DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.75271#0086
( 72 )
Leonardo da Vinci had a wondrous delicacy of hand in finishing
highly, but Giorgion, and Correggio have especially been famous
for a fine, that is, a light, easy, and delicate pencil. You see a
free, bold handling in the works of Titian, Paolo Veronese, Tin-
toretto, Rubens, the Borgognone, Salvator Rosa, &c. the Maltese
had a very particular manner, he painted chiessy Turkey-worked
carpets, and left the pencil as rough as the carpet itself, and ad-
mirably well in its kind. But perhaps no man ever managed a
pencil in all the several manners better than Van Dyck.
Of GRACE and GREATNESS.
THERE is some degree of merit in a picture where nature is
exactly copied, though in a low subjeCt ; such as drolls, country-
wakes, flowers, landscapes, &c. and more in proportion as the
subjed rises, or the end of the picture is this exaCt representation.
Herein the Dutch, and Flemish masters have been equal to the
Italians, if not superior to them in general. What gives the
Italians, and their masters the ancients the preference, is, that they
have not servilely followed common nature, but raised, and im-
proved, or at lead have always made the belt choice of it. This
gives a dignity to a low subjeCt, and is the reason of the esteem we
have for the landscapes of Salvator Rosa, Filippo Laura, Claude
Lorrain, the Poussins; the fruit of the two Michelangelo's, the
Battaglia, and Campadoglio; and this, when the subjeCt itself is
noble, is the perfection of Painting: as in the best portraits of
Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian, Rafaelle, &c. and the histories of the
best Italian masters; chiefly those of Rafaelle; he is the great
model of perfection! all the painters being ranked in three several
classes according to the degrees of their merit, he mustbe allowed
to possess the first alone.
Common
Leonardo da Vinci had a wondrous delicacy of hand in finishing
highly, but Giorgion, and Correggio have especially been famous
for a fine, that is, a light, easy, and delicate pencil. You see a
free, bold handling in the works of Titian, Paolo Veronese, Tin-
toretto, Rubens, the Borgognone, Salvator Rosa, &c. the Maltese
had a very particular manner, he painted chiessy Turkey-worked
carpets, and left the pencil as rough as the carpet itself, and ad-
mirably well in its kind. But perhaps no man ever managed a
pencil in all the several manners better than Van Dyck.
Of GRACE and GREATNESS.
THERE is some degree of merit in a picture where nature is
exactly copied, though in a low subjeCt ; such as drolls, country-
wakes, flowers, landscapes, &c. and more in proportion as the
subjed rises, or the end of the picture is this exaCt representation.
Herein the Dutch, and Flemish masters have been equal to the
Italians, if not superior to them in general. What gives the
Italians, and their masters the ancients the preference, is, that they
have not servilely followed common nature, but raised, and im-
proved, or at lead have always made the belt choice of it. This
gives a dignity to a low subjeCt, and is the reason of the esteem we
have for the landscapes of Salvator Rosa, Filippo Laura, Claude
Lorrain, the Poussins; the fruit of the two Michelangelo's, the
Battaglia, and Campadoglio; and this, when the subjeCt itself is
noble, is the perfection of Painting: as in the best portraits of
Van Dyck, Rubens, Titian, Rafaelle, &c. and the histories of the
best Italian masters; chiefly those of Rafaelle; he is the great
model of perfection! all the painters being ranked in three several
classes according to the degrees of their merit, he mustbe allowed
to possess the first alone.
Common