
 certain particular configurations. In fome 
 
 (i) X:ri yx% 7ov IfiZs im^oTctrtvaoilcc t>j$ t/%**)? (pv~ 
 ew re ay^^wrn'iav iv &w<rx£<p0a», x} ixccvo* Vt) yvfc^oc* 
 
 rtvacu r$w av^QoXoc xj aiW7rwvTuv 
 
 Teruv os Ixavui 
 
 ixdra fyZpi* Philoftr. junior, in proem. Iconum. 
 
 landfcapes. 
 
OF THE PASSIONS. 117 
 
 landfcapes of Diderich's, we almoft hear the 
 water murmur, and fee it tremble along the 
 fides of the river, and of the boats up- 
 on it. In the battles of Burgognone we 
 are really apt to fancy, that the trumpet 
 founds ; and we fee the horfe, who has 
 thrown his rider, fcamper along the plain. 
 But, what is ftill more wonderful, paint- 
 ing, in virtue of her various colours, 
 and certain particular geftures, exprelfe3 
 even the fentiments and molt hidden af- 
 fections of the foul, and renders her vifible, 
 fo as to make the eye not only touch and 
 hear, but even kindle into paflion, and 
 reafon. 
 
 Many have written, and, amongft the reft, 
 the famous le Brun, on the various changes, 
 that, according to various paffions, happen 
 in the mufcles of the face, which is, as it 
 were, the dumb tongue of the foul (2). They 
 
 (2) Omnis enim motus animi faum quemdam a 
 natura habet vultum, et fonum, et geftum ; et 
 ejus omnis vultus, omnefque voces, ut nervi in 
 fidibus, ita fonant, ut a motu animi cumque funt 
 
 I 3 obfervc, 
 
nS OF THE EXPRESSION 
 
 They obferve, for example, that, in fits of 
 anger, the face reddens, the mufcles of the 
 Jips puff out, the eyes fparkle ; and that, on the 
 contrary, in fits of melancholy, the eyes grow 
 motionlefs and dead, the face pale, and the 
 lips fink in. It may be of fervice to a painter 
 to read thefe and fuch other remarks ; but it 
 will be of infinitely more fervice to ftudy 
 them in nature itfelf, from which they have 
 been borrowed, and which exhibits them in 
 that lively manner, which neither tongue 
 nor pen can exprefs. 
 
 But, if a painter is to have immediate re- 
 courfe to nature in any thing, it is particularly 
 in treating thofe very minute and almoft im- 
 perceptible differences, by which, however, 
 things very different from each other are of- 
 ten expreffed. This is particularly the cafe with 
 regard to the paffions of laughing and crying, 
 as in thefe, however contrary, the mufcles of 
 the face operate nearly in the fame manner (3), 
 
 pulfae : hi funt a&c-ri, 
 
 vt pictori, expofiti ad variandum colores. 
 
 Cic. de Orat. Lib. III. N. lvii. 
 
 (3) As the famous Pietro dc Cortona was one 
 
 day finiihing the face of a crying child in a re- 
 
 Acco&PiNC 
 
OF THE PASSIONS. 119 
 According to Lionardo da Vinci, the beft 
 matters that a painter can have recourfe to in this 
 branch, are thofe dumb men, who have found out 
 the method of expreiiing their fentiments by the 
 motion of their hands, eyes, eye-brows, and, 
 in fhort, every other part of the body. This ad- 
 vice, no doubt, is very good j but then fuch ge- 
 
 prefentation of the Iron Age, with which he wa* 
 adorning the floor, called the Hot-bath, in the 
 royal palace of Pitti, Ferdinand II. who hap~ 
 pened to be looking over him for his amufe- 
 ment, could not forbear expreffing his approba- 
 tion, by crying out, Oh, how well that child 
 cries S To whom the able artift,— has your ma- 
 jelly a mind to fee how eafy it is to make children 
 laugh ? Behold, I'll prove it in an inftant ; and 
 taking up his pencil, by giving the contour 
 of the mouth a concave turn downwards, inftead 
 ©f the convex upwards, which it before had, and 
 with little or no alteration in any other part of 
 the face, he made the child, who, a little before, 
 feemed ready to burft its heart with crying, ap~ 
 pear in equal danger of burfting its fides with 
 immoderate laughter; and then, by reftoringthe 
 altered features to their former pofition, he foon 
 fet the child a crying again. Lectures of Philip 
 Baldinucci, in the academy of la Crufca ilLuilrato, 
 
 I 4 ftures 
 
no OF THE EXPRESSION 
 
 ftures muft be imitated with great fobriety 
 and moderation, leaft they fhould appear 
 too ftrong and exaggerated, and the piece 
 fhould (hew nothing but pantomimes, 
 when fpeaking figures, alone, are to be 
 exhibited; and fo become theatrical and 
 fecond-hand ; or, at leaft, look like the 
 copy of a theatrical and fecond-hand na- 
 ture (4). 
 
 We are told ftrange things of the ancient 
 painters of Greece in regard to expreffion ; ef- 
 pecially of Ariftides, who, in a picture of his 
 reprefenting a woman wounded to death at a 
 fiege, with a child crawling to her breaft, 
 makes her appear afraid, left the child, when 
 {he was dead, fhould, for want of milk, fuck 
 her blood ( 5 ) . A Medea murdering her children, 
 
 (4) Judgment cf Hercules, Chap. iv. 
 
 (5) Is omnium primus (Ariftides) Thebanua 
 animum pinxit, & fenfus hominis expreffit, qus 
 vocant Gratci etbe ; item perturbationes, durior 
 paulo in coloribus. Hujus pictura eft, oppido 
 capto, ad matris morientis e vulnere mammam 
 adrepens infans : intelligiturque fentire mater & 
 tiraere, ne mortuo lacle fanguinem lambat. 
 
 by 
 
OF THE PASSIONS. 121 
 by Timomachus, was likewife much cried 
 up, as the ingenious artift contrived to ex- 
 prefs, at once, in her countenance, both the 
 fury that hurried her on to the commiffion of 
 fo great a crime, and the tendernefs of a mo- 
 ther that feemed to withhold her from it (6). 
 Rubens attempted to exprefs fuch a double ef- 
 fect, in the face of Mary of Medicis, ftill in 
 pain from her paft labour, and, at the fame 
 time, full of joy at the birth of a Dauphin. 
 And in the countenance of Sancta Polonia, 
 painted by Tiepolo for St. Anthony's church 
 at Padua, one may, I think, clearly read a 
 mixture of pain from the wound given her 
 
 (6)Medeamvellet cum fingereTimomachimens 
 Volventem in Natos crudum animo fa~ 
 cinus, 
 Immanem exhaufit rerum in diverfa laborem, 
 
 Fingeret affectum matris ut ambiguum. 
 Ira fubeft lachrymis ; miferatio non caret ira, 
 
 Alterutrum videas ut fit in alterutro. 
 Cunclantem fads eft. Nam digna eil fanguine 
 mater 
 Natorum, tua non dextera, Timomache. 
 
 Aufon. ex Antholcg. 
 by 
 
ii2 OF THE EXPRESSION 
 
 by the executioner, and of pleafure from the 
 profpect of paradife opened to her by it. 
 
 Few, to fay the truth, are the examples of 
 ftrong expreffion afforded by the Venetian, 
 Flemmifh, or Lombard fchools. Deprived 
 of that great happinefs, the happinefs of be- 
 ing able to contemplate, at leifure, the works 
 of the ancients, the pureft fources of per- 
 fection in point of defign, expreffion and 
 character; and having nothing but nature 
 conftantly before their eyes, they made 
 ftrength of colouring, blooming complexions, 
 and the grand effects of the chiarofcuro their 
 principal fludy ; they aimed more at charm- 
 ing the fenfes than at captivating the under- 
 Handing. The Venetians, in particular, feem 
 to have placed their whole glory in fetting 
 off their pieces with all that rich variety of 
 perfonages and drefs, which their capital is 
 continually receiving by means of its exten- 
 five commerce, and which attracts fo much 
 the eyes of all thofe who vifit it. I doubt 
 much, if, in all the pictures of Paolo Vero- 
 nefe, there is to be found a bold and judicious 
 expreffion, or one of thofe attitudes, which, 
 
 as 
 
OF THE PASSIONS. 123 
 as Petrarch exprefles it, fpeak without words ; 
 unlefs, perhaps, it be that remarkable one in 
 his Marriage-feaft-at-Cana-of-Galilee, and 
 which I don't remember to have feen taken 
 notice of before. At one end of the table, 
 and directly opposite to the bridegroom, 
 whofe eyes are fixed upon her, there ap- 
 pears a woman in red, holding up to him 
 the fkirt of her garment, as much as to fay, 
 I fuppofe, that the wine miraculoufly pro- 
 duced was exactly of the colour with the fluff 
 on her back. And, in fact, it is red wine 
 we fee in the cups and pitchers. But all 
 this while the faces and attitudes of moll 
 of the company betray not the leaft fign of 
 wonder at fo extraordinary a miracle. They 
 all, in a manner, appear intent upon nothing 
 but eating, drinking, and making merry. 
 Such, in general, is the ftile of the Venetian 
 fchool. The Florentine, over which Mi- 
 chael Angelo prefided, above all things curi- 
 ous of defign, was moft minutely and fcru- 
 puloufly exact in point of anatomy. On 
 this fhe fet her heart, and took angular 
 pleafure in difplaying it. Not only elegance 
 
 of 
 
124 OF THE EXPRESSION 
 of form, and noblencfs of invention, but 
 likewife ftrength of exprefiion, triumph 'in 
 the Roman fchool, nurfed, as it were, 
 amongft the works of the Greeks, and in 
 the bofom of a city, which had once been 
 the feminary of learning and politenefs. Here 
 it was, that Domenichino and Pouflin, both 
 great mailers of expreflion, refined them- 
 selves, as appears more particularly by the 
 St. Jerome of the one, and the Death of 
 Germanicus, or the Slaughter of the Inno- 
 cents, by the other. Here it was, that arofe 
 Raphael, the fovereign matter of them all. 
 One would imagine, that, pictures which 
 are generally confidered as the books of the 
 ignorant, and of the ignorant only, he had 
 undertaken to make the inftruclors even 
 of the learned. One would imagine, that 
 he intended, in fome meafure, to juftify 
 Quintilian, who affirms, that painting has 
 more power over us than all . the arts 
 of rhetorick (4). There is not, indeed, a 
 
 (4) Nee minim fi ifta, qua? tarnen in aliquo 
 funt pofitamotu, tantum in animis valent, quum 
 pi&iira tacens opus, et habitus femper ejufdem, 
 
 fingle 
 
OF THE PASSIONS. 123 
 
 fingle picture of Raphael's, from the ftudy of 
 which, thofe who are curious in point of ex- 
 premon, may not reap great benefit ; parti- 
 cularly his Martyrdom of Saint Felicitas ; 
 his Magdalen in the houfe of the Pharifee ; 
 his Transfiguration; his Jofeph explaining 
 to Pharaoh his dream, a piece fo highly 
 rated by Pouflin. His fchool of Athens, in 
 the Vatican, is, to all intents and purpofes, 
 a fchool of exprefnon. Among the many 
 miracles of art, with which this piece abounds, 
 I fhall fingle out that of the four boys attend- 
 ing on a Mathematician, who {looping to 
 the ground, his compaffes in his hand, is 
 giving them the demonftxation of a theorem. 
 One of the boys, recollected within him- 
 felf, keeps back, with all the appearance 
 ■of profound attention to the reafoning of the 
 mafter ; another, by the briiknefs of his atti- 
 tude difcovers a greater quick nefs of appre- 
 henfionj while the third, who has already fei2> 
 
 fie in intimos penetret affechis, ut ipfam vim di- 
 eendi nonnunquam fuperare videatur. 
 
