colours placed near one another, certain particular temperaments of colour: nay, this influence of one colour upon another may be fo far traced, that three or four bodies of different colours, and likewise the intenseness of the light falling upon each, being affigned, we may easily determine in what fituations, and how much they would tinge each other. We may thus, too, by the fame principle, account for several other things practifed by painters: infomuch that a perfon, who has carefully obferved natural effects, fhall be able to form general rules,, where another can only diftinguish particular cafes.

After all, the pictures of the best colourists are fources from which a young painter muft chiefly look for the rules of colouring; that is, of that branch of painting which contributes fo much to exprefs the beauty of objects, and is fo requifite to reprefent them as they really are. Giorgio and Titian feem to have difcovered circumftances in nature which others had overlooked; and the laft has expreffed them in the moft delicate manner. In his works we behold that fweetnefs of colouring which is produced by union; that beauty which is confiftent with truth; and all the infenfible tranfmutations, all the foft tranfitions, of tints and colours. When a young painter has, by clofe application, acquired from Titian that art, which of all painters, he has beft contrived to hide, he would do well to turn to Baffano and Paolo, on account of the beauty, boldness, and elegance, of their touches. That richness, softness, and freshness of colouring, for which the Lombard fchool is fo juftly famed, may likewife be of great fervice to him. Nor will he reap lefs benefit by ftudying the principles and practice of the Flemish school; who, chiefly by means of their varnishes, have given a most enchanting luftre and transparency to their colours.

But whatever pictures a young painter may choose to study the art of colouring upon, he must take great care that they are well preferved. There are very few pieces which have not suffer. ed more or lefs by time; and perhaps that preciOUS PATINA, which years alone can impart to paintings, is in fome measure akin to that other kind which ages alone impart to medals; inafmuch as, by giving teftimony to their antiquity, it renders them proportionably beautiful in the fuperftitious eyes of antiquaries. It must indeed be allowed, that if, on the one hand, this patina bestows, as it really does, an extraordinary degree of harmony upon the colours of a picture, and destroys, or at least greatly leffens, their original rawness; it, on the other hand, equally im pairs the freshness 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 glass. It is no idle opinion, that Paul Veronefe, attentive above all things to the beauty of his colours, and what is called ftrepito, left entirely to time the care of harmonizing them perfectly, and (as we may fay) mellowing them. But moft of the old mafters took that talk upon themselves; and never exposed their works to the eyes of the public, until they had ripened and fifhed them with their own hands. And who

can fay whether the Christ of Moneta, or the Na tivity of Baffano, have been more improved or injured (if we may so speak) by the touchings and retouchings of time, in the course of more than two centuries? It is indeed impoffible to be de termined. But the ftudious pupil may make himself 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 itself the model of the models before him. As foon, therefore, as a young painter has laid a proper foundation for a good colouring, by studying the best masters, he should 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 defigning; that, as from the one the pupils learn to give their due proportion to the feveral members and muscles, they may learn from the other to make their carnations rich and warm, and faithfully copy the different local hues which appear quite diftinct in the different parts of a fine body. To illuftrate ftill farther the use of fuch a model, let us fuppofe it placed: in different lights; now in that of the fun, now in that of the sky, and now again in that of a lamp or candle; one time in the shade, and another in a reflected light. Hence the pupil may learn all the different effects of the complexion in different circumstances, whether the livid, the. lucid, or tranfparent; and, above all, that variety of tints and half-tints, occafioned in the colour of the skin by the epidermis having the bones immediately under it in fome places, and in others a greater or lef's number of blood-vessels or quantity of fat. An artist who had long ftudied fuch a model, would run no risk of degrading the beauties of nature by any particularity of style, or of copying that prepofterous fulness and floridnefs of colour which is at prefent so much the tafte. To practife in this manner, is no better than inuring one's felf to the commission of blunders. What statues are in defign, nature is in colouring; the fountainhead of that perfection to which every artist, ambitious to excel, fhould conftantly afpire: and accordingly, the Flemish painters, in confequence of their aiming folely to copy nature, are in colouring as excellent as they are wont to be awkward in defigning. The beft model for the tone of colours and the degradations of fhade, is furnifhed by means of the camera obfcura. See DIOPTRICS, Index.

