234 
PAINTING. 
expeded from it, In favour of the fine arts in the United 
Kingdom. We mean the Britiih Inftitution ; which may 
be coniidered in the light of a private fchool, where pu¬ 
pils may learn at once the art of drawing, compofing, and 
colouring, after the manner of a particular mailer. For 
a certain time in the year, the governors and directors 
contrive to colled! in their gallery a fet of pictures from 
the heft mailers of the different fchools; and artifls pro¬ 
perly qualified have admittance, under particular reftric- 
tions, to copy or paint after thefe chef-d’ceuvres. Some 
of thefe pictures have been bought, and others are bor¬ 
rowed from noblemen and gentlemen who are the pof- 
fefi'orsof private colledions. This inftitution has an an¬ 
nual exhibition of original pictures, which are alfo on 
faie at the prices marked ; and we think that no other na¬ 
tion could fill fuch a gallery with works of equal merit 
from the pencil or the chifel of its native profefibrs. For 
the incitement of young artifls, handfome premiums are 
alfo given. See further, vol. xi. p. 14.9, 50. 
Defcriptive Catalogues accompany many of our exhi¬ 
bitions, as the Britiih Gallery for inllance ; which are of 
vaft utility to the generality of the public. No man was 
ever born without a certain fhare of tafte, difcrimination, 
and judgment; yet every one is not always ready or dif- 
pofed to feel, as they ought to be felt, the beauties con¬ 
tained in the productions of the fine arts. He who Hands 
by mere chance before the famous Laocoon, may admire 
that expreftion of agonizing pain fo well wrought upon 
the face and the whole body of the unfortunate prieft and 
upon his two fons; but his pleafure mull increafe conli- 
derably, when he reads the paftage, in the fecond book of 
the yEneid of Virgil, in which the awful accident is fo 
well defcribed. The School of Athens, the cartoons of 
Raphael, the Luxemburg Gallery, and fiome other great 
performances of the bell artifts, fpeak loudly for them- 
felves ; yet the commentaries of Felibien, Du Piles, Rich- 
ardfon, and others, upon them, have opened the eves of 
many. Simple and tranlitory notice has been raifed up to 
admiration, and admiration fired into well-deferved en- 
thufiafm. We are even authorifed to fay, that our de- 
fcription of Mr. Well’s picture, “ Chrift rejeded by the 
Jews,” vol. xiii. p. 572. has conveyed to many fpedlators 
the real meaning of the artift, and rendered their feelings 
congenial with thofe that direded his hand. Adefcrip- 
tion points out harmonies and contrails, which, although 
they produce the intended effed upon the mind, are not 
immediately guelfed-at by the moll intelligent beholder ; 
it tells us why and how we are pleafed ; and it is a re¬ 
ceived axiom, that we double our pleafure by afcertaining 
the real caufe of it. 
The Englilh tafte appears to be formed on the great 
mailers of the Italian and the Flemilh fchools. Sir Jolhua 
Reynolds was a great admirer of Michael Angelo, and 
particularly recommends him to the attention of the aca¬ 
demicians. “ I feel (fays he, in his farewell-leclure) a 
felf-congratulation in knowing myfelf capable of fuch 
fenfations as he intended to excite. I refled, not with¬ 
out vanity, that thefe difcourfes bear teltimony of my ad¬ 
miration of that truly divine man ; and I fhould defire 
that the laft words which I fhould pronounce in this aca¬ 
demy, and from this place, might be the name of —Michael 
Angelo." 
In concluding our remarks upon the Englilh fchool, it 
may perhaps be interefting to our readers to fee an unin¬ 
terrupted line of mailers and pupils, through which the 
founder of it was defcended from a very ancient Italian 
mafter. 
Cofimo Rofelli, who died 1484, taught 
Mariotto Albertinelli, died 1535. 
Innocenzio da Imola, born 1492. 
Profpero Fontana, born 1512. 
Denis Calvert, died 1619. 
Annibal Caracci, died 1609. 
Giovanni Lanfranco, died 1647. 
