OUTLINE. 
greateft and moft eflential purpofes of art, = the ideas of 
action and expreffion in the figures it reprefent 
There is not in faé&t any fuch thing as an inline! in nature. 
The effet which natural objets produce upon our vifion, is 
only that of a number of parts, or of diftin@ maffes of form 
and colour, but no lines. We are obliged to aid invention 
in defign by reforting to a fiction; and the firft and fimpleft 
means which prefents itfelf to the mind i is, to feparate the 
objects we defire to De arae upon a plane furface, by mark- 
ing the boundary of each, the extreme extent of its dimen- 
fions in every direGtion ; and this we call drawing its out- 
ine. We recolle& more of a form by its boundary, or its 
feparation from ether objects, than by its projeGing parts ; 
hence arifes the fatisfaGtion we receive from’a line which 
marks that boundary, though no fuch line in reality exifts: 
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feldom much increafed, if at all, by the more complete imi- 
tation of form which light and fhade can give it. 
Its fic licity is 
e reffion, as far as it goes, 
being complete, if the other ae of art were not, when 
added to it, as perfect in their kind as the fimple ou lies it 
would certainly be weakened in its main points; a more full 
image might indeed be prefented to the eye, but that full- 
nefs of effe€t which arifes when the mind is fimply excited to 
a& for itfelf, would be difturbed, and withdrawn from the 
pathos of the defign. 
e value of outline will be moft fully appreciated by 
thofe a with Lavater, have cbferved the fullnefs of cha- 
racer difplayed in fithouettes, or profile outlines filled up 
with only one colour; and ftill more by thofe who have 
examined the ‘sian works in outline from Homer, Atf{- 
chylus, and Dante, by Mr. Flaxman. In regarding many 
of thole ec at acters, the mind is fo oily filled with 
figure, action, and expreffion, that it almoft fhrinks with 
fear at the idea of an attempt at further completion. 
houg dooune is technically employed, or rather con- 
fidered in the arts of defign, eo a it properly be- 
longs only to painting or drawing. . Wattelet, in the 
Encyclopédié des Beaux Arts, has ged it as his opinion, 
that the {culptor has more to do with it than the painter, be- 
caufe, as he has obferved, every figure wrought in the 
round has an outline in every view that can poffibly be taken 
si it. But, furely, this 1s to confound the offices of the two 
com lete If, as we have defined it, outline is an 
ideal line railed by the artitt to affift in feparating forms, or 
even to mark the extent of a form, what has the fculptor to 
do mihi t, whofe occupation confifts in producing the forms 
themfelves, of which 
fentative ? 
The latter, gah the greateft 
adage takes into his confideration the full form of his 
fubjeét in every point of view, and to him the outline or 
i 
eee parts; but this varying ufe of the term ene 
confounds the meani fit: 1 lo ger the line which 
feparates objects, but the line alfo which marks forms pro~ 
jeCting forwards ; 
by aline, upon a flat furface, in many c : 
be effe&ted only by light and fhade. Neverselet the rane 
tor may ufefully convert this emblem of for is own 
fervice, by confidering its effets in all views ae c 
tions of his 
would produce 
it is technically, though not corre@tly, employed by 
d f e confider the French edite: as ngh*, when he 
fays the fulptor mult confider the contour or outline of his 
ion, and therefore has 
ish) 
f=) 
e has pro- 
on ly requires attention, 
the ae = of che two, when the compofi- 
tion is once * dec cide 
If the art of ae were confidered merely as an inftru- 
ment 1 inftruction, =n means of relati ga 
&, outline would be fully adequate to fulfil its purpofes 
v4 a painting ; 
for according to the ftyle in which this t is draw, mutft be the 
words, a fizure 
both in parts 
which appear to come forwards, and are produced within the 
outline, as well as in thofe which recede and form it. 
As outline is thus effentially sis sakes in ce art, it be- 
comes neceffarily an object worthy the moft ferious deans 
of the profeffor, and we cannot i esreent ie 
tain, as early as poflible, the power of drawing an outline 
free and characteriftic ; as that power can never be unaccom- 
panied witha certain degree of freedom in the execution of a 
finifhed pi€ture: but if not attained while the hand is free, 
and the mind moft matt to impreffion, the tafk is rendered 
praportionably difficu 
What is called oie a knowledge of chafte and true or 
characteriftic outline, can be derived from no other fource 
than a pure knowledge of beautiful form. 
defignates it is of lefs confequence than the form it circum- 
{cribes, yet it is an agreeable quality in an artift to be able to 
plant a pleafing image on the mind, by alight, fkilful, and 
fteady hand. There is danger, if the line he draws be too 
hard, thick, or black, that the figure he intends Me convey 
be forgot in the line: and if too weak, its force may not be 
adequate to produce the defired effet. 
In the works of artifts, outline is confidered in two diftin@® 
points of view. One is the fimple and obvious fenfe of the 
word, a line marking the form of any given object, fuch as 
we have hitherto confidered it: and various denominations 
are given to fuch aline. It is faid to be corred, free, firm. 
flowing, 
