214 On Painting. 



Fancy or opinion will go but a little way towards illufl rating 

 a fubject that feems to influence on fome univerfal principle, 

 and to aflfecl all perfons, and at all times. 



It appears pretty generally admitted that beauty (or the 

 beautiful) is that which moves us with pleafure through the 

 light or hearing, as by the eye we are delighted with pictures 

 ftatues, or buildings; and in mufic, with the harmony of well 

 meafured founds ; alfo in poetry, with fentiment and mea- 

 fure : but as whatever is produced by nature or art is the ef- 

 fect of a certain wifdom, hence it follows that wifdom be- 

 comes one of its qualities, and the fafcinating power of beauty 

 will appear to arife from an union the moft delightful — wif- 

 dom and pleafure*; which will aflfecl: all perfons, and at all 

 times, and will equally apply to painting, itatuary, poetry, 

 ethics, and laws. 



We mult not conflder apparent beauty as a fimple idea, or 

 as exivting in proportion, fhape, foftnefs, &c. only ; one con- 

 stituent is colour, and, in a more abftra£t way, light and 

 made ; for on the latter being well difpofed depends much 

 of the general good efTecl: of the picture, as from a bad dif- 

 pofition of the light and dark a fine form may be defaced and 

 broken. 



Many imagine the arts operate by imitating nature merely : 

 the fa£t is, they do not fimply copy fuch objects as are feen 

 by the eyes, but, recurring to thofe reafons from which the 

 energy of nature fubfifts, add fomething where any thing is 

 wanting to the perfection of the whole. Thofe beautiful forms 

 of the Greeks which happily exift among us arc not imitations 

 of any fpeftacle proper to the fenfes, but are the refult of 

 profound contemplation. Phidias, when he fafhioned his 

 Jupiter, conceived the idea of the god fuch as he would ap- 

 pear if exhibited to our eyes, and, by a divine enthufiafm, 

 produced a work faid to be more than mortal. 



It is this lovely ideal that (tamps fuch a value on the bed 

 works of art; it is this ideal perfection which may be truly- 

 called the goddefs of painting, the light of fcience, the fire 

 from heaven with which Prometheus animated his ftatues; 

 it is the loves, the graces, of genuine and legitimate art. 



On the fenjlble Qualities of Beauty, 



Many reafons have been afligned why beauty charms and 

 captivates the fenfes. The Platonifts believed our delight 



* Hence the ftatne of Hercules as well as the Venus de Medicis will 

 be beautiful in art from the above Union ; but, was the former animated, 

 the pleafure would vanifh from a dread of his power. 



arofe 



