DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73713#0079
RAPHAEL MENGS.
75
pliers, they aimed to seek excellence in the
imitation of nature ; but of perfect nature ; from
whence they did not exast so much a number
of objects, as their persection. In this manner
they advanced the art by degrees from the fif-
teenth Olympiad to the nineteenth, in which
time they sound the greatest subtilty, nor re-
mained any thing to add except that grace,
which, as I have said, is not naturally perfection,
or beauty, but gives the idea of the last, by re-
presenting it to the mind in that state of repose*
which facilitates the comprehension of him who
views it. This part was reserved for the great
Apelles, who ssourished in the 112th Olympiad.
He bestowed on the art all its completion, per-
fecting all that which his predecessors had in-
vented ; and all those who came after him,
wissiing to proceed otherwise, fell into useless
novelty, minutiae, brilliancy of colours and ca-
prices.
When painting returned almost to its first
being in the 14th century, the world was found
in great ignorance, and with little philosophy,
so that the first painters were employed to paint
images without having any regard to beauty or
perfection.
* The sight finds quiet and repose in a work when there is
no confusion in it, and when the colours and clare obscure are
well understood, and gradated in a manner that the eyes and the
understanding can comprehend the idea of the painter with ease,
and without fatigue. A painting where the author exhausts all his
subject, and loads it too much with objects, orwhere by studying
variety, he has ill understood the collocation of the colours, will
cause an effect contrary to that repose of which we speak. The
Logge, improperly called of Raphael, is a good example of
confusion, because there is too much of every thing in it.
75
pliers, they aimed to seek excellence in the
imitation of nature ; but of perfect nature ; from
whence they did not exast so much a number
of objects, as their persection. In this manner
they advanced the art by degrees from the fif-
teenth Olympiad to the nineteenth, in which
time they sound the greatest subtilty, nor re-
mained any thing to add except that grace,
which, as I have said, is not naturally perfection,
or beauty, but gives the idea of the last, by re-
presenting it to the mind in that state of repose*
which facilitates the comprehension of him who
views it. This part was reserved for the great
Apelles, who ssourished in the 112th Olympiad.
He bestowed on the art all its completion, per-
fecting all that which his predecessors had in-
vented ; and all those who came after him,
wissiing to proceed otherwise, fell into useless
novelty, minutiae, brilliancy of colours and ca-
prices.
When painting returned almost to its first
being in the 14th century, the world was found
in great ignorance, and with little philosophy,
so that the first painters were employed to paint
images without having any regard to beauty or
perfection.
* The sight finds quiet and repose in a work when there is
no confusion in it, and when the colours and clare obscure are
well understood, and gradated in a manner that the eyes and the
understanding can comprehend the idea of the painter with ease,
and without fatigue. A painting where the author exhausts all his
subject, and loads it too much with objects, orwhere by studying
variety, he has ill understood the collocation of the colours, will
cause an effect contrary to that repose of which we speak. The
Logge, improperly called of Raphael, is a good example of
confusion, because there is too much of every thing in it.