Francois Perrier, died 1650. 
Ifaac Fuller, died 1676. 
John Riley, died 1691. 
Jonathan Richardfon, died 1745. 
Thomas Hudfon, died 1779, taught 
Sir Jolhua Reynolds, who died 1792, 308 years after the 
death of Cofimo. 
Of all the different fchools it may in general beobferved, 
that it is eafy to trace the reafon of the characters which 
diftinguilh them. In the Roman fchool, it is the excel¬ 
lent education of the firft artifts, and the mafterpieces of 
antique lound among the ruins of ancient Rome. In the 
Venetian fchool, the magnificence brought to Venice by 
the commerce of the eaft, the frequency of fetes and maf- 
querades, the necellity for artifts frequently to paint per- 
fons habited in rich Hulls. In the Dutch fchool, the 
ordinary lives of their artifts, who frequented tippling- 
houfes, and the lliops of the lowed artifans ; they were 
witnefi'es to fcenes the mofc vulgarly grotefque, and 
were often in the way of obferving the effed of aeon- 
fined or narrow light, natural or artificial, in clofe places. 
The Encyclopedic Methodique, fpeaking of the Englilh 
fchool, then in its infancy, fays, “ Beauty mud naturally 
form part of the character of this fchool, becaufe beauty 
is fo common in England as continually to meet the eye of 
the artift: if this beauty is not precifely that of the antique, 
it is perhaps not inferior to it. The Englilh fchool will 
be dillinguifned by truth of expreftion, becaufe national 
liberty leaves the paflions their own natural play. It will 
preferve its iimplicity, and will not be degraded by the¬ 
atrical imitation, by quaintnefs, and falfe graces, becaufe 
fimplicity is Hill preferved by the Englilh in their man¬ 
ners. Examine the portrait of a Frenchwoman painted 
by a Frenchman : you will often find no expreftion but a 
forced fmile, in which the eyes and forehead have no 
lhare, and which mark no affedion of the mind. Look 
at an Englilhwoman’s portrait, by an Englilh artift : you 
will mod frequently find a naivete of expreftion, which 
acquaints you with the charadler, the mind, of the per- 
fon reprefented.” Ency. Mcth. Beaux Arts, i. 238. 
PRINCIPLES of PAINTING. 
The rudiments, or firft principles, of the art of paint¬ 
ing, are drawing and colouring. Other component parts 
of painting are—perfpedive, iymmetry, drapery, compo- 
fition, difpofition, chiaro-fcuro, &c. Of all thefe we lhall 
fpeak incidentally ; but lhall reduce them to as few heads 
as poftible. 
Of DRAWING. 
Drawing confifts in forming the contour, or outline, 
of the piece. This, of courfe, is the chief and moll im¬ 
portant part of the work, fince it includes every thing but 
the filling-up, (hading, or colouring. We fpeak of courfe 
of the finilhed drawing, or compolition ; for fome paint¬ 
ers, as well as fome poets, corred and alter a great deal 
as they proceed ; others, like Shakefpeare, little or no¬ 
thing. 
Drawing the outline is an arbitrary mode of conveying 
ideas of form, which has its foundation altogether in art, 
and was its firft efiay towards perfection ; and, although 
the progrefs of painting has been fo great, and it has fo 
nearly approached to complete imitation by the help of 
chiaro-fcuro and colour, yet outline, fimple and unaided. 
Hill remains duly appreciated, as efficient to produce the 
greateft and moll eft'ential purpofes of art; viz. the ideas 
of adion and expreftion in the figures it reprefents. 
There is not, in fad, any fuch thing as an outline in na¬ 
ture, The effect which natural objeds produce upon our 
vifion, is only that of a number of parts, or of diftind 
mafl'es of form and colour, but no lines. We are obliged 
to aid invention in defign, byreforting to a fidion ; and 
the firft and fimpleft means which prefects itfelf to the 
mind is, to feparate the objeds we defire to reprefent up¬ 
on a plane furface, by marking the boundary of each, the 
extreme 
