On Painting'. 103 



fimplicity In the piftures of Le Sueur. They are rare jewels ; 

 and Le Bran's Honing St. Stephen is highly claflical. 



Mod of the writers on conipolition in painting feeni to 

 imagine it to depend on contraft, and recommend it in the 

 ftrongell: manner; but vio'ent oppofition, as before (hued, not 

 only deftroys fimplicity, but is of all affeftations the mod 

 difgufiins;. If oppofition or contraft were a criterion of ex- 

 cellence, the moft violent would become the moft perfect ; 

 and, like a caricature, tlie more unlike nature the better it 

 would be. Variety or contrapofition is certainly neceffary; 

 but the degree cannot be afcertained by weight or meafure, 

 it niult be learned from the works of efteemed mailers. 

 Common fenlc muft dictate the necelfity of not making 

 all the attitudes alike, and alfo keep us from a contrary 

 excefs. 



In a fine compofilion we fliall difcover, by an attentive 

 examination, all the parts fo depending on the whole, that 

 the removal of any obje£t would dellroy the general good 

 arrangement. 



That variety necefl^ary to the perfection of a group fliould 

 be dilplaycd in a fingle figure, efpecially if it be a beautiful 

 one. If the figure is feen in front, its grace will be increafcd 

 by fliowing the face in profile, with a flight inclination in 

 the cheft ' : one of the legs being ftraight, the other (liould 

 be thrown back; and fo of each limb f : but this variety nuift 

 depend on the nature of the fubjcft, as fuch a contraft would 

 ill become a philofopher, apoftle, or fenator. 



A fingle figure may be confidered as a group in itfelf, and 

 fuch a ftudied one would by no means unite with many, 

 any more than one taken from a number would do as a finole 

 figure. 



The contraft obfervable in Raphael is not an afleftation of 

 variety, but the refult of coiifummaie judgment, where the 

 erecl and ina(itive figure is iuiroduced to give energy and 

 motion to the active. Contrail iu him is the rcluli of ne- 

 cefiTity arifing from deep refletition, not the ftudied and in- 

 fipid oppofition of.an old man, a young woman, a boy and 

 a girl, which we often fee in pietures. He knew well a 

 philofopher or an apoftle would not move like a foldier, a 

 virgin like a matron, or children like adults; which appears 

 to make part of that variety obfervable in hi« works. IJc 



* Sec EH'.iy on Grace in the Lift number of tlic Philofophic.il Majj.i- 

 zine, and die |)Utes. - • 



t See the Venus de Mcdicis, Apollo Utlvtdtrc, and uthcrs, ren.aika- 

 blc for grace. 



G 4 appears 



