after the Venetian School. EXey | 
pearance almoft as deceptive as the fimilar appearances in 
“nature: but in every other method of painting, thefe demi- 
. tints are produced by mixing fome dufky colour with the 
Jocal colours and the light. -The comparifon of thefe me- 
thods will afford a demonftrative reafon why the Venetian 
mutt be brighter than any other mode of painting. 
Having fhewn, as near to a demonftration as the nature of 
the fubje& will perhaps admit, why thofe parts of a Venetian 
picture that are connected with light and colours are brighter 
than the correfponding parts of any other pictures, it remains 
to explain the caufe of fimilar fuperiority in the darker parts 
of the fame pictures. 
It has been faid, with much confidence, that as white re- 
prefents light, fo black is the reprefentative of darknefs. 
But though this may be true in phyfics, it certainly is not 
fo in painting: for the painter’s art is to reprefent objects as 
they appear, in point of colour, to be, not as they really are. 
Thus, if I know an object is perfectly black, and am to re- 
prefent it as it appears to be at the diftance of fifty feet, 
i. from the pallet will not produce a good imitation of 
, becaufe the interpofition of fifty feet of the atmofphere 
ne caufe it to appear of a colour different from what it 
really is; and v.ve ver/a, if we go inte a cavern, a cellar, or 
a room, fo darkened that the coleur of no obje&t can be dif- 
tinctly feen, and if we there hold any folid black fubftance 
near to the eye, the difference will be vifibie at once; the 
black object will be immediately diftinguithed, by its folidity 
and colour, from the furrounding fpace, and fuch remote 
obje&s as may be obfcurely vifible through it. Thefe ob- 
jects actually poffefs their individual colours, and only ap- 
pear indiflinétly from the abfence of light, The black 
obje&t may appear folid, and of that colour, from its 
proximity to the eye; but the circumjacent ones will appear 
of a colour perfectly diftin&t from it, more or lefs tranf- 
parent, in proportion to their diftance from the eye, and 
fhewing a portion of their individual colours, ageording to 
coh ae 
ale + 
