PAINTING (n.)
TERM USED AS TRANSLATIONS IN QUOTATION
COLORIS (fra.)TERM USED IN EARLY TRANSLATIONS
PEINTURE (fra.)FILTERS
LINKED QUOTATIONS
Quotation
Painting in generall called in Latine Pictura, in Greeke χρωματική, is an Art, which either by draught of bare lines, lively colours, cutting out or embossing, expresseth any thing the like by the same : which we may finde in the holy Scripture both allowed and highly commended by the mouth of God himselfe, where he calleth Bezaleel and Aholia {Exodus 31.}, men whom he hath filled with the spirit of God in wisedome and understanding, and in knowledge, and in all workmanship, to find out curious works, to worke in gold, and in silver, and in brasse, also in the art to set stones, and to carve in timber, &c. There plainly shewing, as all other good Arts, so carving or drawing to be an especiall gift of Gods Spirit.
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Of Painting,
The principall end and subject of this Art, is to set out things both in proportion of parts, and livelinesse of colour.
For the former, the proportion of parts, I have given sufficient information for the meanest capacitie in the precedent part of this tractat : now therefore I will speake of the other, the colouring or setting out in colours. But first provide a frame or Easel called by Artists, which is very necessary to worke upon, especially in greater pieces of worke : the forme whereof followeth [ndr : présence d’un dessin de chevalet].
Also you must provide divers little shels to put your colours in, also pensils or all sorts, both for priming and other : a light ruler of one foot and a halfe, or two foot long : and colours of all sorts ground very fine upon a porphire or marble. […].
Painting may be performed either with water colours, or with oyle colours.
First I will speake of water colours, wherein I shall observe two things.
First, the diversitie of colours, and preparations. Secondly, their mixture, and manner of laying them on the ground.
First of the first, the diversitie of colours and their preparation.
Colours are either simple or compounded, meerely tinctures of vegetables, or substances of minerals, or both : the simple colours are such as of themselves, being tempered with the water or oyle, doe give a colour. The compounded are such, whose ingredients do exceed the number of one. Vegetables are rootes, juces, berries, and such like things as grow out of the earth. Minerals are such as are dig’d out of the earth, as earth, and stones, &c. All which follow in order, as well their preparations, as description. First note that every colour to be ground, ought first to be ground with the gall of a neat : then let them dry of themselves in a cold place, afterwards grinde them with gumme water for your use.
Now I am to come to the second thing observable (to wit) the mixture and laying the colours on the grounds, which is thus: your colours prepared for use, ought to be tempered according unto direction, still observing a meane : and to that end, mixe them by little and little, till the colour please you ; first you must lay on the ground colour, and let it dry throughly : then with a small pensill, pricke on the second colour, else it will be apt to run abroad, nor can you worke it so well, to make it seeme lively, as you may by pricking it one, specially in small peeces.
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Quotation
Of Painting and Poetry compared
{Harmony of Poetry and Painting.} Thus have I adventured the challenge, in the name of Apollo, to the Art of Apelles ; by comparing Wit, and Words, by the Poem, with Draught and Colour by the Pensil [ndr : voir les pages précédentes] ; […].
For Poesie is a speaking Picture, and Picture is a silent, Poesie ; the first, as if alwayes a doing ; the other, as if done already. In both, an astonishment of wonder ; by Painting to stare upon Imitation of Nature, leading and guiding our Passions, by that beguiling power, which we see exprest ; and to ravish the mind most, when they are drunke in by the eyes.
{Painting before Poetry} Yet Painting was before Poetry ; for Pictures were made before Letters were read. […].
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Quotation
{Five sorts of Paintings.} And thus much of Pictures their Choyce and Use, there being five kinds of Paintings. Distemper or Sise-colour ; Frescoe ; Oyle-Colours ; Miniture or Water-Colours ; Croyons, or dry Colours.
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Of the powers of a Painter and Painting
{In reference to Philosophy and Poetry And Painting.} Philosophers, divide the universe (which is their subject) into three Regions ; Cælestiall, Aeriall, Terrestriall.
So the POETS, (who imitate humain Life, in measured lines,) have lodged themselves, in three Regions of Mankind ; Court, Citty, and Country.
So the PAINTERS, (whose Art is to imitate Nature) performe it in three severall Qualities ; Design, Proportion, and Colour.
{Into three sorts.} And these, into three sorts of Painting ; Prospective, (or Landskip), Historicall, and Life.
