249 
PAINTING. 
hi Others will clioofe, their talents to difplay, 
* A fmaller field ; and their inventions lay 
£ On fkin prepar'd, on vellum fine and fmooth, 
£ Or on thin plates of elephantine tooth ; 
£ Reduce all figures to a dwarfilh fize, 
3 And bid, within a ring, abridged worlds arife ! 
Of Portrait-Painting. 
If painting be an imitation of nature, it is doubly fo in 
a portrait; which not only reprefents a man in general, 
but* fuch a one as may be diftinguilhed from all others. 
If any thing can be definitely afcertained concerning 
the fignificance of features, and the expreflionof the phy- 
fiognomy, it muft be effected by the diligent companion 
of faces of which the hiftory is accefiible, and the cha¬ 
racter can be inveftigated ; and, if a ftandard of beauty, 
binding on all nations, can ever be obtained, it muft be 
accomplilhed through the feleftion of thofe traits from 
individual nature which indicate compatible excellences. 
Confcious that hiftories of the invifible are like biogra¬ 
phies of the anonymous, Suetonius is careful to lketch 
in words the figure of every eminent emperor: but how 
weak a fubftitute is language for the pencil ! w'hen a cor¬ 
rect perfonal idea is wanted of the aCtive udio are at a 
diftance, or of the celebrated who are no more, it is only 
the portrait-painter who can overcome the impediments 
of fpace and time, and give ubiquity to the living, or 
immortality to the dead. 
The connection between biography and portrait-paint¬ 
ing is intimate indeed; “for as, in contemplating the 
portrait of an eminent perfon, we long to be inftruCted 
in his hiftory, fo, in reading of his aCtions, w r e long to 
behold his countenance.” 
The impreflion of a ftriking portrait or ftntue is great 
and lafting, and rivals that of the perfon whom it repre¬ 
fents. When Antipater was acculed of extortion, his 
young fon Cafiander was fent before Alexander to at¬ 
tempt the father’s defence : but the king, frowning on 
the youth, exclaimed, “ You fhall pay for this, if what 
the people fay be true.” Twenty years afterward, Caf¬ 
fander went to vifit Delphi, where ltood a ftatue of Alex¬ 
ander; the fight of which fo powerfully renewed the re¬ 
membrance of this mortification, that he was feized with 
a violent trembling, and could not for a long time re¬ 
fume his felf-command. 
Mofc of the renowned painters, both of ancient and 
modern times, have blended the peculiar practice of por¬ 
traiture with their other ftndies ; and fome have devoted 
their time to it as a principal objeCt of attention. Among 
thofe whofe talents aftifted to embalm the memory of an¬ 
cient Greece, by the cultivation of this delightful art, 
the names of Panamus, Polygnotus, Apelles, Ariftides, 
and fome few others, have elcaped oblivion : but, unfor¬ 
tunately, we enjoy only their renown ; and muft be con¬ 
tent to form a judgment of their merits through the 
feelings and language of others. By the authors who 
mention their works, we are led to believe that they car¬ 
ried portraiture to the utmoft degree of perfediion ; par¬ 
ticularly Apelles, in honour of whofe tranfcendent abi¬ 
lities the whole vocabulary of eulogium has been ex- 
haufted. 
On the revival of the art of painting in the thirteenth 
century, portraiture foon became an objeCt of attention, 
Since we find that Giotto, who died in 1336, pradtifed it 
with very confiderable fuccefs; and to him we are in¬ 
debted for the portraits of many of the molt conlpicuous 
characters of his time. His hiftorical pidlures, as well 
as thofe of Maflaccio, and all the older artifts, are full of 
figures which bear every appearance of portraits, and 
fome are known to be fuch. Molt probably they painted 
from thofe heads of their friends which fuited the cha¬ 
racter they wilhed to introduce; and certainly that is a 
means of obtaining a greater degree of natural expreftion 
than mere fancy can i’upply. Raphael, in his greateft 
work, the labours of the Vatican, employed the fame 
Vot,. XVIII. No. 1239. 
