DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61012#0069
THE THIRD DISCOURSE.
35
to unlearn, as their manners were nearly approaching to
this desirable simplicity; while the modern artist, before he
can see the truth of things, is obliged to remove a veil, with
which the fashion of the times has thought proper to cover
her.
Having gone thus far in our investigation of the great
style in painting ; if we now should suppose that the artist
has found the true idea of beauty, which enables him to
give his works a correct and perfect design; if we should
suppose, also, that he has acquired a knowledge of the
unadulterated habits of nature, which gives him simplicity;
the rest of his task is, perhaps, less than is generally
imagined. Beauty and simplicity have so great a share in
the composition of a great style, that he who has acquired
them has little else to learn. It must not, indeed, be
forgotten that there is a nobleness of conception which goes
beyond anything in the mere exhibition even of perfect
form; there is an art of animating and dignifying the
figures with intellectual grandeur, of impressing the appear-
ance of philosophic wisdom, or heroic virtue. This can
oily be acquired by him that enlarges the sphere of his
understanding by a variety of knowledge, and warms his
imagination with the best productions of ancient and
modern poetry.
A hand thus exercised, and a mind thus instructed, will
bring the art to a higher degree of excellence than, perhaps,
it has hitherto attained in this country. Such a student will
disdain the humbler walks of painting, which, however
profitable, can never assure him a permanent reputation.
He will leave the meaner artist servilely to suppose that
those are the best pictures which are most likely to de-
ceive the spectator. He will permit the lower painter,
like the florist or collector of shells, to exhibit the minute
35
to unlearn, as their manners were nearly approaching to
this desirable simplicity; while the modern artist, before he
can see the truth of things, is obliged to remove a veil, with
which the fashion of the times has thought proper to cover
her.
Having gone thus far in our investigation of the great
style in painting ; if we now should suppose that the artist
has found the true idea of beauty, which enables him to
give his works a correct and perfect design; if we should
suppose, also, that he has acquired a knowledge of the
unadulterated habits of nature, which gives him simplicity;
the rest of his task is, perhaps, less than is generally
imagined. Beauty and simplicity have so great a share in
the composition of a great style, that he who has acquired
them has little else to learn. It must not, indeed, be
forgotten that there is a nobleness of conception which goes
beyond anything in the mere exhibition even of perfect
form; there is an art of animating and dignifying the
figures with intellectual grandeur, of impressing the appear-
ance of philosophic wisdom, or heroic virtue. This can
oily be acquired by him that enlarges the sphere of his
understanding by a variety of knowledge, and warms his
imagination with the best productions of ancient and
modern poetry.
A hand thus exercised, and a mind thus instructed, will
bring the art to a higher degree of excellence than, perhaps,
it has hitherto attained in this country. Such a student will
disdain the humbler walks of painting, which, however
profitable, can never assure him a permanent reputation.
He will leave the meaner artist servilely to suppose that
those are the best pictures which are most likely to de-
ceive the spectator. He will permit the lower painter,
like the florist or collector of shells, to exhibit the minute