 Quint. Jnftit. Lib. XI. Cap. iii. 
 
 ed 
 
126 OF THE EXPRESSION,**. 
 ed the conclufion* is endeavouring to beat it 
 into the fourth, who, ftanding motionlefs, 
 with open arms, a ftaring countenance, and 
 an unfpeakable air of ftupidity in his looks, 
 will never, perhaps, be able to make any thing, 
 of the matter. And it is, probably, from 
 this very groupe, that Albani, who ftudied 
 Raphael fo clofely, drew the following pre- 
 cept of his ; " That it behoves a painter to 
 exprefs more circumftances than one by 
 every attitude; and fo to employ his figures, 
 that, by barely feeing what they are actu- 
 ally about, one may be able to guefs, both 
 what they have been already doing, and arc 
 next going to do (5)." This I know to be a 
 difficult precept; but I know too, that it is 
 only by a due obfervance of it, the eye 
 and the mind can be made to hang in 
 fufpence on a painted piece of canvas (6). 
 It is expreffion, that a painter, ambitious to 
 foar in his profeflion, mufr, above all things, 
 
 (5) In a letter of his cited by Malvafia, P. IV. 
 della Felfina Pittrice. 
 
 (6) Sufpendit pi&a vultum mentemque tabella. 
 
 Hor. Lib. II. Epift. i. 
 labour 
 
OF PROPER BOOKS,k. 127 
 labour to perfect himfelf in. It is the laft 
 goal of his art, as Socrates proves to Par- 
 rhafius (7). It is in expreffion that dumb 
 poetry confifts, and what the prince of our 
 poets calls a vifible language. 
 
 CHAP. xm. 
 OF PROPER BOOKS FOR A PAINTER. 
 
 FROM what has been already faid, it 
 may be eafily gathered, that a painter 
 fhould be neither illiterate, nor unprovided 
 with books. Many are apt to imagine, that 
 the Iconologia of Ripa, or fome fuch col- 
 lection, is alone fufficient for this purpofe ; and 
 that all the apparatus he ftands in need of, may- 
 be reduced to a-few cafts of the remains of anti- 
 quity, or rather to what Rembrants ufed to call 
 his antiques, being nothing more than coats 
 of mail, turbants, {hreds of fluff, and all man- 
 ner of old houfehold trumpery and wearing ap- 
 parel. Such things, I own, are neceflary 
 to a painter, and perhaps, enough for one,, 
 who wants only to paint half lengths, or is 
 
 (7) Xenoph. mem. Things.ofSoc. L. III. 
 
 willing 
 
123 OF PROPER BOOKS 
 
 willing to confine himfelf to a few low fub- 
 jects. But they are by no means fufficient 
 for him, who would foar higher, for a Paint- 
 er who would attempt the Univerfe, and 
 reprefent it in all its parts, fuch as it would 
 appear, had not matter proved refractory to 
 the intentions of the fovereign artift. Such 
 a painter alone is a true, an univerfal, a 
 perfect painter. — No mortal, indeed, mull 
 ever expect to rife to that fublimity; yet 
 all mould afpire to it, on pain of ever con- 
 tinuing at a very mortifying diftance from 
 it -, as the orator, who wifhes to make a figure 
 in his profeifion, fhould propofe to himfelf no 
 lefs a pattern than that perfect orator defcribed 
 by Tully : nor the courtier, than that perfect 
 courtier delineated by Caftiglione. It can- 
 not, therefore, appear furprifing, if I in- 
 fill on the propriety of reckoning a good 
 collection of books as part of fuch a painter's 
 implements. The Bible, the Greek and 
 Roman hiftorians, the works of Homer, that 
 prince of painters (8), and of Virgil, are the 
 
 (8) p>u.Kh'.v o\ rov apalov ruv ypxipiuv O^jpci/ ...» 
 
 h^syu^a ; Lucian. in Imag. 
 
 molt 
 
 
FOR A PAINTER. i2f 
 tnoft claflical. To thefe let him add the 
 Metamorphofes of Ovid, fome of our belt 
 poets, the voyage of Paufanias, Vinci, Va- 
 ?ari, and others upon painting. 
 
 It will alfo be of confiderable advantage 
 to him to have a well-chofen collection of 
 .drawings by the beft matters, in order to trace 
 the progrefs and hiftory of his art, and make 
 himfelf acquainted with the various ftiles 
 ■of painting, which have been, and now 
 -are, in the greater! vogue. The prince 
 of the Roman fchool was not afliamed 
 to hang up in his ftudy the drawings of 
 Albert Durer ; and fpared no pains or ex- 
 pence to acquire all the drawings he could 
 meet with, that were taken from ancient 
 itatues and baiTo-relievos ; things, which 
 the art of engraving has fince rendered fo 
 common as to be in every one's hands. This 
 art of multiplying drawings by means of the 
 graver is of the fame date, and boafts the 
 fame advantages, with the art of printing, by- 
 means of which the works of the mind are 
 multiplied, as it were, at one ftroke, and dif- 
 perfed over the whole world. It were to be 
 K wiihed 
 
f 3 o OF PROPER BOOKS 
 wished, indeed, that none but good books'' 
 were printed, or good pictures engraved. 
 This difference, however, muft be allowed 
 between the inconveniences feverally attending 
 thefe two arts, that the time loft in looking at 
 a bad engraving is infinitely lefs than that loft 
 inperufingabadbook. But, be that as it will,' 
 the fight of fine fubjects treated by able maf- 
 ters, and the different forms, which the fame 
 fubjecL ailumes in different hands, cannot fail 
 both of enlightening and enflaming the mind 
 of the young painter. The fame may be 
 iaid of the perufal of good poets and hiftorians, 
 with the particulars and proofs of what they 
 advance; not to mention thofe Ideas and 
 flights of invention, with which the latter are 
 wont to cloathe, beautify, and exalt every 
 irjing they take in hand. Bouchardon, aft^: 
 reading Homer, conceited, to ufe his own 
 words, that men were three times taller than 
 before, and that the world was enlarged in 
 every rcfpecl (9). It is very probable, that 
 
 (9) Depuis que j'ai lu ce livre, les hommes ont 
 quinze pieds, & la nature & s'eft accrue pour moi. 
 Tableaux tirez ce Tlliade, par Mr. le Comte da 
 Cnvhis. . th e 
 
FOR A PAINTER. 131 
 
 the beautiful thought of covering Agamem- 
 non's face with the fkirt of his mantle, at 
 the facrifice of Iphigenia, was fuggefted to 
 Timantes by the tragedy of Euripides (i). It 
 is, at leaft, to the following lines of the poet, 
 Vergine madre figlia del tuo figlio 
 Umile ed alta piu che creatura^ 
 Termine fijfo d'eterno configlio^ 
 Tufe' a lei, che Vumana natura 
 Nobilitajii fi, che'l fuo fattore 
 Nonfifdegno difarfi tua fattura (2), 
 that we muft afcribe Michael Angelo's 
 making the Virgin look at her fon on 
 the crofs, with a dry and fteddy eye, and 
 
 {i) ....;.. vs a~ iff&dkf 'Ayapspviov avsc£ 
 En) crtpccyxq rzixpaav tU ah<rov xopt.v, 
 
 Aaxpva cgogjyEi o^t^car&'v -ew^ov ■crpofieff. 
 
 Eurip. 
 (2) Virgin mother, daughter of your fon, 
 the moll humble and molt exalted of all crea- 
 tures, the term fixed upon by eternal ccuncil. 
 Human nature has been fo ennobled by you, 
 that your Maker himfelf did not difdain to be 
 born of you. 
 
 K % without 
 
132 OF PROPER BOOKS 
 
 without any of thofe figns of grief, which 
 other painters generally attribute to her 
 on that occafion. And the fublime con- 
 ceit of Raphael, who, in a Creation of his, 
 reprefents God in the immenfe fpace, with 
 one hand reaching to the Sun and the other 
 to the Moon, may be confidered as the child 
 of the following words of the Pfalmifr. : The 
 Heavens declare the glory of God j and the firma- 
 ment Jheweth his handy work (3). 
 
 (3) This thought of Raphael has been un- 
 juftly cenfured by an Englifh writer, Mr. 
 Webb. " A God, fays this Gentleman, extend- 
 ing one hand to the Sun, and another to the 
 Moon, deftroys that idea of immenfity, which 
 ihould accompany the work of creation, by re- 
 ducing it to a world of a few inches." For my 
 part, I cannot difcover, in this painting, a world 
 of a few inches, but a world on a much greater 
 fcale ; a world of millions and millions of miles : 
 and yet this fo immenfe a world, by means of 
 that ad of the Godhead, in which with one hand 
 he reaches to the Sun, and with the other to the 
 Moon, fhrinks, in my imagination, to a mere no- 
 thing, in refpeft to the immenfity of God him- 
 felf ; which is all that the powers of painting 
 can pretend to. This invention is, though in a 
 
 Th* 
 
FOR A PAINTER. 133 
 
 The perufal of good Authors cannct but 
 be very ferviceable to a painter in another 
 refpeft; as, among the great number of 
 fubjefts afforded byhiftory and poetry, he 
 may expect to meet with many, on which 
 his talents may difplay themfelves to the 
 greateft advantage, A painter can never be too 
 nice in the choice of his arguments, for on the 
 beauty of them that of his piece will greatly 
 depend (4). How much to be pitied, there- 
 fore, were our firft matters, in being fo often 
 obliged to receive their fubjects from the 
 
 contrary fenfe, of the fame kind with that of 
 Timantes, who, to exprefs the enormous fize of a 
 fleeping Polyphemus, placed round him fome fatyrs 
 meafuring the monfter's thumb with a Thyrfus. 
 Hence, Pliny, who relates the facl, takes occafion 
 to tell us, that his works always imply mere 
 than they exprefs, and that how great foever he 
 may be in execution, he is ftill greater in in- 
 vention ; at que ' in omnibus ejus operibus intelli- 
 gitur plus femper quam pingitur, et cum ars fumma 
 Jit, ingenium tamen ultra artem ejl. Nat. Hift. 
 L. XXXV. C. x. 
 
 (4) Fecit aliquid 8c materia. Ideo eligenda 
 eft fertilis, qua? capiat ingenium, quae excitet. 
 
