PAINTING. 
the artist’s attainment. The sculptor, when 
he has cliisseled or modeled the form of his 
figure or group, with its just proportions, 
has completed his work, which is rather 
the simple ti-anscript than the imitation of 
the image previously formed in his mind : 
his art is undisguised, and without illusion : 
it presents as well to our touch as to our 
sight, the bodies and shapes of things with- 
out the colour. The distinguishing prero- 
gative of painting, on the other hand, and 
that from which arises its decided advantage 
over every other artificial mode of represen- 
tation, is its power to give upon a limited 
plane the appearance of boundless space. 
An insight to the science of perspective, 
and the doctrines of lights and shadows, is 
indispensable ere the student can hope to 
acquire the art of fore-shortening his figures 
with correctness ; an art in which the great 
Michael Angelo has evinced such consum- 
mate skill in his frescoes in the Sestine 
Chapel at Rome, that they can never be 
sufficiently contemplated. The \vorks of 
Coreggio, and in particular his two cupo- 
las at Parma, may likewise be studied with 
advantage, and sufficiently prove that even 
the boldest fore-shortenings may on many 
occasions be resorted to without detriment 
to the beauty, the grace, or expression of 
the figures. In the execution of these, 
and most of his chief works, however, he 
was greatly assisted by his friend Antonio 
Begarelli, a celebrated Modenese sculptor, 
who modelled for him in clay all the figures, 
so that Coreggio, by placing and grouping 
them together as tliey were to be repre- 
sented, was enabled to delineate, with the 
greatest correctness, every fore-shortening, 
and at the same time to acquire a truth and 
boldness of light and shade unattainable by 
any other means. And here it may be 
well to observe, that the trouble of pre- 
paring such models in the first instance, is 
amply repaid by the great facility, or ratlier 
certainty, which it gives the artist in the 
execution of his work. Moreover, the 
painter having his modelled figures before 
him, and being enabled, by varying the 
situation of his eye, to view thfem in every 
direction, will frequently discover beautiful 
combinations which he never dreamed of, 
at the same time that he is rendered less 
liable to the error of too often repeating 
the same view of a figure, or the same ac- 
tion, and is taught to avoid a common 
place mode of composition. 
We have styled expression one of the 
component parts of painting, although, as 
VOL, V. 
it is wholly the result of the powers which 
the artist possesses of embodying his feel- 
ings by means of lines, lights and shades, 
and colours, it cannot truly be said to have 
a separate existence. But be this as it 
may, a thorough knowledge of the passions 
and the power of representing justly their 
various effects on the action and counte- 
nances of men, requires the most consum- 
mate skill of the painter. The more violent 
emotions of tlie soul, having naturally an 
instantaneous effect on the action, as well 
as on the countenance of the person aftect- 
ed, can be, with the greater facility, effec- 
tually and unequivocally expressed in paint- 
ing. To delineate the nicer discriminations 
of gentle affections, of thought, sentiment 
and character, is a far more arduous task, 
and indeed not always crowned with suc- 
cess, even in the attempts of the greatest 
masters ; this alone would be sufficient to 
convince us that subjects admitting of .ac- 
tion, and strong decided expression, are 
more especially within the province of our 
art. The proper expression of the subject 
is, as we have before stated, the end pro- 
posed by the artist, even in the invention 
and composition of his piece. In the style 
of design, in the chiaro-senro and colour- 
ing of the picture, the same object should 
bestedfastly kept in view. 
Clair obscure, or chiaro-scuro, is the art 
of distributing the lights and darks in a pic- 
ture, in such a manner as to give at once 
proper relief to the fi^ires, the best effect 
to the whole composition, and the greatest 
delight to the eye. We have said the lights 
and darks in a picture, because the word 
chiaro-scuro, properly speaking, denotes 
not only light and shade, but liglit and dark 
of what kind soever, and in this sense it is 
nearly allied to colouring, if pot indeed 
inseparable from it. A tliorongh concep- 
tion and knowledge of the chiaro-scuro is of 
the greatest importance to a painter, as it 
is very chiefly by the proper application of 
this branch of the art, that he is enabled to 
make the various objects in bis picture 
appear to project or recede, according to 
their relative situations or distances; and 
thus far, indeed the principles of it are 
necessary to the artist, ere he can hope to 
render his imitation just or intelligible. 
But it is required in works of fine art, not 
only that truth should be told, or that 
beauty should be represented, but likewise 
that the one and the other should be made 
appear to every possible advantage ; it lias, 
therefore, ever been the study of great 
