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diff --git a/old/61317-0.txt b/old/61317-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 670b917..0000000 --- a/old/61317-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5538 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reflections on the painting and sculpture -of the Greeks:, by Johann Joachim Winckelmann - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Reflections on the painting and sculpture of the Greeks: - with instructions for the connoisseur, and an essay on - grace in works of art - -Author: Johann Joachim Winckelmann - -Translator: Henry Fusseli - -Release Date: February 4, 2020 [EBook #61317] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PAINTING, SCULPTURE OF THE GREEKS *** - - - - -Produced by Turgut Dincer and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive) - - - - - - - - - - -REFLECTIONS ON THE PAINTING AND SCULPTURE OF THE _GREEKS_. - - - - - REFLECTIONS - ON THE - PAINTING and SCULPTURE - OF - THE GREEKS: - WITH - INSTRUCTIONS for the CONNOISSEUR, - AND - An ESSAY on GRACE in Works of Art. - - Translated from - The _German_ Original of the Abbé WINKELMANN, - Librarian of the VATICAN, F. R. S. &c. &c. - - By HENRY FUSSELI, A.M. - - [Illustration] - - LONDON: - Printed for the TRANSLATOR, and Sold by A. MILLAR, - in the Strand, 1765. - - - - -TO - -The Lord SCARSDALE. - - -MY LORD, - -With becoming gratitude for your Lordship’s condescension in granting -such a noble Asylum to a Stranger, I humbly presume to shelter this -Translation under your Lordship’s Patronage. - -If I have been able to do justice to my Author, your Lordship’s accurate -Jugment, and fine Taste, will naturally protect his Work: But I must -rely wholly on your known Candour and Goodness for the pardon of many -imperfections in the language. - -I am, with the most profound respect, - - MY LORD, - - Your LORDSHIP’S - - Most obliged, most obedient, and most humble Servant, - - Henry Fusseli. - - LONDON, - 10 April, 1765. - - - - -[Illustration: GRAIIS INGENIUM &c.] - - - - - ON THE - IMITATION - OF THE - PAINTING and SCULPTURE of the GREEKS. - - -I. NATURE. - -To the Greek climate we owe the production of TASTE, and from thence -it spread at length over all the politer world. Every invention, -communicated by foreigners to that nation, was but the feed of what it -became afterwards, changing both its nature and size in a country, -chosen, as _Plato_[1] says, by Minerva, to be inhabited by the Greeks, as -productive of every kind of genius. - -But this TASTE was not only original among the Greeks, but seemed also -quite peculiar to their country: it seldom went abroad without loss; and -was long ere it imparted its kind influences to more distant climes. -It was, doubtless, a stranger to the northern zones, when Painting and -Sculpture, those offsprings of Greece, were despised there to such a -degree, that the most valuable pieces of _Corregio_ served only for -blinds to the windows of the royal stables at Stockholm. - -There is but one way for the moderns to become great, and perhaps -unequalled; I mean, by imitating the antients. And what we are told of -_Homer_, that whoever understands him well, admires him, we find no less -true in matters concerning the antient, especially the Greek arts. But -then we must be as familiar with them as with a friend, to find Laocoon -as inimitable as _Homer_. By such intimacy our judgment will be that -of _Nicomachus_: _Take these eyes_, replied he to some paltry critick, -censuring the Helen of Zeuxis, _Take my eyes, and she will appear a -goddess_. - -With such eyes _Michael Angelo_, _Raphael_, and _Poussin_, considered -the performances of the antients. They imbibed taste at its source; and -Raphael particularly in its native country. We know, that he sent young -artists to Greece, to copy there, for his use, the remains of antiquity. - -An antient Roman statue, compared to a Greek one, will generally appear -like _Virgil_’s Diana amidst her Oreads, in comparison of the Nausicaa of -_Homer_, whom he imitated. - -Laocoon was the standard of the Roman artists, as well as ours; and the -rules of _Polycletus_ became the rules of art. - -I need not put the reader in mind of the negligences to be met with in -the most celebrated antient performances: the Dolphin at the feet of -the Medicean Venus, with the children, and the Parerga of the Diomedes -by _Dioscorides_, being commonly known. The reverse of the best Egyptian -and Syrian coins seldom equals the head, in point of workmanship. Great -artists are wisely negligent, and even their errors instruct. Behold -their works as _Lucian_ bids you behold the Zeus of _Phidias_; _Zeus -himself, not his footstool_. - -It is not only _Nature_ which the votaries of the Greeks find in their -works, but still more, something superior to nature; ideal beauties, -brain-born images, as _Proclus_ says[2]. - -The most beautiful body of ours would perhaps be as much inferior to the -most beautiful Greek one, as Iphicles was to his brother Hercules. The -forms of the Greeks, prepared to beauty, by the influence of the mildest -and purest sky, became perfectly elegant by their early exercises. Take -a Spartan youth, sprung from heroes, undistorted by swaddling-cloths; -whose bed, from his seventh year, was the earth, familiar with wrestling -and swimming from his infancy; and compare him with one of our young -Sybarits, and then decide which of the two would be deemed worthy, by -an artist, to serve for the model of a Theseus, an Achilles, or even a -Bacchus. The latter would produce a Theseus fed on roses, the former a -Theseus fed on flesh, to borrow the expression of _Euphranor_. - -The grand games were always a very strong incentive for every Greek youth -to exercise himself. Whoever aspired to the honours of these was obliged, -by the laws, to submit to a trial of ten months at Elis, the general -rendezvous; and there the first rewards were commonly won by youths, as -_Pindar_ tells us.[3]_To be like the God-like Diagoras_, was the fondest -wish of every youth. - -Behold the swift Indian outstripping in pursuit the hart: how briskly his -juices circulate! how flexible, how elastic his nerves and muscles! how -easy his whole frame! Thus _Homer_ draws his heroes, and his Achilles he -eminently marks for “being swift of foot.” - -By these exercises the bodies of the Greeks got the great and manly -Contour observed in their statues, without any bloated corpulency. The -young Spartans were bound to appear every tenth day naked before the -Ephori, who, when they perceived any inclinable to fatness, ordered them -a scantier diet; nay, it was one of _Pythagoras_’s precepts, to beware of -growing too corpulent; and, perhaps for the same reason, youths aspiring -to wrestling-games were, in the remoter ages of Greece, during their -trial, confined to a milk diet. - -They were particularly cautious in avoiding every deforming custom; and -_Alcibiades_, when a boy, refusing to learn to play on the flute, for -fear of its discomposing his features, was followed by all the youth of -Athens. - -In their dress they were professed followers of nature. No modern -stiffening habit, no squeezing stays hindered Nature from forming easy -beauty; the fair knew no anxiety about their attire, and from their loose -and short habits the Spartan girls got the epithet of Phænomirides. - -We know what pains they took to have handsome children, but want to be -acquainted with their methods: for certainly _Quillet_, in his Callipædy, -falls short of their numerous expedients. They even attempted changing -blue eyes to black ones, and games of beauty were exhibited at Elis, the -rewards consisting of arms consecrated to the temple of Minerva. How -could they miss of competent and learned judges, when, as _Aristotle_ -tells us, the Grecian youths were taught drawing expressly for that -purpose? From their fine complexion, which, though mingled with a vast -deal of foreign blood, is still preserved in most of the Greek islands, -and from the still enticing beauty of the fair sex, especially at Chios; -we may easily form an idea of the beauty of the former inhabitants, who -boasted of being Aborigines, nay, more antient than the moon. - -And are not there several modern nations, among whom beauty is too common -to give any title to pre-eminence? Such are unanimously accounted the -Georgians and the Kabardinski in the Crim. - -Those diseases which are destructive of beauty, were moreover unknown to -the Greeks. There is not the least hint of the small-pox, in the writings -of their physicians; and _Homer_, whose portraits are always so truly -drawn, mentions not one pitted face. Venereal plagues, and their daughter -the English malady, had not yet names. - -And must we not then, considering every advantage which nature bestows, -or art teaches, for forming, preserving, and improving beauty, enjoyed -and applied by the Grecians; must we not then confess, there is the -strongest probability that the beauty of their persons excelled all we -can have an idea of? - -Art claims liberty: in vain would nature produce her noblest offsprings, -in a country where rigid laws would choak her progressive growth, as -in Egypt, that pretended parent of sciences and arts: but in Greece, -where, from their earliest youth, the happy inhabitants were devoted to -mirth and pleasure, where narrow-spirited formality never restrained the -liberty of manners, the artist enjoyed nature without a veil. - -The Gymnasies, where, sheltered by public modesty, the youths exercised -themselves naked, were the schools of art. These the philosopher -frequented, as well as the artist. _Socrates_ for the instruction of a -Charmides, Autolycus, Lysis; _Phidias_ for the improvement of his art -by their beauty. Here he studied the elasticity of the muscles, the -ever varying motions of the frame, the outlines of fair forms, or the -Contour left by the young wrestler on the sand. Here beautiful nakedness -appeared with such a liveliness of expression, such truth and variety of -situations, such a noble air of the body, as it would be ridiculous to -look for in any hired model of our academies. - -Truth springs from the feelings of the heart. What shadow of it therefore -can the modern artist hope for, by relying upon a vile model, whose soul -is either too base to feel, or too stupid to express the passions, the -sentiment his object claims? unhappy he! if experience and fancy fail him. - -The beginning of many of _Plato_’s dialogues, supposed to have been held -in the Gymnasies, cannot raise our admiration of the generous souls -of the Athenian youth, without giving us, at the same time, a strong -presumption of a suitable nobleness in their outward carriage and bodily -exercises. - -The fairest youths danced undressed on the theatre; and _Sophocles_, the -great _Sophocles_, when young, was the first who dared to entertain his -fellow-citizens in this manner. _Phryne_ went to bathe at the Eleusinian -games, exposed to the eyes of all Greece, and rising from the water -became the model of Venus Anadyomene. During certain solemnities the -young Spartan maidens danced naked before the young men: strange this may -seem, but will appear more probable, when we consider that the christians -of the primitive church, both men and women, were dipped together in the -same font. - -Then every solemnity, every festival, afforded the artist opportunity to -familiarize himself with all the beauties of Nature. - -In the most happy times of their freedom, the humanity of the Greeks -abhorred bloody games, which even in the Ionick Asia had ceased long -before, if, as some guess, they had once been usual there. _Antiochus -Epiphanes_, by ordering shews of Roman gladiators, first presented them -with such unhappy victims; and custom and time, weakening the pangs of -sympathizing humanity, changed even these games into schools of art. -There _Ctesias_ studied his dying gladiator, in whom you might descry -“how much life was still left in him[4].” - -These frequent occasions of observing Nature, taught the Greeks to go on -still farther. They began to form certain general ideas of beauty, with -regard to the proportions of the inferiour parts, as well as of the whole -frame: these they raised above the reach of mortality, according to the -superiour model of some ideal nature. - -Thus _Raphael_ formed his Galatea, as we learn by his letter to Count -Baltazar Castiglione[5], where he says, “Beauty being so seldom found -among the fair, I avail myself of a certain ideal image.” - -According to those ideas, exalted above the pitch of material models, the -Greeks formed their gods and heroes: the profile of the brow and nose of -gods and goddesses is almost a streight line. The same they gave on their -coins to queens, &c. but without indulging their fancy too much. Perhaps -this profile was as peculiar to the antient Greeks, as flat noses and -little eyes to the Calmucks and Chinese; a supposition which receives -some strength from the large eyes of all the heads on Greek coins and -gems. - -From the same ideas the Romans formed their Empresses on their coins. -Livia and Agrippina have the profile of Artemisia and Cleopatra. - -We observe, nevertheless, that the Greek artists in general, submitted to -the law prescribed by the Thebans: “To do, under a penalty, their best in -imitating Nature.” For, where they could not possibly apply their easy -profile, without endangering the resemblance, they followed Nature, as we -see instanced in the beauteous head of Julia, the daughter of Titus, done -by _Euodus_[6]. - -But to form a “just resemblance, and, at the same time, a handsomer -one,” being always the chief rule they observed, and which _Polygnotus_ -constantly went by; they must, of necessity, be supposed to have had in -view a more beauteous and more perfect Nature. And when we are told, that -some artists imitated _Praxiteles_, who took his concubine _Cratina_ for -the model of his Cnidian Venus; or that others formed the graces from -_Lais_; it is to be understood that they did so, without neglecting these -great laws of the art. Sensual beauty furnished the painter with all that -nature could give; ideal beauty with the awful and sublime; from that he -took the _Humane_, from this the _Divine_. - -Let any one, sagacious enough to pierce into the depths of art, compare -the whole system of the Greek figures with that of the moderns, by which, -as they say, nature alone is imitated; good heaven! what a number of -neglected beauties will he not discover! - -For instance, in most of the modern figures, if the skin happens to be -any where pressed, you see there several little smart wrinkles: when, -on the contrary, the same parts, pressed in the same manner on Greek -statues, by their soft undulations, form at last but one noble pressure. -These master-pieces never shew us the skin forcibly stretched, but softly -embracing the firm flesh, which fills it up without any tumid expansion, -and harmoniously follows its direction. There the skin never, as on -modern bodies, appears in plaits distinct from the flesh. - -Modern works are likewise distinguished from the antient by parts; a -crowd of small touches and dimples too sensibly drawn. In antient works -you find these distributed with sparing sagacity, and, as relative to -a completer and more perfect Nature, offered but as hints, nay, often -perceived only by the learned. - -The probability still increases, that the bodies of the Greeks, as well -as the works of their artists, were framed with more unity of system, a -nobler harmony of parts, and a completeness of the whole, above our lean -tensions and hollow wrinkles. - -Probability, ’tis true, is all we can pretend to: but it deserves the -attention of our artists and connoisseurs the rather, as the veneration -professed for the antient monuments is commonly imputed to prejudice, and -not to their excellence; as if the numerous ages, during which they have -mouldered, were the only motive for bestowing on them exalted praises, -and setting them up for the standards of imitation. - -Such as would fain deny to the Greeks the advantages both of a more -perfect Nature and of ideal Beauties, boast of the famous _Bernini_, -as their great champion. He was of opinion, besides, that Nature was -possessed of every requisite beauty: the only skill being to discover -that. He boasted of having got rid of a prejudice concerning the Medicean -Venus, whose charms he at first thought peculiar ones; but, after many -careful researches, discovered them now and then in Nature[7]. - -He was taught then, by the Venus, to discover beauties in common Nature, -which he had formerly thought peculiar to that statue, and but for it, -never would have searched for them. Follows it not from thence, that the -beauties of the Greek statues being discovered with less difficulty than -those of Nature, are of course more affecting; not so diffused, but more -harmoniously united? and if this be true, the pointing out of Nature as -chiefly imitable, is leading us into a more tedious and bewildered road -to the knowledge of perfect beauty, than setting up the ancients for -that purpose: consequently _Bernini_, by adhering too strictly to Nature, -acted against his own principles, as well as obstructed the progress of -his disciples. - -The imitation of beauty is either reduced to a single object, and is -_individual_, or, gathering observations from single ones, _composes of -these one whole_. The former we call copying, drawing a portrait; ’tis -the straight way to Dutch forms and figures; whereas the other leads to -general beauty, and its ideal images, and is the way the Greeks took. But -there is still this difference between them and us: they enjoying daily -occasions of seeing beauty, (suppose even not superior to ours,) acquired -those ideal riches with less toil than we, confined as we are to a few -and often fruitless opportunities, ever can hope for. It would be no easy -matter, I fancy, for our nature, to produce a frame equal in beauty to -that of Antinous; and surely no idea can soar above the more than human -proportions of a deity, in the Apollo of the Vatican, which is a compound -of the united force of Nature, Genius, and Art. - -Their imitation discovering in the one every beauty diffused through -Nature, shewing in the other the pitch to which the most perfect Nature -can elevate herself, when soaring above the senses, will quicken the -genius of the artist, and shorten his discipleship: he will learn to -think and draw with confidence, seeing here the fixed limits of human and -divine beauty. - -Building on this ground, his hand and senses directed by the Greek rule -of beauty, the modern artist goes on the surest way to the imitation -of Nature. The ideas of unity and perfection, which he acquired in -meditating on antiquity, will help him to combine, and to ennoble the -more scattered and weaker beauties of our Nature. Thus he will improve -every beauty he discovers in it, and by comparing the beauties of nature -with the ideal, form rules for himself. - -Then, and not sooner, he, particularly the painter, may be allowed to -commit himself to Nature, especially in cases where his art is beyond the -instruction of the old marbles, to wit, in drapery; then, like _Poussin_, -he may proceed with more liberty; for “a timid follower will never get -the start of his leaders, and he who is at a loss to produce something -of his own, will be a bad manager of the productions of another,” as -_Michael Angelo_ says; Minds favoured by Nature, - - _Quibus Arte benigna,_ - _Et meliore luto, finxit præcordia Titan,_ - -have here a plain way to become originals. - -Thus the account _de Piles_ gives, ought to be understood, that -_Raphael_, a short time before he was carried off by death, intended -to forsake the marbles, in order to addict himself wholly to Nature. -True antient taste would most certainly have guided him through every -maze of common Nature; and whatever observations, whatever new ideas -he might have reaped from that, they would all, by a kind of chymical -transmutation, have been changed to his own essence and soul. - -He, perhaps, might have indulged more variety; enlarged his draperies; -improved his colours, his light and shadow: but none of these -improvements would have raised his pictures to that high esteem they -deserve, for that noble Contour, and that sublimity of thoughts, which he -acquired from the ancients. - -Nothing would more decisively prove the advantages to be got by imitating -the ancients, preferably to Nature, than an essay made with two youths -of equal talents, by devoting the one to antiquity, the other to Nature: -this would draw Nature as he finds her; if Italian, perhaps he might -paint like _Caravaggio_; if Flemish, and lucky, like _Jac. Jordans_; if -French, like _Stella_: the other would draw her as she directs, and paint -like _Raphael_. - - -II. CONTOUR. - -But even supposing that the imitation of Nature could supply all the -artist wants, she never could bestow the precision of Contour, that -characteristic distinction of the ancients. - -The noblest Contour unites or circumscribes every part of the most -perfect Nature, and the ideal beauties in the figures of the Greeks; -or rather, contains them both. _Euphranor_, famous after the epoch of -_Zeuxis_, is said to have first ennobled it. - -Many of the moderns have attempted to imitate this Contour, but very few -with success. The great _Rubens_ is far from having attained either its -precision or elegance, especially in the performances which he finished -before he went to Italy, and studied the antiques. - -The line by which Nature divides completeness from superfluity is but -a small one, and, insensible as it often is, has been crossed even by -the best moderns; while these, in shunning a meagre Contour, became -corpulent, those, in shunning that, grew lean. - -Among them all, only _Michael Angelo_, perhaps, may be said to have -attained the antique; but only in strong muscular figures, heroic frames; -not in those of tender youth; nor in female bodies, which, under his bold -hand, grew Amazons. - -The Greek artist, on the contrary, adjusted his Contour, in every -figure, to the breadth of a single hair, even in the nicest and most -tiresome performances, as gems. Consider the Diomedes and Perseus of -_Dioscorides_[8], Hercules and Iole by _Teucer_[9], and admire the -inimitable Greeks. - -_Parrhasius_, they say, was master of the correctest Contour. - -This Contour reigns in Greek figures, even when covered with drapery, as -the chief aim of the artist; the beautiful frame pierces the marble like -a transparent _Coan_ cloth. - -The high-stiled Agrippina, and the three vestals in the royal cabinet -at Dresden, deserve to be mentioned as eminent proofs of this. This -Agrippina seems not the mother of Nero, but an elder one, the spouse -of Germanicus. She much resembles another pretended Agrippina, in the -parlour of the library of St. Marc, at Venice[10]. Ours is a sitting -figure, above the size of Nature, her head inclined on her right hand; -her fine face speaks a soul “pining in thought,” absorbed in pensive -sorrow, and senseless to every outward impression. The artist, I suppose, -intended to draw his heroine in the mournful moment she received the -news of her banishment to Pandataria. - -The three vestals deserve our esteem from a double title: as being -the first important discoveries of Herculaneum, and models of the -sublimest drapery. All three, but particularly one above the natural -size, would, with regard to that, be worthy companions of the Farnesian -_Flora_, and all the other boasts of antiquity. The two others seem, -by their resemblance to each other, productions of the same hand, only -distinguished by their heads, which are not of equal goodness. On the -best the curled hairs, running in furrows from the forehead, are tied on -the neck: on the other the hair being smooth on the scalp, and curled on -the front, is gathered behind, and tied with a ribband: this head seems -of a modern hand, but a good one. - -There is no veil on these heads; but that makes not against their being -vestals: for the priestesses of Vesta (I speak on proof) were not always -veiled; or rather, as the drapery seems to betray, the veil, which was -of one piece with the garments, being thrown backwards, mingles with the -cloaths on the neck. - -’Tis to these three inimitable pieces that the world owes the first hints -of the ensuing discovery of the subterranean treasures of Herculaneum. - -Their discovery happened when the same ruins that overwhelmed the -town had nearly extinguished the unhappy remembrance of it: when the -tremendous fate that spoke its doom was only known by the account which -Pliny gives of his uncle’s death. - -These great master-pieces of the Greek art were transplanted, and -worshipped in Germany, long before Naples could boast of one single -Herculanean monument. - -They were discovered in the year 1706 at Portici near Naples, in a -ruinous vault, on occasion of digging the foundations of a villa, for -the Prince d’Elbeuf, and immediately, with other new discovered marble -and metal statues, came into the possession of Prince Eugene, and were -transported to Vienna. - -Eugene, who well knew their value, provided a Sala Terrena to be built -expressly for them, and a few others: and so highly were they esteemed, -that even on the first rumour of their sale, the academy and the artists -were in an uproar, and every body, when they were transported to Dresden, -followed them with heavy eyes. - -The famous _Matielli_, to whom - - _His rule Polyclet, his chissel Phidias gave,_ - - Algarotti. - -copied them in clay before their removal, and following them some years -after, filled Dresden with everlasting monuments of his art: but even -there he studied the drapery of his priestesses, (drapery his chief -skill!) till he laid down his chissel, and thus gave the most striking -proof of their excellence. - - -III. DRAPERY. - -By Drapery is to be understood all that the art teaches of covering the -nudities, and folding the garments; and this is the third prerogative of -the ancients. - -The Drapery of the vestals above, is grand and elegant. The smaller -foldings spring gradually from the larger ones, and in them are lost -again, with a noble freedom, and gentle harmony of the whole, without -hiding the correct Contour. How few of the moderns would stand the test -here! - -Justice, however, shall not be refused to some great modern artists, who, -without impairing nature or truth, have left, in certain cases, the road -which the ancients generally pursued. The Greek Drapery, in order to help -the Contour, was, for the most part, taken from thin and wet garments, -which of course clasped the body, and discovered the shape. The robe of -the Greek ladies was extremely thin; thence its epithet of Peplon. - -Nevertheless the reliefs, the pictures, and particularly the busts of the -ancients, are instances that they did not always keep to this undulating -Drapery[11]. - -In modern times the artists were forced to heap garments, and sometimes -heavy ones, on each other, which of course could not fall into the -flowing folds of the ancients. Hence the large-folded Drapery, by which -the painter and sculptor may display as much skill as by the ancient -manner. _Carlo Marat_ and _Francis Solimena_ may be called the chief -masters of it: but the garments of the new Venetian school, by passing -the bounds of nature and propriety, became stiff as brass. - - -IV. EXPRESSION. - -The last and most eminent characteristic of the Greek works is a noble -simplicity and sedate grandeur in Gesture and Expression. As the bottom -of the sea lies peaceful beneath a foaming surface, a great soul lies -sedate beneath the strife of passions in Greek figures. - -’Tis in the face of Laocoon this soul shines with full lustre, not -confined however to the face, amidst the most violent sufferings. Pangs -piercing every muscle, every labouring nerve; pangs which we almost -feel ourselves, while we consider—not the face, nor the most expressive -parts—only the belly contracted by excruciating pains: these however, I -say, exert not themselves with violence, either in the face or gesture. -He pierces not heaven, like the Laocoon of _Virgil_; his mouth is rather -opened to discharge an anxious overloaded groan, as _Sadolet_ says; -the struggling body and the supporting mind exert themselves with equal -strength, nay balance all the frame. - -Laocoon suffers, but suffers like the Philoctetes of _Sophocles_: we -weeping feel his pains, but wish for the hero’s strength to support his -misery. - -The Expression of so great a soul is beyond the force of mere nature. It -was in his own mind the artist was to search for the strength of spirit -with which he marked his marble. Greece enjoyed artists and philosophers -in the same persons; and the wisdom of more than one Metrodorus directed -art, and inspired its figures with more than common souls. - -Had Laocoon been covered with a garb becoming an antient sacrificer, -his sufferings would have lost one half of their Expression. _Bernini_ -pretended to perceive the first effects of the operating venom in the -numbness of one of the thighs. - -Every action or gesture in Greek figures, not stamped with this -character of sage dignity, but too violent, too passioniate, was called -“Parenthyrsos.” - -For, the more tranquillity reigns in a body, the fitter it is to draw -the true character of the soul; which, in every excessive gesture, -seems to rush from her proper centre, and being hurried away by -extremes becomes unnatural. Wound up to the highest pitch of passion, -she may force herself upon the duller eye; but the true sphere of her -action is simplicity and calmness. In Laocoon sufferings alone had -been Parenthyrsos; the artist therefore, in order to reconcile the -significative and ennobling qualities of his soul, put him into a -posture, allowing for the sufferings that were necessary, the next to a -state of tranquillity: a tranquillity however that is characteristical: -the soul will be herself—this individual—not the soul of mankind; sedate, -but active; calm, but not indifferent or drowsy. - -What a contrast! how diametrically opposite to this is the taste of our -modern artists, especially the young ones! on nothing do they bestow -their approbation, but contorsions and strange postures, inspired with -boldness; this they pretend is done with spirit, with _Franchezza_. -Contrast is the darling of their ideas; in it they fancy every -perfection. They fill their performances with comet-like excentric souls, -despising every thing but an Ajax or a Capaneus. - -Arts have their infancy as well as men; they begin, as well as the -artist, with froth and bombast: in such buskins the muse of Æschilus -stalks, and part of the diction in his Agamemnon is more loaded with -hyperboles than all Heraclitus’s nonsense. Perhaps the primitive Greek -painters drew in the same manner that their first good tragedian thought -in. - -In all human actions flutter and rashness precede, sedateness and -solidity follow: but time only can discover, and the judicious will -admire these only: they are the characteristics of great masters; violent -passions run away with their disciples. - -The sages in the art know the difficulties hid under that air of easiness: - - _ut sibi quivis_ - _Speret idem, sudet multum, frustraque laboret_ - _Ausus idem._ - - Hor. - -_La Fage_, though an eminent designer, was not able to attain the purity -of ancient taste. Every thing is animated in his works; they demand, and -at the same time dissipate, your attention, like a company striving to -talk all at once. - -This noble simplicity and sedate grandeur is also the true -characteristical mark of the best and maturest Greek writings, of the -epoch and school of _Socrates_. Possessed of these qualities _Raphael_ -became eminently great, and he owed them