124 0?t Paint'wg. 



fine chiaro-fcnro, add an efTeol of fnblimitv. Some of Rii- 

 btns's pirtiircs (irike wonderfully on that account, and Rcv- 

 nolds's Infant Hercules receives an uTiconinion airof gran- 

 tk-ur from the ijroad and judicious difpofition of the mafles. 

 Though this Ih'le does not require the foft harn^onious glow 

 of Venetian colouring, which agrees belt with the beautiful, 

 v-ct it by no means follows, thai it authorizes a dilregard of 

 the grouping of the colours, to the total ncgleft of the general 

 harmony of the pifture. The colouring Ibould be fober and 

 ilisnilied; we do not mean black and heavy, but compofed of 

 fiich colours as are full, rich, glowing, and rather deep than 

 light. The penciling fliould be firm and decifive, with the 

 parts weH detined. We fliould particularly guard againlt 

 trifling eyents, poor or mean thoughts, and whatever is low 

 and vulo-ar : fuch things mar a good whole, and appear worfe 

 by contrail, like the blemiflies on beautiful bodies. The 

 molt efleemed mafters have carefully avoided introducing in 

 their works thines fordid and bale: in the higher ftyle there 

 Hiould never appear any thing infionificant or unnecellkry, 

 as dogs, cats, parrots, Sec: fuch things as thefe often add a 

 grace to the pic^'turelque, but dellroy grandeur. Neither will 

 theatrical fpleudour or gaudy apparel fuit the fublime : the 

 Tcafon is, they af^ecl not beyond the eye ; and that which 

 leaves no imprellion on the mind, we may rcll allured, is not 

 the thing we feck. A work truly fublime does not merely 

 plcafe : that is the province of inferior excellence. A grand 

 work will confound, aflonifli, and, with the inipctuolity of 

 a hurricane, bear down all before it. The fublime appears 

 founded on a union ot the moll noble and elevated parts of 

 Bature joined to the moll profound efforts of the imagina- 

 tion, its qualities appear to be fimplicitv, with a certain 

 uniformity united with folemnity and gravity. Simplicity is 

 neceflary to noblcnefs, as ornament deltrovs greatnefs of 

 manner. So the parts lliould be ample, as is cfiecteJ by 

 large mantles. Sec, 



At Agvi fummons, witli a mantle brnad 

 His mighty limbs Lconidas unfoltU, 

 And quits Uis couch. Glovkr. 



M. Angcio and Raphael approach this ftyle in tlicir ideas 

 and inventions, but neither appears to accf)rd with it in his 

 forms. M. Anaelo, from attempting the fublime, produced 

 what may be termed the terrible, in which the altitudes are 

 foix-ed and extraordinary, and the figures vaft, robuft, and 

 nuifcutar: he chofc in cxprefllon the point moft extreme, 

 ^nd generally departing from objects in themfelves pleafing. 



