REFLECTIONS 
 
 O N T H E 
 
 PAINTING 
 
 AND 
 
 SCULPTURE 
 
 O F T H E 
 
 GREEKS.
 
 
 
 I
 
 REFLECTIONS 
 
 O N T H E 
 
 Painting and Sculpture 
 
 O F 
 
 THE GREEKS: 
 
 WITH 
 
 Instructions for the Connoisseur, 
 
 AND 
 
 An Essay on Grace in Works of Art. 
 
 Tran dated from 
 
 The German Original of the Abbe Winkelmann, 
 Librarian of the Vatican, F. R. S. &c. &c. 
 
 By HENRY FUSSEL I, A. M. 
 
 LONDOK: 
 
 Printed for the Translator, and Sold by A.Millar 3 
 in the Strand, 1765.

 
 TO 
 
 The Lord Scarsdale. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 WITH becoming gratitude 
 for your Lordfhip's con- 
 defcenfion in granting fuch a noble 
 Afylum to a Stranger, I humbly 
 prefume to fhelter this Tranflation 
 under your Lordfhip's Patronage. 
 
 If I have been able to do juftice 
 to my Author, your Lordfhip's 
 accurate Jugment, and fine Tafte, 
 will naturally protect his Work : 
 But I muft rely wholly on your 
 
 known 
 
 943855
 
 vi DEDICATION. 
 
 known Candour and Goodnefs for 
 the pardon of many imperfections 
 in the language, 
 
 I am, with the moft profound 
 refpeft, 
 
 My Lo RD, 
 Your Lordship's 
 
 Moft obliged, 
 moft obedient, 
 and moft humble Servant, 
 
 London, 
 
 10 April, 1765. 
 
 Henry Fuflel:
 
 O N T H E 
 
 IMITATION 
 
 O F T H E 
 
 Painting and Sculpture of 
 the GREEKS. 
 
 I. Nature. 
 
 TO the Greek climate we owe the 
 production of Taste, and from 
 thence it fpread at length over all the politer 
 world. Every invention, communicated by 
 foreigners to that nation, was but the feed 
 of what it became afterwards, changing 
 
 B both
 
 2 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 both its nature and fize in a country, chofen, 
 as Plato a fays, by Minerva, to be inhabited 
 by the Greeks, as productive of every kind 
 of genius. 
 
 But this Taste was not only original 
 among the Greeks, but feemed alfo quite 
 peculiar to their country : it feldom went 
 abroad without lofs, and was long ere it 
 imparted its kind influences to more diftant 
 climes. It was, doubtlefs, a ftranger to the 
 northern zones, when Painting and Sculp- 
 ture, thofe offsprings of Greece, were de- 
 fpifed there to fuch a degree, that the mofl 
 valuable pieces of Cor regio ferved only for 
 blinds to the windows of the royal ftables 
 at Stockholm. 
 
 There is but one way for the moderns to 
 become great, and perhaps unequalled 3 I 
 mean, by imitating the antients. And what 
 we are told of Homer, that whoever under- 
 ftands him well, admires him, we find no 
 Jefs true in matters concerning the antienr, 
 efpecially the Greek arts. But then we mufl 
 
 a Plato in Timaeö. Edit. Francof. p. 1644. 
 
 be
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 3 
 
 be as familiar with them as with a friend, 
 to find Laocoon as inimitable as Homer. By 
 fuch intimacy our judgment will be that of 
 Nicomachus : Take thefe eyes, replied he to 
 fome paltry critick, cenfuring the Helen of 
 Zeuxis, Take my eyes, and JJ:e will appear a 
 goddefs. 
 
 With fuch eyes Michael Angelo, Raphael, 
 and Ponßn^ confidered the performances of 
 the antients. They imbibed tafle at its 
 fource 3 and Raphael particularly in its na- 
 tive country. We know, that he fent 
 young artifts to Greece, to copy there, for 
 his ufe, the remains of antiquity. 
 
 An antient Roman ftatue, compared to 
 a Greek one, will generally appear like 
 Virgil's Diana amidft her Öreads, in com- 
 panion of the Nauficaa of Homer, whom 
 he imitated. 
 
 Laocoon was the ftandard of the Roman 
 artifts, as well as ours 3 and the rules of 
 Polycletus became the rules of art. 
 
 I need not put the reader in mind of the 
 negligences to be met with in the moft ce- 
 
 B 2 lebrated
 
 4 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 lebrated antient performances : the Dolphin 
 at the feet of the Medicean Venus, with the 
 children, and the Parerga of the Diomedes 
 by Diofcorides, being commonly known. 
 The reverfe of the beft Egyptian and Syrian 
 coins feldom equals the head, in point of 
 workmanfhip. Great artifts are wifely neg- 
 ligent, and even their errors inftrucT:. Be- 
 hold their works as Lucian bids you behold 
 the Zeus of Phidias 5 Zeus himfelf not his 
 footßocL 
 
 It is not only Nature which the votaries 
 of the Greeks find in their works, but ftill 
 more, fomething fuperior to nature ; ideal 
 beauties, brain-born images, as Proclus fays b . 
 
 The moil beautiful body of ours would 
 perhaps be as much inferior to the moil: 
 beautiful Greek one, as Iphicles was to his 
 brother Hercules. The forms of the Greeks, 
 prepared to beauty, by the influence of the 
 mildeft and pureft iky, became perfectly 
 elegant by their early exercifes. Take a 
 
 b In Timseum Platonis. 
 
 a Spar-
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 5 
 
 a Spartan youth, fprung from heroes, un- 
 diftorted by fwaddling-cloths ; whofe bed, 
 from his feventh year, was the earth, fami- 
 liar with wreftling and fwimming from his 
 infancy ; and compare him with one of our 
 young Sybarits, and then decide which of 
 the two would be deemed worthy, by ant 
 artift, to ferve for the model of a Thefeus, 
 an Achilles, or even a Bacchus. The lat- 
 ter would produce a Thefeus fed on rofes, 
 the former a Thefeus fed on flefh, to borrow 
 the expreffion of Euphranor. 
 
