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Poussin after he had neglected colouring, 

 and thought only of the antique. Let any 

 one who is acquainted with the pictures of 

 those two great artists, reflect how justly 

 the terms of richness and simplicity will 

 apply to the respective styles of their com- 

 position, colouring, and light and shadow; 

 to their manner of disposing and draping 

 their figures, and of producing the general 

 effect of the whole. Had simplicity been 

 the arbi tress, Poussin would have been the 

 only model ; and what we most admire in 

 the works of Rubens, and of many other 

 masters, could not have existed. The Vene- 

 tian school owes that richness of colouring 

 in which it surpasses all others, to the break- 

 ing, or corruption of colours ; which Sir J. 

 Reynolds opposes to the simplicity and se- 

 verity of the unbroken colours of the Roman 

 school : and from that circumstance, and 

 from the splendour of their decorations, he 

 calls the Venetian, the ornamental style. 

 Those splendid decorations the Roman 

 school justly excluded from the higher style 

 or painting ; but from what have we ex- 



