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yet a subdued attention to these inferior excellences must be added to complete the idea of a perfect painter.

Deception, which is so often recommended by writers on the theory of painting, instead of advancing the art, is in reality carrying it back to its infant state the first essays of painting were certainly nothing but mere imitation of individual objects, and when this amounted to a deception, the artist had accomplished his purpose.

And here I must observe, that the arts of painting and poetry seem to have no kind of resemblance in their early stages. The first, or, at least, the second stage of poetry in every nation, is removed as far as possible from common life: every thing is of the marvellous kind; it treats only of heroes, wars, ghosts, enchantments, and transformations: the poet could not expect to seize and captivate the attention, if he related only common occurrences, such as every day produces. Whereas the painter exhibited what then appeared a great effort of art, by merely giving the appearance of relief to a flat superficies, however uninteresting in itself that object might be; but this soon satiating, the same entertainment was required from painting which had been experienced in poetry. The mind and imagination were to be satisfied, and required to be amused and delighted, as well as the eye; and when the art proceeded to a still higher degree of excellence, it was then found that this deception not only did not assist, but even in a certain degree counteracted the flight of imagination: hence proceeded the Roman school; and it is from hence that Raffaelle, Michael Angelo, and Julio Romano stand in that pre-eminence of rank in which Fresnoy has justly placed them.

R.

NOTE LV. VERSE 747.

Bright beyond all the rest, Correggio flings
His ample lights, and round them gently brings
The mingling shade.

The excellency of Correggio's manner has justly been admired by all succeeding painters. This manner is in direct opposition to what is called the dry and hard manner which preceded him.

His colour, and his mode of finishing, approach nearer to perfection than those of any other painter; the gliding motion of his outline, and the sweetness with which it melts into the ground; the cleanness and transparency of his colouring, which stop at that exact medium in which the purity and perfection of taste lies, leave nothing to be wished for. Baroccio, though, upon the whole, one of his most successful imitators, yet sometimes, in endeavouring at cleanness or brilliancy of tint, overshot the mark, and falls under the criticism that was made on an ancient painter, that his figures looked as if they fed upon roses.

NOTE LVI. VERSE 767.

Yet more than these to meditation's eyes
Great Nature's self redundantly supplies.

R.

Fresnoy, with great propriety, begins and finishes his poem with recommending the study of nature.

This is, in reality, the beginning and the end of theory. It is in nature only we can find that beauty which is the great object of our search: it can be found no where else: we can no more form any idea of beauty superior to nature than we can form an idea of a sixth sense, or any other excellence out of the limits of the human mind. We are forced to

confine our conception even of heaven itself and its inhabitants to what we see in this world; even the Supreme Being, if he is represented at all, the painter has no other way of representing than by reversing the decree of the inspired Lawgiver, and making God after his own image.

Nothing can be so unphilosophical as a supposition that we can form any idea of beauty or excellence out of or beyond nature, which is and must be the fountain-head from whence all our ideas must be derived.

This being acknowledged, it must follow, of course, that all the rules which this theory, or any other, teaches, can be no more than teaching the art of seeing nature. The rules of art are formed on the various works of those who have studied nature the most successfully by this advantage, of observing the various manners in which various minds have contemplated her works, the artist enlarges his own views, and is taught to look for and see what otherwise would have escaped his observation.

It is to be remarked, that there are two modes of imitating nature; one of which refers for its truth to the sensations of the mind, and the other to the eye.

Some schools, such as the Roman and Florentine, appear to have addressed themselves principally to the mind; others solely to the eye, such as the Venetian in the instances of Paul Veronese and Tintoret: others again have endeavoured to unite both, by joining the elegance and grace of ornament with the strength and vigour of design; such are the schools of Bologna and Parma.

All those schools are equally to be considered as followers of nature. He who produces a work analogous to the mind or imagination of man is as natural

a painter as he whose works are calculated to delight the eye; the works of Michael Angelo, or Julio Romano, in this sense, may be said to be as natural as those of the Dutch painters. The study, therefore, of the nature or affections of the mind is as necessary to the theory of the higher department of the art, as the knowledge of what will be pleasing or offensive to the eye, is to the lower style.

What relates to the mind or imagination, such as invention, character, expression, grace, or grandeur, certainly cannot be taught by rules; little more can be done than pointing out where they are to be found; it is a part which belongs to general education, and will operate in proportion to the cultivation of the mind of the artist.

The greater part of the rules in this poem are, therefore, necessarily confined to what relates to the eye; and it may be remarked, that none of those rules make any pretensions towards 'improving nature, or going contrary to her work: their tendency is merely to show what is truly nature.

Thus, for instance, a flowing outline is recommended, because beauty (which alone is nature) cannot be produced without it; old age or leanness produces straight lines; corpulency round lines; but in a state of health, accompanying youth, the outlines are waving, flowing, and serpentine. Thus again, if we are told to avoid the chalk, the brick, or the leaden colour, it is because real flesh never partakes of those hues, though ill-coloured pictures are always inclinable to one or other of those defects.

Rules are to be considered likewise as fences placed only where trespass is expected; and are particularly enforced in proportion as peculiar faults or defects are

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prevalent at the time, or age, in which they are delivered; for what may be proper strongly to recommend or enforce in one age, may not with equal propriety be so much laboured in another, when it may be the fashion for artists to run into the contrary extreme, proceeding from prejudice to a manner adopted by some favourite painter then in vogue.

When it is recommended to preserve a breadth of colour or of light, it is not intended that the artist is to work broader than nature; but this lesson is insisted on because we know, from experience, that the contrary is a fault which artists are apt to be guilty of; who, when they are examining and finishing the detail, neglect or forget that breadth which is observable only when the eye takes in the effect of the whole.

Thus again, we recommend to paint soft and tender to make a harmony and union of colouring; and for this end, that all the shadows shall be nearly of the same colour. The reason of these precepts being at all enforced, proceeds from the disposition which artists have to paint harder than nature, to make the outline more cutting against the ground, and to have less harmony and union than is found in nature, preserving the same brightness of colour in the shadows as are seen in the lights: both these false manners of representing nature were the practice of the painters when the art was in its infancy, and would be the practice now of every student who was left to himself, and had never been taught the art of seeing nature.

There are other rules which may be said not so much to relate to the objects represented as to the eye; but the truth of these are as much fixed in nature as the others, and proceed from the necessity there is that the work should be seen with ease and satisfaction:

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