 The grand games were always a very 
 ftrong incentive for every Greek youth to 
 exercife himfelf. Whoever afpired to the 
 honours of thefe was obliged, by the laws, to 
 fubmit to a trial of ten months at Elis, the 
 general rendezvous ; and there the firft re- 
 wards were commonly won by youths, as 
 Pindar tells us. c To be like the God-like Di- 
 agoras, was the fondeft wifh of every youth. 
 
 ■ Vide Pindar. Olymp. Od. VII, Arg. & Schol. 
 B 3 Behold
 
 6 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 Behold the fwift Indian outftripping in 
 purfuit the hart : how brifkly his juices cir- 
 culate ! how flexible, how elaftic his nerves 
 and mufcles ! how eafy his whole frame ! 
 Thus Homer draws his heroes, and his 
 Achilles he eminently marks for cf being 
 fwift of foot." 
 
 By thefe exercifes the bodies of the Greeks 
 ,got the great and manly Contour obferved 
 in their ftatues, without any bloated cor- 
 pulency. The young Spartans were bound 
 to appear every tenth day naked before the 
 Ephori, who, when they perceived any in- 
 clinable to fatnefs, ordered them a fcantier 
 diet ; nay, it was one of Pythagoras § pre- 
 cepts, to beware of growing too corpulent j 
 and, perhaps for the fame reafon, youths 
 afpiring to wreftling-games were, in the re- 
 moter ages of Greece, during their trial, con- 
 fined to a milk diet. 
 
 They were particularly cautious in avoid- 
 ing every deforming cuftom \ and Alcibiades* 
 when a boy, refufing to learn to play on 
 
 the
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 7 
 the flute, for fear of its difcompofing his 
 features, was followed by all the youth of 
 Athens. 
 
 In their drefs they were profefled followers 
 of nature. No modern ftiffening habit, no 
 fqueezing ftays hindered Nature from form- 
 ing eafy beauty ; the fair knew no anxiety 
 about their attire, and from their loofe and 
 fliort habits the Spartan girls got the epi- 
 thet of Phasnomirides. 
 
 We know what pains they took to have 
 handfome children, but want to be acquainted 
 with their methods : for certainly Quillet, m 
 his Gallipasdy, falls fhort of their numerous 
 expedients. They even attempted chang- 
 ing blue eyes to black ones, and games of 
 beauty were exhibited at Elis, the rewards 
 confiding of arms confecrated to the temple 
 of Minerva. How could they mifs of com- 
 petent and learned judges, when, as Ari- 
 ftotle tells us, the Grecian youths were taught 
 drawing exprefsly for that purpofe ? From 
 their fine complexion, which, though ming- 
 B 4 led
 
 8 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 led with a vaft deal of foreign blood, is ftill 
 preferved in moft of the Greek iflands, and 
 from the ftill enticing beauty of the fair fex, 
 efpecially at Chios ; we may eafily form an 
 ider of the beauty of the former inhabi- 
 tants, who boaited of being Aborigines, nay, 
 more antient than the moon. 
 
 And are not there feveral modern nations, 
 among whom beauty is too common to give 
 any title to pre-eminence ? Such are unani- 
 moufly accounted the Georgians and the Ka- 
 bardinfki in the Crim. 
 
 Thofe difeafes which are deftrudtive of 
 beauty, were moreover unknown to the 
 Greeks. There is not the lead hint of the 
 fmall-pox, in the writings of their phyfi- 
 cians -, and Homer, whole portraits are al- 
 ways lb truly drawn, mentions not one pitted 
 face. Venereal plagues, and their daughter 
 the Englifli malady, had not yet names. 
 
 And muft we not then, confidering every 
 
 advantage which nature beftows, or art 
 
 teaches, for forming, preferving, and im- 
 
 3 proving
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 9 
 
 proving beauty, enjoyed and applied by 
 the Grecians ; muft we not then confefs, 
 there is the ftrongeft probability that the 
 beauty of their perfons excelled all we can 
 have an idea of? 
 
 Art claims liberty : in vain would nature 
 produce her noblefl offsprings, in a country 
 where rigid laws would choak her progref- 
 five growth, as in Egypt, that pretended 
 parent of fciences and arts : but in Greece, 
 where, from their earliefl youth, the happy 
 inhabitants were devoted to mirth and plea- 
 fure, where narrow-fpirited formality never 
 reftramed the liberty of manners, the artift 
 enjoyed nature without a veil. 
 
 The Gymnafies, where, iheltered by pub- 
 lic modefty, the youths exercifed themfelves 
 naked, were the fchools of art. Thefe the 
 philofopher frequented, as well as the artift. 
 Socrates for the inftruflion of a Charmides, 
 Autolycus, Lyfisi Phidias for the improve- 
 ment of his art by their beauty. Here he 
 ftudied the elafticity of the mufcles, the ever 
 
 vary-
 
 io 'Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 varying motions of the frame, the outlines 
 of fair forms, or the Contour left by the 
 young wreftler on the fand. Here beautiful 
 nakednefs appeared with fuch a livelinefs of 
 expreffion, fuch truth and variety of fixa- 
 tions, fuch a noble air of the body, as it 
 would-be ridiculous to look for in any hired 
 model of our academies. 
 
