84 



great and various authorities, for paying 

 more attention to the effect and the accom- 

 paniments, than to the extent of water, as 

 the opposite idea has so generally and ex- 

 clusively prevailed. 



Such indeed is the passion for extent, 

 that in order to gain a trifling addition 

 to the surfiice, the water is often raised 

 to the highest level ^vithout any attention 

 to the trees it may injure, or to the varieties 

 in the ground which it may cover : so that 



which it hangs, and produce many similar effects bj 

 the disproportion of their size to that of the water, by 

 their nearness to it, and by the consequent fulness of their 

 shadows, and brilliancy of their reflections. The richness, 

 glow, and harmony which arise from these circumstances' 

 and whicli, from the revival of the colours interspersed in 

 various parts of the picture, seem to diffuse themselves 

 from die water over the whole of it, are so enchanting, as 

 to justify the highest encomiums of his countrymen. There 

 is, however, in a Venetian book, a compliment to one 

 of his figures, which the most sanguine admirer of the 

 art of painting cannot quite asseiit to : after praising manj 

 parts of a famous work of Titian at Venice, the Venetian 

 fiuthor says, *'at the bottom of the steps is an oldwomaD 

 "with e^gs—assai piu naturale che se fosse viva~ttinc\k 

 " more natural than if she wgs alive." 



