76 NOTES. 



always, with equal fuccefs, be conveyed by another, our author 

 has recommended it to us elfewhere to be attentive 



" On what may aid our art, and what deftroy. ver. 598. 

 Even the Hiftorian takes great liberties with fadts, in order to 

 intereft his readers, and make his narration more delightful ; 

 much greater right has the Painter to do this, who (tho' his 

 work is called Hiftory-Painting) gives in reality a poetical 

 reprefentation of events. R. 



NOTE XIV. VERSE 120. 



Nor faint confpicuous on the foremoft plain 



Whateer is falfe, impertinent, or vain. 

 This precept, fo obvious to common fenfe, appears fuper- 

 fluous, till we recoiled: that fome of the greateft Painters have 

 been guilty of a breach of it j for, not to mention Paul Veronefe 

 or Rubens, whofe principles, as ornamental Painters, would 

 allow great latitude in introducing animals, or whatever they 

 might think neceflary, to contraft or make the compofition 

 more pidturefque, we can no longer wonder why the Poet has 

 thought it worth fetting a guard againft it, when fuch men as 

 Raffaelle and the Caraches, in their greateft and moft ferious 

 works, have introduced on the foreground mean and frivolous 

 circumftances. 



Such improprieties, to do juftice to the more modern 

 Painters, are feldom found in their works. The only excufe 

 that can be made for thofe great Artifts, is their living in an 

 age when it was the cuftom to mix the ludicrous with the 

 ferious, and when Poetry as well as Painting gave into this, 

 fafhion. R. 



NOTE 



