36 Dissertation on the Paintings of the middle Age. 



characlers wherever he meets with them, and to refer to 

 first principles on every occasion when secondary principles 

 are displaced, and perverted from their true destination, by 

 prejudices. 



I shall consequently endeavour, in the present disserta- 

 tion, to call the attention of my readers in the first place 

 to the condition of the arts among those of the modern 

 nations who have respected and folloA'ed the doctrines of 

 their precursors. I shall point out at the same time the 

 ingratitude of these nations tor their first masters, and the 

 fate of these same arts among those who have despised 

 and neglected these doctrines. 1 shall afterwards proceed to 

 the examination of the history and styles of painting of the 

 middle age, and of those which are called Gothic. Finally, 

 I shall conclude my dissertation by the analysis of certain 

 qualities of these paintings, and their parallel with tliose of 

 Raphael, and even of some paintings of the present day. 



r do not pretend, in this essay, to represent as excellent 

 the paintings of the middle age : this would not be serving 

 the cause of tlie arti : but I shall endeavour to substitute 

 for the affected disdain of some writers, the just degree of 

 consideration which they merit.. 



If my zeal for the arts causes occasional repetitions, I 

 hope that my motives will plead my justification. 



Causes of the Reypect or Neglect for ancient Monuments^ 

 among the Natio7is who have cultivated the Arts. 



If we consider the progress of the arts among nations, 

 and if we follow their successive transmissions, we must be 

 surprised at the disdain which is gradually developed 

 among nations recently civilized, and at the ungrateful 

 national pride which banishes the remembrance of the first 

 masters of their arts. 



The ancient people of Egypt, who inculcated with so 

 much vigilance a respect for iheir mysteries, their arts and 

 sciences, announced themselves as the fathers of miracles, 

 and designated their country as the legitimate cradle of the 

 sciences : but if our imagination, excited by these pre- 

 sumptuous pretensions, goes back for a moment to anterior 

 seras, and seizes the first ages of the world; if we endea- 

 vour to collect the fragments of human knowledge which 

 escaped the great catastrophe of the Deluge, we shall find 

 even beyond that period traditional dates, and still more 

 ancient cultivators of the arts, and the pretensions of these 

 soi-di->ant inventors will vanish. What will become also 

 of the claims of the Egyptians, if we reflect upon their in- 

 tercourse 



