DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0198
J 84
SECTION VI.
OF ILLUSION AND DECEPTION.
IT is a maxim universally received among painters, and held up for the guidance of young
artists, that they are to imitate nature, and that objects are to be represented so natural iy as to seem
real. If we enquire to what extent painting may carry this illusion, it v. ill be found that it
deceives the eye so much that the spectator is sometimes obliged to apply his hand, as in mould-
ing and bas-relief, in order to come at the truth.
This deception may be properly employed in representations of fruits, flowers, and other
parts of what is called still life; when so placed that they can only be seen from particular
points of view, and at certain distances. But no picture, containing a number of figures and
properly situated, was ever mistaken for real life. It is true that the portrait of a person, done
by Coypel, and placed in a certain direction behind a table, is said to have so completely de-
ceived a number of people, that they saluted it, taking it to be the person whom it represented:
but, independently of the skill in the execution of the piece, it is clear that the chief part of the
illusion arose from the circumstances of surprise and inattention in the spectators; effects which
might, in such a case, have been produced by very inferior artists. This species of illusion how-
ever would be vain, and ought never to be attempted in compositions consisting of many figures,
supposed to be situated at different, and even considerable distances from each other.
There are many obstacles opposed to the perfection of this branch of painting, of which some
and those the most powerful, arise from our manner of thinking and judging on other occasions.
These, together with the perception we have of the effects of light, on surfaces and colours of
various sorts, never fail to convince us, that the scenes before us are merely representations, and
not realities. <
Distance figure and magnitude are not originally objects of our knowledge by the sight : for
we only judge of these qualities of objects by experience and associations early formed in the
mind ; and are satisfied with the skill of the painter, when he lays his colours on the plain surface
of the canvas, in such a manner, that the rays of light are reflected from it, as they would be
from the varied surface of the body imitated, to a spectator placed in a proper situation.
Illusion in painting must always be imperfect, from the impossibility of rendering with truth
the shades which distinguish the most distant parts of the picture, These can only be imitated
by obscure colours, on a plain surface, and all susceptible of reflecting light, according to their
r-eal distance from the eye : but our eye gives us the true plane of this surface, in opposition to
the idea of distance which the artist wishes to excite: and this opposition naturally destroys the
illusion ; the defect of which must depend on the imperfection of the shades,
This defect can never be wholly removed, but it may be in some measure remedied, although
no painter ever yet succeeded in giving a perfect representation of a shadow, What we call in
nature a shadow is no real being, but merely the privation of light which more or less destroys
.colours, as it is more or less complete,
The
SECTION VI.
OF ILLUSION AND DECEPTION.
IT is a maxim universally received among painters, and held up for the guidance of young
artists, that they are to imitate nature, and that objects are to be represented so natural iy as to seem
real. If we enquire to what extent painting may carry this illusion, it v. ill be found that it
deceives the eye so much that the spectator is sometimes obliged to apply his hand, as in mould-
ing and bas-relief, in order to come at the truth.
This deception may be properly employed in representations of fruits, flowers, and other
parts of what is called still life; when so placed that they can only be seen from particular
points of view, and at certain distances. But no picture, containing a number of figures and
properly situated, was ever mistaken for real life. It is true that the portrait of a person, done
by Coypel, and placed in a certain direction behind a table, is said to have so completely de-
ceived a number of people, that they saluted it, taking it to be the person whom it represented:
but, independently of the skill in the execution of the piece, it is clear that the chief part of the
illusion arose from the circumstances of surprise and inattention in the spectators; effects which
might, in such a case, have been produced by very inferior artists. This species of illusion how-
ever would be vain, and ought never to be attempted in compositions consisting of many figures,
supposed to be situated at different, and even considerable distances from each other.
There are many obstacles opposed to the perfection of this branch of painting, of which some
and those the most powerful, arise from our manner of thinking and judging on other occasions.
These, together with the perception we have of the effects of light, on surfaces and colours of
various sorts, never fail to convince us, that the scenes before us are merely representations, and
not realities. <
Distance figure and magnitude are not originally objects of our knowledge by the sight : for
we only judge of these qualities of objects by experience and associations early formed in the
mind ; and are satisfied with the skill of the painter, when he lays his colours on the plain surface
of the canvas, in such a manner, that the rays of light are reflected from it, as they would be
from the varied surface of the body imitated, to a spectator placed in a proper situation.
Illusion in painting must always be imperfect, from the impossibility of rendering with truth
the shades which distinguish the most distant parts of the picture, These can only be imitated
by obscure colours, on a plain surface, and all susceptible of reflecting light, according to their
r-eal distance from the eye : but our eye gives us the true plane of this surface, in opposition to
the idea of distance which the artist wishes to excite: and this opposition naturally destroys the
illusion ; the defect of which must depend on the imperfection of the shades,
This defect can never be wholly removed, but it may be in some measure remedied, although
no painter ever yet succeeded in giving a perfect representation of a shadow, What we call in
nature a shadow is no real being, but merely the privation of light which more or less destroys
.colours, as it is more or less complete,
The