55^ On the Art of Tainting 



By INVENTION* I mean the talent of intro- 

 ducing fuch perfons, objedls and circumftances 

 into a pi6lure, as are requifite to tell the ftory in 

 the completeft manner, and moft efFeftually 

 to imprefs the idea intended to be conveyed. 



From the connedion between the fifter arts of 

 poetry, painting and fculpture, in this refpedl, and 

 the admirable performances of the ancients in 

 the other two departments of the fine arts, we 

 might reafonably have conjedured that the 

 ancient painters were not deficient in invention, 

 although no fpecific proof of excellence in this 

 refpeft had been tranfmitted to us. 



Many of the inftances indeed already adduced, 

 under the heads of defign and expreflion, may be 



• Sir Jofhua Reynolds (Notes to Mafon's Frefnoy, 

 p. 75.) includes compojiiion, under in'vention. " But here 

 ♦' begins what in the language of painters is called inven- 

 ** TiON, which includes not only the cojnpofition, or the 

 ** putting the <vnhoU together, and the difpofition of every 

 *' individual part, but likewife the management of the 

 " back ground, the effeft of light and fliadow, and the 

 " attitude of every figure or animal that is introduced, or 

 *' makes a part of the work. 



*' Compofition, which is the principal part of the inven- 

 ** tion of a painter, is by far the greateft difficulty he has 

 ** to encounter." 



This is not the «y«a/meaning of invention. Ordonnance 

 or compofition being generally confidered as a feparate 

 divifion of the art of painting. Ingenuity and Ikill indeed 

 are here required, but the difference feems to be that 

 ingenuity (as in compofition) is employed in the arrange- 

 ment of materials already collefted ; invention in difcover- 

 jng and creating the materials themfelves. 



regarded 



