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advantageous to me, than to have it known, that Mr. SPENCE approves me as a writer, and acknowledges me as a friend? What fuccefs I may have in the former character, must depend on futurity; but I am in poffeffion of all the credit of the latter, while you permit me to declare, in this publick

manner,

That I am, REVEREND SIR,
with the trueft refpect,
your most obliged,

moft obedient,

and most humble fervant,

DANIEL WEBB.

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PREFA C E.

F we confider the ambition moft

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men have to be thought judges of Painting, and the ease with which they might really become fo, it will appear ftrange, that fo few fhould be found, who have any clear or determined ideas of this art. To account for this, and to point out thofe errors which have been the causes of it, is the defign of this Preface; after which, I propofe, by the following work, to free this fubject from its fuppofed

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difficulties; and to throw fuch lights

on the beauties and advantages of this amiable art, as may both recommend the study, and facilitate the knowledge of it.

I AM fenfible, that, among my readers, there will be fome, whose excellent taste and clear judgment must place them much above my inftructions; from these I hope for indulgence. The perfons for whom I write, are our young travellers, who fet out with much eagerness, and little preparation; and who, for want of fome governing objects to determine their course, must continually wander, misfled by ignorant guides, or bewildered by a multiplicity of directions. The firft error, I have taken

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taken notice of, is, the extreme eagernefs, with which they run through the galleries and churches; nimium vident, nec tamen totum. A few good pictures, well confidered, at fuch intervals, as to give full time to range and determine the ideas which they excite, would in the end turn to a much better ac

count.

THE fecond error; is, the habit of eftimating pictures by the general reputation of the painters; a rule, of all others, the moft productive of ignorance and confufion. For example; Dominichino may, at times, be ranked with Raphael; at times, he is little fuperior to Giotto. And we often find, that the best works of the middling artifts, excell the middling works of the

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best. If then, we are guided wholly by the prejudice of names, we no longer truft to our own fenfes; we must acknowledge merit which we do not fee, and undervalue that which we do; diftreffed between authority and conviction, we are difgufted with the difficulties of an art, which is, perhaps, of all others the most easily understood. For, that compofition must be defective, which cannot, to a careful obferver, point out its own tendency; and thofe expreffions must be either weak or falfe, which do not, in fome degree, mark the interest of each actor in the drama.

we readily conceive the

force of characters; why

In nature,

variety and

fhould we

not do fo in Painting? What diffi

culty

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