The Artist's Repository, Or, Encyclopedia of the Fine Arts (Band 2): Perspective, Architecture (London, 1808)

118

on perspective,

[l-ect. iv,

LECTURE IV.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

X^7HILE on every fubject there may be va-
* * rious, and often, contradictorv, opinions,,
according to the afpects under which it is feen by
different perfons, we need not wonder, that on the
principles ot art, and on their application, the fen-
timents of profeffors fhould fometimes difagree,
This happens occaiionally on the ftudy of perfpec-
tive: while fome matters defpife that eye which
does not (alone) fufficiently afcertain the natural
appearances of object.?, others think geometrical
fcrupulofity is indifpenfible, in every reprefentation
of nature. Shall I fay that, both thefe extremes are
to be avoided ? or, fhall I rather commend them
both, and advife to unite them? Geometry alone
never yet compofed a happy, and pleafing, picture j
and if the effulions of practice, unregulated by juft
theory, may have attained to veracity and correft-
nefs, I have not been fo fortunate as to meet with
fuch inftances.

But, of late, fmcefcience is afhionable, and every
offered ^affiftance is generally received with avidity,
it is much more common for artifts to depend on
the dogmas of fcience, than on the observation of

Nature;