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painters, or of those, who, at a later period, 

 lived where the study of the antique, then 

 fully operating at Rome on minds highly 

 prepared for its influence, had not yet 

 taught them to separate what is beautiful, 

 from the general mass : you might almost 

 conclude that beauty did not then exist ; 

 yet those painters were capable of exact 

 imitation, though, not of selection. Exa- 

 mine grandeur of form in the same manner; 

 look at the dry, meagre forms of Albert 

 Durer, a man of genius even in Raphael's 

 estimation ; of Pietro Perugino, Andrea Man- 

 tegna, &c. and compare them with those of 

 M. Angelo and Raphael: nature was not 

 more dry and meagre in Germany or Peru- 

 gia than at Rome. Compare their land- 

 scapes and back grounds with those of 

 •Titian; nature was not changed, but a 

 mind of a higher cast, and instructed by 

 the experience of all who had gone before, 

 rejected minute detail ; and pointed out, 

 by means of such selections, and such com- 

 binations as were congenial to its own sub- 



