Royal Academy. 225 



far exceeded him in character, in pathos, and in desij^n. It is 

 only equalled in individual character and energy by the Laocoou 

 and the Boxers. — Perhaps the first great composition that ap- 

 peared since the Grecian sera was that by Leonardo da Vinci, 

 from which Michael Angelo probably imbibed some of those 

 principles which regulate his large works. It is to the produc- 

 tions of Michael Angelo that we are indebted for the celebrated 

 hunting pieces of Rubens, in which the genius of the artist is so 

 admirably displayed, that the men shout and cry, the horses 

 snort and kick, the animals howl and roar. The limits which 

 circumscribesculpture were pointed out; the human figure was the 

 principal, and almost tlie only subject of the sculptor's study. 

 Some remarks followed upon llie utility of rules, during which, 

 it was observed, that a servile observance of the best rules, super^ 

 added to a power of manual labour, would produce ifothing ; but 

 that sentiment was the life and soul of liberal art, and gave an 

 invisible charm to the rudest imagery. The lecture concluded 

 with a general review of all the discourses. 



Lectures on Painting. By M. Fuseli, R.A* 



[Continued from our last.] 



March 5 . — The lecture of this evening was entirely upon chiaro- 

 scuro and back-grounds. — The literal sense of this compound 

 word is well known. In its contracted sense it is applied to a 

 single figure only; and in its most extensive, to a ct)mposition. 

 The use of the cliiaro-scuro is to give substance to form, place to 

 figures, and to create space. It is legitimate or spurious: when 

 the former, it is the assistant of expression, form, and character ; 

 when the latter, a palliative fo," them. Of every subject unity is 

 the soul; unity, therefore, is inseparable from chiaro-scuro: — 

 the next requisite to chiaro-scuro is truth. Mere light and sha- 

 dow, as seen commonly in nature, are not legitimate chiaro-scuro', 

 it is the business of art to arranue, by fixing one central light 

 from which all others must emanate like rays. The most extra- 

 ordinary, the most astonishing effects of light and shadow, when 

 directed by comprehensive genius, become legitimate chiaro-scu- 

 ro. The most natural, without it, is spurious. It was remarked, 

 that chiaro-scuro sprang from Leonardo da Vinci, and the de- 

 gree of doubt, and even censure, with which the use of it was 

 then received, was very extraordinary; only one member of the 

 Tuscan school adopted it, and it was afterwards suffered to dwin- 

 dle to evanescence. The Roman school never adopted it ; no 

 principle of it is to be traced in any of the works of Raphael ; it 

 was the school of colour, Venice, which paid implicit obedience 

 to its mandates. There it first appeared with Giorgione. Sc- 

 . Vol. 51. No. 239. Marc/i 1818. P veral 



