And (to fay all in one word,) there is fuch a grace and greatness shines throughout that it is one of the most desirable pictures we have yet feen; there is nothing to be defired, or imagined which it has not, nothing to be added, or omitted but would have diminished its excellency; unless we have leave to except those little particulars we have remarked, hardly worth mentioning; and whether we are in the right in those is fubmitted to better judgments. But there are a great many beauties we have not mentioned, and fome that cannot be expreffed in words, nor known without feeing the picture. And perhaps fome of both kinds we have not penetration enough to obferve. It is hard to quit fo agreeable a fubject. Let us obferve for the honour of Pouffin, and of the art, what a noble, and comprehenfive thought! what richnefs! and force of imagination! what a fund of science, and judgment! what a fine, and accurate hand is abfolutely neceffary to the production of fuch a work! that two or three ftrokes of a pencil (for example) as in the face of Argante can express a character of mind fo ftrongly, and fignificantly! We will only obferve further the different idea given by the painter, and the poet. A reader of Taffo that thought lefs finely than Pouffin would form in his imagination a picture, but not such a one as this. He would fee a man of a lefs lovely, and beautiful afpect, pale, and all cut, and mangled, his body, and garments fmeared with blood: he would fee Erminia, not fuch a one as Pouffin has made her: and a thousand to one with a pair of fciffars in her hand, but certainly not with Tancred's fword: the two amorettos would never enter into his mind: horfes he would fee, and let them be the finest he had ever seen they would be lefs fine than these, and fo of the reft. The painter has made a finer ftory than the poet, though his readers were equal to himself, but without all comparison much finer than it can appear to the generality of them. And he has moreover not only known how to make use of the advantages advantages this art has over that of his competitor, but in what it is defective in the comparison he has fupplied it with fuch address that one cannot but rejoice in the defect which occafioned fuch a beautiful expedient. I confefs we have not always time, and opportunity thus to confider a picture, how excellent foever it may be; in thofe cafes let us not employ that time we have in amufing ourselves with the lefs confiderable incidents, but remark upon the principal beauties, the thought, expreffion, &c. Mr. Thornhill has lately brought from France another picture no lefs worthy a particular differtation than the former, as will eafily be allowed, for it is of Annibale Caracci: here (as it is for my prefent purpose) I will only observe in fhort upon what is most remarkable in this furprizing picture; which has not been long out of my mind. fince the firft moment that I faw it. The fubject of it is the Bleffed Virgin as prote&refs of Bologna; as appears by the profpect of that city at the bottom of the picture under the clouds on which fhe is feated in glory, encompaffed with cherubims, boy-angels, and others as ufually defcribed: but oh! the fublimity of expreffion! what dignity, and devotion appears in the Virgin! what awful regard! what love! what delight, and complacency is in thefe angelic beings towards the Virgin-Mother of the Son of God! the afpect of the Chrift is proper to the chara&er he here fuftains; he is now only to denote the Virgin, as. St. Jerome's lion, St. John's eagle, and the like, he is not here as the fecond perfon in the adorable Trinity; the Virgin is the only principal figure; this is as it were a part of her, whofe character is alone to be confidered in this cafe; and accordingly every thing contributes to raise it as much as poffible; and that is done prodigiously. But as every thing elfe in the picture is addreffed towards her, fhe in the humbleft, and moft devout manner lifts up her eyes towards the the invisible Supreme Being, dire&ing our thoughts thither alfo, with like humble, pious and devout fentiments. If fhe to whom the angels appear fo vaftly inferior is in his prefence but a poor suppliant, What an exalted idea muft this give us of him! Angelic minds the nearest to thyself, OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF HANDS. IN all the works of art there is to be confidered, the thought, and the workmanship, or manner of expreffing, or executing that thought. What ideas the artift had we can only guefs at by what we fee, and confequently cannot tell how far he has fallen fhort, or perhaps by accident exceeded them, but the work like the corporeal, and material part of man is apparent, and to be feen to the utmoft. Thus in the art I am difcourfing upon, every thing that is done is in pursuance of fome ideas the mafter has, whether he can reach with his hand, what his mind has conceived, or no; and this is is true in every part of Painting. As for invention, expreffion, difpofition, and grace, and greatness. Thefe every body muft fee 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 thofe fubjects, one may by these guess at his ideas of what is in nature, or what was to be wifhed for, or chofen at least. Nevertheless when the idea, or manner of thinking in a picture or drawing is opposed to the executive part, it is commonly understood of thefe four firft mentioned, as the other three are implied by its oppofite. No two men in the world think, and act alike, nor is it poffible they should, because men fall into a way of thinking, and acting from a chain of caufes which never is, nor can be the fame to different men. This difference is notorious, and seen by every one with respect to what is the object of our fenfes, and it is as evident to our reafon; as it is that what I have affigned as the cause of it is the true one. There are two inftances that are very familiar, and. well known, and those are our voices, and hand-writing; people of the fame age, the fame conftitution, and in feveral other particulars in the fame circumftances for ought appears to common obfervation are yet as easily distinguished by their voices, as by any other means and it is wonderful to confider that in fo few circumstances as what relates to the tone of the voice there fhould be (as there is) an infinite variety fo as to produce the effect I am fspeaking of. So in the other cafe; if one hundred boys learn of the fame mafter, at the fame time, yet fuch will be the difference in other refpecs that their hands fhall be diftinguished even while they are at school, and more easily afterwards; and thus it would be if one thousand, or ten thoufand could learn in the fame manner. They fee differently, take in different ideas, retain them variously, have a different power of hand to form what they conceive, &c. Nay if in any one circumftance they be unlike the effect is a proportionable degree of difference. And And as it is in the cafes I have mentioned fo it is in all others. So it is therefore in the works of the painters, and that in a degree proportionable to what thofe works are; in Paintings, therefore more than in drawings, and in large compofitions more than in fingle figures, or other things confifting of a few parts. If in forming an A, or a B, no two men are exactly alike, neither will they agree in the manner of drawing a finger or a toe, lefs in a whole hand, or foot, lefs ftill in a face, and so on. And if there is really a difference it will be difcernable if things be attentively confidered, and compared, as is evident from experience in a thousand inftances befides thofe I have mentioned. The feveral manners of the painters confequently are to be known, whether in pictures, or drawings; as alfo thofe of the gravers in copper, or wood; etchers, or others by whom prints are made, if we have a fufficient quantity of their works to form our judgments upon. But though there is a real difference in things, this is in various degrees, and fo proportionably more, or lefs apparent. Thus, fome of the manners of the painters are as unlike one another as Alcibiades, and Therfites; others are lefs remarkably unlike, as the generality of men's faces are; fome again have a fraternal refemblance; and there are fome few which have that which is frequently found in twins where the difference is but juft difcernable. There are fuch peculiarities in the turn of thought, and hand to be seen in fome of the mafters (in fome of their works especially) that it is the easiest thing in the world to know them at first fight; fuch as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarotti, Giulio Romano, Battista Franco, Parmeggiano, Paolo Farinati, Cangiagio, Rubens, Caftiglione, and fome others; and in the divine Rafaelle one often fees fuch a tranfcendent excellence that cannot be found in any other man, and affures us this must be the hand of him who was what Shakespear calls Julius Cæfar: The foremost man of all the world. |