to the ancients. - -That great soul of his, lodged in a beauteous body, was requisite for the -first discovery of the true character of the ancients: he first felt all -their beauties, and (what he was peculiarly happy in!) at an age when -vulgar, unfeeling, and half-moulded souls overlook every higher beauty. - -Ye that approach his works, teach your eyes to be sensible of those -beauties, refine your taste by the true antique, and then that solemn -tranquillity of the chief figures in his _Attila_, deemed insipid by the -vulgar, will appear to you equally significant and sublime. The Roman -bishop, in order to divert the Hun from his design of assailing Rome, -appears not with the air of a Rhetor, but as a venerable man, whose very -presence softens uproar into peace; like him drawn by Virgil: - - _Tum pietate gravem ac meritis, si forte virum quem_ - _Conspexere, silent, adrectisque auribus adstant:_ - - Æn. I. - -full of confidence in God, he faces down the barbarian: the two Apostles -descend not with the air of slaughtering angels, but (if sacred may be -compared with profane) like Jove, whose very nod shakes Olympus. - -_Algardi_, in his celebrated representation of the same story, done in -bas-relief on an altar in St. Peter’s church at Rome, was either too -negligent, or too weak, to give this active tranquillity of his great -predecessor to the figures of his Apostles. There they appear like -messengers of the Lord of Hosts: here like human warriors with mortal -arms. - -How few of those we call connoisseurs have ever been able to understand, -and sincerely to admire, the grandeur of expression in the St. _Michael -of Guido_, in the church of the Capuchins at Rome! they prefer commonly -the Archangel of _Concha_, whose face glows with indignation and -revenge[12]; whereas _Guido_’s Angel, after having overthrown the fiend -of God and man, hovers over him unruffled and undismayed. - -Thus, to heighten the hero of _The Campaign_, victorious Marlborough, the -British poet paints the avenging Angel hovering over Britannia with the -like serenity and awful calmness. - -The royal gallery at Dresden contains now, among its treasures, one of -_Raphael_’s best pictures, witness Vasari, &c. a Madonna with the Infant; -St. Sixtus and St. Barbara kneeling, one on each side, and two Angels in -the fore-part. - -It was the chief altar-piece in the cloister of St. Sixtus at Piacenza, -which was crouded by connoisseurs, who came to see this Raphael, in -the same manner as Thespis was in the days of old, for the sake of the -beautiful Cupid of _Praxiteles_. - -Behold the Madonna! her face brightens with innocence; a form above the -female size, and the calmness of her mien, make her appear as already -beatified: she has that silent awfulness which the ancients spread over -their deities. How grand, how noble is her Contour! - -The child in her arms is elevated above vulgar children, by a face -darting the beams of divinity through every smiling feature of harmless -childhood. - -St. Barbara kneels, with adoring stillness, at her side: but being far -beneath the majesty of the chief figure, the great artist compensated her -humbler graces with soft enticing charms. - -The Saint opposite to her is venerable with age. His features seem to -bear witness of his sacred youth. - -The veneration which St. Barbara declares for the Madonna, expressed in -the most sensible and pathetic manner, by her fine hands clasped on her -breast, helps to support the motion of one of St. Sixtus’s hands, by -which he utters his extasy, better becoming (as the artist judiciously -thought, and chose for variety’s sake) manly strength, than female -modesty. - -Time, ’tis true, has withered the primitive splendour of this picture, -and partly blown off its lively colours; but still the soul, with which -the painter inspired his godlike work, breathes life through all its -parts. - -Let those that approach this, and the rest of _Raphael_’s works, in hopes -of finding there the trifling Dutch and Flemish beauties, the laboured -nicety of _Netscher_, or _Douw_, flesh _ivorified_ by _Van der Werf_, -or even the licked manner of some of _Raphael_’s living countrymen; let -those, I say, be told, that _Raphael_ was not a great master for them. - - -V. WORKMANSHIP IN SCULPTURE. - -After these remarks on the Nature, the Contour, the Drapery, the -simplicity and grandeur of Expression in the performances of the Greek -artists, we shall proceed to some inquiries into their method of working. - -Their models were generally made of wax; instead of which the moderns -used clay, or such like unctuous stuff, as seeming fitter for expressing -flesh, than the more gluey and tenacious wax. - -A method however not new, though more frequent in our times: for we know -even the name of that ancient who first attempted modelling in wet clay; -’twas _Dibutades_ of Sicyon; and _Arcesilaus_, the friend of _Lucullus_, -grew more famous by his models of clay than his other performances. -He made for _Lucullus_ a figure of clay representing _Happiness_, and -received 60,000 sesterces: and _Octavius_, a Roman Knight, paid him a -talent for the model only of a large dish, in plaister, which he designed -to have finished in gold. - -Of all materials, clay might be allowed to be the fittest for shaping -figures, could it preserve its moistness; but losing that by time or -fire, its solider parts, contracting by degrees, lessen the bulk of the -mass; and that which is formed, being of different diameters, grows -sooner dry in some parts than in others, and the dry ones being shrunk to -a smaller size, there will be no proportion kept in the whole. - -From this inconvenience wax is always free: it loses nothing of its bulk; -and there are also means to give it the smoothness of flesh, which is -refused to modelling; viz. you make your model of clay, mould it with -plaister, and cast the wax over it. - -But for transferring their models to the marble, the Greeks seem to -have possessed some peculiar advantages, which are now lost: for you -discover, every where in their works, the traces of a confident hand; and -even in those of inferior rank, it would be no easy matter to prove a -wrong cut. Surely hands so steady, so secure, must of necessity have been -guided by rules more determinate and less arbitrary than we can boast of. - -The usual method of our sculptors is, to quarter the well-prepared model -with horizontals and perpendiculars, and, as is common in copying a -picture, to draw a relative number of squares on the marble. - -Thus, regular gradations of a scale being supposed, every small square -of the model has its corresponding one on the marble. But the contents -of the relative masses not being determinable by a measured surface, the -artist, though he gives to his stone the resemblance of the model, yet, -as he only depends on the precarious aid of his eye, he shall never cease -wavering, as to his doing right or wrong, cutting too flat or too deep. - -Nor can he find lines to determine precisely the outlines, or the Contour -of the inward parts, and the centre of his model, in so fixed and -unchangeable a manner, as to enable him, exactly, to transfer the same -Contours upon his stone. - -To all this add, that, if his work happens to be too voluminous for one -single hand, he must trust to those of his journeymen and disciples, -who, too often, are neither skilful nor cautious enough to follow their -master’s design; and if once the smallest trifle be cut wrong, for it is -impossible to fix, by this method, the limits of the cuts, all is lost. - -It is to be remarked in general, that every sculptor, who carries on his -chisselings their whole length, on first fashioning his marble, and does -not prepare them by gradual cuts for the last final strokes; it is to be -remarked, I say, that he never can keep his work free from faults. - -Another chief defect in that method is this: the artist cannot help -cutting off, every moment, the lines on his block; and though he restore -them, cannot possibly be sure of avoiding mistakes. - -On account of this unavoidable uncertainty, the artists found themselves -obliged to contrive another method, and that which the French academy at -Rome first made use of for copying antiques, was applied by many even to -modelled performances. - -Over the statue which you want to copy, you fix a well-proportioned -square, dividing it into equally distant degrees, by plummets: by these -the outlines of the figure are more distinctly marked than they could -possibly be by means of the former method: they moreover afford the -artist an exact measure of the more prominent or lower parts, by the -degrees in which these parts are near them, and in short, allow him to go -on with more confidence. - -But the undulations of a curve being not determinable by a single -perpendicular, the Contours of the figure are but indifferently indicated -to the artist; and among their many declinations from a straight surface, -his tenour is every moment lost. - -The difficulty of discovering the real proportions of the figures, may -also be easily imagined: they seek them by horizontals placed across the -plummets. But the rays reflected from the figure through the squares, -will strike the eye in enlarged angles, and consequently appear bigger, -in proportion as they are high or low to the point of view. - -Nevertheless, as the ancient monuments must be most cautiously dealt -with, plummets are still of use in copying them, as no surer or easier -method has been discovered: but for performances to be done from models -they are unfit for want of precision. - -_Michael Angelo_ went alone a way unknown before him, and (strange to -tell!) untrod since the time of that genius of modern sculpture. - -This Phidias of latter times, and next to the Greeks, hath, in all -probability, hit the very mark of his great masters. We know at least no -method so eminently proper for expressing on the block every, even the -minutest, beauty of the model. - -_Vasari_[13] seems to give but a defective description of this method, -viz. _Michael Angelo_ took a vessel filled with water, in which he -placed his model of wax, or some such indissoluble matter: then, by -degrees, raised it to the surface of the water. In this manner the -prominent parts were unwet, the lower covered, ’till the whole at length -appeared. Thus says _Vasari_, he cut his marble, proceeding from the more -prominent parts to the lower ones. - -_Vasari_, it seems, either mistook something in the management of his -friend, or by the negligence of his account gives us room to imagine it -somewhat different from what he relates. - -The form of the vessel is not determined; to raise the figure from -below would prove too troublesome, and presupposes much more than this -historian had a mind to inform us of. - -_Michael Angelo_, no doubt, thoroughly examined his invention, its -conveniencies and inconveniencies, and in all probability observed the -following method. - -He took a vessel proportioned to his model; for instance, an oblong -square: he marked the surface of its sides with certain dimensions, and -these he transferred afterwards, with regular gradations, on the marble. -The inside of the vessel he marked to the bottom with degrees. Then he -laid, or, if of wax, fastened his model in it; he drew, perhaps, a bar -over the vessel suitable to its dimensions, according to whose number he -drew, first, lines on his marble, and immediately after, the figure; he -poured water on the model till it reached its outmost points, and after -having fixed upon a prominent part, he drew off as much water as hindered -him from seeing it, and then went to work with his chissel, the degrees -shewing him how to go on; if, at the same time, some other part of the -model appeared, it was copied too, as far as seen. - -Water was again carried off, in order to let the lower parts appear; by -the degrees he saw to what pitch it was reduced, and by its smoothness -he discovered the exact surfaces of the lower parts; nor could he go -wrong, having the same number of degrees to guide him, upon his marble. - -The water not only pointed him out the heights or depths, but also the -Contour of his model; and the space left free on the insides to the -surface of the water, whose largeness was determined by the degrees of -the two other sides, was the exact measure of what might safely be cut -down from the block. - -His work had now got the first form, and a correct one: the levelness of -the water had drawn a line, of which every prominence of the mass was -a point; according to the diminution of the water the line sunk in a -horizontal direction, and was followed by the artist ’till he discovered -the declinations of the prominences, and their mingling with the lower -parts. Proceeding thus with every degree, as it appeared, he finished the -Contour, and took his model out of the water. - -His figure wanted beauty: he again poured water to a proper height over -his model, and then numbering the degrees to the line described by the -water, he descried the exact height of the protuberant parts; on these he -levelled his rule, and took the measure of the distance, from its verge -to the bottom; and then comparing all he had done with his marble, and -finding the same number of degrees, he was geometrically sure of success. - -Repeating his task, he attempted to express the motion and re-action of -nerves and muscles, the soft undulations of the smaller parts, and every -imitable beauty of his model. The water insinuating itself, even into -the most inaccessible parts, traced their Contour with the correctest -sharpness and precision. - -This method admits of every possible posture. In profile especially, it -discovers every inadvertency; shews the Contour of the prominent and -lower parts, and the whole diameter. - -All this, and the hope of success, presupposes a model formed by skilful -hands, in the true taste of antiquity. - -This is the way by which _Michael Angelo_ arrived at immortality. -Fame and rewards conspired to procure him what leisure he wanted, for -performances which required so much care. - -But the artist of our days, however endowed by nature and industry with -talents to raise himself, and even though he perceive precision and truth -in this method, is forced to exert his abilities for getting bread rather -than honour: he of course rests in his usual sphere, and continues to -trust in an eye directed by years and practice. - -Now this eye, by the observations of which he is chiefly ruled, being -at last, though by a great deal of uncertain practice, become almost -decisive: how refined, how exact might it not have been, if, from early -youth, acquainted with never-changing rules! - -And were young artists, at their first beginning to shape the clay -or form the wax, so happy as to be instructed in this sure method of -_Michael Angelo_, which was the fruit of long researches, they might with -reason hope to come as near the Greeks as he did. - - -VI. PAINTING. - -Greek Painting perhaps would share all the praises bestowed on their -Sculpture, had time and the barbarity of mankind allowed us to be -decisive on that point. - -All the Greek painters are allowed is Contour and Expression. -Perspective, Composition, and Colouring, are denied them; a judgment -founded on some bas-reliefs, and the new-discovered ancient (for we dare -not say Greek) pictures, at and near Rome, in the subterranean vaults of -the palaces of Mæcenas, Titus, Trajan, and the Antonini; of which but -about thirty are preserved entire, some being only in Mosaic. - -_Turnbull_, to his treatise on ancient painting, has subjoined a -collection of the most known ancient pictures, drawn by _Camillo -Paderni_, and engraved by _Mynde_; and these alone give some value to the -magnificent and abused paper of his work. Two of them are copied from -originals in the cabinet of the late Dr. _Mead_. - -That _Poussin_ much studied the pretended _Aldrovandine_ Nuptials; that -drawings are found done by _Annibal Carracci_, from the presumed _Marcius -Coriolanus_; and that there is a most striking resemblance between the -heads of _Guido_, and those on the Mosaic representing _Jupiter_ carrying -off _Europa_, are remarks long since made. - -Indeed, if ancient Painting were to be judged by these, and such like -remains of _Fresco_ pictures, Contour and Expression might be wrested -from it in the same manner. For the pictures, with figures as big as -life, pulled off with the walls of the Herculanean theatre, afford but -a very poor idea of the Contour and Expression of the ancient painters. -Theseus, the conqueror of the Minotaur, worshipped by the Athenian -youths; Flora with Hercules and a Faunus; the pretended judgment of the -Decemvir Appius Claudius, are on the testimony of an artist who saw them, -of a Contour as mean as faulty; and the heads want not only Expression, -but those in the Claudius even Character. - -But even this is an evident instance of the meanness of the artists: for -the science of beautiful Proportions, of Contour, and Expression, could -not be the exclusive privilege of Greek sculptors alone. - -However, though I am for doing justice to the ancients, I have no -intention to lessen the merit of the moderns. - -In Perspective there is no comparison between them and the ancients, -whom no earned defence can intitle to any superiority in that science. -The laws of Composition and Ordonnance seem to have been but imperfectly -known by the ancients: the reliefs of the times when the Greek arts were -flourishing at Rome, are instances of this. The accounts of the ancient -writers, and the remains of Painting are likewise, in point of Colouring, -decisive in favour of the moderns. - -There are several other objects of Paintings which, in modern times, have -attained greater perfection: such are landscapes and cattle pieces. The -ancients seem not to have been acquainted with the handsomer varieties of -different animals in different climes, if we may conclude from the horse -of M. Aurelius; the two horses in Monte Cavallo; the pretended Lysippean -horses above the portal of St. Mark’s church at Venice; the Farnesian -bull, and other animals of that groupe. - -I observe, by the bye, that the ancients were careless of giving to their -horses the diametrical motion of their legs; as we see in the horses at -Venice, and the ancient coins: and in that they have been followed, nay -even defended, by some ignorant moderns. - -’Tis chiefly to oil-painting that our landscapes, and especially those -of the Dutch, owe their beauties: by that their colours acquired more -strength and liveliness; and even nature herself seems to have given them -a thicker, moister atmosphere, as an advantage to this branch of the art. - -These, and some other advantages over the ancients, deserve to be set -forth with more solid arguments than we have hitherto had. - - -VII. ALLEGORY. - -There is one other important step left towards the atchievement of the -art: but the artist, who, boldly forsaking the common path, dares to -attempt it, finds himself at once on the brink of a precipice, and starts -back dismayed. - -The stories of martyrs and saints, fables and metamorphoses, are almost -the only objects of modern painters—repeated a thousand times, and varied -almost beyond the limits of possibility, every tolerable judge grows sick -at them. - -The judicious artist falls asleep over a Daphne and Apollo, a Proserpine -carried off by Pluto, an Europa, &c. he wishes for occasions to shew -himself a poet, to produce significant images, to paint Allegory. - -Painting goes beyond the senses: _there_ is its most elevated pitch, to -which the Greeks strove to raise themselves, as their writings evince. -Parrhasius, like Aristides, a painter of the soul, was able to express -the character even of a whole people: he painted the Athenians as mild -as cruel, as fickle as steady, as brave as timid. Such a representation -owes its possibility only to the allegorical method, whose images convey -general ideas. - -But here the artist is lost in a desart. Tongues the most savage, which -are entirely destitute of abstracted ideas, containing no word whose -sense could express memory, space, duration, &c. these tongues, I say, -are not more destitute of general signs, than painting in our days. The -painter who thinks beyond his palette longs for some learned apparatus, -by whose stores he might be enabled to invest abstracted ideas with -sensible and meaning images. Nothing has yet been published of this -kind, to satisfy a rational being; the essays hitherto made are not -considerable, and far beneath this great design. The artist himself -knows best in what degree he is satisfied with Ripa’s Iconology, and the -emblems of ancient nations, by Van Hooghe. - -Hence the greatest artists have chosen but vulgar objects. _Annibal -Caracci_, instead of representing in general symbols and sensible images -the history of the Farnesian family, as an allegorical poet, wasted all -his skill in fables known to the whole world. - -Go, visit the galleries of monarchs, and the publick repositories of -art, and see what difference there is between the number of allegorical, -poetical, or even historical performances, and that of fables, saints, or -madonnas. - -Among great artists, _Rubens_ is the most eminent, who first, like a -sublime poet, dared to attempt this untrodden path. His most voluminous -composition, the gallery of Luxembourg, has been communicated to the -world by the hands of the best engravers. - -After him the sublimest performance undertaken and finished, in that -kind, is, no doubt, the cupola of the imperial library at Vienna, painted -by _Daniel Gran_, and engraved by _Sedelmayer_. The Apotheosis of -Hercules at Versailles, done by _Le Moine_, and alluding to the Cardinal -_Hercules de Fleury_, though deemed in France the most august of -compositions, is, in comparison of the learned and ingenious performance -of the German artist, but a very mean and short-sighted Allegory, -resembling a panegyric, the most striking beauties of which are relative -to the almanack. The artist had it in his power to indulge grandeur, and -his flipping the occasion is astonishing: but even allowing, that the -Apotheosis of a minister was all that he ought to have decked the chief -cieling of a royal palace with, we nevertheless see through his fig-leaf. - -The artist would require a work, containing every image with which any -abstracted idea might be poetically inverted; a work collected from -all mythology, the best poets of all ages, the mysterious philosophy -of different nations, the monuments of the ancients on gems, coins, -utensils, &c. This magazine should be distributed into several classes, -and, with proper applications to peculiar possible cases, adapted to the -instruction of the artist. This would, at the same time, open a vast -field for imitating the ancients, and participating of their sublimer -taste. - -The taste in our decorations, which, since the complaints of _Vitruvius_, -hath changed for the worse, partly by the grotesques brought in vogue by -_Morto da Feltro_, partly by our trifling house-painting, might also, -from more intimacy with the ancients, reap the advantages of reality and -common sense. - -The Caricatura-carvings, and favourite shells, those chief supports of -our ornaments, are full as unnatural as the candle-sticks of _Vitruvius_, -with their little castles and palaces: how easy would it be, by the help -of Allegory, to give some learned convenience to the smallest ornament! - - _Reddere personæ scit convenientia cuique._ - - Hor. - -Paintings of ceilings, doors, and chimney-pieces, are commonly but the -expletives of these places, because they cannot be gilt all over. Not -only they have not the least relation to the rank and circumstances of -the proprietor, but often throw some ridicule or reflection upon him. - -’Tis an abhorrence of barrenness that fills walls and rooms; and pictures -void of thought must supply the vacuum. - -Hence the artist, abandoned to the dictates of his own fancy, paints, for -want of Allegory, perhaps a satire on him to whom he owes his industry; -or, to shun this Charybdis, finds himself reduced to paint figures void -of any meaning. - -Nay, he may often find it difficult to meet even with those, ’till at last - - ——_velut ægri Somnia, vanæ Finguntur Species._ - - Hor. - -Thus Painting is degraded from its most eminent prerogative, the -representation of invisible, past and future things. - -If pictures be sometimes met with, which might be significant in some -particular place, they often lose that property by stupid and wrong -applications. - -Perhaps the master of some new building - - _Dives agris, dives positis in fœnore nummis_ - - Hor. - -may, without the least compunction for offending the rules of -perspective, place figures of the smallest size above the vast doors -of his apartments and salloons. I speak here of those ornaments which -make part of the furniture; not of figures which are often, and for good -reasons, set up promiscuously in collections. - -The decorations of architecture are often as ill-chosen. Arms and -trophies deck a hunting-house as nonsensically, as Ganymede and the -eagle, Jupiter and Leda, figure it among the reliefs of the brazen gates -of St. Peter’s church at Rome. - -Arts have a double aim: to delight and to instruct. Hence the greatest -landscape-painters think, they have fulfilled but half their task in -drawing their pieces without figures. - -Let the artist’s pencil, like the pen of Aristotle, be impregnated with -reason; that, after having satiated the eye, he may nourish the mind: and -this he may obtain by Allegory; investing, not hiding his ideas. Then, -whether he chuse some poetical object himself, or follow the dictates of -others, he shall be inspired by his art, shall be fired with the flame -brought down from heaven by Prometheus, shall entertain the votary of -art, and instruct the mere lover of it. - - - - - A - LETTER, - CONTAINING - OBJECTIONS - AGAINST - The foregoing REFLEXIONS. - - -SIR, - -As you have written on the Greek arts and artists, I wish you had made -your treatise as much the object of your caution as the Greek artists -made their works; which, before dismissing them, they exhibited to -publick view, in order to be examined by everybody, and especially by -competent judges of the art. The trial was held during the grand, chiefly -the Olympian, games; and all Greece was interested on Ætion’s producing -his picture of the nuptials of Alexander and Roxana. You, Sir, wanted a -Proxenidas to be judged by, as well as that artist; and had it not been -for your mysterious concealment, I might have communicated your treatise, -before its publication, to some learned men and connoisseurs of my -acquaintance, without mentioning the author’s name. - -One of them visited Italy twice, where he devoted all his time to a most -anxious examination of painting, and particularly several months to each -eminent picture, at the very place where it was painted; the only method, -you know, to form a connoisseur. The judgment of a man able to tell you -which of Guido’s altar-pieces is painted on taffeta, or linnen, what sort -of wood Raphael chose for his transfiguration, &c. the judgment of such a -man, I fancy, must be allowed to be decisive. - -Another of my acquaintance has studied antiquity: he knows it by the very -smell; - - _Callet & Artificem solo deprendere Odore._ - - Sectan. Sat. - -He can tell you the number of knots on Hercules’s club; has reduced -Nestor’s goblet to the modern measure: nay, is suspected of meditating -solutions to all the questions proposed by Tiberius to the grammarians. - -A third, for several years past, has neglected every thing but hunting -after ancient coins. Many a new discovery we owe to him; especially some -concerning the history of the ancient coiners; and, as I am told, he is -to rouse the attention of the world by a Prodromus concerning the coiners -of Cyzicum. - -What a number of reproaches might you have escaped, had you submitted -your Essay to the judgment of these gentlemen! they were pleased to -acquaint me with their objections, and I should be sorry, for your -honour, to see them published. - -Among other objections, the first is surprized at your passing by the -two Angels, in your description of the Raphael in the royal cabinet at -Dresden; having been told, that a Bolognese painter, in mentioning this -piece, which he saw at St. Sixtus’s at Piacenza, breaks into these terms -of admiration: O! what Angels of Paradise[14]! by which he supposes those -Angels to be the most beautiful figures of the picture. - -The same person would reproach you for having described that picture in -the manner of Raguenet[15]. - -The second concludes the beard of Laocoon to be as worthy of your -attention as his contracted belly: for every admirer of Greek works, says -he, must pay the same respect to the beard of Laocoon, which father Labat -paid to that of the Moses of Michael Angelo. - -This learned Dominican, - - _Qui mores hominum multorum vidit & urbes_, - -has, after so many centuries, drawn from this very statue an evident -proof of the true fashion in which Moses wore his own individual beard, -and whose imitation must, of course, be the distinguishing mark of every -true Jew[16]. - -There is not the least spark of learning, says he, in your remarks on the -Peplon of the three vestals: he might perhaps, on the very inflection of -the veil, have discovered to you as many curiosities as Cuper himself -found on the edge of the veil of Tragedy in the Apotheosis of Homer[17]. - -We also want proof of the vestals being really Greek performances: our -reason fails us too often in the most obvious things. If unhappily the -marble of these figures should be proved to be no Lychnites, they are -lost, and your treatise too: had you but slightly told us their marble -was large-grained, that would have been a sufficient proof of their -authenticity; for it would be somewhat difficult to determine the bigness -of the grains with such exactness as to distinguish the Greek marble from -the Roman of Luna. But the worst is, they are even denied the title of -vestals. - -The third mentioned some heads of Livia and Agrippina, without that -pretended profile of yours. Here he thinks you had the most lucky -occasion to talk of that kind of nose by the ancients called _Quadrata_, -as an ingredient of beauty. But you no doubt know, that the noses of -some of the most famous Greek statues, viz. the Medicean Venus, and -the Picchinian Meleager, are much too thick for becoming the model of -beauty, in that kind, to our artists. - -I shall not, however, gall you with all the doubts and objections -raised against your treatise, and repeated to nauseousness, upon the -arrival of an Academician, the Margites of our days, who, being shewed -your treatise, gave it a slight glance, then laid it aside, offended -as it were at first sight. But it was easy to perceive that he wanted -his opinion to be asked, which we accordingly all did. “The author, -said he very peremptorily, seems not to have been at much pains with -this treatise: I cannot find above four or five quotations, and those -negligently inserted; no chapter, no page, cited; he certainly collected -his remarks from books which he is ashamed to produce.” - -Yet cannot I help introducing another gentleman, sharp-sighted enough -to pick out something that had escaped all my attention; viz. that the -Greeks were the first inventors of Painting and Sculpture; an assertion, -as he was pleased to express himself, entirely false, having been told it -was the Egyptians, or some people still more ancient, and unknown to him. - -Even the most whimsical humour may be turned to profit: nevertheless, I -think it manifest that you intended to talk only of good Taste in those -arts; and the first Elements of an art have the same proportion to good -Taste in it, as the seed has to the fruit. That the art was still in its -infancy among the Egyptians, when it had attained the highest degree of -perfection among the Greeks, may be seen by examining one single gem: -you need only consider the head of _Ptolomæus Philopator_ by Aulus, and -the two figures adjoining to it done by an Egyptian[18], in order to be -convinced of the little merit this nation could pretend to in point of -art. - -The form and taste of their Painting have been ascertained by -Middleton.