564 On the Art of Painting 



painters put in pradice a greater fliare of good 

 fenfe with refpe<5t to coutume, than the moderns, 

 cannot now indeed be accurately determined ; 

 hitherto the advantage feems to be in favour of 

 the former, nor will the opinion of the fupe- 

 riority of the ancients herein be diminifhed by 

 an enumeration of fome other inllances of the 

 contrail from the works of modern artifls. Nor 

 is it at all neceffary for this purpofe to have 

 recourfe to names of inferior note, fince the moft 

 celebrated of modern painters, from Raphael 

 to Sir Jofliua Reynolds, have been guilty of 

 fuch flagrant breaches of probability and pro- 

 priety, as would appear aftonifliing to thofe who 

 are not in the habit of expefting them. 



When Raphael, in his cartoons, introduces 

 monks and Swifs guards: when he puts into 

 a boat more figures than it is evident the boat 

 could aftuatly contain : when in the chaftife- 

 ment of Heliodorus, who attempted to defpoil 

 the temple at Jerufalem, Pope Julius the Second 

 is depided as being prefent : when in the dona- 

 tion of Conftantine in the Vatican a naked boy 

 is placed confpicuoufly in the foreground, aftride 

 upon a dog, in the immediate prefence of the 

 pope and the emperor : when Venetian fenators 

 are introduced while Pope Alexander excommu- 

 nicates BarbarolTa: when Ariftotle, Plato, Dante 

 and Petrarch are brought together in the fchool of 

 Athens.: to omit the lefler improprieties of fhoelefs 



apoftles. 



