241 
PAIN 
the other Tragedy : Mrs. Sitidons herfelf is decently at¬ 
tired in the falhionable habiliments of the year 1785. 
Now, if this be a picture of the Tragic Mule, (lie ought 
not to appear in a modern drefs, nor ought the to be feat- 
ed in an old arm-chair. If this be a portraiture of Mrs. 
Siddons, die has no bufinefs in the clouds, nor has die 
any thing to do with aerial attendants. If this be Mrs. 
Siddons in the character of the Tragic Mule, the firft fet 
of objections apply; for die is placed in a fituation where 
Mrs. Siddons could never be. 
“ In the Death of Dido, fir Jofliua Reynolds introduces 
her filter lamenting over the corpfe of the unfortunate 
queen. This is poflible: but he has alfo introduced 
Atropos cutting Dido’s hair with a pair of fciffars, as a 
being equally real and apparent in the painting with Dido 
or her filler. This is a grofs offence againlt mythological 
probability ; nor is it the only offence againlt the coltume 
with which that picture is chargeable.” 
There is one other breach of coltume, however com¬ 
mon among painters, more grofs and offenfive than any 
of the inltances hitherto alleged ; we mean the perpetual 
and unneceffary difplay of the naked figure. We diall 
not flay to enquire whether more Ikill can be diown in 
painting the human body clothed or unclothed. If the 
perfonages introduced in any picture are more naked in 
the reprefentation than can be jultified by the probability 
of the times, perfons, places, or circumltances, it is a 
breach of the coltume proportionate to the deviation. 
This fault, however, is fo common as hardly to be no¬ 
ticed ; fo dight indeed, when compared with that general 
talte for voluptuous imagery and obfcene reprefentation 
tvhicli lias difgraced the art of painting in every Itage of 
its progrefs, that fcience and morality are callous to the 
flight offence. 
It is inipoffible to exprefs how much a picture fuffers 
by fucli loofenefs of fancy, and finks as a baltard of the 
art in the efteem of good judges. Some people, indeed, 
are of opinion, that fo fcrupulous an obfervance of the 
coltume is apt to hurt pictures, by depriving them of a 
certain air of truth, arifing, they think, from thofe fea¬ 
tures and habits to which we are accudomed ; and which 
are therefore apt to make a greater impredion than can 
be expeCted from things drawn from the remote fources 
of antiquity: adding withal, that a certain degree of li- 
cenfe has ever been allowed thofe artids who in their 
works mud make fancy their chief guide. “ See,” fay 
they, “ the Greeks ;” that is, the mailers of Raphael and 
Pouflin themfelves ; “ do they ever trouble their heads 
about fuch niceties ? The Rhodian datuaries, for exam¬ 
ple, have not fcrupled to reprefent Laocoon naked ; that 
is, the priefl of Apollo naked in the very a£l of facrificing 
to the. gods, and that too in prefence of a whole people, of the 
virgins and matrons of Ilium. Now, (continue they,) if 
it was allowable in the ancient datuaries to negleCt pro¬ 
bability and decency to fuch a degree, to have a better 
opportunity of difplaying their Ikill in the anatomy of 
the human body ; why may it not be allowable in mo¬ 
dern painters, the better to attain the.end of their art, 
which is deception, to depart now-and-then a little from 
the ancient manners and the too-rigorous laws of the 
coltume ? But thefe reafons, we beg leave to obferve, are 
more abfurd than they are ingenious. What! are we to 
draw conclufions from an example which, far from deci¬ 
ding the difpute, gives occafion to another? The learned 
are of opinion, that thofe Rhodian malters would have 
done much better, had they looked out for a fubjeCt in 
which, without offending fo much againlt truth, and 
even probability, they might have had an equal opportu¬ 
nity of difplaying their knowledge of the naked. And 
certainly no authority or example whatever Ihould tempt 
us to do any thing contrary to what both decency and 
the reafon of things require, unlefs we intend, like Car- 
pioni, to reprefent Sogni d'infermi, e foiediromanzi ; “The 
dreams of lick men, and the tales of fools.” 