 Truth fprings from the feelings of the 
 heart. What fhadow of it therefore can 
 the modern artift hope for, by relying upon 
 a vile model, whofe foul is either too bafe 
 to feel, or too ftupid to exprefs the paffions, 
 the fentiment his object claims ? unhappy 
 he ! if experience and fancy fail him. 
 
 The beginning of many of Plato s dia- 
 logues, fuppofed to have been held in the 
 Gymnafies, cannot raife our admiration of 
 the generous fouls of the Athenian youth, 
 without giving us, at the fame time, a ftrong 
 prefumption of a fuitable noblenefs in their 
 outward carriage and bodily exercifes. 
 
 The
 
 Tainting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 1 1 
 
 The faireft youths danced undreffed on the 
 theatre ; and So-phocles, the great Sophocles, 
 when young, was the firfl who dared to en- 
 tertain his fellow-citizens in this manner. 
 Phry?ie went to bathe at the Eleufinian 
 games, expofed to the eyes of all Greece, 
 and rifing from the water became the model 
 of Venus Anadyomene. During certain fo- 
 lemnities the young Spartan maidens danced 
 naked before the young men : ftrange this 
 may feem, but will appear more probable, 
 when we confider that the chriftians of the 
 primitive church, both men and women, 
 w T ere dipped together in the fame font. 
 
 Then every folemnity, every fcftival, af- 
 forded the artift opportunity to familiarize 
 himfelf with all the beauties of Nature. 
 
 In the moft happy times of their free- 
 dom, the humanity of the Greeks abhorred 
 bloody games, which even fri the Ionick 
 Alia had ceafed long before, if, as feme 
 guefs, they had once been ufual there. An- 
 ikchus Epiphanes. by ordering fliews of Ro- 
 man
 
 12 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 man gladiators, firfl prefented them with 
 fuch unhappy vi&ims; and cuftom and 
 time, weakening the pangs of fympathizing 
 humanity, changed even thefe games into 
 fchools of art. There Ctefias ftudied his 
 dying gladiator, in whom you might defcry 
 <c how much life was ftill left in him V 
 
 Thefe frequent occafions of obferving Na- 
 ture, taught the Greeks to go on ftill farther. 
 They began to form certain general ideas of 
 beauty, with regard to the proportions of 
 the inferiour parts, as well as of the whole 
 frame : thefe they raifed above the reach of 
 mortality, according to the fuperiour model 
 *of fome ideal nature. 
 
 Thus Raphael formed his Galatea, as we 
 learn by his letter to Count Baltazar Caftig- 
 lione c , where he fays, <c Beauty being fo 
 
 d Some are of opinion, that the celebrated Ludo- 
 vifian gladiator, now in the great fallon of the ca- 
 pitol, is this fame whom Pliny mentions. 
 
 e Vide ßellori Defcriz delle Imagini dipinte da 
 Raffaelle d'Vrbino, &c. Roma. 1695 fol. 
 
 feldom
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks . 1 3 
 
 feldom found among the fair, I avail myfelf 
 of a certain ideal image." 
 
 According to thofe ideas, exalted above 
 the pitch of material models, the Greeks 
 formed their gods and heroes : the profile of 
 the brow and nofe of gods and goddeffes is 
 almoft a ftreight line. The fame they gave 
 on their coins to queens, &c. but without 
 indulging their fancy too much. Perhaps 
 this profile was as peculiar to the antient 
 Greeks, as flat nofes and little eyes to the 
 Calmucks and Chinefe ; a fuppofition which 
 receives fome ftrength from the large eyes 
 of all the heads on Greek coins and gems. 
 
 From the fame ideas the Romans form- 
 ed their EmprefTes on their coins. Livia 
 and Agrippina have the profile of Artemifia 
 and Cleopatra. 
 
 We obferve, neverthelefs, that the Greek 
 artifts in general, fubmitted to the law pre- 
 ferred by the Thebans : " To do, under 
 a penalty, their bed in imitating Nature." 
 For, where they could not poflibly apply 
 
 their
 
 14 Reßexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 their eafy profile, without endangering the 
 refemblance, they followed Nature, as we 
 fee inflanced in the beauteous head of Julia, 
 the daughter of Titus, done by Euodus f . 
 
 But to form a " juft refemblance, and, 
 at the fame time, a handfomer one," being 
 always the chief rule they obferved, and 
 which Polygnotus conftantly went by -> they 
 mud, of necemty, be fuppofed to have had 
 in view a more beauteous and more perfect 
 Nature. And when we are told, that fome 
 artifts imitated Praxiteles, who took his con- 
 cubine Cratina for the model of his Cnidian 
 Venus; or that others formed the graces 
 from Lais ; it is to be understood that they 
 did (a, without negle&ing thefe great laws 
 of the art. Senfual beauty furnimed the 
 painter with all that nature could give ; ideal 
 beauty with the awful and fublime ; from 
 that he took the Humane, from this the 
 Divine. 
 
 c Vide Stofch Pierres grav. pi. XXXIII. 
 
 2 Let
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 15 
 
 Let any one, fagacious enough to pierce 
 into the depths of art, compare the whole 
 lyftem of the Greek figures with that of the 
 moderns, by which, as they fay, nature alone 
 is imitated ; good heaven ! what a number 
 of negle&ed beauties will he not difcover ! 
 
 For inftance, in moil: of the modern 
 figures, if the fkin happens to be any where 
 prefled, you fee there feveral little fmart 
 wrinkles : when, on the contrary, the fame 
 parts, prefied in the fame manner on Greek 
 flatues, by their foft undulations, form at 
 laft but one noble prefiure. Thefe mafter- 
 pieces never fhew us the fkin forcibly ftretch- 
 ed, but foftly embracing the firm flefh, which 
 fills it up without any tumid expanfion, and 
 harmonioufly follows its dire&ion. There 
 the {kin never, as on modern bodies, appears 
 in plaits diftindt from the flefh. 
 