[19] The pictures of persons as big as life, on two mummies -in the royal cabinet of antiquities at Dresden, are evident instances -of their incapacity. But these relicks being curious, in several other -respects, I shall hereafter subjoin a short account of them. - -I cannot, my friend, help allowing some reason for several of these -objections. Your negligence in your quotations was, no doubt, somewhat -prejudicial to your authenticity: the art of changing blue eyes to black -ones, certainly deserved an authority. You imitate Democritus; who -being asked, “What is man?” every body knows what was his reply. What -reasonable creature will submit to read all Greek scholiasts! - - _Ibit eo, quo vis, qui Zonam perdidit_— - - Hor. - -Considering, however, how easily the human mind is biassed, either by -friendship or animosity, I took occasion from these objections to examine -your treatise with more exactness; and shall now, by the most impartial -censure, strive to clear myself from every imputation of prepossession in -your favour. - -I will pass by the first and second page, though something might -be said on your comparison of the Diana with the Nausicaa, and the -application: nor would it have been amiss, had you thrown some more light -on the remark concerning the misused pictures of Corregio (very likely -borrowed from Count Tessin’s letters), by giving an account of the other -indignities which the pictures of the best artists, at the same time, met -with at Stockholm. - -It is well known that, after the surrender of Prague to Count Konigsmark, -the 15th of July 1648, the most precious pictures of the Emperor Rodolph -II. were carried off to Sweden[20]. Among these were some pictures -of Corregio, which the Emperor had been presented with by their first -possessor, Duke Frederick of Mantua; two of them being the famous Leda, -and a Cupid handling his bow[21]. Christina, endowed at that time rather -with scholastic learning than taste, treated these treasures as the -Emperor Claudius did an Alexander of Apelles; who ordered the head to be -cut off, and that of Augustus to fill its place[22]. In the same manner -heads, hands, feet were here cut off from the most beautiful pictures; -a carpet was plastered over with them, and the mangled pieces fitted up -with new heads, &c. Those that fortunately escaped the common havock, -among which were the pieces of Corregio, came afterwards, together with -several other pictures, bought by the Queen at Rome, into the possession -of the Duke of Orleans, who purchased 250 of them, and among those eleven -of Corregio, for 9000 Roman crowns. - -But I am not contented with your charging only the northern countries -with barbarism, on account of the little esteem they paid to the arts. -If good taste is to be judged in this manner, I am afraid for our French -neighbours. For having taken Bonn, the residence of the Elector of -Cologne, after the death of Max. Henry, they ordered the largest pictures -to be cut out of their frames, without distinction, in order to serve for -coverings to the waggons, in which the most valuable furniture of the -electoral castle was carried off for France. But, Sir, do not presume -on my continuing with mere historical remarks: I shall proceed with my -objections; after making the two following general observations. - -I. You have written in a style too concise for being distinct. Were -you afraid of being condemned to the penalty of a Spartan, who could -not restrain himself to only three words, perhaps that of reading -Picciardin’s Pisan War? Distinctness is required where universal -instruction is the end. Meats are to suit the taste of the guests, rather -than that of the cooks, - - ——_Cœnæ fercula nostræ_ - _Malim convivis quam placuisse coquis._ - -II. There appears, in almost every line of yours, the most passionate -attachment to antiquity; which perhaps I shall convince you of, by the -following remarks. - -The first particular objection I have to make is against your third page. -Remember, however, that my passing by two pages is very generous dealing: - - _non temere a me_ - _Quivis ferret idem:_ - - Hor. - -but let us now begin a formal trial. - -The author talks of certain negligences in the Greek works, which ought -to be considered suitably to Lucian’s precepts concerning the Zeus of -Phidias: “Zeus himself, not his footstool;”[23] though perhaps he could -not be charged with any fault in the foot-stool, but with a very grievous -one in the statue. - -Is it no fault that Phidias made his Zeus of so enormous a bulk, as -almost to reach the cieling of the temple, which must infallibly have -been thrown down, had the god taken it in his head to rise?[24] To have -left the temple without any cieling at all, like that of the Olympian -Jupiter at Athens, had been an instance of more judgment[25]. - -’Tis but justice to claim an explication of what the author means by -“negligences”. He perhaps might be pleased to get a passport, even for -the faults of the ancients, by sheltering them under the authority of -such titles; nay, to change them into beauties, as Alcæus did the spot -on the finger of his beloved boy. We too often view the blemishes of the -ancients, as a parent does those of his children: - - _Strabonem_ - _Appellat pætum pater, & pullum, male parvus_ - _Si cui filius est._ - - Hor. - -If these negligences were like those wished for in the Jalysus of -Protogenes, where the chief figure was out-shone by a partridge, they -might be considered as the agreeable negligée of a fine lady; but -this is the question. Besides, had the author consulted his interest, -he never would have ventured citing the Diomedes of Dioscorides: but -being too well acquainted with that gem, one of the most valued, most -finished monuments of Greek art; and being apprehensive of the prejudice -that might arise against the meaner productions of the ancients, on -discovering many faults in one so eminent as Diomedes; he endeavoured to -keep matters from being too nearly examined, and to soften every fault -into negligence. - -How! if by argument I shall attempt to shew that Dioscorides understood -neither perspective, nor the most trivial rules of the motion of a human -body; nay, that he offended even against possibility? I’ll venture to do -it, though - - _incedo per ignes_ - _Suppositos cineri doloso._ - - Hor. - -And perhaps I am not the first discoverer of his faults: yet I do not -remember to have seen any thing relative to them. - -The Diomedes of Dioscorides is either a sitting, or a rising figure; for -the attitude is ambiguous. It is plain he is not sitting; and rising is -inconsistent with his action. - -Our body endeavouring to raise itself from a seat, moves always -mechanically towards its sought-for centre of gravity, drawing back the -legs, which were advanced in sitting[26]; instead of which the figure -stretches out his right leg. Every erection begins with elevated heels, -and in that moment all the weight of the body is supported only by the -toes, which was observed by Felix[27], in his Diomedes: but here all -rests on the sole. - -Nor can Diomedes, (if we suppose him to be a sitting figure, as he -touches with his left leg the bottom of his thigh) find, in raising -himself, the centre of his gravity, only by a retraction of his legs, and -of course cannot rise in that posture. His left hand resting upon the -bended leg, holds the palladion, whilst his right touches negligently the -pedestal with the point of a short sword; consequently he cannot rise, -neither moving his legs in the natural and easy manner required in any -erection, nor making use of his arms to deliver himself from that uneasy -situation. - -There is at the same time a fault committed against the rules of -perspective. - -The foot of the left bended leg, touching the cornice of the pedestal, -shews it over-reaching that part of the floor, on which the pedestal -and the right foot are situated, consequently the line described by the -hinder-foot is the fore on the gem, and _vice versa_. - -But allowing even a possibility to that situation, it is contrary to the -Greek character, which is always distinguished by the natural and easy. -Attributes neither to be met with in the contortions of Diomedes, nor in -an attitude, the impossibility of which every one must be sensible of, in -endeavouring to put himself in it, without the help of former sitting. - -Felix, supposed to have lived after Dioscorides, though preserving the -same attitude, has endeavoured to make its violence more natural, by -opposing to him the figure of Ulysses, who, as we are told, in order to -bereave him of the honour of having seized the Palladion, offered to rob -him of it, but being discovered, was repulsed by Diomedes; which being -his supposed action on the gem, allows violence of attitude[28]. - -Diomedes cannot be a sitting figure, for the Contour of his buttock and -thigh is free, and not in the least compressed: the foot of the bent leg -is visible, and the leg itself not bent enough. - -The Diomedes represented by Mariette is absurd; the left leg resembling a -clasped pocket-knife, and the foot being drawn up so high as to make it -impossible in nature that it should reach the pedestal[29]. - -Faults of this kind cannot be called negligences, and would not be -forgiven in any modern artist. - -Dioscorides, ’tis true, in this renowned performance did but copy -Polycletus, whose Doryphorus (as is commonly agreed) was the best rule -of human proportions[30]. But, though a copyist, Dioscorides escaped -a fault which his master fell into. For the pedestal, over which the -Diomedes of Polycletus leans, is contrary to the most common rules -of perspective; its cornices, which should be parallel, forming two -different lines. - -I wonder at Perrault’s omitting to make objections against the ancient -gems. - -I mean not to do any thing derogatory to the author, when I trace some of -his particular observations to their source. - -The food prescribed to the young wrestlers, in the remoter times of -Greece, is mentioned by Pausanias[31]. But if the author alluded to the -passage which I have in view, why does he talk in general of milk-food, -when Pausanias particularly mentions soft cheese? Dromeus of Stymphilos, -we learn there, first introduced flesh meat. - -My researches, concerning their mysterious art of changing blue eyes to -black ones, have not succeeded to my wish. I find it mentioned but once, -and that only by the bye by Dioscorides[32]. The author, by clearing up -this art, might perhaps have thrown a greater lustre over his treatise, -than by producing his new method of statuary. He had it in his power to -fix the eyes of the Newtons and Algarotti’s, on a problem worth their -attention, and to engage the fair sex, by a discovery so advantageous to -their charms, especially in Germany, where, contrary to Greece, large, -fine, blue eyes are more frequently met with than black ones. - -There was a time when the fashion required to be green eyed: - - _Et si bel oeil vert & riant & clair:_ - - Le Sire de Coucy, chans. - -But I do not know whether art had any share in their colouring. And as to -the small-pox, Hippocrates might be quoted, if grammatical disquisitions -suited my purpose. - -However, I think, no effects of the small-pox on a face can be so -much the reverse of beauty, as that defect which the Athenians were -reproachfully charged with, viz. a buttock as pitiful as their face was -perfect[33]. Indeed Nature, in so scantily supplying those parts, seemed -to derogate as much from the Athenian beauty, as, by her lavishness, from -that of the Indian Enotocets, whose ears, we are told, were large enough -to serve them for pillows. - -As for opportunities to study the nudities, our times, I think, afford -as advantageous ones as the Gymnasies of the ancients. ’Tis the fault of -our artists to make no use of that[34] proposed to the Parisian artists, -viz. to walk, during the summer season, along the Seine, in order to have -a full view of the naked parts, from the sixth to the fiftieth year. - -’Tis perhaps to Michael Angelo’s frequenting such opportunities that -we owe his celebrated Carton of the Pisan war[35], where the soldiers -bathing in a river, at the sound of a trumpet leap out of the water, and -make haste to huddle on their cloaths. - -One of the most offensive passages of the treatise is, no doubt, the -unjust debasement of the modern sculptors beneath the ancients. These -latter times are possessed of several Glycons in muscular heroic figures, -and, in tender youthful female bodies, of more than one Praxiteles. -Michael Angelo, Algardi, and Sluter, whose genius embellished Berlin, -produced muscular bodies, - - ——_Invicti membra Glyconis,_ - - Hor. - -in a style rivalling that of Glycon himself; and in delicacy the -Greeks are perhaps even outdone by _Bernini_, _Fiammingo_, _Le Gros_, -_Rauchmüller_, _Donner_. - -The unskilfulness of the ancients, in shaping children, is agreed upon -by our artists, who, I suppose, would for imitation choose a Cupid of -Fiammingo rather than of Praxiteles himself. The story of M. Angelo’s -placing a Cupid of his own by the side of an antique one, in order to -inform our times of the superiority of the ancient art, is of no weight -here: for no work of Michael Angelo can bring us so near perfection as -Nature herself. - -I think it no hyperbole to advance, that Fiammingo, like a new -Prometheus, produced creatures which art had never seen before him. For, -if from almost all the children on ancient gems[36] and reliefs[37], we -may form a conclusion of the art itself, it wanted the true expression -of childhood, as looser forms, more milkiness, and unknit bones. Faults -which, from the epoch of Raphael, all children laboured under, till the -appearance of _Francis Quesnoy_, called Fiammingo, whose children having -the advantages of suitable innocence and nature, became models to the -following artists, as in youthful bodies Apollo and Antinous are: an -honour which _Algardi_, his contemporary, may be allowed to share. - -Their models in clay are, by our artists, esteemed superior to all the -antique marble children; and an artist of genius and talents assured me, -that during a stay of seven years at Vienna, he saw not one copy taken -from an ancient Cupid in that academy. - -Neither do I know on what singular idea of beauty, the ancient artists -founded their custom, of hiding the foreheads of their children and -youths with hair. Thus a Cupid was represented by Praxiteles[38]; thus a -Patroclus, in a picture mentioned by Philostratus[39]: and there is no -statue nor bust, no gem nor coin of Antinous, in which we do not find him -thus dressed. Hence, perhaps, that gloom, that melancholy, with which all -the heads of this favourite of Hadrian are marked. - -Is not there in a free open brow more nobleness and sublimity? and does -not _Bernini_ seem to have been better acquainted with beauty than the -ancients, when he removed the over-shadowing locks from the forehead -of young Lewis XIV. whose bust he was then executing? “Your Majesty, -said Bernini, is King, and may with confidence shew your brow to all -the world.” From that time King and court dressed their hair à la -Bernini[40]. - -His judgment of the bas-reliefs on the monument of Pope Alexander VI[41]. -leads us to some remarks on those of antiquity. “The skill in bas-relief, -said he, consists in giving the air of relief to the flat: the figures of -that monument seem what they are indeed, not what they are not.” - -The chief end of bas-relief is to deck those places that want historical -or allegorical ornaments, but which have neither cornices sufficiently -spacious, nor proportions regular enough to allow groupes of entire -statues: and as the cornice itself is chiefly intended to shelter the -subordinate parts from being directly or indirectly hurt, no bas-relief -must exceed the projection thereof; which would not only make the cornice -of no use, but endanger the figures themselves. - -The figures of ancient bas-reliefs shoot commonly so much forward as to -become almost round. But bas-relief being founded on fiction, can only -counterfeit reality; its perfection is well to imitate; and a natural -mass is against its nature: if flat, it ought to appear projected, and -_vice versa_. If this be true, it must of course be allowed that figures -wholly round are inconsistent with it, and are to be considered as solid -marble pillars built upon the theatre, whose aim is mere illusion; for -art, as is said of tragedy, wins truth from fiction, and that by truth. -To art we often owe charms superior to those of nature: a real garden and -vegetating trees, on the stage, do not affect us so agreeably, as when -well expressed by the imitating art. A rose of _Van Huisum_, mallows of -_Veerendal_, bewitch us more than all the darlings of the most skilful -gardener: the most enticing landscape, nay, even the charms of the -Thessalian Tempe, would not, perhaps, affect us with that irresistible -delight which, flowing from _Dietrick_’s pencil, enchants our senses and -imagination. - -By such instances we may safely form a judgment of the ancient -bas-reliefs: the royal cabinet at Dresden is possessed of two eminent -ones: a Bacchanal on a tomb, and a sacrifice to Priapus on a large marble -vase. - -The bas-relief claims a particular kind of sculpture; a method that -few have succeeded in, of which _Matielli_ may be an instance. The -Emperor Charles VI. having ordered some models to be prepared by the -most renowned artists, in bas-relief, intended for the spiral columns -at the church of S. Charles Borromæo; _Matielli_, already famous, was -principally thought of; but however refused the honour of so considerable -a work, on account of the enormous bulk of his model, which requiring -too great cavities, would have diminished the mass of the stone, and of -course weakened the pillars. _Mader_ was the artist, whose models were -universally applauded, and who by his admirable execution proved that he -deserved that preference. These bas-reliefs represent the story of the -patron of this church. - -It is in general to be observed, first, that this kind of sculpture -admits not indifferently of every attitude and action; as for instance, -of too strong projections of the legs. Secondly, That, besides disposing -of the several modelled figures in well-ranged groupes, the diameter of -every one ought to be applied to the bas-relief itself, by a lessened -scale: as for instance, the diameter of a figure in the model being one -foot, the profile of the same, according to its size, will be three -inches, or less: the rounder a figure of that diameter, the greater the -skill. Commonly the relief wants perspective, and thence arise most of -its faults. - -Though I proposed to make only a few remarks on the ancient bas-relief, -I find myself, like a certain ancient Rhetor, almost under a necessity -of being new-tuned. I have strayed beyond my limits; though at the same -time I remembered that there is a law among commentators, to content -themselves with bare remarks on the contents of a treatise: and also -sensible that I am writing a letter, not a book, I consider that I may -draw some instructions for my own use, - - ——_ut vineta egomet cædam mea,_ - - Hor. - -from some peoples impetuosity against the author; who, because they are -hired for it, seem to think that writing is confined to them alone. - -The Romans, though they worshipped the deity Terminus (the guardian God -of limits and borders in general; and, if it please these gentlemen, of -the limits in arts and sciences too), allowed nevertheless an universal -unrestrained criticism: and the decisions of some Greeks and Romans, -in matters of an art, which they did not practise, seem nevertheless -authentick to our artists. - -Nor can I find, that the keeper of the temple of peace at Rome, though -possessed of the register of the pictures there, pretended to monopolize -remarks and criticisms upon them; Pliny having described most of them. - - _Publica materies privati juris sit_— - - Hor. - -’Tis to be wished, that, roused by a Pamphilus and an Apelles, artists -would take up the pen themselves, in order to discover the mysteries of -the art to those that know how to use them, - - _Ma di costor’, che à lavorar s’accingono,_ - _Quattro quinti, per Dio, non sanno leggere._ - - Salvator Rosa, Sat. III. - -Two or three of these are to be commended; the rest contented themselves -with giving some historical accounts of the fraternity. But what could -appear more auspicious to the improvement of the art, even by the -remotest posterity, than the work attempted by the united forces of the -celebrated Pietro da Cortona[42] and Padre Ottonelli? Nevertheless this -same treatise, except only a few historical remarks, and these too to be -met with in an hundred books, seems good for nothing, but - - _Ne scombris tunicæ desint, piperique cuculli._ - - Sectan. Sat. - -How trivial, how mean are the great _Poussin_’s reflexions on painting, -published by Bellori, and annexed to his life of that artist[43]? - -Another digression!—let me now again resume the character of your -Aristarchus. - -You are bold enough to attack the authority of _Bernini_, and to -challenge a man, the bare mention of whose name would do honour to any -treatise. It was _Bernini_, you ought to recollect, Sir, who at the -same age in which Michael Angelo performed his _Studiolo_[44], viz. in -his eighteenth year, produced his Daphne, as a convincing instance of -his intimacy with the ancients, at an age in which perhaps the genius of -Raphael was yet labouring under darkness and ignorance! - -_Bernini_ was one of those favourites of nature, who produce at the same -time vernal blossoms and autumnal fruits; and I think it by no means -probable, that his studying nature in riper years misled either him -or his disciples. The smoothness of his flesh was the result of that -study, and imparted to the marble the highest possible degree of life -and beauty. Indeed ’tis nature which endows art with life, and “vivifies -forms,” as Socrates says[45], and Clito the sculptor allows. The great -Lysippus, when asked which of his ancestors he had chosen for his -master, replied, “None; but nature alone.” It is not to be denied, that -the too close imitation of antiquity is very often apt to lead us to a -certain barrenness, unknown to those who imitate nature: various herself, -nature teaches variety, and no votary of her’s can be charged with a -sameness: whereas Guido, Le Brun, and some other votaries of antiquity, -repeated the same face in many of their works. A certain ideal beauty was -become so familiar to them, as to slide into their figures even against -their will. - -But as for such an imitation of nature, as is quite regardless of -antiquity, I am entirely of the author’s opinion; though I should have -chosen other artists as instances of following nature in painting. - -_Jordans_ certainly has not met with the regard due to his merit; let -me appeal to an authority universally allowed. “There is, says Mr. -d’Argenville, more expression and truth in Jordans, than even in Rubens. - -“Truth is the basis and origin of perfection and beauty; nothing, of any -kind whatever, can be beautiful or perfect, without being truly what it -ought to be, without having all it ought to have.” - -The solidity of this judgment presupposed, _Jordans_, according to -Rochefoucault’s maxims, ought rather to be ranked among the greatest -originals, than among the mimicks of common nature, where _Rembrandt_ -may fill up his place, as _Raoux_ or _Vatteau_ that of _Stella_; though -all these painters do nothing but what Euripides did before them; they -draw man _ad vivum_. There are no trifles, no meannesses in the art, and -if we recollect of what use the _Caricatura_ was to Bernini, we should -be cautious how we pass judgment even on the Dutch forms. That great -genius, they say[46], owed to this monster of the art, a distinction for -which he was so eminent, the “Franchezza del Tocco.” When I reflect on -this, I am forced to alter my former opinion of the _Caricatura_, so far -as to believe that no artist ever acquired a perfection therein without -gaining a farther improvement in the art itself. “It is, says the author, -a peculiar distinction of the ancients to have gone beyond nature:” our -artists do the same in their _Caricaturas_: but of what avail to them are -the voluminous works they have published on that branch of the art? - -The author lays it down, in the peremptory style of a legislator, that -“Precision of Contour can only be learned from the Greeks:” but our -academies unanimously agree, that the ancients deviate from a strict -Contour in the clavicles, arms, knees, &c. over which, in spite of -apophyses and bones, they drew their skin as smooth as over mere flesh; -whereas our academies teach to draw the bony and cartilaginous parts, -more angularly, but the fat and fleshy ones more smooth, and carefully to -avoid falling into the ancient style. Pray, Sir, can there be any error -in the advices of academies _in corpore_? - -_Parrhasius_ himself, the father of Contour, was not, by Pliny’s -account[47], master enough to hit the line by which completeness is -distinguished from superfluity: shunning corpulency he fell into -leanness: and _Zeuxis_’s Contour was perhaps like that of Rubens, if it -be true that, to augment the majesty of his figures, he drew with more -completeness. His female figures he drew like those of Homer[48], of -robust limbs: and does not even the tenderest of poets, Theocritus, draw -his Helen as fleshy and tall[49] as the Venus of Raphael in the assembly -of the gods in the little Farnese? Rubens then, for painting like Homer -and Theocritus, needs no apology. - -The character of Raphael, in the treatise, is drawn with truth and -exactness: but well may we ask the author, as Antalcidas the Spartan -asked a sophist, ready to burst forth in a panegyrick on Hercules, “Who -blames him?” The beauties however of the Raphael at Dresden, especially -the pretended ones of the Jesus, are still warmly disputed. - - _What you admire, we laugh at._ - -Why did not he rather display his patriotism against those Italian -connoisseurs, whose squeamish stomachs rise against every Flemish -production? - - _Turpis Romano Belgicus ore color._ - - Propert. L. II. Eleg. 8. - -And indeed are not colours so essential, that without them no picture -can aspire to universal applause? Do not their bewitching charms cover -the most grievous faults? They are the harmonious melody of painting; -whatever is offensive vanishes by their splendor, and souls animated with -their beauties are absorbed in beholding, as the readers of Homer are -by his flowing harmony, so as to find no faults. These, joined to that -important science of Chiaro-Oscuro, are the characteristicks of Flemish -painting. - -Agreeably to affect our eye is the first thing in a picture[50], which -to obtain, obvious charms are wanted; not such as spring only from -reflection. Colouring moreover belongs peculiarly to pictures; whereas -design ought to be in every draught, print, &c. and indeed seems easier -to be attained than colouring. - -The best colourists, according to a celebrated writer[51], have always -come _after_ the inventors and contourists; we all know the vain attempts -of the famous Poussin. In short, all those - - _Qui rem Romanam Latiumque augescere student,_ - - Ennius. - -must here acknowledge the superiority of the Flemish art; the painter -being really but nature’s mimick, is the more perfect the better he -mimicks her. - - _Ast heic, quem nunc tu tam turpiter increpuisti,_ - - Ennius. - -the delicate _Van der Werf_, whose performances, worth their weight -in gold, are the ornaments of royal cabinets only, has made nature -inimitable to every Italian pencil; he allures the connoisseur’s eye -as well as that of the clown; and, as an English poet says, “that no -pleasing poet ever wrote ill,” surely the Flemish painter obtained that -applause which was denied to Poussin. - -I should be glad to see many pictures as happily fancied, as well -composed, as enticingly painted as some of _Gherard Lairesse_: let me -appeal to every unprepossessed artist at Paris, acquainted with the -_Stratonice_, the most eminent, and no doubt the first ranked picture in -the cabinet of Mr. de la Boixieres[52]. - -The subject is of no trivial choice: King Seleucus I.