350 Dissertation on the Paint ings of the middle j4ge. 



taken into pmper consideration. What have we to oppose, 

 in the schools of recent times, to the great and essential 

 qualities which have been perpetuated by the study of 

 the fragments of the ancients? An academic luxury, — an 

 abundance of shadows without substance, a corruption of 

 taste, and an absurd inclination of the human mind : finally, 

 a degradation of the art, which lost its nobleness and its 

 original objects : we ought here to confess, that since the 

 revival of letters under Leo X, the moderns have always 

 been too stupid or infatuated with all the pompous appa- 

 ratus of new and increasing knowledge. From this time, 

 pride laid down barriers in the schools, which isolated us 

 iVom antiquity ; and notwithstanding the great examples of 

 some admirable men, contempt and a blind attachment to 

 routine exercised full sway. What I here mark as worthy 

 of reproach is rather, as has been shown, tlie vice of the 

 schools than that of artists in particular, and many painters 

 of imdeniable , talents permit us to guess how devoutly 

 they would have followed truth and nature: none of them, 

 it is tiue, had the liberty of profiting by the knowledge which 

 we have since acquired, nor the models which I have al- 

 luded to; for this return of good sense was reserved for the 

 artists of the present century. 



Before undertaking the analysis of the important qualities 

 vihich we trace in the productions of the middle age, we 

 ouoht to ailem[)t a definition of the situation of all those 

 vho are occupied in the cultivation of the arts; and we shall 

 soon be cnnvinced that the greater number are guided in 

 theiv theory, more by habitude, the dicta of authors, the 

 exclamations of would-be amateurs, and I he party spirit of 

 the day, than by the etfccls of philosophy, and of a constant 

 study of nature. But it is not to tho?e who are desirous of 

 constanilv imitating and copying that I address these paces. 



]f all the i)ainteis of Europe were at present agreed as 

 to the manner in which they ought to ^study the ancients 

 both as to style in general, and as to drawing in particular; 

 if we saw them all ;narching with a unifornj pace, and en- 

 dcavouruia: to lay hold of the grand maxims of antiquity, 

 which render the arts so durable, it would certainly be very 

 absurd to propose lo them as the subjects of their conlcni- 

 plaiions, the productions of those very ancients impo- 

 verished and almost extinguished, and to vamp up certain 

 works of the fitteenth century, v^-hich would have disgraced 

 the best days ot Gieccc : but as the innumerable collections 

 of all the mode.-n schools present them with models of so 

 niany different and opposite kinds, as authors, amateurs, 



and 



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