DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0100
INVENTION.
Choose such judicious force of shade and light
As suits the theme, and satisfies the sight;
•c Weigh part with part, and with prophetic eye
The future power of all thy tints descry;
Q And those, those only on the canvas place,
_ Whose lines are social, whose effect is grace.
■= \ Vivid and faithful to th' historic page,
S3 \
£ (Express the customs, manners, forms, and age;
^ [Nor paint conspicuous on the foremost plain
S ^ Whate'er is false, impertinent, or vain ;
t. But, like the Tragic Muse, thy lustre throw,
(_Where the chief action claims its warmest glow.
This rare, this arduous task no rules can teach,
No skilled preceptor point, no practice reach ;
'Tis taste, 'tis genius, 'tis the heav'nly ray
Prometheus ravish'd from the car of day.
In Egypt first the infant art appear'd,
Rude and unform'd; but when to Greece she steer'd
Tier prosperous course, fair Fancy met the maid ;
Wit, Reason, Judgement, lent their powerful aid;
Till all complete the gradual wonder shone,
And vanquish'd Nature own'd herself outdone.
'Twas there the goddess fix'd her blest abodes,
There reign'd in Corinth, Athens, Sicyon, Rhodes.
Her various vot'ries various talents crown'd,
\ et each alike her inspiration own'd :
Witness those marble miracles of <jrace,
Those tests of symmetry where still we trace
All art's perfection : with reluctant gaze
To these the genius of succeeding days
Looks dazzled up, and, as their glories spread,
Hides in his mantle his diminished head."
From these precepts we may gather, that in the invention of a subject we must first, having
chosen our theme, make a sketch of it, and dispose of the different parts, delineating them accord-
ing to the rides of probability, and rejecting every foreign, impertinent, or superfluous object.
In the choice of a subject, the artist has an opportunity for the exercise of the greatest efforts
of his genius. His theme or subject should be fraught with grace and majesty. Though it be
generally supplied by the poet and historian, and that in so many instances ; yet it must be
well remembered, it is not every subject nor even all the interesting ones, that are proper for an
artist. The pen of the poet or the historian can rake up the ashes of antiquity, and by his
shrewd conjectures draw aside the curtain which bounds the present time, and indulge us, as it
were, with a peep into futurity. The pen is not confined to the portraiture of a transient ruling
passion ; but can trace and delineate the causes, both remote and immediate, which concur to
effect
Choose such judicious force of shade and light
As suits the theme, and satisfies the sight;
•c Weigh part with part, and with prophetic eye
The future power of all thy tints descry;
Q And those, those only on the canvas place,
_ Whose lines are social, whose effect is grace.
■= \ Vivid and faithful to th' historic page,
S3 \
£ (Express the customs, manners, forms, and age;
^ [Nor paint conspicuous on the foremost plain
S ^ Whate'er is false, impertinent, or vain ;
t. But, like the Tragic Muse, thy lustre throw,
(_Where the chief action claims its warmest glow.
This rare, this arduous task no rules can teach,
No skilled preceptor point, no practice reach ;
'Tis taste, 'tis genius, 'tis the heav'nly ray
Prometheus ravish'd from the car of day.
In Egypt first the infant art appear'd,
Rude and unform'd; but when to Greece she steer'd
Tier prosperous course, fair Fancy met the maid ;
Wit, Reason, Judgement, lent their powerful aid;
Till all complete the gradual wonder shone,
And vanquish'd Nature own'd herself outdone.
'Twas there the goddess fix'd her blest abodes,
There reign'd in Corinth, Athens, Sicyon, Rhodes.
Her various vot'ries various talents crown'd,
\ et each alike her inspiration own'd :
Witness those marble miracles of <jrace,
Those tests of symmetry where still we trace
All art's perfection : with reluctant gaze
To these the genius of succeeding days
Looks dazzled up, and, as their glories spread,
Hides in his mantle his diminished head."
From these precepts we may gather, that in the invention of a subject we must first, having
chosen our theme, make a sketch of it, and dispose of the different parts, delineating them accord-
ing to the rides of probability, and rejecting every foreign, impertinent, or superfluous object.
In the choice of a subject, the artist has an opportunity for the exercise of the greatest efforts
of his genius. His theme or subject should be fraught with grace and majesty. Though it be
generally supplied by the poet and historian, and that in so many instances ; yet it must be
well remembered, it is not every subject nor even all the interesting ones, that are proper for an
artist. The pen of the poet or the historian can rake up the ashes of antiquity, and by his
shrewd conjectures draw aside the curtain which bounds the present time, and indulge us, as it
were, with a peep into futurity. The pen is not confined to the portraiture of a transient ruling
passion ; but can trace and delineate the causes, both remote and immediate, which concur to
effect