[53] resigned -his wife Stratonice, a daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes, to his son -Antiochus, whom a violent passion for his mother-in-law had thrown into -a dangerous sickness: after many unsuccessful inquiries, the physician -Erasistratus discovered the true cause, and found that the only means of -restoring the prince’s health, was, the condescension of the father to -the love of his son: the King resigned his Queen, and at the same time -declared Antiochus King of the East. - -Stratonice, the chief person, is the noblest figure, a figure worthy -Raphael himself. The charming Queen, - - _Colle sob idæo vincere digna deas,_ - - Ovid. Art. - -with slow and hesitating steps, approaches the bed of her new lover; but -still with the countenance of a mother, or rather of a sacred vestal. -In the profile of her face you may read shame mingled with gentle -resignation to the will of her lord. She has the softness of her sex, -the majesty of a queen, an awful submission to the sacred ceremony, and -all the sageness required in so extraordinary and delicate a situation. -Dressed with a masterly skill, the artist, from the colour of her -cloaths, may learn how to paint the purple of the ancients; for it is not -generally known that it resembled fadeing, ruddy, vine-leaves[54]. - -Behind her stands the King, dressed in a darker habit, in order to give -the more relief to the Queen, to spare confusion to her, shame to the -Prince, and not to interrupt his joy. Expectation and acquiescence are -blended in his face, which is taken from the profile of his best coins. - -The Prince, a beautiful half-naked youth, sitting in his bed, has some -resemblance of his father; his pale face bears witness of the fever, -that lately had raged in his veins; but fancy sees returning health, not -shame, in that soft-rising ruddiness diffused over his cheeks. - -The physician and priest Erasistratus, venerable like the Calchas of -Homer, standing before the bed, is the only speaker, authorised by the -King, whose will he declares to the Prince; and whilst, with one hand, he -leads the Queen to the embraces of her lover, with the other he presents -him with the diadem. Joy and astonishment flash from the Prince’s face -on the approach of his Queen - - ——_darting all the soul in missive love_: - -though nobly restrained by reverence, he bends his head, and seems to -comprise his happiness in a single thought. - -The characters indeed are distributed with so much ingenuity, that they -seem to give a lustre and energy to each other. - -The largest share of light is displayed on Stratonice: she claims our -first regard. The priest, though in a weaker light, is raised by his -gesture: he is the speaker, and around him reign solemn stillness and -attention. - -The Prince, the second person, has a larger share of light; and though -the artist, led by his skill, chose rather to make a beautiful Queen the -chief support of his groupe than a sick Prince, He nevertheless maintains -his due rank, and becomes the most eminent person of the whole, by his -expression. His face contains the greatest secrets of the art, - - _Quales nequeo monstrare & sentio tantum._ - - Juvenal. Sat. VII. - -Even those motions of the soul, which otherwise seem opposite to each -other, mingle here with peaceful harmony; a timid red spreading over his -sickly face, announces health, like the faint glimmerings of the morn, -which, though veiled by night, announce the day, and even a bright one. - -The genius and taste of the artist shines forth in every part of his -work: even the vases are copied from the best antique ones; the table -before the bed, is, like Homer’s, of ivory. - -The distances behind the figures represent a magnificent Greek building, -whose decorations seem allegorical. The roof of a portal is supported -by Cariatides embracing each other, as images of the tender friendship -between father and son, and alluding, at the same time, to the nuptial -ceremony. - -Though faithful to history, the painter was nevertheless a poet: in -order to represent some circumstances, he filled even the furniture with -sentiments. The Sphinxes by the Prince’s bed allude to his problematic -sickness, the enquiries of Erasistratus, and his sagacity in discovering -its true cause. - -I have been told that some young Italian artists, when considering this -picture, and perceiving the Prince’s arm perhaps a trifle too big, went -off without enquiring into the subject itself. Should even Minerva -herself, as she once did to Diomedes, attempt to deliver some people from -the mist they labour under, by heaven! the attempt were vain! - - ——_pauci dignoscere possunt_ - _Vera bona, atque illis multum diversa, remota_ - _Erroris nebula._ - - Juv. X. - -I have run into this long digression, in order to throw some light on one -of the first productions of the art, which is nevertheless but little -known. - -The idea of noble simplicity and sedate grandeur in Raphael’s figures, -might rather, as two eminent authors express it[55], be called “still -life.” It is indeed the standard of the Greek art: however, indiscreetly -commended to young artists, it might beget as dangerous consequences, as -precepts of energetick conciseness in the style; the direct method to -make it barren and unpleasing. - -“In youths, says Cicero[56], there must be some superfluity, something -to be taken off: prematurity spoils the juices, and it is easier to lop -the young rank branches of a vine, than to restore its vigour to a worn -out trunk.” Not to mention, that figures wanting gesture would, by the -bulk of mankind, be received as a speech before the Areopagites, where, -by a severe law, the speaker was forbid to raise any passions, though -ever so gentle[57]: nay, pictures of this kind would be so many portraits -of young Spartans, who, with hands hid under their coats, and down-cast -eyes, stalk forth in silent solemnity[58]. - -Neither am I quite of the author’s opinion with regard to allegory; the -applying of which would too frequently do in painting, what was done in -geometry by introducing algebra: the one would soon be as difficult as -the other, and painting would degenerate into Hieroglyphicks. - -The author attempts, in vain, to persuade us, that the majority of the -Greeks thought as the Egyptians. There was no more learning in the -painting of the platfond of the temple of Juno at Samos, than in that -of the Farnese gallery. It represented the love-intrigues of Jupiter -and Juno[59]: and, in the front of a temple of Ceres at Eleusis, there -was nothing but representations of a ceremony at the rites of that -goddess[60]. - -How to represent abstract ideas I do not yet distinctly conceive. -There may be the same difficulties which attend the endeavours of -representing to the senses a mathematical point—perhaps nothing less than -impossibility; and Theodoretus[61] has some reason in confining painting -to the senses. For those Hieroglyphicks which hint at abstract ideas, -in such a manner as to express, for instance[62], _youth_ by the number -XVI; _impossibility_ by two feet standing on water: those, I say, are -monograms, not images: to indulge them in painting is fostering chimæras, -is adding to Chinese pictures Chinese explications. - -An adversary of allegory believes that Parrhasius, without any help from -it, could represent the contradictions in the character of the Athenians; -that he did it perhaps in several pictures. Supposing which - - _Et sapit, & mecum facit, & Jove judicat æquo._ - - Hor. - -The sentence of death pronounced against the leaders of the Athenian -navy, after their victory over the Spartans near the Arginuses, afforded -the artist a very sensible and rich image, to represent the Athenians, at -the same time, merciful and cruel. - -The famous Theramenes, one of the leaders, accused his fellow-chieftains -of having neglected to gather and bury the bodies of their slain -countrymen: a charge sufficient to rouse the rage of the mob against -the victors; only six of whom had returned to Athens, the rest having -declined the storm. - -Theramenes harangued the people in the most pathetick manner; intermixing -his speech with frequent pauses, in order to give vent to the loud -plaints of those who, in the battle, had lost their parents or relations. -He, at the same time, produced a man, who protested he had heard the last -words of the drowned, imprecating the publick revenge on their leaders. -In vain did Socrates, then a member of the council, with a few others, -oppose the accusation: the brave chieftains, instead of the honours -they hoped for, were condemned to die. One of them was the only son of -_Pericles_ and _Aspasia_. - -Was it not in the power of Parrhasius, who was then alive, to enlarge the -meaning of his picture beyond the extent of bare history, only by drawing -the true characters of the authors of this scene, without the least help -from allegory? It would have been in his power, had he lived in our days. - -Your pretensions concerning allegory seem indeed as reasonable an -imposition upon the painter, as that of Columella upon his farmer; -who wished to find him a philosopher like Democritus, Pythagoras, or -Eudoxus[63]. - -No better success, in my opinion, is to be expected from applying -allegory to decorations: the author would, at least, meet with as many -difficulties as Virgil, when hammering on the names of a Vibius Caudex, -Tanaquil Lucumo, or Decius Mus; to fit them for his Hexameter. - -Custom has given its sanction to the use of shells in decorations: and -is not there as much nature in them as in the Corinthian capital? You -know its origin: a basket set upon the tomb of a young Corinthian girl, -filled with some of her play-things, and covered with a large brick, -being overgrown with the creeping branches of an acanthus, which had -taken root under it, was the first occasion of forming that capital. -_Callimachus_[64] the sculptor, surprized at the elegant simplicity of -that composition, took thence a hint for enriching architecture with a -new order. - -Thus this capital, destined to support all the entablature of the column, -is but a basket of flowers; something so apparently inconsistent with the -ideas of architecture, that there was no use made of it in the time of -Pericles: for Pocock[65] thinks it strange that the temple of Minerva at -Athens had Doric, instead of Corinthian pillars. But time soon changed -this seeming oddity into nature; the basket lost, by custom, all its -former offensiveness, and - - _Quod fuerat vitium desinit esse mora._ - - Ovid. Art. - -We acknowledge no Egyptian law to forbid arbitrary ornaments; and so -fond have the artists of all ages been, both of the growth and form of -shells, as to change even the chariot of Venus into an enormous one. The -ancile, that Palladium of the Romans, was scooped into the form of a -shell[66]: we find them on antique lamps[67]. Nay, nature herself seems -to have produced their immense variety, and marvellous sinuations, for -the benefit of the art. - -I have no mind to plead the bad cause of our unskilful decorators: only -let me adduce the arguments used by a whole tribe, (if the artists will -forgive the term), in order to prove the reasonableness of their art. - -The painters and sculptors of Paris, endeavouring to deprive the -decorators of the title of artists, by alledging that they employed -neither their own intellectual faculties, nor those of the connoisseurs, -upon works not produced by nature, but rather the offsprings of -capricious art; the others are said to have defended themselves in the -following manner: “We are the followers of nature: like the bark of a -tree, variously carved, our decorations grow into various forms: then art -joins sportive nature, and corrects her: we do what the ancients did: -consult their decorations.” - -Variety is the great and only rule to which decorators submit. Perceiving -that there is no perfect resemblance between two things in nature, -they likewise forsake it in their decorations; and careless of anxious -twining, leave it to the parts themselves to find their like, as the -atoms of Epicurus did. This liberty we owe to the very nation, which, -after having nobly exceeded all the narrow bounds of social formalities, -bestows so much pains upon communicating her improvements to her -neighbours. This style in decorations got the epithet of _Barroque_ -taste, derived from a word signifying pearls and teeth of unequal -size[68]. - -Shells have at least as good a claim for being admitted among our -decorations, as the heads of sheep and oxen. You know that the ancients -placed those heads, stript of the skin, on the frizes, especially of the -Doric order, between the Triglyphs, or on the Metopes. We even meet with -them on the Corinthian frise of an old temple of Vesta, at Tivoli[69]; -on tombs, as on one of the Metellus-family near Rome, and another of -Munatius Plancus near Gaeta[70]; on vases, as on a pair in the royal -cabinet at Dresden. Some modern artists, finding them perhaps unbecoming, -changed them into thunderbolts, like Vignola, or to roses, like Palladio -and Scamozzi[71]. - -We conclude from all this, that learning never had, nor indeed ought -to have, any share in an art so nearly related to what we call _Lusus -Naturæ_. - -Thus the ancients thought: for, pray, what could be meant by a lizard on -Mentor’s cup?[72] The - - _Picti squallentia terga lacerti_ - - Virg. G. IV. - -make, to be sure, a lovely image amidst the flowers of a Rachel Ruysch, -but a very poor figure on a cup. Of what mysterious meaning are birds -picking grapes from vines, on an urn?[73] Images, perhaps, as void of -sense, and as arbitrary, as the fable of Ganymede embroidered on the -mantle, which Æneas presented to Cloanthus, as a reward of his victory in -the naval games[74]. - -To conclude: is there any thing contradictory between trophies and -the hunting-house of a Prince? Surely the author, though so zealous a -champion for the Greek taste, cannot pretend to propose to us that of -King Philip and the Macedonians, who, by the account of Pausanias[75], -did not erect their own trophies. Diana perhaps, amidst her nymphs and -hunting-equipages, - - _Qualis in Eurotæ ripis, aut per juga Cynthi,_ - _Exercet Diana choros, quam mille secutæ,_ - _Hinc atque hinc glomerantur, Oreades_— - - Virg. - -might better suit the place; but we know that the antient Romans hung up -the arms of their defeated enemies over the out-sides of their doors, -to be everlasting monitors of bravery to every succeeding owner of the -house. Can trophies, having the same design, ever be misplaced on any -building of the Great? - -I wish for a speedy answer to this letter. You cannot be angry at seeing -it published. The tribe of authors now imitate the conduct of the stage, -where the lover, with his soliloquy, entertains the pit. For the same -reason I shall receive, with all my heart, an answer, - - _Quam legeret tereretque viritim publicus usus:_ - - Hor. - -for - - _Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim._ - - Id. - - - - - AN - ACCOUNT - OF A - MUMMY, - IN - The Royal Cabinet of Antiquities at DRESDEN. - - -Among the Egyptian Mummies of the royal cabinet, there are two preserved -perfectly entire, and not in the least damaged, viz. the bodies of a -man and woman. The former, among all those that were brought into, and -publickly known in Europe, is perhaps the only one of its kind; on -account of an inscription thereon, which none of those who have written -on Mummies, except Della Valle alone, discovered on those bodies; and -Kircher, among all the drawings of Mummies communicated to him, and -published in his Oedipus, has but one, (the same which Della Valle had -been possessed of,) with an inscription; though his wooden cut[76] is as -faulty as all the copies made afterwards[77]. On that Mummy there are -these letters ΕΥ✠ΥΧΙ. - -This same inscription is on the royal Mummy, of which I propose to give a -brief account, and in examining which I have employed all my attention, -that I might be certain of its being genuine, and not drawn by a modern -hand from the inscription of Della Valle: for ’tis well known, that those -bodies frequently pass through the hands of Jews. But the letters are -evidently drawn with the same blackish colour with which the face, hands, -and feet are stained. The first letter on our Mummy has the form of a -large Greek ϵ, expressed by Della Valle with an E angular, the other not -being usual in printing-presses. - -All the four Mummies of the royal cabinet being bought at Rome, I -proposed to examine whether the Mummy with the inscription, was that -which Della Valle was possessed of, and found that both the entire royal -Mummies were exact resemblances of those described by him. - -Both, besides the linnen bandages, of a Barracan-texture, rolled -innumerable times around the bodies, are wrapt up in several (and, -according to an observation made in England[78], in three) kinds of -coarser linnen; which, by particular bandages of the girdle-kind, is -fastened in such a manner as to involve even the smallest prominence of -the face. The first covering is a nice bit of linnen, slightly tinged -with a certain ground, much gilt, decked with various figures, and with -a painted one of the deceased. - -On the Mummy marked with the inscription, this figure represents a -man, who died in the flower of life, with a thin curled beard, not -as represented by Kircher, like an old man with a long pointed one. -The colour of the face and hands is brown: the head encircled with -gilt diadems, marked with the sockets of jewels. From the gold chain, -painted around the neck, a sort of medal hangs down, marked with various -characters, crescents, &c. and this over-reaches the neck of a bird, that -of a hawk perhaps, as on the breasts of other Mummies[79]. In the right -hand of the figure is a dish filled with a red stuff, which being like -that used by the sacrificers[80], the deceased may be supposed to have -been a priest. The first and last finger of the left hand have rings; and -in the hand itself there is something round, of a dark-brown colour; -which, as Della Valle pretends, is a well-known fruit. The feet and legs -are bare, with sandals; the strings of which appearing between the great -toes, are, with a slip, fastened on the foot itself. - -The inscription, above-mentioned, is beneath the breast. - -The second Mummy is the still more refined figure of a young woman. -Among a great many medals, seemingly gilt, and other figures, there are -certain birds, and quadrupeds something analogous to lions; and towards -the extremities of the body there is an ox, perhaps an apis: Down from -one of the neck-chains hangs a gilt image of the sun. She has ear-rings, -and double bracelets on both her arms: rings on each hand, and on every -finger of the left one, but two on the first: whereas the right hand has -but two: with this hand she holds, like Isis, a small gilt vessel, of the -Greek Spondeion-kind, which was a symbol of the fertility of the Nile, -when held by the goddess[81]. In the left hand there is a sort of fruit, -like an ear of corn, of a greenish cast. The leaden seals, mentioned by -Della Valle, still remain on the first Mummy. - -Compare this description with that in his travels[82], and you’ll find -the Mummies of the royal cabinet to be the same with those, which were -taken out of a deep well or cave, covered with sand, and sold to this -celebrated traveller by an Egyptian; and I believe they were purchased -from his heirs at Rome, though in the manuscript catalogue, joined to -that cabinet of antiquities, there is not the least hint of any such -purchase. - -I have no design to attempt an explication of the ornaments and figures; -some remarks of that kind having already been made by Della Valle. The -following observations concern only the inscription. - -The Egyptians, we know, employed a double character in expressing -themselves[83], the _sacred_ and the _vulgar_: the first was what is -called hieroglyphick; the other contained the characters of their -national language, and this is commonly said to be lost. All we know is -confined to the twenty-five letters of their alphabet.[84] Della Valle -seems inclined to give an instance of the contrary, in that inscription; -which Kircher, pushing his conjectures still farther, endeavours to lay -down as a foundation for a new scheme of his; and to support it by two -other remains of the same kind. For, he attempts to prove[85], that -the dialect was the only difference between the old Egyptian and Greek -tongue. According to his talent of finding what no body looks for, he -makes free with some ancient historical accounts; upon which he obtrudes -a fictitious sense, in order to make them tally with his scheme. - -Herodotus, according to him, tells us, that King Psammetichus desired -some Greeks, who were perfect masters of their language, to go over to -Egypt, in order to instruct his people in the purity of the tongue. Hence -he concludes, that there was but one language in both countries. But that -Greek historian[86] gives an account entirely opposite: he tells us, that -Psammetichus, having received some services from the Carians and Ionians, -permitted them to settle in Egypt, for the instruction of youth in the -Greek language, in order to bring up interpreters. - -There is no solidity in the rest of the Kircherian arguments; such as -those deduced from the frequent voyages of the Greek sages into Egypt, -and the mutual commerce between the two nations; which have not even -the strength of conjectures. For the very skill of Democritus, in the -sacred tongue of the Babylonians and Egyptians[87], proves only, that the -travelling sages learned the languages of the nations they conversed with. - -Nor does the testimony of Diodorus, that Attica was originally an -Egyptian colony[88], seem to be here of any weight. - -The inscription of the Mummy might indeed admit of Kircherian, or such -like conjectures, were the Mummy itself of the antiquity pretended by -Kircher. Cambyses, the conqueror of Egypt, partly exiled, and partly -killed the priests; from which fact Kircher confidently deduces as -consequences, the total abolition of the sacred rites, and from that the -ceasing to embalm bodies. He again appeals to a passage of Herodotus[89], -which, upon his word alone, others have as confidently quoted. Nay, a -certain pedant went so far as to pretend, that the Egyptian custom of -painting their dead, upon the varnished linnen of the Mummies, ceased -with the epoch of Cyrus[90]. - -But Herodotus says not a word, either of the total abolition of the -sacred rites, or of the abolition of the custom of preserving the -dead from putrefaction, after the time of Cambyses; nor does Diodorus -Siculus give any such hint: we may, on the contrary, from his account of -the funeral rites of the Egyptians, rather conclude, that this custom -prevailed even in his time; that is to say, when Egypt was changed into a -Roman province. - -Hence it cannot be demonstrated that our Mummy was embalmed before the -Persian conquest.—But supposing it to be of that date, is it a necessary -consequence that a body preserved in the Egyptian manner, or even taken -care of by their priests, should be marked with Egyptian words? - -Perhaps it is the body of some naturalised Ionian or Carian. We know that -Pythagoras entered into the Egyptian confession; nay, even consented to -be circumcised[91], in order to shorten his way to the mysteries of their -priests. The Carians themselves observed the sacred solemnities of Isis, -and even went so far in their superstition, as to mangle their faces -during the sacrifices offered to that deity[92]. - -Change the letter ι, in the inscription, into the diphthong ει, and you -have a Greek word: such negligences are often to be met with in Greek -marbles[93], and still more in Greek manuscripts; and with the same -termination it is to be found on a gem, and signifies, “FAREWELL”[94], -which was the usual ejaculation addressed by the living to the deceased; -the same we meet with on ancient epitaphs[95]; public decrees[96]; and -of letters it was the final conclusion[97]. - -There is on an ancient epitaph the word ΕΥΨΥΧΙ[98]; the form of the Ψ on -ancient stones and manuscripts is exactly the same[99] with the third -letter of ΕΥ✠ΥΧΙ, which was perhaps confounded with it. - -But supposing the Mummy to be of later times, the adoption of a Greek -word becomes yet easier. The round form of the ϵ might be something -suspicious, with regard to its pretended antiquity; that form being never -found on the gems or coins before Augustus[100]. But this suspicion -becomes of no weight, by supposing that the Egyptians continued their -embalming, even after the time of that Emperor. - -However, the word cannot be an Egyptian one, being inconsistent with the -remains of that ancient tongue in the modern Coptick, as well as with -their manner of writing; which was from the right to the left, as the -Etrurians did[101]; whereas the word in question (like some Egyptian -characters[102],) is traced from the left to the right. As for the -inscription discovered by Maillet[103], no interpreter has yet been -found. The Grecians, on the contrary, wrote in the occidental manner, -for six hundred years before the christian æra, witness the Sigæan -inscription, which is said to be of that date[104]. - -What has been said relates also to an inscription upon a piece of -stone[105], with Egyptian figures, communicated to Kircher by Carolo -Vintimiglia, a Palerman patrician. The letters ΙΤΙΨΙΧΙ are two words, -and signify, “Let the soul come.” This stone has met with the same fate -as the gem engraved with the head of Ptolomæus Philopator: for here an -Egyptian has joined two random figures, and there the inscription may be -of a Greek hand. The litterati know what little change it wants to be -orthographical. - - - - - AN - ANSWER - TO THE FOREGOING - LETTER, - AND - A further EXPLICATION of the SUBJECT. - - -I could not presume that so small a treatise as mine would be thought -of consequence enough to be brought to a publick trial. As it was -written only for a few _connoisseurs_, it seemed superfluous to give it -a learned air, by multiplying quotations. Artists want but hints: their -task, according to an ancient Rhetor, is “to perform, not to peruse;” -consequently every author, who writes for them, ought to be brief. Being -besides convinced, that the beauties of the art are founded rather on a -quick sense, and refined taste, than on profound meditation, I cannot -help thinking that the principle of Neoptolemus[106], “to philosophize -only with the few,” ought to be the chief consideration in every treatise -of this kind. - -Several passages of my Essay are susceptible of explications, and, -having been publickly tried by an anonymous author, should be explained -and defended at the same time, if my circumstances would permit me to -enlarge[107]. As to his other remarks, the author, I hope, will guess at -my answer, without my giving one explicitly.—Indeed they do not require -any. - -I am not in the least moved by the clamours concerning those pieces of -_Corregio_, which, by undoubted accounts, were not only brought to -_Sweden_[108], but even hung up in the stables at _Stockholm_. Reasoning -is of no use here: arguments of this kind admit of no other evidence but -that of _Æmilius Scaurus_ against _Valerius_ of _Sucro_: “He denies; I -affirm: Romans! ’tis yours to judge.” - -And why should there be any thing more derogatory to the honour of the -Swedes, in my repeating Count _Tessin_’s relation, than in his giving -it? Perhaps, because the learned author of the circumstantial life of -Queen _Christina_ omits her indiscreet generosity towards _Bourdon_, -and that bad treatment which the pictures of _Corregio_ met with? or -was _Härleman_[109] himself charged with indiscretion or malice, on his -relating that, at _Lincöping_, he found a college, and seven professors, -but not one physician or artificer? - -It was my design to explain myself more particularly, concerning the -negligences of the Greeks, had I been allowed time. The Greeks, as their -criticism on the partridge of Protogenes, and his blotting it[110], -evidently shews, were not ignorant in learned negligence. But the Zeus -of Phidias was the standard of sublimity, the symbol of the omnipresent -Deity; like Homer’s Eris, he stood upon the earth, and reached heaven; -he was, in the style of sacred poesy, “_What encompasses him?_ &c.” And -the world has been candid enough to excuse, nay, even to justify on such -reasons, the disproportions in the Carton of Raphael, representing the -fishing of Peter[111]. The criticism on the _Diomedes_, though solid, -is not against me: his action, abstractedly considered, with his noble -and expressive contour, are standards of the art; and that was all I -advanced[112]. - -The reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks may be -reduced to four heads, viz. - - I. The perfect Nature of the Greeks; - - II. The Characteristicks of their works; - - III. The Imitation of these; - - IV. Their manner of Thinking upon the Art; and Allegory. - -Probability was all I pretended to, with regard to the first; which -cannot be fully demonstrated, notwithstanding all the assistance of -history. For, these advantages of the Greeks were, perhaps, less founded -on their nature, and the influences of the climate, than on their -education. - -The happy situation of their country was, however, the basis of all; and -the want of resemblance, which was observed between the Athenians and -their neighbours beyond the mountains, was owing to the difference of -air and nourishment[113]. - -The manners and persons of the new-settled inhabitants, as well as the -natives of every country, have never failed of being influenced by their -different natures. The ancient Gauls, and their successors the German -Franks, are but one nation: the blind fury, by which the former were -hurried on in their first attacks, proved as unsuccessful to them in the -times of Cæsar[114], as it did to the latter in our days. They possessed -certain other qualities, which are still in vogue among the modern -French; and the Emperor Julian[115] tells us, that in his time there were -more dancers than citizens at Paris. - -Whereas the Spaniards, managing their affairs cautiously, and with a -certain frigidity, kept the Romans longer than any other people from -conquering the country[116]. - -And is not this character of the old Iberians re-assumed by the -West-Goths, the Mauritanians, and many other people, who over-ran their -country?