24 7 
-PAIN T I N G, 
red. This is reckoned by the moderns, and feems to 
have been adopted by the ancients, as the bell general 
fhadow-tint. The bell tint for human flelh is compofed 
of red ochre and white: it works pleafantly, and ought 
to be compared with the complexion of the perfon whom 
you are going to paint. A celebrated painter at Paris 
ufed to lay-on a coat of Naples-yellow and white as a 
ground before he began to paint a female face, perluaded 
that it was a procels generally adopted by Corregio and 
Guido. 
Local Colours or Tints. —i. Light-red tint. Ochre and 
white, with a little vermilion, as occalion may require. 
2. Vermilion tint. Vermilion and'white. 
3. Carmine tint, generally ufed in finilhing the cheeks 
and lips. Carmine and white. 
4. Rofe tint. Red fliade (fee N° 10.) and white mixed 
to a middle tint. 
5. Yellow tint. Yellow Naples or light ochre and 
white. It follows the lighter tints, and ought to be laid 
before the blues. 
6. Blue tint. Ultramarine and white. It follows the 
yellows, and with them makes that beautiful greenifhhue 
which a difcerning eye finds in the colouring of the belt 
mailers ; mixing with the red tints, it produces the ten¬ 
der, purple, refledted, lliadows. 
7. A lead-tint is made of ivory-black and white, mixed 
to a middle degree: it is a retiring colour ; and is ufed in 
the gradations and in the eyes. 
8. Green tint. Pruflian blue, light ochre, and white, 
are ufed in the red fhadows when they are too llrong. We 
often meet with that tint in the works of the Venetian 
fchool, as well as in the paintings of the bell Dutch and 
Flemifti artifts. 
9. A general ground for lliadows is made of Indian 
red, lake, and black, brought, by mixing flake-white, to 
a murrey colour of a middle tint. It is a pleafant clean 
colour, a little inclined to reddilh pearl. 
jo. Red lhade ; compofed of lake and a little Indian-red. 
11. The warm lhade is made of lake and brown pink, to 
flrengthen the lhade-tint (N° 9.) AJphaltum and lake an- 
fwer the fame purpofe. 
1 a. Dark lhade. Ivory-black and a little Indian-red. 
A proper glazing for the eye-brows and dark lliadows. 
It works delightfully. 
The brown and black ought to be worked with drying 
oil; and, if you wifli to have it looner ready to paint over 
and finilh, grind with your knife on the pallet a little 
faccharum faturni, with the lealt quantity poflible of 
white-lead. You mull obferve, that, when you ufe tur¬ 
pentine with your colours, you mull mix more dryers 
with them, except with the whites. 
The brown colours, worked with drying oil, are very 
apt to run, which would fpoil the delicacy of your 
touches, and muddle all the tints. To avoid this, you 
may employ what is called megel/ip. The etymology of 
this word is not known ; but I (hall give my opinion upon 
it. It is made of about half and half of good drying-oil 
and maltic-varnilh, beat up in a fmall pot kept for that 
purpofe: it is curious to fee thefe two fluid fubllances 
make a body which has the folidity of a jelly; therefore, 
as it is made ready before you begin to paint, I fuppofe 
it was called originally made jelly, and by corruption 
megellip. 
Detached Obfervations, of Importance to the young Artifi. 
1. The bell heads, which time has fpared from the 
wreck of ancient fculpture, are Niobe and her daughter, 
Ariadne, Nero when young, Silence, and the Nile. 
a. In the whole body, the colouring ought to follow 
the fame fyllem. The colourof the hair fhould be a rule 
to decide the tone of that tint which, like the key-note 
in mufic, ought to pervade all the maflfes either of light or 
lhade. As we perceive a very material difference be¬ 
tween the complexion of a fair and a black haired perfon, 
it is the fame in a landfcape, where al! obje£ls,and their 
fhadows and light, ought to partake more or lefs of the 
warmth of the (kies. The works of Claude Lorraine and 
Gafpar Pouffin, of Horizonti and Zuccharelli, ought to 
be lludied attentively for this lall kind of painting, and 
thole of Titian and Vandyke for the former. 
