DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73713#0059
RAPHAEL MENGS.
55
Sir
YOU ask my opinion upon the merits of the
most remarkable paintings which are
preserred in the royal palace at Madrid to pub-
lish it in a description that you are going to
give of Spain. You do me honour, and ani-
mate me, by believing me capable of such an
undertaking, which besides being superior to my
strength, is also more disficult than you ima-
gine, principally because I am not a man of let-
ters, and have not grace to treat of a sobject so
delicate.
You know very well that to me sew paint-
ings can appear so beautiful as to others ; al-
though I admire the works of great men srill
more than those who make up the train of vul-
gar amateurs, with the difference however,
that those find an infinite number of excellent
painters; and I find only a small number, and
reduce it to those few who merit the glorious
title os the great.
Nevertheless it is certain that we have all a
common right to value the works of the belle
arts; because the learned and ignorant have
each more or less an idea, that they have
to give delight by the imitation of things
known; from whence they approve os those
which, according to their understanding, have
this quality If works are so inferior, that
beholders in viewing them, can discover
the defects immediately, they despise them ;
55
Sir
YOU ask my opinion upon the merits of the
most remarkable paintings which are
preserred in the royal palace at Madrid to pub-
lish it in a description that you are going to
give of Spain. You do me honour, and ani-
mate me, by believing me capable of such an
undertaking, which besides being superior to my
strength, is also more disficult than you ima-
gine, principally because I am not a man of let-
ters, and have not grace to treat of a sobject so
delicate.
You know very well that to me sew paint-
ings can appear so beautiful as to others ; al-
though I admire the works of great men srill
more than those who make up the train of vul-
gar amateurs, with the difference however,
that those find an infinite number of excellent
painters; and I find only a small number, and
reduce it to those few who merit the glorious
title os the great.
Nevertheless it is certain that we have all a
common right to value the works of the belle
arts; because the learned and ignorant have
each more or less an idea, that they have
to give delight by the imitation of things
known; from whence they approve os those
which, according to their understanding, have
this quality If works are so inferior, that
beholders in viewing them, can discover
the defects immediately, they despise them ;