Beauties and Principles of the Arl '.'>'> 



the storm and tempest that it has so often struggled 

 against.* 



In pictures, too, one often hears the Beautiful confounded 

 with the Picturesque. Yet they are quite distinct; though 

 in many subjects they may be found harmoniously com- 

 bined. Some of Raphael's angels may be taken as perfect 

 illustrations of the Beautiful. In their serene and heavenly 

 countenances we see only that calm and pure existence of 

 which perfect beauty is the outward type; on the other hand, 

 Murillo's beggar boys are only picturesque. What we ad- 

 mire in them (beyond admirable execution) is not their rags 

 or their mean apparel, but a certain irregular struggling of 

 a better feeling within, against this outward poverty of 

 nature and condition. 



Architecture borrows, partly perhaps by association, the 

 same expression. We find the Beautiful in the most sym- 

 metrical edifices, built in the finest proportions, and of the 

 purest materials. It is, on the other hand, in some irregular 

 castle formed for defence, some rude mill nearly as wild as 

 the glen where it is placed, some thatched cottage, weather 

 stained and moss covered, that we find the Picturesque. 

 The Temple of Jupiter Olympus in all ils perfect propor- 

 tions was prized by the Greeks as a model of beauty; we, 

 who see only a few columns and broken architraves standing 

 with all their exquisite mouldings obliterated by the vio- 

 lence of time and the elements, find them Picturesque. 



To return to a more practical view of the subject, we 

 may remark, that though we consider the Beautiful and 

 the Picturesque quite distinct, yet it by no means follows 

 that they may not be combined in the same landscape. 

 This is often seen in nature; and indeed there arc few 

 landscapes of large extent where they are not thus harmo- 

 niously combined. 



* This also explains why trees, though they relain for the most purl 

 their characteristic forms, vary somewhat in expression according lo I heir 

 situation. Thus the larch, though always picturesque, is far more so in 

 mountain ridges where il is exposed lo every Mast, Ihan in sheltered lawns 

 where it only finds soft airs and sunshine. -- A. J. D. 



