PORTRAIT PAINTING (n.)
TERM USED IN EARLY TRANSLATIONS
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LINKED QUOTATIONS
Quotation
I confine the Sublime to History, and Portrait-Painting ; And These must excell in Grace, and Greatness, Invention, or Expression ; and that for Reasons which will be seen anon. Michael Angelo’s Great Style intitles Him to the Sublime, not his Drawing ; ‘tis that Greatness, and a competent degree of Grace, and not his Colouring that makes Titian capable of it : As Correggio’s Grace, with a sufficient mixture of Greatness gives this Noble Quality to His Works. Van Dyck’s Colouring, nor Pencil tho’ perfectly fine would never introduce him to the Sublime ; ‘tis his Expression, and that Grace, and Greatness he possess’d, (the Utmost that Portrait-Painting is Justly capable of) that sets some of his Works in that Exalted Class ; in which on That account he may perhaps take place of Rafaelle himself in That Kind of Painting, if that Great Man’s Fine, and Noble Idea’s carried him asmuch above Nature Then, as they did in History, where the utmost that can be done is commendable ; a due Subordination of Characters being preserved ; And thus (by the way) V. Dyck’s Colouring, and Pencil may be judg’d Equal to that of Corregio, or any other Master.