 Modern works are likewife diftinguiflied 
 from the antient by parts -, a crowd of fmall 
 touches and dimples too fenfibly drawn. In 
 antient works you find thefe diftributed with 
 
 fearing
 
 i 6 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 {paring fagacity, and, as relative to a com- 
 pleter and more pcrfedt Nature, offered 
 but as hints, nay* often perceived only by 
 the learned. 
 
 The probability ftill increafes, that the 
 bodies of the Greeks, as well as the works 
 of their artifts, were framed with more unity 
 of fyftem, a nobler harmony of parts, and 
 a completenefs of the whole, above our 
 lean tenfions and hollow wrinkles. 
 
 Probability, 'tis true, is all we can pre- 
 tend to : but it deferves the attention of our 
 artifts and connoiffeurs the rather, as the ve- 
 neration profeffed for the antient monuments 
 is commonly imputed to prejudice, and not 
 to their excellence ; as if the numerous 
 ages, during which they have mouldered, 
 were the only motive for beftowing on them 
 exalted praifes, and fetting them up for the 
 ftandards of imitation. 
 
 Such as would fain deny to the Greeks 
 the advantages both of a more perfedt Na- 
 ture and of ideal Beauties, boaft of the fa- 
 mous
 
 Sculpture and Painting of the Greeks. 1 7 
 
 mous Bernini^ as their great champion. He 
 was of opinion, befides, that Nature was 
 pofleffed of every requifite beauty : the only 
 Ikill being to difcover that. He boafled 
 of having got rid of a prejudice concerning 
 the Medicean Venus, whofe charms he at 
 firfl thought peculiar ones ; but, after many 
 careful refearches, difcovered them now and 
 then in Nature g . 
 
 He was taught then, by the Venus, to 
 difcover beauties in common Nature, which 
 he had formerly thought peculiar to that 
 ftatue, and but fork, never would have fearch- 
 ed for them. Follows it not from thence, that 
 the beauties of the Greek ftatues being dif- 
 covered with lefs difficulty than thofe of Na- 
 ture, are of courfe more affecting ; not fo 
 diffufed, but more harmonioufly united ? 
 and if this be true, the pointing out of Na- 
 ture as chiefly imitable, is leading us into 
 a more tedious and bewildered road to the 
 
 * Baldinucci Vita del Cav. Barnini. 
 
 C know-
 
 1 8 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 knowledge of perfeft beauty, than fetting up 
 the ancients for that purpoie : confequently 
 Bernini, by adhering too ftrictly to Nature, 
 acted againft his own principles, as well as 
 cbftructed the progrefs of his difciples. 
 
 The imitation of beauty is either reduced 
 to a fingle object, and is individual, or, ga- 
 thering obfervations from fingle ones, com- 
 pofes of thefe one whole. The former we call 
 copying, drawing a portrait ; 'tis the ftraight 
 way to Dutch forms and figures; whereas 
 the other leads to general beauty, and its 
 ideal images, and is the way the Greeks took. 
 But there is ftill this difference between them 
 and us : they enjoying daily occafions of 
 feeing beauty, (fuppofe even not fuperior 
 to ours,) acquired thofe ideal riches with 
 lefs toil than we, confined as we are to a 
 few and often fruitlefs opportunities, ever 
 can hope for. It would be no eafy matter, 
 I fancy, for our nature, to produce a frame 
 equal in beauty to that of Antinous ; and 
 
 furely
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 1 9 
 
 furely no idea can ibar above the more than 
 human proportions of a deity, in the Apollo 
 of the Vatican, which is a compound of the 
 united force of Nature, Genius, and Art. 
 
 Their imitation difcovering in the one 
 every beauty difFufed through Nature, Shew- 
 ing in the other the pitch to which the 
 moil: perfect Nature can elevate herfelf, 
 when foaring above the fenfes, will quicken 
 the genius of the artift, and (horten his 
 difciplefhip : he will learn to think and 
 draw with confidence, feeing here the fixed 
 limits of human and divine beauty. 
 
 Building on this ground, his hand and 
 fenfes directed by the Greek rule of beauty, 
 the modern artift goes on the fureft way to 
 the imitation of Nature. The ideas of 
 unity and perfection, which he acquired in 
 meditating on antiquity, will help him to 
 combine, and to ennoble the more fcattered 
 and weaker beauties of our Nature. Thus 
 he will improve every beauty he difcovers in 
 
 C 2 it,
 
 20 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 it, and by comparing the beauties of nature 
 with the ideal, form rules for himfelf. 
 
 Then, and not fooner, he, particularly 
 the painter, may be allowed to commit him- 
 felf to Nature, efpecially in cafes where his 
 art is beyond the inftruclion of the old mar- 
 bles, to wit, in drapery ; then, like Pottßn\ 
 he may proceed with more liberty ; for " a 
 " timid follower will never get the ftart of 
 < c his leaders, and he who is at a lofs to 
 <c produce fomething of his own, will be 
 " a bad manager of the produclions of an- 
 " other," as Michael Angelo fays, Minds 
 favoured by Nature, 
 
 Quibus Arte benigna y 
 Et meliore Into, finxit pracordia ¥itan y 
 
 have here a plain way to become originals. 
 
 Thus the account de Piles gives, ought 
 to be understood, that Raphael, a (hort time' 
 before he was carried off by death, intended 
 to forfake the marbles, in order to addicl: 
 himfelf wholly to Nature, True antient 
 
 tafle
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 2 £ 
 
 tafte would rnoft certainly have guided him 
 through every maze of common Nature ; 
 and whatever obfervations, whatever new 
 ideas he might have reaped from that, they 
 would all, by a kind of chymical tranfmuta- 
 tion, have been changed to his own effence 
 and foul. 
 
