Reynolds, on the small proportion of the 

 boats in the picture of* the miraculous 

 draught of fishes, may be brought in de- 

 fence of a similar breach of propriety in 

 architecture : still I think that the neces- 

 sity, or at least the expediency of the sa- 

 crifice (as perhaps in the circumstance of 

 the boats) ought to be manifest. But here 

 the case is different ; for the architecture 

 is a very principal part or the picture, at- 

 tracts the eye from its ornaments, and ap- 

 pears to have been very much studied ; it 

 seems to me, however, not only to want 

 airiness, but grandeur ; and even in that last 

 point, the Roman school may sometimes 

 condescend to take lessons from the Vene- 

 tian, though in general so much superior to 

 it in dignity. I have in my mind a compo- 

 sition of Titian, respecting the Virgin and 

 child placed on an altar in a sort of por- 

 tico, with other figures on the steps of the 

 altar : only two columns are seen, the tops 

 of which are supposed to be out of the pic- 

 ture. The manner in which this architec- 

 ture is introduced, produces a very grand, 



