• among the Ancient s> 5^y 



regarded as proofs that the ancients were enninent 

 alfo as inventors j for it is not abfolutely necelTary 

 to the exertion of this talent that an adlion ihould 

 be defcribed by means of a multitude of objefts. * 

 On the contrary, the introduflion of more figures 

 or circumftances than are neceflary to produce 

 the full effeft of the ftory, are decifive proofs 

 that the artift is deficient in a qualification which 

 comprehends as well the rejeclion of unneceflary 

 as the introdu(5lion of parts neceflary to the 

 tranfa6tion. That invention, therefore, which is 

 deftitute of tafte and judgment, can lay no great 

 claim to our approbation. 



Protogenes feemed perfeAly aware of this. 

 In his pidture of a fatire, leaning againft a 

 pedeftal, he introduced on the top of the pillar 

 a partridge painted fo exquifitely that the eyes of 

 the fpedtators were diverted from the principal 

 figure. The painter obferving this, defaced the 

 objeft of fo much attention, f 



The contrivance of Timanthes, in his Iphigenia, 

 I have already noted, and I do not fee any fuffi- 

 cient reafon to diflent from the praifes it has 

 hitherto received. Nor fhould the picture of the 

 fleeping Cyclops, by the fame painter, pafs without 

 coiEvne ndation . Sunt et alia ingenii ejus exemplaria, J 



* The Laocoon of the ancients, and the group in Guy's 

 hofpital, by Mr. Bacon, are inftances of this. 



f Satyrus Anapavomenos. Plin. XXXV. 35. Strabo, 

 lib. XIV. p. 652. Kai ai rs H^oroytvHy See, 



t Plin. XXXV. 35. 



veluti 