3. Tranfitions from light to (hade are beautifully ex- 
prefied by Ovid, in the vith book of his Metamorphofes, 
and will pleafe tire young artift, who ought to be aware 
that the ftiidy of the poets and other writers of antiquity 
is of great ufe to diredt the mind, warm the fancy, and 
purify the talle, of a painter : 
In quo diverfi niteant cum mille colores 
Traniitus ipfe tamen fpeflantia lumine fallit, 
Ufque adeo quod tangit idem ell, tamen ultima diflanf. 
4. The lludy of the antique is next to the ftudy of na¬ 
ture; and indeed the great men, known by the denomi¬ 
nation of the ancients, had lludied her fo clofely, and with 
fo much difcernment and talle, that, feen through their 
works, (lie feems to have improved herfelf. 
5. Polycletus made a llatue, which the artifts of his 
time ufed to call the rule, and which they copied as the 
bell fpecimen of proportions. Pliny fays that “ he had 
eltablilhed the certainty of the art by the art itfelf ar- 
tem ipfe fuiffe artis opera judicatur. 
6. In fome painters dark colours predominate, as in 
Caravaggio, Spagnioletto, Manfredi, Valentino, and 
fometimes Guercino and Salvator Rofa ; in fome a pale- 
nefs, as in Vouet and Nicolo Pouffin ; the purple, in Baf- 
fano and Lingelback ; and grey, in Teniers. This lall 
tint feems to have originated in the works of Teniers 
from the Haerlem or Antwerp blue he freely ufed. We 
have to lament that thofe beautiful mallerpieces which 
came from the hand of fir Jolliua Reynolds have already 
loft their freftinefs and beauty of colouring; the paint¬ 
ings of that original genius, George Morland, are alfo 
Iofing every day the vaniftiing fweetnefs of their magic 
tints. 
7. The young artift, who by dint of application to the 
art, and careful lludy of the bed examples, is at the point 
of producing fomething worthy of himfelf, and honour¬ 
able to his country, fhould endeavour to feledl thofe pig¬ 
ments which are likely to Hand for ages. Too often does 
the painter labour for the preffing neceflities of the mo¬ 
ment, heedlefs of lading fame : but the encouragement 
and powerful protedlion which the arts in general, and 
this efpecially, receive from the wealthy clafs of fociety, 
will enable him to have a greater meed in view than a 
pecuniary and momentaneous reward ; therefore he ought 
to avoid, as much as poflible, thofe pleating glazings pro¬ 
duced by lakes and pinks, which evaporate fo quickly ; 
the mineral pigments, well managed, are able to fupply 
the place of the vegetable ones, and fecure to the artiil 
a more lading reputation. Burnt terra di Sienna, well 
chofen and well ground, mixed with a little blue, wilL 
anfwer the purpofe of brown pink ; and unburnt Sienna,, 
of the fame nature, has a tranfparency nearly equal to 
Dutch pink and yellow lake. Afphaltum has been much 
in vogue of late years on the Englilh pallet, and mummy 
had alfoa long run in France ; but their ufe is very preca¬ 
rious, as they give a dingy tint, unlefs they are conllantiy 
employed by themfelves. However, it is a very good co¬ 
lour in glazing, and produces in the lhadows a depth fel- 
dom to be equalled by any other procefs. 
8. It is with forrow that we are obliged repeatedly to 
confefs, that our modern performances do not keep their 
brightnefs as ancient piflures have done to this moment. 
To what is this change to be attributed ? Some good 
judges are of opinion, that ouroiLis not fo pure, or that 
we ufe it too freely ; they add, that we are too impatient, 
and that the addition of dryers alters the colours. It is 
certain that the old mailers ufed as little oil as poflible, 
working their pigments with fpirit of turpentine, and 
never admitting the help of faccharum faturni or drying- 