Prospective ; a wonderfull freedome, and liberty, to draw, even, what you list, so various is Nature in that.
Historicall ; respects due Proportions and figures.
Life ; only the Colour.
In each of these ; you must have dependency upon all the other, but necessarily, on each in particular.
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Quotation
Chap. XIII, Of Drawing, Limning, and Painting: with the lives of the famous Italian Painters.
Since Aristotle numbreth Graphicè, generally taken, for whatsoever is done with the Pen or Pencill (as writing fair, Drawing, Limning and Painting (amongst those his παιδενματα, or generous Practises of youth in a well governed Common-wealth : I am bound also to give it you in charge for your exercise at leasure, it being a quality most commendable, and so many waies usefull to a Gentleman. For should you (if necessity required) be employed for your Countries service in following the warre, you can describe no plot, manner of fortification, form of Battalia, situation of Town, Castle, Fort, Haven, Island, course of River, passage thorow Wood, Marish ; over Rock, Mountain, &c. […] without the help of the same. {The manifold use of Painting or Limning.} In all Mathematicall Demonstrations, nothing is more required in our travail in forrain Regions. It bringeth home with us from the farthest part of the world in our bosomes, whatsoever is rare and worthy the observance, as the generall Mappe of the Country, the Rivers, Harbourgs, Havens, Promontories, &c within the Landscap, of fair Hils, fruitfull Valleyes : the forms and colours of all Fruits, severall beauties of their Flowers ; […]. And since it is only the imitation of the surface of Nature, by it as in a book of golden and rare-limmed Letters, the chief use end of it, we read a continuall Lecture of the Wisdome of the Almighty Creator […].
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Chap. XIII, Of Drawing, Limning, and Painting: with the lives of the famous Italian Painters, p. 126
Quotation
And that you should not esteem basely of the practise thereof, let me tell you, that in ancient times ; Painting was admitted into the first place among the liberall Arts, and throughout all Greece taught only to the children of Noble men in the Schools, and altogether forbidden to be taught to servants or slaves.
In no less honour and esteem was it held among the Romans, as we find in Pliny and many others […].
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Quotation
The Definition of Painting.
Painting is an Art which with proportionable Lines, and Colours answerable to the life, by observing the Perspective Light, doth so imitate the Nature of corporal things, that it not only representeth the thickness and tenderness thereof upon a Flat, but also their actions, and gestures, expressing moreover divers affections and passions of the Mind.
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Hence it appeareth that Painting is an Art, because it imitateth natural things most precisely, and is the counterfeiter and (as it were) the very Ape of nature ; whose Quantity, Eminency and Colours, it ever striveth to imitate, performing the same by the help of Geometry, Arithmetick, Perspective, and Natural Philosophy, with most Infallible Demonstrations, but because of Arts some be Liberal, and some Mechanical, it shall not be amiss, to shew amongst which of them Painting ought to be numbred. {Painting is a liberal Art.} Now Pliny calleth it plainly a liberal Art, which authority of his may be proved by reason, for although the Painter cannot attain to his end, but by working both with his hand and pencil, yet there is so little pains and labour bestowed in this Exercise, that there is no Ingenious Man in the World, unto whose Nature it is not most agreeable, and infinitely pleasant.
For we read of the French King Francis, the First of that name, that he oftentimes delighted to handle the pencil, by exercising, drawing and painting ; […], so that in these and the like Exercises, nothing is Base or Mechanical, but all Noble and Ingenious.
[…]. Farthermore it cannot be denied, but that the Geometrician also worketh with the Hand, by drawing Lines, as Circles, Triangles, Quadrangles and such like Figures ; neither yet did ever any Man therefore account Geometry a Mechanical Art because the Hand-labour therein imployed is so sleight, that it were an absurdity in respect thereof, to reckon it a base condition.
The like reason is there of painting, the Practice whereof, doth so little weary a Man, that he which was Noble before, cannot justly be reputed Base by exercising the same ; but if besides all this, we shall farther consider, that Painting is subordinate to the Perspectives, to Natural philosophy, and Geometry (all which out of question are Liberal Sciences) and moreover that it hath certain Demonstrable conclusions, deduced from the First and immediate Principalls thereof, we must needs conclude that it is a Liberal Art.