 He, perhaps, might have indulged more 
 variety; enlarged his draperies; improved 
 his colours, his light and fhadow : but none 
 of thefe improvements would have raifed 
 his pictures to that high efteem they deferve, 
 for that noble Contour, and that fublimity 
 of thoughts, which he acquired from the 
 ancients. 
 
 Nothing would more decifwely prove the 
 advantages to be got by imitating the an- 
 cients, preferably to Nature, than an eflay 
 made with two youths of equal talents, by 
 devoting the one to antiquity, the other to 
 Nature: this would draw Nature as he 
 finds her ; if Italian, perhaps he might paint 
 like Caravaggio-, if Flemilh, and lucky, 
 
 C 3 like
 
 22 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 like Jac. Jordans ; if French, like Stella: 
 the other would draw her as {he directs, 
 and paint like Raphael. 
 
 II; Contour. 
 
 T)UT even fuppofing tliat the imitation 
 of Nature could fupply all the artifl 
 wants, fhe never could beftow the precifion 
 of Contour, that characterise diftin&ion of 
 the ancients. 
 
 The nobieft Contour unites or circum- 
 fcribes every part of the mod perfect Nature, 
 and the ideal beauties in the figures of the 
 Greeks; or rather, contains them both. 
 Euphranor, famous after the epoch of Zeuxis, 
 is faid to have firft ennobled it. 
 
 Many of the moderns have attempted to 
 imitate this Contour, but very few with fuc- 
 cefs. The great Rubens is far from having 
 attained either its precifion or elegance, efpe- 
 cially in the performances which he finished 
 
 before
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 2 3 
 
 before he went to Italy, and ftudied the an- 
 tiques. 
 
 The line by which Nature divides com- 
 pletenefs from fuperrluity is but a fmall one, 
 and, infenfible as it often is, has been croffed 
 even by the befl moderns ; while thefe, in 
 fhunning a meagre Contour, became cor- 
 pulent, thofe, in fhunning that, grew lean. 
 
 Among them all, only Michael Angelo, 
 perhaps, may be faid to have attained the 
 antique > but only in ftrong mufcular figures, 
 heroic frames ; not in thofe of tender youth -, 
 nor in female bodies, which, under his bold 
 hand, grew Amazons. 
 
 The Greek artift, on the contrary, ad- 
 jufted his Contour, in every figure, to the 
 breadth of a fingle hair, even in the nicefl 
 and moft tirefome performances, as gems. 
 Confider the Diomedes and Perfeus of Diof- 
 corides h , Hercules and Iole by leucer \ and 
 admire the inimitable Greeks. 
 
 h Vide Stofch Pierres Grav. pi. XXIX. XXX. 
 1 Vide Muf. FJor. T. II. t. V. 
 
 C 4. F arrha-
 
 24 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 Parrhqfius, they fay, was mafter of the 
 corredleft Contour. 
 
 This Contour reigns in Greek figures, 
 even when covered with drapery, as the 
 chief aim of the arfaft ; the beautiful frame 
 pierces the marble like a tranfparent Coan 
 cloth. 
 
 The high-ftiled Agrippina, and the three 
 veflals in the royal cabinet at Drefden, de- 
 ferve to be mentioned as eminent proofs of 
 this. This Agrippina feems not the mother 
 of Nero, but an elder one, the fpoufe of 
 Germanicus. She much refembles another 
 pretended Agrippina, in the parlour of the 
 library of St, Marc, at Venice k . Ours is a 
 fitting figure, above the fize of Nature, her 
 head inclined on her right hand ; her fine 
 face fpeaks a foul " pining in thought," ab- 
 forbed in penfive forrow, and fenfelefs to 
 every outward impreflion. The artiiT, I 
 fuppofe, intended to draw his heroine in the 
 
 k Vide Zanetti Statue nelP Antifala della libraria 
 di S. Marco. Venez. 1740. fol. 
 
 mourn-«
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 2 5 
 
 mournful moment me received the news of 
 her banifhment to Pandataria. 
 
 The three veftais deferve our efteem from 
 a double title : as being the firft important 
 difcoveries of Herculaneum, and models of 
 the fublimeft drapery. All three, but par- 
 ticularly one above the natural fize, would, 
 with regard to that, be worthy companions 
 of the Farnefian Flora, and all the other 
 boafts of antiquity. The two others feem, 
 by their refemblance to each other, produc- 
 tions of the fame hand, only diftinguimed 
 by their heads, which are not of equal good- 
 nefs. On the bell: the curled hairs, running 
 in furrows from the forehead, are tied on 
 the neck : on the other the hair being fmooth 
 on the fcalp, and curled on the front, is 
 gathered behind, and tied with a ribband : 
 this head feems of a modern hand, but a 
 good one. 
 
 There is no veil on thefe heads ; but that 
 makes not againft their being veftais : for 
 the prieftefles of Vefta (I fpeak on proof) 
 
 were
 
 26 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 were not always veiled ; or rather, as the 
 drapery feems to betray, the veil, which 
 was of one piece with the garments, being 
 thrown backwards, mingles with the cloaths 
 on the neck. 
 
 'Tis to thefe three inimitable pieces that 
 the world owes the firfl hints of the enfuing 
 difcovery of the fubterranean treafures of 
 Herculaneum. 
 
 Their difcovery happened when the 
 fame ruins that overwhelmed the town had 
 nearly extinguifhed the unhappy remem- 
 brance of it : when the tremendous fate that 
 ipoke its doom was only known by the ac- 
 count which Pliny gives of his uncle's 
 death. 
 