 Senec. Ep. XLVI. 
 K 3 hands 
 
134 OF PROPER BOOKS 
 
 hands of fimple and illiterate perfons ; and, 
 what is worfe, to fpend all the riches of their 
 art upon barren fubjects. But why do I 
 call them barren ? I fhould have rather faid, 
 fubjects in every refpect unworthy the pencil. 
 Such are the reprefentations of thofe faints, 
 who, though they never had the lead inter- 
 courfe with each other, and, perhaps, even- 
 lived in different ages, are, notwithstanding, 
 to be introduced, tete a tete, as it were, in 
 the fame picture. The mechanic of the art 
 may, indeed, difplay itfelfon thefe occafions; 
 but by no means the ideal. The difpofition 
 may be good and praife-worthy, as in the 
 works of Cortona, and Lanfranc; but we 
 are not to expect in them either invention 
 or expreffion, which require for their bafis 
 the reprefentation of fome fact capable of 
 producing fuch effects. Who does not, on 
 the bare mention of this abufe, immediately 
 recollect many fad inftances of it; fuch as the 
 famous St. Caecilia of Raphael, furrounded 
 by St. Paul, St. Mary Magdalen, St. John, 
 and St. Auguftin ; and the picture of Paolo 
 Veronefe, in the Vefrry of the Nuns of Su 
 
 Zachary 
 
FOR A PAINTER. 135 
 
 2£achary at Venice, in which St. Francis of 
 Aflizium, Saint Catherine, and St. Jerome 
 richly habited in his Cardinal's robes, form 
 a ring round the Virgin feated on a 
 throne with the child Jefus in her arms ; 
 perhaps the moft beautiful and pictu^ 
 refque of all the infipid and infignificant 
 pieces, with which Italy abounds. It is very 
 fhocking to think, that young painters 
 fhould be obliged to ftudy their art from fuch 
 wretched compofitions, as others ftudy good 
 language in the beft writers, In the lives of 
 GiofafTate and Barlaamo. 
 
 The fubjecls,in which the pencil triumphs- 
 moft, and with which a judicious painter may 
 flock himfelf by the perufal of good books, 
 are, no doubt, thofe, which are moft univer- 
 fally known, which afford the largeft field for 
 a difplay of the paffions, and contain the great- 
 eft variety of incidents, all concurring, in 
 the fame point of time, to form one principal 
 action. Of this the ftory of Coriolanus 
 befieging Rome, as related by Livy, is a 
 Ihining example. Nothing can be imagined 
 more beautiful than the fcene of action itfelf, 
 K 4 which 
 
i 3 6 OF PROPER SOOKS 
 which ought to take in the Pretorium iri 
 the camp of the Volfcians, the Tiber be* 
 hind it, and the feven hills, among which 
 the towering Capitol is, as it were, to lord 
 it over the reft. It is impoflible to conceive 
 a greater variety, than what muft appear 
 in that crowd of foldiers, women and chil- 
 dren, all which are to enter the compofition, 
 unlefs, perhaps, it be that of the different 
 paffions with which they are feverally agi- 
 tated; fome wifhing that Coriolanus may 
 raife the fiege ; others fearing it \ others again 
 fufpe&ing it. But the principal groupe forms 
 the moft picturefque part of the piece. Co- 
 liolanus, haftily defcendcd from his tribunal, 
 and, hurried on by love, to embrace his 
 mother, ftops fhort through fhame, on her 
 crying out to him : hold ; let me firft know, 
 if 'tis a fon, or an enemy I am going to 
 embrace (5)? Thus a painter may im- 
 part novelty to the moft hackneyed fubjecl, 
 
 (5) Sine, priufquam complexum accipio, 
 fciam, inquit, ad hoftem, an ad filium venenm: 
 captiva, materne, in caftris tuis fun ? 
 
 Liv. Dec. I. L. "• 
 
 by 
 
FOR A PAINTEK. 137 
 
 toy taking, for his guides, thofe authors, wh6 
 poffefs the happy talent of adding grace and 
 dignity, by their beautiful and fublime de- 
 fcriptions, even to the moft common and 
 trifling tranfactions. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. 
 
 OF A FRIEND. 
 
 TH E painter may reap ftill greater ad- 
 vantages from the occafional advice of 
 a learned and difcreet friend. Diomedes, the 
 better to difcover what was going forward in 
 the camp of the Trojans, defired that another 
 might be fent with him, as two eyes fee bet- 
 ter than one (6). And it is to this that So- 
 crates alludes in his fecond Alcibiades, by his 
 two who confider at once the fame cbjefi 
 (7). Hannibal, when about to pafs on his 
 grand expedition from Spain into Italy, took 
 with him a Spartan well verfed in the art of 
 
 (7) rim $v I^ojXEwy. 
 
 (8) rim &/o cxo7r1ofijjva7. 
 
 ivar 
 
138 OF A FRIEND. 
 
 war (8). And Julius Cefar himfelf, the orna- 
 ment of mankind, ufed to confuk withOppius 
 and Balbus on the beft methods of conducting 
 himfelf in the civil war; and it is to this that we 
 are to attribute the great fuccefs, with which 
 all his undertakings were crowned (9). After 
 fuch examples, who will dare to truft entirely 
 to his own judgment, and flight the advice 
 of others, in military, ftate, or literary 
 affairs j but, above all, in the exercife of 
 an art, compofed, as painting is, of fo many 
 parts ; and every part of fo difficult a na- 
 ture, that to excell in any one of them is 
 fufficient to immortalize the artift ? 
 
 Fontenelle ufedtofay, that however pre- 
 judiced he wasagainft books in manufcript, he 
 
 (8) Nee minus Annibal petiturus Italiam La- 
 cedxmonium doclorem quaefivit armorum : cujus 
 monitis tot confules, tantafque legiones inferior 
 numero, ac viribus interemit. 
 
 Veget. de Re milit. L. III. 
 
 (9) Id quemadmodum fieri poflit, nonnulla 
 
 mihi in men tern veniunt, & multa reperiri pof- 
 
 funt. De his rebus rogo vos, ut cogitationem 
 
 iafcipiatis. In L. X. Ep. ad Atticum. 
 
 was 
 / 
 
OF A FRIEND. 139 
 
 tf/as ftill more partial to thofe in print ( 1) ; infi- 
 nuating thereby, that there is no neceffity for 
 bein°- fparingofour advice and cenfureto thofe, 
 who come to confult us about their works, 
 before they have made them public : whereas 
 the author, who brings his book ready 
 printed, (hews plainly that praife and incenfe 
 is all he looks for. The fame may be ap- 
 plied to the painter, who brings you his 
 picture ready varnifhed, in order to have 
 your opinion of it. A painter, if he is wife, 
 will confult a friend concerning his fketch 
 before he attempts to transfer it to the can- 
 vas, or rather upon the different fketches 
 and cartoons he mould make, in order to fave 
 himfelf the trouble and mortification of 
 racking his piece afterwards. A friend 
 may then venture to offer him fuch ad- 
 vice, as may tend moft. to render the piece 
 perfect. He may tell him, for example, 
 if, in the formation of his figures, he 
 has been guilty of that common fault, of 
 making things too like themfelves; dilcufs 
 with him the merit of the fubjecl:, on the 
 
 (1) Vie de Fontenelle. 
 
 choice 
 
t40 OF A FRIEND. 
 
 choice of which the merit of the execution 
 Itfelf fo much depends ; examine, if in the 
 action he has chofen the moft important and 
 moft favourable point of representing it; if 
 the incidents he has introduced are fuch as 
 bed fuit the fubjeft ; and, above all, if he has 
 treated it with grace, erudition, and pro- 
 priety. Pouffiii, fo chafte in this branch, 
 ufed to have recourfe to Bellori, to the Com- 
 mendator del Pozzo, and to the Cavalier 
 Marini. Taddeo Zuccheri took the advice 
 of the learned Annibal Caro concerning 
 his pidhzrefque inventions of Caprarola ; as 
 the great Raphael ukd to do that of the 
 Conte di Caftiglione, though he him- 
 felf was very far from being illiterate; 
 and indeed wrote and defigned with equal 
 elegance ; vying, in every thing, with thofe 
 noble artifts of Greece, who acquired as much 
 glory by their fpeedhes as by their works (3), 
 
 (3) Gloriantur Athens armamentario fuo, nee 
 jlne caufa ; eft enim illud opus & impenfa & ele- 
 gantia vifendum. Cujus Archite&um Philonem 
 ita facunde rationem inilitutionis fuas in Theatro 
 
 Giotto, 
 
OF A FRIEND. * 4 * 
 
 Giotto, the xeftorer of painting amongft us, 
 made a friend and counfellor of the father of 
 
 reddidiue conftat, at difertihlmus papains non 
 minorem laudem eloquentiae ejus quam art* 
 Sribuerit, Val. Ma. L. VIII. C. XIL 
 
 Baphael da Urbino to Count Balthazar 
 Caftiglione. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 THAVE made federal drawings agreeable to 
 the Inventions of your Lord&ip ; and, unlefs 
 I am greatly- flattered, they are well liked by 
 all thoie who have ieen them. But I cannot 
 my£el£ approve of them, for fear your Lordfhip 
 ihouid not. I therefore fend them to your Lord* 
 Ihip, that yo*s may chafe feme of them, mould 
 any of them appear worthy of your choice. The 
 Holy Father, in conferring a great honour, has 
 laid a heavy burthen upon me ; I mean that of 
 conducting the works at St. Peter's. I hope, 
 however, that I mall not fink under it; and 
 the more fo> as the model I have made has been 
 approved by his Holinefs, and much admired 
 by feveral ingenious men. But I am for fear- 
 ing ftill higher. I would fain (hike out £omc 
 beautiful forms like thofe of the ancient ftrno 
 
f42 OF A FRIEND. 
 
 our poetry, who was not, it is faid, unac- 
 quainted with the practical part of defign (4) ; 
 and the painters, who, after the Buonarottis 
 and the Vincis, fupported the honour of the 
 Florentine School, ufed to refort to Galileo 
 as to an Oracle, who to fome (kill in draw- 
 ing united the molt exquifite tafte and judg- 
 ment (5). 
 
 tures. Perhaps I may meet with the fate of Icarus. 
 Vitruvius gives me no fmall infight into them, but 
 ftill lefs than I could wiih. As to the Galatea, I 
 mould think myferf a great mafter, were that to 
 be the laft I had to perform of the fine things, about 
 which your Lordlhip writes to me. But I plainly 
 difcover the love you bear me, in what you fay on 
 this occafion; and muft tell you, that to paint a fine 
 woman, I muft fee much finer, and, befides, have 
 your Lordfhip with me to make choice of the 
 fineft. But, as good judges and fine women are 
 fcarce, I am obliged to abide by certain ideas of 
 my own. I will not take upon me to determine, 
 if the prefent has any merit ; but this I know, 
 that I have taken no fmall pains with her. 
 