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Moreover it is said, that it [ndr : la peinture] representeth the Figure upon a Plaine, and hereby it is distinguished from Carving (though not Essentially, but onely Accidentally (as it is said in the Proem) by reason of the diversity of the matter, wherein both of them represent natural things which imitateth Nature likewise, though it express the perfect roundness of the Bodies as they are created of God, whereas the Painter representeth them upon a Flat Superficies : Which is one of the chiefest reasons, why Painting hath ever been preferred before Carving.
Because by meer Art upon a Flat, where it findeth only length, and breadth, it representeth to the Eye the Third Dimension, which is roundness and thickness ; and so maketh the Body to appear upon a Flat ; where naturally it is not.
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Quotation
In imitation whereof, I hold it expedient for a Painter, to delight in seeing those which fight at cuffs, to observe the Eyes of privy murtherers, the courage of wrastlers, the actions of Stage-players, and the inticing allurements of curtesans, to the end he be not to seek many particulars, wherein the very Life and Soul of painting consisteth, wherefore, I could wish all Men carefully to keep their Brains waking, which whosoever shall omit his invention (out of doubt) will sleep, studying perhaps Ten Years about the action of one Figure, which in the end will prove nothing worth, whence all famous inventors, for the avoiding of such gross defects, have the rather shewed themselves subtile Searchers out of the effects of nature, being moved thereunto by a special delight of often seeing, and continually practizing that which they have preconceived, so that who so keepeth this Order, shall unawares attain to such an habit of practice, in lively expressing all Actions and Gestures, best fitting his purpose, that it will become an other nature.
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Now the perfect knowledge of this motion, is (as hath been shewed) accounted the most difficult part of the art, and reputed as a divine gift. Insomuch, as herein alone consisteth the comparison between Painting and Poetry, for as it is required in a Poet, that besides the excellency of his wit, he should moreover be furnished with a certain propension and inclination of will, inciting and moving him to versity, (which the antient called the fury of Apollo and the Muses) so likewise a Painter ought, together with those natural parts which are required at his hands, to be furnished with a natural dexterity and inborn flight of expressing the principal motions, even from his cradle ; otherwise it is a very hard (if not impossible) matter, to obtain to the absolute perfection of this Art.
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Providence yet kinder, gave us two Arts, which might express the very Lines of the Face, the Air of the Countenance, and in it a great part of the Mind of all those whom they should undertake to Represent ; and these are, Sculpture and Painting.
Michael Angelo, the famousest Sculptor of these Modern Ages, looking one day earnestly upon a Statue of St. Mark made by Donatello, after having long admired it, said at last, That if Saint Mark were like that Statue, he would have believed his Gospel upon his Physionomy, for it was the honestest Face that ever was made. ’Tis hard to say, whether he commended the Artist, the Saint, or the Art it self most by this Expression : But this Inference we may make from it, That if the Faces of Heroes do express the Greatness of their Minds, those Arts which perpetuate their Memory that way, are the truest of all Records.
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I shall not undertake to determine here, which of these two Arts [ndr : la peinture et la sculpture] deserves our Admiration most : The one, makes Marble-Stone and Brass soft and tender : the other, by a strange sort of Inchantment, makes a little Cloth and Colours show Living Figures, that upon a flat Superficies seem Round, and deceives the Eye into a Belief of Solids, while there is nothing but Lights and Shadows there : But this I may say in favour of the Art of Painting, whose praises I am now to Celebrate, That it certainly is of a greater Extent than Sculpture, and has an Infiniter Latitude to delight us withal.
To see in one Piece the Beauty of the Heavens, the Verdant Glory of the Earth, the Order and Symmetry of Pallaces and Temples ; the Softness, Warmth, Strength, and Tenderness of Naked Figures, the Glorious Colours of Draperies and Dresses of all kinds, the Liveliness of Animals ; and above all, the Expression of our Passions, Customs, Manners, Rites, Ceremonies, Sacred and Prophane : All this, I say, upon a piece of portative Cloth, easily carried, and as easily placed, is a Charm ; which no other Art can equal.
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Quotation
Traveller.