SECT. VI. Of DRAPERY.

DRAPERY is a most important branch of the art: It seldom happens that a painter has nothing but naked figures to reprefent; nay, his fubjects genc.. rally confift of figures clothed from head to foot.

To drape a figure will, it is neceffary that the folds be large and few in number; because large folds produce great maffes of light and thadow, while fmall ones multiply the objects of view and diftract the attention. But if the character of the drapery or kind of ftuff require small folds, they should at least be diftributed in groups, in fuch a manner that a great number of small folds fhall be

fab

subordinate to an equal mass formed by a principal fold.

The colour of the drapery also contributes to the harmony of the whole, and produces effects which the claro-obscuro cannot do alone. At the fame time, the principles of the claro-obfcuro fhould prefide over, or at leaft regulate, the art of drapery. If the folds of the stuff which cover the members exposed to the light are too strongly fhaded, they will appear to enter into the members, and cut them. Drapery contributes to the life, to the character, to the expreffion of the figures, provided all the movements of the folds announce the lively or more tranquil movement of thofe figures. The drapery must also agree with the age and character of the figures: And if nature in any inftance is found to contradict those principles, it is because they relate to the ideal of the art; and it is this ideal which carries it to the greateft perfection.

Great attention is also neceffary to the fituation in which the figures are placed, and the actions about which they are employed. If they are in the act of afcending, a column of air weighs down the drapery; if, on the contrary, they are defcending, the drapery is fupported and spread out. The folds placed on every member, and the ge neral play of the drapery, fhould indicate whe ther the figure is in action or about to be fo; whether action be beginning or ending; and whether it be flow, or quick, or violent. All this is agreeable to nature; but it also partakes of the ideal, fince nature never can be copied in fuch fluctuating fituations. The practice of the Roman fchools, firft to draw after nature, and then to paint after the drawing, cannot be adopted by colourists; because nature, according to the kind of the ftuffs, produces tones and lights which give more perfection and truth to the work. Raphael, who followed this practice, enjoys the firft reputation for giving play to his drapery, and difpofing the folds in the beft order. In this part he has even attained the height of ideal beauty. He is the greatest painter of drapery, as the Venetians are the greatest in painting ftuffs. See farther remarks on this fubject under the article DRAWING, Sec. XIII.

SECT. VII. OF LANDSCAPE and ARCHITECTURE.

WHEN Our young painter has made a fufficient progrefs in those principal branches of his art, the defigning, perfpective, colouring, and drapery of human figures, he fhould turn his thoughts to landscape and architecture.

The most eminent landscape-painters are PousSIN, LORENESE, and TITIAN.

PAUL VERONESE is in architecture what Titian is in landscape. To excel in landscape, we muft, above all things ftudy nature. To excel in architecture, we must chiefly regard the fineft works of art; fuch as the fronts of ancient edifices, and the fabrics of those moderns who have beft ftudied and best copied antiquity. After Brunelleschi and Alberti, who were the first revivers of architecture, came Bramante, Julius Romano, Sanfovino, Sanmicheli, and laftly Palladio, whofe works the young painter fhould above all diligently ftudy

and imprint deeply on his mind. Nor is VIGNOLA to be forgot.

The study of architecture cannot fail, of being very useful to the young painter, inasmuch as it will bring him acquainted with the form of the temples, therma, bafilics, theatres, and other buildings of the Greeks and Romans. Befides, from the baffo-relievos with which it was cuftomary to adorn thefe buildings, he may gather, with equal delight and profit, the nature of their facrifices, arms, military enfigns, and dreffes. The study of landscape, 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 characterise the different regions of the earth. Thus by degrees he will learn what we call COSTUME, one of the chief requifites in a painter; fince by means of it he may express with great precifion the time and place in which his fcenes are laid. See farther Remarks on Landfcape and Architecture, under DRAWING, Se&. XIV.