[117] - -It is easy to be imagined what advantages the Greeks, having been subject -to the same influences of climate and air, must have reaped from the -happy situation of their country. The most temperate seasons reigned -through all the year, and the refreshing sea-gales fanned the voluptuous -islands of the Ionick sea, and the shores of the continent. Induced by -these advantages, the Peloponnesians built all their towns along the -coast; see Dicearchus, quoted by Cicero[118]. - -Under a sky so temperate, nay balanced between heat and cold, the -inhabitants cannot fail of being influenced by both. Fruits grow ripe -and mellow, even such as are wild improve their natures; animals thrive -well, and breed more abundantly. “Such a sky, says Hippocrates[119], -produces not only the most beautiful of men, but harmony between their -inclinations and shape.” Of which Georgia, that country of beauty, -where a pure and serene sky pours fertility, is an instance[120]. Among -the elements, beauty owes so much to water alone, that, if we believe -the Indians, it cannot thrive, in a country that has it not in its -purity[121]. And the Oracle itself attributes to the lymph of Arethusa a -power of forming beauty[122]. - -The Greek tongue affords us also some arguments in behalf of their -frame. Nature moulds the organs of speech according to the influences -of the climate. There are nations that rather whistle than speak, like -the Troglodytes[123]; others that pronounce without opening their -lips[124]; and the Phasians, a Greek people, had, as has been said of the -English[125], a hoarse voice: an unkind climate forms harsh sounds, and -consequently the organs of speech cannot be very delicate. - -The superiority of the Greek tongue is incontestible: I do not speak now -of its richness, but only of its harmony. For all the northern tongues, -being over-loaded with consonants[126], are too often apt to offend -with an unpleasing austerity; whereas the Greek tongue is continually -changing the consonant for the vowel, and two vowels, meeting with but -one consonant, generally grow into a diphthong[127]. The sweetness of the -tongue admits of no word ending with these three harsh letters Θ, Φ, Χ, -and for the sake of Euphony, readily changes letters for their kindred -ones. Some seemingly harsh words cannot be objected here; none of us -being acquainted with the true Greek or Roman pronunciation. All these -advantages gave to the tongue a flowing softness, brought variety into -the sounds of its words, and facilitated their inimitable composition. -And from these alone, not to mention the measure which, even in common -conversation, every syllable enjoyed, a thing to be despaired of in -occidental tongues; from these alone, I say, we may form the highest idea -of the organs by which that tongue was pronounced, and may more than -conjecture, that, by the language of the _Gods_, Homer meant the Greek, -by that of _Men_, the Phrygian tongue. - -It was chiefly owing to that abundance of vowels, that the Greek tongue -was preferable to all others, for expressing by the sound and disposition -of its words the forms and substances of things. The discharge, the -rapidity, the diminution of strength in piercing, the slowness in -gliding, and the stopping of an arrow, are better expressed by the sound -of these three verses of Homer, Iliad Δ. - - 125. Λίγξε βιὸς, νευρὴ δε μέγ’ ἴαχεν, ἆλτο δ’ ὀϊστὸς[128] - - 135. Διὰ μέν ἂρ’ ζωστῆρος ἐλήλατο δαιδαλέοιο, - - 136. Καὶ διὰ θωρηκος πολυδαιδάλου ἠρήρειστο, - -than even by the words themselves. You see it discharged, flying through -the air, and piercing the belt of Menelaus. - -The description of the Myrmidons in battle-array, Iliad Π. v. 215. - - Ἀσπὶς ἄρ’ ἀσπίδ’ ἔρειδε, κόρυς κόρυν ἀνέρα δ’ ἀνήρ. - -is of the same kind, and has never been hit by any imitation: what -beauties in one line! - -Plato’s periods were, from their harmony, compared[129] to a noiseless -smooth-running stream. But we should be mistaken in confining the tongue -to the softer harmonies only: it became a roaring torrent, boisterous as -the winds by which Ulysses’ sails were torn, split only in three or four -places by the words, but rent by the sound into a thousand tatters[130]. -This was the “_vivida expressio_,” the living sound; supremely beautiful, -when properly and sparingly used! - -How quick, how refined must the organs have been, which were the -depositaries of such a tongue! The Roman itself could not attain its -excellence: nay, a Greek father, of the second century of the christian -æra[131], complains of the horrid sound of the Roman laws. - -Nature keeps proportion; consequently the frame of the Greeks was of a -fine clay, of nerves, and muscles most sensibly elastic, and promoting -the flexibility of the body: hence that easiness, that pliant facility, -accompanied with mirth and vigour, which animated all their actions. -Imagine bodies most nicely balanced between leanness and corpulency: -both extremes were ridiculed by the Greeks, and their poets sneer at the -Philesiases[132], Philetases[133], and Agoracrituses[134]. - -But though they were beautiful, and by their law early initiated into -pleasure, they were not effeminate Sybarites. As an instance of which -we shall only repeat what Pericles pleaded in favour of the Athenian -manners, against those of Sparta, which were as different from those -of the rest of Greece, as their public oeconomy was: “The Spartans, -says Pericles, employ their youth to get, by violent exercises, manly -strength: but we, though living indolently, encounter every danger as -well as they; calmly, not anxiously, mindful of its approaches, we meet -it with voluntary magnanimity, and without any compulsion of the law. Not -disconcerted by its impending threats, we meet its most furious attacks, -with no less boldness than they, whom perpetual practice has prepared for -its strokes. We are fond of elegance, without loving finery; of genius, -without being emasculate. In short, to be fit for every great enterprize, -is the characteristic of the Athenians[135].” - -I cannot, nor will I pretend to fix a rule without allowing exceptions. -There was a Thersites in the army of the Greeks. But it is worth -observing, that the beauty of a nation was always in proportion to their -cultivation of the arts. Thebes, wrapt up in a misty sky, produced a -sturdy uncouth race[136],[137]according to Hippocrates’s observation on -fenny, watry soils[138]; and its sterility in producing men of genius, -Pindar only excepted, is an old reproach. Sparta was as defective in this -respect as Thebes, having only Alcman to boast of; but the reasons were -different: whereas Attica enjoyed a pure and serene sky, which refined -the senses[139], and of course shaped their bodies in proportion to that -refinement; and Athens was the seat of arts. The same remark may be made -with regard to Sicyon, Corinth, Rhodes, Ephesus, &c. all which having -been schools of the arts, could not want convenient models. The passage -of Aristophanes, insisted on in the letter[140], I take for a joke, as -it really is—and thereby hangs a tale: to have the parts, whereon - - _Sedet æternumque sedebit_ - _Infelix Theseus,_ - - Virg. - -moderately complete, were Attick beauties. Theseus[141], made prisoner by -the Thesprotians, was delivered from his captivity by Hercules, but not -without some loss of the parts in question; a loss bequeathed to all his -race. This was the true mark of the Thesean pedigree; as a natural mark, -representing a spear[142], signified a Spartan extraction; and we find -the Greek artists imitating in those places the sparing hand of nature. - -But this liberality of nature was confined to Greece, in a narrower -sense. Its colonies underwent the same fate, which its eloquence met with -when going abroad. “As soon, says Cicero[143], as eloquence set out from -the Athenian port, she plumed herself with the manners of all the islands -in her way, adopted the Asiatick luxury, and forsaking her sound Attick -expression, lost her health.” The Ionians, transplanted by Nileus from -Greece into Asia, after the return of the Heraclides, grew still more -voluptuous beneath that glowing sky. Heaps of vowels brought wantonness -into every word; the neighbouring islands partook of their climate and -manners, which a single Lesbian coin may convince us of[144]. No wonder -then, if their bodies degenerated as much from those of their ancestors, -as their manners. - -The remoter the colonies the greater the difference. Those Greeks, who -had chosen their abode in Africa, about _Pithicussa_, fell in with the -natives in adoring apes; nay, even gave the names of those animals to -their children[145]. - -The modern Greeks, though composed of various mingled metals, still -betray the chief mass. Barbarism has destroyed the very elements of -science, and ignorance over-clouds the whole country; education, courage, -manners are sunk beneath an iron sway, and even the shadow of liberty is -lost. Time, in its course, dissipates the remains of antiquity: pillars -of Apollo’s temple at Delos[146], are now the ornaments of English -gardens: the nature of the country itself is changed. In days of yore the -plants of Crete[147] were famous over all the world; but now the streams -and rivers, where you would go in quest of them, are mantled with wild -luxuriant weeds, and trivial vegetables[148]. - -Unhappy country! How could it avoid being changed into a wilderness, when -such populous tracts of land as Samos, once mighty enough to balance the -Athenian power at sea, are reduced to hideous desarts[149]! - -Notwithstanding all these devastations, the forlorn prospect of the soil, -the free passage of the winds, stopped by the inextricable windings of -entangled shores, and the want of almost all other commodities; yet have -the modern Greeks preserved many of the prerogatives of their ancestors. -The inhabitants of several islands, (the Greek race being chiefly -preserved in the islands), near the Natolian shore, especially the -females, are, by the unanimous account of travellers, the most beautiful -of the human race[150]. - -Attica still preserves its air of philanthropy[151]: all the shepherds -and clowns welcomed the two travellers, Spon and Wheeler; nay, prevented -them with their salutations[152]: neither have they lost the Attick salt, -or the enterprising spirit of the former inhabitants[153]. - -Objections have been made against their early exercises, as rather -derogating from, than adding to, the beauteous form of the Greek youths. - -Indeed, the continual efforts of the nerves and muscles seem rather to -give an angular gladiatorial turn, than the soft Contour of beauty, to -youthful bodies. But this may partly be answered by the character of the -nation itself: their fancy, their actions, were easy and natural; their -affairs, as Pericles says, were managed with a certain carelessness, and -some of Plato’s dialogues[154] may give us an idea of that mirth and -chearfulness which prevailed in all the Gymnastick exercises of their -youth. Hence his desire of having these places, in his commonwealth, -frequented by old folks, in order to remind them of the joys of their -youth[155]. - -Their games commonly began at sun rise[156]; and Socrates frequented -them at that time. They chose the morning-hours, in order to avoid being -incommoded by the heat: as soon as their garments were laid down, the -body was anointed with the elegant Attick oil, partly to defend it from -the bleak morning-air; as it was usual to practice, even during the -severest cold[157]; and partly to prevent a too copious perspiration, -where it was intended only to carry off superfluous humours[158]. To -this oil they ascribed also a strengthening quality[159]. The exercises -being over, they went to bathe, and there submitted to a fresh unction; -and a person leaving the bath in this state “appears, says Homer, taller, -stronger, and similar to the immortal Gods[160].” - -We may form a very distinct idea of the different kinds and degrees of -wrestling among the ancients, from a vase once in the possession of -Charl. Patin, and, as he guesses, the urn of a gladiator[161]. - -Had it been a prevailing custom among the Greeks to walk, either -barefooted, like the heroes in their performances[162], or with a single -sole, as we commonly believe, their feet must have been bruised. But -there are many instances of their extreme nicety in this respect; for, -they had names for above ten different sorts of shoes[163]. - -The coverings of the thighs were thrown off at the publick exercises, -even before the flourishing of the art[164]; which was a great advantage -to the artists. As for the nourishment of the wrestlers in remoter times, -I found it more proper to mention milk in general, than soft cheese. - -If I remember right, you think it strange, and even undemonstrable, that -the primitive church should have dipped their proselytes, promiscuously: -consult the note[165]. - -As I am now entering upon the discussion of my second point, I could wish -that these probabilities of a more perfect nature, among the Greeks, -might be allowed to have some conclusive weight; and then I should have -but a few words to add. - -_Charmoleos_, a Megarian youth, a single kiss of whom was valued at two -talents[166], was, no doubt, beautiful enough to serve for a model of -_Apollo_: Him, _Alcibiades_, _Charmides_, and _Adimanthus_[167], the -artists could see and study to their wish for several hours every day: -and can you imagine those trifling opportunities proposed to the Parisian -artists, equivalents for the loss of advantages like these? But granting -that, pray, what is there to be seen more in a swimmer than in any other -person? The extremities of the body you may see every where. As for that -author[168], who pretends to find in France beauties superior to those -of _Alcibiades_, I cannot help doubting his ability to maintain what he -asserts. - -What has been said hitherto might also answer the objection drawn from -the judgment of our academies, concerning those parts of the body which -ought to be drawn rather more angular than we find them in the antiques. -The Greeks, and their artists, were happy in the enjoyment of figures -endowed with youthful harmony; for, we have no reason to doubt their -exactness in copying nature, if we only consider the angular smartness -with which they drew the wrist-bones. _Agasias_’s celebrated _Gladiator_, -in the _Borghese_, has none of the modern angles, nor the bony -prominences authorised by our artists: all his angular parts are those we -meet with in the other Greek statues. And this statue, which was perhaps -one of those that were erected, in the very places where the games were -held, to the memory of the several victors, may be supposed an exact -copy of nature. The artist was bound to represent any victor in the very -attitude, and instantaneous motion, in which he overcame his antagonist, -and the _Amphictyones_ were the judges of his performance[169]. - -Many authors having written on this, and the following point of the -treatise, I have contented myself with giving a few remarks of my own. -Superficial arguments, in matters of this kind, can neither suit the -deeper views of our times, nor lead to general conclusions. Nevertheless -we do not want authors whose premature decisions often get the better of -their judgment, and that not in matters concerning the art alone. Pray, -what decisions of an author may be depended upon, who, when designing to -write on the arts in general, shews himself so ignorant of their very -elements, as to ascribe to _Thucydides_, whose concise and energetick -style was not without difficulties, even for _Tully_[170], the character -of simplicity?[171] Another of that tribe, seems as little acquainted -with _Diodorus Siculus_, when he describes him as hunting after -elegance[172]. Nor want we blockheads enough who admire, in the ancient -performances, such trifles as are below any reasonable man’s attention. -“The rope, says a travelling scribler, which ties together Dirce and the -ox, is to connoisseurs the most beautiful object of the whole groupe of -the Toro Farnese[173].” - - _Ah miser ægrota putruit cui mente salillum!_ - -I am no stranger to those merits of the modern artists which you oppose -to the ancients: but at the same time I know, that the imitation of these -alone has elevated the others to that pitch of merit; and it would be -easy to prove that, whenever they forsook the ancients, they fell into -the faults of those, whom alone I intended to blame. - -Nature undoubtedly misled Bernini: a _Carita_ of his, on the monument -of Pope Urban the VIIIth, is said to be corpulent, and another on that -of Alexander the VIIth, even ugly[174]. Certain it is, that no use -could be made of the Equestrian statue of Lewis XIV. on which he had -bestowed fifteen years, and the King immense sums. He was represented -as ascending, on horseback, the mount of honour: but the action both of -the rider and of the horse was exaggerated, and too violent; which was -the cause of baptizing it a Curtius plunging into the gulph, and its -having been placed only in the Thuilleries: from which we may infer, -that the most anxious imitation of nature is as little sufficient for -attaining beauty, as the study of anatomy alone for attaining the justest -proportions: these Lairesse, by his own account, took from the skeletons -of Bidloo; but, though a professor in his art, committed many faults, -which the good Roman school, especially Raphael, cannot be charged with. -However, it is not meant that there is no heaviness in his Venus; nor -does it clear him from the faults imputed to him in the Massacre of the -Innocents, engraved by Marc. Antonio, as has been attempted in a very -rare treatise on painting[175]; for there the female figures labour -under an exuberance of breasts; whereas the murderers look ghastly with -leanness: a contrast not to be admired: the sun itself has spots. - -Let Raphael be imitated in his best manner, and when in his prime; those -works want no apology: it was to no purpose to produce Parrhasius and -Zeuxis in order to excuse Him, and the Dutch proportions! ’Tis true, the -passage of Pliny[176], which you quote concerning Parrhasius, meets -commonly with the same interpretation, viz. _that, shunning corpulency -he fell into leanness_[177]. But supposing Pliny to have understood what -he wrote, we must clear him of contradicting himself. A little before -he allowed to Parrhasius a superiority in the contour, or in his own -words, _in the outlines_; and in the passage before us, _Parrhasius, -compared with himself, seems, in POINT OF THE MIDDLE PARTS, to fall short -of himself_. The question is, what he means by middle parts? Perhaps -the parts bordering on the outlines: but is not the designer obliged to -know every possible attitude of the frame, every change of its contour? -If so, it is ridiculous to give this explication to our passage: for -the middle parts of a full face are the outlines of its profile, and -so on. Consequently, there is no such thing as middle parts to be met -with by a designer: the idea of a painter, well-skilled in the contour -of the outlines, but ignorant of their contents, is an absurd one. -Parrhasius perhaps either wanted skill in the Chiaroscuro, or Keeping -in the disposition of his limbs, and this seems the only explication, -which the words of Pliny can reasonably admit of. Unless we choose to -make him another La Fage, who, though a celebrated designer, never -failed spoiling his contours with his colours. Or, perhaps, to indulge -another conjecture, Parrhasius smoothed the outlines of his contour, -where it bordered on the grounds, in order to avoid being rough; a fault -committed, as it seems, by his contemporaries, and by the artists who -flourished in the beginning of the sixteenth century, who circumscribed -their figures, as it were with a knife; but those smooth contours wanted -the support of keeping, and of masses gradually rising or sinking, in -order to become round, and to strike the eye: by failing in which, -his figures got an air of flatness; and thus Parrhasius fell short of -himself, without being either too corpulent or too lean. - -We cannot conclude, from the Homeric shape which Zeuxis gave his female -figures, that he raised them, like Rubens, into flesh-hills. There is -some reason to believe, from the education of the Spartan ladies, that -they had something of a masculine vigour, though they were the chief -beauties of Greece; and such a one is the Helena of Theocritus. - -All this makes me doubt of finding among the ancients any companion for -Jacob Jordans, though he is so zealously defended in your letter. Nor am -I afraid of maintaining what I have said concerning him. Mr. d’Argenville -is indeed a very industrious collector of criticisms upon the artists; -but as his design is not very extensive, so his decisions are often too -general, to afford us characteristical ideas of his heroes. - -A good eye must be allowed to be a better judge, in matters of this kind, -than all the ambiguous decisions of authors: and to fix the character -of Jordans, I might content myself with appealing to his Diogenes, -and the Purification, in the royal cabinet at Dresden. But, for the -reader’s sake, let me inquire into the meaning of what you call _Truth_ -in painting. For if truth, in the general sense, can by no means be -excluded from any branch of the arts, we have, in the decision of Mr. -d’Argenville, a riddle to unfold, which, if it has any meaning at all, -must have the following: - -Rubens, enabled by the inexhaustible fertility of his genius, to -pour forth fictions like Homer himself, displays his riches even to -prodigality: like him he loved the marvellous, as well in thought and -grandeur of conception, as in composition, and chiar’-oscuro. His -figures are composed in a manner unknown before him, and his lights, -jointly darting upon one great mass, diffuse over all his works a bold -harmony, and amazing spirit. Jordans, a genius of a lower class, cannot, -in the ideal part of painting, by any means be compared with his great -master. He had no wings to soar above nature; for which reason he humbly -followed, and painted her as he found her: and if this be _truth_, he, no -doubt, had a larger share of it than Rubens. - -If the modern artists, with regard to forms and beauty, are not to be -directed by antiquity, there is no authority left to influence them. -Some, in painting Venus, would give her a Frenchified air[178]; another -would present her with an Aquiline nose, the Medicean Venus, as they -would say, having such a one[179]: her hands would be provided with -spindles instead of fingers; and she would ogle us with Chinese eyes, -like the beauties of a new Italian school. Every artist, in short, would, -by his performance, betray his country: but, as Democritus says[180], -if the artists ought to pray the gods to let them meet with none but -auspicious images, those of the ancients will best suit their wishes. - -Let us, however, make some exception in favour of Fiamingo’s children. -For, lustiness and full health being the common burden of the praises of -children, whose infant forms are not strictly susceptible of that beauty, -which belongs to the steadiness of riper years; the imitation of his -children has reasonably become a fashion among our artists. But neither -this, nor the indulgence of the academy at Vienna, can be, or indeed was -meant to be decisive, in favour of the modern children; it only leads us -to make a distinction. The ancients went beyond nature, even in their -children: the moderns only follow her; and, provided their infant forms, -exuberant as they are, do not influence their ideas of youthful and riper -bodies, they may be allowed to be in the right, though, at the same time, -the ancients were not in the wrong. - -Our artists are, likewise, at full liberty to dress the hair of their -figures as they please: but, being so fond of nature, they, must needs -know, that it is nature which shades, with pendant locks, the forehead -and temples of all those, whose life is not spent between the comb and -the looking-glass: and finding this manner carefully observed in most -statues of the ancients, they may take it as a proof of their attachment -to simplicity and truth; a proof of the more weight, as they did not want -people, busier in adorning their bodies than their minds, and as nice -in adjusting their hair, as the most elegant of our European courtiers. -But it was commonly looked upon as a mark of an ingenuous and noble -extraction, to dress the hair in the manner of the statues[181]. - -The imitation of the ancient contour has indeed never been rejected, not -even by those whose chief want was that of correctness: but we differ -about imitating that “noble simplicity and sedate grandeur” in their -works. An expression which hath seldom met with general approbation, and -never pronounced without hazard of being misunderstood. - -In the Hercules of Bandinelli, the idea of it was deemed a fault[182]: an -usurpation in Raphael’s Massacre of the Innocents[183]. - -The idea of “nature at rest,” I own, might, perhaps, produce figures like -the young Spartans of Xenophon; nor would the bulk of mankind be better -pleased with performances in the taste of my treatise, (supposing even -all its precepts authorised by the judges of the art) than with a speech -made before the Areopagites. But it is not on the bulk of mankind that -we ought to confer the legislative power in the art. And though works of -an extensive composition ought certainly to have the support of a vigour -and spirit proportioned to their extent, yet there are limits which must -not be overleapt: use not so much spirit as to represent the everlasting -Father like the cruel God of war, or an ecstasied saint like a priestess -of Bacchus. - -Indeed, in the eyes of one unacquainted with this characteristick of -the sublime, a Madonna of Trevisani will seem preferable to that of -Raphael in the royal cabinet at Dresden. I know that even artists were -of opinion, that its being placed so near one of the former, was not a -little disadvantageous to it. Hence it seemed not superfluous to enquire -into the true grandeur of that inestimable picture, as it is the only -production of this Apollo of painters, that Germany is possessed of. - -No comparison, indeed, is to be made of its composition with that of the -transfiguration; which, however, I think fully compensated by its being -genuine: whereas Julio Romano might perhaps claim one half of the other -as his own. The difference of the hands is visible: but in the Madonna, -the spirit of that epoch, in which Raphael performed his Athenian school, -shines with so full a lustre, as to make even the authority of Vasari -superfluous. - -’Tis no easy matter to convince a critick, conceited enough to blame the -Jesus of the Madonna, that he is mistaken. Pythagoras, says an antient -philosopher[184], and Anaxagoras look at the sun with different eyes: the -former sees a God, the latter a stone. We want but experience to discover -truth and beauty in the faces of Raphael, without enquiring into their -dignity: beauty pleases, but serious graces charm[185]. Such are the -beauties of the ancients, which gave that serious air to Antinous, which -we generally ascribe to his shading locks. Sudden raptures, or the -enticement of a glance, are often momentary; let an attentive eye dwell -upon those confused beauties which the transient look conveys, and the -paint will vanish. True charms owe their durability to reflection, and -hidden graces allure our enquiries: reluctant and unsatisfied we leave a -coy beauty, in continual admiration of some new-fancied charm: and such -are the beauties of Raphael and the ancients; not agreeably trifling -ones, but regular and full of real graces[186]. By that Cleopatra became -the beauty of all ensuing ages: nobody[187] was astonished at her face, -but her air engaged every eye, and subdued the melted heart. A French -Venus at her toilet is much like Seneca’s wit: which, if put to the test, -disappears[188]. - -The comparison of Raphael and some of the most celebrated Dutch, and -new Italian painters, concerns only the management, (_Trattamento_). -The endeavours of the former of these, to hide the laborious industry -that appears in all their works, gives an additional sanction to my -judgment; for, hiding is labour. The most difficult part in performances -of the arts, is to spread an air of easiness, the “UT SIBI QUIVIS” over -them[189]; of which, among the ancients, the pictures of Nicomachus were -entirely destitute[190]. - -All this, however, is not meant to derogate from Vanderwerf’s superior -merit: his works give a lustre even to the cabinets of kings. He diffused -over them an inconceivable polish; every trace of his pencil, one would -think, is molten; and, in the colliquation of his tints, there reigns but -one predominant colour. He might be said to have enamelled rather than -painted. - -His works indeed please. But does the character of painting consist in -pleasing alone? Denner’s bald pates please likewise. But what, do you -imagine, would the wise ancients think of them? Plutarch, from the mouth -of some Aristides or Zeuxis, would tell him, that beauty never dwells in -wrinkles[191]. - -’Tis said, the Emperor Charles VI. when he first saw one of Denner’s -pictures, was loud in its praise, and in admiration of his industry. -The painter was immediately desired to make a fellow to the first, and -was magnificently rewarded: but the Emperor, comparing each of them -with some pieces of Rembrandt and Vandyke, declared, “that having now -satisfied his curiosity, he would on no account have any more from this -artist.” An English nobleman was of the same opinion: for being shewn -a picture of Denner’s, “You are in the wrong, said he, if you believe -that our nation esteems performances, which owe their merits to industry -rather than to genius.” - -I am far from applying these remarks to Vanderwerf; the difference -between him and Denner is too great: I only joined them in order to -prove, that a picture which only pleases can no more pretend to universal -approbation than a poem. No; their charms must be durable; but here -we meet with causes of disgust in the very parts, where the painter -endeavoured to please us. - -Those parts of nature that are beyond observation, were the chief -objects of these painters: they were particularly cautious of changing -the situation even of the minutest hair, in order to surprize the most -sharp-sighted eye with all the microcosm of nature. They may be compared -to those disciples of Anaxagoras, who placed all human wisdom in the palm -of the hand—but mark, as soon as they attempt to stretch their art beyond -these limits, to draw larger proportions, or the nudities, the painter -appears - - _Infelix operis summâ, quia ponere totum nescit._ - - Hor. - -Design is as certainly the painter’s first, second, and third requisite, -as action is that of the orator. - -I readily allow the solidity of your remarks, concerning the “reliefs” -of the ancients. In my treatise I myself charged them with a want of -sufficient skill in perspective; and hence the faults in their reliefs. - -The fourth point chiefly concerns _Allegory_. - -In painting we commonly call fiction allegory: for, though imitation -arises from the very principles of painting as well as of poetry, -it constitutes, by itself, neither of them[192]. A picture, without -allegory, is but a vulgar image, and resembles Davenant’s Gondibert, an -epopée without fiction. - -Colouring and design are to painting what metre and truth, or the fable, -are to poetry; a body without soul. Poetry, says Aristotle, was first -inspired with its soul, with fiction, by Homer; and with that the painter -must animate his work. Design and colouring are the fruits of attention -and practice: perspective and composition, in the strictest sense, are -established on fixed rules; they are of course but mechanical; and, if -I may be allowed the expression, only mechanical souls are wanting to -understand and to admire them. - -Pleasures in general, save only those which rob the bulk of mankind -of their invaluable treasure, time, become durable, and are free from -tediousness and disgust, in proportion as they engage our intellectual -faculties. Mere sensual sentiments soon languish; they do not influence -our reason: such is the delight we take in the common landscape, flower, -and fruit paintings: the artist, in performing them, thinks but very -little; and the connoisseur, in considering them, thinks no more. - -A mere history-piece differs from a landscape only in the object: in the -former you draw facts and persons, in the latter, sky, land, seas, &c. -both, of course, being founded on the same principle, imitation, are -essentially but of one kind. - -If it be not a contradiction to stretch the limits of painting, as far as -those of poetry, and consequently, to allow the painter the same ability -of elevating himself to the pitch of the poet as the musician enjoys; it -is clear that history, though the sublimest branch of painting, cannot -raise itself to the heighths of tragick or epick poetry, by imitation -alone. - -Homer, as Cicero tells us[193], has transformed man into God: which is -to say; he not only exceeded truth, but, to raise his fiction, preferred -even the impossible, if probable, to the barely possible[194]. In this -Aristotle fixes the very essence of poetry, and tells us that the -pictures of Zeuxis had that characteristick. The possibility and truth, -which Longinus requires of the painter, as opposites to absurdity in -poetry, are not contradictory to this rule. - -This heighth the history-painter cannot reach, only by a contour above -common nature, or a noble expression of the passions: for these are -requisite in a good portrait-painter, who is able to execute them -without diminishing the likeness of his model. They are but imitation, -only prudently managed. The heads of Vandyke are charged with too -exact an observation of nature; an exactness that would be faulty in a -history-piece. - -Truth, lovely as it is in itself, charms more, penetrates deeper, when -invested with fiction: fable, in its strictest sense, is the delight of -childhood; allegory that of riper years. And the old opinion, that poetry -was of earlier date than prose, as unanimously attested by the annals -of different people, makes it evident, that even in the most barbarous -times, truth was preferred, when appearing in this dress. - -Our understanding, moreover, labours under the fault of bestowing its -attention chiefly on things, whose beauties are not to be perceived at -first sight, and of inadvertently slighting others, because clear as -day: images of this kind, like a ship on the waves, leave but momentary -traces in our memory. Hence the ideas of our childhood are the most -permanent, because every common occurrence then seems extraordinary. -Thus, if nature herself instructs us, that she is not to be moved by -common things, let art, as the Orator, ad Herennium, advises us, follow -her dictates. - -Every idea increases in strength, if accompanied by another or more -ideas, as in comparisons; and the more still as they differ in kind: for -ideas, too analogous to each other, do not strike: as for instance, a -white skin compared to snow. Hence the power of discovering a similarity, -in the most different things, is what we commonly call wit; Aristotle, -“unexpected ideas”: and these he requires in an orator[195]. The more you -are surprized by a picture, the more you are affected; and both those -effects are to be obtained by allegory, like to fruit hid beneath leaves -and branches, which when found surprizes the more agreeably, the less it -was thought of. The smallest composition is susceptible of the sublimest -powers of art: all depends upon the idea. - -Necessity first taught the artists to use allegory. No doubt, they began -with the representation of single objects of one class: but as they -improved, they attempted to express what was common to many particulars; -_i. e._ general ideas. All the qualities of single objects afford such -ideas: but to become general, and at the same time sensible, they cannot -preserve the particular shape of such or such an object, but must