There wanted a Spirit and Life, which their Successors gave to their Works [ndr : les successeurs désignent les artistes de la génération suivant celle de Mantegna, A. da Messina, etc.] ; and particularly, an Easiness ; which hides the pains and labour that the Artist has been at ; it being with Painting as with Poetry ; where, the greatest Art, is to conceal Art ; that is, that the Spectator may think that easie, which cost the Painter infinite Toyl and Labour :
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Drawing consists of several General precepts to be learnt of every one that is desirous to attian to Perfection therein ; the practice of which requires Observation, Discretion, and Judgement ; in which, Proportions, Motions, and Actions are with great care and diligence to be followed : And therefore he that will attain to the perfection of this excellent Practice, it is necessary he should not be ignorant of Mathematical Demonstration in the Rules of Geometry and Perspective ; of which in this Book you shall receive Instructions. Of all other proportions, the Body of man hath the pre-eminence for excellency, from which all other Arts are derived, as many of the learned have concluded ; for Vitruvius noteth, that the Architect hence took the observations of his Buildings, Man being the first pattern of all Artificial things ; and Antiquity hath so graced Painting, (as being the chief Mistress of Proportion) so that all other Artificers are called Handy-crafts or Mechanicks.
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Quotation
Poetry by the Force of the most Allective Ratiocination, Charmes the Mind with the Real Essences of Delight ; not onely by pleasing the Eare with Dulcisonant Numbers, but likewise by Informing the Soul, in the Expansion of the most Abstruse and Occult Misterys of Philosophy ; conducting us thereby through Feilds of Delight, to the Magnificent Seats of Vertue and Knowledge.
Musick Refines and rayses the Spirits, above all the Gross, Mundane Pleasures, which Attend the Avenues of common sense: Replenishing the Fancy with the most Beautiful Idea’s, and Seraphick Raptures of Bliss, and giving us here a Tast of those Flouds of Immence Delight, Prepar’d for such Harmonious Souls, (who despising the Insipid and Imperfect Joys, swallowed down with Greediness, by the Inconsiderate Herd of Mankind) adapt themselves for those Immortal Pleasures.
But Painting not onely Allures and Delights with the Charming Numbers and Noble Information of Poetry ; with the sweet Unisons and Ravishing Harmony of Musick ; but likewise brings from their several Orbes, the Great Monopolists of these Sciences for us to Converse with, and by every artfull stroak adds to the Erection of her own Monument, to the Delight and Instruction of the present and future Ages : thus he who is not Felicify’d with the Fruition of these Three Beatitudes, enjoys the Perfection on of them all, in this one Charming Mistress.
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Quotation
Painting is an Art, which by Draught of Lines and Colours, doth not only Express the Forms of all things, on the superficies of the Earth (according to Socrates) [...] with the Actions of all Animals, but likewise the Passions of Intellectual Beings.
It is the Noblest of all Arts, since it immediately Copys after the Miraculous hand of the Almighty ; nor only imitates Created Beings, but the Creation it self : for out of a Chaos of Colours, which by chance mixture, would perish in their mutual Imbraces, and of themselves are Glaring, or Foul ; and thence unpleasing to the Eye, as ill sounds are Diaphonous to the Ears ; the Artfull Hand, by a Sympathy in Mixture, and the Harmonious Unisons of Proportion, not only Formes a Beautifull Body, but likewise gives the Expressions of the Soul.
It is the most Expressive of all Arts, and of more General Information then Printing ; for it speaks at once to all Nations and Languages, and they who are strangers to Letters, may read the story in it self : therefore the Egyptians Couch’d their wisest Morals in Hieroglyphicks and Emblems, and the Universality of the Knowing part of Mankinde Improv’d thereby.
It hath more Force of Perswasion then Eloquence, for the Idea of any thing is more Subtilly and Entirely Conveyed to the Understanding by the Eye then by the Ear, Objects being more Allective to this Sence then the other ; and having this Advantage, that the Visual Rayes at once Comprise the whole Story, whereas Relation is Dilatory and thence more Burthensome to the Memory.
What use the Ancients made of this Art for the Exciting Vertue, may be seen in these (amongst Nnmberless) Exemples.
The Romans Painted Fortitude in the Example of Horatius Cocles defending the Bridge (call’d Sublitius) against a great Troop of Tuscanes : and Marcus Marcellus, who by cutting of the Head of Britomarte a French Captain, Discomfitted the Enemies whole Army.
For Love to their Country, Marc. Curtius, who cast himself and Horse into a Bottomless Gulff : and the Three Decii the Father in the Roman Warr, the Son in the Tuscane and the Nephew in the Battle against Pyrrhus ; all which ran into certain and Eminent Death, for the good of their Country.