SECT. VIII. Of the EXPRESSIONS of the PAS

SIONS.

THAT language which above all others a painter fhould carefully endeavour to learn, and from nature herself, is the language of the paffions. Without it the fineft works muft appear lifeless and inanimate. It is in this branch that painting truly foars, and in a manner rifes fuperior to itself.

Many have written, and amongst the reft the famous LE BRUN, on the various changes that, according to the various paffions, happen in the muscles of the face, which are, as it were, the mirror of the foul. From Le Brun's work we have already given a fufficient extract, under the article DRAWING, SECT. X. and XI; along with fome remarks of M. DE PILES on the fubje&. See alfo Plates CXIX and CXX. It may be of fervice to a young painter to read these and fuch other remarks; but it will be of infinitely more fervice to ftudy the effects of the paffions on the human features in nature itself, from which they have been borrowed, and which exhibits them in that lively manner, which neither tongue nor pen can exprefs. The artist may reap great benefit from studying fuch fine ancient heads as thofe of Mithridates, Seneca, Alexander dying, Cleopotra, Niobe, &c. and above all, from attentively observing fuch movements of nature as we daily meet with in the world. But let him chiefly confult his looking-glass, and study after his own face, what, in certain expreffions, are the mufcles, the lineaments, the tints, and the accidental circumftances, which characterise the fituation of the soul. SECT. IX. Of INVENTION.

INVENTION is the finding out probable things, not only fuch as are adapted to the subject in hand, but fuch, befides, as by their fublimity and beau ty are moft capable of exciting suitable sentiments in the fpectator, and of making him, when well executed, fancy that it is the fubject itself in its greatest perfection, and not a mere reprefentation of it, that he has before him. We do not say true things, but probable things; because proba

bility or verifimilitude is, in fact, the truth of thofe arts which have the fancy for their object. It is, indeed, the bufinefs and duty of both naturalifts and hiftorians to draw objects as they find them, and represent them with all thofe imperfections and blemishes, to which, as individuals, they are fubject. But an ideal painter, and fuch is the painter of real genius, resembles the poet : inftead of copying, he imitates; that is, he works with his fancy, and reprefents objects endued with all that perfection which belongs to the fpecies, and may be conceived in the archetype.

The mythology of the ancient Greeks and Romans afforded an extenfive field for invention to the ancient painters; nor have there been wanting able inventors in painting among the moderns.

When a painter takes a fubject in hand, whether hiftorical, or fabulous, he should carefully 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 must have been feverally animated; not omitting the particulars of time and place. His next business is to create it, as it were, anew, obferving the rules already laid down for that purpose: From what is true, choofing that which is moft ftriking; and clothing his fubject with fuch acceffory circumstances and actions, as may render it most confpicuous, pathetic, and noble, and beft difplay the powers of the inventive faculty. But, in doing this, great discretion is requifite; for, let his imagination 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 fubject; a fault, of which fome of the greatest mafters, even Lampieri and Pouffin, have been now and then guilty. The action must be one, the place one, the time one. The epifodes introduced in the drama of a picture, fhould be not only beautiful in themselves, but indifpenfably requifite. Every part fhould agree with, and have a relation to, the whole, Unity fhould reign even in variety; for in this beauty confifts. This is a fundamental maxim in all the arts whose object it is to imitate the works of nature.

