DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0163
COLOURING. 149
ralleled beauty boldness and elegance in their touches. The best performances of the Lombard
school are remarkable for a certain richness and softness of tints, and freshness of colouring. The
lustre and transparency also of the pieces of the Flemish school', which give them a most en-
chanting appearance* may furnish him with some useful hints; though it must be confessed they
are chiefly the effect of varnishes. They are however not without their use, as they serve to
shew how far colours may be improved by these additory articles. Two cautions are absolutely
necessary to the young painter, while studying the works of those great masters. He should be
careful that the pieces he selects for his models have been well preserved. There are none but
have suffered more or less from the injuries of time; though time only is capable of giving them,
that beautiful patiua which at once renders them valuable, and stamps their antiquity; and
though 'his produces that extraordinary degree of harmony in the colours, and takes from them
their rawness, yet on the other hand it. somewhat destroys their lustre, impairs their freshness,
and dettacts from the life of the piece : for an old picture, though it may have been carefully
preserved, appears much as it would do immediately after painting behind a dull glass. Secondly,
be must make due allowances for the ravages of time; and not make his piece exactl}' of the
tints of an old original, but finish his colouring from truth and nature. This was the practice of
all the great colourists; some of whom however resigned the operation of harmonising and
heightening their tints to time alone, while others produced this effect with their own hands.
Paul chose the former method ; but the greater part of the other colourists mellowed their pieces
themselves, before they exposed them to the eyes of the public.
But in this part of the art some general as well as particular rules must be attended to, in order
to produce any degree of excellence. In studying those great models of antiquity the young
painter should carefully observe the different local hues, which appear in the different parts of a
fine human body: without this attention he will never be able to impart to his carnations that
warmth and richness required. He should place his model in different lights; in that of the
sun; in that of a clear sky ; in that of a candle or lamp ; and in the twilight; at one time in
the shade, at another time in reflected light. By these means he will learn all the different ef-
fects of the complexion in different circumstances; whether lucid livid or transparent; and also
that great variety of tints and demi-tints occasioned in the skin by the epidermis. Lie will run
no hazard of degrading the beauties of nature by any particularities of style; or of falling into
that preposterous fullness and floridness of colour, too much at present the taste. Llis pieces will
be readily distinguished by the eye of the critic from those of the less informed painter who, by a
bombast appearance of colouring, is able to impose only on the vulgar and illiterate part of man-
kind. But, as before observed, he must finish his studies from an observation of the hues of na-
ture. What statues are in design, nature is in colouring;—the fountain head.of that perfection
to which every painter should aspire. It was this made the artists of the Flemish school so fa-
mous in the tone of their colours : by their strict attention to nature they became as excellent in
colouring as they were deficient in design.
The principles of colouring may in general be considered as included under the four following
heads:—I. Veracity.— 2. Force.—3. Degradation or Keeping.—4. Harmony, or Union.
Veracity or truth of colouring is so obvious to every understanding that nothing need be said
to enforce an observance of its laws. The painter need not be told that objects must have their
natural colours : that grass must be green, snow white, 8cc. Inattention to this rule scarcely
2 Q deserves
ralleled beauty boldness and elegance in their touches. The best performances of the Lombard
school are remarkable for a certain richness and softness of tints, and freshness of colouring. The
lustre and transparency also of the pieces of the Flemish school', which give them a most en-
chanting appearance* may furnish him with some useful hints; though it must be confessed they
are chiefly the effect of varnishes. They are however not without their use, as they serve to
shew how far colours may be improved by these additory articles. Two cautions are absolutely
necessary to the young painter, while studying the works of those great masters. He should be
careful that the pieces he selects for his models have been well preserved. There are none but
have suffered more or less from the injuries of time; though time only is capable of giving them,
that beautiful patiua which at once renders them valuable, and stamps their antiquity; and
though 'his produces that extraordinary degree of harmony in the colours, and takes from them
their rawness, yet on the other hand it. somewhat destroys their lustre, impairs their freshness,
and dettacts from the life of the piece : for an old picture, though it may have been carefully
preserved, appears much as it would do immediately after painting behind a dull glass. Secondly,
be must make due allowances for the ravages of time; and not make his piece exactl}' of the
tints of an old original, but finish his colouring from truth and nature. This was the practice of
all the great colourists; some of whom however resigned the operation of harmonising and
heightening their tints to time alone, while others produced this effect with their own hands.
Paul chose the former method ; but the greater part of the other colourists mellowed their pieces
themselves, before they exposed them to the eyes of the public.
But in this part of the art some general as well as particular rules must be attended to, in order
to produce any degree of excellence. In studying those great models of antiquity the young
painter should carefully observe the different local hues, which appear in the different parts of a
fine human body: without this attention he will never be able to impart to his carnations that
warmth and richness required. He should place his model in different lights; in that of the
sun; in that of a clear sky ; in that of a candle or lamp ; and in the twilight; at one time in
the shade, at another time in reflected light. By these means he will learn all the different ef-
fects of the complexion in different circumstances; whether lucid livid or transparent; and also
that great variety of tints and demi-tints occasioned in the skin by the epidermis. Lie will run
no hazard of degrading the beauties of nature by any particularities of style; or of falling into
that preposterous fullness and floridness of colour, too much at present the taste. Llis pieces will
be readily distinguished by the eye of the critic from those of the less informed painter who, by a
bombast appearance of colouring, is able to impose only on the vulgar and illiterate part of man-
kind. But, as before observed, he must finish his studies from an observation of the hues of na-
ture. What statues are in design, nature is in colouring;—the fountain head.of that perfection
to which every painter should aspire. It was this made the artists of the Flemish school so fa-
mous in the tone of their colours : by their strict attention to nature they became as excellent in
colouring as they were deficient in design.
The principles of colouring may in general be considered as included under the four following
heads:—I. Veracity.— 2. Force.—3. Degradation or Keeping.—4. Harmony, or Union.
Veracity or truth of colouring is so obvious to every understanding that nothing need be said
to enforce an observance of its laws. The painter need not be told that objects must have their
natural colours : that grass must be green, snow white, 8cc. Inattention to this rule scarcely
2 Q deserves