123 Picmarh on Mr. Sheldr ale's 



readily admitted, and it equally follows, that it is a privation 

 of colour ; but tliis circumllance Ihews, as before ftated, that 

 much of the harmony of the pi6lure muft depend on its not 

 beino- difturbed with colour. Where Mr. Sheldrake attempts 

 to illuftrate this doftrine, by fuppofing a globe expofed in a 

 painter's room, he feems rather to have confufed the matter 

 by too many divifions. Artifts divide the furface of all bo- 

 dies into light, middle tint, fliadow, and (which Mr. Shel- 

 drake has forgot to add to his globe, to round it) reflection. 

 There are two things the author of the diflertation appears 

 to have overlooked, and which eafes the difficulty of pro- 

 ducing the harmony neceflary to conRitute a whole : firft, 

 the method (faid to have been at firft praftifed by the Ve- 



' netians) of breaking the colovu's, fo as to make them all par- 

 take in fome meafure of each other, and which was at times 

 carried to a degree of infipidity even by Titian ; and fecond- 

 ly, (and which I think the moft eflential,) the grouping the 

 •warm colours together fo as to form a mafs, and letting 

 them occupy the greateft portion of the pifture. The latter 

 appears to have been the praftice of Rubens and others of 

 his fchool, and which enabled him to introduce the whole 

 fcale of colours in the fame picture, from the hotted to the 

 oppofite extreme of cold ; this gives a vigour to his colour- 

 ing beyond all other mafters. 



The method of working up the pifture in a llate of black 

 and while, was certainly never pradlifed . by the Flemifli 

 .mafters. The beauty obfervable in the colouring of Rubens 

 (whofedemi -tints are wonderfully clear) refulted from afirm- 

 nefs in the handling, a funplicity and diftinctncfs in the 

 tints, and a particular care to avoid muddling them in ufing: 

 I do not mean to fay they never glazed, or fcumbled to give 

 jichnefs ; but that was done in a ditferent manner to the one 



' defcribed in the Differtation. In fome of his flight pidures 

 the tones in the flefli may be traced as follows : the light 



' yellow, next the carnations, then the grey, next the Ihadow, 

 glazed to give it clearnefs, and his reflections generally very 



bright; 



