PAINTING.

small folds shall be subordinate to an equal mass formed by a prin-cipal fold. See the article Drawing.

Landscape and Architecture.

When our young painter has made a suflicient progress in thoseprincipal branches of his art, the designing, perspective, colour-ing, and draperv, of human figures, he should turn his thoughts tolandscape and architecture. The most eminent landscape-pain-ters are Poussin, Lorenese, and Titian. Paul Veronese is in ar-chitecture what Titian is in landscape. To excel in landscape,we must, above all things, study nature. To excel in architec-ture, we must chiefly regard the finest works of art; such as thefronts of ancient edifices, and the fabrics of those moderns whohave best studied and best copied antiquity. After Brunelleschi and Alberti, who were the first revivers of architecture, cameBramante, Julius Romano, Sansovino, Sanmicheli , and lastly Pal-ladio, whose works the young painter should above all diligentlystudy and imprint deeply on his mind. Nor is Vignola to beforgot.

Expression of the Passions,

That language, which above all others a painter should care-fully endeavour to learn, and from nature herself, is the languageof the passions. Without it the finest works must appear lifelessand inanimate. It is in this branch that painting truly soars, andin a manner rises superior to itself. Many have written, andamongst the rest the famous Le Brun , on the various changes that,according to the various passions, happen in the muscles of theface, which are, as it were, the mirror of the soul. From LeBrun ’s work we have already given a sufficient extract, under thearticle Drawing, which see.

Invention.

Invention is the finding out of probable things, not only such asare adapted to the subject in hand, but such, besides, as by theirsublimity and beauty are most capable of exciting suitable senti-ments in’ the spectator, and of making him, when well executed,fancy that it is the subject itself in its greatest perfection, and nota mere representation of it, that he has before him. We do notsay true things, but probable things ; because probability or veri-similitude is, in fact, the truth of those arts which have the fancyfor their object. It is, indeed, the business and duty of both na-turalists and historians to draw objects as they find them, and re-present them with all those imperfections and blemishes, to which,as individuals, they are subject. But an ideal painter, and such isthe painter of real genius, resembles the poet: instead of copyinghe imitates; that is, he works with his fancy, and represents ob-jects endued with all that perfection w hich belongs to (he species,and may he conceived in the archetype. The mythology of theancient Greeks and Romans afforded an extensive field for inven-tion to the ancient painters; nor have there been wanting ableinventors in painting among the moderns. When a painter takesa subject in hand, whether historical or fabulous, he should care-fully peruse the books which treat of it, imprint well on bis mindall the circumstances that attend it, the persons concerned in it,and the passions with which they must have been severally ani-mated ; not omitting the particulars of time and place. IIis nextbusiness is to create it, as it were, anew’, observing the rules al-ready laid down for that purpose : from what is true, choosingthat which is most striking; and clothing his subject with suchaccessory circumstances and actions, as may render it most conspi-cuous, pathetic, and noble, and best display the powers of the in-ventive faculty. But, in doing this, great discretion is requisite ;for, let his imagination grow ever so warm, his hand is never toexecute any thing that is not fully approved by his judgement.Nothing low or vulgar should appear in a lofty and noble subject;a fault, of which some of the greatest masters, even I.ampieri andPoussin, have been now and then guilty. The action must heone, the place one, the time one. The episodes introduced in thedrama of a picture, should be not only beautiful in themselves,but indispensably requisite. Every part should agree with, andhave a relation to, the whole. Unity should reign even in va-rietv ; for in this beauty consists. This is a fundamental maxim inall the arts whose objec t it is to imitate the works of nature.

Disposition.

Disposition may be considered as a branch of invention, con-sisting in the proper stationing of what the inventive faculty liasimagined, so as to express the subject in the most lively manner.The chief merit of disposition consists in that disorder, which,wearing the appearance of mere chance, is in fact the most studiedeffect of art. A painter, therefore, is equally to avoid the drynessof those ancients, who always planted their figures like so manycouples in a procession, and the affectation of those moderns, whojumble them together as if they met merely to light and squabble.Let the inferior figures of a piece be placed as they will, the prin-cipal figure should strike the eye most, and stand but, as it were,from among the rest. This may’ be effected various ways, as byplacing it on the foremost lines, or in some other conspicuous partof the piece; by exhibiting it, in a manner, by itself; by makingthe principal light fall upon it; by giving it the most resplendentdrapery ; or, indeed, by all these methods together. According toLeon Baptist Alberti, painters should follow the example of comicwriters, who compose their fable of as few persons as possible.For a crowded picture is apt to give as much pain to the specta-tor, as a crowded road to the traveller. Some subjects, it mustbe granted, require a number of figures. On these occasions, itdepends entirely on the skill of the painter to dispose of them insuch a manner, that the principal ones may always make the prin-cipal appearance ; and contrive matters so, that the piece be notover crowded, or want convenient rests and pauses. He must, ina word, take care that his piece be full, but not charged. Thereason for breaking the composition into several groups, is, thatthe eye, passing freely from one object to another, may the bettercomprehend the whole. But these groups are to be so artfullyput together, as to form rich clusters, give the whole compositionan air of grandeur, and afford the spectator an opportunity of dis-cerning the piece at a distance, by taking the whole in, as it were,at a single glance. These effects are greatly promoted by a dueregard to the nature cf colours, so as not to place together thosewhich are apt to pain by their opposition, or distract by their va-riety. They should be ro judiciously disposed as to temper andqualify each other.

Costume.

The costume in painting corresponds with the unities of time,place, and action, in tragedy and in epic poetry. It is chiellyconfined to history-painting ; and regards the customs of differentperiods, the manner,. the dress, and colours, of different nations.Great exactness in the costume is scarcely practicable ; but toosensible a departure from it denotes unpardonable negligence. Itfrequently happens, that a piece composed of picturesque figuresderives considerable advantage from certain liberties, which arecalculated to please both the artist and the spectator; for thejudges of painting are not habitually occupied with the details ofancient and modern history, or profoundly versed in all the cir-cumstances which make a departure from the costume conspicu-ous. On the other hand, if they were so ignorant as not to under-stand, or so indifferent as not to regard, those circumstances, thisbranch of the art would be altogether arbitrary. The road of thepainter is between these two extremes, not to despise beauty oilthe one hand, nor probability on the other. But in pursuing thispart of the art, it is in vain to seek for perfect models in ancientor modern painting. A painter, the better to attain the end of hisart, which is deception, ought carefully to avoid mixing the an-tique with the modern, the domestic with the foreign ; tilings, inshort, repugnant to each other, and therefore incapable of gainingcreil.t. A spectator will never be brought to consider himself asactually present at the scene, the representation of which he hasbefore him, unless the circumstances which enter it perfectly agreeamong themselves, and the field of action, if we may use "the ex-pression, in no shape belies the action itself. For Instance, (hecircumstances, or, accessories, in a b inding of Moses , arc not,surely, to represent the border ot a canal planted with rows ofpoppies, and covered with country-houses in the European taste ;but the banks of a great river shaded with clusters of palm-trees,with a Sphinx or an Anubis in the adjacent fields, and here anilthere in the back-ground a towering pyramid. And indeed thepainter, before he lakes either canvas or paper in hand, should on

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