The Artist's Assistant, In the Study and Practice of Mechanical Sciences: Calculated for the Improvement of Genius. Illustrated with Copper-Plates (Birmingham, [ca. 1785])

90 THE ARTIST'S ASSISTANT.

Let a landfkape be ever fo well finished, if the
companion oi the objects does not render them va-
luable, and preferve their characters, if the fites
be not well chofen, or are not fupplied bv a fine
intelligence of the clair-obfcure, if the touches be
not judicious, if the places be not animated by
figures, animals, or other objects, 'which are molt
commonly in motion, and if the truth and variety
of nature be not joined to the good tafte of the
colour, and to the extraordinary fenfations, the paint-
ing will never gain a reputation among connoiffeurs.

As to perfpective.—Some authors have imagined
that perfpective and painting were the fame thing,
becaufe there was no painting without perfpective.
Though the propofition is falfe, abiolutely fpeaking,
fince the body, which cannot be without fhadow,
is not, notwithftanding, the fame thing with the
fhadow; but however it is true, in that fcnfe,
that a painter cannot do without perfpective, and
that he does not draw alike, nor give a ftroke of his
pencil, without perfpective having fome part in it,
at leaft habitually.

The colouring in its general fenfe, takes in what-
ever relates to the nature and union of colours ;
their agreement, or antipathy ; how to ufe them to
advantage in light and fhadow, lo as to fhew a
relievo in the figures, and a finking of the ground ;
what relates to the asriel perfpective, i. e. the dimi-
nution of colours bv means of the interpofition of
air ; the various accidents and circumftances of the
luminary and the medium ;. the different lights, both
of the bodies illuminating, and illuminated ; their
reflections, fhadows, different views, with regard
cither to the polition of the eye, or the object;

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