fays Mr. d'Argenville, more expreffion and "truth in Jordans, than even in Rubens. "Truth is the bafis and origin of per"fection and beauty; nothing, of any kind whatever, can be beautiful or perfect, "without being truly what it ought to be, "without having all it ought to have.” The folidity of this judgment prefuppofed, Jordans, according to Rochefoucault's maxims, ought rather to be ranked among the greatest originals, than among the mimicks of common nature, where Rembrandt may fill up his place, as Raoux or Vatteau that of Stella; though all these painters do nothing but what Euripides did before them; they draw man ad vivum. There are no trifles, no meanneffes in the art, and if we recollect of what use the Caricatura was to Bernini, we should be cautious how we pass judgment even on the Dutch forms. That great genius, they fay', owed to this Vide Baldinucci vita del Cav. Bernini, p. 66. monfter monster of the art, a diftinction for which he was fo eminent, the "Franchezza del Tocco." When I reflect on this, I am forced to alter my former opinion of the Caricatura, fo far as to believe that no artist ever acquired a perfection therein without gaining a farther improvement in the art itself. “It is, fays the author, a peculiar diftinction of the ancients to have gone beyond nature:" our artists do the fame in their Caricaturas: but of what avail to them are the voluminous works they have published on that branch of the art? The author lays it down, in the peremptory style of a legislator, that " Precifion of Contour can only be learned from the Greeks" but our academies unanimoufly agree, that the ancients deviate from a ftrict Contour in the clavicles, arms, knees, &c. over which, in fpite of apophyfes and bones, they drew their fkin as smooth as over mere flesh; whereas our academies teach to draw the bony and cartilaginous parts, H 4 parts, more angularly, but the fat and fleshy ones more smooth, and carefully to avoid falling into the ancient ftyle. Pray, Sir, can there be any error in the advices of academies in corpore? Parrhafius himself, the father of Contour, was not, by Pliny's account *, mafter enough to hit the line by which completeness is distinguished from fuperfluity: fhunning corpulency he fell into leannefs: and Zeuxis's Contour was perhaps like that of Rubens, if it be true that, to augment the majesty of his figures, he drew with more completenefs. His female figures he drew like those of Homer', of robust limbs: and does not even the tendereft of poets, Theocritus, draw his Helen as fleshy and tall " as the Venus of Raphael in the affembly of the gods in the little Farnese? Rubens then, for painting like Homer and Theocritus, needs no apology. Plin. Hift. Nat. L. 35. c. 10. + Quintilian. Inftit. Or. L. 12. c. 19. Idyll. 18. v. 29. The The character of Raphael, in the treatise, is drawn with truth and exactnefs: but well may we afk the author, as Antalcidas the Spartan asked a fophift, ready to burst forth in a panegyrick on Hercules, "Who blames him?" The beauties however of the Raphael at Drefden, efpecially the pretended ones of the Jefus, are ftill warmly disputed. What you admire, we laugh at. Why did not he rather display his patriotism against thofe Italian connoiffeurs, whose fqueamish ftomachs rife against every Flemish production? Turpis Romano Belgicus ore color. Propert. L. II. Eleg. 8. And indeed are not colours fo effential, that without them no picture can aspire to univerfal applause? Do not their bewitching charms cover the most grievous faults? They are the harmonious melody of painting; what whatever is offenfive vanishes by their fplen dor, and fouls animated with their beauties are absorbed in beholding, as the readers of Homer are by his flowing harmony, so as to find no faults, Thefe, joined to that important science of Chiaro-Ofcuro, are the characteristicks of Flemish painting. Agreeably to affect our eye is the first thing in a picture", which to obtain, obvious charms are wanted; not fuch as fpring only from reflection. Colouring moreover belongs peculiarly to pictures; whereas defign ought to be in every draught, print, &c. and indeed feems easier to be attained than colouring. The best colourifts, according to a celebrated writer, have always come after the inventors and contourists; we all know the vain attempts of the famous Pouffin. In fhort, all thofe De Pile's Converfat, fur la peint. Du Bos Refl. fur la poefie & fur la peint. Qui |