is generally supplied by the Poet or Historian: but as the Painter speaks to the eye, a story in which fine feeling and curious sentiment is predominant, rather than palpable situation, gross interest, and distinct passion, is not suited to his purpose.

:

It should be likewise a story generally known; for the Painter, representing one point of time only, cannot inform the spectator what preceded the event, however necessary in order to judge of the propriety and truth of the expression and character of the Actors. It may be remarked that action is the principal requisite in a subject for History-painting; and that there are many subjects which, though very interesting to the reader, would make no figure in representation such are those subjects which consist in any long series of action, the parts of which have very much dependency each on the other; or where any remarkable point or turn of verbal expression makes a part of the excellence of the story; or where it has its effect from allusion to circumstances not actually present. An instance occurs to me of a subject which was recommended to a Painter by a very distinguished person, but who, as it appears, was but little conversant with the art; it was what passed between James II. and the old Earl of Bedford in the Council which was held just before the Revolution.* This is a very striking piece of history; but so far from being a proper subject, that it unluckily possesses no one requisite necessary for a picture; it has a retrospect to other circumstances of history of a very complicated nature; it marks no general or intelligible

* Dalrymple's Memoirs, i. 168. This writer has quoted no authority for the remarkable anecdote here alluded to: an inexcusable omission.

E. M.

action or passion; and it is necessarily deficient in that variety of heads, forms, ages, sexes, and draperies, which sometimes, by good management, supply by picturesque effect the want of real interest in a history. R.

NOTE XI. VERSE 107.

Then let the virgin canvass smooth expand,

To claim the sketch and tempt the Artist's hand.

I wish to understand the last line as recommending to the artist to paint the sketch previously on canvass, as was the practice with Rubens.

This method of painting the sketch, instead of merely drawing it on paper, will give a facility in the management of colours, and in the handling, which the Italian Painters, not having this custom, wanted : by habit he will acquire equal readiness in doing two things at a time as in doing only one. A painter, as I have said on another occasion, if possible, should paint all his studies, and consider drawing only as a succedaneum when colours are not at hand. This was the practice of the Venetian Painters, and of all those who have excelled in colouring; Correggio used to say, Ch' avea i suoi dessegni nella stremità de' penneli. The method of Rubens was to sketch his composition in colours, with all the parts more determined than sketches generally are; from this sketch his scholars advanced the picture as far as they were capable; after which he retouched the whole himself.

The Painter's operation may be divided into three parts: the planning, which implies the sketch of the general composition; the transferring that design to the canvass; and the finishing or retouching the whole. If for dispatch the Artist looks out for assist

ance, it is in the middle stage only he can receive it ; the first and last operation must be the work of his own hand.

R.

Then, bold Invention, all thy powers diffuse,

Of all thy Sisters thou the noblest muse.

The invention of a Painter consists not in inventing the subject, but in a capacity of forming in his imagination the subject in a manner best accommodated to his art, though wholly borrowed from Poets, Historians, or popular tradition. For this purpose

he has full as much to do, and perhaps more, than if the very story was invented: for he is bound to follow the ideas which he has received, and to translate them (if I may use the expression) into another art. In this translation the Painter's invention lies; he must in a manner new-cast the whole, and model it in his own imagination: to make it a Painter's nourishment, it must pass through a Painter's mind. Having received an idea of the pathetic and grand in intellect, he has next to consider how to make it correspond with what is touching and awful to the eye, which is a business by itself. But here begins, what in the language of Painters is called Invention, which includes not only the composition, or the putting the whole together, and the disposition of every individual part, but likewise the management of the back-ground, the effect of light and shadow, and the attitude of every figure or animal that is introduced or makes a part of the work.

Composition, which is the principal part of the Invention of a Painter, is by far the greatest difficulty he has to encounter. Every man that can

paint at all, can execute individual parts; but to keep those parts in due subordination as relative to a whole, requires a comprehensive view of the art, that more strongly implies genius, than perhaps any other quality whatever.

R.

NOTE XIII. VERSE 119.

Vivid and faithful to the historic page,

Express the customs, manners, forms, and age.

Though the Painter borrows his subject, he considers his art as not subservient to any other. His business is something more than assisting the Historian with explanatory figures: as soon as he takes it into his hands, he adds, retrenches, transposes, and moulds it anew, till it is made fit for his own art; he avails himself of the privileges allowed to Poets and Painters, and dares every thing to accomplish his end, by means correspondent to that end,—to impress the Spectator with the same interest at the sight of his representation, as the Poet has contrived to impress on the Reader by his description: the end is the same in both cases, though the means are and must be different. Ideas intended to be conveyed to the mind by one sense, cannot always, with equal success, be conveyed by another: our author therefore has recommended to us elsewhere to be attentive:

"On what may aid our art, and what destroy." v. 598.

Even the Historian takes great liberties with facts, in order to interest his readers, and makes his narration more delightful; much greater right has the Painter to do this, who, though his work is called History-Painting, gives in reality a poetical representation of events. R.

NOTE XIV. VERSE 121.

Nor paint conspicuous on the foremost plain
Whate'er is false, impertinent, or vain.

This precept, so obvious to common sense, appears superfluous, till we recollect that some of the greatest Painters have been guilty of a breach of it: for, not to mention Paul Veronese or Rubens, whose principles, as ornamental Painters, would allow great latitude in introducing animals, or whatever they might think necessary, to contrast or make the composition more picturesque, we can no longer wonder why the Poet has thought it worth setting a guard against this impropriety, when we find that such men as Raffaelle and the Caracci, in their greatest and most serious works, have introduced on the foreground mean and frivolous circumstances.

Such improprieties, to do justice to the more modern Painters, are seldom found in their works. The only excuse that can be made for those great Artists, is their living in an age when it was the custom to mix the ludricous with the serious, and when Poetry as well as Painting gave in to this fashion.

NOTE XV. VERSE 125.

This rare, this arduous task no rules can teach,

R.

This must be meant to refer to Invention, and not to the precepts immediately preceding; which, relating only to the mechanical disposition of the work, cannot be supposed to be out of the reach of the rules of art, or not to be acquired but by the assistance of supernatural power. R.