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a Parallel between Painting and Sculpture. 93 
lastly, the proportions are different. It must be admitted, how- 
ever, that this facility of moulding has frequently been used by 
ignorant sculptors ; but it will always be easy to distinguish the 
use which they have made of it: nature breaks out, and the eye 
is struck with it the moment it is perceived. Thus we may say 
in general, that by supposing an equal degree of mediocrity, the 
sculptor with the aid of the mould will appear superior to the 
painter, when both of them work without genius. 
It has been generally thought that real colours applied to a 
work of sculpture ought to produce the most perfect imitation. 
This practice, adopted in the barbarous times of antiquity, was 
preserved throughout Europe until the revival of the arts. We 
find even at this moment in country towns statues of saints 
plastered over with various colours. The grosser senses of the 
peasantry are struck with this alliance of sculpture and painting ; 
but it is the only beauty they have: for I can safely assert, that 
if Apelles and Lysippus could have joined their talents upon one 
and the same statue, they would not have produced any thing 
agreeable or satisfactory: the two arts which these great men 
have illustrated, lose equally their advantages by uniting their 
efforts; and nothing so forcibly proves their real difference, as 
the productions which arise from their copartnership. 
Colours when placed on a statue present no shading: the 
details of the figure become fixed and immoveable; and although, 
_ physically speaking, they cannot be otherwise, the pencil and the 
chisel produce illusions, giving rise to ideas of the motion which 
suits the parts, and present several details of the passions which 
they have seized and taken, as it were, on the wing. 
The examination of a drapery will serve as a term of com- 
parison, and may give an idea of the way in which this opera- 
tion of colouring destroys the fine and delicate expression of the 
passions. 
I shall suppose this drapery to be loose and flowing, The 
painter will give to his picture either its lightness, the strength 
of the wind, or that of the action. The drapery of the same 
kind will be represented by sculpture much less extended, but 
it will be sufficient if it seems to float inthe air. From the mo- 
ment that it is coated with paint it will become heavy; its 
folds, which are very fine in mere sculpture, will appear loaded. 
The contour, deprived of the effect of opposition, such as the 
painter gives it at pleasure in a picture, will become heavier, as 
well as all the details of the mass: the salient parts treated by 
sculpture can produce only harsh and crude effects; for colouring 
cannot suit all the aspects of a lay-figure, and the work will 
necessarily he deprived of every kind of harmony: thenceforward, 
in 
