NOTES. 113 



In heroic fubjects it will not, I hope, appear too great re- 

 finement of criticifm to fay, that the want of naturalnefs or 

 deception of the art, which give to an inferior ftile its whole 

 value, is no material difadvantage : The Hours, for inftance, 

 as reprefented by Julio Romano, giving provender to thehorfes 

 of the Sun, would not ftrike the imagination more forcibly 

 from their being coloured with the pencil of Rubens, tho' he 

 would have reprefented them more naturally ; but might he 

 not poflibly, by that very act, have brought them down from 

 their celeftial ftate to the rank of mere terreftrial animals ? In 

 thefe things, however, I admit there will always be a degree of 

 uncertainty : Who knows that Julio Romano, if he had pof- 

 fefled the art and practice of colouring like Rubens, would not 

 have given to it fome tafteof poetical grandeur not yet attained 

 to? 



The fame familiar naturalnefs would be equally an imper- 

 fection in characters which are to be reprefented as demi-gods, 

 or fomething above humanity. 



Tho' it would be far from an addition to the merit of thofe 

 two great Painters to have made their works deceptions, yet 

 there can be no reafon why they might not, in fome degree, 

 and with a judicious caution and feledtion, have availed them- 

 felves of many excellencies which are found in the Venetian, 

 Flemifh, and even Dutch fchools, and which have been in- 

 culcated in this Poem. There are fome of them which are 

 not in abfolute contradiction to any ftile: The happy difpoiition, 

 for inftance, of light and made; the prefervation of breadth 

 in the mafies of colours; the union of thefe with their ground; 

 and the harmony arifing from a due mixture of hot and cold 

 hues, with many other excellencies, not infeparably connect- 

 ed with that individuality which produces deception, would 

 furely not counteract the effect of the grand ftile; they would 



P only 



