P A I N 
extreme extent of its dimenfions in every direction ; and 
this we call drawing its outline. We recoiled more of 
a form by its boundary, or its reparation from other ob¬ 
jects, than by its projecting parts ; hence arifes the fatis- 
faCtion we receive from a line which marks that boundary, 
though no fuch line in reality exids ; our imagination 
immediately lofes fight of the fallacy, and dwells upon 
the form within it. It is fufficient for this purpofe, that 
the exterior of the form be exhibited correCt enough to 
excite an image of the whole ; and perhaps the impreffion 
a well-drawn outline makes upon the mind is feldom much 
increafed, if at all, by the more complete imitation of form 
which light and fhade can give it. 
Such an outline is in itfelf a perfeCl thing. It has no 
exemplar in nature, but is received as an arbitrary token 
of a fubdance. The image it excites is, indeed, more or 
lefs perfeCt, according to the information or force of ima¬ 
gination of the beholder; but, as there is no other means 
cf comparifon than with the reafoning powers of his own 
mind, its impreffion mull be confidered as complete. Fill 
it with colour, give the form within it light and fhade; in 
fhort, attempt to make it an imitation of the real objeCt, 
and it becomes fubjeCt to companions, which, in well- 
informed minds, mult neceffarily diminifh its force. Its 
fimplicity is the bafis of its power. The impreffion, as 
far as it goes, being complete, if the other requifites of 
art were not, when added to it, as perfeCl in their kind 
as the fimple outline, it would certainly be weakened in 
its main points; a more full image might indeed be pre- 
fented to the eye, but that fulnefs of effeCl which arifes 
•when the mind is limply excited to aCl for itfelf, would 
be dillurbed, and withdrawn from the pathos of the 
defign. 
The value of outline will be moll fully appreciated by 
thole who, with Lavater, haveobferved the fulnefs of cha¬ 
racter displayed in filhouettes, or profile outlines filled up 
with only one colour; and Hill more by thofe who have 
examined the beautiful works in outline from Homer, 
iEfchylus, and Dante, by Mr. Flaxman. In regarding 
many of thofe excellent defigns, the mind is fo entirely 
filled with figure, aCtion, and expreffion, that it almoll 
fhrinks with fear at the idea of an attempt at further com¬ 
pletion. 
If, indeed, the art of painting were confidered merely 
as an inllrument of moral inllruClion, or even as a means 
of relating a faCt, outline would be fully adequate to ful¬ 
fil its purpofes. But, although we are not inclined to de¬ 
preciate the value of this noble art, we agree with thofe 
who regard its practice more in the light of ornament 
than of utility, generally fpeaking; and in that view of 
it, outline becomes merely a pafiive agent to prepare the 
way for the more fplendid effeCts which chiaro-fcuro and 
colour alone can produce. 
It is outline which decides the character of a painting; 
for, according to the ftyle in which this is drawn mud be 
the one adopted in filling up the void: in other words, a 
figure muft have complete unifon in its character, in the 
parts which appear to come forwards, and are produced 
within the outline, as well as in thofe which recede and 
form it. 
As outline is thus eflentially important in the art, it 
becomes neceffarily an objeCl worthy the molt lerious at¬ 
tention of the profeffor ; and we cannot recommend to 
a young praClitioner a more ufeful leffon than that he en¬ 
deavour to attain, as early as poflible, the power of draw¬ 
ing an outline free and charaCleriftic ; as that power can 
never be unaccompanied with a certain degree of freedom 
in the execution of a finifhed picture : but, if not attained 
while the hand is free, and the mind mod alive to impref¬ 
fion, the talk is rendered proportionably difficult. 
The revivers of painting in the thirteenth century fol¬ 
lowed the meagre tade in drawing of the Greek artids, 
their immediate predeceffors, and appear to have felec- 
ted for their models the mod emaciated objeCls in nature. 
