GRACE. 



■beauty acquires by motion, wherein alone grace is vifi- 

 ble. 



Poets as well as painters and fculptors acknowledge the 

 Yalue of this quahty : and the bed have conilantly apphed 

 it to the objefts of their adulation when moving. Milton favs 

 of Eve, "Grace was in all her Heps.'' Ariollo adds it to 

 perfeft the beauties of his Alvina ; when he fays, 



" Avea in ogni parte un lafcio tefe 

 O parii, o rida, o canti, o pnjfo mora." 



The graces, lurking about the mouth and the eyes of a 

 beautiful perfon when in motion, are the moil conftant theme 

 of poets, and as conilantly the fource of emulation to the 

 painter and fculptor to imitate ; and when the arlilt has by 

 his ingenuity difcovL-red and reprefented truly thofe minute 

 variations of form wliich take place both in figure and features, 

 when the mind is excited by iomc amiable emotion ; he lias 

 obtained the ultimatum of liis art ; no power can go beyond 

 it. Apelles, tlie ancient Greek artill of moll repute, declared 

 of his contemporaries, that tlicir feveral works poiTelfcd 

 every beauty but the perfettion which grace alone can give : 

 in this he found liimfelf unrivalled. Ancient fculpture is 

 frauglit with it ; their llgures, whether in afction or rcpofe, 

 poffefs it ; and when we fay that it may be found in figures 

 repofmg, we do not mihtate againll tlie fentiment that ac- 

 tion is the bafis of grace ; a previous motion being fuppofcd 

 to have taken place, to produce the graceful pofition. No 

 figure, (landing, fitting, or lying down, can be graceful, 

 however beautitul it may be, whufe parts or members are 

 prefented altogether llraight and full to the eye. With- 

 out foine varying turn being given to the head, the body, 

 the arms, or the legs, it will be in vain to look for grace ; 

 and it is their being arrelled in the action they may alFume, 

 at the moil agreeable and expreilive point of view, which 

 gives the confummation of tliis invaluable quahty to them. 

 Then, if fixed for ever, they will be for ever graceful ; and 

 the delight wliich the contemplation of tlieir mere beauty of 

 orm and proportion conveyed, will be heightened to the 

 ummit of that gratification which art is enabled to afford. 

 Wherein then lies this fource of perfeftion ? How, with 

 certainty, may we exprefs it in our works ? is the hitherto 

 unanfwered query of the artill ; or anfwered but in part and 

 snfatisfa6torily. All writers on painting have touched upon 

 grace, and fome have attempted to give information of the 

 principles whereon it retls. Lamozzo, in his Trattato dclla 

 Pittura fays, that Michael Angelo gave the following pre- 

 cept to Marcus de Sirena, his pupil. " That he Ihould al- 

 ways make a figure pyramidal, ierpent-likc, and multiphed 

 by one, two, three!" In which precept (Lamozzo conti- 

 nues) in mine opinion the whole myllery of the art con- 

 fifteth. For the greatell grace and life a picture can have, is, 

 that it exprefs motion. Now there is no form fo lit to 

 exprefs motion as that ofjlame of Jire.'' This text is again 

 repeated by Du Frefnoy, and thus has Dryden tranilated 

 the pallage ; " Large flowing gliding out- lines, w!-.ich are in 

 waves, give not only a grace to the part, but to the wliole 

 body, as we fee in the Antinous, and in many other of the 

 antique figures. A fine figure, and its parts, ought always 

 to have 3. Jerpent-liie znA faming form ; naturally, thofe forts 

 of lines have 1 know not what of life and feeming motion 

 in them ; which very much reiemble the aclivity of the flame 

 and of the ferpent." 