And for Military Discipline, Posthumus the Dictator, who put his own Son to Death for getting a Conquest over his Enemies by breaking his Ranks ; with innumerable more Emblems of Divers Vertues and pieces of Gallantry.
Certainly these Painted with a great Spirit, Passion and Gracefull Action, must be more Instructive and Exciting then the most Rhetoricall Harangue.
It is the most Ingenuous Art, and greatly assisting to Natural Philosophy ; since with the greatest Scrutiny it examines into the very Entity of Nature.
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There hath been a continual Altercation between Painters and Carvers for Superiority in the Excellency of Art : but that Carvers may not pretend to excel Painters in the Essential part we will lay down how far they agree and then wherein the Carvers are Excel’d.
[...].
And as there is no Essential difference between two particular Men, both being Rational Creatures, so there is not between Painting and Carving, for both tend to the same End, by Representing Individual Substances ; and both must observe the same Geometrical Quantity in what they Represent.
Suppose a Painter and Carver were to Counterfeit the same Person, doubtless both would conceive the same Idea of him, proceeding in their Minds with the same discourse of Reason and Art, and (as before) observe the same Geometrical Quantity, endeavouring to make it as like the Person they Represent as they could : and so the Draught expressing the Idea’s of both the Workmen, would agree in expressing the true Resemblance, which is the Essence of this Art.
’Tis true one Painteth and the other Carveth ; but this is a Material Difference only, which argues no Specifical Difference in Art or Science, and it is the Essential Difference alone that maketh a Distinction of Species and Diversity of Science.
If it be Objected that the Carver maketh more of the Figure then the Painter, it is answer’d, more or less makes no Specifical or Proper Difference ; therefore it is the Defect of Matter, and not of Art, thus far the Arts are Analogical.
Now that this Art far Excels Carving is easily Demonstrated, since on a Flat, it Represents Roundness and Thickness, exceeding therein the Power of Nature it self, expressing Life and Spirit far beyond Carving, as in these Instances.
Apelles Painted Alexander the Great so to the Life, that his Horse Bucephalus brought into the Room, immediately kneeld down supposing it his Master : His Horse he likewise Painted with such Spirit that other Horses began to Neigh, when they saw him.
Andreas Mantegna represented a Servant in Porta Vercellina, so Natural, that the Horses left not Kicking at it till there was no shape of a Man left.
[...].
A Venus cannot be made with that Allectation in Carving, since the Complection of the skin, with Colour of Eyes, Hair, &c. are requisite to the Perfection of a Beauty.
Nor can History be Carv’d without great Defects, since all Distances require a Faintness of Colouring, as well as Diminution of Body : with many more Observations in Nature, onely Obvious to Colouring, of absolute Necessity for the Animating of Figures.
APELLES
BERNAZZANO, Cesare
DA SESTO, Cesare
GAUDENTIUS
MANTEGNA, Andrea
PARRHASIUS (Parrhasios)
ZEUXIS
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Quotation
I am sorry the Great, and Principal End of the Art has hitherto been so little Consider’d ; I don’t mean by Gentlemen only, or by Low, Pretended Connoisseurs, But by those who ought to have gone higher, and to have Taught Others to have Followed them. ‘tis no Wonder if many who are accustom’d to Think Superficially look on Pictures as they would on a Piece of Rich Hangings ; Or if such as These, (and some Painters among the rest) fix upon the Pencil, the Colouring, or perhaps the Drawing, and some little Circumstantial Parts in the Picture, or even the just Representation of common Nature, without penetrating into the Idea of the Painter, and the Beauties of the History, or Fable. I say ‘tis no wonder if this so frequently happens when those whether Ancients or Moderns, who have wrote of Painting, in describing the Works of Painters in their Lives, or on other occasions have very rarely done any more ; Or in order to give us a Great Idea of some of the Best Painters have told us such Silly Stories as that of the Curtain of Parrhasius which deceiv’d Zeuxis, of the small lines one upon the other in the Contention between Apelles and Protogenes, (as I remember, ‘tis no matter of whom the Story goes) of the Circle of Giotto, and such like ; Trifles, which if a Man were never so expert at without going many degrees higher he would not be worthy the name of a Painter, much less of being remembred by Posterity with Honour.
‘tis true there are some Kinds of Pictures which can do no more than Please, as ‘tis the Case of some Kinds of Writings ; but one may as well say a Library is only for Ornament, and Ostentation as a Collection of Pictures, or Drawings. If That is the Only End, I am sure ‘tis not from any Defect in the Nature of the Things themselves.
