DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0127
HISTORY OF PAINTING, 113
pal part of the sublime. Every follower of the liberal arts should constantly aim at the attain-
ment of this exalted excellence. Every thing that is low, indecent, or disagreeable, is naturally
repugnant to this refined principle, which is founded only in what is strictly true, elevated, and
perspicuous.
CHAP. ir.
a brief history of painting, with the rise and decline of the art;-the charac-
ters and practice of the different schools;-the respective merits of the most
eminent painters; with a comparison of the ancient and modern practices.
OF all the researches of man into the records of antiquity, that which concerns the origin of
art has attracted the greatest attention. The more pleasure we receive from any refined inven-
tion, the more are we solicitous to discover to whom we are indebted for our entertainment. The
ancients, with a laudable gratitude, deified those benefactors of the human race who, by their dis-
coveries of useful or polite arts, had contributed to their convenience amusement or delight. The
moderns, equally sensible of the same benefits, more rationally investigate the causes which led to
those discoveries, the assistance those early artists received from nature, and the difficulties they met
with in their arduous endeavours; and thereby are enabled to draw a just comparison between the
original inventor and the most finished improver of an art, assigning to each his due share of merit.
The origin of most of the useful arts is undoubtedly nearly coeval with that of the human race.
The erection of habitations, the preparation of food and cloathing, even in their original simpli-
city, required some mechanical abilities and experimental knowledge; and from their operations,
and the utensils indispensibly requisite in their preparation, an infinite number of arts took their
rise. Among those termed liberal and polite, many are of such high antiquity as perfectly to elude
the enquiries of the most diligent antiquarians. Several have, as it were, crept into existence with-
out any known inventor, and made a gradual and imperceptible advance towards perfection, be-
fore they attracted the notice of the industrious historian. Painting, or, in its most early stage,
simple drawing, falls under the latter class. The first idea of the art must, no doubt, have been
formed by man, at a very early period : the shadow of objects, whether plants trees or animals,
afforded him the means of conceiving, and dictated to him the possibility of representing bodies,
of a similar nature, upon a plain surface. Many of tlp'e rudest nations (a just emblem of mankind in
the earl}' ages of the world) possess the first rudiments of the art, prior to those which are more use-
ful and necessary to existence. They stain their naked bodies with indelible colours, in the forms of
animals, stars,&c. This seems to have been the first occasion man had for this art- He soon after
made it subservient to civil purposes, It offered a more simple and intelligible method of recording
historical events and warlike exploits, than that through the circuitous medium of alphabets of ar-
bitrary characters, invented long afterwards. The hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, and in latter
days the picture writing of the Mexicans, answered this purpose.
The master-pieces of the ait,' in the earlier stages of its history, were not superior to the essays of
children : it was not till after many years that they thought of rendering their imitation more com-
plete, by the addition of different colours. This improvement, if it might, as then practised, be so
called, was no more than the laying on of the simple colburs,without any shade, in the same man-
ner as maps-are stained at the present day, MTany nations, as the Egyptians, Chinese, and several
* 2 g people
pal part of the sublime. Every follower of the liberal arts should constantly aim at the attain-
ment of this exalted excellence. Every thing that is low, indecent, or disagreeable, is naturally
repugnant to this refined principle, which is founded only in what is strictly true, elevated, and
perspicuous.
CHAP. ir.
a brief history of painting, with the rise and decline of the art;-the charac-
ters and practice of the different schools;-the respective merits of the most
eminent painters; with a comparison of the ancient and modern practices.
OF all the researches of man into the records of antiquity, that which concerns the origin of
art has attracted the greatest attention. The more pleasure we receive from any refined inven-
tion, the more are we solicitous to discover to whom we are indebted for our entertainment. The
ancients, with a laudable gratitude, deified those benefactors of the human race who, by their dis-
coveries of useful or polite arts, had contributed to their convenience amusement or delight. The
moderns, equally sensible of the same benefits, more rationally investigate the causes which led to
those discoveries, the assistance those early artists received from nature, and the difficulties they met
with in their arduous endeavours; and thereby are enabled to draw a just comparison between the
original inventor and the most finished improver of an art, assigning to each his due share of merit.
The origin of most of the useful arts is undoubtedly nearly coeval with that of the human race.
The erection of habitations, the preparation of food and cloathing, even in their original simpli-
city, required some mechanical abilities and experimental knowledge; and from their operations,
and the utensils indispensibly requisite in their preparation, an infinite number of arts took their
rise. Among those termed liberal and polite, many are of such high antiquity as perfectly to elude
the enquiries of the most diligent antiquarians. Several have, as it were, crept into existence with-
out any known inventor, and made a gradual and imperceptible advance towards perfection, be-
fore they attracted the notice of the industrious historian. Painting, or, in its most early stage,
simple drawing, falls under the latter class. The first idea of the art must, no doubt, have been
formed by man, at a very early period : the shadow of objects, whether plants trees or animals,
afforded him the means of conceiving, and dictated to him the possibility of representing bodies,
of a similar nature, upon a plain surface. Many of tlp'e rudest nations (a just emblem of mankind in
the earl}' ages of the world) possess the first rudiments of the art, prior to those which are more use-
ful and necessary to existence. They stain their naked bodies with indelible colours, in the forms of
animals, stars,&c. This seems to have been the first occasion man had for this art- He soon after
made it subservient to civil purposes, It offered a more simple and intelligible method of recording
historical events and warlike exploits, than that through the circuitous medium of alphabets of ar-
bitrary characters, invented long afterwards. The hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, and in latter
days the picture writing of the Mexicans, answered this purpose.
The master-pieces of the ait,' in the earlier stages of its history, were not superior to the essays of
children : it was not till after many years that they thought of rendering their imitation more com-
plete, by the addition of different colours. This improvement, if it might, as then practised, be so
called, was no more than the laying on of the simple colburs,without any shade, in the same man-
ner as maps-are stained at the present day, MTany nations, as the Egyptians, Chinese, and several
* 2 g people