 (4) Vafari in hie life of Giotto, and Ludovic© 
 Dolce's dialogue upon painting, p. 130. Edition 
 of Florence in 1735. 
 
 (5) Viviani's life of Galileo. 
 
 Hab 
 
OF A FRIEND. 143 
 
 Had Spagnoletto of Bologna confulted 
 with men of this character, he never would 
 have reprefented, as he has done in a picture 
 he drew for Prince Eugene, Chiron about 
 to give Achilles a kick* for not taking a 
 good aim. Nor would the painters of the 
 Venetian School have taken fuch liberties, 
 efpecially in point of the Coftume, had they 
 had fuch good judges to reftrain them. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE 
 PUBLIC JUDGEMENT. 
 
 IT is requifite a painter fhould firmly 
 believe, that there are no better judges of 
 his art than men of true tafte and the 
 public (6). Wo to thofe works of art, (fays 
 
 (6) Ortines enim tacito quodam fenfu, line 
 vdla arte aut ratione, quae funt in artibus ac rar- 
 tionibus recta ac prava dijudicant; idque cum 
 faciunt in piciuris & in fignis, &c. 
 
 Cic. de Orat. L. IIJ. N. I. 
 
 Mirabile eft enim cum plurimum in faciendo 
 
 a^iterfit inter doctum & rudem, quam non mul- 
 
 a great 
 
f 44 OF THE IMPORTANCE OF 
 a great man, a very eagle in the regions of 
 knowledge) which can pleafe none but ar- 
 tifts (7). Baldinucci gives us a pleafant in- 
 stance of the weaknefs of a Florentine pain- 
 ter in this refpecl:. Being told by a gentle- 
 man, who came to fee one of his pieces, that 
 
 turn difFerat in judicando. Ars enim cum a na- 
 tura profe&a fit, nifi naturam moveat ac dele&et, 
 nihil fane egiffe videtur. Id. ibid. N. li. 
 
 Ut enim pittores, & ii qui figna fabricantur, 
 & vero etiam poetae, fuum quifque opus a vulgo 
 confiderari vult, ut n" quid reprehenfum fit a 
 pluribus, id corrigatur: hique & fecum, & cum 
 aliis quid in eo peccatum fit exquirunt : fie ali- 
 orum judicio permulta nobis Sc facienda, & noit 
 facienda, & mutanda, & corrigenda funt. 
 
 Id. de Off. L. I. N. xli. 
 
 Ad pi&uram probandam adhibentur etiam 
 
 Infcii faciendi, cum aliqua follertia judicandi. 
 
 Id. De opt. gen. Orat. N. iv. 
 
 Namque omnes homines, non folum architect, 
 
 quod ell bonum poflunt probare. 
 
 Vitr. Lib. VI. Cap. xi. 
 
 (7) Malheur aux productions de PArt, dont 
 toute la beaute n'eft que pour les ^artiftes. Mr» 
 D'Alerabert dans TEloge de M, de Montefquieu. 
 
 a hand 
 
THE PUBLIC JUDGEMENT. 145 
 
 a hand in it would not admit that attitude* 
 .but looked as if crippled, he immediately 
 jnade him an offer of his crayon, defiring 
 him to alter what he thought amifs in it, 
 .But the gentleman excufing himfelf, by fay- 
 ing, " How mould I be able to do it, who am 
 not of the prof effion?" The painter, who flood 
 in wait for this anfwer, replied, " What right 
 have you, then, to cenfure the works of thofe 
 who are (8) ? " As though a man mould be 
 able to defign a hand like Pefarefe, to know 
 if another, in defigning one, has crippled it or 
 not (9). There appeared a great deal more 
 
 (8) Notitie de' Profeflhri del Difegno, &c. 
 Anecdotes of the profefibrs of defign from the 
 days of Cimabue to the prefent, containing 
 thirty years, from 1580 to 1610, in the Life of 
 Pabrizio Bofchi. 
 
 (9) That faying of Donatellus to Philip,, 
 •*' Here's wood for you, do it yourfelf," will not 
 always hold good ; for the perfon to whom it is 
 addrefled, may, reply, " Though I cannot do 
 il better myfelf, I know when you do wrong." 
 There is to this purpofe a moll beautiful pafTage 
 in Dionyfius HalicarnafTenfis, where he gives his 
 ©pinion of the hiflory of Thucidycles. His words 
 
 L fenfe 
 
146 THE IMPORTANCE OF 
 fenfe in the conduct of that Venetian painter, 
 who, when any honeft mechanic happened 
 to have bufinefs with him, never miffed the 
 opportunity of taking his opinion concerning 
 the pieces he was then about ; and, on the good 
 man's telling him, that he was no judge of 
 painting, immediately cancelled what he had 
 been doing, and began it anew. Though all 
 men are not acquainted with the niceties of 
 an art, all can difcern if a figure is free or 
 cramped in its motions, if the colouring 
 of it is lively enough, if its drapery fits 
 well, if it operates and exprefles what it 
 
 are : " But though we are not pofTefled of the 
 exquifite and lively genius of Thucydides, and 
 other great writers, we may yet claim fome 
 ihare of their judgement. It was never deemed 
 unlawful for inferior artifts, nor even thofe who 
 did not belong to the profeflion, to criticife the 
 works of an Apelles, a Zeuxes, or a Protogenes ; 
 of a Phidias, a Poli&etus, or a Miron. Nay, 
 it often happens, that the moft illiterate per- 
 sons, in their judgement of things immediately 
 lubjeft to the fenfes, fhew themfelves no way in- 
 ferior to the moil learned." 
 
 Carlo Dati Vita di Apelles. 
 ought 
 
THE PUBLIC JUDGEMENT. i 47 
 
 ought to Operate and exprefs. In fhort, there 
 is no man, who, without entering into the 
 niceties and depths of things, may not form 
 a right judgement concerning the reprefenta- 
 tion of thofe, which he himfelf has a proper 
 feeling of, by having them conftantly before 
 his eyes; nay, a better judgement, perhaps, 
 than the artift himfelf, who has his own fa- 
 vourite modes of attitude, drapery, and co- 
 louring ; who has contracted a certain habit 
 of feeing in the fame ftile that he works, 
 and in all he does aims fo conftantly at fome 
 peculiar form, as to blame every thing that 
 differs from it. Painters, exclufiveof that envy 
 which fometimes blinds them, judge oftener 
 according to Paolo or Guercino, as writers do 
 according'to Boccaccio and Davanzati, than 
 according to nature andtruth. But it is not fo 
 with men of true tafte and the public, equal- 
 ly ftrangers to fchool prejudice (i). It is cer- 
 
 (1) Je ferois fouvent plus d'etat de l'avis d'un 
 homme de bon fens, qui n'auroit jamais manie 
 le pinceau, que de celui de la plus part des 
 peintres. M. de Piles Remarq. 50. fur le Poeme 
 de Arte graphica de M. du Frefnoy. 
 
 L 2 tain. 
 
i 4 8 THE IMPORTANCE OF 
 
 tain, that the Tarpa, without whofe appro- 
 bation no poets could gain admittance into the 
 library of Apollo Palatinus, was himfelf no 
 poet. Nor was the audience an audience of- 
 poets, which, in the French theatre, had tafte 
 enough to give the Armida, Mifantrope, and 
 Athalia the preference over all their other 
 dramatic performances. 
 
 The academies of painting, even thofc 
 compofed of artifts, are very fubjecl: to 
 give falfe judgement, and the rather, as the 
 heads of them have often obtained that ho- 
 nour by favour and intrigue, which, even in 
 times deemed the happieir. for the polite arts, 
 were often fufficient to raife men of no merit 
 above the heads of the moll deferving (2). 
 
 (2) Quoniam autem .... animadverto potius 
 indodlos quam dodos gratia fuperarc, non effe 
 certandum judicans cum indoclis ambitione, po- 
 tius his pneceptis editis oilenciam noftra? fcientiae 
 virtutem. Vitruv. in Proemio, Lib. III. 
 
 Pardon me, I befeech you, as you yourfelf 
 have experienced what it is to be deprived of 
 liberty, and live under obligations to patrons, 
 &c. 
 
 And 
 
THE PUBLIC JUDGEMENT. 149 
 And to this, no doubt, it is owing, that the 
 numerous focieties of -that kind, founded of 
 late by the liberality of Princes in Italy, Ger- 
 many, and France, for the improvement of 
 painting, have not prod uced a fingle pupil com- 
 parable with any of the ancient mafters. Thofe 
 great men did not, in ftudying the art, fer- 
 vilely aim to pleafe the director of an aca- 
 demy, in hopes of obtaining his recommenda- 
 tion and intereft, as is now the cafe. They 
 did not give themfelves up as Haves to follow 
 blindly his favourite ftile ; but, true to their 
 natural genius, they applied themfelves to 
 fuch things as beft fuited it, without running 
 any rills of fpoiling their fortune ; and 
 painted, not to flatter a matter, but to pleafe 
 
 Raphael's. letter to M. F. Raibolini, called il 
 Francia. 
 
 But if the other five books fhould be late to 
 appear, I am not to be blamed for it. It mult 
 rather be imputed to my bad fortune, in having 
 to deal with Princes, who lavilh their riches, I 
 need not tell you how; which, however, is gene- 
 rally the fault of their minifters. 
 
 Seb. Serlio, Lib. III. in line. 
 
 L 3 mankind. 
 
15© THE IMPORTANCE OF 
 
 mankind. It is but lately they difcover- 
 cd in France, how much this art fuffered 
 by being under the di&ature, or rather ty- 
 ranny, of a director, who, in a few years, 
 had diffufed his own particular manner into 
 the works of the youth under his care, and 
 infected with it the whole fchool. And to 
 this difcovery, in all probability, is owing 
 the wife method they have fince taken, of 
 expofing the works of their academifts in 
 public, to the open day, in which, to ufe the 
 words of a mafter, the fmalleft blemifh be- 
 comes vifible; that is, to a judgment, to 
 which Phidias (3), Apelles (4), Tintoret, 
 and many others of the moft famous matters, 
 ancient and modern, fubmitted theirs. True it 
 is, that either through the novelty of a fub- 
 jec"l, or the tricks of thofe who exhibit it, the 
 
 (3) ini) xcci (ptiYixv (pccaiv ov\u laoirnrcti, &C. 
 
 Lucian. de Imaginibus: 
 
 (4) Idem (Apelles) perfe&a opera proponebat 
 pergula tranfeuntibus, atque poll ipfam tabulam 
 latens vitia, quae notarentur, aufcultabat, vul- 
 gum diligentiorem judicem quam fe preferens. 
 
