INVENTION (n.)
TERM USED AS TRANSLATIONS IN QUOTATION
GEEST (nld.)TERM USED IN EARLY TRANSLATIONS
/FILTERS
LINKED QUOTATIONS
Quotation
Of the Graces of Landtskip.
Though invention and imitation in this kinde are infinite, you must have a care to worke with a found judgement, that your worke become not ridiculous to the beholders eye, as well for true observation of the distance as absurditie of accident : that is, though your Landtship be good and true in generall, yet some particular error overslips your judgment either in mistaking or not observing the time and season of the yeere, the true shadow of your worke with the light of the Sunne, the bending of trees in winds and tempests, the naturall course of river and such like.
To settle therefore your judgement in these and the like, I whis you first to imitate the abstract or labour of every moneth. […].
If you draw your Landtskip according to your invention, you shall please very well, if you shew in the same, the faire side of some goodly Citie, haven, forrest, stately house with gardens, I ever tooke delight in those peeces that shewed to the like a country village, faire or market, Bergamascas cookerie, Morrice dancing, peasants together by the eares, and the like.
For your Parergas or needlesse graces, you may set forth the same with farme houses, water-milles, pilgrimes travelling through the woods, the ruines of Churches, Castles, &c. but you shall finde your conceipt seconded with a thousand inventions.
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
Of the Parts of a Piece
{Five Principa parts in a Picture.} In a PICTURE from Nature, there are five Principall parts..
1. Invention or Historicall Argument.
2. Proportion, Symmetry.
3. Colour, with Light or Darknesse.
4. Motion, or Life, and their Action and Passion.
5. Disposition, or œconomicall placing, or disposing, or ordering the work.
The four first, are observed in all sorts of Pieces.
Disposition only in those Pictures, that have many figures ; not to appear mingle-mangle ; but, in all and every part of the Piece, to observe a decent comlinesse, or grace, in a mutuall accord, of all five.
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
{1. Invention} Of Invention.
It must flow easily ; to force and strain it, marrs the Life and Spirit of the work ; perfect Invention flowes from generall knowledge ; Antiquity must be familiar to the workman ; most of all, multitude of Historicall and Poeticall Narrations ; Geometry ; Obticks ; and so to order your Piece, as to be valued neer or farther off.
Observe to expresse, proper and fit things, agreeing in Circumstance to the Time, Place, and Person : Habits, according to the fashion of such a people or Nation, ancient or Moderne. [...] And so have we done with an Example of all in One : For
Invention allures the mind.
Proportion, attracts the Eyes.
Colour ; delights the Fancie.
Lively Motion, stirs up our Soul.
Orderly Disposition, charmes our Senses.
{Conclude a rare Picture.} These produce gracefull Comliness, which makes one fairer then fair ; […].
This Grace is the close of all, effected by a familiar facility in a free and quick spirit of a bold and resolute Artificer ; not to be done by too much double diligence, or over doing ; a careless shew, hath much of Art.
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
Traveller.
I must then repeat to you what I told you at our first Meeting [ndr : Dialogue I, « Explaining the Art of Painting »] ; which is, That the Art of Painting has three Parts ; which are, Design, Colouring, and Invention ; and under this third, is that which we call Disposition ; which is properly the Order in which all the Parts of the Story are disposed, so as to produce one effect according to the Design of the Painter ; and that is the first Effect which a good Piece of History is to produce in the Spectator ; that is, if it be a Picture of a joyful Event, that all that is in it be Gay and Smiling, to the very Landskips, Houses, Heavens, Cloaths, &c. And that all the Aptitudes tend to Mirth. The same, if the Story be Sad, or Solemn ; and so for the rest. And a Piece that does not do this at first sight, is most certainly faulty though it never so well Designed, or never so well Coloured ; nay, though there be Learning and Invention in it ; for as a Play that is designed to make me Laugh, is most certainly an ill one if it makes me Cry. So an Historical Piece that doth not produce the Effect it is designed for, cannot pretend to an Excellency, though it be never so finely Painted.
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
Traveller.
Invention is the Manner of Expressing that Fable and Story which the Painter has chosen for the Subject of his Piece ; and may principally be divided into Order and Decorum. By the first, the Painter places the parts of his Subject properly, so as the Spectator may imagine that the thing did not happen otherwise than as it is there Represented ; [...] But if your Subject be such as constrains you to a Multitude, such as the Representation of a Battle, or of the Last Day of Judgement, then you are likewise dispensed from that great Care of Finishing ; but must chiefly study Union, and the disposing of your Lights and Shadows. The Painter must also take Care, that his Scene be known by his Piece at first view, by some Ingenious Invention to express the Countrey : Such was that of Nealces a Greek Painter, who having Drawn a Sea-Fight between the Ægyptians and the Persians ; to express, that the Action happened at the Mouth of the Nile, made an Ass drinking by the side of the River, and a Crocodile ready to devour him ; that being the proper Animal of that River.
