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.

Every thing that is done is in pursuance of some Ideas the Master has, whether he can reach with his Hand, what his Mind has conceiv’d, or no ; and this is true in every Part of Painting. As for Invention, Expression, Disposition, and Grace, and Greatness. These every body must see direct us plainly to the Manner of Thinking, to the Idea the Painter had ; but even in Drawing, Colouring, and Handling, in These also are seen his Manner of Thinking upon those Subjects, One may by These guess at his Ideas of what is in Nature, or what was to be wish’d for, or Chosen at least. Nevertheless when the Idea, or Manner of Thinking in a Picture or Drawing is opposed to the Executive part, ‘tis commonly understood of these four first mention’d, As the other 3 are imply’d by its opposite.

He that would rise to the Sublime must form an Idea of Something beyond all we have yet seen ; or which Art, or Nature has yet produc’d ; Painting, Such as when all the Excellencies of the several Masters are United, and their several Defects avoided.
The greatest Designers among the Moderns want much of that exquisite Beauty, in all the Several Characters, that is to be seen in the Antique ; the Airs of the Heads, even of Rafaëlle himself, are Inferiour to what the Ancients have done ; and for Grace to some of Guido : the Colouring of Rubens and Van Dyck falls short of That of Titian, and Coreggio ; and the best Masters have Rarely Thought like Rafaëlle, or Compos’d like Rembrandt. Let us then imagine a Picture Design’d as the Laocoon, the Hercules, the Apollo, the Venus, or any of these Miraculous remains of Antiquity : The Airs of Heads like what is to be found in the Statues, Busts, Bas-releifs, or Medals, or like some of those of Guido ; and Colour’d like the most Celebrated Colourists ; with the Lightest Pencil, and the most Proper to the Subject ; and all this Suitably Invented, and Compos’d ; Here would be a Picture ! Such a one a Painter should Imagine, and So set before him for Imitation.
Nor must he stop Here, but Create an Original Idea of Perfection. The Utmost that the Best Masters have done, is not to be suppos’d the Utmost ‘tis possible for Humane Nature to arrive at ;

Le Génie se sert donc de la mémoire comme d’un vase où il met en réserve les Idées qui se présentent ; il les choisit avec l’aide du jugement, & en fait pour ainsi dire une provision, dont il se sert quand l’occasion s’en présente ; mais il n’en tire que ce qu’il y a mis, & n’en peut tirer autre chose. C’est ainsi que Raphaël a tiré de ses études les hautes Idées qu’il a prises de l’Antique, de même qu’Albert & Lucas ont tiré de leur méchant fond les Idées Gottiques que la pratique de leur tems & la nature de leur païs leur avait fournies.

in DU FRESNOY, Charles-Alphonse et DE PILES, Roger, De Schilderkonst eerst in Latynze Vaerzen Beschreven door C.A. Dufresnoy in't Frans gebragt en met Aantekekeningen verrykt Door den Heer De Piles Nevens een Zaammeuspraak over het koloriet, trad. par VERHOEK, Joannes, Amsterdam, Balthazar Lakeman, 1722., p. 115

in DU FRESNOY, Charles-Alphonse et DE PILES, Roger, De Schilderkonst eerst in Latynze Vaerzen Beschreven door C.A. Dufresnoy in't Frans gebragt en met Aantekekeningen verrykt Door den Heer De Piles Nevens een Zaammeuspraak over het koloriet, trad. par VERHOEK, Joannes, Amsterdam, Balthazar Lakeman, 1722., p. 11

in DE PILES, Roger, Beknopt verhaal van het leven der vermaardste Schilders : met Aanmerkingen over hunne werken, trad. par VERHOEK, Joannes, Amsterdam, Balthazar Lakeman, 1725., p. 16-17

in DOLCE, Lodovico, Dialogo della pittura di M. Lodovico Dolce, Intitolato l’Aretino. Nel quale si ragiona della dignità di essa Pittura, e di tutte le parti necessarie, che a perfetto Pittore si acconvengono: con esempi di Pittori antichi, e moderni: e nel fine si fa menzione delle virtù, e delle opere del divin Tiziano / Dialogue sur la peinture de Louis Dolce, intitulé l’Aretin. Dans lequel on traitte de l’excellence de la peinture, de toutes les qualités necessaires au bon Peintre, avec les exemples des Peintres anciens et modernes, à la fin on y parle du merite et des ouvrages du divin Titien, trad. par VLEUGHELS, Nicolas, Firenze, Michel Nestenus et François Moucke, 1735., p. 172

in DU FRESNOY, Charles-Alphonse, De arte graphica liber, Paris, Nicolas Langlois, 1668., p.42

in DE PILES, Roger et DU FRESNOY, Charles-Alphonse, The Art of Painting by C.A. DU FRESNOY with Remarks, trad. par DRYDEN, John, London, W. Rogers, 1695., p.59

in DE PILES, Roger et DU FRESNOY, Charles-Alphonse, The Art of Painting by C.A. DU FRESNOY with Remarks, trad. par DRYDEN, John, London, W. Rogers, 1695., p.88

in DE PILES, Roger, The principles of painting, under the heads of anatomy, attitude, accident... In which is contained, An account of the Athenian, Roman, Venetian and Flemish schools. To which is added, The balance of painters..., trad. par a painter, London, J. Osborn, 1743., p. 282

in DU FRESNOY, Charles-Alphonse, Kurtzer Begriff Der Theoretischen Mahler-Kunst, trad. par GERICKE, Samuel Theodor, Berlin, Johann Michael Rüdigen, 1699., p.52

in DE PILES, Roger, « " Abbildung eines Vollkommenen Mahlers ", in Historie und Leben der berühmtesten europaeischen Mahler, so sich durch ihre Kunst-Stücke bekand gemacht, samt einigen Réflexions darüber und Abbildung eines vollkommenen Mahlers, nach welcher die Mahlerey als einer Regul kann beurtheilet werden, wobey auch der Nutzen und Gebrauch der Kupferstücke und Erklärung der gebräuchlichen Mahler-Wörter », Hamburg, Benjamin Schiller, 1710., p. 19