 C. Plin. Nat. Hill. Lib. XXXV. Cap. x. 
 
 multitude 
 
THE PUBLIC JUDGEMENT. 151 
 multitude is fometimes liable to be miftaken. 
 But free from partiality, and guided by a cer- 
 tain natural good fenfe, as well as by the au- 
 thority of good judges, they at laft come to 
 fet a juft value upon the feveral works of an 
 artift ; and, without knowing any thing of 
 the contrail between light and fhade, rich- 
 nefs of colouring, beauty of attitude, or of 
 the manner in which this or that erTecl: is 
 produced ; in fhort, without knowing any 
 thing of the niceties of the art, theyjudge, and 
 from their judgment there lies no appeal, as 
 well of the parts as of the whole of a piece. 
 It was this opinion of the multitude, that 
 encouraged Titian to follow the paths 
 of Giorgione and nature ; that folemnly 
 belied, and turned to their fhame, the judge- 
 ment, which certain Canons, alfembled in 
 chapter, had pronounced concerning a piece 
 of Vandycke's (5); that placed the Com- 
 munion of St. Jerome on a footing with 
 the transfiguration of Raphael, in fpite of 
 
 (5) Defchamps Vies des Peintre* Flamands, 
 T« II. dans la Vie dc Vandick. 
 
 L 4 the 
 
l 5 2 OF THE CRITICISM 
 
 the clamour firft raffed by the rivals of Do^- 
 menichino againft that ineflimable perform- 
 ance (6). The multitude, in a word, who, 
 properly fpeaking, are. the firft mafters of 
 a painter, are likewife, and it is but juft they 
 Ihould be fo, his fovereign judges. 
 
 CHAP. XV. 
 
 ©F THE CRITICISM NECESSARY 
 
 TO A PAINTER. 
 
 LET not a profeflbr, defirous of obtaining. 
 univerfal applaufe, be backward in do- 
 ing juftice to the merit of others, who have 
 gone before him ; nor let him be afraid, 
 where juftice requires it, to cenfure freely 
 their' defects. He is not, either through af- 
 fection for his own fchool, or even love for 
 his country, to erect an idol in his own 
 inind; but tutored by fcience, according to 
 the infallible rule of truth, he muft afiign 
 every painter that rank, which he is beft en- 
 titled to ; he muft pay a due regard to his 
 ftile and manner. His judging thus of the 
 
 (6) Bellori in the Life of Domenichino. 
 
 merit 
 
NECESSARY TO A PAINTER, f$3 
 
 merit of other men's works will turn greatly 
 to the benefit of his own. 
 
 This is the more neceffary, confidering 
 how little the judgement of thofe, who have- 
 written the lives of painters, is to be de- 
 pended on. The merit of thefe writers, ut- 
 ter flrangers to the elegant acutenefs of Pliny* 
 confifts entirely in giving a blind and tedious 
 -account of all the blunders committed, and all 
 the good things faid, by this or that painter, 
 and a lift of all his works ; but not a word 
 of his merit as a painter, no more than if he 
 had never handled a pencil : for as to the 
 praifes, which they bellow on them by whole- 
 sale, juft as they come uppermoft, they are 
 too vague to chara£terife any of them ; not 
 unlike thofe which Ariofto lavifhes on the 
 principal mailers of the age he lived in, 
 
 Duo DoJJi, e quel che a par fculpe e cobra 
 
 Michel put de mortale angel dlvino 
 
 Bajliano^ Raffael^ Tizian? chonora 
 
 Non men Cador, che quel benezia, e Ur- 
 hi no (]), 
 
 (7) The two Dofii, and Michael, who. more thai* 
 mortal, a divine angel, both carves and paints 
 
 Wherever 
 
154 OF THE CRITICISM 
 
 Wherever, therefore, a young painter 
 happens to be, let him make it his bufinefs to 
 fee the works of the beft matters j but let him 
 fee them with a critic's eye, and obferve as 
 well their beauties as their blemifhes. Achilles 
 himfelf had a vulnerable part ; nor was the 
 divine genius, who celebrates him, without 
 imperfection. Neither one nor the other had 
 received a compleat dip. Among mortals, the 
 beft is he who is leaft bad (8). Let not the 
 young painter, therefore, be afhamed to fay of 
 one piece ; " here is no correctnefs of defign, 
 no grandeur in the outline, nor is the coftumc 
 duely obferved ; there the rules of perfpec- 
 tive are violated, the chiarofcuro falfe, the 
 
 equally well; Bafliano, Raphael, and Titian 
 who do as much honour to Cador, as thefe to 
 Venice and Urbino. 
 
 An Englifh writer fays of this verfe ; " this 
 " praife is exceflive, not decifive; it carries no 
 « idea." 
 
 (8) optimus ille eft, 
 
 Qui minimis urgetur. Hor. L.. I. Sat. iii. 
 Whoever thinks a faultlefs piece to fee, 
 Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er mail be. 
 
 EfTay on Crit. 
 reafons 
 
NECESSARY TO A PAINTER. 155 
 reafons for fuch a reflection of colour not 
 Sufficiently apparent." And of another piece, 
 " here the colouring is lively, the features are 
 fine, the penciling bold, the flow of drapery 
 eafy, the groupes well difpofed, the degrada- 
 tion well conducted, and the contrails both na- 
 tural and ingenious." Happy the painter, who 
 unites the grace and expreflion of this matter 
 with the colouring and (hading of that ; the 
 truth and beauty pofleued Severally by thefe 
 two; the Symmetry obfervable in this piece, 
 with the beautiful confufion'preferved in that !" 
 
 CHAP. XVI. 
 OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE. 
 
 BY Such obfervations as thefe, a young 
 painter will, in time, acquire the faci- 
 lity of forming a right judgment of thofe 
 matters, who hold the firft rank in his pro- 
 fettion. The celebrated de Piles, who, by 
 his writings, has thrown fo much light upon 
 painting, in order to reduce Such judgment 
 to the greater precifion, bethought himfclf of 
 a pictorical balance, by means of which a 
 
 painter's 
 
t 5 6 OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE. 
 painter's merit may be weighed with the 
 greater!: exactnefs. This merit he divides 
 into cornpofition, defign, colouring, and ex- 
 prefiion ; and in each of thefe branches he 
 has afligned every painter that fhare he 
 thought him entitled to, according as he ap- 
 proached more or lefs the higheit degree of 
 excellence, and fummit of perfection ; fo 
 that, by fumming up the numbers, which* 
 (landing againft each mailer's name, exprefs 
 his fhare of merit in each of thefe branches, 
 we have his total merit or value in the art, 
 and may hence gather what rank one painter 
 holds in regard to another. Several objections, 
 it is true, have been ftarted to this method 
 ©f calculation, by a famous mathemaician 
 of our days, who, among other things, 
 infills, that it is the product of the above 
 numbers, multiplied by each other, and 
 not the fum of them that gives the true 
 merit of the artift (9). Butthis is not a place 
 
 (9) See remarks on Monfieur de Piles's ba- 
 lance of painters, as it appears at the end 
 of his courfe of painting by Monfieur de 
 Mairan. Mem. df; l'Acad. des Sciences, 1 7 5 5 - 
 
 to 
 
OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE. 157 
 to enter into ftich niceties, nor, indeed, would 
 the doing it be of any fervice to the art. The 
 only thing worth our notice is, whether 
 the original numbers, {landing for the pain- 
 ter's merit in the feveral branches of his art, 
 are fuch as he is really intitled to, without 
 fuffering ourfelves to be biafTed by any par- 
 tiality, as de Piles has been, in favour of the 
 Prince of the Flemifh fchool; the confe- 
 quence of which, ftrange as it may appear, 
 is, that in his balance Raphael and Rubens 
 turn out exactly of the fame weight. 
 
 Raphael is now univerfally allowed to 
 have attained that degree of perfection, be- 
 yond which it is fcarce lawful for mortals ta 
 aipire. Painting, in fome meafure revived 
 among us by the diligence of Cimabue, to- 
 wards the decline of the thirteenth century,, 
 received no fmall improvement from the 
 genius of Giotto, Mafaccio, and others ; info- 
 much that, in lefs than two hundred years* 
 it began to blaze forth with great luftre its 
 the works of Ghirlandai, Gian Bellino, Man- 
 tegna, Pietro Perugi.no, Leonardo da Vinci, 
 ths heft grounded of them all, a man of great 
 
 learningv 
 
158 OF THE PAINTERS BALANCE. 
 learning, and the firft who contrived to give 
 relief to pictures. But whatever improvement 
 the art might have received from thefe different 
 matters in different parts of Italy, they frill, to a 
 man almoft, fervilely followed the fame man- 
 ner, and all partook more or lefs of that hard- 
 nefs and drynefs, which, in an age ftill Gothic, 
 painting received from the hands of it's re- 
 ftorer Cimabue; till Raphael, at length, iffu- 
 ing from the Perugian fchool, and, ftudying 
 the works of the Greeks, without ever lofing 
 fight of nature, brought the art, in a manner, 
 to the higheft pitch of perfection. This 
 great man has, if not entirely, at leaft in a 
 great meafure, attained thofe ends, which a 
 painter fhould always propofe to himfelf, to 
 deceive the eye, fatisfy the underftanding, and 
 touch the heart. So excellent are his pieces, 
 that the fpeSator, far from praifing his pen- 
 cil, feems fometimes entirely to forget that 
 they are the feats of it he has before him; 
 folely intent upon, and, as it were, tranfported 
 to the fcene of action, in which he almoft 
 fancies himfelf a party. Well, indeed, has 
 he deferved the title of Divine, by the beau- 
 ty and CQBJprehenfivenefs of his expreflion. 
 
 the 
 
OF THE PAINTERS BALANCE. 159 
 
 the juftnefs and noblenefs of his compofitions, 
 the chaftity of his defigns, and the elegance of 
 his forms, which always carry a natural inge- 
 nuity along with them ; but above all, by that 
 iriexpremble gracefulnefs, more beautiful than 
 beauty itfelf, with which he has contrived to 
 feafon all his pieces. Carlo Maratti having en- 
 graved a piece, called the School, placed at the 
 top of it the three graces with this verfe under 
 them. 
 
 Senza dl not ogni fatlca e vana (1). 
 Without their aid, in fa£t., the light of a 
 picture is no better than darknefs, every atti- 
 tude is infipid, every motion awkward. 'Tis 
 they who impart to every thing that Je nefeai 
 quoiy that charm, which is as fure to conquer, 
 as impofiible to be defined. Maratti has 
 placed the graces on high, and, as it were, 
 descending from Heaven, in order to (hew 
 that they really are a celeftial gift. Happy 
 the artifl: on whofe cradle they have famed, 
 whofe vows and offerings they have not 
 difdained ! Maratti was not to be informed, 
 
 (1) Without our aid all labour is in vain. 
 
 that 
 
i6o" OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE. 
 
 that graeefulnefs, that jewel which adds fuch 
 value to every thing, though not originally* 
 obtainable by all the gold of diligence and 
 ftudy, may yet be greatly heightened and 
 polifhed by them. 
 