• Vol. XVIII. No. IZ39. 
TING. 
Of COPYING and of IMITATION. 
The art of copying requires the alTidance of two men¬ 
tal qualities—judgment and diferetion. The firilwill di¬ 
rect as to the choice, the other as to'the application. Sup¬ 
ported on either fide by thefe two columns of llrength, 
the artift mult Hand before his mode! and conlider, till, 
out of the chaos excited at firft in his mind by the con- 
fufed influx of fimultaneous ideas, judgment Itrikes a 
light, and diferetion affigns their proper forms to the 
component elements of the whole. In his molt inltruc- 
tive and conftantly amufing “ Entretiens,” Felibien tells 
us, that, when Dominechino was on the point of begin¬ 
ning a picture, he never took hold of the chalk, (truck a 
fingle line, or handled the brulh, until he had long, 
filently and motionlefs, with his eyes fixed on the can¬ 
vas, (the future field of aCtion,) maturely meditated up¬ 
on his fubjeCt, whether it were his own conceptions he 
had to embody, or another mailer’s performance to imi¬ 
tate. One would have fufpeCted, at firft light, that he 
was deprived of imagination, or courage; that timidity 
or fterility fettered his hand, or that he really did not 
know what he was about ; but, when that inward tumult 
which nobody could witnefs but himfelf, when this tur¬ 
bid ebullition of the ideal elements, had fubfided, his 
pencil darted with the rapidity of lightning acrofs the 
canvas; and, as if burlting into a ftorm, his execution 
produced wonders. Some phylicians are of opinion, 
that no man fliould eat until he feels the (harpnefs of hun¬ 
ger and a call for food. We may apply this principle to 
the ftudent who copies, or to the mailer who meditates 
an original. If you (land in fight of your fubjeCt, con¬ 
templating the external or internal archetype, till you 
feel the impulfe and the delire of inception ; then your 
ideas will flow in emulative fr.cility with the colours of 
your pallet; then you may expeCt your hand to keep 
equal pace with your imagination ; a circumftance which 
feldom iiappens, but which, when it occurs, produces, at 
once, pleafure in the mind of the painter and pleafing ef¬ 
fects on his ^canvas ; for it has been properly remarked, 
that the corporeal agent is not always as ready as the 
mental director; di flat ah ingenio manus; and that the 
vivacity of our conceptions wanes and cools confiderably 
during the time of execution. 
Another circumftance, which is moll worthy of atten¬ 
tion, relates to the comparative fize of the copy and the 
original. The art of reducing is Ample as to geometri¬ 
cal rules; yet, although you may be correCl as far as 
lineal imitation requires, it will often happen that the 
whole harmony of the one will not be tranjlated upon the 
other. We will take as an inftance that large picture by 
Paul Veronefe of the “ Vocation of St. Charles Borromeo 
to the See of Milan.” Now a fmall copy of this picture 
may certainly have its merits, and a good effeCt, but 
will not work upon the feelings of the beholders the fame 
impreflion which is excited by the original ; and, befides 
the truth of the well-known axiom, that the fublime im¬ 
plies magnitude, this unavoidable difference will arife 
from two d i ft in Cl caufes, which it is proper to explain. In 
the firft place, the element in which we move, the air, is 
a diaphanous body ; but it carries with it, as other fub- 
ftances, its own lhare of deniity ; lienee the magic of 
aerial perfpeClive in mature, and in the copies which we 
make of natural objeCts, either aggregate or fingle. The 
mafs of air, circulating between the eye of the beholder 
and a performance of the fize of Veronefe’s picture now 
under our confideration, is of much greater magnitude 
than what would intermediately exilt between the fight 
and a highly-finilhed jewel of Mieris or Gerard Dow. 
This is, indeed, fo far applicable to the original and the 
reduced copy, that, if the imitator were to work with the 
fame freedom and the identical pigments which the maf- 
ter ufed, he certainly could not attain his objeCt. The 
canvas, for inftance, upon which the picture of Paolo is 
executed, is purpofely of a very coarfe nature, and pro- 
3 Q duces 
