by any general idea of beauty in his own mind. Of this his St. Sebaftian is a particular instance, This figure appears to be a molt exact reprefentation both of the form and of the colour of the model, which he then happened to have before him; it has all the force of na ure, and the colour is Aeth itself; but unluckily, the model was of a bid form, efpecially the legs. Titian has with as much care preferved thefe defects, as he has imitated the beauty and brilliancy of the colouring. In his colouring he was large and general, as in his defign he was minute and partial; in the one he was a genius; in the other not much above a copier. I do not, however, fpeak now of all his pictures; inflances enough nay be produced in his works, where thole obfervations on his defects could not with any propriety be applied; but it is in the manner, or language, as it may be called, in which Titian, and others of that fchool, exprefs them.elves, that their chiet excellence lies. This manner is in reality, in painting, what language is in poetry. We are all tenible how differently the imagination is affected by the fane, fentiment expreffed in different words, and how mean or how grand the fame object appears wh i prefented to us by different painters Whether it is the human figure, an animal, or even inanimate objects, there is nothing, however unpromifing in appen nce, ut what may be raifed into dignity, convey fentiment, and produce emotion, in the hands of a painter of genius. What was faid of Virgil, that he threw even the dung about the ground with an air of dignity, may be applied to Titian. Whatever he touched, however naturally mean and habitually familiar, by a kind of magic, he invefted with grandeur and importance. I must here observe, that I am not recommending a neglect of the detail: indeed it would be dithcult, if not impoffible, to prefcribe certain bounds, and tell how far, or when it is to be obferved or neglected; much must, at last, be left to the tafe and judgment of the artist. I am well aware how a judicious detail will fometimes give the force of truth to the work, and confequently terell the spectator*. I only with to imprefs on your minds the t ne diftinction between effential and fubordinate powers, and fhew what qualities in the art claim your chef attention, and what my, with the leaft injury to your repu tation, be neglected; fomething, perhaps, always nuft be neglected; the leffer ought then to give way to the greater; and fince every work can have but a limited time allotted to it, for even fuppofing a whole life to be employed al out one picture, it is fill limited; it appears more reafonable to employ that time to the best advantage, in contriving various methods of compofing the work; of trying different effects of light and fhade; and employing the labour of corretion, in heightening by a judicious adjustment of the parts the * See Difcourfe iii. page 105. effects effects of the whole, than that the time fhould be taken up in minutely finishing thofe parts. But there is another kind of high finishing which may fately be condemned, as it feems to counteract its own purpose; that is, when the artift, to avoid that hardness which proceeds from the outline cutting against the ground, foftens and blends the colours to excefs; this is what the ignorant call high finishing, but which tends to deftroy the brilliancy of colour and the true effect of reprefentation, which confifts very much in preferving the fame proportion of fharpnels and bluntnefs which is in natural objects. This extreme foftening, inftead of producing the effect of foftnefs, gives the appearance of ivory, or fome other hard fubftance highly polifhed. The portraits of Cornelius Johnfon appear to have this defect, and confequently want that fupplenefs which is the characteristic of flesh; whereas, in the works of Vandyke, we may obferve that true mixture of foftnefs and hardneis perfectly obferved. The fame defect is in the manner of Vanderwerf, in oppofition to that of Teniers; and fuch we may add is the manner of Raff elle in,his oil pictures, in comparison with that of Titian. The name which Raffaelle has fo justly maintained as the first of painters, we may venture to fay was not acquired by this laborious attention. His apology may be made by faying that it was the manner of his country; but if he had expreffed his ideas with the facility and eloquence, as it may be called, of Titian, his works would certainly not have been lefs excellent; and that praife which ages and nations have poured out upon his works, for poffeffing genius in the higher attainments of art, would have been extended to them all. Thofe who are not converfant in works of art, are often fur prifed at the high value fet by connoiffeurs on drawings which appear careless, and in every refpect unfinished; but they are truly valuable, and their value arifes from this, that they give the idea of a whole, and this whole is often expreffed by a dex. terous facility which indicates the true power of a painter, even though roughly exerted; whether