means. Engaged by Julius II. and Leo X. to adorn the 
pontifical palace by the exercife of his extraordinary ta¬ 
lents, and to celebrate the principles and triumphs of the 
Chriltian church, he did notlofe fight of the renown due 
to fuch munificent patrons; and, by introducing their 
portraits in the feries of pidlures he there painted, fe- 
cured to them a portion of his own immortal fame. Many 
portraits of the cardinals and nobility of Rome, who 
were either immediate friends of the artift or promoters 
of the work, werealfo admitted; but it muft be acknow¬ 
ledged, that the anachronifms created by it are frequently 
offenfive to the judgment, fince it is fcarcely pofiible to 
feparate the ideas alfociated with the figure of one man 
whofe hiftory we are acquainted with, and imagine it to 
be the image of another of prior date, and charadler to¬ 
tally diftindl. When portraiture is attached to an hifto¬ 
rical fubjedl, and the real adlors of the fcene are intro¬ 
duced, it then adds a tenfold intereft to the work. 
It was not in hiftorical pidlures alone that Raphael 
pradlifed portraiture; he has alfo left us feverai fuperior 
examples of postraits fpecifically fuch, of which thofe of 
Leo X. and of Julius II. in the gallery of the Louvre, 
demand the warmeft praife for their individuality, dig¬ 
nity, and charadler. His works of this kind, however, 
were but few, compared with thofe of his great cotem¬ 
porary Titian, who is generally regarded as the father and 
head of this peculiar branch of the art, having executed 
it with a greater mixture of truth, fimplicify, and gran¬ 
deur, than any other. Giorgione died fo young, that his 
produdlions in portraiture are necelfarily few ; but fome 
of thofe are exquilitely beautiful; witnefs the (mail pic¬ 
ture he painted of Gallon de Foix, and a fervant putting 
on his armour; formerly in the Orleans gallery, but now 
in pofteflion of the earl of Carlifle. 
Leonardo da Vinci, Sebaftian del Piombo, and moft of 
thofe who obtained celebrity at the period when the art 
of painting flourilhed in Italy,_ attended to portraiture, 
and there are very few of whom fome examples do not 
remain ; but the number of thofe who attached them- 
felves to it entirely was fmall. In Spain, Velalquez at¬ 
tained a degree of perfection nearly rivalling Titian ; but 
we have very few of his works in England : more rich in 
the labours of Vandyke, we are better enabled to appre¬ 
ciate his powerful talle and talents, and may well boaft 
of the treafures we poflefs, wrought by his ineftimable 
fkill. Next to him, Holbein, janfen, More, Lely, and 
Kneller, are the names of thole moft eftimable for their 
portraits, among the number of artifts with which this 
country has abounded from the days of the former, till 
the fun of our pictorial hemifphere arofe in Reynolds, the 
father of Britilh art; of whom it may be doubted whe¬ 
ther the art he difplayed, in uniting tafte and truth with 
ftyle and effeCl in portraiture, in a degree far furpafting 
any other painter, added to a juft feeling of charadler, 
does not more than counterbalance acknowledged de- 
ficiences in drawing, and fometimes in execution, and 
decidedly place him at the head of this branch of the art. 
The following remarks on producing likenefs are ex¬ 
tracted chiefly from a work by Sig. Rubejs, of the Acade¬ 
mies of Painting at Bologna and Venice, but printed at 
Paris, in Italian and French, in 1809. 
As the face is the focus of expreftion with refpeCt to 
the whole body, fo that part of the face which may be 
covered by an oval patch, including both eyes and reach¬ 
ing half way down the note, is the focus of expreftion 
with regard to the whole face. If a friend, a fervant, or 
any other inmate, be wrapped up in a domino, fo as to 
hide all the countenance except this focus of expreftion, 
we Ihould know him inllantly, any-where, in unexpected 
circumftances; but, place a patch, a malk, or goggle-lpec- 
tacles, over this locus of expreftion, and a flight change of 
drefs will deceive us as to the perfon. 
The Dutch painter Ten Kate, in the preface to his 
tranflation of our Richardfon, oblerves, that the artift 
Ihould always make his outline with the objeCt at a great 
3S diftance; 
