221 



accord with beauty, and especially with fe- 

 male beauty, there is the clearest proof in 

 one of his admirable Notes on Du Fresnoy. 

 Sir Joshua is there speaking of the Vene- 

 tian style of colouring, and that of Titian 

 in particular, as the most excellent, and as 

 eclipsing with its splendour whatever is 

 brought into competition with it ; yet, he 

 adds, if female delicacy and beauty be the 

 principal object of the painter's aim, the 

 purity and clearness of the tint of Guido 

 will correspond better, and more contri- 

 bute to produce it, than even the glowing 

 tint of Titian. Now, if he judged that the 

 hue of Titian's naked figures, whether wo- 

 men or children, which that great colourist 

 had studied with more attention than any 

 other painter, and from models, not of a 

 southern climate, but of the north of Italy — 

 if he judged that hue to be too rich and 

 glowing to correspond with the idea of de- 

 licate beauty, what would he have thought* 

 if Titian, as a companion to his Florentine 

 Venus, had painted an Ethiopian goddess 



