DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0221
PRACTICE OF PAINTING.
207
But besides the superiority acquired by the study of optics, in what has been just enumerated,
the same principles will fully explain man}' other ihings practised by painters : for were their
works not judged of on the basis of philosophy, a considerable share of their merit would be
attributed rather to chance than to skill. He who has viewed nature with an eye directed by
education and sound principles, will be able to establish general rules, where another less informd
will only collect particular cases.
With regard to the application of those rules to practise the works of the best colourists are to
be carefully studied. These are the records which the scholar ought always to consult, that he
may learn how to express objects, not only with beauty but with the greatest truth and exactness.
Although colouring may at first sight appear to be merely mechanical, yet it has its rules, and
those grounded upon that principle which regulates both the great and the little, in the study
of a painter. By this the first effect of a painter is produced ; and as this is performed the
spectator, as he walks through a collection of paintings, will stop or pass along.
Artists in all times have copied one from another, whatever they judged to be best suited to
their own purposes, and for their attainment of perfection in their art; and were it not from the
practice of copying, painting would now be at a very low ebb. Rubens studied principally the
works of Titian, Paul Veronese and Tintoret; that is, he copied such of their pictures as most
pleased him, and kept them for after use. Vandyck copied Titian and the other artists of the
Venetian school. Teniers is remarkable for transforming himself into as many masters as he
copied. Hanneman's copies of Vandyck have been taken for the originals of that great master.
]t is in vain however for a man to think of making a good imitation of any capital work without
being thoroughly versed in the nature of colours and of colouring; and without understanding,
at sight of the original, the principles and method by-which it was painted. The want of'
this knowledge has led artists into many errors. A painter who has acquired any sort of
manner or style, as it is called, will always tincture his copies with the same. This is so common
that young artists often acquire a manner before they understand the nature of their business,
and in their works some particular colour or hue appears predominant. Thus some, by making
their carnations too red, give a constant and universal blush to their figures or copies, while
others render their productions obscure, by the heaviness of their colouring and shadows. De
Piles savs it is very difficult to change a bad manner in colouring for a better: thus we find that
Raphael, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Julio Romano, and other great masters, spent
their whole lives without truly understanding good colouring. And though colouring be the
principal excellence in copying, yet it is requisite that an artist should avoid a particular manner
in using his pencil, otherwise the work will readily be discovered to be his, by its manner rather
than by its excellence.
Wrhat has been observed respecting colouring, as necessary for leading the student to perfec-
tion, by a proper method of study and observation, that he may discover the principles on which
the greatest masters worked, may with a little discrimination be applied to all the other branches
of the art. But as this application will most naturally present itself to his notice, when joined
to each of the several branches of painting, the farther illustration of them is referred to the-
following chapter: adding only at present a few general observations.
The student must not be led astray by an inordinate desire to acquire facility in painting,
or to attain what is called a masterly handling of the pencil or the crayon : for by such a desire
many promising young artists have been turned aside from the true-path, and never reached to
any
207
But besides the superiority acquired by the study of optics, in what has been just enumerated,
the same principles will fully explain man}' other ihings practised by painters : for were their
works not judged of on the basis of philosophy, a considerable share of their merit would be
attributed rather to chance than to skill. He who has viewed nature with an eye directed by
education and sound principles, will be able to establish general rules, where another less informd
will only collect particular cases.
With regard to the application of those rules to practise the works of the best colourists are to
be carefully studied. These are the records which the scholar ought always to consult, that he
may learn how to express objects, not only with beauty but with the greatest truth and exactness.
Although colouring may at first sight appear to be merely mechanical, yet it has its rules, and
those grounded upon that principle which regulates both the great and the little, in the study
of a painter. By this the first effect of a painter is produced ; and as this is performed the
spectator, as he walks through a collection of paintings, will stop or pass along.
Artists in all times have copied one from another, whatever they judged to be best suited to
their own purposes, and for their attainment of perfection in their art; and were it not from the
practice of copying, painting would now be at a very low ebb. Rubens studied principally the
works of Titian, Paul Veronese and Tintoret; that is, he copied such of their pictures as most
pleased him, and kept them for after use. Vandyck copied Titian and the other artists of the
Venetian school. Teniers is remarkable for transforming himself into as many masters as he
copied. Hanneman's copies of Vandyck have been taken for the originals of that great master.
]t is in vain however for a man to think of making a good imitation of any capital work without
being thoroughly versed in the nature of colours and of colouring; and without understanding,
at sight of the original, the principles and method by-which it was painted. The want of'
this knowledge has led artists into many errors. A painter who has acquired any sort of
manner or style, as it is called, will always tincture his copies with the same. This is so common
that young artists often acquire a manner before they understand the nature of their business,
and in their works some particular colour or hue appears predominant. Thus some, by making
their carnations too red, give a constant and universal blush to their figures or copies, while
others render their productions obscure, by the heaviness of their colouring and shadows. De
Piles savs it is very difficult to change a bad manner in colouring for a better: thus we find that
Raphael, Michael Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Julio Romano, and other great masters, spent
their whole lives without truly understanding good colouring. And though colouring be the
principal excellence in copying, yet it is requisite that an artist should avoid a particular manner
in using his pencil, otherwise the work will readily be discovered to be his, by its manner rather
than by its excellence.
Wrhat has been observed respecting colouring, as necessary for leading the student to perfec-
tion, by a proper method of study and observation, that he may discover the principles on which
the greatest masters worked, may with a little discrimination be applied to all the other branches
of the art. But as this application will most naturally present itself to his notice, when joined
to each of the several branches of painting, the farther illustration of them is referred to the-
following chapter: adding only at present a few general observations.
The student must not be led astray by an inordinate desire to acquire facility in painting,
or to attain what is called a masterly handling of the pencil or the crayon : for by such a desire
many promising young artists have been turned aside from the true-path, and never reached to
any