law among commentators, to content themfelves with bare remarks on the contents of a treatise and alfo fenfible that I am writing a letter, not a book, I confider that I may draw some instructions for my own use, ut vineta egomet cædam mea, Hor. from fome people's impetuofity against the author; who, because they are hired for it, seem to think that writing is confined to them alone. The Romans, though they worshipped the deity Terminus (the guardian God of limits and borders in general; and, if it please these gentlemen, of the limits in arts and fciences too), allowed nevertheless an univerfal unreftrained criticism: and the decifions of fome Greeks and Romans, in matters of an art, which they did not practise, seem nevertheless authentick to our artists. Nor can I find, that the keeper of the temple of peace at Rome, though poffeffed of the register of the pictures there, pres tended to monopolize remarks and criticisms upon them; Pliny having described moft of them. Publica materies privati juris fit Hor. "Tis to be wished, that, roufed by a Pamphilus and an Apelles, artists would take up the pen themselves, in order to difcover the myfteries of the art to thofe that know how to use them, Ma di coftor', che à lavorar s' accingono, Two or three of thefe are to be commended; the reft contented themselves with giving fome hiftorical accounts of the fraternity. But what could appear more aufpicious to the improvement of the art, even by Padre Giandomenico Ottonelli & Car. Picho Berrettini da Cortona. the foregoing Reflexions. e 99 by the remotest posterity, than the work attempted by the united forces of the celebrated Pietro da Cortona and Padre Otto nelli? Nevertheless this fame treatise, except only a few historical remarks, and these too to be met with in an hundred books, feems good for nothing, but Ne fcombris tunica defint, piperique cuculli. Sectan. Sat. How trivial, how mean are the great Pouffin's reflexions on painting, published by Bellori, and annexed to his life of that artist? Another digreffion!-let me now again refume the character of your Ariftarchus. You are bold enough to attack the authority of Bernini, and to challenge a man, the bare mention of whofe name would do honour to any treatise. It was • Trattato della pittura e fcultura, ufo et abuso loro, compofto da un theologo e da un pittore. Fiorenza, 1652. 4. f Bellori vite de 'pittori, &c. p. 300. H 2 Ber Bernini, you ought to recollect, Sir, who at the fame age in which Michael Angelo performed his Studiolo, viz. in his eighteenth year, produced his Daphne, as a convincing inftance of his intimacy with the ancients, at an age in which perhaps the genius of Raphael was yet labouring under darkness vid Raphaels Bernini was one of those favourites of nature, who produce at the fame time vernal bloffoms and autumnal fruits; and I think it by no means probable, that his ftudying nature in riper years mifled either him or his difciples. The smoothness of his flesh was the refult of that study, and imparted to the marble the highest poffible degree of life and beauty. Indeed 'tis nature which endows art with life, and "vivifies forms," as Socrates fays, and Clito the sculptor allows. The great Lyfippus, when asked 8 Richardfon, Tom. III. p. 94. h Xenophon Memorab. L. III. c. 6, 7. which which of his ancestors he had chofen for his mafter, replied, "None; but nature alone." It is not to be denied, that the too close imitation of antiquity is very often apt to lead us to a certain barrenness, unknown to those who imitate nature: various herfelf, nature teaches variety, and no votary of her's can be charged with a fameness: whereas Guido, Le Brun, and some other Pouf votaries of antiquity, repeated the same face in many of their works. A certain ideal beauty was become fo familiar to them, as to flide into their figures even against their will. But as for fuch an imitation of nature, as is quite regardless of antiquity, 1 am entirely of the author's opinion; though I fhould have chofen other artists as instances of following nature in painting. Jordans certainly has not met with the regard due to his merit; let me appeal to an authority univerfally allowed. H 3 "There is, |