PREFACE. XV 



Imagine all this in marble ever so skilfully 

 executed, it would be detestable. This 

 certainly does tend to prove, that sculpture 

 cannot represent with effect, objects merely 

 picturesque. I do not mean to say, that 

 the grave dignity of that noble art does 

 not admit of a mixture of the picturesque ; 

 it is clear, however, that the ancients ad- 

 mitted it with a caution bordering upon 

 timidity. The modern sculptors, on the 

 other hand, have perhaps gone as much 

 into the other extreme; and to that we 

 probably owe the magnificent defects of 

 Michael Angelo, the affectations of Bernini, 

 and the pantomimes of some of his fol- 

 lowers. It appears to me, that if the whole 

 of this be considered, it completely takes 

 away every objection to my use of the term ; 

 for if what I have stated be just, it shews 

 that by Picturesque is meant, not all that 

 can be expressed with effect in painting, 