Donatello and Luca Signorelli broke through this in a 
TING. 235 
great degree; and its overthrow was completed by Mi¬ 
chael Angelo. It required, however, two centuries to 
get entirely the better of this drange poverty of dyle. 
Michael Angelo himfelf, when he defigned his celebrated 
Cartoon of Pifa, if v.'e may judge from the Holkham 
copy, (which has every appearance of being an accurate 
tranfcript,) had not then adopted that fulnefs of form 
which charaClerifes his fubfequent works, and which he 
probably derived from fome fine fragments of antiquity 
difcovered in his time, particularly the torfo. The fight 
of the Sidine chapel produced in Raphael an immediate 
change from the Gothic tade of his mader Pietro Pe- 
rtlgino, in which he commenced ; and he feems to have 
been fo pleafed with this new dyle, as fometimes to carry 
it to excels: he ufually furpaded his rival in grace, 
though, he never equalled him in energy or grandeur. 
Drawing- degenerated rapidly with the fuccelfors of 
thefe two great men. After Guilio and Polidoro, the 
Roman fchool fell into infipidity ; and the Florentine, en¬ 
deavouring to imitate Michael Angelo, became tumid 
and extravagant. Corregio and Parmegiano, feduced by 
beauty of line, too often lacrificed correClnefs to elegance. 
The Caracci at Bologna compofed a fort of middle dyle, 
in which they attempted to obviate all thefe defects ; but 
it was heavy, and pofleded little fentiment or character, 
though it has become the common-place hidorical manner 
of almoll all their fucceflbrs, and, we may add, of mod 
academies in other parts of Europe. Ludovico Caracci, 
and Domenichino, are the bed of this fchool, in regard 
to purity of tade. Pouffin adopted another dyle, founded 
on a clofe imitation of the antique datues, but acquired 
too much of the hardnefs of the material in which they 
are wrought, without attaining, in general, their grace or 
fymmetry. The prefent French fchool have pufhed this 
dill further, and fill their pictures with frigid copies of 
all the ideal forms of the ancients. 
The antique, however, mud always be confidered the 
great fource of true tade in drawing. It is here the ar- 
tid may learn to feparate the edential and generic from 
the accidental and individual ; the great principle of the 
fuperiority of the ancients over the moderns. How much 
of this, which is properly called Jhjle, may be adopted in 
painting, is a quedion of fome nicety: Rubens has ex- 
prefied his admiration of the ancient datues, and given 
his opinion how far they may be dudied with advantage 
by a painter, in a treatife quoted by Du Piles, but feems 
to have wholly negleCled them in his practice. In this 
country, as it was formerly in-the Venetian fchool, draw¬ 
ing is confidered as the lead important part of painting-; 
fine tones and impofing efteCls compenfate fora’ll omiffions 
of this kind. The pre-eminent talents of the late fir 
Jofliua Reynolds have probably not a little contributed 
to give this direction to the tade of the Englifh fchool; 
his fuccefsful example, though utterly at variance with 
his precepts, added to the natural fafcination of colour 
and chiaro-fcuro, has made the fenfual triumph over the 
intellectual part of the art; and it is the more to be re¬ 
gretted, as he has merely left his followers to labour in a 
mine which he himfelf had almod exhauded. But, in 
fpite of fafhion or indolence, it may be fafely affirmed, 
that drawing is the foul of beauty, character, and ex¬ 
preffion, and that its negleCt will inevitably be followed 
by the extinction of all the higher dyles of painting. 
Of COLOURING. 
Colouring, one of the great component and edential 
parts of painting, is the art of giving to every objeCl in a 
picture its true and proper hue, as it appears under all the 
various circumdances or combinations of light, middle- 
tint, and ffiadovv ; and of fo blending and contrading the 
colours, as to make each appear with the greated advan¬ 
tage and beauty, at the fame time that it contributes to 
the richnefs, the brilliancy, and the harmony, of the 
whole. 
Colouring, like chiaro-fcuro, may be divided into kinds s- 
4 that 
