Woes. Suftain your Self with it, the Grief to Us Feet The next left me alone in Woe; Their Griefs My Sons, but grop'd about with Feeble hands The Hiftorian, and Poet having done Their parts comes Michelangelo Buonarotti, and goes on in a Bas-releif I have feen in the hands of Mr. Trench, a Modeft, Ingenious Painter, lately arriv'd from his long Studies in Italy. He fhews us the Count fitting with his Four Sons, one dead at his Feet, Over their Heads is a Figure repre fenting fenting Famine, and underneath is another to denote the River Arno, on whofe Banks this Tragedy was acted. Michelangelo was the fittest Man that ever liv'd to Cut, or Paint this Story, if I had wifh'd to see it reprefented in Sculpture, or Painting I fhould have fix'd upon this Hand; He was a Dante in his way, and he read him perpetually. I have already obferved, and 'tis very true, There are certain Ideas which cannot be communicated by Words, but by Sculpture, or Painting only; it would be Ridiculous then on this occafion to undertake to defcribe this admirable Bas-relief; 'tis enough for my prefent purpose to say there are Attitudes, and Airs of Heads fo proper to the Subject, that they carry the Imagination beyond what the Hiftorian, or Poet could poffibly; for the reft I must refer to the thing it felf. 'Tis true a Genius Equal to that of Michelangelo may form E form to its felf as Strong, and Proper Expreffions as thefe, but where is that Genius! Nor can even He Communicate them to Another, unless he has also a Hand like that of Michelangelo, and will take that way of doing it. as And could we fee the fame Story Painted by the fame great Mafter it will be easily conceiv'd that this must carry the Matter ftill farther; There we might have had all the Advantages of Expreffion which the Addition of Colours would have given, and the Colouring of Michelangelo was proper to That, as his Genius was to the Story in general; These would have fhewn us the Pale, and Livid Flesh of the Dead, and Dying Figures, the Redness of Eyes, and Blewish Lips of the Count, the Darkness, and Horrour of the Prison, and other Circumstances, befides the Habits (for in the bas relief all the Figures are Naked as more proper for Sculpture) Thefe might be contrived fo as to express the Quality of the Perfons the more to excite our Pity, as well as to enrich the Picture by their Variety. Thus History begins, Poetry raifes higher, not by Embellishing the Story, but by Additions purely Poetical: Sculpture goes yet farther, and Painting Completes and Perfects, and That only can; and here ends, This is the utmost Limits of Humane power in the Communication of Ideas. I have obferved elsewhere, and will take leave to put my Reader in mind of it once more. 'Tis little to the honour of Painting, or of the Masters of whom the Stories are told that the Birds have been cheated by a Painted Bunch of Grapes; or Men by a Fly, or a Curtain, and fuch like; These are Little things in comparison of what we are to expect E & Whoever expect from the Art. have fancied thefe kind of things confiderable have been Wretched Connoiffeurs, how Excellent foever they may have been in Other refpects. Rafaelle would have Difdain'd to have attempted fuch Trifles, or would have Blufh'd to have been Prais'd for them; But Rafaelle would have Painted a God, a Hero, an Angel, a Madonna; or he would have related fome Noble Hiftory, or made a Portrait in fuch a manner, as Whoever faw it with Genius, and Attention, fhould treasure up in his Mind an Idea that should always give him Pleasure, and be a Wifer, and Better Man all his Life after. The business of Painting is to do almost all that Difcourfe, and Books can, and in many Instances much more, as well as more Speedily, and more Delightfully; So that if Hiftory, if Poetry, if Philofophy, Natural, |