DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61012#0163
I2Q
DISCOURSE VIII.
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution
of the Prizes, December io, 1778.
THE PRINCIPLES OF ART, WHETHER POETRY OR PAINTING, HAVE
THEIR FOUNDATION IN THE MIND ; SUCH AS NOVELTY, VARIETY,
AND CONTRAST; THESE IN THEIR EXCESS BECOME DEFECTS.—
SIMPLICITY, ITS EXCESS DISAGREEABLE.—RULES NOT TO BE
ALWAYS OBSERVED IN THEIR LITERAL SENSE : SUFFICIENT TO
PRESERVE THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW.—OBSERVATIONS ON THE
PRIZE PICTURES.
I have recommended in former* discourses that Artists
should learn their profession by endeavouring to form an
idea of perfection from the different excellencies wThich lie
dispersed in the various schools of painting. Some diffi-
culty will still occur, to know what is beauty, and where it
may be found : one would wish not to be obliged to take it
entirely on the credit of fame ; though to this, I acknow-
ledge, the younger students must unavoidably submit. Any
suspicion in them of the chance of their being deceived will
have more tendency to obstruct their advancement than
even an enthusiastic confidence in the perfection of their
models. But to the more advanced in the art, who wish to
stand on more stable and firmer ground, and to establish
principles on a stronger foundation than authority, however
venerable or powerful, it may be safely told that there is still
a higher tribunal, to which those great masters themselves
must submit, and to which, indeed, every excellence in art
* Discourses II. and VI.
387
DISCOURSE VIII.
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution
of the Prizes, December io, 1778.
THE PRINCIPLES OF ART, WHETHER POETRY OR PAINTING, HAVE
THEIR FOUNDATION IN THE MIND ; SUCH AS NOVELTY, VARIETY,
AND CONTRAST; THESE IN THEIR EXCESS BECOME DEFECTS.—
SIMPLICITY, ITS EXCESS DISAGREEABLE.—RULES NOT TO BE
ALWAYS OBSERVED IN THEIR LITERAL SENSE : SUFFICIENT TO
PRESERVE THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW.—OBSERVATIONS ON THE
PRIZE PICTURES.
I have recommended in former* discourses that Artists
should learn their profession by endeavouring to form an
idea of perfection from the different excellencies wThich lie
dispersed in the various schools of painting. Some diffi-
culty will still occur, to know what is beauty, and where it
may be found : one would wish not to be obliged to take it
entirely on the credit of fame ; though to this, I acknow-
ledge, the younger students must unavoidably submit. Any
suspicion in them of the chance of their being deceived will
have more tendency to obstruct their advancement than
even an enthusiastic confidence in the perfection of their
models. But to the more advanced in the art, who wish to
stand on more stable and firmer ground, and to establish
principles on a stronger foundation than authority, however
venerable or powerful, it may be safely told that there is still
a higher tribunal, to which those great masters themselves
must submit, and to which, indeed, every excellence in art
* Discourses II. and VI.
387