On thefe two remarks our own induftrious and (l;ilful 

 iHogarth has built a fyftem, which, if it be not altogether 

 -compleat, has yet much fagacity and utility in it, and wliich 

 lie lias given to the world in his Analyfis ot Beauty. He 

 ^therein adopts the ferpcntine line, ^ which he illullrates by 



fuppofing a wire drawn fpirally round a cone from its bafe 

 to Its apex), a, the bafis of grace, with much anpart-nt 

 truth: and he is moll certainly fupported by all thofe fine 

 works wherein gracefulnefs is acknowledged to refide The 

 Torfo of the Belvidcre, the Venus de Medicis, the Apollo 

 iielvidere, the Laocoon, who, in tlie midil of tlie violent 

 anguKh he fuffcrs, ilill poffeHes grace. AD thefe, and in- 

 deed all others, which have any pr-.tenfions of the like kind 



' . , — ^ "..; i'i'-i.».iiiiv>ii> ui iijc nice xinM, 

 have the ferpentine line for the bafe of their coinpofition, i:i 

 a greater or lefs degree. Who lliall laugh at a fyftem up- 

 held by fuch authority ! Walpole attempts to ridiJule it, a. 

 well as others, becaufe Hogarth was not equal to put it in 

 prartice. The futility of Inch an argument needs no illu<". 

 tratioii. 1 o aonceivc a thing in the imagination, and not 

 be able to exemplify it by practice, is by no means an un- 

 common occurrence among artills, or among men; yet the- 

 proi.riLiy of the conception may be unquellionabic, taken 

 on general grounds. Hogarth's millake appears to hav/- 

 been, having lixcd the boundary of grace; having riven 

 what he calls l\w pn-cifi line of it; whereas, aU the antique 

 figures mentioned above are graceful, while each vari.-s 

 trom the other in the quantum of curve which its aclion 

 coiililts Oi. Hence ariles, that he fo narrowed the fphere 

 wherein grace was obfervable, wliich in nature is found to 

 be fo widely extended, that, wiihout juft confideration, hi« 

 ingenuity was regarded as the ravings of exccntricity ; 

 whiUt iH, good arguments were adduced to difprove the 

 general principle, which appears to us to be juft. How to 

 employ it, is another queilioii. And here we fear no rulct 

 will fuffiee to guide the praditioiier in art. As wc faid ot 

 elegance, we repeat of grace : he that is endowed by nature 

 with a power to feel its beauties, and diCplay its effcaj, 

 may, by cultivation, improve his original ftock; but he 

 that requires to be taught what grace is, will, in vain, feck 

 to obtain the power of painting it; if he ever arrives at the 

 knowledge of it, or the power of feeing it, in nature or in 

 art. A conftant obfervation upon the adions, in figure and 

 feature, of thofe who are by nature graceful, is the beft 

 fchool in which to iludy it, and the readieft modv to difco- 

 ver wherein it lies. 



Grace is not, or rather ought not, to be confined to the 

 figures m a compofition. Every part of the pidure Ihould 

 have a conjundtive effeCl to produce grace in the whole. 

 Contraft «f form will aid the beauty of the principal parts, 

 but that contraft Ihould never force itfelf into notice, the 

 artifice would then become apparent, and the eve would 

 not be led to the beautiful parts, but, on the contrary, be 

 detained from them. The painter therefore who has con- 

 ceived a graceful figure, ihould either paint it finglv, or be 

 careful lo to fupport it, by projier accompanying lines and 

 objects, that its beauty be not loft in the mals, and its 

 efled overpowered by other forms of lefs value becoming 

 obtrufive to the obferver. And great care (hould be takea 

 to prevent every attempt to produce grace in the action of 

 figures,from degenerating into aftcClation. Where thatbegins, 

 grace ends: and deteftatioii or ridicule, inftead of admira- 

 tion, becomes the meed of the artiil ! No vice hi art is fo 

 odious as affeaation! If the beft executed work in-.aginable 

 be unhappily tindlurcd with it, few minds of an ele.rant or 

 graceful turn of feeling will bear to dwell upon it. Thofe 

 artills who allow their minds to be impreflcd with the paf- 

 fion or feniation they wifli to convey in their figures and 

 thence conceive the aclion of them, are not fo liable to fall 

 into this error, as thofe whofe ideas are more intent on 

 making an agreeable piclure, and think of the aclions, be. 

 fore they have conlidered the palHons of their figures. 

 Kaphacl is an lallance of the former ; Correggio and Parmi. 



