e Some lofty theme let judgment first supply,
Supremely fraught with grace and majesty ;
For fancy copious, free to every charm
That lines can circumscribe or colours warm;
Still happier, if that artful theme dispense
A poignant moral and instructive sense.

f Then let the virgin canvass smooth expand,
To claim the sketch and tempt the Artist's hand:
Then, bold INVENTION, all the powers diffuse,
Of all thy sisters thou the noblest muse:
Thee every art, thee every grace inspires,
Thee Phoebus fills with all his brightest fires.

Choose such judicious force of shade and light
As suits the theme, and satisfies the sight;
Weigh part with part, and with prophetic eye
The future power of all thy tints descry;
And those, those only on the canvass place,
Whose hues are social, whose effect is grace.

h His positis, erit optandum thema, nobile, pulchrum, Quodque venustatum, circa formam atque colorem Sponte capax, amplam emeritæ mox præbeat Arti Materiam, retegens aliquid salis et documenti.

i

Tandem opus aggredior; primoque occurrit in albo
Disponenda typi, concepta potente Minervâ,
Machina, quæ nostris INVENTIO dicitur oris,
Illa quidem priùs ingenuis instructa sororum
Artibus Aonidum, et Phœbi sublimior æstu.

* Quærendasque inter posituras, luminis, umbræ, Atque futurorum jam præsentire colorum

Par erit harmoniam, captando ab utrisque venustum.

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e III. Of the Subject.

f INVENTION, the first Part of Painting.

8 IV. Disposition, or Economy of the whole.

h III. De Argumento INVENTIO, prima Picturæ

Pars.

k IV. Dispositio, sive Operis totius Economia.

1 Vivid and faithful to the historic page, Express the customs, manners, forms, and age; m Nor paint conspicuous on the foremost plain Whate'er is false, impertinent, or vain;

But like the Tragic Muse, thy lustre throw,
Where the chief action claims its warmest glow.

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This rare, this arduous task no rules can teach, 125

No skill'd preceptor point, no practice reach;

'Tis taste, 'tis genius, 'tis the heav'nly ray Prometheus ravish'd from the car of day.

In Egypt first the infant art appear'd,

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Rude and unform'd; but when to Greece she steer'd
Her prosperous course, fair Fancy met the maid;
Wit, Reason, Judgment, lent their powerful aid;
Till all complete the gradual wonder shone,
And vanquish'd Nature own'd herself outdone.

Sit thematis genuina ac viva expressio, juxtà
Textum antiquorum, propriis cum tempore formis.
• Nec quod inane, nihil facit ad rem, sive videtur
Improprium, minimèque urgens, potiora tenebit
Ornamenta operis; Tragica sed lege sororis,
Summa ubi res agitur, vis summa requiritur Artis.
Ista labore gravi, studio, monitisque magistri
Ardua pars nequit addisci: rarissima namque,
Ni priùs æthereo rapuit quod ab axe Prometheus
Sit jubar infusum menti cum flamine vitæ.
Mortali haud cuivis divina hæc munera dantur;
Non uti Dædaleam licet omnibus ire Corinthum.
Ægypto informis quondam pictura reperta,
Græcorum studiis, et mentis acumine crevit :
Egregiis tandem illustrata et adulta magistris,
Naturam visa est miro superare labore.

1 V. The Subject to be treated faithfully.

m VI. Every foreign Ornament to be rejected.

n V. Fidelitas Argumenti.

о

VI. Inane rejiciendum.

'Twas there the goddess fix'd her blest abodes, 135 There reign'd in Corinth, Athens, Sicyon, Rhodes. Her various votaries various talents crown'd, Yet each alike her inspiration own'd: Witness those marble miracles of grace, Those tests of symmetry where still we trace All art's perfection. With reluctant gaze To these the genius of succeeding days Looks dazzled up, and, as their glories spread, Hides in his mantle his diminish'd head.

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P Learn them from Greece, ye youths, Proportion's

law,

Inform'd by her, each just POSITION draw;
Skilful to range each large unequal part,
With varied motion and contrasted art;
Full in the front the nobler limbs to place,
And poise each figure on its central base.