 Thefe great mafter-pieces of the Greek 
 art were tranfplanted, and worfhipped in Ger- 
 many, long before Naples could boaft of one 
 fingle Herculanean monument. 
 
 They were difcovered in the year 1706 at 
 
 Portici near Naples, in a ruinous vault, on 
 
 occafion of digging the foundations of a 
 
 2 villa,
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 27 
 
 villa, for the Prince d'Elbeuf, and imme- 
 diately, with other new difcovered marble 
 and metal ftatues, came into the pofleffion 
 of Prince Eugene, and were tranfported to 
 Vienna. 
 
 Eugene, who well knew their value, pro* 
 vided a Sala Terrena to be built exprefsly for 
 them, and a few others : and fo highly were 
 they efteemed, that even on the firft rumour 
 of their fale, the academy and the artifts 
 were in an uproar, and every body, when 
 they were tranfported to Drefden, followed 
 them with heavy eyes. 
 
 The famous Matielli, to whom 
 
 His rule Poly clef > his chiffel Phidias 'gave, 
 
 AlgarottL 
 
 copied them in clay before their removal, 
 and following them fome years after, filled 
 Drefden with everlafting monuments of his 
 art : but even there he ftudied the drapery 
 of his priefteffes, (drapery his chief fkill !) 
 till he laid down his chiffel, and thus gave 
 
 the
 
 28 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 the moft ftriking proof of their excel- 
 lence. 
 
 III. Drapery. 
 
 T) Y Drapery is to be underftood all that the 
 art teaches of covering the nudities, and 
 folding the garments 5 and this is the third 
 prerogative of the ancients. 
 
 The Drapery of the veftals above, is grand 
 and elegant. The fmaller foldings fpring gra- 
 dually from the larger ones, and in them are 
 loft again, with a noble freedom, and gen- 
 tle harmony of the whole, without hiding 
 the correct Contour. How few of the mo- 
 derns would ftand the teft here ! 
 
 Juftice, however, lhall not be refufed to 
 fome great modern artifts, who, without im- 
 pairing nature or truth, have left, in certain 
 cafes, the road which the ancients generally 
 purfued. The Greek Drapery, in order 
 to help the Contour, was, for the moft part, 
 taken from thin and wet garments, which of 
 3 courfe
 
 Painting an J Sculpture of the Greeks. 29 
 
 courfe clafped the body, and difcovered the 
 fhape. The robe of the Greek ladies was ex- 
 tremely thin -, thence its epithet of Peplon. 
 
 Neverthelefs the reliefs, the pictures, and 
 particularly the bufts of the ancients, are in- 
 ftances that they did not always keep to this 
 undulating Drapery l . 
 
 In modern times the artifts were forced 
 to heap garments, and fometimes heavy 
 ones, on each other, which of courfe could 
 not fall into the flowing folds of the an- 
 cients. Hence the large-folded Drapery, by 
 which the painter and fculptor may difplay 
 as much {kill as by the ancient, manner. 
 Carlo Marat and Francis Solimena may 
 be called the chief matters of it: but the 
 garments of the new Venetian fchool, by 
 pafling the bounds of nature and propriety, 
 became (lift as brafs. 
 
 1 Among the bufts remarkable for that coarfer 
 Drapery, we may reckon the beauteous Caracalla 
 in the royal cabinet at Drefden. 
 
 IV. Ex-
 
 30 Reßexio?2s on the Imitation oftlx 
 
 IV. Expression. 
 
 / TpHE laft and moll eminent characleriftic 
 of the Greek works is a noble fimpli- 
 city and fedate grandeur in Gefture and Ex- 
 preffion. As the bottom of the fea lies 
 peaceful beneath a foaming furface, a great 
 foul lies fedate beneath the ftrife of paffions 
 in Greek figures. 
 
 'Tis in the face of Laocoon this foul 
 fhines with full luftre, not confined how- 
 ever to the face, amidft the moft violent 
 fufFerings. Pangs piercing every mufcle, 
 every labouring nerve y pangs which we al- 
 moft feel ourfelves, while we confider — not 
 the face, nor the moft expreffive parts — 
 only the belly contracted by excruciating 
 pains : thefe however, I fay, exert not them- 
 felves with violence, either in the face or 
 gefture. He pierces not heaven, like the 
 Laocoon of Virgil ; his mouth is rather 
 opened to difcharge an anxious overloaded 
 
 groan,
 
 Tainting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 3 1 
 
 groan, as Sadolet fays ; the ftruggling body 
 and the fupporting mind exert themfelves 
 with equal ftrength, nay balance all the 
 frame. 
 
 Laocoon fuffers, but fuffers like the Phi- 
 lo&etes of Sophocles : we weeping feel his 
 pains, but wifh for the hero's ftrength to 
 fupport his mifery. 
 
 The Expreffion of fo great a foul is be- 
 yond the force of mere nature. It was in 
 his own mind the artift was to fearch for 
 the ftrength of fpirit with which he marked 
 his marble. Greece enjoyed artifts and phi- 
 lofophers in the fame perfons; and the 
 wifdom of more than one Metrodorus di- 
 rected art, and infpired its figures with more 
 than common fouls. 
 
 Had Laocoon been covered with a garb 
 becoming an antient facrificer, his fufferings 
 would have loft one half of their Expref- 
 fion. Bernini pretended to perceive the firft 
 effedts of the operating venom in the numb- 
 nefs of one of the thighs. 
 
 Every
 
 3^ "Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 Every adtion or geftüre in Greek figures; 
 not (tamped with this character of fage dig- 
 nity, but too violent, too pafiionate, was 
 called cc Parenthyrfos." 
 
