^26 On the Art of Tainting " 



Indeed, the praifes of the ancient connoiflVura 

 and the exertions of the greateft among the 

 ancient artifts feem principally turned toward 

 exprelTion. It was for this excellence, carried 

 to a high degree, that the famous pidure of the 

 death of Iphigenia, by Timanthes,* was fo much 

 valued. Ejus enim Iphigeniay orator urn laudibus 

 celebrata^ qua fiante ad aras perituray cum maftos 

 pnxijfet omnes precipue patruum, et trijliti^ omnem 

 imaginem conjumpjijjety patris i'pftus vultum velavit, 

 quern digne non poterat ojiendere. SirJofhuaRey- 

 nolds,t after Voltaire and Mr. Falconer, has 

 thought fit to blame a contrivance which all 

 the ancient world admired. It is a trick, fays 

 he, that will ferve but once ; an artifice to evade 

 difficulties which fhould have been overcome. 

 I cannot help differing however from Sir Jofhua 

 in opinion, refpedlable as his fentiments are, 

 for the following reafons. i. The idea feems 

 evidently to be taken from the palTage in the 

 Iphigenia of Euripides, where Agamemnon is 

 reprefented by the poet as he is by the painter, 

 a. It became the haughty charader of the *« King 

 of Men," as Homer calls him, to veil from the 

 fight of the by-ftanders, any appearance of human 

 weaknefs, which a fcene fo melancholy might 

 compel him to admit. 3. As the principal pafTion 

 which the flory would allow of was grief, and 



* Plin. ub. /up. t Difcourfes. Dec. 10, 1778. 



as 



