74 NOTES. 



having this cuftom, wanted; by habit he will acquire equal 

 readinefs in doing two things at a time as in-doing only one; a 

 Painter, as I have faid on another occafion, if poflible, fhould 

 paint all his ftudies, and coniider drawing as a fuccedaneum 

 \vhen colours are not at hand. This was the praclice of the 

 Venetian Painters, and of all thofe who have excelled, in 

 colouring; Corregio ufed to fay, C'bavea i fuoi diffegni nella 

 Ji remit a de Pennelli. The, method of Rubens was to fketch 

 his compoii tion in colours> with all the parts more determined 

 than {ketches generally are ; from this fketch his Scholars ad- 

 vanced the picture as far as they were capable, after which he 

 retouched the whole himfelf.. 



The Painter's operation may be divided into three parts ; 

 the planning, which implies the fketch of the general com- 

 pofition; the transferring that defign. on the canvas ; and the 

 finifliing, or retouching the whole. If, for difpatch, the 

 Artift looks out for affifbnce, it is in the middle only he can 

 receive it; the firft and laft muft be the work of his own hand: 



R, 



NOTE XIL VERSE io& 

 Then bold Invention all thy powers, diffuf?, 

 Of all thy Sifters thou the nobleft Mufi. 



The Invention of a Painter confifts not in inventing the 

 fubjecl, but in a capacity of forming in his imagination the 

 iubjecl in a manner befl accommodated to his art, tbo' wholly 

 borrowed from Poets, Hiftorians, or popular tradition : For 

 this purpofe he has full as much to do, and perhaps more, 

 than if the very dory was invented; for he is bound to follow 

 the ideas which he has received, and to tranflate them (if I 

 may life the expreffion) into another art. In this tranflation 

 the Painter's Invention lies ; he muft in a manner new-caft the 

 whole, and model it in his own imagination : To make it a 



Painter's 



