Elements of Art, a Poem: In Six Cantos; with Notes and a Preface; Including Strictures on the State of the Arts, Criticism, Patronage, and Public Taste |
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admiration ambition amongst ancient ancient Greece appears ardour Artist attainment Author beauties behold character Cicero claim colouring common connoisseur considered Correggio criticism defects dignity display divine ductions eazel effect endeavour Euphranor example excellence excited exhibition expression faculties fame fancy favour feeling fire Genius glory grace graphic Greeks honour hope human imitation impression influence judgment judicious labours Laocoon lence liberal Line Louvre mannerist means ment merits Michael Angelo mind modern Muse Nature neglect o'er object observation painter painting palette panegyric passion patriot pencil perfection perhaps Phidias picture Pliny poet poetry powers praise precept prejudice pride principles productions propriety pursuit qualities racter Raphael refinement Rembrandt respect Reynolds rise rival Roman School Rubens scene School sculpture sense sensibility shew skill spirit splendour sublime superior talents Taste terrestrial animals Timanthes tion Titian toil triumph truth vanity vigour Virtù virtue vulgar zeal
Popular passages
Page 154 - But each man's secret standard in his mind, That casting-weight pride adds to emptiness, This who can gratify ? for who can guess...
Page 10 - ... talents, industry will improve them; if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency. Nothing is denied to well-directed labour: nothing is to be obtained without it. Not to enter into metaphysical discussions on the nature or essence of genius, I will venture to assert that assiduity unabated by difficulty, and a disposition eagerly directed to the object of its pursuit, will produce effects similar to those which some call the result of natural powers.
Page 76 - Great wits sometimes may gloriously offend, And rise to faults true critics dare not mend. From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part. And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art, Which, without passing through the judgment, gains The heart, and all its end at once attains.
Page 41 - The imputation of novelty is a terrible charge amongst those who judge of men's heads, as they do of their perukes, by the fashion, and can allow none to be right but the received doctrines.
Page 10 - Vouet; but as he soon excelled him, so he differed from him in every part of the art. Carlo Maratti succeeded better than those I have first named, and I think owes his superiority to the extension of his views ; beside his master Andrea Sacchi, he imitated Raffaelle, Guido, and the Caraccis. It is true, there is nothing very captivating in Carlo Maratti ; but this proceeded from a want which can not be completely supplied; that is, want of strength of parts. In this certainly men are not equal ;...
Page 338 - What will be thought of the protection and encouragement afforded to Genius in this great and wealthy empire, when it is stated, that the unremitting exertions of this distinguished Artist, in the higher department of painting, during the period of forty-eight years, (almost half a century), have not, exclusive of his Majesty's patronage, produced to him the sum of six thousand pounds ! ! ! In wit's worst plight, before the public placed, And pelted by the populace of Taste ! Too oft, alas ! our...
Page 63 - And kept unconquer'd and uncivilized ; Fierce for the liberties of wit, and bold, We still defied the Romans, as of old. Yet some there were, among the sounder few Of those who less presumed and better knew, 720 Who durst assert the juster ancient cause, And here restored wit's fundamental laws. Such was the Muse, whose rules and practice tell, ' Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
Page 200 - ... to be performed, and what is still more extraordinary, the correctness and admirable taste of drawing of figures fore-shortened, in attitudes the most difficult to execute, we must pronounce this picture to be one of the greatest efforts of genius that ever the art has produced.
Page 154 - As shallow streams collected form a tide, So talents thrive, to one grand point applied.
Page 17 - Artist has of his subject will more than compensate for any want of elegance in the manner of treating it, or even of perspicuity, which is still more essential ; and I am convinced that one short essay written by a Painter, will contribute more to advance the theory of our art, than a thousand volumes such as we sometimes see ; the purpose of which appears to.