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This Nature dictates, and this Taste pursues,
Studious in gradual gloom her lights to lose;
The various whole with soft'ning tints to fill,
As if one single head employ'd her skill.
Thus if bold Fancy plan some proud design,
Where many various groups divide or join,
(Though sure from more than three confusion springs,)
One globe of light and shade o'er all she flings;
Yet skill'd the separate masses to dispose,
Where'er, in front, the fuller radiance glows,
Behind, a calm reposing gloom she spreads,
Relieving shades with light, and light with shades.
And as the centre of some convex glass
Draws to a point the congregated mass
Of dazzling rays, that, more than nature bright,
Reflect each image in an orb of light,

While from that point the scatter'd beams retire,
Sink to the verge, and there in shade expire;

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So strongly near, so softly distant throw

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On all thy rounded groups the circling glow.

Clara gradu, nec adumbrata in clara alta repentè
Prorumpant; sed erit sensim hinc atque inde meatus
Lucis et umbrarum; capitisque unius ad instar,
Totum opus, ex multis quanquam sit partibus, unus
Luminis umbrarumque globus tantummodo fiet,
Sive duas, vel tres ad summum, ubi grandius esset
Divisum pegma in partes statione remotas.
Sintque ita discreti inter se, ratione colorum,

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Luminis, umbrarumque, antrorsum ut corpora clara
Obscura umbrarum requies spectanda relinquat;
Claroque exiliant umbrata atque aspera campo.

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Ac veluti in speculis convexis, eminet ante

Asperior reipsâ vigor, et vis aucta colorum

Partibus adversis; magis et fuga rupta retrorsum

Illorum est, (ut visa minùs vergentibus oris,)

Corporibus dabimus formas hoc more rotundas.

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As is the Sculptor's, such the Painter's aim,
Their labour different, but their end the same;
What from the marble the rude chisel breaks,
The softer pencil from the canvass takes:
And skill'd remoter distances to keep,
Surrounds the outline pale in shadows deep;
While on the front the sparkling lustre plays,
And meets the eye in full meridian blaze.
True Colouring thus, in plastic power excels,
Fair to the visual point her forms she swells,
And lifts them from their flat aërial ground,
Warm as the life, and as the statue round.

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x In silver clouds in ether's blue domain,
Or the clear mirror of the wat'ry plain,
If chance some solid substance claim a place,
Firm and opaque amid the lucid space,

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Rough let it swell and boldly meet the sight,
Mark'd with peculiar strength of shade and light;

Mente modoque igitur plastes, et pictor, eodem
Dispositum tractabit opus; quæ sculptor in orbem
Atterit, hæc rupto procul abscedente colore
Assequitur pictor, fugientiaque illa retrorsum
Jam signata minùs confusa coloribus aufert:
Anteriora quidem directè adversa, colore
Integra vivaci, summo cum lumine et umbra
Antrorsum distincta refert, velut aspera visu;
Sicque super planum inducit leucoma colores,
Hos velut ex ipsâ naturâ immotus eodem
Intuitu circum statuas daret inde rotundas.

› Densa figurarum solidis quæ corpora formis
Subdita sunt tactu, non translucent, sed opaca
In translucendi spatio ut super aëra, nubes,
Limpida stagna undarum, et inania cætera debent
Asperiora illis prope circumstantibus esse;
Ut distincta magis firmo cum lumine et umbra,

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y XXXII. Corpora densa et opaca translucentibus.

There blend each earthly tint of heaviest sort,
At once to give consistence and support,
While the bright wave, soft cloud, or azure sky,
Light and pellucid from that substance fly.

▾ Permit not two conspicuous lights to shine
With rival radiance in the same design;
But yield to one alone the power to blaze
And spread the extensive vigour of its rays,
There where the noblest figures are display'd;
Thence gild the distant parts, and lessening fade.
As fade the beams which Phoebus from the east
Flings vivid forth to light the distant west,
Gradual those vivid beams forget to shine,
So gradual let thy pictured lights decline.

