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Stalks from one to three feet in height, ter- 
minated by very large flowers of a beautiful 
red colour, and much larger than any rose. 
The common officinal, or male peony, is 
also remarkable for its capsules turning back- 
ward, opening and displaying their red in- 
side, together with the numerous seeds in- a 
singularly agreeable order, appearing very 
ornamental alter the flower is past. The 
plant may be propagated either by parting 
the root or by seed. This plant was formerly 
celebrated in nervous distempers, but the pre- 
sent practice pays very little regard to it. 
PAGE, a youth of state retained in the 
family of a prince or great personage, as an 
honourable servant, to attend in visits of ce- 
remony, carry messages, bear up trains, robes, 
& c. and at the same time to have a genteel 
education, and learn his exercises. The 
pages in the king’s household are various, 
and have various offices assigned them, as 
pages of honour, pages of the presence- 
chamber, pages of the backstairs, &c. 
PAGOD, or Pagoda, a name whereby 
the East Indians call the temple in which 
they worship their gods. The pagod usually 
consists of three parts; the first is a vaulted 
roof, supported on stone or marble columns: 
it is adorned with images; and, being open, 
all persons without distinction are allowed to j 
enter it. The second part is filled with gro- 
tesque and monstrous figures, and no person 
is allowed to enter it but the bramins them- 
selves. The third is a kind of chancel, in 
which the statue of the deity is placed. It is 
shut up with a very strong gate. 
Pagod, or Pagoda, is also the name of 
a gold or silver coin, current in several parts 
of the East Indies, value 5s. 
PAINTING, is the art of representing all 
■objects of nature visibly, by lines and co- 
lours on a plain surface. It has also the 
power of expressing by the same means con- 
ceptions and images of the mind which do 
not actually exist in any of the usual forms 
of nature. It is to be considered as an art 
displaying either conjointly or separately the 
powers of imagination and imitation: and 
may be divided into invention, which regards 
the original thought or conception of the sub- 
ject ; and into composition, design, and co- 
louring, which regard the execution of the 
work. 
Invention consists generally in the choice 
of such subjects as are best calculated to an- 
swer some great and interesting end ; and 
particularly in discovering or selecting such 
subjects as are capable of being most appro- 
priately expressed by painting, and of pro- 
ducing a powerful effect by such means as 
are distinctively placed within the compass of 
that art. 
Composition regards the arrangement of 
the subject both as to forms, and to the gene- 
ral effects of light and shade, and of colour. 
It comprehends the general distribution and 
grouping of the figures, their combination or 
contrast, the choice of attitudes, the disposal 
of draperies, the situation of the scene itself, 
as well as the distribution and connection of 
all the various parts of scenery and orna- 
ment. 
The Important objects which design em- 
braces, will be found fully explained under 
that article. See Design. 
Colouring regards, first, the infinite variety 
of hues with which nature distinguishes her 
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forms, agreeably to the degree and mixture 
of the rays of light winch their surfaces re- 
flect ; and, secondly, the distribution, appo- 
sition, and accompaniment, of various hues or 
tints, so as to produce the effect most pleas- i 
ing to the sight, a circumstance in which na- ' 
ture not always delights. It embraces also ! 
the light and shade of objects, as far as by ! 
the diminution or increase of these the har- j 
| niony of tints before-mentioned can be ef- 
fected ; but that mixed effect of colour and 
of light and shade which is denominated chi- 
! aro-scuro, is more justly regarded as a branch 
| of composition. 
Art of painting. The art of painting is 
justly ranked among the highest of that class 
of arts which are denominated liberal. Its 
tendency and powers are congenial with those 
of poetry, and it has of course been consi- 
dered as an employment worthy of men in 
the most elevated ranks of life. The honours 
with which it lias been distinguished in va- 
rious countries, will be found in the history 
of its professors. 
We shall proceed, in consistence with a 
general plan, to describe, first, the means by 
which the student may hope to forward his 
progress in this admirable but difficult art. 
We shall then state the different branches of 
painting, and the methods of practice ; and 
shall lastly add a summary of its history in 
all ages and countries. 
Course and methods of stud// requisite to at- 
tain the art of painting. 
