PAINTING.
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tomical casts, and from the study of human subjects living anddead.
Perspective.
The study of perspective should go hand in hand with that ofanatomy, as not less fundamental and necessary. In fact the con-tour of an object, drawn upon paper or canvas, represents nothingmore than such an intersection of the visual rays sent from the ex-tremities of it to the eye, as would arise on a glass put in the placeof the paper or canvas. Now, the situation of an object at theother side of a glass being given, the delineation of it on the glassitself depends entirely on the situation of the eye on this side ofthe glass; that is to say, on the rides of perspective: a sciencewhich, contrary to the opinion of most people, extends much lav-ther than the painting ot scenes, floors, and what generally goesunder the name quadratura. Perspective teaches in what propor-tion the parts fly from',‘~and lessen upon, the eye ; how figuresare to he marshalled upon a plain surface, and fore-shortened. Itcontains, in short, the whole rationale of design. See the articlePerspective.
Optics.
As practice ought in every thing to be built upon principle, thestudy of optics, as far as it is requisite to determine the degree inwhich objects are to be illuminated or shaded, should proceedhand in hand with that of perspective ; in order that the shades,cast by figures upon the planes on which they stand, may fall pro-perly, and be neither too strong nor too light ; in a word, thatthose most beautiful effects of the chiaro-scuro may run no risk ofever receiving the lie from truth, which sooner or later discoversitself to every eye.
Symmetry.
The study of symmetry, it is obvious, should immediately fol-low that of anatomy : for it would avail us little to be acquaintedwith the different parts of the human body, and their several of-fices, were we at the same time ignorant of the order and propor-tion of those parts in regard to the whole in general, and to eachother in particular. The Greek statuaries distinguished themselvesabove all others, as much by the just symmetry of their members,as by their skill in anatomy. The Greek statues should thereforeoften be copied by the young painter.
Imitation is the first part of the art of painting, though not themost exce'lent. Whatever a young painter’s natural dispositionmay be, whether to paint boldly and freely like Tintoret andRubens, or to labour his works like Titian or Da Vinci , let himfollow it. This kind of imitation is very commendable. How-ever, a painter should have his eye constantly fixed on nature, thatinexhaustible and varied source of every kind of beauty; andshould study to imitate her in her most singular effects. Heshould never he without his little book and crayon, to make draw-ings of every beautiful or uncommon object that may happen topresent itself. He may afterwards employ these sketches as oc-casions offer; and in the mean time will have the advantage ofacquiring a grand taste. It is by carefully studying the best mus-ters, and imitating nature, that a painter arrives "at the style orperfection which tlie Italians call gustogrando, the French le beauideal, and die English the great_styie. It iTa necessary warrant-able pride, (says Sir Joshua Reynolds ^) to disdain to walk servilebehind any individual, however elevated his rank. The true andliberal ground of imitation is an open field, where, though lie whoprecedes has had the advantage of starting before you, yet is itenough to pursue his course ; you need not tread in his footsteps;and you certainly have a right t o outstrip him if you can.”
Colouring.
Colouring, though a subject greatly inferior to many otherswhich the painter must study, is yet a branch of the art which re-quires his particular regard. To excel in it, lie must he well ac-quainted with that part ol optics, which has the nature of light amicolours for its object. Light, however simple ami un ompoundedit may appear, is nevertheless made up of several distinct sub-stances. Every undivided ray, let it be ever so fine, is a little
bundle of red, orange, yellow, green, azure, indigo, and violetrays, which, while combined, are not to be distinguished one fromanother, and form that kind of light called white ; so that white isnot a colour per se,. as Da Vinci affirms, but an assemblage ofcolours. Now, these colours, which compose light, although im-mutable in themselves, and endued wirli various qualities, arecontinually, however, separating from each other in their reiiec-tion from, ami passage through, other substances, and thus becomemanifest to the eye. Grass, for example, reflects only greenrays, or rather reflects green rays in greater number, than it doesthose of any other colour; one kind of wine transmits red rays,and another yellowish rays: and from this kind of separation arisesthat variety of colours with which nature has diversified her va-rious productions. Man, too has contrived to separate the raysof light by making a portion of the sun’s beams pass through aglass-prism ; for after passing through it, they appear divided intoseven pure and primitive colours, placed in succession one by theother, like so many colours on a painter’s pallet. See Optics.Now, though Titian, Corregio , and Vandyke, have been excel-lent colourists, without knowing any thing of these physical phe-nomena, yet now that they are discovered and ascertained, everypainter ought to be well acquainted with them, as with these co-lours lie is to give life and perfection to his designs. From a duetempering of the tints in a picture ; from making colours partakeof each other, according to the reflection of light from one objectto another ; there arises, in some measure, that sublime harmonywhich gives pleasure to the lovers of the art. And this harmonyhas its foundation in the genuine principles of optics. For thoughcolours are in their own nature immutable one into another, andevery body reflects, more or less every sort of coloured rays, butthose rays in the greatest number which are of the colour it exhi-bits, there must arise, in colours placed near one another, certainparticular temperaments of colour : nay, this influence of one co-lour upon another may be so far traced, that three or four bodiesof different colours, and likewise the intenseness of the light fallingupon each, being assigned, we may easily determine in what si-tuations and how much they would tinge each other. We maythus, too, by the same principle, account for several other thingspractised by painters : insomuch that a person, who has carefullyobserved natural effects, shall he able to form general rules whereanother can only distinguish particular cases. After all, the pic-tures of the best colourists are sources from which a young pain-ter must chiefly look for the rules of colouring; that is, of thatbranch of painting which contributes so much to express thebeauty of objects, and is so requisite to represent them as theyreally are. Giorgio and Titian seem to have discovered circum-stances in nature which others had overlooked; and the lasthas expressed them in the most delicate manner. In his workswe behold that sweetness of colouring which is produced by union;that beauty which is consistent with truth ; and all the insensibletransmutations, all the soft transitions, of tints and colours. Whena young painter has, by close application, acquired fromTitian, thatart which, of all painters, he has best contrived to hide, he woulddo well to turn to Bassano and Paolo, on account of the beauty,boldness, and elegance, of their touches. That richness, softness,and freshness, of colouring, for which the Lombard school is sojustly famed, may likewise be of great service to him. Nor willhe reap less benefit by studying the principles and practice of theFlemish school; who chiefly by means of their varnishes, havegiven a most enchanting lustre and transparency to their colours.Tlie best model for the tone of colours and the degradation ofshades is furnished by means of the camera obscura, as this exhi-bits the various tints of a scene in all the variety, loveliness, andtruth, of nature.
Drapery.
Drapery is a most important branch of the art. It seldom hap-pens that a painter has nothing but naked figures to represent;nay, his subjects generally consist of figures clothed from head tofoot. To drape a figure well, it is necessary that the folds belarge and few in number; because large folds produce greatmasses of light and shadow, while small ones multiply tiie objectsof view and distract the attention. But if the character of thedrapery or kind of stuff require small folds, they should at least bedistributed in groups, in such a manner that a great number of
small