be -submitted to another shape, essential to that object, but a general one. - -The Egyptians were the first, who went in search of images of that kind. -Such were their hieroglyphicks. All the deities of antiquity, especially -those of Greece, nay, their very names, were originally Egyptian[196]. -Their personal theology was quite allegorical; and so is ours. But the -symbols of these inventors, partly preserved by the Greeks, were often so -mysteriously arbitrary, as to make it altogether impossible to find out -their meaning, even by the help of those authors that are still extant; -and such a discovery was looked upon as a nefarious profanation[197]. -Thus sacredly mysterious was the pomegranate[198] in the hand of the -Samian Juno: and to divulge the Eleusinian rites, was thought worse than -the robbery of a temple[199]. - -The relation of the sign to the thing signified, was in some measure -founded on the known or pretended qualities of the latter. The Egyptian -Horsemarten was of that kind; an image of the sun, because his species -was said to have no female, and to live six months under and six above -ground[200]. In like manner the cat, being supposed to bring forth a -number of kittens equal to that of the days in a month, became the symbol -of Isis, or the moon[201]. - -The Greeks, on the contrary, endowed with more wit, and undoubtedly with -more sensibility, made use of no signs but such as had a true relation -to the thing signified, or were most agreeable to the senses: all their -deities they invested with human forms[202]. Wings, among the Egyptians, -were the symbol of eager and effectual services; a symbol conformable to -their nature, and continued by the Greeks: and if the Attick _Victoria_ -had none, it was meant to signify, that she had chosen Athens for her -abode[203]. A goose, among the Egyptians, was the symbol of a cautious -leader; in consequence of which the prows of their ships were formed like -geese[204]. This the Greeks preserved also, and the ancient _Rostrum_ -resembled the neck of a goose[205]. - -Of all the figures, whose relation to their intended meaning is somewhat -obscure, the Sphinx perhaps alone was continued by the Greeks. Placed in -the front of a temple, it was, among the Greeks, almost as instructive, -as it was significant among the Egyptians[206]. The Greek Sphinx was -winged[207], its head bare, without that stole which it wears on some -Attick coins[208]. - -It was in general a characteristic of the Greeks, to mark their -productions with a certain chearfulness: the muses love not hideous -phantoms: and Homer himself, when by the mouth of some god he cites an -Egyptian allegory, always cautiously begins with “WE ARE TOLD.” Nay, -the elder Pampho[209], though he exceeds the Egyptian oddities, by his -description of Jupiter wrapt up in horse-dung, approaches nevertheless -the sublime idea of the English poet: - - _As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart;_ - _As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns,_ - _As the rapt seraph, that adores and burns._ - - Pope. - -It will be no easy matter to find, among the old Greek coins, an image -like that of a snake encircling an egg[210], on a Syrian coin of the -third century. None of their monuments are marked with any thing -ghastly: of these they were, if possible, still more cautious than of -ill-omen’d words. The image of death is not to be seen, perhaps, but -on one gem[211], and that in the shape commonly exhibited at their -feasts[212]; _viz._ dancing to a flute, with intent to make them enjoy -the present pleasures of life, by reminding them of its shortness. On -another gem[213], with a Roman inscription, there is a skeleton, with two -butterflies as images of the soul, one of which is caught by a bird; a -pretended symbol of the metempsychosis: but the performance is of latter -times. - -It has been likewise observed, that[214] among those myriads of altars, -sacred even to the most whimsical deities, there never was one set apart -to death; save only on the solitary coasts, which were deemed the -borders of the world[215]. - -The Romans, in their best times, thought like the Greeks; and always, -in adopting the iconology of a foreign nation, traced the footsteps of -these their masters. An elephant, one of the latter mysterious symbols of -the Egyptians[216] (for there is on the most ancient monuments neither -elephant[217] nor hart, ostrich nor cock, to be found), was the image of -different things[218], and perhaps of eternity, as on some Roman[219] -coins, because of his longevity. But on a coin of the emperor Antoninus, -this animal, with the inscription, MUNIFICENTIA, cannot possibly hint -at any other thing but the grand games, the magnificence of which was -augmented by those animals. - -But it is no more my design to attempt an inquiry into the origin of -every allegorical symbol among the Greeks and Romans, than to write a -system of allegory. All I propose is, to defend what I have advanced -concerning it, and at the same time to direct the artist to the images of -those ancients, in preference to the iconologies and ill-judged symbols -of some moderns. - -We may, from a little specimen, form a judgment of the turn of mind of -those ancients, and of the possibility of subjecting abstracted ideas -to the senses. The symbols of many a gem, coin, and monument, enjoy -their fixed and universally received interpretation; but some of the -most memorable, not yet brought to a proper standard, deserve a nearer -determination. - -Perhaps the allegory of the ancients might be divided, like painting and -poetry in general, into two classes, _viz._ the _sublime_, and the _more -vulgar_. Symbols of the one might be those by which some mythological -or philosophical allusion, or even some unknown or mysterious rite, is -expressed. - -Such as are more commonly understood, _viz._ personified virtues, vices, -_&c._ might be referred to the other. - -The images of the former give to performances of the art the true epick -grandeur: one single figure is sufficient to give it: the more it -contains, the sublimer it is: the more it engages our attention, the -deeper it penetrates, and we of course feel it the more. - -The ancients, in order to represent a child dying in his bloom, painted -him carried off by Aurora[220]: a striking image! taken, perhaps, from -the custom of burying youths at day-break. The ideas of the bulk of our -artists, in this respect, are too trivial to be mentioned here. - -The animation of the body, one of the most abstracted ideas, was -represented by the loveliest, most poetical images. An artist, who -should imagine he could express this idea by the Mosaick creation, would -be mistaken; for his image would be merely historical, and nothing -but the creation of Adam: a history altogether too sacred for being -either admitted as the allegory of a mere philosophical idea, or into -every place: neither does it seem poetical enough for the flights of -the art. This idea appears on coins and gems[221], as described by the -most ancient poets and philosophers: Prometheus forming a man of that -clay, of which large petrified heaps were found in Phocis in the time -of Pausanias[222]; and Minerva holding a butterfly, as an image of the -soul, over his head. The snake encircling a tree behind Minerva, on the -above coin of Antoninus Pius, is a supposed symbol of his prudence and -sagacity. - -It cannot be denied that the meaning of many an ancient allegory -is merely conjectural, and therefore not to be applied on every -occasion. A child catching a butterfly on an altar was pretended to -signify _Amicitia ad aras_, or, “which is not to exceed the borders of -justice[223].” On another gem, Love, endeavouring to pull off the branch -of an old tree, where a nightingale is perching, is said to allegorize -love of wisdom[224]. _Eros_, _Himeros_, and _Pathos_, the symbols of -Love, Appetite, and Desire, are represented, they say[225], on a gem, -encompassing the sacred fire on an altar; Love behind the fire, his head -only over-reaching the flames; Appetite and Desire on both sides of the -altar; Appetite with one hand only in the fire, with the other holding a -garland; Desire with both his hands in the flames. A _Victoria_ crowning -an anchor, on a coin of king Seleucus, was formerly regarded as an image -of peace and security procured by victory, till by the help of history we -have been enabled to give it its true interpretation. Seleucus is said to -have been born with a mark resembling an anchor[226], which not only he -himself, but all his descendants, the Seleucidæ, have preserved on their -coins[227]. - -There is another Victoria with butterfly’s wings[228], fastened on a -trophy. This, they say, is the symbol of a hero, who, like Epaminondas, -died in the very act of conquering. At Athens such a statue[229], and an -altar to an unwinged Victoria, was the symbol of their perpetual success -in battle: ours may admit of the same explication as Mars in chains at -Sparta[230]. Nor was she, as I presume, provided at random with wings -usually given to Psyche, her own being those of an eagle: they perhaps -signify the soul of the deceased: however, all these conjectures might be -tolerable, if a Victoria fastened on trophies of conquered enemies could -reasonably correspond with their being vanquished. - -Indeed the sublimer allegory of the ancients has not been transmitted to -us, without the loss of its most valuable treasures: it is poor, when -compared with the second kind, which is often provided with several -symbols for one idea. Two different ones, signifying the happiness of -the times, are expressed on coins of the emperor Commodus: the one a -lady[231], sitting with an apple or ball in her right, and a dial in her -left hand, beneath a leafy tree: three children are before her, two in a -vase or flower-pot, the usual symbol of fertility: the other represents -four children, who, as is clear by the things they bear, are the seasons. -Both have the subscription FELICITAS TEMPORVM. - -But these, and all the symbols that want inscriptions, are of a lower -rank; and some of them might as well be taken for signs of different -ideas. Hope[232] and Fertility[233], for instance, might be Ceres, -Nobility[234], Minerva. Patience[235], on a coin of Aurelian, wants her -true characteristick, as does Erato; and the Parcæ[236] are only by their -garments distinguished from the Graces. On the contrary, ideas which are -often confounded in morality, as Justice and Equity, are extremely well -distinguished by the ancients. The former is represented, as drawn by -_Gellius_[237], with a stern look, a diadem, and dressed hair[238]; the -latter with a mild countenance, and waving ringlets; ears of corn arising -from her balance, as symbols of the advantages of equity; and sometimes -she holds in her other hand[239] a cornu-copia. - -Peace, on a coin of the emperor Titus, is to be ranked among those of a -more energetick expression. The goddess of Peace leans on a pillar with -her left arm, in the hand of which she holds the branch of an olive-tree, -whilst the other waves the caduceus over the thigh of a victim on a -little altar, which hints at the bloodless sacrifices of that goddess: -the victims were slaughtered out of the temple, and nothing but the -thighs were offered at the altar, which was not to be stained with blood. - -Peace usually appears with the olive-branch and the caduceus, as on -another coin of this emperor[240]; or on a stool placed on a heap of -arms, as on a coin of Drusus[241]. On some of Tiberius’s and Vespasian’s -coins[242] Peace appears in the act of burning arms. - -On a coin of the Emperor Philip there is a noble image; a sleeping -Victory: which, with better reason, may be taken for the symbol of -confidence in conquest, than for that in the security of the world as -the inscription pretends. Of an analogous idea was the picture, by which -the Athenian General Timotheus was ridiculed, for the blind luck with -which he obtained his victories: he was represented asleep, with Fortune -catching Towns in her Net[243]. - -The Nile, with his sixteen children, is of this same class[244]. The -child that reaches the ears of corn, and the fruits, in his Cornu, is -the symbol of the highest fertility; but those that over-reach them are -signs of miscarrying seasons. Pliny explains the whole[245]. Egypt is at -the height of its fertility, when the Nile rises sixteen feet: but if -it either falls short of, or exceeds that measure, it equally blasts -the land with unfruitfulness. Rossi, in his collection, neglected the -children. - -Satyrical pictures belong also to this class: the Ass of Gabrias, for -instance[246], which imagines itself worshipped by the people, as they -bow to the statue of Isis on its back. It is impossible to give a -livelier image of the pride of the Vulgar-Great. - -The sublimer allegory might be supplied by the lower class, had it not -met with the same fate. We are, for instance, not acquainted with the -figure of Eloquence, or _Peitho_; or that of the Goddess of Comfort, -_Parergon_, represented by Praxiteles, as Pausanias tells us[247]. -Oblivion had an altar among the Romans[248], and perhaps a figure: as may -also be supposed of Chastity, whose altar is to be found on coins[249]; -and of Fear, to which Theseus offered sacrifices[250]. - -However, the remains of ancient allegory are not yet worn out: there are -still many secret stores: the poets, and other monuments of antiquity, -afford numbers of beautiful images. Those, who in our time, and that -of our fathers, were busy in improving allegory, and in facilitating -the endeavours of the artists; those, I say, should reasonably have -had recourse to so rich and pure a fountain. But there was an epoch to -appear, in which a shocking croud of pedants should, with downright -madness, conspire in an universal uproar against every the lead glimpse -of good taste. Nature, in their eyes, was puerile, and ought to be -fashioned: blockheads, both young and old, vied in painting devices and -emblems, for the benefit of artists, philosophers, and divines; and woe -to him who made a compliment, without dressing it up in an emblem! -Symbols void of sense were illustrated with inscriptions, giving an -account of what they meant, and meant not: these are the treasures which -are dug for, even in our times, and which, being then in high fashion, -out-shone all antiquity had left. - -The ancients, for instance, represented Munificence by a woman holding -a Cornucopia in one hand, and the table of the Roman Congiarium in the -other[251]: an image which looked too parsimonious for modern liberality; -another therefore was contrived[252], with two horns; one of them -inverted, the better to pour out its contents; an eagle, the meaning -of which is too hard for me to guess at, was set upon her head; others -painted her with a pot in each hand[253]. Eternity was, by the ancients, -drawn either sitting on a Globe, or rather Sphere[254], with a Hasta in -her hand; or standing[255], with the Sphere in one hand, and the Hasta in -the other; or with the Sphere in her hand, and no Hasta; or else covered -with a floating Veil[256]. These are the images of Eternity on the coins -of the Empress Faustina: but there was not gravity enough in them for -the modern artists. Eternity, so frightful to many, required a frightful -image[257]; a form female down to the breast, with Globes in each hand; -the rest of the Body a circling star-marked Snake turning into itself. - -Providence very often has a Globe at her feet, and a Hasta in her left -hand[258]. On a coin of the Emperor Pertinax[259], she stretches out both -her hands, towards a Globe falling from the clouds. A female figure, -with two heads, seemed more expressive to the moderns[260]. - -Constancy, on some of Claudius’s coins[261], is either fitting or -standing, with a Helmet on her head, and a Hasta in her left hand; or -without Helmet and Hasta, but always with a finger pointing to her face, -as if closely debating some point. For distinction sake the moderns -joined a couple of pillars[262]. - -It is very probable, that Ripa was often at a loss with his own figures. -Chastity, in his Iconology, holds in one hand a Whip[263], (a strange -incitement to virtue) in the other a Sieve: The first inventor, perhaps, -hinted at Tuccia the vestal; which Ripa not remembring, indulges the most -absurd whims, not worth repeating. - -By thus contrasting ancient and modern allegory, I mean not to divert our -times of their right of settling new allegories: but from the different -manners of thinking, I shall draw some rules, for those that are to tread -these paths. - -The character of noble simplicity was the chief aim of the Greeks and -Romans: of which Romeyn de Hooghe has given the very contrast. His book, -in general, may very fitly be compared to the elm in Virgil’s hell: - - _Hanc sedem somnia vulgo_ - _Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus hærent._ - - Æn. VI. - -The distinctness of the ancient allegory was owing to the individuation -of its images. Their rule, (if we except only a few of those -above-mentioned), was to avoid every ambiguity; a rule slightly observed -by the moderns: the Hart, for instance, symbolizing[264] baptism, -revenge, remorse, and flattery; the Cedar, a preacher, worldly vanities, -a scholar, and a woman dying in the pangs of child-birth. - -That simplicity and distinctness were always accompanied by a certain -decency. A hog signifying, among the Egyptians, a scrutator of -mysteries[265], together with all the swine of Cæsar Ripa and some of the -moderns, would have been thought, by the Greeks, too indecent a symbol of -any thing whatever: save only where that animal made part of the arms of -a place, as it appears to be on the Eleusinian coins[266]. - -The last rule of the ancients was to beware of signs too near a-kin to -the thing signified. Let the young allegorist observe these rules, and -study them, jointly with mythology, and the remotest history. - -Indeed some modern allegories, (if those ought to be called modern that -are entirely in the taste of antiquity), may perhaps be compared with -the sublimer class of the ancient. - -Two brothers of the Barbarigo-family, immediately succeeding each -other[267], in the dignity of Doge of Venice, are allegorized by Castor -and Pollux[268]; one of whom, as the fable tells us, gave the other part -of that immortality which Jupiter had conferred on him alone. Pollux, -in the allegory, presents his brother, represented by a skull, with a -circling snake, as the symbol of eternity; on the reverie of a fictitious -coin, beneath the described figures, there drops a broken branch from a -tree, with the Virgilian inscription, - - _Primo avulso non deficit alter._ - -Another idea on one of Lewis XIVth’s coins, is as worthy of notice; -being struck[269] on occasion of the Duke of Lorrain’s quiting his -dominions, after the surrender of Marsal, for having betrayed both the -French and Austrian courts. The Duke is Proteus overcome by the arts -of Menelaus, and bound, after having, in vain, tried all his different -forms. At a distance the conquered citadel is to be seen, and the year of -its surrender marked in the inscription. There was no occasion for the -superfluous epigraph: _Protei Artes delusæ_. - -Patience, or rather a longing earnest desire[270], represented by a -female figure, with folded hands, gazing on a watch, is a very good image -of the lower class. It must indeed be owned, that the inventors of the -most picturesque allegories have contented themselves with the remains of -antiquity; none having been authorised to establish images of their own -fancy, for the general imitation of the artists. Neither has any attempt -of latter times deferred the honour: for in the whole Iconology of Ripa, -of two or three that are tolerable ones, - - _Nantes in gurgite vasto_; - -an Ethiopian washing himself, as an allusion to labour lost[271], is -perhaps the best. There are indeed images, and useful hints, dispersed in -some books of greater note, (as for instance, The Temple of Stupidity in -the Spectator[272],) which ought to be collected, and made more general. -Thus, were the treasures of science joined to those of art, the time -might come, when a painter would be able to represent an ode, as well as -a tragedy. - -I shall myself submit to the publick some images: for rules instruct, -but examples still more. Friendship, I find every where pitifully -represented, and its emblems are not worth mentioning: their flying -scribbled labels shew us the depth of their inventors. - -This noblest of human virtues I would paint in the figures of those -two immortal friends of heroic times, Theseus and Pirithous. The head -of the former is said to be on gems[273]: he likewise appears with the -club[274] won from Periphetes, a son of Vulcan, on a gem of Philemon. -Theseus consequently might be drawn with some resemblance. Friendship, -at the brink of danger, might be taken from the idea of an old picture -at Delphos, as described by Pausanias[275]. Theseus was painted in the -action of defending himself and his friend against the Thesprotians, -with his own sword in one hand, and another drawn from the side of his -friend, in the other. The beginning of their friendship, as described by -Plutarch[276], might also be an image of that idea. I am astonished not -to have met, among the emblems of the great men of the Barbarigo-family, -with an image of a good man and eternal friend. Such was Nicolas -Barbarigo, who contracted with Marco Trivisano a friendship worthy of -immortality; - - _Monumentum ære perennius_: - -a little rare treatise alone has preserved their memory[277]. - -A little hint of Plutarch’s might furnish an image of Ambition: he -mentions[278] the sacrifices of Honour, as being performed bareheaded, -whereas all other sacrifices, save only those of Saturn[279], were -offered with covered heads. This custom he believes to have taken its -rise from the usual salutation in society; though it may as well be _vice -versa_: perhaps it sprung from the Pelasgian rites[280], which were -performed bareheaded. Honour is likewise represented by a female figure, -crowned with laurels, a _Cornucopia_ and _Hasta_ in her hands[281]. -Accompanied by Virtue, a male figure with a helmet, she is to be found on -a coin of Vitellius[282]: and the heads of both on those of Gordian and -Galien[283]. - -Prayers might be personified from an idea of Homer. Phœnix, the tutor -of Achilles, endeavouring to reconcile him to the Greeks, makes use of -an allegory. “Know Achilles, says he, that prayers are the daughters -of Zeus[284]; they are bent with kneeling; their faces sorrowful and -wrinkled, with eyes lifted up to heaven. They follow Ate; who, with a -bold and haughty mien marches on, and, light of foot as she is, runs over -all the world, to seize and torment mankind; for ever endeavouring to -escape the Prayers, who incessantly press upon her footsteps, in order -to heal those whom she hath hurt. Whoever honours these daughters of -Zeus, on their approach, may obtain much good from them; but meeting with -repulse, they pray their fire to punish by Ate the hard-hearted wretch.” - -The following well-known old fable might also furnish a new image. -Salmacis, and the youth beloved by her, were changed to a fountain, -unmanning to such a degree, that - - _Quisquis in hos fontes vir venerit, exeat inde_ - _Semivir: & tactis subito mollescat in undis,_ - - Ovid. Metam. L. IV. - -The fountain was near Halicarnassus in Caria. Vitruvius[285] thought he -had discovered the truth of that fiction: some inhabitants of Argos and -Trœzene, says he, going thither with a mind to settle, dispossessed the -Carians and Leleges; who, sheltering themselves among the mountains, -began to harass the Greeks with their excursions: but one of the -inhabitants having discovered some particular qualities in that fountain, -erected a building near it, for the convenience of those who had a mind -to make use of its water. Greeks and Barbarians mingled there; and these -at length, accustomed to the Greek civility, lost their savageness, and -were insensibly moulded into another nature. The fable itself is well -known to the artists: but the narrative of Vitruvius might instruct them -how to draw the allegory of a people taught humanity and civilised, like -the Russians by Peter the First. The fable of Orpheus might serve the -same purpose. Expression only must decide the choice. - -Supposing the above general observations upon allegory insufficient to -evince its necessity in painting, the examples will at least demonstrate, -that painting reaches beyond the senses. - -The two chief performances in allegorical painting, mentioned in my -treatise, viz. the Luxemburg gallery, and the cupola of the Imperial -Library at Vienna, may shew how poetical, how happy an use their authors -made of allegory. - -Rubens proposing to paint Henry IV. as a humane victor, with lenity and -goodness prevailing, even in the punishment of unnatural rebels, and -treacherous banditti, represents him as Jupiter ordering the gods to -overthrow and punish the vices: Apollo and Minerva let fly their darts -upon them, and the vices, hideous monsters, in a tumultuous uproar tumble -over each other: Mars, entering in a fury, threatens total destruction; -but Venus, image of celestial love, gently lays hold of his arm:—you -fancy you hear her blandishing petition to the _mailed_ god: “rage not -with cruel revenge against the vices—they are punished.” - -The whole performance of Daniel Gran[286] is an allegory, relative to the -Imperial Library, and all its figures are as the branches of one single -tree. ’Tis a painted Epopee, not beginning from the eggs of Leda; but, as -Homer chiefly rehearses the anger of Achilles, this immortalizes only the -Emperor’s care of the sciences. The preparations for the building of the -library are represented in the following manner: - -Imperial majesty appears as a lady fitting, her head sumptuously -dressed, and on her breast a golden heart, as a symbol of the Emperor’s -generosity. With her sceptre the gives the summons to the builders; -at her feet sits a genius with an angle, palette, and chissel; another -hovers over her with the figures of the Graces, as symbols of that good -taste which prevailed in the whole. Next to the chief figure sits general -Liberality, with a purse in her hand; below her a genius, with the -table of the Roman Congiarius, and behind her the Austrian Liberality, -her mantle embroidered with larks. Several Genii gather the treasures -that flow from her Cornucopia, in order to distribute them among the -votaries of the arts and sciences, chiefly those, whose good offices to -the library had entitled them to regard. The execution of the Imperial -orders personified, directs her face to the commanding figure, and three -children present the model of the house. Next her an old man, the image -of Experience, measures on a table the plan of the building, a genius -standing beneath him with a plummet, as ready to begin. Next the old -man sits Invention, with a statue of Isis in her right, and a book in -her left hand, signifying, that Nature and Science are the fathers of -Invention, the puzzling schemes of which are represented by a Sphinx -lying before her. - -This performance was compared to the great platfond of Le Moine at -Versailles, with an eye to the newest productions of France and Germany -alone: for the great gallery of the same palace, painted by Charles le -Brun, is, without doubt, the sublimest performance of poetick painting, -since the time of Rubens; and being possessed of this, as well as of -the gallery of Luxemburg, France may boast of the two most learned -allegorical performances. - -The gallery of Le Brun contains the history of Louis XIV. from the -Pyrenæan peace, to that of Nimeguen, in nine large, and eighteen -smaller pieces: that in which the King determines war against Holland, -contains, in itself alone, an ingenious and sublime application of almost -the whole mythology[287]: its beauties are too exuberant for this -treatise; let the artist’s ideas be judged only by two of the smaller -compositions. He represents the famous passage over the Rhine: his hero -sits in a chariot, a thunderbolt in his hand, and Hercules, the image of -heroism, drives him through the midst of tempestuous waves. The figure -representing Spain is borne down by the current: the river god, aghast, -lets fall his oar: the victories, approaching on rapid wings, present -shields, marked with the names of the towns conquered after the passage. -Europa astonished beholds the scene. - -Another represents the conclusion of the peace. Holland, though with-held -by the Imperial Eagle, snatching her robe, runs to meet peace, descending -from heaven, surrounded by the Genii of gaiety and pleasure, scattering -flowers all around her. Vanity, crowned with peacocks feathers; -endeavours to with-hold Spain and Germany from following their associate: -but perceiving the cavern where arms are forged for France and Holland, -and hearing same threatening in the skies, they likewise follow her -example. Is not the former of these two performances comparable, in -sublimity, to the Neptune of Homer, and the strides of his immortal -horses? - -But let examples be never so striking, allegory will still have -adversaries: they rose in times of old, against that of Homer himself. -There are people of too delicate a conscience, to bear truth and fiction -in one piece: they are scandalized at a poor river-god in some sacred -story. Poussin met with their reproaches, for personifying the Nile -in his Moses[288]. A still stronger party has declared against the -obscurity of allegory; for which they censured, and still continue to -censure, Le Brun. But who is there so little experienced as not to know, -that perspicuity and obscurity depend often upon time and circumstances? -When Phidias first added a tortoise[289] to his Venus, ’tis likely that -few were acquainted with his design in it, and bold was the artist who -first dared to fetter her: time, however, made the meaning as clear -as the figures themselves. Allegory, as Plato says[290] of poetry in -general, has something enigmatick in itself, and is not calculated for -the bulk of mankind. And should the painter, from the fear of being -obscure, adapt his performance to the capacity of those, who look upon -a picture as upon a tumultuous mob, he might as well check every new -and extraordinary idea. The design of the famous Fred. Barocci, in his -Martyrdom of St. Vitalis, by drawing a little girl alluring a magpye -with a cherry, must have been very mysterious to many; the cherry[291] -alluding to the season, in which that saint suffered. - -The painting of the greater machines, and of the larger parts of publick -buildings, palaces, &c. ought to be allegorical. Grandeur is relative to -grandeur; and heroick actions are not to be sung in elegiack strains. But -is every fiction allegorical in every place? The Venetian Doge might as -well pretend to enjoy his superiority in _Terra firma_. I am mistaken if -the Farnesian gallery is to be ranked among the allegorical performances. -Nevertheless Annibal, perhaps not having it in his power to choose his -subject, may have been too roughly used in my treatise: it is known that -the Duke of Orleans desired Coypel to paint in his gallery the history -of Æneas[292]. - -The Neptune of Rubens[293], in the gallery at Dresden, painted on purpose -to adorn the magnificent entry of the Infant Ferdinand of Spain into -Antwerp, as governor of the Netherlands, was there, on a triumphal arch, -allegorical[294]. The god of the ocean frowning his waves into peace, was -a poetick image of the Princes escaping the storm, and arriving safe at -Genoa. But now he is nothing more than the Neptune of Virgil. - -Vasari, when pretending to find allegory in the Athenian school of -Raphael[295], _viz._ a companion of philosophy and astronomy with -theology, seems to have required, and, by the common opinion of his time, -to have been authorised to require something grand and above the vulgar, -in the decorations of a grand apartment: though indeed there be nothing -but what is obvious at first look, and that is, a representation of the -Athenian academy[296]. - -But in ancient times, there was no story in a temple, that was not, -at the same time, allegorical; allegory being closely interwoven with -mythology: the gods of Homer, says an ancient, are the most lively images -of the different powers of the universe; shadows of elevated ideas: and -the gallantries of Jupiter and Juno, in the platfond of a temple of -that goddess at Samos, were looked on as such; air being represented by -Jupiter, and earth by Juno[297]. - -Here I think it incumbent upon me to clear up what I have said concerning -the contradictions in the character of the Athenians, as represented -by Parrhasius. This you think an easy matter; the painter having done -it either in the historical way, or in several pictures: which latter -is absurd. Has not there been even a statue of that people, done by -Leochares, as well as a temple[298]? The composition of the picture in -question, has still eluded all probable conjectures[299]; and the help of -allegory having been called in, has produced nothing but Tesoro’s[300] -ghastly phantoms. This fatal picture of Parrhasius, I am afraid, will of -itself be a perpetual instance of the superior skill of the ancients in -allegory. - -What has been said already of allegory, in general, contains likewise -what remarks may be made upon its being applied to decorations; -nevertheless as you insist upon that point particularly, I shall lightly -mention it too. - -There are two chief laws in decoration, viz. to adorn suitably to -the nature of things and places, and with truth; and not to follow an -arbitrary fancy. - -The first, as it concerns the artists in general, and dictates to them -the adjusting of things in such a manner, as to make them relative to -each other, claims especially a strict propriety in decorations: - - ——_Non ut placidis coeant immitia_— - - Hor. - -The sacred shall not be mixed with the profane, nor the terrible with the -sublime: this was the reason for rejecting the sheeps-heads[301], in the -Doric Metopes, at the chapel of the palace of Luxemburg at Paris. - -The second law excludes licentiousness; nay circumscribes the architect -and decorator within much narrower limits than the painter; who sometimes -must, in spite of reason, subject his own fancy, and Greece, to fashion, -even in history-pieces: but publick buildings, and such works as are made -for futurity, claim decorations that will outlast the whims of fashion; -like those that, by their dignity and superior excellence, bore down the -attacks of many a century: otherwise they fade away, grow insipid and out -of fashion, perhaps before the finishing of the very work to which they -are added. - -The former law directs the artist to allegory: the latter to the -imitation of antiquity; and this concerns chiefly the smaller decorations. - -Such I call those that make not up of themselves a whole, or those -that are additional to the larger ones. The ancients never applied -shells, when not required by the fable; as in the case of Venus and the -Tritons; or by the place, as in the temples of Neptune: and lamps decked -with shells[302] are supposed to have made part of the implements of -those temples. For the same reason they may give lustre; and be very -significant, in proper places; as in the festoons of the Stadthouse at -Amsterdam[303]. - -Sheep and ox-heads stripped of their skin, so far from justifying a -promiscuous use of shells, as the author seems inclined to think, are -plain arguments to the contrary: for they not only were relative to -the ancient sacrifices, but were thought to be endowed with a power -of averting lightning[304]; and Numa pretended to have been secretly -instructed about them by Jupiter[305]. Nor can the Corinthian capital -serve for an instance of a seemingly absurd ornament, authorised and -rendered fashionable by time alone: for it seems of an origin more -natural and reasonable than Vitruvius makes it; which is, however, an -enquiry more adapted to a treatise on architecture. Pocock believed that -the Corinthian order had not much reputation in the time of Pericles, who -built a temple to Minerva: but he should have been reminded, that the -Doric order belonged to the temples of that goddess, as Vitruvius informs -us[306]. - -These decorations ought to be treated like architecture in general, which -owes its grandeur to simplicity, to a system of few parts, which being -not complex themselves, branch out into grace and splendour. Remember -here the channelled pillars of the temple of Jupiter, at Agrigentum, -(Girgenti now) which were large enough to contain, in one single gutter, -a man at full length[307]. In the same manner these decorations must not -only be few, but those must likewise consist of few parts, which are to -appear with an air of grandeur and ease. - -The first law (to return to allegory) might be lengthened out into many a -subaltern rule: but the nature of things and circumstances is, and ever -must be, the artist’s first aim; as for examples, refutation promises -rather more instruction than authority. - -Arion riding on his dolphin, as unmeaningly represented upon a -Sopra-porta, in a new treatise on architecture[308], though a significant -image in the apartments of a French Dauphin, would be a very poor one -in any place where Philanthropy, or the protection of artists like him, -could not immediately be hinted at. On the contrary, he would even to -this day, though without his lyre, be an ornament to any publick building -at Tarentum, because the ancient Tarentines, stamped on their coins the -image of Taras, one of the sons of Neptune, riding on a dolphin, on a -supposition of his being their first founder. - -The allegorical decorations of a building, raised by the contributions -of a whole nation, I mean the Duke of Marlborough’s palace at Blenheim, -are absurd: enormous lions of massy stone, above two portals, tearing to -pieces a little cock[309]. The hint sprung from a poor pun. - -Nor can it be denied that antiquity furnishes some ideas seemingly -analogous to this: as for instance, the lioness on the tomb of Leæna, the -mistress of Aristogiton, raised in honour of her constancy amidst the -torments applied by the tyrant, in order to extort from her a confession -of the conspirators against him. But from this, I am afraid, nothing can -arise in behalf of the above pitiful decoration: that mistress of the -martyr of liberty having been a notorious woman, and whose name could -not decently stand a publick trial. Of the same nature are the lizards -and frogs on a temple[310], alluding to the names of the two architects, -Saurus and Batrachus[311]: the above-mentioned lioness having no tongue, -made the allegory still more expressive. The lioness on the tomb of the -famous Lais[312], holding with her fore-paws a ram, as a symbol of her -manners[313], was perhaps an imitation of the former. The lion was, in -general, set upon the tombs of the brave. - -It is not indeed to be pretended that every ornament and image of the -ancient vases, tools, &c. should be allegorical; and to explain many -of them, in that way, would be equally difficult and conjectural. I am -not bold enough to maintain, that an earthen lamp[314], in the shape -of an ox’s-head, means a perpetual remembrance of useful labours, on -account of the perpetuity of the fire; nor to decypher here a mysterious -sacrifice to Pluto and Proserpine[315]. But the image of a Trojan Prince, -carried off by Jupiter, to be his favourite, was of great and honourable -signification in the mantle of a Trojan. Birds pecking grapes seem as -suitable to an urn, as the young Bacchus brought by Mercury to be nursed -by Leucothea, on a large marble vase of the Athenian Salpion[316]. The -grapes may be a symbol of the pleasures the deceased enjoy in Elysium: -the pleasures of hereafter being commonly supposed to be such; as the -deceased chiefly delighted in when alive. A bird, I need not say, was the -image of the soul. A Sphinx, on a cup sacred to Bacchus, is supposed to -be an allusion to the adventures of Oedipus at Thebes, Bacchus’s birth -place[317]; as a Lizard on a cup of Mentor, may hint at the possessor, -whose name perhaps was Saurus. - -There is some reason to search for allegory, in most of the ancient -performances, when we consider, that they even built allegorically. -Such an allusive building was a gallery at Olympia[318], sacred to the -seven liberal arts, and re-echoing seven times a poem read aloud there. -A temple of Mercury, supported, instead of pillars, by Herms, or, as -we now spell, Terms, on a coin of Aurelian[319], is of the same kind: -there is on its front a dog, a cock, and a tongue; figures that want no -explication. - -Yet the temple of Virtue and Honour, built by Marcellus, was still more -learnedly executed: having consecrated his Sicilian spoils to that -purpose, he was disappointed by the priests, whom he first consulted -on that design; who told him, that no single temple could admit of -two divinities. Marcellus therefore ordered two temples to be built, -adjoining to each other, in such a manner that whoever would be admitted -to that of Honour must pass through that of Virtue[320]; thus publickly -indicating, that virtue alone leads to true honour: this temple was near -the Porta Capena[321]. And here I cannot help remembering those hollow -statues of ugly satyrs[322], which, when opened, were found replete with -little figures of the graces, to teach, that no judgment is to be formed -from outward appearances, and that a fair mind makes amends for a homely -body. - -Perhaps, Sir, some of your objections may have been omitted: if so, it -was against my will——and at this instant, I remember one concerning the -Greek art of changing blue eyes to black ones. Dioscorides is the only -writer that mentions it[323]. Attempts of this kind have been made in our -days: a certain Silesian countess was the favourite beauty of the age, -and universally acknowledged to be perfect, had it not been for her blue -eyes, which some of her admirers wished were black. The lady, informed of -the wishes of her adorers, by repeated endeavours overcame nature; her -eyes became black,—and she blind. - -I am not satisfied with myself, nor perhaps have given you satisfaction: -but the art is inexhaustible, and all cannot be written. I only wanted -to amuse myself agreeably at my leisure hours; and the conversation of -my friend FREDERIC OESER, a true imitator of Aristides, the painter of -the soul, was not a little favourable to my purpose: the name of which -worthy friend and artist[324] shall spread a lustre over the end of my -treatise. - - - - - INSTRUCTIONS - FOR THE - CONNOISSEUR. - - - ——_Non, si quid turbida ROMA_ - _Elevet, accedas: examenve improbum in illa_ - _Castiges trutina: nec te quæsiveris extra._ - _Nam Romæ est Quis non?_—— - -You call yourself a _Connoisseur_, and the first thing you gaze at, -in considering works of art, is the workmanship, the delicacy of the -pencilling, or the polish given by the chissel.——It was the idea however, -its grandeur or meanness, its dignity, fitness, or unfitness, that ought -first to have been examined: for industry and talents are independent of -each other. A piece of painting or sculpture cannot, merely on account -of its having been laboured, claim more merit than a book of the same -sort. To work curiously, and with unnecessary refinements, is as little -the mark of a great artist, as to write learnedly is that of a great -author. An image anxiously finished, in every minute trifle, may be fitly -compared to a treatise crammed with quotations of books, that perhaps -were never read. Remember this, and you will not be amazed at the laurel -leaves of _Bernini_’s Apollo and Daphne, nor at the net held by _Adams_’s -statue of water at Potzdam: you will only be convinced that workmanship -is not the standard which distinguishes the antique from the modern. - -Be attentive to discover whether an artist had ideas of his own, or only -copied those of others; whether he knew the chief aim of all art, Beauty, -or blundered through the dirt of vulgar forms; whether he performed like -a man, or played only like a child. - -Books may be written, and works of art executed, at a very small expence -of ideas. A painter may mechanically paint a Madonna, and please; and a -professor, in the same manner, may write Metaphysics to the admiration of -a thousand students. But would you know whether an artist deserves his -name, let him invent, let him do the same thing repeatedly: for as one -feature, may modify a mien, so, by changing the attitude of one limb, the -artist may give a new hint towards a characteristic distinction of two -figures, in other respects exactly the same, and prove himself a man. -Plato, in _Raphael_’s Athenian school, but slightly moves his finger: -yet he means enough, and infinitely more than all _Zucchari_’s meteors. -For as it requires more ability to say much in a few words, than to do -the contrary; and as good sense delights rather in things than shews, it -follows, that one single figure may be the theatre of all an artist’s -skill: though, by all that is stale and trivial! the bulk of painters -would think it as tyrannical to be sometimes confined to two or three -figures, in great only, as the ephemeral writers of this age would grin -at the proposal of beginning the world with their own private stock, all -public hobby-horses laid aside: for fine cloaths make the beau. ’Tis -hence that most young artists, - - _Enfranchis’d from their tutor’s care_, - -choose rather to make their entrance with some perplexed composition, -than with one figure strongly fancied and masterly executed. But let -him, who, content to please the few, wants not to earn either bread or -applause from a gaping mob, let him remember that the management of a -“_little_” more or less really distinguishes artist from artist; that the -truly sensible produces a multiplicity, as well as quickness and delicacy -of feelings, whilst the dashing quack tickles only feeble senses and -callous organs; that he may consequently be great in single figures, in, -the smallest compositions, and new and various in repeating things the -most trite. Here I speak out of the mouth of the ancients: this, their -works teach: and both our writers and painters would come nearer them, -did not the one busy themselves with their words only, the other with -their proportions. - -In the face of Apollo pride exerts itself chiefly in the chin and nether -lip; anger in the nostrils; and contempt in the opening mouth; the -graces inhabit the rest of his divine, head, and unruffled beauty, like -the sun, streams athwart the passions. In Laocoon you see bodily pains, -and indignation at undeserved sufferings, twist the nose, and paternal -sympathy dim the eye-balls. Strokes like these are, as in Homer, a whole -idea in one word; he only finds them who is able to understand them. Take -it for certain, that the ancients aimed at expressing much in little, - - _Their ore was rich, and seven times purg’d of lead_: - -whereas most moderns, like tradesmen in distress, hang out all their -wares at once. Homer, by raising all the gods from their seats, on -Apollo’s appearing amongst them[325], gives a sublimer idea than all the -learning of Callimachus could furnish. If ever a prejudice may be of -use, ’tis here; hope largely from the ancient works in approaching them, -nor fear disappointments; but examine, peruse, with cool sedateness and -silenced passions, lest your disturbed brain find Xenophon flat and Niobe -insipid. - -To original ideas, we oppose copied, not imitated ones. Copying we -call the slavish crawling of the hand and eyes, after a certain model: -whereas reasonable imitation just takes the hint, in order to work by -itself. _Domenichino_, the painter of Tenderness, imitated the heads of -the pretended Alexander at Florence, and of the Niobe at Rome[326]; but -altered them like a master. On gems and coins you may find many a figure -of _Poussin_’s: his Salomon is the Macedonian Jupiter: but whatever his -imitation produced, differs from the first idea, as the blossoms of a -transplanted tree differ from those that sprung in its native soil. - -Another method of copying is, to compile a Madonna from _Maratta_; a S. -Joseph from _Barocci_; other figures from other masters, and lump them -together in order to make a whole. Many such altar-pieces you may find, -even at Rome; and such a painter was the late celebrated _Masucci_ of -that city.——Copying I call, moreover, the following a certain form, -without the least consciousness of one’s being a blockhead. Such was he -who, by the command of a certain Prince, painted the nuptials of Psyche, -or, if you will, the Queen of Sheba:—’twas a pity there was no other -Psyche to be found, but that dangerous one of _Raphael_. Most of the late -great statues of the saints, in St. Peter’s at Rome, are of the same -stuff—the block at 500 Roman crowns from the quarry. - -The second characteristic of works of art is Beauty. The highest object -of meditation for man is man, and for the artist there is none above his -own frame. ’Tis by moving your senses that he reaches your soul: and -hence the analysis of the bodily system has no less difficulties for -him, than that of the human mind for the philosopher. I do not mean the -anatomy of the muscles, vessels, bones, and their different forms and -situations; nor the relative measure of the whole to its parts, and _vice -versa_: for the knife, exercise, and patience, may teach you all these. -I mean the analysis of an attribute, essential to man, but fluctuating -with his frame, allowed by all, misconstrued by many, known by few:—the -analysis of beauty, which no definition can explain, to him whom heaven -hath denied a soul for it. Beauty consists in the harmony of the various -parts of an individual. This is the philosopher’s stone, which all -artists must search for, though a few only find it: ’tis nonsense to -him, who could not have formed the idea out of himself. The line which -beauty describes is elliptical, both uniform and various: ’tis not to be -described by a circle, and from every point changes its direction. All -this is easily said; but to apply it—_there is the rub_. ’Tis not in the -power of Algebra to determine which line, more or less elliptic, forms -the divers parts of the system into beauty—but the ancients knew it; I -attest their works, from the gods down to their vases. The human form -allows of no circle, nor has any antique vase its profile semicircular. - -After this, should any one desire me to assist him more sensibly in his -inquiries concerning beauty, by setting down some rules (a hard task), I -would take them from the antique models, and in want of these, from the -most beautiful people I could meet with at the place where I lived. But -to instruct, I would do it in the negative way; of which I shall give -some instances, confining myself however to the face. - -The form of real beauty has no abrupt or broken parts. The ancients made -this principle the basis of their youthful profile; which is neither -linear nor whimsical, though seldom to be met with in nature: the -growth, at least, of climates more indulgent than ours. It consists in -the soft coalescence of the brow with the nose. This uniting line so -indispensably accompanies beauty, that a person wanting it may appear -handsome full-faced; but mean, nay even ugly, when taken in profile. -_Bernini_, that destroyer of art, despised this line, when legislator of -taste, as not finding it in common nature, his only model; and therein -was followed by all his school. From this same principle it necessarily -follows, that neither chin nor cheeks, deep-marked with dimples, can -be consistent with true beauty. Hence the face of the Medicean Venus -is to be degraded from the first rank. Her face, I dare say, was taken -from some celebrated fair one, contemporary with the artist. Two other -Venuses, in the garden behind the Farnese, are manifestly portraits. - -The form of real beauty has neither the projected parts obtuse, nor -the vaulted ones sharp. The eye-bone is magnificently raised, the chin -thoroughly vaulted. Thus the best ancients drew: though, when taste -declined amongst them, and the arts were trampled on in modern times, -these parts changed too: then the eye-bone became roundish and obtusely -dull, and the chin mincingly pretty. Hence we may safely affirm, that -what they call Antinous, in the Belvedere, whose eye-bone is rather -obtuse, cannot be a work of the highest antiquity, any more than the -Venus. - -As these remarks are general, they likewise concern the features of -the face, the form only. There is another charm, that gives expression -and life to forms, which we call Grace; and we shall give some loose -reflexions on it separately, leaving it to others to give us systems. - -The figure of a man is as susceptible of beauty as that of a youth: -but as a various one, not the various alone, is the Gordian knot, it -follows, that a youthful figure, drawn at large, and in the highest -possible degree of beauty, is, of all problems that can be proposed to -the designer, the most difficult. Every one may convince himself of this: -take the most beautiful face in modern painting, and it will go hard, -but you shall know a still more beautiful one in nature.——I speak thus, -after having considered the treasures of Rome and Florence. - -If ever an artist was endowed with beauty, and deep innate feelings for -it; if ever one was versed in the taste and spirit of the ancients, ’twas -certainly _Raphael_: yet are his beauties inferior to the most beautiful -nature. I know persons more beautiful than his unequalled Madonna, in -the _Palazzo Petti_ at Florence, or the Alcibiades in his academy. The -Madonna in the Christmas-night of _Corregio_, (a piece justly celebrated -for its chiar’-oscuro) is no sublime idea; still less so is that of -_Maratta_ at Dresden: _Titian_’s celebrated Venus[327] in the Tribuna -at Florence is common nature. The little heads of _Albano_ have an air -of beauty; but it is a different thing to express beauty in little, and -in great. To have the theory of navigation, and to guide a ship through -the ocean, are two things. _Poussin_, who had studied antiquity more than -his predecessors, knew perfectly well what his shoulders could bear, and -never ventured into the great. - -The Greeks alone seem to have thrown forth beauty, as a potter makes his -pot. The heads on all the coins of their Free-states have forms above -nature, which they owe to the line that forms their profile. Would it not -be easy to hit that line? Yet have all the numismatic compilers deviated -from it. Might not _Raphael_, who complained of the scarcity of beauty, -might not he have recurred to the coins of Syracuse, as the best statues, -Laocoon alone excepted, were not yet discovered? - -Farther than those coins no mortal idea _can_ go. I wish my reader -an opportunity of seeing the beautiful head of a genius in the Villa -Borghese, and those images of unparalleled beauty, Niobe and her -daughters. On the western side of the Alps he must be contented with gems -and pastes. Two of the most beautiful youthful heads are a Minerva of -Aspasius, now at Vienna, and a young Hercules in the Museum of the late -Baron Stosch, at Florence. - -But let no man, who has not formed his taste upon antiquity, take it into -his head to act the connoisseur of beauty: his ideas must be a parcel -of whims. Of modern beauties I know none that could vie with the Greek -female dancer of Mr. _Mengs_, big as life, painted in _Crayons_ on wood, -for the Marquis Croimare at Paris, or with his Apollo amidst the muses, -in the Villa Albano, to whom that of _Guido_ in the Aurora, compared, is -but a mortal. - -All the modern copies of ancient gems give us another proof of the -decisive authority of beauty in criticisms on works of art. _Natter_ has -dared to copy that head of Minerva mentioned above, in the same size -and smaller, but fell short. The nose is a hair too big, the chin too -flat, and the mouth mean. And this is the case of modern imitators in -general. What can we hope then of self-fancied beauties? Conclude not, -however, from this, against the possibility of a perfect imitation of -antique heads: ’tis enough to say, that it has not yet existed: ’twas -probably the fault of the imitators themselves. _Natter_’s treatise on -ancient gems is rather shallow; and what he wrought and wrote, even on -that single branch of engraving, for which he was chiefly celebrated, has -neither the strength nor the ease of genius. - -To this consciousness of inferiority we owe the scarcity of modern -supposititious gems and coins. Any man of taste may, upon comparison, -distinguish even the best modern coin from the antique original.—I speak -of the best antiques: for as to the lower Imperial coins, where the cheat -was easier, the artists have been liberal enough. _Padoano_’s stamps, for -copying antique coins, are in the Barberini Collection at Rome, and those -of one _Michel_, a Frenchman, and false coiner in taste, at Florence, in -that of the late Baron Stosch. - -The third characteristic of works of art is Execution; or, the sketch -being made, the method of finishing. And even here we commend good sense -above industry. As in judging of styles, we distinguish the good writer -by the clearness, fluency, and nervousness of his diction; so in works -of art, we discover the master by the manly strength, freedom, and -steadiness of his hand. The august contour, and easiness of mien, in the -figures of Christ, St. Peter, and the other apostles, on the right side -of the Transfiguration, speak the classic hand of _Raphael_, as strongly -as the smooth, anxious nicety of some of _Julio Romano_’s figures, on the -left, the more wavering one of the disciple. - -Never admire either the marble’s radiant polish, or the picture’s glossy -surface. For that the journeyman sweated; for this the painter vegetated -only. _Bernini_’s Apollo is as polished as HE in the Belvedere; and there -is much more labour hid in one of _Trevisani_’s Madonnas, than in that of -_Corregio_. Whenever trusty arms and laborious industry prevail, we defy -all the ancients. We are not their inferiors even in managing porphyry, -though a mob of scriblers, with _Clarencas_ in their rear-guard, deny it. - -Nor (whatever _Maffei_ thinks[328],) did the ancients know a peculiar -method of giving a nicer polish to the figures of their concave gems -(_Intagli_.) Our artists polish as nicely: but statues and gems may be -detestable, for all their polish, as a face may be ugly, with the softest -skin. - -This however is not meant to blame a statue for its polish, as it is -conducive to beauty: though Laocoon informs us, that the ancients knew -the secret of finishing statues, merely with the chissel. Nor does the -cleanness of the pencil, on a picture, want its merit: yet it ought to -be distinguished from enamelled tints. A barked statue, and a bristly -picture are alike absurd. Sketch with fire, and execute with phlegm. We -blame workmanship only as it claims the first rank; as in the marbles _à -la Bernini_, and the linnen of _Scybold_ and _Denner_. - -Friend, these instructions may be of use. For as the bulk of mankind -amuse themselves with the shells of things only, your eye may be -captivated by polish and glare, as they are the most obvious; to put -you on your guard against which, is leading you the first step to true -knowledge. For daily observation, during several years, in Italy, has -taught me how lamentably most young travellers are duped by a set of -blind leaders. To see them skip about in the temple of art and genius, -all quite sober and cool, puts me in mind of a swarm of new-fledged -grashoppers wantoning in the spring. - - - - - ON - GRACE. - - - ——Χαριτων ἱμερο φωνων ἱερον φυτον. - -Grace is the harmony of agent and action. It is a general idea: for -whatever reasonably pleases in things and actions is gracious. Grace is -a gift of heaven; though not like beauty, which must be born with the -possessor: whereas nature gives only the dawn, the capability of this. -Education and reflection form it by degrees, and custom may give it the -sanction of nature. As water, - - _That least of foreign principles partakes,_ - _Is best:_ - -So Grace is perfect when most simple, when freest from finery, -constraint, and affected wit. Yet always to trace nature through the -vast realms of pleasure, or through all the windings of characters, -and circumstances infinitely various, seems to require too pure and -candid a taste for this age, cloyed with pleasure, in its judgments -either partial, local, capricious, or incompetent. Then let it suffice -to say, that Grace can never live where the passions rave; that beauty -and tranquillity of soul are the centre of its powers. By this Cleopatra -subdued Cæsar; Anthony slighted Octavia and the world for this; it -breathes through every line of Xenophon; Thucydides, it seems, disdained -its charms; to Grace Apelles and Corregio owe immortality; but Michael -Angelo was blind to it; though all the remains of ancient art, even those -of but middling merit, might have satisfied him, that Grace alone places -them above the reach of modern skill. - -The criticisms on Grace in nature, and on its imitation by art, seem to -differ: for many are not shocked at those faults in the latter, that -certainly would incur their displeasure in the former. This diversity -of feelings lies either in imitation itself, which perhaps affects the -more the less it is akin to the thing imitated; or in the senses being -little exercised, and in the want of attention, and of clear ideas of -the objects in question. But let us not from hence infer that Grace is -wholly fictitious: the human mind advances by degrees; nor are youth, the -prejudices of education, boiling passions, and their train of phantoms, -the standard of its real delight—remove some of these, and it admires -what it loathed, and spurns what it doted on. Myriads, you say, the bulk -of mankind, have not even the least notion of Grace—but what do they know -of beauty, taste, generosity, or all the higher luxuries of the soul? -These flowers of the human mind were not intended for universal growth, -though their seeds lie in every breast. - -Grace, in works of art, concerns the human figure only; it modifies the -_attitude_ and _countenance_, _dress_ and _drapery_. And here I must -observe, that the following remarks do not extend to the comic part of -art. - -The attitude and gestures of antique figures are such as those have, who, -conscious of merit, claim attention as their due, when appearing among -men of sense. Their motions always shew the motive; clear, pure blood, -and settled spirits; nor does it signify whether they stand, sit, or lie; -the attitudes of Bacchanals only are violent, and ought to be so. - -In quiet situations, when one leg alone supports the other which is free, -this recedes only as far as nature requires for putting the figure out -of its perpendicular. Nay, in the _Fauni_, the foot has been observed to -have an inflected direction, as a token of savage, regardless nature. To -the modern artists a quiet attitude seemed insipid and spiritless, and -therefore they drag the leg at rest forwards, and, to make the attitude -ideal, remove part of the body’s weight from the supporting leg, wring -the trunk out of its centre, and turn the head, like that of a person -suddenly dazzled with lightning. Those to whom this is not clear, may -please to recollect some stage-knight, or a conceited young Frenchman. -Where room allowed not of such an attitude, they, lest unhappily the leg -that has nothing to do might be unemployed, put something elevated under -its foot, as if it were like that of a man who could not speak without -setting his foot on a stool, or stand without having a stone purposely -put under it. The ancients took such care of appearances, that you will -hardly find a figure with crossed legs, if not a Bacchus, Paris, or -Nireus; and in these they mean to express effeminate indolence. - -In the countenances of antique figures, joy bursts not into laughter; -’tis only the representation of inward pleasure. Through the face of -a Bacchanal peeps only the dawn of luxury. In sorrow and anguish they -resemble the sea, whose bottom is calm, whilst the surface raves. Even -in the utmost pangs of nature, Niobe continues still the heroine, who -disdained yielding to Latona. The ancients seem to have taken advantage -of that situation of the soul, in which, struck dumb by an immensity -of pains, she borders upon insensibility; to express, as it were, -characters, independent of particular actions; and to avoid scenes too -terrifying, too passionate, sometimes to paint the dignity of minds -subduing grief. - -Those of the moderns, that either were ignorant of antiquity, or -neglected to enquire into Grace in nature, have expressed, not only what -nature feels, but likewise what she feels not. A Venus at Potzdam, by -_Pigal_[329], is represented in a sentiment which forces the liquor to -flow out at both sides of her mouth; seemingly gasping for breath; for -she was intended to pant with lust: yet, by all that’s desperate! was -this very Pigal several years entertained at Rome to study the antique. -A _Carita_ of _Bernini_, on one of the papal monuments in St. Peter’s, -ought, you’ll think, to look upon her children with benevolence and -maternal fondness; but her face is all a contradiction to this: for the -artist, instead of real graces, applied to her his nostrum, dimples, by -which her fondness becomes a perfect sneer. As for the expression of -modern sorrow, every one knows it, who has seen cuts, hair torn, garments -rent, quite the reverse of the antique, which, like Hamlet’s, - - ——_hath that within, which passeth shew:_ - _These, but the trappings, and the suits of woe._ - -The gestures of the hands of antique figures, and their attitudes in -general, are those of people that think themselves alone and unobserved: -and though the hands of but very few statues have escaped destruction, -yet may you, from the direction of the arm, guess at the easy and natural -motion of the hand. Some moderns, indeed, that have supplied statues -with hands or fingers, have too often given them their own favourite -attitudes—that of a Venus at her toilet, displaying to her levee the -graces of a hand, - - ——_far lovelier when beheld._ - -The action of modern hands is commonly like the gesticulation of a -young preacher, piping-hot from the college. Holds a figure her cloths? -You would think them cobweb. Nemesis, who, on antique gems, lifts her -peplum softly from her bosom, would be thought too griping for any new -performance—how can you be so unpolite to think any thing may be held, -without the three last fingers genteely stretched forth? - -Grace, in the accidental parts of antiques, consists, like that of the -essential ones, in what becomes nature. The drapery of the most ancient -works is easy and slight: hence it was natural to give the folds beneath -the girdle an almost perpendicular direction.