But chief from her that flowing outline take,
Which floats, in wavy windings, like the snake,
Or lambent flame; which, ample, broad, and long,
Relieved not swell'd, at once both light and strong,

Quos inter, graphidos gymnasia prima fuêre

Portus Athenarum, Sicyon, Rhodes, atque Corinthus,
Disparia inter se modicùm ratione laboris ;
Ut patet ex veterum statuis, formæ atque decoris
Archetypis; queis posterior nil protulit ætas
Condignum, et non inferius longè, arte modoque.
9 Horum igitur vera ad normam positura legetur :
Grandia, inæqualis, formosaque partibus amplis
Anteriora dabit membra, in contraria motu
Diverso variata, suo librataque centro.

Membrorumque sinus ignis flammantis ad instar,
Serpenti undantes flexu; sed lævi, plana,
Magnaque signa, quasi sine tubere subdita tactu,

P VII. DESIGN or POSITION, the second Part of Painting.

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150

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105

9 VII. GRAPHIS SEU POSITURA, secunda Picturæ Pars.

Glides through the graceful whole. Her art divine

Cuts not, in parts minute, the tame design,

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But by a few bold strokes, distinct and free,
Calls forth the charms of perfect symmetry.
True to anatomy, more true to grace,
She bids each muscle know its native place;
Bids small from great in just gradation rise,
And, at one visual point, approach the eyes.

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Yet deem not, youths, that Perspective can give Those charms complete by which your works shall live :

What though her rules may to your hand impart 165 A quick mechanic substitute for art,

Yet formal, geometric shapes she draws;

Hence the true Genius scorns her rigid laws;

By Nature taught, he strikes th' unerring lines,
Consults his eye, and as he sees designs.

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r Man's changeful race, the sport of chance and time,

Varies no less in aspect than in clime;

Mark well the difference, and let each be seen

Of various age, complexion, hair, and mien.

Ex longo deducta fluant, non secta minutim.
Insertisque toris sint nota ligamina, juxta
Compagem anatomes, et membrificatio Græco
Deformata modo, paucisque expressa lacertis,
Qualis, apud veteres; totoque Eurythmia partes
Componat; genitumque suo generante sequenti
Sit minus, et puncto videantur cuncta sub uno.
Regula certa licet nequeat prospectica diċi,
Aut complimentum graphidos; sed in arte juvamen,
Et modus accelerans operandi: at corpora falso
Sub visu in multis referens, mendosa labascit :
Nam Geometralem nunquam sunt corpora juxtà
Mensuram depicta oculis, sed qualia visa.

Non eadem formæ species, non omnibus ætas
Equalis, similesque color, crinesque figuris :
Nam, variis velut orta plagis, gens dispare vultu est.

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125

t Yet to each separate form adapt with care Such limbs, such robes, such attitude and air, As best befit the head, and best combine

To make one whole, one uniform design:

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u Learn action from the dumb; the dumb shall teach How happiest to supply the want of speech.

* Fair in the front, in all the blaze of light, The Hero of thy piece should meet the sight, Supreme in beauty; lavish here thine art, And bid him boldly from the canvass start:

y While round that sov'reign form th' inferior train In groups collected fill the pictured plain;

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186

Fill, but not crowd: for oft some open space

Must part their ranks and leave a vacant place;
Lest artlessly dispersed the sever'd crew
At random rush on our bewilder'd view;
Or parts with parts, in thick confusion bound,
Spread a tumultuous chaos o'er the ground.

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z Singula membra, suo capiti conformia, fiant Unum idemque simul corpus cum vestibus ipsis: a Mutorumque silens positura imitabitur actus.

Prima figurarum: seu princeps dramatis, ultrò
Prosiliat media in tabula, sub lumine primo
Pulchrior ante alias, reliquis nec operta figuris.

Agglomerata simul sint membra, ipsæque figuræ
Stipentur, circumque globos locus usque vacabit;
Nè, malè dispersis dum visus ubique figuris
Dividitur, cunctisque operis fervente tumultu
Partibus implicitis, crepitans confusio surgat.

t IX. Conformity of the Limbs and Drapery to the Head. u X. Action of the Mutes to be imitated.

x XI. The principal Figure. y XII. Groups of Figures.

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z IX. Figura sit una Membris et Vestibus.

a X. Mutorum Actiones imitandæ.

a XI. Figura princeps. b XII. Figurarum Globi seu Cumuli.