DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.75271#0301
( 273 )
indelicacy of outline, but even of bad drawing may be found
in his print of Porsenna, and in that of Diana: landscape is
his fort, and his bed prints are those which are known by the
name of Latrones, the Augurs, Tobit, Agar and its companion,
Piraneji has given us a larger collodion of Roman antiquities
than any other master, and has added to his ruins a great variety of
modern buildings; The critics say he has trusted too much to his
eye, and that his proportions and perspedive are often faulty. He
seems to be a rapid genius. We are told the drawings which he
takes upon the spot are as slight and rough as possible ; the rest he
made out by memory, and invention. From so voluminous an
artilf indeed we cannot exped great corre&ness: his works com-
plete sell at leaft for fifty pounds unboud. But the great excellence
of Piranesi is his wonderful execution, of which he is a consummate
master; his stroke is firm, free, and bold beyond expression, and
his manner admirable, and grand, but in the distribution of light
he has little knowledge. Our celebrated countryman Hogarth, can-
not properly be omitted in a catalogue of engravers; and yet he
ranks in none of the classes mentioned; so shall introduce him here.
His works abound in true humour and satire, which is generally
well directed. They are admirable moral lessons, and a fund of
entertainment, suited to every taste, a circumstance which shews
them to be just copies of nature : we may consider them as valuable
repositories of the manners, customs, and dresses of the present age.
How far the works of Hogarth will bear a critical examination, will
be the subje& of more enquiry. In design Hogarth was seldom at
a loss, his invention was fertile, his judgment accurate ; an im-
proper incident rarely introduced, a proper one rarely omitted:
no one could tell a dory better, or make it in all its parts more
intelligible. His genius however was suited only to low familiar
subjeds, it never soared above common life to subjeds naturally
sublime ; or which from antiquity or other accidents borrowed
dignity ;
indelicacy of outline, but even of bad drawing may be found
in his print of Porsenna, and in that of Diana: landscape is
his fort, and his bed prints are those which are known by the
name of Latrones, the Augurs, Tobit, Agar and its companion,
Piraneji has given us a larger collodion of Roman antiquities
than any other master, and has added to his ruins a great variety of
modern buildings; The critics say he has trusted too much to his
eye, and that his proportions and perspedive are often faulty. He
seems to be a rapid genius. We are told the drawings which he
takes upon the spot are as slight and rough as possible ; the rest he
made out by memory, and invention. From so voluminous an
artilf indeed we cannot exped great corre&ness: his works com-
plete sell at leaft for fifty pounds unboud. But the great excellence
of Piranesi is his wonderful execution, of which he is a consummate
master; his stroke is firm, free, and bold beyond expression, and
his manner admirable, and grand, but in the distribution of light
he has little knowledge. Our celebrated countryman Hogarth, can-
not properly be omitted in a catalogue of engravers; and yet he
ranks in none of the classes mentioned; so shall introduce him here.
His works abound in true humour and satire, which is generally
well directed. They are admirable moral lessons, and a fund of
entertainment, suited to every taste, a circumstance which shews
them to be just copies of nature : we may consider them as valuable
repositories of the manners, customs, and dresses of the present age.
How far the works of Hogarth will bear a critical examination, will
be the subje& of more enquiry. In design Hogarth was seldom at
a loss, his invention was fertile, his judgment accurate ; an im-
proper incident rarely introduced, a proper one rarely omitted:
no one could tell a dory better, or make it in all its parts more
intelligible. His genius however was suited only to low familiar
subjeds, it never soared above common life to subjeds naturally
sublime ; or which from antiquity or other accidents borrowed
dignity ;