DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.75271#0015
( 7 )
The pleasure that Painting, as a dumb art, gives us, is like what we
have from music; its beautiful forms, colours and harmony, are to
the eye what sounds, and the harmony of that kind are to the ear ; and
in both we are delighted in obscrving the skill of the artist in propor-
tion to it, and our own judgment to discover it. It is this beauty
and harmony which gives us so much pleasure at the sight of natural
pictures, a prospe&, a fine sky, a garden, &c. and the copies of
these, which renew the ideas of them, are consequently pleasant:
thus we see Spring, Summer, and Autumn, in the depth of Winter;
and frost and snow, if we please, when the Dog-star rages. By the
help of this art we have the pleasure of seeing a vast variety of things
and aflions, of travelling by land or water, of knowing the humours
of low life without mixing with it, of viewing tempers, battles,
inundations; and in short, of all real, or imagined appearances
in heaven, earth, or hell; and this as we sit at our ease, and cast
our eye round a room: we may ramble with delight from one
idea to another, or fix upon any as we please. Nor do we barely
see this variety of natural objects, but in good pictures we always
see nature improved, or at leak the best choice of it. We thus
have nobler and finer ideas of men, animals, landscapes, &c. than
we should perhaps have ever had. We see particular accidents and
beauties which are rarely, or never seen by us; and this is no in-
considerable addition to the pleasure.
And thus we see the persons and saces of famous men, the ori-
ginals of which are out of our reach, as being gone down with the
ssream of time, or in distant places: and thus too we see our rela-
tives and friends, whether living or dead, as they have been in
all the Rages of life. In picture we never die, never decay, or
grow older.
But when we come to consider this art as it informs the mind, its
merit is raised; it still gives pleasure, but it is not merely such.
The painter now is not only what a wise orator who is a beautiful
B2 person,
The pleasure that Painting, as a dumb art, gives us, is like what we
have from music; its beautiful forms, colours and harmony, are to
the eye what sounds, and the harmony of that kind are to the ear ; and
in both we are delighted in obscrving the skill of the artist in propor-
tion to it, and our own judgment to discover it. It is this beauty
and harmony which gives us so much pleasure at the sight of natural
pictures, a prospe&, a fine sky, a garden, &c. and the copies of
these, which renew the ideas of them, are consequently pleasant:
thus we see Spring, Summer, and Autumn, in the depth of Winter;
and frost and snow, if we please, when the Dog-star rages. By the
help of this art we have the pleasure of seeing a vast variety of things
and aflions, of travelling by land or water, of knowing the humours
of low life without mixing with it, of viewing tempers, battles,
inundations; and in short, of all real, or imagined appearances
in heaven, earth, or hell; and this as we sit at our ease, and cast
our eye round a room: we may ramble with delight from one
idea to another, or fix upon any as we please. Nor do we barely
see this variety of natural objects, but in good pictures we always
see nature improved, or at leak the best choice of it. We thus
have nobler and finer ideas of men, animals, landscapes, &c. than
we should perhaps have ever had. We see particular accidents and
beauties which are rarely, or never seen by us; and this is no in-
considerable addition to the pleasure.
And thus we see the persons and saces of famous men, the ori-
ginals of which are out of our reach, as being gone down with the
ssream of time, or in distant places: and thus too we see our rela-
tives and friends, whether living or dead, as they have been in
all the Rages of life. In picture we never die, never decay, or
grow older.
But when we come to consider this art as it informs the mind, its
merit is raised; it still gives pleasure, but it is not merely such.
The painter now is not only what a wise orator who is a beautiful
B2 person,