it confifts in the general compofi. tion, or the general form of each figure, or in the turn of the atti tude which beftows grace and elegance. All this we may fee fully exemplified in the very fkilful drawings of Parmegiano and Corregio. On whatever account we value thefe, drawings, it is certainly not for high finishing, or a minute attention to particulars. Excellence in every part, and in every province of our art, from the highest ftyle of history down to the refemblances of ftill-life, will depend on this power of extending the attention at once to the whole, without which the greatest diligence is vain. I wish you to bear in mind, that when I fpeak of a whole, I do not mean fimply an whole as belong ing to compofition, but an whole with refpect to the general style of colouring; an whole with regard to the light and shade; an zuhole L 4 of of every thing which may feparately become the main purpose of a painter. I remember a landscape-painter in Rome, who was known by the name of Studio, from his patience in high finishing, in which he thought the whole excellence of art confifted; fo that he once endeavoured, as he said, to reprefent every individual leaf on a tree. This picture I never faw; but I am very fure that an artist, who looked only at the general character of the fpecies, the order of the branches, and the maffes of the thage, would in a few minures produce a more true refemblance of trees than this painter in as many months. A landscape - painter certainly ought to study anatomically (if I may ufe the expreffion) all the objects which he paints; but when he is to turn his studies to ufe, his skill, as a man of genius, will be difplayed in fhewing the general effect, preferving the fame degree of hardnefs and loftnefs as the objects have in nature; for he applies himself to the imagination, not to the curiofity, and works not for the Virtuofo or the Naturalift, but for the common obferver of life and nature. When he knows his fubject, he will know not only what to defcribe, but what to omit; and this fkill in leaving out, in all things, is a great part of knowledge and wisdom. The fame excellence of manner which Titian displayed in history or portrait painting, is equally confpicuous in his landscapes, whether they are profeffedly fuch, or ferve only as backgrounds. One of the most eminent of this latter kind is to be found in the picture of Saint Pietro Murtire. The large trees, which are here introduced, are plainly distinguifhed from each other by the different manner with which the branches fhoot from their trunks, as well as by their different foli. age; and the weeds in the foreground are varied in the fame manner, just as much as variety requires, and no more. When Aigarotti, fpeaking of this picture, praifes it for the minute difcriminations of the leaves and plants, even, as he fays, to excite the admiration of a botanist, his intention was undoubtedly to give praife even at the expence of truth; for he must have known that this is not the character of the picture; but connoiffeurs will always find in pictures what they think they ought to find; he was not aware that he was giving a defeription injurious to the repu tation of Titian. Such accounts may be very hurtful to young artists, who never have had an opportunity of teeing the work defcribed; and they may poflibly conclude, that this great artift acquired the name of the Divine Titian from his eminent attention to fuch trifling circum. stances, which, in reality, would not raife him above the level of the most ordinary painter. We may extend thefe obfervations even to what feems to have but a fingle, and that an individual, object. The excellence of portrait-painting, and we may add even the likeness, the character, and countenance, as I have ob ferved in another place, depends more upon the general effect exhibited by the painter, than the exact expreffion of the peculiari ties, or minute difcriminations of title, and for the fame reafon. Neither of thofe pictures have any interefting story to fupport them. That of Paulo Veronete is only a reprefentation of a great concourfe of people at a dinner; and the fubject of Rubens, if it may be called a fubject where nothing is doing, is an affembly of various faints that lived in different ages. The whole excellence of thote pictures confifts in mechanical dexterity, working however under the influence of this comprehenfive faculty which I have fo often mentioned. the parts. The chief attention of the artist is therefore employed in planting the features in their proper places, which fo much con tributes to giving the effect and true impreffion of the whole. The very peculiarities may be reduced to claties and general descriptions, and there are therefore large ideas to be found even in this contracted fubject. He may afterwards labour fingle features to what degree he thinks proper, but let him not forget continually to examine, whether, in finiflung the parts, he is not destroying the general effect. It were certainly a thing to be wished, that all excellence were