54 COL

rooft difficult colour to introduce and manage: yet may
not be omitted, as it is the fource of variety and oppo-
sition. Mellownefs muft regulate warmth, not per-
mitting a pofitive yellow, that would be raw and offen-
five; yet yellowifh : not a flaring red, but reddifh.

The following remarks are a tranflation from the
French :

" The art of colouring is much more difficult than
is ufually fuppofed ; fince during three hundred years,
that painting has been revived, hardly more than eight
or ten mafters have been excellent colourifts. Perhaps
alio, the infinite variety included in the neceffary ob-
jects and models of ffcudy, precludes the eftablilhment
of rules and directions on this art.

" Shall we inquire if Titian had better eyes than
others ? Or had he formed to himfelf fuperior rules X If
by rules he attained his merit, may not thofe who tread
in his fteps derive great advantages from the ftudy of his
works, from attentive and judicious obfervations upon
them ? [In order to afcertain what thofe rules were, and
to determine their influence and veracity.] But for this
effect is requifite an attentive difpofition of mind, and an
aptitude to penetrate the true caufes of thofe effects we
admire. Row many painters have copied Titian
many years, leemingly with their utmofi abilities, who
yet have never understood, the fkill and delicacy of the
colouring in this great mafter ! The painter born for the
art fiies with his own wings, and liberates himfelf from
baci ha bits; but it muft be acknowledged, that a great
mafter is no lefs rare than a great hero, his natural
genius having to lurmount all obitacles.

" The