PREFACE.

SOME apology may be thought necessary for my publishing Lectures on Painting; for my offering to the world reflections upon a subject which has been so skilfully treated by those intelligent men who have preceded me in the professorship of painting in the Royal Academy, and by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first great president of that honourable and useful institution. I submit to the propriety of the thought; and say, that I should certainly not have done so, had I not imagined, that, by having taken a novel course in my endeavours to fulfil the duties of the professorship, I had, in some measure, rendered my Discourses a useful appendage to those already before the students and the public.

Endeavouring to make a just estimate of the circumstances under which I had accepted the office assigned to me, I felt that, if it were not

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given to me to rival the display of learning or of eloquence made by my immediate predecessors, I might, whilst I united with them in upholding the most elevated views of the art, add to their usefulness by adopting a more simple and more didactic style of composition. To this end I have directed my labours, and I flatter myself that I have added something of value to the information they have afforded; if not in exalted sentiment or in brilliant criticism, at least in arrangement and practical utility.

Here, then, is my apology:-The hope of being useful, the desire to assist in preserving pure and unadulterated the practice and the application of painting in our school of art: to preserve it in a rational and needful state of control over that wild luxury of taste, that excess of delight in the ornamental rather than in the true and essential beauties of art, which has so repeatedly been fatal to its real interest; and which certainly threatens to overwhelm it here.

The regulation of the Royal Academy, which directs its professor of painting "to instruct the students in the principles of composition; to form their taste in design and colouring; to point out the beauties and imperfections of celebrated works of art, and the particular ex

cellencies and defects of great masters; and, finally, to lead them into the most efficacious paths of study;" presents, it must be acknowledged, no light task to him who undertakes the office. Nor should I have aspired to it when it became vacant by the decease of Mr. Fuseli, had I not previously given much consideration to the history and the principles of the art; and been accustomed to set down my thoughts in writing, in order to supply Dr. Rees with articles on painting for his voluminous Cyclopædia: which I did from the word Effect (inclusive), to the end of that great work.

This had been done principally during the time that Italy was closed to us by being in possession of the French; and I had relied upon the knowledge to be gathered from copies, prints, and drawings, and the admirable lectures of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Mr. Fuseli, for all that I could say concerning the great fresco paintings of Italy. But when I was elected to fill the honourable and important station of professor of painting in the Royal Academy, I felt that I could not rest contented with such information upon the subject. That I ought not, indeed, to rest satisfied with repeating the thoughts of others, however just I might conceive them to be; but that it would become me to see

those important productions and judge of their qualities and their value for myself; as they must of necessity form a main portion of the theme I had to discuss.

I determined, therefore, to know by personal inspection, what it was that had entitled the authors of the most renowned among them to the great honour which attaches to their names; that I might “make assurance double sure;" and be secure in the opinions I might be inclined to impart, and the argument I might think proper to adopt or employ; as far at least as my perception of the right would carry me. Accordingly I went to Italy, accompanied by a most intelligent friend and brother artist.

Actuated by congenial feelings, and unincumbered by even the slightest inclination to support exclusively any peculiar system of art, we entered upon the office of examiners guided only by an earnest desire to discover the source of that beauty in art which had so captivated and enchained the world; and on what principles its charms were founded. We carefully examined and re-examined works of different ages, from the 10th to the 17th century; and found that there were two important points relative to the art of painting of which we had previously attained but very imperfect ideas. First, we were impressed

with pleasure in beholding the propriety, indeed, I may say the perfection of feeling and understanding that mingled with the imperfections to be found in the works of the early painters; those of the 13th and 14th centuries, the period of the resuscitation of art in Italy. We saw with surprise, that the peculiar beauties of thought exhibited in those imperfect paintings had been far too lightly dwelt upon by writers on the subject; or had been touched with so little discrimination as to convey inadequate ideas of their full value: whilst in some there were exaggerated praises of the skill with which they had been wrought. We found, also, on continued consecutive enquiry into the progress of the art towards perfection, this same feeling, extending itself through the works of all the better masters. We found it to be that, which all subsequent embellishments, added progressively to the practice of the art, were adopted to adorn, and support; and being so adorned and supported, forming in fact the foundation of the beauty most to be admired in the works of Raffaelle

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I must make an exception from these observations, in favour of the work of Mr. Ottley, entitled "THE ITALIAN SCHOOL OF DESIGN": only regretting that he did not carry the just remarks he has made, farther.