160 THE FINE ARTS. 
moments of the development of a higher idea, or of the contest for or 
against the same. When he has found such a subject, he should think over 
his representation from figure to figure, and resigning himself to the feelings 
which the invisible part of the matter awakens in his mind, these he should 
strive to depict. The painter should reflect, too, that his vocation is differ- 
ent from that of the historiographer. He is not to record events histori- 
cally, but to represent their spirit, and he that is incapable of doing this 
should be anything rather than a historical painter. When the painter has 
found the material and has determined its spirit, let him choose the 
moment of action, and let him examine whether it be possible so to repre- 
sent it that it cannot be mistaken for any other. Here Delaroche, for 
instance, has failed in his Wapoleon in Fontainebleau, sinee he has 
depicted Napoleon sitting as he might have done after the loss of any 
battle, and consequently was obliged to add the date on the frame. This 
shows that the artist himself perceived that his picture was a failure 
as a historical painting, though one of the best paintings of the age 
as expressive of condition, so that it would be justly called a genre 
picture of the first rank if genre painting admitted tragical subjects. 
The contents of the picture should be manifest at once to a person of 
education, and he should be conducted precisely to the point at which the 
action has arrived. Both these requisites are often very difficult; but of 
the older painters, Raphael, and among living artists, Kaulbach, Lessing, 
and others, give many examples of their fulfilment. Much, very much can 
be effected in this respect by a proper management of accessories, as is 
shown by the modern historical painters in contradistinction to the older 
ones. In the further extension of the design, the persons are first to be 
considered. Let the painter choose such as are characteristic and connected 
with the action, and represent them in the attitude suitable to the moment. 
Idle personages disturb the effect of a picture as much as of an animated 
scene ina drama. None but a painter destitute of genius scrapes together 
as much corporeal material as he can, in order to satisfy the eye; a great 
painter endeavors to produce the greatest results by means of the smallest 
number of persons, because he has a great deal to express in a single one. 
In doing this he must carefully avoid an excess of symbolical indications. 
It is only after having thus selected his characters and accessories that he 
can proceed to actual composition. From this it will be perceived how 
difficult it is to produce a perfect historical picture. The historical painter 
must not only have a rich imagination, must not only be master of coloring, 
costume, and history; these qualities, it is true, would enable him to pro- 
duce natural representations, but to attain to the inward power of a histori- 
cal picture they could not suffice. The painter should represent nothing 
common-place ; he should produce pictures that represent the past in the 
enlightened spirit of the present, and which by this spirit (that of liberty 
and humanity) will operate on the mind and feelings; and therefore, in 
addition to all the above mentioned accomplishments, he must himself 
possess a mind capable of understanding the highest aspirations of his own 
and the ideal aims of future times; and the highest enthusiasm for this 
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