The sculptured forms which some proud circus
In Parian marble or Corinthian brass,
Illumined thus, give to the gazing eye
Th' expressive head in radiant majesty,
While to each lower limb the fainter ray
Lends only light to mark, but not display:

Et gravioribus ut sustenta coloribus, inter
Aërias species subsistant semper opaca :
Sed contra, procul abscedant perlucida densis,
Corporibus leviora; uti nubes, aër, et undæ.

a Non poterunt diversa locis duo lumina eâdem
In tabulâ paria admitti, aut æqualia pingi :
Majus at in mediam lumen cadet usque tabellam
Latius infusum, primis qua summa figuris
Res agitur, circumque oras minuetur eundo:
Utque in progressu jubar attenuatur ab ortu
Solis, ad occasum paulatim, et cessat eundo ;
Sic tabulis lumen, tota in compage colorum,
Primo à fonte, minùs sensim declinat eundo.
Majus ut in statuis, per compita stantibus urbis,
Lumen habent partes superæ, minus inferioris;

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grace, 430

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Non duo ex

Cœlo Lumina in Tabulam æqualia.

So let thy pencil fling its beams around,

Nor e'er with darker shades their force confound.
For shades too dark dissever'd shapes will give,
And sink the parts their softness would relieve:
Then only well relieved, when like a veil

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Round the full lights the wand'ring shadows steal; 440
Then only justly spread, when to the sight
A breadth of shade pursues a breadth of light.
This charm to give, great Titian wisely made
The cluster'd grapes his rule of light and shade.

b White, when it shines with unstain'd lustre clear
May bear an object back, or bring it near;
Aided by black it to the front aspires,
That aid withdrawn it distantly retires;
But black unmix'd, of darkest midnight hue,
Still calls each object nearer to the view.

Whate'er we spy through colour'd light or air

A stain congenial on their surface bear,
While neighb'ring forms by joint reflection give
And mutual take the dyes that they receive.

Idem erit in tabulis; majorque nec umbra, vel ater
Membra figurarum intrabit color, atque secabit :
Corpora sed circum umbra cavis latitabit oberrans ;
Atque ita quæretur lux opportuna figuris,
Ut latè infusum lumen lata umbra sequatur.
Unde, nec immeritò, fertur Titianus ubique

Lucis et umbrarum normam appellâsse racemum.

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d Purum album esse potest propiusque magisque remotum: 330 Cum nigro antevenit propiùs; fugit absque remotum ; Purum autem nigrum antrorsum venit usque propinquum. Lux fucata suo tingit miscetque colore

Corpora, sicque suo, per quem lux funditur, aër.

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Corpora juncta simul, circumfusosque colores Excipiunt, propriumque aliis radiosa reflectunt.

b XXXIV. Of White and Black.

C XXXV. The Reflection of Colours.

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d XXXIV. Album et Nigrum.

• XXXV. Colorum Reflectio.

f But where on both alike one equal light
Diffusive spreads, the blending tints unite.
For breaking colours thus (the ancient phrase
By Artists used) fair Venice claims our praise:
She, cautious to transgress so sage a rule,
Confined to soberest tints her learned school;
For though she loved by varied mode to join
Tumultuous crowds in one immense design,
Yet there we ne'er condemn such hostile hues,
As cut the parts or glaringly confuse;
In tinsel trim no foppish form is drest,
Still flows in graceful unity the vest;

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And o'er that vest a kindred mantle spreads,
Unvaried but by power of lights and shades,

Which, mildly mixing every social dye,

Unites the whole in loveliest harmony.

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* When small the space, or pure the ambient air,

Each form is seen in bright precision clear;

h Pluribus in solidis liquidâ sub luce propinquis,
Participes, mixtosque simul decet esse colores.
Hanc normam Veneti pictores ritè sequuti,
(Quæ fuit antiquis corruptio dicta colorum,)
Cùm plures opere in magno posuêre figuras,
Nè conjuncta simul variorum inimica colorum
Congeries formam implicitam, et concisa minutis
Membra daret pannis, totam unamquamque figuram
Affini, aut uno tantùm vestire colore,

Sunt soliti; variando tonis tunicamque, togamque,
Carbaseosque sinus, vel amicum in lumine et umbra
Contiguis circum rebus sociando colorem.

i Qua minus est spatii aërei, aut quà purior aër, Cuncta magis distincta patent, speciesque reservant :

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