10 



ment of real scenery; for there is a 

 wide difference between looking at nature 

 merely with a view to making pictures, 

 and looking at pictures with a view to 

 the improvement of our ideas of nature : 

 the former often does contract the taste 

 when pursued too closely; the latter I 

 believe as generally refines and enlarges it. 

 The greatest painters were men of enlarged 

 and liberal minds, and well acquainted 

 with many arts besides their own : L. da 

 Vinci, M. Angelo, Raphael, Titian, were 

 not merely patronised by the sovereigns of 

 that period ; they were considered almost 

 as friends by such men as Leo, Francis, 

 and Charles, and were intimately connect- 

 ed with Aretino, Castiglione, and all the 

 eminent wits of that time. Those great 

 artists (nor need I have gone so fur back 

 for examples) considered pictures and 

 nature as throwing a reciprocal light on 

 each other, and as connected with history, 

 poetry, and all the fine arts ; but the prac- 

 tice of too many lovers of painting has 

 been very different, and has, I believe, 



