DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61012#0177
THE EIGHTH DISCOURSE. 143
would have destroyed, in a great measure, the beauty of the
composition.
Another instance occurs to me, where equal liberty may
be taken in regard to the management of light. Though
the general practice is, to make a large mass about the
middle of the picture surrounded by shadow, the reverse
may be practised, and the spirit of the rule may still be
preserved. Examples of this principle reversed may be
found very frequently in the works of the Venetian School.
In the great composition of Paul Veronese, The Marriage
at Cana, the figures are, for the most part, in half shadow;
the great light is in the sky ; and, indeed, the general effect
of this picture, which is so striking, is no more than what
we often see in landscapes, in small pictures of fairs and
country feasts; but those principles of light and shadow,
being transferred to a large scale, to a space containing
near a hundred figures as large as life, and conducted to all
appearance with as much facility, and with an attention as
steadily fixed upon the whole together, as if it were a small
picture immediately under the eye, the work justly excites
our admiration ; the difficulty being increased as the extent
is enlarged.
The various modes of composition are infinite; some-
times it shall consist of one large group in the middle of
the picture, and the smaller groups on each side; or a
plain space in the middle, and the groups of figures ranked
round this vacuity.
Whether this principal broad light be in the middle
space of ground, as in The School of Athens ; or in the
sky, as in The Marriage at Cana, in The Andromeda,
and in most of the pictures of Paul Veronese ; or whether
the light be on the groups ; whatever mode of composition
is adopted, every variety and license is allowable : this
would have destroyed, in a great measure, the beauty of the
composition.
Another instance occurs to me, where equal liberty may
be taken in regard to the management of light. Though
the general practice is, to make a large mass about the
middle of the picture surrounded by shadow, the reverse
may be practised, and the spirit of the rule may still be
preserved. Examples of this principle reversed may be
found very frequently in the works of the Venetian School.
In the great composition of Paul Veronese, The Marriage
at Cana, the figures are, for the most part, in half shadow;
the great light is in the sky ; and, indeed, the general effect
of this picture, which is so striking, is no more than what
we often see in landscapes, in small pictures of fairs and
country feasts; but those principles of light and shadow,
being transferred to a large scale, to a space containing
near a hundred figures as large as life, and conducted to all
appearance with as much facility, and with an attention as
steadily fixed upon the whole together, as if it were a small
picture immediately under the eye, the work justly excites
our admiration ; the difficulty being increased as the extent
is enlarged.
The various modes of composition are infinite; some-
times it shall consist of one large group in the middle of
the picture, and the smaller groups on each side; or a
plain space in the middle, and the groups of figures ranked
round this vacuity.
Whether this principal broad light be in the middle
space of ground, as in The School of Athens ; or in the
sky, as in The Marriage at Cana, in The Andromeda,
and in most of the pictures of Paul Veronese ; or whether
the light be on the groups ; whatever mode of composition
is adopted, every variety and license is allowable : this