n8 NOTES. 



proportion as peculiar faults or defects are prevalent at the 

 time, or age, in which they are delivered ; for what may be 

 proper ftrongly to recommend or enforce in one age, may not 

 with equal propriety be fo much laboured in another, when it 

 may be the fafhion for Artifts to run into the contrary ex- 

 treme, proceeding from prejudice to a manner adopted by fome 

 favourite Painter then in vogue. 



When it is recommended to preferve a breadth of colour or 

 of light, it is not intended that the Artift is to work. broader 

 than Nature ; but this leflbn is infilled on becaufe we know, 

 from experience, that the contrary is a fault which Artifts are 

 apt to be guilty of; who, when they are examining and finifti- 

 ing the detail, neglect or forget that breadth which is obfer- 

 .vable only when the eye takes in the -effect of the whole. 



Thus again, we recommend to paint foft and tender, to 

 make a harmony and union of colouring; and, for this end, 

 that all the fhadows lhall be nearly of the fame colour. The 

 reafon of thefe precepts being at all enforced, proceeds from 

 the difpofition which Artifts have to paint harder than Nature, 

 to make the outline more cutting againft the ground, and to 

 have lefs harmony and union than is found in Nature, prefer- 

 ving the fame brightnefs of colour in the (hadows as are feen 

 in the lights : both thefe falfe manners of reprefenting Nature 

 were the practice of the Painters when the art was in its in- 

 fancy, and would be the practice now of every ftudent who 

 was left to himfelf, and had never been taught the art of 

 feeing Nature. 



There are other rules which may be faid not fo much to 

 relate to the objects reprefented as to the eye; but the truth 

 of thefe are as much fixed in Nature as the others, and pro- 

 ceed from the neceffity there is that the work fhould be feen 

 with eafe and fatisfaction ; to this end are all the rules that 

 relate to grouping and the difpofition of light and fhade. 



With 



