ANCIENT (n.)
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Quotation
Traveller,
I grant you, Inclination goes a great way in disposing the Hand, but a strong Imagination only, will not carry a Painter through ; For when he compares his Work to Nature, he will soon find, that great Judgment is requisite, as well as a Lively Fancy ; and particularly when he comes to place many Objects together in one Piece or Story, which are all to have a just relation to one another. There he will find that not only the habit of the Hand but the strength of the Mind is requisite ; therefore all the Eminent Painters that ever were, spent more time in Designing after the Life, and after the Statues of the Antients, then ever did in learning how to colour their Works ; that so they might be Masters of Design, and be able to place readily every Object in its true situation.
Friend,
Now you talk of Nature and Statues, I have heard Painters blam’d for working after both.
Traveller,
It is very true, and justly ; but less for working after Nature than otherwise. Caravaggio a famous Painter is blam’d for having meerly imitated Nature as he found her, without any correction of Forms. And Perugin, another Painter is blam’d for having wrought so much after Statues, that his Works never had that lively easiness which accompanies Nature ; and of this fault Raphael his Scholar was a long time guilty, till he Reform’d it by imitating Nature.
Friend,
How is it possible to erre in imitating Nature ?
Traveller,
Though Nature be the Rule, yet Art has the Priviledge of Perfecting it ; for you must know that there are few Objects made naturally so entirely Beautiful as they might be, no one Man or Woman possesses all the Advantages of Feature, Proportion and Colour due to each Sence. Therefore the Antients, when they had any Great Work to do, upon which they would Value themselves did use to take several of the Beautifullest Objects they designed to Paint, and out of each of them, Draw what was most Perfect to make up One exquisite Figure ; Thus Zeuxis being imployed by the Inhabitants of Crotona, a City of Calabria, to make for their Temple of Juno, a Female Figure, Naked ; He desired the Liberty of seeing their Hansomest Virgins, out of whom he chose Five, from whose several Excellencies he fram’d a most Perfect Figure, both in Features, Shape and Colouring, calling it Helena.
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Quotation
Friend,
When a Painter has acquired any Excellency in Desinging, readily and strongly ; What has he to do next ?
Traveller,
That is not half his Work, for then he must begin to mannage his Colours, it being particularly by them, that he is to express the greatness of his Art. ’Tis they that give, as it were, Life and Soul to all that he does ; without them, his Lines will be but Lines that are flat, and without a Body, but the addition of Colours makes that appear round ; and as it were out of the Picture, which else would be plain and dull. ’Tis they that must deceive the Eye, to the degree, to make Flesh appear warm and soft, and to give an Air of Life, so as his Picture may seem almost to Breath and Move.
Friend,
Did ever any Painter arrive to that Perfection you mention ?
Traveller,
Yes, several, both of the Antient and Modern Painters. Zeuxis Painted Grapes, so that the Birds flew at them to eat them. Apelles drew Horses to such a likeness, that upon setting them before live Horses, the Live ones Neighed, and began to kick at them, as being of their own kind.