SECT. X. Of DISPOSITION. DISPOSITION may be confidered as a branch of invention, confifting in the proper ftationing of what the inventive faculty has imagined, fo as to exprefs the fubject in the moft lively manner. The chief merit of difpofition confifts in that diforder, which, wearing the appearance of mere chance, is in fact the most ftudied effect of art. A painter, therefore, is equally to avoid the dry. nefs of thofe ancients who always planted their figures like fo many couples in a proceffion, and the affectation of thofe moderns who jumble them to gether as if they met merely to fight and fquabble. Let the inferior figures of a piece be placed as they will, the principal figure fhould 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 foremost lines, or in fome other confpicuous part of the piece; by exhibiting it, in a manner, by itself; by making the principal light fall upon it; by giving it the most refplendent

drapery, or, indeed, by all these methods together. According to Leon Baptift Alberti, painters fhould follow the example of comic writers, who compofe their fable of as few perfons as poffible. For a crowded picture is apt to give as much pain to the fpectator, as a crowded road to the traveller. Some fubjects, it must be granted, require a number of figures. On thefe occafions, it depends entirely on the skill of the painter to difpofe of them in such a manner, that the principal ones may always make the principal appearance; and contrive matters fo that the piece be not overcrowded, or want convenient refts and pauses. He muft, in a word, take care that his piece be full, but not charged.

The reafon for breaking the composition into feveral groups is, that the eye, paffing freely from one object to another, may the better comprehend the whole. But these groups are to be so artfully put together, as to form rich clusters, give the whole compofition an air of grandeur, and afford the fpectator an opportunity of difcerning the piece at a distance, by taking the whole in, as it were, at a single glance. These effects are greatly promoted 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 diftract by their variety. They fhould be fo judiciously disposed as to temper and qualify each other.

A proper use of the chiaro-fcuro is likewife of great fervice on this occafion. The groups are eafily parted, and the whole picture acquires a grand effect, by introducing fome ftrong falls of fhade, and, above all, one principal beam of light.

In like manner, a painter, by the help of perfpective, especially that called aerial, the oppofi tion of local colours, and other contrivances which he may hit upon by ftudying nature, and those who have beft ftudied her before him, will be able not only to part his groups, but make them appear at different diftances, fo as to leave sufficient paffages between them.

But the greatest caution is to be used in the purfuit of the methods here laid down; especially in the management of the chiaro-fcuro, that the ef fects attributed to light and shade, and to their various concomitants, may not run counter to truth and experience. This is a capital point. For this purpose, a painter would do well to make, in little figures, as Tintoret and Pouffin used to do, a model of the fubject that he intends to represent, and then illuminate it by lamp or candle light. Thus he may know with certainty, if the chiarofcuro, which he has formed in his mind, does not clash with the reason of things: By varying the height and direction of his light, he may easily discover such accidental effects as are most likely to recommend his performance, and fo establish à proper fyftem for the illuminating it.

In the next place, to turn a group elegantly, the beft pattern is that of a bunch of grapes adopted by Titian. As, of the many grains that compofe a bunch of grapes, fome are ftruck directly by the light, and those 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 group fhould be fo difpofed, that, by the union of the chiaro-fcuro,

feveral

feveral things may appear, as it were, but one thing. And in fact it is only from his having purfued this method, that we can account for the very grand effect of his pieces this way, in which it is impoffible to ftudy him too much.

As to forefhortened figures, too much affectation in ufing or avoiding them is equally blameable. The attitudes had better be compofed than otherwise. 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 practised by fome paint

ers.

Let the whole, in a word, and all the different parts of the difpofition, poffefs probability, grace, coftume, and the particular character of what is to be reprefented. Let nothing look like uniformity of manner, which does not appear lefs in the composition than it does in colouring, drapery, and defign; and is, as it were, that kind of accent, by which painters may be as readily diftinguished, as foreigners are by pronouncing in the fame manner all the different languages they happen to be acquainted with.

SECT. XI. Of the COSTUME.

