*mith regard- to Practical Gardeners. 467 



vegetation, or of any other natural figures, formed by the 

 action of fluids, does not require that care in either drawino-or 

 colouring, as do the forms of art. Hence arose, at a very early 

 period of the art of landscape-painting, a preference for such 

 kind of scenery ; and hence, many of the most highly valued 

 pictures in this style, are little else than rude forest views, 

 with a reposing shepherd, his shaggy dog, and a few scattered 

 sheep. 



Thus arose a kind of fashion in painting either real or ideal 

 landscapes. Those scenes only were copied which were dis- 

 posed agreeably to the previously fixed rules of composition. 

 Hence the palace or castle, with its lake in the middle distance, 

 relieved by far off hills or clouds, were shown to great advan- 

 tage when contrasted with the ivy-covered ruin or majestic 

 jtree, surrounded by the rudest plants, on the foreground. 



Whether it was the facility of copying such scenes with 

 such admirable effect, which, in time, became a standard for 

 pictorial skill, and also fixed the principles of taste in landscape, 

 is perhaps questionable ; certain it is, however, that such a 

 style of painting kept it as far as possible from all exertions to 

 form real landscape. The painter and the gardener were utter 

 strangers ! The business of the latter was to sweep away and 

 banish the very plants, and roughness, and irregularities which 

 the former so much admired, and which he considered indis- 

 pensable in a picture. The painter, it is true, would some- 

 times portray a palace after it had been embellished by the 

 statuary and the gardener : but this must have been an irksome 

 task ; it cramped his hand, it confined his ideas, and, probably, 

 on this account, was never executed but when imposed as a 

 duty. 



Whatever may have been the origin of those perceptions 

 which are now moulded into principles universally received as 

 those of fine taste, certain it is, that out of those dawnings of 

 genius they took their rise. The favourite scene of a painter, 

 when seen in reality, must please every spectator, whether he 

 is able to account for this pleasure or not ; and this goes far 

 to prove that the principles which guide the artist, are not 

 arbitrary creatures of his own conceit or education, or the 

 offspring of ease in execution, but inherent in nature itself, 

 and exemplified in associations which particularly please the 

 eye, and gratify the mind. 



As true taste is founded in nature, it is easy to discover 

 defects in compositions where the exuberance of fancy has 

 carried away the artist from the reality or modesty of nature. 

 Errors of this kind may even be seen in the works of the great 

 masters; unnatural lights, trees, positions, and associations. 



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