I repeat it again, and would inculcate it, Painting is a fine piece of Workmanship ; ‘tis a Beautiful Ornament, and as such gives us Pleasure ; But over and above this We PAINTERS are upon the Level with Writers, as being Poets, Historians, Philosophers and Divines, we Entertain, and Instruct equally with Them. This is true and manifest beyond dispute whatever Mens Notions have been ;
To wake the Soul by tender Strokes of Art,
To raise the Genius, and to mend the Heart.
Mr. Pope.
is the business of Painting as well as of Tragedy.
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And thus too it is seen that Drawings (generally speaking) are Preferrable to Paintings, as having those Qualities which are most Excellent in a Higher Degree than Paintings generally have, or can possibly have, and the Others (excepting only Colouring) Equally with them. There is a Grace, a Delicacy, a Spirit in Drawings which when the Master attempts to give in Colours is commonly much diminish’d, both as being a sort of Coppying from those First Thoughts, and because the Nature of the Thing admits of no better.
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PAINTING is indeed a Difficult Art, productive of Curious pieces of Workmanship, and greatly Ornamental ; and its Business is to represent Nature. Thus far the Common Idea is just ; Only that ‘tis More Difficult, More Curious, and More Beautifull than is Commonly Imagin’d.
‘Tis an entertaining thing to the Mind of Man to see a fine piece of Art in Any kind ; and every one is apt to take a sort of Pride in it as being done by one of his Own Species, to whom with respect to the Universe he stands related as to one of the Same Countrey, or the Same Family. Painting affords us a great Variety of This kind of Pleasure in the Delicate, or Bold management of the Pencil ; in the mixture of its Colours, in the Skilful Contrivance of the several parts of the Picture, and infinite Variety of the Tincts, so as to produce Beauty, and Harmony. This alone gives great Pleasure to those who have learn’d to see these things. To see Nature justly represented is very Delightfull, (supposing the Subject is well chosen) It gives us pleasing Ideas, and Perpetuates, and Renews them ; [ndr : le terme Pleasing doit être ajouté ici, cf l’errata présent au début de l’ouvrage] whether by their Novelty, or Variety ; or by the consideration of our own Ease, and Safety, when we see what is Terrible in themselves as Storms, and Tempests, Battels, Murthers, Robberies, &c. Or else when the Subject is Fruit, Flowers, Landscapes, Buildings, Histories, and above all our Selves, Relations, or Friends.
Thus far the Common Idea of Painting goes, and this would be enough if these Beauties were seen, and consider’d as they are to be found in the Works of the Best Masters (whether in Paintings, or Drawings) to recommend the Art. But This is such an Idea of it as it would be of a Man to say He has a Graceful, and Noble Form, and performs many Bodily Actions with great Strength, and Agility, without taking his Speech, and his Reason into the Account.
The Great, and Chief Ends of Painting are to Raise, and Improve Nature ; and to Communicate Ideas ; not only Those which we may receive Otherwise, but Such as without this Art could not possibly be Communicated ; whereby Mankind is advanced higher in the Rational State, and made Better ; and that in a Way, Easy, Expeditious, and Delightful.
The business of Painting is not only to represent Nature, but to make the Best Choice of it ; Nay to Raise, and Improve it from what is Commonly, or even Rarely Seen, to what never Was, or Will be in Fact, tho’ we may easily conceive it Might be.
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Painting is another sort of Writing, and is subservient to the Same Ends as that of her younger Sister ; That by Characters can communicate Some Ideas which the Hieroglyphic kind cannot, As This in other respects supplies its Defects ;
And the Ideas thus convey’d to us have This advantage, They come not by a Slow Progression of Words, or in a Language peculiar to One Nation only ; but with such a Velocity, and in a Manner so Universally understood that ‘tis something like Intuition, or Inspiration ; As the Art by which ‘tis effected resembles Creation ; Things so considerable, and of so great a Price, being produced out of Materials so Inconsiderable, of a Value next to nothing.
What a Tedious thing would it be to describe by Words the View of a Countrey (that from Greenwhich hill for instance) and how imperfect an Idea must we receive from hence ! Painting shews the thing Immediately, and Exactly. No words can give you an Idea of the Face, and Perfon of one you have never seen ; Painting does it Effectually ; with the addition of so much of his Character as can be known from thence ; and moroever in an instant recalls to your memory, at least the most Considerable particulars of what you have heard concerning him, or occasions that to be told which you have never heard.
