DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.75271#0014
one of those particulars which raises the dignity of human nature so
much above the brutes; and which is the more considerable, as
being a gift bestowed but upon a few even of our own species.
Words paint to the imagination, but every man forms the thing
to himseif in his own way; language is very imperfect: there are
innumerable colours and figures for which we have no name, and
an infinity of other ideas which have no certain words universally
agreed upon as denoting them: whereas the painter can convey
his ideas of these things clearly, and without ambiguity; and what
he says every one understands in the sense he intends it.
And this is a language that is universal; men of all nations hear
the poet, moralist, historian, divine, or whatever other character
the painter assumes, speaking to them in their own mother tongue.
Painting has another advantage over words, and that is, it pours
ideas into our minds, words only drop them. The whole scene
opens at one view, whereas the other way lifts up the curtain by
little and little. We see (for example) the fine prospedat Con-
stantinople, an eruption of Mount lEtna, the death of Socrates, the
battle of Blenheim, the person of King Charles I. &c. in an instant.
The Theatre gives us representations of things disferent from
both these, and a kind of composition of both: there we see a
sort of moving, speaking pictures, but these are transient; whereas
Painting remains, and is always at hand. And what is more
considerable, the stage never represents things truly, especially if
the scene be remote, and the dory ancient. A man that is ac-
quainted with the habits and customs of antiquity, comes to revive
or improve his ideas relating to the misfortune of CEdipus, or the
death of Julius Caesar, and finds a sort of fantastical creatures, the
like of which he never met with in any statue, bas-relief, or medal;
his just notions of these things are all contradicted and disturbed.
But Painting shews us these brave people as they were in their own
genuine greatness, and noble simplicity.
The
much above the brutes; and which is the more considerable, as
being a gift bestowed but upon a few even of our own species.
Words paint to the imagination, but every man forms the thing
to himseif in his own way; language is very imperfect: there are
innumerable colours and figures for which we have no name, and
an infinity of other ideas which have no certain words universally
agreed upon as denoting them: whereas the painter can convey
his ideas of these things clearly, and without ambiguity; and what
he says every one understands in the sense he intends it.
And this is a language that is universal; men of all nations hear
the poet, moralist, historian, divine, or whatever other character
the painter assumes, speaking to them in their own mother tongue.
Painting has another advantage over words, and that is, it pours
ideas into our minds, words only drop them. The whole scene
opens at one view, whereas the other way lifts up the curtain by
little and little. We see (for example) the fine prospedat Con-
stantinople, an eruption of Mount lEtna, the death of Socrates, the
battle of Blenheim, the person of King Charles I. &c. in an instant.
The Theatre gives us representations of things disferent from
both these, and a kind of composition of both: there we see a
sort of moving, speaking pictures, but these are transient; whereas
Painting remains, and is always at hand. And what is more
considerable, the stage never represents things truly, especially if
the scene be remote, and the dory ancient. A man that is ac-
quainted with the habits and customs of antiquity, comes to revive
or improve his ideas relating to the misfortune of CEdipus, or the
death of Julius Caesar, and finds a sort of fantastical creatures, the
like of which he never met with in any statue, bas-relief, or medal;
his just notions of these things are all contradicted and disturbed.
But Painting shews us these brave people as they were in their own
genuine greatness, and noble simplicity.
The