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A. THIS does not proceed from a want of capacity in them, but from a defect in their plans they are, as you know, biographers; and, as the perfons whofe lives they write, are all of one profeffion, the continued repetition of the fame thoughts, and of the fame technical terms, tire and diftract the reader. There is another objection to their manner of writing; their ideas, however just, are so scattered through the different parts of their works, that they are not easily reducible to any fyftem. In the expofition of an art, as in the diftribution of a picture, a loose difperfion of the objects, confounds both the eye and the understanding. But, these writers are subject to a ftill. greater difadvantage; for, as the painters whofe talents they defcribe, if we except a very few, excelled much more in the mechanick, than in the ideal part of painting, it throws the force of their obfervations on that point, with which

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we, who are but obfervers of the art, have the leaft to do.

B. THOUGH I understand very well the terms mechanick and ideal, in their general acception, yet, I wish you would explain them, in their particular relation to the fubject before us.

A. WE may confider the imitative arts in two points of view; 1ft, As imitations of fuch objects as are actually before the eyes 2dly, As reprefentations of those images which are formed by the fancy. The first,, is the mechanick or executive part of the art; the fecond, the ideal or inventive. [a] Tully has juftly diftinguished thofe

[a] Nec verò ille artifex, quum faceret Jovis formam aut Minervæ, contemplabatur aliquem è quo fimflitudinem duceret; fed ipfius in mente infidebat fpecies pulchritudinis eximia quædam, quam intuens, in e que defixus, ad illius fimilitudinem artem et manum dirigebat. In Bruto.

parts,

parts, when he obferves, that the Jupiter of Phidias was not drawn from any pattern in nature, but from that idea of unexampled beauty, which the artift had formed in his mind. The great difference, obferved among painters of any name, arifes from their different excellencies in thefe two parts: thofe, whofe chief merit is in the mechanick, will, like the Dutch painters, be fervile copiers of the works of nature; but thofe, who give wholly into the ideal, without perfecting themselves in the mechanick, will produce [b] fbozzo's, not pictures: it is evident then, that the perfection of the art confifts in an union of these two parts. Of all the moderns, Raphael feems to have come the nearest to this point. The next to him is, perhaps, Correggio. I have faid perhaps, because, though there is no great variety in his

[6] The rough draught of a picture.
B 3

ideas,

ideas, yet are they fometimes fo happy, at tended with fuch grace, and executed with fuch truth, that, as there is no one artif whofe paintings we fee with more pleasure, fo is there no one, whofe impreflions we ceive more warmly, or remember longer and this laft is the teft of perfect painti But before I enter further into our fubject, may not be improper, to lay before you the method I propose to obferve. First then" we will examine our capacity to judge of the imitative arts; to determine which, we must previously fix the limits between tafte and science. In the next place, we may confider the true value of these arts, which must be estimated, by their antiquity, their degree of credit with every polite nation, and, above all, by their usefulness to focie ty. I shall then divide painting, which is our principal object, into its four leading branches, namely, defign, colouring, clear obfcure, and compofition. Concerning each

of

of these, I shall endeavour to point out its different beauties and ends; how far the ancients seem to have attained thofe ends; and of course, what light they must stand in, on a comparison with the moderns. One fatisfaction you will have in this progrefs, that, almost every step we take, will be on claffick ground; and, as all the teftimonies I ufe, or lights I borrow, are from the best writers of antiquity, the vivacity and good fenfe in their remarks will at once entertain, and guide us in our purfuit. As the day is now too far spent to enter upon our fubject, to-morrow, if you please, we will begin; and dedicate a morning to each of the divifions, in the order I just now ftated them.

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