among the Ancients, 567 



But it would be too tedious to enumerate all 

 the great painters of modern ages who have 

 egregioufly offended againll every precept of 

 common fenfe in their admired produ6tionSi 

 I Ihall therefore no longer difturb the afhes of 

 the dead, but quit this part of my fubjecl with 

 a few obfervations on living artifts. 



"When fo great an authority as Sir Jofhua 

 Reynolds* contends for the rejeftion of common 

 fenfe in favour of fomewhat that he terms a 

 higher fenfe ; when he laments, indiredlly, that art 

 is not in fuch high eftimation with us, as to 

 induce the generals, law-givers, and kings of 

 modern times to fufFer themfelves to be repre- 

 fented naked, as in the days of ancient Greece ; 

 when he defends even the ridiculous aberrations 

 from pofTibility which the extravagant pencil of 

 Reubens has fo plentifully produced ; it is not 

 furprizing that the artifts of the prefent day 

 fhould be led to rejedl the company of commoa 

 fenfe ; or that Sir Jofhua's performances fhould 

 furnifh examples of his own precepts. 



Carlo Maratti introduces Apollo playing on the violin 

 to Minerva who comes to vifit him ; and Luca Giordano 

 paints Tarquin in the Italian habit of the fixteenth 

 century. The introduftion of little loves and cherubim 

 in paintings of real tranfadtions is almoft too common to 

 notice. 



• Reynolds's Difcourfes, 8vo. p. 286. 



O o 4 Mrs. 