THE COSTUME in painting, correfponds with the unities of time, place, and action, in tragedy and in epic poetry. It is chiefly confined to hiftory-painting; and regards the customs of different periods, the manner, the drefs, and colours of different nations. Great exactness in the coftume is fcarcely practicable; but too fenfible a departure from it denotes unpardonable negligence. It frequently happens, that a piece compofed of pic. turefque figures, derives confiderable advantage from certain liberties, which are calculated to please both the artift and the spectator; for the judges of painting are not habitually occupied with the details of ancient and modern hiftory, or profoundly verfed in all the circumftances which make a departure from the coftume confpicuous. On the other hand, if they were fo ignorant as not to understand, or fo indifferent as not to regard thofe circumstances, this branch of the art would be altogether arbitrary. The road of the painter is between these two extremes, not to defpife beauty on the one hand, nor probability on the other. But in pursuing this part of the art, it is in vain to feek for perfect models in ancient or modern painting

A painter, the better to attain the end of his art, which is deception, ought carefully to avoid mixing the antique with the modern, the domeftic with the foreign; things, in'fhort, repugnant to each other, and therefore incapable of gaining credit. A fpectator will never be brought to confider himself as actually prefent at the fcene, the representation of which he has before him, unless the circumftances which enter it perfectly agree among themselves, and the field of action, if we may use the expreffion, in no fhape belies the action itself. For inftance, the circumstances, or, acceffories, in a Finding of Mofes, are not furely to reprefent the borders of a canal planted with rows of poppies, and covered with country houfes in the European tafte; but the banks of a great river, fhaded with cluftres of palm-trees, with a

Sphinx or an Anubis in the adjacent fields, and here and there, in the back ground, a towering pyramid. And indeed the painter, before he takes either canvas or paper in hand, fhould, on the wings of 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 fubject, with the particular spot where he has chosen to lay his scene, fo manage his pencil, as, by the magic of it, to make the enraptured fpectators fancy themselves there along with him.

SECT. XII. PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

HAVING thus laid down the principles of the art, and given the ftudent fome directions as to his ftudies, we conclude this part with a few observations relative to practice.

1. The young painter must be careful not to be led aftray by the ambition of compofing easily, or attaining to what is called a masterly handling of the chalk or pencil; a pernicious attempt, by which students are excluded from all power of advancing in real excellence. To this attempt, however, young men have not only the frivolous ambition of being thought masterly inciting them on the one hand, but alfo their natural floth tempting them on the other. They are terrified at the profpect before them, and of the toil required to obtain exactnefs; whilft the lives of the most eminent painters furnifh us with examples of the moft unceasing induftry. When they conceived a fubject, they first made a variety of fketches; then a finifhed drawing of the whole; after that, a more correct drawing of every separate part, heads, hands, feet, and pieces of drapery; they then painted the picture, and, after all, retouched it from the life. The pictures, thus wrought with fuch care, now appear like the effects of enchantment, or as if fome mighty genius had ftruck them off at a blow.

But a ftudent muft' apply his ftrength to that part of the art where the real difficulties lie; to that part which diftinguishes it as a liberal art, and not, by mistaken industry, lose his time in that which is merely ornamental. The ftudents, inftead of vying with each other who fhall have the readieft hand, fhould be taught to labour who fhall have the pureft and moft correct outline; inftead of ftriving who fhall produce the brighteft tint, or endeavouring to give the glofs of ftuffs fo as to make them appear real, let their ambition be directed to contend, who fhall difpofe his dra pery in the moft graceful folds, and give the greateft dignity to the human form. He who endeavours to copy accurately the figure before him, not only acquires a habit of exactness and precifion, but is continually advancing in his know. ledge of the human figure; and though he seems to fuperficial obfervers to make a flower progress, he will be found at laft capable of adding (with out running into capricious wildnefs) that grace and beauty which is neceflary to be given to his more finished works, and which cannot be got by the moderns, as it was not acquired by the ancients, but by an attentive and well-directed study of the human form.

