DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18825#0189
lect. vi.] op character.
14 5
temporary taste) but against those uncharacteristic
characters which some have adopted in portraiture,
thereby transmitting u?iUkenesses} by means of an art
whose study and merit is fidelity.
As a close to this lecture, we shall briefly notice
a few of those subjects which are often introduced in
painting, and to which the foregoing remarks may,
in general, be applicable.
It has been debated among divines, whether it
were lawful to exhibit a figure of the Deity : as
divines they might debate on its lawfulness ; among
artists, the matter had been quickly settled, by an
universal acquiescence in its utter impossibility. What
traits shall characterize the greatest, the best of
beings, the source of being, the I AM ? When co-
lours are discovered able to represent that light in
which is no darkness at all; then we may hope
to express the character of Him who is supreme, and
infinite : From such a character the utmost exertions
of art must ever preserve an infinite distance. In my
opinion, the church of Rome, in permitting such
pictures, does equal dishonour to the subject, and
injury to art: Perfection !—what human powers
are competent to represent perfection ?
But in the person of Jesus Christ the restraint
is taken off", and the human nature of Christ is equally
with others a subject for the pencil; not that there
is the least reason to suppose his portrait ever was
taken, or that St. Luke is the author of those attri-
buted to him, which are universally painted in so
wretched a style, as to make us artists not a little
ashamed for our patron saint.
Edit. 7. U In.
14 5
temporary taste) but against those uncharacteristic
characters which some have adopted in portraiture,
thereby transmitting u?iUkenesses} by means of an art
whose study and merit is fidelity.
As a close to this lecture, we shall briefly notice
a few of those subjects which are often introduced in
painting, and to which the foregoing remarks may,
in general, be applicable.
It has been debated among divines, whether it
were lawful to exhibit a figure of the Deity : as
divines they might debate on its lawfulness ; among
artists, the matter had been quickly settled, by an
universal acquiescence in its utter impossibility. What
traits shall characterize the greatest, the best of
beings, the source of being, the I AM ? When co-
lours are discovered able to represent that light in
which is no darkness at all; then we may hope
to express the character of Him who is supreme, and
infinite : From such a character the utmost exertions
of art must ever preserve an infinite distance. In my
opinion, the church of Rome, in permitting such
pictures, does equal dishonour to the subject, and
injury to art: Perfection !—what human powers
are competent to represent perfection ?
But in the person of Jesus Christ the restraint
is taken off", and the human nature of Christ is equally
with others a subject for the pencil; not that there
is the least reason to suppose his portrait ever was
taken, or that St. Luke is the author of those attri-
buted to him, which are universally painted in so
wretched a style, as to make us artists not a little
ashamed for our patron saint.
Edit. 7. U In.