P R E F A C E. 



H E Poem of M. Du FRESNOY, when con- 

 JL fidered as a Treatife on Painting, may un- 

 queftionably claim the merit of giving the leading 

 Principles of the Art with more precision, concife- 

 nefs,. and accuracy,. than any work of the kind that 

 has either preceded or followed it; yet as it was 

 published about the middle of the laft century, 

 many of the precepts it contains have been fo fre- 

 quently repeated by later writers, that they liave loft 

 the air of novelty,. and will, confequently, now 

 be held common ; fome of them too may, perhaps, 

 not be fo generally true as to claim the authority of 



abfolute rules : Yet the reader of tafte will alwavs 



j 



be pleafed to fee a Frenchman holding out to his 

 countrymen the Study of Nature, and the chaffe 

 Models of Antiquity,, when (if we except LE SUEUR 

 and NICOLO POUSSIN, who were FRESNO vY contem- 

 poraries) fo few Painters of that nation have regarded 

 either of thefe architypes. The modern Artift alfo 

 will be proud to emulate that Simplicity of ftyle, 

 which this work has for more than a century recom- 

 mended, and which, having only very lately, got the 

 better of fluttering drapery and theatrical attitude, is 

 become one of the principal: tefts of Pi&urefque 

 excellence. 



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