2. It is of great importance that the drawings

on which the young artist firft exercifes his talents be of the most excellent kind. Let the profiles, the hands, and the feet given him to copy, be of the best masters, fo as to bring his eye and his hand early acquainted with the most elegant forms and the most beautiful proportions. A painter who has early acquired a fine tafte, finds it an eafy matter to give dignity to the meaneft features, while the works of a Praxiteles or a Glycon are seen to suffer in the bands of another. A veffel will ever retain the fcent which it has firft contracted.

3. He should alfo copy fome fine heads from the Geeek and Roman medals; not fo much for the reafon juft laid down, as to make him acquainted, if we may ufe the expreffion, with thofe perfonages which in time he may have occafion 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 nature of that chiaro-fcuro by which, properly fpeaking, the various forms of things are diftinguished.

There is no danger of ftudying too much the works of the greatest mafters, either in painting or fculpture; but how they may be fludied to advantage is an inquiry of great importance. "Some (fays SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS) who have never raised their minds to the confideration of the real dignity of the art, and who rate the works of an artift in proportion as they excel or are defective in the mechanical parts, look on theory as fome. thing that may enable them to talk, but not to paint better; and, confining themselves entirely to mechanical practice, very affiduously toil in the drudgery of copying, and think they make a rapid progrefs, while they faithfully exhibit the minuteft part of a favourite picture. This appears to me a very tedious and I think, a very erroneous method of proceeding. Of every large compofition, even of those which are most admired, a great part may be truly faid to be common place. This, though it takes much time in copying, conduces little to improvement. I confider general copying as a delufive kind of industry; the ftudent fatisfies himself with the appearance of doing fomething; he falls into the dangerous habit of imitating without selecting, and of labouring without any determinate object: as it requires no effort of the mind, he fleeps over his work; and those powers of invention and compofition which ought particularly to be called out and put in action, lie torpid, and lose their energy for want of

exercife.

Poffefs yourself with their fpirit. Confider with yourself, how a Michael Angelo or a Raphael would have treated this fubject, and work your felf into a belief that your picture is to be seen and criticifed by them when completed. Even an attempt of this kind will roufe your powers." The fame great mafter recommends to students to keep their minds fixed on the higheft excellencies. "If you compass them, and compass nothing more, you are ftill in the first class. We may regret the innumerable beauties which you may want; you may be very imperfect; but ftill you are an imperfect person of the highest or. der.

"I inculcate as frequently as I can, your form. ing yourfelves upon great principles and great models. Your time will be much misspent in e very other purfuit. Small excellencies should be viewed, not studied; they ought to be viewed, because nothing ought to efcape a painter's obfervation, but for no other reason.

"There is another caution which I with to give you. Be as felect in those whom you endeavour to please, as in thofe whom you endeavour to imitate. Without the love of fame, you can never do any thing excellent; but by an exceffive and undiftinguishing thirst after it, you will come to have vulgar views; you will degrade your ftyle; and your tafte will be entirely corrupted. It is certain that the lowest style will be the most popular, as it falls within the compass of ignorance itself, and the vulgar will always be pleafed with what is natural, in the confined and misunderstood fenfe of the word."

GENIUS, Sir Joshua confiders as an improveable talent, never to be deftroyed by the most exceffive, if well directed, application, and difplaying the elegancies of the art in proportion to the number of ideas which have been carefully collected and digefted in the mind. He cautions painters, therefore, in every stage of their progress, to beware of that falfe opinion, but too prevalent among artifts, of the imaginary power of native genius, and its fufficiency in great works.

This opinion, according to the temper of mind it meets with, almost always produces either a vain confidence or a fluggish defpair, both equally fatal to all proficiency. "Study, therefore, the great works of the great mafters for ever. Study, as nearly as you can, in the order, in the manner, on the principles on which they ftudied. Study nature attentively, but always with thofe mafters in your company; confider them as models which you are to imitate, and at the fame time, as rivals whom you are to combat."

PART H.