DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1183#0224
22 PRACTICAL HINTS
venture to say, too harmonious, to produce that solidity, steadiness, and
simplicity of effect, which heroic subjects require, and which simple or
grave colours only can give to a work."
We from these passages may therefore find that colouring, as applied
to the art of painting, is to be conducted upon different principles
according to the character of the work in hand, as that which would be
applicable to one style would in some measure be destructive of another.
The student can know these distinctions only by examining the works
carefully of the several schools wherein they exist; and though the
works may not be in the particular department in which his pencil is
engaged, he may rest assured that the lowest branches of the art will
derive a strength and grace from an acquaintance with those principles
which regulate the higher and more sublime. This infusion of the great
style into their own was the constant object of the Bolognian and
Venetian schools; the Caracci, the great founders of the first, speaking
of Michael Angelo, style him Nostro Michael Angelo Riformato; and
Tintorett inscribed upon the walls of his painting room " II designo di
Michel Angiolo, e il colorito di Titiano." Reynolds says, " They (viz.
the Venetians) certainly much advanced the dignity of their style by
adding to their fascinating powers of colouring something of the strength
of Michael Angelo; at the same time it may still be a doubt how far
their ornamental elegance would be an advantageous addition to his
grandeur. But if there is any manner of painting which may be said to
unite kindly with his style, it is that of Titian: his handling, the manner
in which his colours are left on the canvass, appears to proceed, as far as
it goes, from a congenial mind, equally disdainful of vulgar criticism." In
the same way was the simple grandeur of Raffaelle, or the sublimity of
Michael Angelo, infused into the Flemish school by the taste of Rubens,
however much deteriorated from its having passed through the medium
of the Venetian school, from whence he imbibed it. u In pursuing this
great art, it must be acknowledged that we labour under greater diffi-
culties than those who were born in the age of its discovery, and whose
venture to say, too harmonious, to produce that solidity, steadiness, and
simplicity of effect, which heroic subjects require, and which simple or
grave colours only can give to a work."
We from these passages may therefore find that colouring, as applied
to the art of painting, is to be conducted upon different principles
according to the character of the work in hand, as that which would be
applicable to one style would in some measure be destructive of another.
The student can know these distinctions only by examining the works
carefully of the several schools wherein they exist; and though the
works may not be in the particular department in which his pencil is
engaged, he may rest assured that the lowest branches of the art will
derive a strength and grace from an acquaintance with those principles
which regulate the higher and more sublime. This infusion of the great
style into their own was the constant object of the Bolognian and
Venetian schools; the Caracci, the great founders of the first, speaking
of Michael Angelo, style him Nostro Michael Angelo Riformato; and
Tintorett inscribed upon the walls of his painting room " II designo di
Michel Angiolo, e il colorito di Titiano." Reynolds says, " They (viz.
the Venetians) certainly much advanced the dignity of their style by
adding to their fascinating powers of colouring something of the strength
of Michael Angelo; at the same time it may still be a doubt how far
their ornamental elegance would be an advantageous addition to his
grandeur. But if there is any manner of painting which may be said to
unite kindly with his style, it is that of Titian: his handling, the manner
in which his colours are left on the canvass, appears to proceed, as far as
it goes, from a congenial mind, equally disdainful of vulgar criticism." In
the same way was the simple grandeur of Raffaelle, or the sublimity of
Michael Angelo, infused into the Flemish school by the taste of Rubens,
however much deteriorated from its having passed through the medium
of the Venetian school, from whence he imbibed it. u In pursuing this
great art, it must be acknowledged that we labour under greater diffi-
culties than those who were born in the age of its discovery, and whose