PAINTING. 
sagacity in this part of the art, too ranch to 
our present purpose to be omitted. We 
shall describe it in the words of Mr. Webbe. 
“ When the inhabitants of Lystra are aboiit 
to offer sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, it 
was necessary to let ns into the cause of all 
the motion and hurry before us; accord- 
ingly, the cripple, whom they had miracu- 
lously healed, appears in the crowd : ob- 
serve the means which the painter has used 
to distinguish this object, and of course to 
open the subject of his piece. His crutches, 
now useless, are thrown to the ground ; his 
attitude is that of ohe accustomed to such a 
support, and still doubtful of his limbs; the 
eagerness, the impetuosity, with which he 
solicits his benefactors to accept the ho- 
nours destined for them, point out his grati- 
tude, and the occasion of it: during the 
time that he is thus busied, an elderly citi- 
zen, of some consequence, by his appear- 
ance, draws near, and lifting up the corner 
of his vest, surveys with astonishment the 
limb newly restored ; whilst a man of mid- 
dle age, and a youth, looking over the shoul- 
der of the cripple, are intent on the same 
object. The wit of man could not devise 
means more certain of the end proposed ; 
such a chain of circumstances is equal to a 
narration ; and I cannot but think, that the 
whole would have been an example of in- 
vention and conduct, even in the happiest 
age of antiquity.” The works of the first 
restorers of painting may be likewise studied 
with great profit, so far as relates to inven- 
tion, composition, and expression. In the 
executive, parts of the art they seldom ap- 
proach even mediocrity : less able therefore 
to gratify the eye, the artist applied himself 
exclusively to interest the mind of the spec- 
tator. Amongst the frescoes of Giotto, in 
the church of St. Francis, at Assisi, is one 
which, from the ingenuity of its invention, 
seems particularly to claim a place here. 
The subject is that of a wounded man, who, 
given over by his physician, is miraculously 
healed in a vision by St. Francis. The 
chief group of the picture represents the 
sick man, who, expended on his bed, is 
looking up with a stedfast countenance at 
the saint, who is laying his hand upon the 
wound. Two angels accompany St. Francis, 
one of whom holds a box of ointment. In 
another part of the picture the physician is 
represented about to go out of the room 
door, followed by a woman, evidently a 
sister or near relative of the wounded man, 
who, with a taper in her hand, has been 
conducting him to the bedside. She is 
earnestly attentive to what the physician is 
saying to the father, who has been waiting 
for them at the outside of the door, and who 
shews by his gestures, which the tears of 
the young woman corroborate, that no hopes 
are given of his son’s recovery. 
In the two pictures last mentioned, the 
different figures admitted were essential 
to the perfect explanation of the story. 
Sometimes, however, a group, or figure, 
which although not necessary, shall never- 
theless appear naturally, as it were, to grow 
out of the subject, may be introduced with 
great augmentation of the expression and 
effect of the piece. Such was the pathetic 
episode of Aristides, so repeatedly imitated 
in modern times by Poussin, and other pain- 
ters. A town taken by storm was the sub- 
ject of this picture, in one part of which 
an infant was introduced creeping to the 
breast of its mother, who, though expiring 
from her wounds, yet expressed the strong- 
est apprehension and fear lest the course of 
her milk being stopped, the child should 
suck her blood. 
The judicious disposal of the materials 
furnished by the imagination, or invention, 
in such a manner as best to contribute to 
the beauty, the expression, and the effect 
of the picture, constitutes what is termed 
composition in painting. And here we 
must observe, that the different parts of 
the art, before mentioned, are so inti- 
mately connected with, and so dependant 
on each other, that the separate discus- 
sion of them must ever be attended with 
great difficulty, and necessarily occasion 
a frequent recurrence to similar arguments 
and principles. Composition is more 
especially inseparable from the rest, as 
not only the necessary expression of the 
subject and the forms and distribution of 
the groups, hut likewise the consequent 
lights and shades resulting from such foi ms 
and distribution, the contrast and variety 
of the cliaracters, and even the principal 
masses of colour, all, in a certain degree, 
come under the consideration of tlie artist, 
even when making his first sketch. 
It were in vain to prescribe any other 
general rule for the distribution of the 
figures in a picture, except such as is dic- 
tated by the peculiar circumstances and 
character of the story to be represented. 
Much has been said of the jiyramidical 
group, the serpentine line, the artificial 
contrast, and, upon doctrines like these, 
Lanfianco, Cortona, Giordano, Maratti, 
and many others, their predecessors, as well 
