as Lights, and Middle Tints.

VI. And Whether the Colours are laid on Thick, or Finely Wrought it must appear to be done by a Light, and Accurate Hand.

Laftly, Nature must be the Foundation, That must be feen at the Bottom; But Nature must be Rais'd; and Improv'd, not only from what is Commonly feen, to what is but Rarely, but even yet higher, from a Judicious, and Beautiful Idea in the Painters Mind, fo that Grace and Greatness may fhine throughout; More, or Lefs however as the Subject may happen to be. And herein confifts the Principal Excellency of a Picture, or Drawing.

Thefe

These few plain Rules being throughly Comprehended, and Remembred, which may be done with a tolerable Measure of Good Senfe, a little Trouble in Reading, and a good deal of Obfervation on Nature, and Pictures, and Drawings of Good Mafters Í will venture to fay are fufficient to qualifie a Gentleman to be a good Judge in thefe Matters as being derived from, and evidently founded upon Reason; and tho' not deftitute of Abundant Authority, yet neither Borrowed from Thence, or at all trufting to That for their Support.

And let me be permitted to fay it Without Vanity, (tho' if it were With it 'tis no Importance to the Reader) I advance nothing upon the foot of Authority. Whatever Authorities there are for any Propofition Their Value Confists in their being derived from Reason,

and

and they weigh with Me in proportion as I fee they do fo; They then become My Own, and I have no occafion to produce the Author but the Reason: Or (if that be obvious) leave it to be obferved by the Reader.

as

And the matter would terminate Here tho' we had a Book of Rules for Painting said to be written by Apelles himself, and it were allowed that what Apelles faid wers Infallibly true; For then, instead of faying Are these Rules Good, Are they founded upon Reason; the Queftion would only be, Are they really of Him: Their Authority Then will reft, not upon the Credit of Apelles, but upon the Teftimony of Thofe that fay they are His. Which I fhall not want if I find the Rules to be Good, and if I do not 'twill be Infufficient: And all This with

out

out the leaft prejudice to the profound Refpect I have for Apelles, nay 'tis a Neceffary Confequence of it.

To judge of the Degrees of Goodnefs of a Picture or Drawing 'tis neceffary that the Connoiffeur fhould be throughly acquainted, & perpetually converfant with the Beft. For how perfectly foever he may be Master of the Rules of the Art he will know that Those are like what Divines call Precepts of Perfection; that is they are given as what we should Endeavour to go by as far as we are Able. The Best things We Know will be the Standard by which we shall Judge of Thofe, and all the reft. Carlo Maratti, and Giuseppe Chiari will be a Rafaelle, and Giulio Romano to him who has never feen better; and Then an Inferiour Master will make a good Carlo. I have been

F

fur

furpriz'd to obferve what Pleasure Some Connoiffeurs have taken in what Another look'd upon with Little, if not with Contempt, 'till I have confider'd One was not fo well acquainted with the Works of the Best Masters as the Other, and that accounts for it fufficiently.

All the different Degrees of Goodness in Painting may be reduc'd to these three General Claffes. The Mediocre, or Indifferently Good, The Excellent, and the Sublime. The firft is of a large Extent; the second much Narrower; and the Laft ftill more fo. I believe most people have a pretty Clear, and Just Idea of the two former; the other is not so well understood; which therefore I will define according to the Senfe I have of it; And I take it to confist of some few of the Highcft Degrees of Excellence in those