The process of study requisite for the at- 
tainment of the art of painting, has been in 
part already described under the article 
Design ; the knowledge of design being, as 
was there said, the basis of painting, and 
its various attainments the necessary steps 
by which the painter must commence his 
advance in the art. The student having 
completed the various studies which lead 
to excellence in drawing, must proceed to 
transfer the principles he has learned to his 
canvas ; and, before he can arrive at emi- 
nence, must acquire a complete mastery of 
the new materials in which he is to display at 
once the stores of his mind and the skill of 
his hand. For this purpose, he must add to 
the knowledgejie already possesses, the study 
of colours and colouring in all their branches. 
It is the knowledge of this department of art 
which peculiarly characterizes the profession 
he is about to undertake. The various 
branches of design have formed the com- 
mencement of his studies, and he may be 
supposed a perfect master of them ; but 
these alone cannot constitute him a painter; 
neither can he acquire that title by the know- 
ledge of every rule of invention or composition. 
If we consider a painter in regard of these 
last powers of skill, we rank him with the poet 
or the draughtsman ; if in regard of anatomic 
knowledge or'perspective, we confound him 
-with the anatomist or the mathematician; if 
in regard of symmetry, grace, and propor- 
tions of forms, we cannot distinguish him from 
the geometer or the sculptor. The painter, 
who is supposed the perfect imitator of na- 
ture, necessarily makes colouring his chief 
object, since he only considers nature as she 
is imitable : she is only imitable by him as 
she is visible ; and she is only visible as she. 
is coloured. 
Although the perfect idea, therefore, of a 
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painter depends on invention, compositions 
design, and colouring, conjointly, yet it is by 
the last of . these only that he can establish a 
special idea of his art, since by this we distin- 
guish him from such other artists as have for 
their object the various powers which can be 
expressed by design (whose art cannot come 
up to that perfect imitation of nature, which 
is wiihin the scope of painting) ; and by this 
only we can be decidedly understood to speak 
of a painter. 
To this it is to be added, that as colouring 
specifically distinguishes the art of the painter 
from all the other arts of design, so it is the 
ultimate accomplishment of ali his studies in 
the art of painting. 
We shall, therefore, first treat of colouring, 
and proceed to consider more minutely the 
component parts which form the art of co- 
louring. 
Colouring. Colouring is that mode of art 
by which the artist imitates the appearance 
of colours in all natural objects, and gives to 
artificial objects those hues which are most 
calculated to please or to deceive the sight. 
It is the duty of the colourist to consider, 
that as there are two sorts of objects, the na- 
tural or real, and the artificial or painted, so 
there are also two sorts of colours, viz. the 
natural, or that which makes all the objects 
in nature visible to us, and the artificial, or 
that which, by a judicious mixture of simple 
colours, imitates those natural ones in all their 
various situations and circumstances. 
The painter must first endeavour to acquire 
a perfect knowledge of these two sorts of co- 
lours; of the natural, in order to distinguish 
with precision which of them he ought to 
imitate ; and of the artificial, in order to com- 
pose the tint most proper for representing tiie 
natural colour. These acquirements include 
the study of dioptrics, or that part of optics 
which has for its object the nature of light and 
colours, and an acquaintance at least with the 
general principles of chemistry. (See Op- 
tics.) He will learn also that the natural 
colour is of three sorts: 1st, the true colour 
of the object; 2d, the reflected colour; 3d, 
the colour of the light incidental to the object. 
In the artificial colours, he will distinguish 
their force and softness separately and by 
comparison, in order that he may use a pro- 
per judgment in heightening or attenuating 
them, according as his subject may require. 
To this end he will also consider, that a 
picture is, for the most part, a flat superficies; 
that, some time after the colours are laid On, 
they necessarily lose their freshness ; and 
that the distance at which a picture is viewed 
takes from it much of its brightness and vi- 
gour ; and it is therefore impossible to guard 
against these drawbacks on the effect of his 
pencil, without a complete mastery of that 
artifice which is the chief object of the art of 
colouring. 
Although imitation is the principal aim of 
colouring, the painter must by no means be 
the slave of natural objects, but the judge 
and judicious imitator of them : he must not 
imitate all the colours which present them- 
selves indifferently to his eye; but he must 
chuse the most proper for his purpose, and 
add or temper with others, to complete the 
beauty of effect in his work. lie must some- 
times abate the vivacity of life, and some- 
times strive to heighten it by superior force 
and brightness of colours, in order to. convey 