 Though Raphael might boaft, like Apel- 
 les of old, whom he refembled in fo many 
 other refpecTs, that in graeefulnefs he had no 
 equal (2), yet Parmigiano and Correggio 
 mufl be allowed to have come very near him. 
 One of them has, however, often trefpafTed 
 the juft bounds of fymmetryj and the 
 other is not always chafte in his defigns : 
 both, befides, were too apt to be guilty of 
 affectation. We ought, perhaps, to forgive 
 
 (2) Praccipua ejus (Apellis) in arte venuftas 
 Hut, cum eadem aetate maximi pi&ores efTent : 
 quorum opera cum admiraretur, collaudatis, 
 omnibus, deeiTe iis unam Venerem dicebat, 
 -quarn Graeci Charita vocant: Cetera omnia con- 
 tigiiTe: fed hac foli fibi neminem parem. 
 
 Plin. Nat. Hift. L. XXXV. C. x. 
 Ingenio, & gratia, quam in feipfe maxime 
 jadlat, Apelles eft praeftantiffimus. 
 
 Quintil. Init. Orat. L. XII. C. x. 
 Correggio 
 
OF THE PAINTERS BALANCE. i6r 
 Correggio every thing, for the fake of that 
 uncommon greatnefs of manner, that life 
 and foul which he has infufed into all his 
 figures ; for the fake of that inimitable eafe 
 and delicacy of pencil, which makes his 
 pieces appear as if finiftied in a day, and (een 
 in a glafs. Of this we have a fufficient 
 proof in the Ancona of St. Jerome and the 
 Magdalen on their knees before the child 
 Jefus, which is in Parma ; the fineft picture, 
 perhaps, that ever iffued from mortal hands. 
 
 There are fome glimpfes of Correggio's 
 ftile in the works of Barrocci, though he 
 ftudied at Rome. He never drew a figure 
 that he did not borrow from nature ; and, 
 for fear of lofing the mafTes, ufed to drape 
 his models with very large folds. His pencil 
 was exceedingly fweet, and his colouring 
 equally harmonious. He, indeed, fpoiled 
 a little the natural tints by too free an ufe of 
 reds and blues, and has now and then robbed 
 things of their body by fhading them too 
 much, and melting them, as it were, into 
 one another. In point of defign he was far 
 more diligent than fuccefsful j and, in the air 
 M of 
 
io2 OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE, 
 of his heads, affected the graceful nefs of the 
 Lombard School, rather than the elegance of 
 the Greeks and his Countryman Raphael. 
 
 Michael Angelo was a perfect ftranger 
 to all manner of gracefulnefs. But he was 
 learned, profound, fevere, bold in his poftures, 
 and the nrft that introduced the terrible into 
 painting. 
 
 Julio Romano, full of fpirit, and of 
 learned and uncommon conceits, feems to 
 come nearer the manner of Michael Angelo, 
 than the elegantly natural one of Raphael, 
 under whom he fludied. 
 
 The Germans, by fervilely following Mi> 
 chael Angelo, gave into thofe ftrange atti- 
 tudes and clumfy forms, which appear in the 
 works of their greateft men, Sprangher and 
 Golzio. 
 
 The Florentines copied him with great- 
 er judgement and difcretion. We muft, how- 
 ever, except Andrea del Sarto, who, though 
 an obferver of truth, is fomewhat clumfy in his 
 figures. But then he is eafy in his draperies ; 
 fweet in his colours ; and would have carri- 
 ed the palm among the Tufcans had it not 
 
 been 
 
OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE. 163 
 been raviftied from him by Fra. Bartolo- 
 meo, to immortalife whom his St. Mark 
 in the palace Pitti would alone be fuffi- 
 cient ; for there is not wanting in that piece 
 any of the perfections neceflary to conftitute 
 an excellent mafter. 
 
 Titian, whom Giorgone firft initiated 
 in the art, is an univerfal mafter. Upon 
 every thing he took in hand, he has contrived 
 to ftamp its own proper nature. His pencil 
 flows with juices that are truely vital. His 
 figures breathe ; and the blood circulates in 
 their faces. And though fome, perhaps, 
 have furpafled him in defign, not but that 
 he is generally correct enough in the bodies 
 of his women, and his children, on account 
 of their form, have been ftudied by the 
 greateft matters (3) ; he never had his equal 
 in colouring, or in portrait and landfcape 
 painting. He moft indefatigably ftudied truth 
 and never loft fight of her. He moft inde- 
 fatigably laboured to convert, if I may be 
 allowed the expreftion, the colours of his 
 
 (3) Bellori's lives of Pouflin and Francefco 
 Fiammingo. 
 
 M 2 pallet 
 
1 64 OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE, 
 pallet into flefh and blood. But what coft 
 him moft was, as he himfelf confeftes, to 
 cover and hide this fatigue ; and in this he 
 has fucceeded (o well,, that his works feem 
 rather born than made. His fortune equalled 
 his merit. He was greatly honoured by 
 Charles V, as the great Raphael had been, 
 a few years before, by the Popes Julius IL 
 and Leo X. 
 
 Jacopo Baflano diftinguifhed himfelf, at 
 the fame time, by the ftrength of his colour- 
 ing. Few have equalled him in the juft 
 difpenfation of light reflected from one object 
 to another, and in thofe happy contrails, by 
 means of which painted objects become really 
 tranfparent. He may boaft his having de- 
 ceived an Annibal Caracci, as Parrhafio 
 formerly deceived Zeuxes (4); and had the 
 glory of Paolo Veronefe's not being willing 
 that his fon Carletto mould learn the princi- 
 ples of colouring from any other mafter. 
 
 Paolo Veronefe was the Creator, as it 
 were, of a new manner. Though carelefs in 
 
 (4) See an account of this deception in the 
 life of Annibal Caracci. 
 
 point 
 
 
OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE. 165 
 
 point of defign, and, in point of coflume, ex- 
 tremely licentious, he was mofl noble of 
 fancy, and moft fruitful of invention. One 
 would imagine, that thofe, who behold 
 his magnificent pictures, longed to be 
 of the action reprefented by them; and it 
 may be faid of him, with great juftice, that 
 even his faults are pleafing (5). He has 
 had very great admirers in every age, and 
 among them a Guido Reni, whofe praife, 
 no doubt, would have flattered him moft. 
 
 Tint ore t is no way inferior to any of 
 the Venetians in thofe pieces, which he drew 
 by way of difplaying his talents and not im- 
 proving them. This he has particularly 
 fhewn in his Martyrdom, now in the School 
 of St. Mark, in which there is defign, co- 
 louring, compofition, effects of light, life, 
 expreflion, and all carried to the higheft pitch 
 of perfection. Scarce had this picture made 
 its appearance, when all mankind feemed to 
 fall in love with it. Aretine himfelf, though 
 
 (5) In quibufdam virtutes non habent gra- 
 tiam, in quibufdam vitia ipfa dele&ant. 
 
 Quint. Inft. Orat. Lib. XI. C. iii. 
 
 fo 
 
1.66 OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE, 
 fo warm a friend to Titian, that throup-h 
 mere jealoufy he turned Tintoret out of his 
 School, could not forbear crying it up to 
 excefs. He wrote hirrtfelf to Tintoret, that 
 this piece had extorted the applaufe of all 
 thofe who faw it. The fcene, adds he, ap- 
 pears rather true than feigned; and happy 
 would you be, if, inftead of being fo expe- 
 ditious, you could prevail on yourfelf to be a 
 little more patient (6). 
 
 Next to thefe great artifts, who had no 
 guide but nature, or the mod perfect copies 
 of nature, the Greek ftatues, ftarted up 
 thofe other artifts, whom we are not to con- 
 fidcr as the difciples of nature, fo much as 
 of thofe mafters, who a little before had re- 
 vived the art of painting, and reftored it to 
 its ancient honour and dignity. Such were 
 the Caraccis, who undertook to unite in 
 their manner the beauties of all the moft 
 famous Italian Schools, and founded a new 
 one, which did not yield to the Roman in 
 
 (6) Vedi Lettera LXV. T. III. Raccolta di 
 Lettere fulla Pittura, Scultura, e Architettura. 
 
 elegance 
 
OF THE PAINTERS BALANCE. 167 
 
 elegance of forms, to the Florentine in cor- 
 redtnefs of defign, nor to the Venetian or 
 Lombard in beauty of colouring. Thefe 
 fchools, if I may be allowed the expreffion, are 
 the primitive metals of painting ; and the Ca- 
 racas, by melting them down together, com- 
 pofed a Corinthian metal, noble indeed and 
 beautiful to look at, but wanting the ftrength* 
 ductility, and weight pofTefled fingly by the 
 different metals which compofe it. And, 
 indeed, the greateft. praife, that can be be- 
 llowed on the works of the Caraccis, is not 
 owing to any air of originality in them, or 
 any perfect imitation of nature, but to the 
 ftriking likenefs in them, to the manner of 
 Titian, Raphael, Parmigianino, and Correg- 
 gio. As to the reft, the Caraccis did not 
 neglect t® provide their fchool with all thofe 
 helps, which learning could afford; from a 
 conviction that the arts never fucceed through 
 mere good fortune, or boldnefs of fancy, but 
 are rather fo many habits working according 
 to the dictates of learning and right reafon (7). 
 
 (7) h fjLiv oi» tsfrvr, \hz tvk wr-/ \oyu 
 
 «Ar,^y 5 Trotyl;:?? 'if it, Arift. Eth. L. VI. C. iv. 
 
 M 4 In 
 
1 68 OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE, 
 
 Jn their fchool the pupils were taught per- 
 fpective, anatomy ; in a word, every thing 
 neceflary to lead them by the fhorteft and 
 fafeft road. And it is. to this that we arc 
 chiefly to attribute the fchool of Bologna's 
 having produced a greater number of able 
 matters than any. other. 
 
 At the head of thefe mafters ftand Dome- 
 nichino and Guido ; one a moil: curious ob- 
 ferver of .nature, and moft profound painter, 
 the other the inventor of a certain noble and 
 beautiful manner peculiar to himfelf, which 
 fhines efpecially in that fweetnefs and beauty 
 he has contrived to give the faces of his 
 women. Both thefe artifts have been pre- 
 ferred to the Caraccis, and it mull be owned, 
 that the laft did really excell them. 
 
 Francesco Barbieri, called il Gueicino, 
 fludied firft in this fchool, but he afterwards 
 formed to himfelf a certain peculiar manner, 
 entirely founded upon nature and truth. 
 Quite carelefs in the choice of his forms, he 
 produced a Chiarofcuro that gives the great- 
 er!: relief to objects, and renders them palpa- 
 ble. Caravaggio, the Rembrants of Italy, 
 
 was 
 
OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE. 169 
 was the real author of this manner, which, in 
 thefe our days, has been again brought to 
 light by Piazetta and Crefpi. He abufed the 
 faying of that Greek, who being afked, who 
 was his mafter, pointed to the populace ; and 
 fuch, indeed, was the magic of his Chiarof- 
 curo, that, as often as he undertook to copy 
 nature in low and trivial fubjecls, he had 
 the power of deceiving even a Dominichino 
 and a Guido. The ftile of Caravaggio was 
 followed by two famous Spaniards, Velaf- 
 quez, the founder of a fchool amongfl his 
 countrymen, and il Ribera, who fettled in 
 Italy, and from whom afterwards the whim- 
 fical Salvator Rofa, and that moft fertile ge- 
 nius Lucas Giordano, the Proteus and thun- 
 derbolt of painting, ftudied the firft princi- 
 ples of the art. 
 