The second part of Invention is Decorum ; that is, that there be nothing Absurd nor Discordant in the Piece :
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
Friend,
This puts me in mind of the moving part of Painting ; which is, the stirring of the Affections of the Spectator by the Expression of the Passions in the Piece ; and methinks this might well be called a part of Painting.
Traveller.
It is Comprehended under that of Invention ; and is indeed the most difficult part of it, as depending intirely upon the Spirit and Genius of the Painter, who can express things no otherwise than as he conceives them, and from thence come the different Manners ;
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
I confine the Sublime to History, and Portrait-Painting ; And These must excell in Grace, and Greatness, Invention, or Expression ;
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
The Kind of Picture, or Drawing having been consider’d, regard is to be had to the Parts of Painting ; we should see in which of These they excell, and in what Degree.
And these several Parts do not Equally contribute to the Ends of Painting : but (I think) ought to stand in this Order.
Grace and Greatness,
Invention,
Expression,
Composition,
Colouring,
Drawing,
Handling.
The last can only Please ; The next (by which I understand Pure Nature, for the Great, and Gentile Style of Drawing falls into another Part) This also can only Please, Colouring Pleases more ; Composition Pleases at least as much as Colouring, and moreover helps to Instruct, as it makes those Parts that do so more conspicuous ; Expression Pleases, and Instructs Greatly ; the Invention does both in a higher Degree, and Grace, and Greatness above all. Nor is it peculiar to That Story, Fable, or whatever the Subject is, but in General raises our Idea of the Species, gives a most Delightful, Vertuous Pride, and kindles in Noble Minds an Ambition to act up to That Dignity Thus conceived to be in Humane Nature. In the Former Parts the Eye is employ’d, in the Other the Understanding.
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
These being thus dispatch’d we are at liberty to consider the Invention [ndr : il s’agit du portrait de la comtesse Dowager of Exeter, par Van Dyck]. V. Dyck’s Thought seems to have been that the Lady should be sitting in her Own Room receiving a Visit of Condolance from an Inferiour with great Benignity ; as shall be seen presently, I would here observe the Beauty, and Propriety of this Thought. For by This the Picture is not an Insipid Representation of a Face, and Dress, but here is also a Picture of the Mind, and what more proper to a Widow than Sorrow ? And more becoming a Person of Quality than Humility, and Benevolence ?
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
ALL that is done in Picture is done by Invention ; Or from the Life ; Or from another Picture ; Or Lastly ‘tis a Composition of One, or More of these.
The term Picture I here understand at large as signifying a Painting, Drawing, Graving, &c.
Perhaps nothing that is done is Properly, and Strictly Invention, but derived from somthing already seen, tho’ somtimes Compounded, and jumbled into Forms which Nature never produced : These Images laid up in our Minds are the Patterns by which we Work when we do what is said to be done by Invention ; just as when follow Nature before our eyes, the only difference being that in the Latter case these Ideas are fresh taken in, and immediately made use of, in the other they have been reposited there, and are less Clear, and Lively.
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
Of Prints there are two Kinds : Such as are done by the Masters themselves whose Invention the Work is ; and such as are done by Men not pretending to Invent, but only to Coppy (in Their way) Other men’s Works.
The Latter sort of Prints are always profess’d Coppies with respect to the Invention, Composition, Manner of Designing, Grace, and Greatness. But These Prints may be also Coppied as they frequently are, and to know what are So, and what are Orignals is by being well acquainted with the Hands of the Graver, or Etcher, who in This respect are the Masters, as the Painter from whom They Coppied were to them.
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
Of INVENTION
BEING determined as to the History that is to be painted, the first thing the Painter has do do, is To make himself Master of it as delivered by Historians, or otherwise ; and then to consider how to Improve it, keeping within the Bounds of Probability. Thus the Ancien Sculptors imitated Nature ; and thus the best Historians have related their Stories.
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
In Portraits the Invention of the Painter is exercised in the Choice of the Air, and Attitude, the Action, Drapery, and Ornaments, with respect to the Character of the Person.
He ought not to go in a Road, or paint other People as he would choose to be drawn himself. The Dress, the Ornaments, the Colours, must be suited to the Person, and Character.
Conceptual field(s)
Quotation
There are an Infinity of Artifices to Hide Defects, or Give Advantages, which come under this Head of Invention ; as does all Caprices, Grotesque, and other Ornaments, Masks, &c. together with all Uncommon, and Delicate Thoughts : such as the Cherubims attending on God when he appeared to Moses in the Burning Bush, which Rafaëlle has painted with Flames about them instead of Wings ;
DA VINCI, Leonardo
IL PARMIGIANINO (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola)
MICHELANGELO (Michelangelo Buonarroti)
RAFFAELLO (Raffaello Sanzio)
ROMANO, Giulio