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As the Poets, so the Painters have stor’d our Imaginations with Beings, and Actions that never were ; they have given us the Finest Natural, and Historical Images, and that for the same End, to Please, whilst they Instruct, and make men Better. I am not dispos’d to carry on the Parallel, by descending to Particulars, nor is it my Present business : Mr. Dryden has done it, tho’ it were to be wish’d he had been in less Haste, and had understood Painting better when his Fine Pen was so employ’d.
Sculpture carries us yet farther than Poetry, and gives us Ideas that no Words can : Such Forms of things, such Airs of Heads, such Expressions of the Passions that cannot be describ’d by Language.
It has been much disputed which is the most Excellent of the two Arts, Sculpture, or Painting, and there is a Story of its having been left to the determination of a Blind man, who gave it in favour of the Latter, being told that what by Feeling seem’d to him to be Flat, appear’d to the Eye as Round as its Competitor. I am not satisfy’d with This way of deciding the Controversy. For ‘tis not the Difficulty of an Art that makes it preferable, but the Ends propos’d to be serv’d by it, and the Degree in which it does That, and then the Less Difficulty the Better.
Now the great Ends of both these Arts is to give Pleasure, and to convey Ideas, and that of the two which best answers Those Ends is undoubtedly preferable ; And that this is Painting is Evident, since it gives us as great a degree of Pleasure, and all the Ideas that Sculpture can, with the Addition of Others ; and this not only by the help of her Colours ; but because she can express many things which Brass, Marble, or other Materials of that Art cannot, or are not so Proper for. A Statue indeed is seen all round, and this is one great Advantage which ‘tis pretended Sculpture has, but without reason : If the Figure is Seen on every Side, ‘tis Wrought on every Side, ‘tis Wrought on every Side, ‘tis then as so many several Pictures, and a hundred Views of a Figure may be Painted in the time that that Figure is cut in Marble, or cast in Brass.
As the business of Painting is to Raise, and Improve Nature, it answers to Poetry ; (tho’ upon Occasion it can also be Strictly Historical) And as it serves to the Other, more Noble End, this Hieroglyphic Language completes what Words, or Writing began, and Sculpture carried on, and Thus perfects all that Humane Nature is capable of in the communication of Ideas ‘till we arrive to a more Angelical, and Spiritual State in another World.
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Thus History begins, Poetry raises higher, not by Embellishing the Story, but by Additions purely Poetical : Sculpture goes yet farther, and Painting Completes and Perfects, and That only can ; and here ends, This is the utmost Limits of Humane power in the Communication of Ideas.
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Painting is but another Sort of Writing, but like the Hieroglyphicks anciently ‘tis a Character not for the Vulgar : To read it, is not only to know that ‘tis such a Story, or such a Man, but to see the Beauties of the Thought, and Pencil ; of the Colouring, and Composition ; the Expression, Grace, and Greatness that is to be found in it : and not to be able to do This is a Sort of Illiterature, and Unpoliteness.
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The great Business of Painting I have often said, and would fain inculcate, is to relate a History, or a Fable, as the best Historians, or Poets have done ; to make a Portrait so as to do Justice at least, and Sometimes not without a little Complaisance ; and that to the Mind, as well as to the Face, and Person ; To represent Nature, or rather the Best of Nature ; and where it can be done, to Raise and Improve it ; to give all the Grace and Dignity the Subject has, all that a well instructed Eye can discover in it, or which such a Judgment can find ‘tis Capable of in its most Advantagious Moments.
Contrairement aux autres passages de l'Essay on the Theory of Painting, la préface n'est pas traduite dans l'édition française de 1728.
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Painting is that Pleasant, Innocent Amusement. But ’tis More ; ’tis of great Use, as being one of the means whereby we convey our Ideas to each other, and which in some respects has the Advantage of all the rest. And thus it must be rank’d with These, and accordingly esteem’d not only as an Enjoyment, but as another Language, which completes the whole Art of communicating our Thoughts ; one of those particulars which raises the Dignity of Human Nature so much above the Brutes ; and which is the more considerable, as being a Gift bestowed but upon a Few even of our own Species.
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The Pleasure that Painting, as a Dumb Art, gives us, is like what we have from Musick ; its beautiful Forms, Colours and Harmony, are to the Eye what Sounds, and the Harmony of that kind are to the Ear ; and in both we are delighted in observing the Skill of the Artist in proportion to It, and our own Judgment to discover it.