 Between the matters of the Bolognian, 
 and thofe of the other fchools of Italy, we 
 are to place Rubens, the prince of the Flem- 
 miiri School, and a man of the moft elevated 
 genius, who appeared, at once, as painter 
 and amballador in a country, which, in a 
 few years after, faw one of its greater! poets 
 
 Secretary 
 
i ;o OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE. 
 Secretary of State. Nature endowed him 
 with great vivacity, and great eafe in work- 
 ing ; and he added learning to thefe natural 
 gifts; He, too, ftudied our mafters, Titian, 
 Tintoret, Caravaggio and Paolo; and bor- 
 rowed a little from every one of them, fo 
 fparingly, however, that his own peculiar 
 manner predominates. He was in his move- 
 ments more moderate than Tintoret, more 
 fort in his Chiarofcuro than Caravaggio, but 
 not fo rich in his compofitions, or light in 
 his touches as Paolo; and, in his carnations, 
 always lefs true than Titian, and lefs deli- 
 cate than his own fcholar Vandycke. He 
 contrived to give his colours the greater! 
 tranfparency, and no lefs harmony, notwith- 
 standing the extraordinary deepnefs of them ; 
 and he had a ftrength and grandeur of ftile 
 entirely his own. He would have foared 
 frill higher, had nature afforded him finer 
 objects in Flanders, or had he known 
 hew to create them anew, or correct them 
 after the patterns left us by the Greek 
 matters. 
 
 Poussin - , the prince of French painters, 
 a particular fondnefs for the works of 
 
 Rubens, 
 
OF THE PAINTER'S BALANCE. 171 
 
 Rubens, at the fame time that he fought for 
 the art of defign amongft the ancient mar- 
 bles, in which, as an ingenious author ex- 
 preftes it, fhe fits as Queen to give law to 
 the moderns. He fpared no pains in the 
 choice and compofition of his fubjects ; and 
 to give them life, learning and dignity. He 
 would have equalled Raphael himfelf, whofe 
 flile he imitated, were gracefulnefs, eafe and 
 vivacity to be acquired by ftudy. For, in 
 fact, it was by mere dint of labour and fa- 
 tigue, that he produced what, in a manner, 
 coft Raphael nothing ; infomuch, that his 
 figures may be laid to mimick the natural 
 actions of that great mafter. 
 
 CHAP. XVIL 
 OF IMITATION. 
 
 A Painter ought attentively to confider, 
 compare together, and weigh in the 
 balance of reafon and truth all thefe different 
 ftiles. But he ought likewife carefully to 
 guard againft too great a fondnefs for any- 
 one of them in particular, that he may think 
 
 proper 
 
i 7 2 OF IMITATION 
 
 proper to adopt; otherwife, to ufe the 
 Dantefque expreflion of a firft rate mafter, 
 inftead of the child, he would become the 
 grand-child of nature (8). 
 
 Besides, his imitation muft be of generals, 
 and not of particulars. Whatever a young 
 painter's natural difpofition may be, whether 
 to paint boldly and freely, like Tintoret and 
 Rubens, or to labour his works, like Ti- 
 tian or da Vinci, let him follow it. This 
 kind of imitation is very commendable. 
 It is thus that Dante, at the fame time 
 that he carefully avoided adopting the par- 
 ticular expreflions of Virgil, endeavoured to 
 feize his bold and free manner, and at laft 
 caught from him 
 
 Lo hello JliU che gll ha fatto onore (9). 
 
 Whereas little has accrued to that numerous 
 herd, who dole from Petrarch his peculiar 
 expreffions and images, and racked their 
 brains to think like him. 
 
 (8) Da Vinci on Painting. 
 
 (9) That elegance of flile, which has done 
 him fo much honour. 
 
 As 
 
OF IMITATION. 173 
 
 As to the reft, nothing mould hinder an 
 able mafter from making life, now and then, of 
 any antique or even modern figure, which he 
 may find his account in employing. Sanzio, 
 in a St. Paul-at-Liftra, fcrupled not to avail 
 himfelf of an ancient facrifice in bafib re- 
 lievo -, nor did Bonarroti himfelf difdain to 
 ufe, in his paintings of the Sextine chappel, 
 a figure taken from that famous Cornelian, 
 which, tradition tells us, he wore on his finger, 
 and which is now in the poffemon of the 
 moft Chriftian King. Men, like thefe, 
 avail themfelves of the productions of others 
 in fuch a manner, as to make us apply to 
 them, what la Bruyere faid of Defpreaux : 
 that one would imagine the thoughts of other 
 men had been of his own creation (1). 
 
 In general, a painter mould have his eye 
 conftantly fixed on nature, that inexhauftible 
 and varied fource of every kind of beauty ; 
 and mould ftudy to imitate her in her 
 moft fingular effects. As beauty, fcattered 
 over the whole univerfe, mines brighter in 
 fome objects than in others, he mould never 
 
 (1) Harangue a PAcademie. 
 
 be 
 
i 7 4 OF IMITATION. 
 
 be without his little book and crayon, in 
 order to make drawings of every beautiful 
 or uncommon object, that may happen to 
 prefent itfelf ; and take (ketches of every fine 
 building, every fituation, every effect of light, 
 every flight of clouds, every flow of drapery, 
 every attitude, every expreflion of the 
 paflions, that may happen to flrike him. 
 He may afterwards employ thefe things 
 as occafions offer; and in the mean time 
 will have the advantage of acquiring a 
 grand tafte. By uniting in a grand com- 
 petition effects no lefs bold and beautiful 
 than true and natural, he will acquire 
 the fame glory, that orators acquire by the 
 fublime, the glory of furprifing, and, in 
 a manner, exalting us above ourfelves. 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. 
 OF THE RECREATIONS 
 OF A PAINTER. 
 
 A Painter muff now and then break from 
 thefe important ftudies, and unbend 
 the mind, that it may return to its work 
 with new ftrength and relifh. We are told 
 
 that 
 
OF THE RECREATIONS, &c. 175 
 that the Carraccis, by way of relaxation-, 
 ufed to draw caricaturas, and propofe pi£hi- 
 rcfquc riddles to one another, by (ketching 
 out various devices which contained a great 
 meaning under a few ftrokes •, fome of which 
 Malvafia has thought worthy of his graver. 
 Some mafters have been known, after finim-- 
 ing the day's work, to fpend the dirfk of the 
 evening in confidering the fpots then form- 
 ing on faces and walls ; and taking down 
 upon paper thofe figures or groupes thereby 
 fuggefted to their fancy; a practice recom- 
 mended by da Vinci, as tending greatly to 
 improve the inventive faculty. But of all the 
 amufements of this kind, the mod: ufeful 
 feems to be that of the five points, in which 
 the head, hands and feet of a figure are to be 
 placed. By this exercife both the head and 
 hand of an artift acquire dexterity. By it he 
 may be faid to break himieli to invention. 
 By it he may expe£t often to hit upon the 
 moft beautiful attitudes; juft as the fined 
 thoughts are fometimes fuggefted by the 
 difficulty of rhyming* 
 
 A painter, by employing even his hours of 
 recreation in this manner 3 will find himfelf 
 
 entirely 
 
1 76 OF THE RECREATIONS 
 entirely taken up, as I have already faid he 
 fhould be, with his art. And, indeed, it is 
 the only method by which a man can expect 
 to render any exercife natural to him, and 
 overcome every difficulty that may occur in 
 undertakings of great confequence. An 
 education, in which all things, even the mi- 
 nuteft, tend folely to one great end, is no 
 other than the art of forming excellent men 
 and heroes. And, accordingly, a very great 
 genius has wifely obferved, that, if the Spar- 
 tans became the wonder of all Greece, it 
 was not fo much on account of the excellence 
 of any of their laws in particular, as on ac- 
 count of the general tendency of them all to 
 one and the fame point (2). In like manner, a 
 
 (2) Sed ut de rebus, quae ad homines folos 
 pertinent potius loquamur, fi olim Lacaedemo- 
 niorum refpublica fuit norentifTima, non puto 
 ex eo contigiffe quod legibus uteretur, quse fi- 
 gillatim fpectatas meliores efient aliarum civi- 
 tatum Inftitutis, nam contra multa? ex iis ab ufu 
 communi abhorrebant, atque etiam bonis mori- 
 bus adverfabantur, fed ex eo quod ab uno tan- 
 turn legiflatore condita^ fibi omnes confentiebant, 
 atque in eumdem fcopum collimabant. 
 
 Cartefius in DifTertatione de Methodo. 
 
 young 
 
OF A PAINTER. 177 
 
 jaung painter may expect to attain the 
 greater! heights, when nothing diverts him 
 from his purpofe, or retards him in the pur- 
 suit of it; when he never turns his eyes or 
 his thoughts from off his art (3), when he 
 has perfuaded himfelf, that, let a man have 
 ever fo great a genius, he rauft not expect 
 'to fucceed without pains; and, like a 
 man armed at all points, joining a well 
 grounded theory to a continual and uninter- 
 rupted practice. 
 
 C H A P. XIX. 
 
 OF THE FORTUNATE CONDITION 
 OF A PAINTER. 
 
 GREAT are the fatigues, no doubt, 
 which a painter muft undergo to be * 
 come eminent in his art ; but great, too, is 
 the intereft, with which he may expect to 
 fee them repaid. I know not, indeed, any 
 
 (3) Lcs arts font come Egle, dont le coeur n'eft 
 
 rendu,. 
 
 Qu'a Pamant le plus tendre, et le plus aflidu. 
 
 Dans l'Epitre a Henpothime. 
 
 N ^ art 
 
i 7 8 FORTUNATE CONDITION 
 
 art or fcience, which enjoys fo many, ai*d 
 fuch considerable advantages as that of paint- 
 ing. A very eminent phyfician, who has 
 minutely defcribed the various difeafes, ufu- 
 ally contracted by thofe who apply them- 
 felves to the feveral trades and profeflions, 
 attributes them all either to the vapours 
 which they are obliged to inhale, or the 
 kind of life which they are obliged to lead ; 
 as though thefe difeafes were fo many penal- 
 ties, which nature had inflicted on the learn- 
 ing of man. In regard to painting, he has 
 not been able to charge it with any thing, 
 but the fmell of its oils, and the fumes of its 
 Vermillion and cerufe, the firft generated by 
 mercury, the other extracted from lead by 
 jrneans of vinegar ; both which he condemns 
 as very hurtful to the conftitution ; alleging, 
 as a proof of their poifonous quality, the 
 fhort lives of the firft rate painters,, by whom, 
 no doubt, he means Parmigianino, Correg- 
 gio, Annibal, and a few others ; but, above 
 all, Raphael da Urbino, who, it is well 
 known, was carried off in the flower of his 
 
 youth. 
 
