RAPHAEL MENGS. 81
I would wishthat in that Royal Palacecould be
found the account of all the other valuable pain-
tings which are in the other Royal seats, and that
they were disposed in a gallery, worthy ofso great
a monarch, to be able well or ill to form a dis-
course that from the most ancient painterswhich
we have any account of, one might guide the
understanding of the curious even to the last
who have merited any praise: I could then
make comprehensible the essential difference
which passes between them, and I could give
by that more clearness to the ideas; but the
court not having ever thought of forming a se-
ries ofpainting, I shall speak unconne&edly of the
artists of different times, beginning by the be'ft
Spaniel authors, whose works are placed in the
principal rooms of that Royal Palace,
VOL. II.
M
I would wishthat in that Royal Palacecould be
found the account of all the other valuable pain-
tings which are in the other Royal seats, and that
they were disposed in a gallery, worthy ofso great
a monarch, to be able well or ill to form a dis-
course that from the most ancient painterswhich
we have any account of, one might guide the
understanding of the curious even to the last
who have merited any praise: I could then
make comprehensible the essential difference
which passes between them, and I could give
by that more clearness to the ideas; but the
court not having ever thought of forming a se-
ries ofpainting, I shall speak unconne&edly of the
artists of different times, beginning by the be'ft
Spaniel authors, whose works are placed in the
principal rooms of that Royal Palace,
VOL. II.
M