DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61012#0214
i8o THE ELEVENTH DISCOURSE.
model to all succeeding Painters ; and those who will ex-
amine into the artifice will find it to consist in the power
of generalising, and in the shortness and simplicity of the
means employed.
Many artists, as Vasari likewise observes, have ignorantly
imagined they are imitating the manner of Titian when they
leave their colours rough, and neglect the detail; but, not
possessing the principles on which he wrought, they have
produced what he calls goffe pitture, absurd, foolish pictures;
for such will always be the consequence of affecting dex-
terity without science, without selection, and without fixed
principles.
Raffaelle and Titian seem to have looked at nature for
different purposes; they both had the power of extending
their view to the whole; but one looked only for the general
effect as produced by form, the other as produced by
colour.
We cannot entirely refuse to Titian the merit of attending
to the genera] form of his object, as well as colour; but his
deficiency lay, a deficiency, at least, when he is compared
with Raffaelle, in not possessing the power like him of
correcting the form of his model by any general idea of
beauty in his own mind. Of this his St. Sebastian is a par-
ticular instance. This figure appears to be a most exact
representation both of the form and the colour of the model,
which he then happened to have before him; it has all the
force of nature, and the colouring is flesh itself; but, un-
luckily, the model was of a bad form, especially the legs.
Titian has with as much care preserved these defects, as he
has imitated the beauty and brilliancy of the colouring. In
his colouring he was large and general, as in his design he
was minute and partial: in the one he was a genius, in the
other not much above a copier. I do not, however, speak
model to all succeeding Painters ; and those who will ex-
amine into the artifice will find it to consist in the power
of generalising, and in the shortness and simplicity of the
means employed.
Many artists, as Vasari likewise observes, have ignorantly
imagined they are imitating the manner of Titian when they
leave their colours rough, and neglect the detail; but, not
possessing the principles on which he wrought, they have
produced what he calls goffe pitture, absurd, foolish pictures;
for such will always be the consequence of affecting dex-
terity without science, without selection, and without fixed
principles.
Raffaelle and Titian seem to have looked at nature for
different purposes; they both had the power of extending
their view to the whole; but one looked only for the general
effect as produced by form, the other as produced by
colour.
We cannot entirely refuse to Titian the merit of attending
to the genera] form of his object, as well as colour; but his
deficiency lay, a deficiency, at least, when he is compared
with Raffaelle, in not possessing the power like him of
correcting the form of his model by any general idea of
beauty in his own mind. Of this his St. Sebastian is a par-
ticular instance. This figure appears to be a most exact
representation both of the form and the colour of the model,
which he then happened to have before him; it has all the
force of nature, and the colouring is flesh itself; but, un-
luckily, the model was of a bad form, especially the legs.
Titian has with as much care preserved these defects, as he
has imitated the beauty and brilliancy of the colouring. In
his colouring he was large and general, as in his design he
was minute and partial: in the one he was a genius, in the
other not much above a copier. I do not, however, speak