OF A PAINTER. 17$ 
 
 youth (4). But any one, ever fo little 
 acquainted with the hiftory of painting* 
 may oppofe to thefe teftimonies the very 
 long life of Cortona, le Brun, Jouvenet* 
 Giordano, Cornelio Poelemburg, Lionardo 
 da Vinci, Primaticcio, and Guercino, wh© 
 all livedo to above feventy; of Pouttin^ Mig- 
 
 (4) Ego quidem quotquot novi pi&ores, & in 
 hac & in aliis urbibus, omnes fere femper vale* 
 tudinarios obfervavi. Et ft piciorum hiftorias 
 evolvantur, non admodum longaevos fuifle con- 
 ftabit, ac precipue, qui inter eos prsftantiores 
 fuerint. Raphaelem Urbinatem Pi&orem cele* 
 berrimum, in ipfo juventae flore e vivis ereptum 
 fuifle legimus, cujus immaturam mortem Bal- 
 thaflar Caftilioneus eleganti carmine deflevit * . „ k 
 
 ; Aft alia potior 
 
 caufa fubeft, qua? pi&Ores morbis! obnoxios red- 
 dit, colorum nempe materia, quam femper pras 
 manibus habent, ac ipfts fub naribus* Scd . . . 
 ^ . . Cinnabarim fobolem efTe Mercurii, Ce- 
 
 ruflam ex plumbo parari nemo non 
 
 novit, & propter hanc caufam fatis graves noxas 
 fubfequi. Iifdem igitur afFettibus, licet non ita 
 graviter, illos vexari neceflum eft, ac ceteros 
 Metallurgos. Bernardini Ramazzini de Morbis 
 Artificum Diaftriba* Cap. ix. Patav. 17 13. 
 
 N 2 naid, 
 
i go FORTUNATE CONDITION 
 nard, Carlo Maratti, Lorenefe, Albaniy 
 Tintoret, Jacopo BafTano, and Michael An- 
 gela who lived to above eighty ; of Solimene 
 Cignani, and Gian Bellino, who attained 
 ninety; and particularly Tiziano Vecellio, 
 another prince of painting, who died in his 
 ninety ninth year, and that too of a contagi- 
 ous diftemper. It looks therefore, as: if this 
 great man fought to charge the art with 
 fome diforder or another, merely becaufe he 
 was a phyfician, and the title of his book 
 feemed to require it. The truth is, that 
 the only diforders, to which painters are fub- 
 jecT:, are, as the proverb goes, cerufe difeafes. 
 One would imagine almoft, that nature, in 
 this inftance, intended to exempt painting, as- 
 a favourite art, which, on account of its rq- 
 prefenting her beauties better than any other, 
 fhe confidered with a more than ordinary, 
 degree of partiality and affection. 
 
 A painter may, without fatigue, confine 
 himfelf to his work from morning till night: 
 an advantage, unknown to the Poet, and 
 the Mathematician, whofe bufinefs, be- 
 ing all head-work, requires a mod intenfe 
 
 meditation, 
 
OF A PAINTER. x«i 
 
 meditation, which the mind, incapable of 
 being long bent, is incapable of enduring.; 
 whereas in painting, whatever ftudy the 
 invention and difpofition, and certain niceties 
 of expreffion colouring and defign may 
 require, the greateft part of the work be- 
 longs to the hands, upon which depends the 
 execution of what the mind has planned,, 
 And when once a painter is well grounded 
 in the principles of his art, and has acquired 
 a thorough facility of hand, the crayon and 
 the pencil run, as it were, of themfelves, 
 with the fmalleft impulfe of the inventive 
 faculty. In fa&, we know it is cuftomary with 
 fome maflers to converfe freely, while paint- 
 ing, with thofe about them; the nature of 
 4heir art being fuch, that, in the cxercife of 
 it, they may, like Julius Cefar, often attend to 
 -different objects at one and the lame. time- 
 
 If any mortal has *a right to flatter htm- 
 felf with a long courfe of happinefc, it is 
 certainly tire painter. By fpending moft of 
 iiis time in company, and being never to- 
 tally excluded from it, he runs the lefs 
 •ri(k of growing fower or melancholy. 
 When alone, he enjoys, in common with 
 N 3 jthe 
 
i82 FORTUNATE CONDITION 
 
 the poet, the fupreme pleafure of creation ; 
 and has, befides, the fuperior advantage of 
 knowing that his art is more popular ; there 
 not being a man, from the higheft to the 
 loweft, from the moft learned to the moft illite- 
 rate, over whom painting has not a very great 
 hold and empire (5). He is conftantly em- 
 ployed on the moft beautiful and enchant- 
 ing fubjecls ; nor is there, in the immenfe 
 iphere of the vifual faculty, a Tingle object, 
 which is not a fund of entertainment to him. 
 As delight is the principal end of his art, he 
 is honoured and carefTed by every one, there 
 being few, who do not often {land in need of 
 company to banifh irkfomenefs the moft mortal 
 enemy of man ; who from this art, therefore, 
 derives no fmall advantage. Neither ufhers, nor 
 guards, are able to ftop irkfomenefs, or hinder 
 
 (5) Vel quum Paufiaca torpes jnfane tabella, 
 Qui peccas minus atque ego ? quum Fulvi 
 
 Rutubaeque, 
 Aut Placedejani contento poplite miror 
 Prielia rubrica pi&a aut carbone : velut fi 
 Jle vera pugnent, feriant, vitentquemoventes 
 Armaviri, nequam & ceflator Davus : at ipfe 
 §u]btilis veterum judex & callidus audis, 
 
 Hor. L. II. Sat. vii. 
 it 
 
 
OF A PAINTER. 183 
 
 rt from penetrating into the moft folemn au- 
 diences, and the cabinets of thofe, whom 
 the vulgar confider as funk in the bofom of 
 happinefs. To this it is chiefly owing, that 
 able painters have, in all ages, been highly 
 honoured and rewarded by princes, as- fo 
 many operators of that fweet inchantment, 
 which converts a canvas into the moft pleaf- 
 ing and wonderful fcenes in nature ; which 
 breaks the fetters of the foul, and exalts a 
 man, as it were, above himfelf. Need I 
 add, that flaves were formerly forbid 
 the exercife of this art, always reckoned 
 the firft of the liberal arts (6) ; that, as 
 both ufeful and delightful, it made part of 
 the education of children of family with 
 Grammar, Mufick, and Gymnaftic exer- 
 
 (6) Et hujus (Pamphili) au&oritate effe<5tum 
 eft Sicyone primum, deinde & in tota Graecia, 
 ut pueri ingenui ante omnia graphicen, hoc eft 
 picluram in buxo docerentur, recipereturque ars 
 ea in primum gradum liberalium. Semper qui- 
 dem honos ei fuit, ut ingenui exercerent, niox 
 ut honefti : perpetuo interdiclo ne fervitia doce- 
 rentur. Ideo neque in hac, neque in toreutice 
 ullius qui fervierit opera celebrantur. 
 
 C. Plin. Nat. Hift. L. XXXV. C. x. 
 
 ciie 
 
i&4 FORTUNATE CONDITION, &c 
 cifes (7) ; that the ancient painters were ever 
 held in the greater!: honour, the moil grateful 
 reward to generous minds, by the learned peo- 
 ple of Greece, that is, by thofe, who by their 
 virtues and their arms fubdued the world. 
 And what honours have not been conferred 
 on many of our modern painters, whofe 
 works prove fb great an ornament to the age 
 that gave them birth, and to the countries 
 which now porTefs them (8)? 
 
 (7) 'Er» ^* T£TT«£« %t$ov a tzehven t'w§a.<7\ 9 yf*(i- 
 pctrx, x) yvfAvtzrWi xj /xaatxijp, xj reraprov £»»o» yga- 
 #»x^i». T$» Jtt y{ap(ia,Ttxv]v xj yfcttyixyv u>$ y$r l a\p.&; 
 
 «r^05 tot @io» &?»$ x} <mohvx%r)rt>q 
 
 • • • ofAoluq $1 Kg rrjv yfaQixyv, 
 
 h% I'vu hf toTq iSIck; toto'ion; fxv) hafiagTcittL'an, aXX* 
 u<Ttv avE|aTaT*j1o» v^oj til* tuv cxtvuv fcuj'j* re xj 
 nxgaaiv, r> ^ath'Kov oti iuo7ti StvgriTHCot tv <Bi(p tol <ru- 
 |iara xaXAyc. To $t £ijte*» >sracv7a^ to X^ cr, /* 0, '» 
 %XiT* agjxorli* Toft ptyubo-^v xots x) Toft lAt t/9c£otf* 
 
 Arift. de Rep. L. VIII. C. iii 
 
 (8) Primumque dicemus quae neftant de pic- 
 tura arte quondam nobili tunc cum expeteretur 
 a regibus populifque, & illos nobilitante quos 
 eflct dignata pofteris tradere. 
 
 C. Plin. Nat. Hilt. L. XXXV. C. i. 
 CHAP. 
 
[ it* 3 
 
 CHAP. XX. 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 AND, if this divine art is now lefs ho- 
 noured and favoured by Princes than 
 it ufed to be (8), it muft, to fay the truth, 
 be entirely attributed to the little merit of 
 the artifts, who, having long quitted the 
 right paths in which the ancient mafters 
 ufed to travel, affect to call that dry, which 
 approaches natural beauty, and that pedantic 
 and affected, which contains the leafl 
 learning. One would imagine, that they 
 did not aim at finiming their pieces as they 
 fhould do, fo much as at having a great 
 number upon their hands at the fame time. 
 Too many refemble a certain painter, whofe 
 name I am afhamed to mention, who, t© 
 apologize for his finiming his works in a. 
 flovenly manner, ufed to fay, that he painted 
 merely to get money (9). It is now, indeed* 
 hard to meet with an artiir, who, well ground- 
 
 (8) $tfcl» TO VJ£Y,(AU» 
 
 Philoftrat. in Proem. L. I. de Imag. 
 (9) Defchamps Vie de Vandycke. 
 
 ed 
 
s86 CONCLUSION. 
 cd in the fciences, and entirely wrapt up in his 
 profeflion ; who, neither afTuming the liberties 
 allowed to mere practitioners, nor ftooping 
 flavifhly to the whims of others, can fay 
 with truth: I paint only for myfelf, and for 
 the art. 
 
 Let the Apelles, the Raphaels, the Titians 
 but appear again \ and there will not, I anf- 
 wer for it, be wanting Alexanders, Charlefes, 
 and Leos. And if, through fome ftrange 
 and uncommon malignity of fortune, an 
 cxquifite artift mould happen not to meet 
 with favour from the Great, he may, how- 
 ever, be fure of acquiring that honour, which 
 is the genuine offspring of virtue, and never 
 forfakes her; which will always flourifh in 
 the mouths of men ; and which it is not in 
 the power of kings to confer (8). 
 
 (8) Honour not confer'd by 
 
 Kings. Pope's One Thoufand Seven Hundred 
 and Thirty-eight. 
 
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