applied to illuftrate fubjects that were interefting and worthy of being commemorated; whereas, of half the pictures that are in the world, the fubject can be valued only as an occation which fets the artift to work; and yet, the high value we fet on fuch pictures, without confidering, or perhaps without knowing the fubject, fhews how much our attention is engaged by the art alone. Perhaps nothing that we can fay will fo clearly fhew the advantage and excellence of this faculty, as that it confers the character of genius on works that pretend to no other merit; in which is neither expreffion, character, or dignity, and where none are interested in the fubject. We cannot refuse the character of genius to the marriage of Paulo Veronefe, without oppofing the general fenfe of mankind (great authorities have called it the triumph of painting) or, to the altar of St. Auguftine at Antwerp, by Rubens, which equally deferves the fame It is by this, and this alone, that the mechanical power is ennobled and raised much above its natural rank. And it appears to me, that with propriety it acquires this character, as an inftance of that fuperiority with which mind predominates over matter, by contracting into one whole what matter has made many. The great advantages of this idea of a whole is, that a greater quantity of truth may be faid to be contained and expreffed in a few lines or touches, than in the most laborious finishing the parts where this is not regarded. It is upon this foundation that it ftands: and the juftnefs of the obfervation would be confirmed by the ignorant in art, if it were poffible to take their opinions unfeduced by fome falfe idea of what they ima gine they ought to fee in a picture. As it is an art, they think they ought to be pleated in proportion as they fee that art fo oftentatiously difplayed; they will, from this fuppofition, prefer neatnefs, highfinishing, and gaudy colouring, to the truth, fimplicity, and unity of nature. Perhaps too, the to tolly tally ignorant beholder, like the ignorant artist, cannot comprehend a whole, or even what it means. But if falfe notions do not anticipate their perceptions, they who are capable of obfervation, and who, pretending to no fkill, look only itraight forward, will praife and condemn in proportion as the painter has fucceeded in the effect of the whole. Here general fatisfaction or general diflike, though perhaps defpifed by the painter as proceeding from the ignorance of the principles of art, yet may help to regulate his conduct, and bring back his attention to that which ought to be his principal object, and from which he has deviated for the fake of minuter beauties. An inftance of this right judgment I once faw in a child, in going through a gallery where there were many portraits of the laft age, which, though neatly put out of hand, were very ill put together. The child paid no attention to the neat finishing, or naturalnefs of any bit of drapery, but appeared to obferve only the ungracefulness of the figures, and put herself in the posture of every figure which the faw in a forced aukward attitude. The cenfure of nature, uninformed, fattened upon the greatest fault that could be in a picture, because it related to the character and management of the whole. I should be forry, if what has been faid fhould be understood to have any tendency to encourage that careleffnefs which leaves works in an unfinished state. I commend nothing for the want of exaftnefs; I mean to point to that kind of exactuels which is the beft, and which is alone truly to be fo esteemed. So far is my difquifition from giving countenance to idleness, that there is nothing in our art which enforces fuch continual exertion and circumfpection. It re quires much study and much prac tice; it requires the painter's whole attention; whereas the parts may be finifhed by nice touches, while his mind is engaged on other matters; he may even hear a play or a novel read without much disturbance. The artist who flatters his own indolence, will continually find himfelf evading this laborious attention, and applying his thoughts to the eate and lazines of finishing the parts. No work can be too much fi nifhed, provided the diligence em ployed be directed in its proper object; but I have obferved, that an exceffive labour in the detail has, rine times in ten, been per nicious to the general effect, even when it has been the work of great matters. It indicates a bad choice, which is an ill setting out in any undertaking. To give a right direction to your industry has been my principal purpofe in this difcourfe. It is this, which I am confident often makes the difference between two ftudents of equal capacities, and of equal industry. Whilft the one is employing his labour on minute objects of little confequence, the other is acquiring the art, and perfecting the habit, of feeing nature in an extenfive view, in its proper proportions, and its due fubordination of parts. Before I conclude, I must make one obfervation fufficiently con nected with the prefent fubject. The |