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[…] we hope for Pardon, if in this Chapter we shall not keep so strictly within the Limits of this ART [ndr : la peinture] in particular, which we are forced sometime to entrench upon the Confines of some neighbour ARTS, relating to Sculpture and Engraving, and referring to the Invention of Letters, antick Images, Pillars, or Pagan Deities of old ; which now the Maturity of these latter Ages has so variously distinguished and diversified ; of all which, yet in a general Acceptation, we conceive PAINTING to be comprehensive and of near affinity to, and the introducing of which we can hardly judge any Extravagancy, but rather (as we shall briefly endeavour to make it appear) very applicable and consonent to our Deposition in hand.
FOR Pictura and Sculptura, in the Sence of the Poets, were accounted Twins ; and as that Worthy Author M. Evelyn, joying with them Architectura, declares those Three illustrious and magnificent ARTS so dependent upon each other, that they can no more be separated than the very Graces themselves, who are always represented to us holding Hand in Hand, and mutually regarding one another ; we may reasonably conjecture that they were born together ; or however, that the Emergency, or Rise of the one was not long previous to the Invention of the other.
FOR if we take Pictura in a general Acceptation, and according to the Definition of Vitruvius, viz. Fit Imago ejus quod est seu esse potest : It may be comprehensive of not only Painting but Sculpture, Plastick and Mosaick Work, or any other Counterfeit, or Similitude, of any created, or imaginary Being whatsoever ; and so makes no essential Difference at all between them, but only ratione materia, which is only in the Mechanick and less noble Part of the ART, they agreeing notwithstanding in the Essentials, the more liberal and refined Accomplishments of it.
BUT yet this is not all that de facto, there is such Affinity and Similitude between these TWO ARTS ; but we may affirm ‘tis the Excellency also, and mutual Perfection of each other to be so : For as Sir H. Wotton takes notice out of Pliny {Elements of Architecture}, where designing to distinguish, he handsomly interweaves them together to our Purpose, saying, That Picture is best when it standeth off as if it were carved ; and Sulpture is best when it appeareth so tender as if it were painted.
AND once more to urge the entire Connection of these TWO ARTS together, we dare with Confidence enough affirm, whereever we find a compleat ARTIST in Sculpture, he must also have a competent Talent of Knowledge in PAINTING ; and particularly more than meanly skilled in the ART of ready Drawing and Designing, and have a sufficient Knowledge of the Nature and Effect of Light and Shadows, which small Commencements, perhaps, made up the compleat Character of not a few of the antient Heroes, whom Pliny does so studiously, yet not undeservedly celebrate.
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AFTER him [ndr : Lysippe de Sicyone] succeded his Scholar Pamphilus de Macedonia, the first that improv’d himself, and the ART, by his Study of good Literature, and especially in Arithmetick and Geometry ; without which, he was of Opinion it was impossible to be a perfect and compleat Painter. His Authority so far prevail’d, that by a strict and perpetual Edict, the States of Greece ordain’d, that all Gentlemens Sons, and Freeborn, should go to the Painting School, and there be taught First, above all Things, the Art Diagraphice : That no Slave should have that Privilege, or under a Penalty be taught by any the ART, or Mystery of Painting ; and that it should be accounted and rang’d in the first Degree of the liberal Sciences.
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ABOUT this Time the Italians were again beholden to the Greeks in the Communication of another Sort of Picture call’d Mosaick Work ; […]. It is, indeed, an ART, we may look upon, as in some Sense, subordinate to PAINTING, with an Emulation to imitate it in all the Variety of Design, Figures, Colours, Lights, and Shades, but with Materials, not only of a wonderful Beauty, but of a much more permanent and enduring Nature, such as Shells, Gold, Glass, Pebbles, Ivory, and Pieces of variegated Marbles, which, with a mighty Industry and Curiosity, were all Cut, Form’d, Tinctur’d Anneal’d, Enammel’d, Gilt, Glaz’d, or Burnish’d, and, by a wonderful Application, fitted to compose the Figures of Birds, Beasts, Flowers and Men ; and, in short, to represent almost any Thing that PAINTING itself could pretent to ; and of this for Instance among many others, that might be produc’d, St. Marks’s Church at Venice, particularly remains to this Day as a glorious Example.