 For, the more tranquillity reigns in a body, 
 the fitter it is to draw the true character of 
 the foul 5 which, in every exceffive gefture, 
 feems to rum from her proper centre, and 
 being hurried away by extremes becomes 
 unnatural. Wound up to the higheft pitch 
 of paflion, (lie may force herielf upon the 
 duller eye ; but the true fphere of her ac- 
 tion is fimplicity and calmnefs. In Laocoon 
 fufferings alone had been Parenthvrfos ; the 
 artifi therefore, in order to reconcile the fig— 
 nificative and ennobling qualities of his foul, 
 put him into a pcfture, allowing for the fuf- 
 ferings that were neceffary, the next to a 
 ftate of tranquillity : a tranquillity however 
 that is charaäeriftical : the foul will be her- 
 felf — this individual — not the foul of man- 
 kind]} fedate, but active ; calm, but not in- 
 different or drowfy. 
 
 What
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 3 3 
 
 What a contrail: ! how diametrically op- 
 pofite to this is the tafte of our modern ar-- 
 tiits, efpecially the young ones ! on nothing 
 do they beftow their approbation, but con- 
 torfions and flrange poitures, infpired with 
 boldnefs; this they pretend is done with fpirit, 
 with Franchezza. Contrail is the darling of 
 their ideas ; in it they fancy every perfection. 
 They fill their performances with comet- 
 like excentric fouls, defpifing every thing 
 but an Ajax or a Capaneus. 
 
 Arts have their infancy as well as men ; 
 they begin, as well as the artift, with froth 
 and bombait : in fuch bufkins the mufe of 
 iEfchilus ftalks, and part of the didion in 
 his Agamemnon is more loaded with hyper- 
 boles than all Heraclitus's nonfenfe. Per- 
 haps the primitive Greek painters drew in 
 the fame manner that their firft good trage- 
 dian thought in, 
 
 In all human adlions flutter and raih- 
 
 nefs precede, fedatenefs and folidity follow : 
 
 but time only can difcover, and the judi- 
 
 D cious
 
 34 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 cious will admire thefe only : they are the 
 charadteriftics of great matters ; violent pat- 
 fions run away with their difciples. 
 
 The fages in the art know the difficulties 
 hid under that air of eafinefs : 
 
 at fibi quivis 
 Speret idem, fudet multum, frußraqiie labor et 
 Anfus idem. Hor. 
 
 La Fage, though an eminent defigner, was 
 not able to attain the purity of ancient tafte. 
 Every thing is animated in his works ; they 
 demand, and at the fame time diffipate, your 
 attention, like a company ftriving to talk 
 all at once. 
 
 This noble fimplicity and fedate grandeur 
 is alfo the true characteriftical mark of the 
 beft and matureft Greek writings, of the 
 epoch and fchool of Socrates. Poffeffed of 
 thefe qualities Raphael became eminently 
 great, and he owed them to the ancients. 
 
 That great foul of his, lodged in a 
 beauteous body, was requifite for the firft 
 
 difcovery
 
 Tainting and Sculpture of the Greeks . 3 5 
 
 difcovery of the true character of the ancients: 
 he firft felt all their beauties, and (what he 
 was peculiarly happy in !) at an age when 
 vulgar, unfeeling, and half- moulded fouls 
 overlook every higher beauty. 
 
 Ye that approach his works, teach your 
 eyes to be fenfible of thofe beauties, refine 
 your tafte by the true antique, and then 
 that folemn tranquillity of the chief figures 
 in his Attila y deemed infipid by the vulgar, 
 will appear to you equally fignificant and 
 fublime. The Roman bifhop, in order to 
 divert the Hun from his defign of aflailing 
 Rome, appears not with the air of a Rhetor, 
 but as a venerable man, whofe very prefence 
 foftens uproar into peace ; like him drawn 
 by Virgil : 
 
 Turn pietate gravem ac meritis> ß forte virum 
 
 quern 
 Confpexere, filent, adreffifque auribus adflant: 
 
 JEn. I. 
 D 2 full
 
 36 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 full of confidence in God, he faces down the 
 barbarian : the two Apoftles defcend not 
 with the air of flaughtering angels, but (if 
 facred may be compared with profane) like 
 Jove, whofe very nod makes Olympus. 
 
 Algardi> in his celebrated reprefentation 
 of the fame ftory, done in bas-relief on an 
 altar in St. Peter's church at Rome, was 
 either too negligent, or too weak, to give 
 this active tranquillity of his great prede- 
 ceffor to the figures of his Apoftles. There 
 they appear like melfengers of the Lord of 
 Hofts : here like human warriors with mortal 
 arms. 
 
 How few of thofe we call connoiffeurs 
 have ever been able to underftand, and fin- 
 cerely to admire, the grandeur of exprefiion 
 in the St. Michael of Guido, in the church 
 of the Capuchins at Rome ! they prefer 
 commonly the Archangel of Concha, whofe 
 face glows with indignation and revenge m ; 
 
 whereas 
 
 m Vide Wright's Travels. 
 
 The victorious St. Michael of Guido, treads ob 
 
 the
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 37 
 
 whereas Guido 's Angel, after having over- 
 thrown the fiend of God and man,* hovers 
 over him unruffled and undifmayed. 
 
 Thus, to heighten the hero of The Cam- 
 paign, vidtorious Marlborough, the Britim 
 poet paints the avenging Angel hovering 
 over Britannia with the like ferenity and 
 awful calmnefs. 
 
 The royal gallery at Drefden contains 
 now, among its treafures, one of Raphael's 
 beft pictures, witnefs Vafari, &c. a Ma- 
 donna with the Infant ; St. Sixtus and St. 
 Barbara kneeling, one on each fide, and two 
 Angels in the fore-part. 
 
