DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73712#0095
RAPHAEL MENGS. 3
endeavoured to render more intelligible what is
Taste, by means of examples, which the first
Professors have given upon the same ; in the
mean time, being the first part rather uncon-
nected with Painting, I feared having rendered
the work useless to those for whom it was my in-
tention to write; namely, Painters, for which
reason I have since sought to adduce such ex-
amples as furnish me with motives to speak of
all the rules of the art.
It is necessary to know that all those parts
which I exalt and praise of illustrious painters,
ought to be held as so many rules and examples
of imitation.
The students of painting will remember not
to lose too much time in the subtilties which
are herein written, since in the beginning they
will not be of any service. The sirst care of a
beginner ought to be to accustom the eye to ex-
actness and precision, so as by that to become
capable of imitating any thing. At the same
time, he ought to apply the hand to exercise
and quickness, in' a manner, that it should be-
come obedient to perform all that which he de-
sires, and then is the time to begin the rules
and study the scientific part of the art. I
therefore prefer pra&ice and execution to theory
and scientific rules, because the latter can be
learnt in an advanced Rate, but for the exer-
cise and the use of ajust eye, it is indispensible
to attain a certain age ; that is to say, when
one has not acquired any depraved custom ;
since, he who once has taken a bad habit, in a
endeavoured to render more intelligible what is
Taste, by means of examples, which the first
Professors have given upon the same ; in the
mean time, being the first part rather uncon-
nected with Painting, I feared having rendered
the work useless to those for whom it was my in-
tention to write; namely, Painters, for which
reason I have since sought to adduce such ex-
amples as furnish me with motives to speak of
all the rules of the art.
It is necessary to know that all those parts
which I exalt and praise of illustrious painters,
ought to be held as so many rules and examples
of imitation.
The students of painting will remember not
to lose too much time in the subtilties which
are herein written, since in the beginning they
will not be of any service. The sirst care of a
beginner ought to be to accustom the eye to ex-
actness and precision, so as by that to become
capable of imitating any thing. At the same
time, he ought to apply the hand to exercise
and quickness, in' a manner, that it should be-
come obedient to perform all that which he de-
sires, and then is the time to begin the rules
and study the scientific part of the art. I
therefore prefer pra&ice and execution to theory
and scientific rules, because the latter can be
learnt in an advanced Rate, but for the exer-
cise and the use of ajust eye, it is indispensible
to attain a certain age ; that is to say, when
one has not acquired any depraved custom ;
since, he who once has taken a bad habit, in a