—Variety indeed was sought, -in proportion to the increase of art; but drapery still remained a -thin floating texture, with folds gathered up, not lumped together, or -indiscreetly scattered. That these were the chief principles of ancient -drapery, you may convince yourself from the beautiful Flora in the -Campidoglio, a work of Hadrian’s times. Bacchanals and dancing figures -had, indeed, even if statues, more waving garments, such as played upon -the air; such a one is in the Palazzo Riccardi at Florence; but even then -the artists did not neglect appearances, nor exceed the nature of the -materials. Gods and heroes are represented as the inhabitants of sacred -places; the dwellings of silent awe, not like a sport for the winds, or -as wafting the colours: floating, airy garments are chiefly to be met -with on gems—where Atalanta flies - - _As meditation swift, swift as the thoughts of love._ - -Grace extends to garments, as such were given to the Graces by the -ancients. How would you wish to see the Graces dressed? Certainly not in -birth-day robes; but rather like a beauty you loved, still warm from the -bed, in an easy negligée. - -The moderns, since the epoch of _Raphael_ and his school, seem to have -forgot that drapery participates of Grace, by their giving the preference -to heavy garments, which might not improperly be called the wrappers -of ignorance in beauty: for a thick large-folded drapery may spare the -artists the pains of tracing the Contour under it, as the ancients did. -Some of the modern figures seem to be made only for lasting. _Bernini_ -and _Peter_ of _Cortona_ introduced this drapery. For ourselves, we -choose light easy dresses; why do we grudge our figures the same -advantage? - -He that would give a History of Grace, after the revolution of the arts, -would perhaps find himself almost reduced to negatives, especially in -sculpture. - -In sculpture, the imitation of one great man, of _Michael Angelo_, has -debauched the artists from Grace. He, who valued himself upon his being -“a pure intelligence” despised all that could please humanity; his -exalted learning disdained to stoop to tender feelings and lovely grace. - -There are poems of his published, and in manuscript, that abound in -meditations on sublime beauty: but you look in vain for it in his -works.—Beauty, even the beauty of a God, wants Grace, and Moses, without -it, from awful as he was, becomes only terrible. Immoderately fond of -all that was extraordinary and difficult, he soon broke through the -bounds of antiquity, grace, and nature; and as he panted for occasions -of displaying skill only, he grew extravagant. His lying statues, on -the ducal tombs of St. Lorenzo at Florence, have attitudes, which life, -undistorted, cannot imitate: so careless was he, provided he might dazzle -you with his mazy learning, of that decency, which nature and the place -required, that to him we might apply, what a poet says of St. Lewis in -hell: - - _Laissant le vray pour prendre la grimace,_ - _Il fut toujours au delà de la Grace,_ - _Et bien plus loin que les commandements._ - -He was blindly imitated by his disciples, and in them the want of Grace -shocks you still more: for as they were far his inferiors in science, -you have no equivalent at all. How little _Guilielmo della Porta_, the -best of them all, understood grace and the antique, you may see in that -marble groupe, called the Farnese-bull; where Dirce is his to the girdle. -_John di Bologna_, _Algardi_, _Fiammingo_, are great names, but likewise -inferior to the ancients, in Grace. - -At last _Lorenzo Bernini_ appeared, a man of spirit and superior talents, -but whom Grace had never visited even in dreams. He aimed at encyclopædy -in art; painter, architect, statuary, he struggled, chiefly as such, -to become original. In his eighteenth year he produced his Apollo and -Daphne; a work miraculous for those years, and promising that sculpture -by him should attain perfection. Soon after he made his David, which -fell short of Apollo. Proud of general applause, and sensible of his -impotency, either to equal or to offuscate the antiques; he seems, -encouraged by the dastardly taste of that age, to have formed the -project of becoming a legislator in art, for all ensuing ages, and he -carried his point. From that time the Graces entirely forsook him: how -could they abide with a man who begun his career from the end opposite -to the ancients? His forms he compiled from common nature, and his ideas -from the inhabitants of climates unknown to him; for in Italy’s happiest -parts nature differs from his figures. He was worshipped as the genius of -art, and universally imitated; for, in our days, statues being erected to -piety only, none to wisdom, a statue _à la Bernini_ is likelier to make -the kitchen prosper than a Laocoon. - -From Italy, reader, I leave you to guess at other countries. A celebrated -_Puget_, _Girardon_, with all his brethren in _On_, are worse. Judge -of the connoisseurs of France by _Watelet_, and of its designers, by -_Mariette_’s gems. - -At Athens the Graces stood eastward, in a sacred place. Our artists -should place them over their work-houses; wear them in their rings; seal -with them; sacrifice to them; and, court their sovereign charms to their -last breath. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] Plato in Timæo. Edit. Francof. p. 1044. - -[2] In Timæum Platonis. - -[3] Vide Pindar. Olymp. Od. VII. Arg. & Schol. - -[4] Some are of opinion, that the celebrated Ludovisian gladiator, now in -the great sallon of the capitol, is this same whom Pliny mentions. - -[5] Vide Bellori Descriz delle Imagini dipinte da Raffaelle d’Vrbino, &c. -Roma. 1695 fol. - -[6] Vide Stosch Pierres grav. pl. XXXIII. - -[7] Baldinucci Vita del Cav. Bernini. - -[8] Vide Stosch Pierres Grav. pl. XXIX. XXX. - -[9] Vide Mus. Flor. T. II. t. V. - -[10] Vide Zanetti Statue nell’ Antisala della libraria di S. Marco. -Venez. 1740. fol. - -[11] Among the busts remarkable for that coarser Drapery, we may reckon -the beauteous Caracalla in the royal cabinet at Dresden. - -[12] Vide Wright’s Travels. - -The victorious St. Michael of Guido, treads on the body of his -antagonist, with all the precision of a dancing-master. Webb’s Inquiry, -&c. - -[13] Vasari vite de Pittori, Scult. et Arch. edit. 1568. Part III. p. -776.——“Quattro prigioni bozzati, che possano insegnare à cavare de’ Marmi -le figure con un modo sicuro da non istorpiare i sassi, che il modo è -questo, che s’ e’ si pigliassi una figura di cera ò d’ altra materia -dura, e si metessi à giacere in una conca d’ acqua, la quale acqua -essendo per la sua natura nella sua sommità piana et pari, alzando la -detta figura à poco del pari, cosi vengono à scoprirsi prima le parti piu -relevate e à nascondersi i fondi, cioè le parti piu basse della figura, -tanto che nel fine ella cosi viene scoperta tutta. Nel medesimo modo si -debbono cavare con lo scarpello le figure de’ Marmi, prima scoprendo le -parti piu rilevate, e di mano in mano le piu basse, il quale modo si -vede osservato da Michael Angelo ne’ sopra detti prigioni, i quali sua -Eccellenza vuole, che servino per esempio de suoi Academici.” - -[14] Lettere d’alcuni Bolognesi, Vol. I. p. 159. - -[15] Compare a description of a St. Sebastian of Beccafumi, another of -a Hercules and Antæus of Lanfranc, &c. in Raguenet’s Monumens de Rome, -Paris, 12mo. - -[16] Labat voyage en Espagne & en Ital. T. III. p. 213.——“Michel Ange -étoit aussi savant dans l’antiquité que dans l’anatomie, la sculpture, -la peinture, et l’architecture; et puisqu’ il nous a representé Moyse -avec une si belle et si longue barbe, il est sûr, et doit passer pour -constant, que le prophete la portoit ainsi; et par une consequence -necessaire les Juifs, qui pretendent le copier avec exactitude, et qui -font la plus grande partie de leur religion de l’observance des usages -qu’ il a laissé, doivent avoir de la barbe comme lui, ou renoncer à la -qualité de Juifs.” - -[17] Apotheos. Homeri, p. 81, 82. - -[18] Stosch Pierr. Grav. pl. XIX. - -[19] Monum. Antiquit. p. 255. - -[20] Puffendorf Rer. Suec. L. XX. §. 50. p. 796. - -[21] Sandrart Acad. P. II. L. 2. c. 6. p. 118. Conf. St. Gelais descr. -des Tabl. du Palais Royal, p. 12. & seq. - -[22] Plin. Hist. Nat. L. 35. c. 10. - -[23] Lucian de Hist. Scrib. - -[24] Strabo Geogr. L. VIII. p. 542. - -[25] Vitruv. L. III. c. 1. - -[26] Borell. de motu animal. P. I. c. 18. prop. 142. p. 142. edit. -Bernoull. - -[27] Stosch. Pierr. Grav. pl. XXXV. - -[28] Stosch Pierr. Grav. pl. XXXV. - -[29] Mariette Pierr. Grav. T. II. n. 94. - -[30] Stosch Pierr. Grav. pl. LIV. - -[31] Pausanias, L. VI. c. 7. p. 470. - -[32] Dioscorid. de Re Medica, L. V. c. 179. Conf. Salmas. Exercit. Plin. -c. 15. p. 134. b. - -[33] Aristoph. Nub. v. 1178. ibid. v. 1363. Et Scholiast. - -[34] Observat. sur les arts, sur quelques morceaux de peint. & sculpt. -exposés au Louvre en 1748, p. 18. - -[35] Riposo di Raffaello Borghini, L. I. p. 46. - -[36] See the Cupid by SOLON, Stosch. 64. the Cupid leading the Lioness, -by SOSTRATUS, Stosch. 66. and a Child and Faun, by AXEOCHUS, Stosch 20. - -[37] Vide Bartoli Admiranda Rom. fol. 50, 51, 61. Zanetti Stat. Antich. -P. II. fol. 33. - -[38] Vide Callistrat. p. 903. - -[39] Vide Philostrati Heroic. - -[40] Vide Baldinucci vita del Caval. Bernin. p. 47. - -[41] Vide Baldinucci vita del Caval. Bernin. p. 72. - -[42] Trattato della pittura e scultura, uso et abuso loro, composto da un -theologo e da un pittore. Fiorenza, 1652. 4. - -[43] Bellori vite de’ pittori, &c. p. 300. - -[44] Richardson, Tom. III. p. 94. - -[45] Xenophon Memorab. L. III. c. 6, 7. - -[46] Vide Baldinucci vita del Cav. Bernini, p. 66. - -[47] Plin. Hist. Nat. L. 35. c. 10. - -[48] Quintilian. Instit. Or. L. 12. c. 19. - -[49] Idyll. 18. v. 29. - -[50] De Pile’s Conversat. sur la peint. - -[51] Du Bos Refl. sur la poesie & sur la peint. - -[52] The Stratonice was twice painted by Lairesse. The picture we talk of -is the smallest of the two: the figure is about one foot and a half, and -differs from the other in the disposition of the Parerga. - -[53] See Plutarch. in Demetr. & Lucian. de Dea Syria. - -[54] Vide Lettre de Mr. Huet sur la Pourpre: dans les Dissertat. de -Tilladet. Tom. II. p. 169. - -[55] St. Real Cæsarion, T. II. Le Blanc Lettre sur l’Expos. des Ouvrages -de Peint, &c. 1747. - -[56] De Oratore, L. II. c. 21. - -[57] Aristot. Rhet. L. I. c. 1. §. 4. - -[58] Xenophon Resp. Laced. c. 3. §. 5. - -[59] Origines Contra Cels. L. IV. p. 196. Edit. Cantabr. - -[60] Perrault sur Vitruve Explic. de la Planche IX. p. 62. - -[61] Dialog. Inconfus. p. 76. - -[62] Horapoll. Hierogl. c. 33. Conf. Blackwell’s Enq. into Hom. p. 170. - -[63] De Re rust. præf. ad L. I. §. 32. p. 392. Edit. Gesn. - -[64] Vitruv. L. IV. c. 1. - -[65] Travels, T. II. - -[66] Plutarch. Numa. p. 149. L. 14. Edit. Bryani. - -[67] Passerii Lucern. - -[68] Menage Diction. Etymol. v. Barroque. - -[69] Vide Desgodez Edifices antiq. de Rome, p. 91. - -[70] Bartoli Sepolcri Antichi, p. 67. ibid. fig. 91. - -[71] Perrault notes sur Vitruv. L. IV. ch. 2. n. 21. p. 118. - -[72] Martial, L. III. Ep. 41. 1. - -[73] Bellori Sepolchri ant. f. 99. - -[74] Virgil, Æn. V. v. 250. & seq. - -[75] Pausanias, L. IX. c. 40. p. 794. Conf. Spanhem. Not. sur les Cæesars -de l’Emp. Julien. p. 240. - -[76] Kircheri Oedip. Ægypt. T. III. p. 405, & 433. - -[77] Bianchini Istor. Univ. p. 412. - -[78] Nehem. Grew Musæum Societ. Reg. Lond. 1681. fol. p. 1. - -[79] Vide Gabr. Bremond Viaggi nell’Egitto. Roma. 1579. 4. L. I. c. 15. -p. 77. - -[80] Clemens Alex. Strom. L. VI. p. 456. - -[81] Shaw, Voyage, T. II. p. 123. - -[82] Della Valle Viaggi. Lettr. 11. §. 9. p. 325. & seq. - -[83] Herodot. L. II. c. 36. Diod. Sic. - -[84] Plutarch. de Isid. & Osirid. p. 374. - -[85] Kircher Oed. I. c. ej. Prodrom. Copt. c. 7. - -[86] Herodot. L. II. c. 153. - -[87] Diogen. Laert. v. Democr. - -[88] Diodor. Sic. L. I. c. 29. Edit. Wessel. - -[89] Kircher Oedip. I. c.—it. ejusd. China illustrata. III. c. 4. p. 151. - -[90] Alberti Englische Briefe, B——. - -[91] Clem. Alex. Strom. L. I. p. 354. Edit. Pott. - -[92] Herodot. L. II. c. 61. - -[93] Montfaucon Palæogr. Græc. L. III. c. 5. p. 230. Kuhn. Not. ad -Pausan. L. II. p. 128. - -[94] Augustin. Gem. P. II. l. 32. - -[95] Gruter. Corp. Inscr. p. DCCCLXI. ἐυτυχειτε, χαιρετε, &c. - -[96] Prideaux Marm. Oxon. 4. & 179. - -[97] Demosth. Orat. pro Corona, p. 485, 499. Edit. Frc. 1604. - -[98] Gruter, Corp. Inscript. p. DCXLI. 8. - -[99] Montfaucon Palæogr. L. IV. c. 10. p. 336, 338. - -[100] Montf. L. I. c. 4. II. c. 6. p. 152. - -[101] Herod. L. II. - -[102] Descript. de l’Egypte, par Mascriere, Lettr. VII. 23. - -[103] Descript. de l’Eg. L. c. - -[104] Chishul. Inscr. Sig. p. 12. - -[105] Kircher. Obelisc. Pamph. c. 8. p. 147. - -[106] Cicero de Oratore, L. II. c. 37. - -[107] The author was then preparing for a journey to Rome. - -[108] Argenville abregé de la V. d. P. T. II. p. 287. - -[109] Reise, p. 21. - -[110] Strabo, L. XIV. p. 652. al. 965. l. 11. - -[111] Richardson Essay, &c. p. 38, 39. - -[112] Diomedes, for ought I can see, is neither a sitting nor a standing -figure, in both which cases the critick must be allowed to be just. He -descends. _Remark of the T. L._ - -[113] Cicero de Fato, c. 4. - -[114] Strabo, L. IV. p. 196. al. 299. l. 22. - -[115] Misopog. p. 342. l. 13. - -[116] Strabo, L. III. p. 158. al. 238. - -[117] Du Bos Reflex. sur la Poesie et s. l. P. II. 144. - -[118] Herodot. L. III. c. 106. Cicero ad Attic. L. VI. cp. 2. - -[119] Περὶ τοπων. p. 288. edit. Foesii. Galenus ὁτι τα τῆς Ψυχῆς Ἠθη τοις -του Σωματος κρασεσι ἑπεται. fol. 171. B. I. 43. edit. Ald. T. I. - -[120] Chardin voyage en Perse, T. II. p. 127. & seq. - -[121] Journal des Sçavans l’An. 1684. Aur. p. 153. - -[122] Apud Euseb. Præpar. Evang. L. V. c. 29. p. 226. edit. Colon. - -[123] Plin. Hist. Nat. L. V. c. 8. - -[124] Lahontan Memoir. T. II. p. 217. Cons. Wöldike de ling. Grönland, p. -144, & seq. Act. Hafn. T. II. - -[125] Clarmont de Ære, Locis, & aquis Angliæ. Lond. 1672. 12. - -[126] Wotton’s Reflex, upon ancient and modern Learning, p. 4. Pope’s -Letter to Mr. Walsh, T. I. 74. - -[127] Lakemacher Observ. Philolog. P. III. Observ. IV. p. 250, &c. - -[128] - - Th’ impatient weapon whizzes on the wing; - Sounds the tough horn, and twangs the quiv’ring string, &c. - - POPE. - -[129] Longin. Περι ὑψ. Sect. 13. §. 1. - -[130] Odyss. λ. v. 71. Conf. Iliad, Γ. v. 363. & Eustath. ad h. l. p. -424. L. 10. edit. Rom. - -[131] Gregor. Thaumat. Orat. Paneg. ad Origen. 49. - -[132] Aristoph. Ran. v. 1485. - -[133] Athen. Deipnos. L. XII. c. 13. Ælian, V. H. I. ix. 14. - -[134] Aristoph. Equit. - -[135] Thucyd. L. II. c. 39. - -[136] Horat. L. II. Ep. I. v. 244. - -[137] Cicero de fato. c. 4. - -[138] Περι τοπων. p. 204. - -[139] Cicero Orat. c. 8. Conf. Dicæarch, Geogr. edit. H. Steph. c. 2. p. -16. - -[140] Nubes, v. 1365. - -[141] Schol. ad Aristoph. Nub. v. 1010. - -[142] Plutarch, de Sera Numin. Vindicta, p. 563. 9. - -[143] Cicero de Orat. - -[144] Golzius, Tab. XIV. T. II. - -[145] Diodorus Sic. L. XX. p. 763. al. 449. - -[146] Stukely’s Itinerar. III. p. 32. - -[147] Theophrast. Hist. Pl. L. IX. c. 16. p. 1131. l. 7. ed. Amst. 1644. -fol. Galen de Antidot. I. fol. 63. B. I. 28. Idem de Theriac. ad Pison. -fol. 85. A. I. 20. - -[148] Tournefort Voyage, Lett. I. p. 10. edit. Amst. - -[149] Belon. Observ. L. II. ch. 9. p. 151. a. - -[150] Idem. L. III. ch. 34. p. 350. b. Corn. le Brun. V. fol. p. 169. - -[151] Dicæarch. Geogr. c. 1. p. 1. - -[152] Voyage de Spon et Wheeler, T. II. p. 75, 76. - -[153] Wheeler’s Journey into Greece, p. 347. - -[154] Conf. Lysis, p. 499. Edit. Fref. 1602. - -[155] De Republ. - -[156] De Leg. L. VII. p. 892, l. 30-6. Conf. Petiti Leg. att. p. 296. -Maittaire Marm. Arund. p. 483. Gronov. ad Plaut. Bacchid. v. Ante Solem -Exorientem. - -[157] Galen, de Simpl. Medic. Facult. L. II. c. 5. fol. 9. A. Opp. Tom. -II. Frontin. Stratag. L. I. c. 7. - -[158] Lucian Gymn. p. 907. Opp. T. II. Edit. Reitz. - -[159] Dion. Halic. A. R. c. 1. §. 6. de vi dicendi in Demost. c. 29. -Edit. Oxon. - -[160] Ψ. v. 163. - -[161] Numism. Imp. p. 160. - -[162] Philostrat. Epist. 22. p. 922. Conf. Macrob. Sat. L. V. c. 18. p. -357. Edit. Lond. 1694. 8. Hygin. Sat. 12. - -[163] Conf. Arbuthnot’s Tabl. of Anc. Coins, ch. 6. p. 116. - -[164] Thucyd. L. I. c. 6. Eustath. ad Iliad. Ψ. p. 1324. l. 16. - -[165] Cyrilli Hieros. Catech. Mystag. II. c. 2, 3, 4. p. 284. ed. Thom. -Miles, Oxon. 1703. fol. 305. Vice Comitis Observ. de Antiq. Baptismi rit. -L. IV. c. 10. p. 286-89. Binghami Orig. Eccles. T. IV. L. XI. c. 11. -Godeau Hist. de l’Eglise, T. I. L. III. p. 623. - -[166] Lucian. Dial. Mort. X. §. 3. - -[167] Idem. Navig. E. 2. p. 248. - -[168] De la Chambre Discours; où il est prouvé que les François font les -plus capables de tous les peuples de la perfection de l’éloquence, p. 15. - -[169] Lucian, pro Imagin. p. 490. Edit. Reitz. T. II. - -[170] Cic. Brut. c. 7. & 83. - -[171] Considerations sur les Revolutions des Arts. Paris, 1755, p. 33. - -[172] Pagi. Discours sur l’Histoire Grecque, p. 45. - -[173] Nouveau Voyage d’Hollande, de l’Allem., de Suisse & d’Italie, par -M. de Blainville. - -[174] Richardson’s Account, &c. 294, 295. - -[175] Chambray Idée de la Peint. p. 46. au Mans, 1662. 4to. - -[176] Plin. Hist. Nat. L. XXXV. c. 10. - -[177] (Durand) Extrait de l’Histoire de la Peint. de Pline. p. 56. - -[178] Observat. sur les Arts & sur quelques morceaux de Peint. & de -Sculpt. exposés au Louvre, 1748. p. 65. - -[179] Nouvelle Division de la Terre par les différentes Espèces d’Hommes, -&c. dans le Journ. des Sçav. 1704. Avr. 152. - -[180] Plutarch. Vit. Æmil. p. 147. ed. Bryani. T. II. - -[181] Lucian. Navig. S. Votum. c. 2. p. 249. - -[182] Borghini Riposo, L. II. p. 129. - -[183] Chambray Idée de la Peint. p. 47. - -[184] Maxim. Tyr. Diss. 25. p. 303. Edit. Markl. - -[185] Vide Spectator, N. 418. - -[186] Philostrat. Icon. Anton. p. 91. - -[187] Plutarch. Ant. - -[188] Observat. sur les Arts, &c., p. 65. - -[189] Quintil. L. IX. c. 14. - -[190] Plutarch, Timoleon. P. 142. - -[191] Plutarch. Adul. & Amici discrim. p. 53. D. - -[192] Aristot. Rhet. L. I. c. 11. p. 61. Edit. Lond. 1619. 4to. Plato -Phæd. p. 46. I. 44. - -[193] Cicero Tusc. L. I. c. 28. - -[194] Aristot. Poet. c. 28. - -[195] Aristot. Rhet. III. c. 2. §. 4. - -[196] Herodot. L. II. c. 50. - -[197] Herodot. L. II. c. 3. c. 47. Conf. L. II. c. 61. Pausan. L. II. p. -71. l. 45. p. 114. l. 57. L. V. p. 317. l. 6. - -[198] Pausan. L. II. c. 17. p. 149. l. 24. - -[199] Arrian. Epict. L. III. c. 21. p. 439. Edit. Upton. - -[200] Plutarch, de Isid. & Osir. p. 355. Clem. Alex. Strom. L. V. p. 657, -58. Edit. Potteri. Ælian. Hist. Anim. L. 10. c. 15. - -[201] Plut. L. C. p. 376. Androvand. de Quadr. digit. Vivipar. L. III. p. -574. - -[202] Strabo, L. XVI. p. 760. al. 1104. - -[203] Pausan. L. III. p. 245. l. 21. - -[204] Kircher Oedip. Æg. T. III. p. 64. Lucian. Nav. 3 Vol. c. 1. Bayf. -de re Nav. p. 130. edit. Bas. 1537. 4. - -[205] Schaffer de re Nav. L. III. c. 3. p. 196. Passerii Luc. T. II. tab. -93. - -[206] Lactant. ad v. 253. L. VII. Thebaid. - -[207] Beger. Thes. Palat. p. 234. Numism. Musell. Reg. et Pop. T. 8. - -[208] Haym. Tesoro Britt. T. I. p. 168. - -[209] Ap. Philostr. Heroic. p. 693. - -[210] Vaillant Num. Colon. Rom. T. II. p. 136. Conf. Bianchini Istor. -Unic. p. 74. - -[211] Mus. Flor. T. I. Tab. 91. p. 175. - -[212] Petron. Sat. c. 34. - -[213] Spon. Miscell. Sect. I. Tab. 5. - -[214] Kircher Oedip. T. III. p. 555. Cuper de Elephant. Exercit. c. 3. p. -32. - -[215] In Extremis Gadibus. v. Eustath. ad II. A. p. 744. l. 4. ad. Rom. -Id. ad Dionys. Περιηγ. ad v. 453. p. 84. Ed. Oxon. 1712. - -[216] Kircher Oed. Æg. T. III. p. 555. - -[217] Horapoll. Hierogl. L. II. c. 84. - -[218] Cuper. l. c. Spanh. Diss. T. I, p. 169. - -[219] Agost, Dialog. II. p. 68. - -[220] Homer. ΟΔ. Ε., v. 121. Conf. Heraclid. Pontic. de Allegoria Homeri. -p. 492. Meurs. de funere. c. 7. - -[221] Venuti Num. max. moduli. T. 25. Rom. 1739. fol. Bellori Admir. fol. -30. - -[222] Pausan. L. X. p. 806. l. 16. - -[223] Licet. Gem. Anul. c. 48. - -[224] Beger. Theo. Brand. T. 1. p. 182. - -[225] Ibid. p. 281. - -[226] Justin. L. XV. c. 4. p. 412. edit. Gronov. - -[227] Spanh. Diss. T. I. p. 407. - -[228] Ap. D. C. de Moezinsky. - -[229] Paus. L. V. p. 447. l. 22. - -[230] Ibid. L. 1. p. 52. l. 4. - -[231] Pausan. L. III. p. 245. l. 20. Morel Specim. Rei. N. XII. - -[232] Spanhem. Diss. T. I. p. 154. - -[233] Spanhem. Obs. ad Juliani Imp. Orat. I. p. 282. - -[234] Montfaucon Ant. expl. T. III. - -[235] Morell. Specim. Rei Num. T. VIII. p. 92. - -[236] Artemidor. Oneirocr. L. II. c. 49. - -[237] Noct. Attic. L. XIV. c. 4. - -[238] Agost. Dialog. II. p. 45. Rom. 1650. fol. - -[239] Tristan. Comm. hist. de l’Emp. T. I. p. 297. - -[240] Numism. Musell. Imp. R. tab. 38. - -[241] Ibid. Tab. II. - -[242] Ibid. Tab. XXIX. Erisso Dichiaraz. di Medagl. ant. P. II. p. 130. - -[243] Plutarch Syll. p. 50, 51. - -[244] Conf. Philostrat. Imag. p. 737. - -[245] Plin. Hist. N. L. XVIII. c. 47. Agost. Dial. III. p. 104. - -[246] Gabriæ Fab. p. 169. in Æsop. Fab. Venet. 1709. 8. - -[247] Pausan. L. I. c. 43. p. 105. L. 7. - -[248] Plutarch. Sympos. L. IX. qu. 6. - -[249] Vaillant Numism. Imp. T. II. p. 133. - -[250] Plutarch. Vit. Thes. p. 26. - -[251] Agost. Dial. II. p. 66, 67. Numism. Musell. Imp. Rom. Tab. 115. - -[252] Ripa Iconol. n. 87. - -[253] Thesaur. de Arguta Dict. - -[254] Numism. Musell. Imp. R. Tab. 107. - -[255] Ibid. Tab. 106. - -[256] Ibid. Tab. 105. - -[257] Ripa Iconol. P. I. n. 53. - -[258] Agost. Dial. II. p. 57. Numism. Musell. l. c. Tab. 68. - -[259] Agost. l. c. - -[260] Ripa Ic. P. I. n. 135. - -[261] Agost. Dial. II. p. 47. - -[262] Ripa Iconol. P. I. n. 31. - -[263] Ibid. P. I. n. 25. - -[264] Vide Picinelli Mund. Symb. - -[265] Shaw Voyag. T. I. - -[266] Hayman Tesoro Brit. T. I. p. 219. - -[267] Egnatius de exempl. illustr. Vir. Venet. L. V. p. 133. - -[268] Numism. Barbar. Gent. n. 37. Padova. 1732. fol. - -[269] Medailles de Louis le Grand, a. 1663. Paris 1702. fol. - -[270] Thesaur. de Argut. Dict. - -[271] Ripa Iconol. P. II. p. 166. - -[272] Spectator, Edit. 1724. Vol. II. p. 201. - -[273] Canini Imag. des Heros. N. I. - -[274] Stoch Pier. Grav. Pl. LI. - -[275] Pausan. L. X. p. 870. 871. - -[276] Vit. Thesei. p. 29. - -[277] De Monstrosa Amicitia respectu perfectionis inter Nic. Barbar. & -Marc. Trivisan. Venet. apud Franc. Baba. 1628. 4. - -[278] Vita Marcelli. Ortelii Capita Deor. L. II. fig. 41. - -[279] Thomasin. Donar. Vet. c. 5. - -[280] Plutarch. Quæst. Rom. P. 266. F. - -[281] Vulp. Latium. T. I. L. I. c. 27. p. 406. - -[282] Agostin. Dialog. II. p. 81. - -[283] Ibid. & Beger Obs. in Num. p. 56. - -[284] Iliad, i. v. 498. Conf. Heraclides Pontic. de Allegoria Homeri, p. -457, 58. - -[285] Architect. L. II. c. 8. - -[286] Vide Representatio Bibliothecæ Cesareæ Viennæ 1737. fol. obt. - -[287] This piece is engraved by Simmoneau Senior Cons. Lepicié Vies des -p. P. de R. T. I. p. 64. - -[288] Another representation of that story, and one of Poussin’s best -originals, is in the gallery of Dresden, in which the river god is -extremely advantageous to the composition of the whole. - -[289] Plin. - -[290] Plato Alcibiad. II. P. 457. l. 30. - -[291] Baldinucci, Notiz. de’ P. d. D. P. 118. Argenville seems not to -have understood the word, _Ciliegia_: he saw that it should be a symbol -of spring, and changed the cherry to a butterfly; the chief object of the -picture he omits, and talks only of the girl. - -[292] Lepiciè Vies des P. R. P. II. p. 17, 18. - -[293] Recueil d’Estamp. de la Gall. de Dresd. fol. 48. - -[294] Pompa & Introitus Ferdinandi Hisp. Inf. p. 15. Antv. 1641. fol. - -[295] Vasari vite. P. III. Vol. I. p. 76. - -[296] Chambray Idée de la P. p. 107, 108. Bellori Descriz. delle Imagini -dip. da Raffaello, &c. - -[297] Heraclid. Pontic. de Allegoria Homeri, p. 443. - -[298] Josephi Antiq. L. XIV. c. 8. Edit. Haverc. - -[299] Dati vite de’ Pittori. p. 73. - -[300] Thesaur. Idea Arg. Dict. C. III. p. 84. - -[301] Blondel Maisons de Plaisance, T. II. p. 26. - -[302] Passerii Lucernæ fict. Tab. 51. - -[303] Quellinus Maison de la Ville d’Amst. 1655. fol. - -[304] Arnob., adv. Gentes L. V. p. 157. Edit. Lugd. 1651. 4. - -[305] An ox-head on the reverse of an Attick gold coin, stamped with the -head of Hercules and his club, is supposed to allude to his labours, -(Haym. Tesoro Britt. l. 182.) and to be, in general, a symbol of -strength, industry, or patience, (Hypnerotomachia Polyphili. Venet. Ald. -fol.) - -[306] Vitruv. L. I. c. 2. - -[307] Diodor. Sic. L. XIII. p. 375. al. 507. - -[308] Blondel Maisons de Plaisance. - -[309] Vide Spectator, No. 51. - -[310] Pausan. L. I. c. 43. l. 22. - -[311] Plin. Hist. N. L. XXXVI. c. 5. - -[312] Paus. L. II. c. 2. P. 115. l. 11. - -[313] Idem. L. IX. c. 40. P. 795. l. 11. - -[314] Aldrovand. de Quadrup. bisulc. p. 141. - -[315] Bellori Lucern. Sepulcr. P. I. fig. 17. - -[316] Spon. Misc. Sect. II. Art. I. P. 25. - -[317] Vide Buonarotti Osserv. sopra alcuni Medagli. Proem. p. XXVI. Roma. -1693. 4. - -[318] Plutarch. de Garrulit. p. 502. - -[319] Tristan Comment. Hist. des Emper. T. I. p. 632. - -[320] Plutarch. Marcell. p. 277. - -[321] Vulpii Latium, T. II. L. II. c. 20. p. 175. - -[322] Banier Mythol. T. II. L. I. ch. 11. p. 181. - -[323] Dioscorid. de Re Med. L. V. c. 179. - -[324] Fred. Oeser, one of the most extensive geniuses which the present -age can boast of, is a German, and now lives at Dresden; where, to -the honour of his country, and the emolument of the art, he gets his -livelihood by teaching young blockheads, of the Saxon-race, the elements -of drawing; and by etching after the Flemish painters. N. of Transl. - -[325] Hymn. in Apoll. - -[326] Alexander, in his S. John, in _St. Andrea della Valle_ at Rome; -Niobe, in a picture belonging to the _Tesoro di S. Gennaro_, at Naples. - -[327] So are the goddesses of the Theopægnia at Blenheim, in Oxfordshire; -and hence it is clear, that another Venus, analogous to that in the -Tribuna, among the pictures of a gentleman in London, cannot be the -production of that genius-in-flesh only. This daughter of the Idalian -graces seems to thrill with inward pleasure, and to recollect a night of -bliss—— - - There is language in her eye, her cheek, her lip: - Nay, her foot speaks—— - - SHAKESPEAR. - -[328] Veron. illustr. P. III. c. 7. p. 269. - -[329] “Et toi, rival des Praxiteles & des Phidias; toi dont les anciens -auroient employé le ciseau à leur faire des dieux capables d’excuser à -nos yeux leur idolatrie; inimitable Pigal, ta main se résoudra a vendre -des magots, ou il faudra qu’elle demeure oisive.” J. J. Rousseau Disc. -sur le Retabl. d. A. S. &c. - -This, my dear countryman! is the only passage of thine, where posterity -will find the orator forgot the philosopher. N. of Tr. - - -THE END. - - - - -ERRATA. - - - Page 20. Line 13. _for_ comma _after_ says, _place_ semi-colon. - - P. 61. L. 7. _for_ Morte _read_ Morto. - - P. 83. Note, _for_ Bernoue _read_ Bernoull. - - P. 94. L. 3. _after_ Nature _add a_ colon—_after_ flat _add_ it. - - P. 105. L. 10. _dele_ Lucian, Ep. I. - - P. 166. Note f. _instead of_ ὈΔ. Τ. v. 230. _read_ Ψ. v. 163. - - P. 181. L. 13. _for_ on _read_ in. - - P. 189. L. 20. _for_ or _read_ on. - - P. 197. Note d. _for_ adv. _read_ ad v. - - P. 227. L. 12. _for_ the _read_ her. - - -Transcriber’s Note - -The errata have been corrected. The notes referenced above are, with the -new numbering in this e-text, notes 26, 160 and 206. - -List of other changes made to the text: - - Page 5, repeated “a” removed (Take a Spartan youth) - - Page 48, “hindred” changed to “hindered” (as much water as - hindered) - - Page 62, “barenness” changed to “barrenness” (’Tis an - abhorrence of barrenness) - - Page 89, “celelebrated” changed to “celebrated” (his celebrated - Carton of the Pisan war) - - Page 174, “Parrhabasius” changed to “Parrhasius” (Parrhasius, - compared with himself) - - Page 187, “Rembrant” changed to “Rembrandt” (some pieces of - Rembrandt and Vandyke) - - Page 229, “born” changed to “borne” (Spain is borne down by the - current) - - Page 259, repeated “a” removed (though a few only find it) - - Page 270, repeated “the” removed (in the temple of art and - genius) - - Footnote 7, “Barnini” changed to “Bernini” (Vita del Cav. - Bernini) - - Footnote 329, “si” changed to “sur” (Rousseau Disc. sur le - Retabl. d. A. S. &c.) - -Archaic spellings remain as printed. 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