DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.870#0022
12
a barren waste calculated neither for self-improvement nor for public elucidation. Yet this is the
stock from whence historical painters and sculptors are expected to arise: The hand and the eye, it
is true, may acquire both facility and fidelity in copying the works of nature, but conception,
disposition, and expression depend on the mind alone. These constitute the groundwork of
historical painting, and can never be supplied by colouring however beautiful and seductive, nor are
they to be acquired without classical erudition polished by a constant intercourse with refined
society.
The tinsel and glare of gaudy colouring, and extravagance and affectation in design, may
captivate the vulgar and please the uninformed, but dignity and simplicity should be considered as
the only true basis of excellence. These indispensable qualities, however, in works of art, will
neither be cultivated by artists, nor duly appreciated by the public, until the general taste of the
country is improved and exalted. We now fortunately possess, in the Elgin collection, models
peculiarly adapted for that purpose, and it requires nothing but ocular inspection to ingraft a
true feeling of their excellence in the public mind, and there can be no doubt that lectures upon
them, accompanied with critical demonstration, would contribute more than any thing else to
accomplish so desirable an object.
There is but one standard which should govern all the productions of the human mind, namely,
an inseparable union between truth and taste. This was the beacon that directed those great
philosophers, poets and artists in their course through the untried paths of early science, and
protected them from the snares of fallacy and absurdity.
Truth, as it applies to art, must be founded upon nature alone. Whenever the artist takes
a barren waste calculated neither for self-improvement nor for public elucidation. Yet this is the
stock from whence historical painters and sculptors are expected to arise: The hand and the eye, it
is true, may acquire both facility and fidelity in copying the works of nature, but conception,
disposition, and expression depend on the mind alone. These constitute the groundwork of
historical painting, and can never be supplied by colouring however beautiful and seductive, nor are
they to be acquired without classical erudition polished by a constant intercourse with refined
society.
The tinsel and glare of gaudy colouring, and extravagance and affectation in design, may
captivate the vulgar and please the uninformed, but dignity and simplicity should be considered as
the only true basis of excellence. These indispensable qualities, however, in works of art, will
neither be cultivated by artists, nor duly appreciated by the public, until the general taste of the
country is improved and exalted. We now fortunately possess, in the Elgin collection, models
peculiarly adapted for that purpose, and it requires nothing but ocular inspection to ingraft a
true feeling of their excellence in the public mind, and there can be no doubt that lectures upon
them, accompanied with critical demonstration, would contribute more than any thing else to
accomplish so desirable an object.
There is but one standard which should govern all the productions of the human mind, namely,
an inseparable union between truth and taste. This was the beacon that directed those great
philosophers, poets and artists in their course through the untried paths of early science, and
protected them from the snares of fallacy and absurdity.
Truth, as it applies to art, must be founded upon nature alone. Whenever the artist takes