 It was the chief altar-piece in the cloiiler 
 of St. Sixtus at Piacenza, which was croud- 
 ed by connoiiTeurs, who came to fee this 
 Raphael, in the fame manner as Thefpis 
 was in the days of old, for the fake of the 
 beautiful Cupid of Praxiteles, 
 
 the body of his antagonift, with all the precifion of a 
 dancing-mafter. Webb's Inquiry, &c. 
 
 D 3 Be-
 
 38 Reßexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 Behold the Madonna ! her face brightens 
 with innocence \ a form above the female 
 fize, and the calmnefs of her mien, make 
 her appear as already beatified : me has that 
 filent awfulnefs which the ancients fpread 
 over their deities. How grand, how noble 
 is her Contour ! 
 
 The child in her arms is elevated above 
 vulgar children, by a face darting the beams 
 of divinity through every fmiling feature of 
 harmlefs childhood. 
 
 St. Barbara kneels, with adoring ftill- 
 nefs, at her fide : but being far beneath the 
 majefty of the chief figure, the great artift 
 compenfated her humbler graces with foft 
 enticing charms. 
 
 The Saint oppofite to her is venerable 
 with age. His features feem to bear wit- 
 nefs of his facred youth. 
 
 The veneration which St. Barbara declares 
 for the Madonna, exprefled in the moft 
 fenfible and pathetic manner, by her fine 
 hands clafped on her breafr, helps to fup- 
 
 port
 
 Tainting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 3 9 
 
 port the motion of one of St. Sixtus's hands, 
 by which he utters his extafy, better be- 
 coming (as the artifl judicioufly thought, 
 andchofe for variety's fake) manly ftrength, 
 than female modefty. 
 
 Time, 'tis true, has withered the primitive 
 fplendour of this picture, and partly blown 
 off its lively colours ; but ftill the foul, with 
 which the painter infpired his godlike work, 
 breathes life through all its parts. 
 
 Let thofe that approach this, and the reft 
 of Raphael's works, in hopes of finding 
 there the trifling Dutch and Flemim beau- 
 ties, the laboured nicety of JNetfcher, or 
 Douw, flefh ivorified by Van der Werf, or 
 even the licked manner of iome of Ra- 
 phael's living countrymen ; let thofe, I fay, 
 be told, that Raphael was not a great mailer 
 for them. 
 
 D 4. V. Work-
 
 40 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 V. Workmanship in Sculpture. 
 
 A FTER thefe remarks on the Nature, 
 the Contour, the Drapery, the fimpli^ 
 city and grandeur of Expreffion in the per- 
 formances of the Greek artifts, we mall 
 proceed to fome inquiries into their method 
 of working. 
 
 Their models were generally made of 
 wax ; inftead of which the moderns ufed 
 clay, or fuch like unctuous fluff, as feeming 
 fitter for expreffing flefh, than the more 
 gluey and tenacious wax. 
 
 A method however not new, though more 
 frequent in our times : for we know even 
 the name of that ancient who firfi attempted 
 modelling in wet clay > 'twas Dibutades of 
 Sicyon ; and Arcefilaus, the friend of Ln- 
 cu!/us 3 grew more famous by his models of 
 clay than his other performances. He made 
 for Lucullus a figure of clay reprefenting 
 Happinefs y and received 60^000 fefterces : 
 2 and
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks . 4 1 
 
 and OcJaviuSy a Roman Knight, paid him 
 a talent for the model only of a large dim, 
 in plaifter, which he defigned to have finifhed 
 in gold. 
 
 Of all materials, clay might be allowed 
 to be the fitteft for fh aping figures, could it 
 preferve its moiftnefs > but lofing that by 
 time or fire, its folider parts, contracting by de- 
 grees, leflen the bulk of the mafs ; and that 
 which is formed, being of different diameters, 
 grows fooner dry in fome parts than in others, 
 and the dry ones being llirunk to a fmaller 
 iize, there will be no proportion kept in the 
 whole. 
 
 From this inconvenience wax is always 
 free : it lofes nothing of its bulk ; and there 
 are alfo means to give it the fmocthnefs 
 of flefh, which is refufed to modelling ; 
 viz. you make your model of clay, mould 
 it with plaifter, and cafl the wax over it. 
 
 But for transferring their models to the 
 marble, the Greeks feem to have pofTefied 
 
 fome
 
 42 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 fbme peculiar advantages, which are now loft: 
 for you difcover, every where in their works, 
 the traces of a confident hand ; and even in 
 thofe of inferior rank, it would be no eafy 
 matter to prove a wrong cut. Surely hands 
 fo fteady, fo fecure; muft of neceffity have 
 been guided by rules more determinate and 
 lefs arbitrary than we can boaft of. 
 
 The ufual method of our fculptors is, to 
 quarter the well-prepared model with ho- 
 rizontals and perpendiculars, and, as is 
 common in copying a picture, to draw a re- 
 lative number of fquares on the marble. 
 
 Thus, regular gradations of a fcale be- 
 ing fuppofed, every fmall fquare of the mo- 
 del has its correfponding one on the marble. 
 But the contents of the relative mafles not 
 being determinable by a meafured furface, 
 the artiftj though he gives to his ftone the 
 refemblance of the model, yet, as he only 
 depends on the precarious aid of his eye, 
 he fhall never ceafe wavering, as to his doing 
 right or wrong, cutting too fiat or too deep. 
 
 Nor
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 43 
 
 Nor can he find lines to determine pre- 
 cifely the outlines, or the Contour of the 
 inward parts, and the centre of his model, 
 in fo fixed and unchangeable a manner, as 
 to enable him, exadtly, to transfer the fame 
 Contours upon his ftone. 
 
 To a!] this add, that, if his work hap- 
 pens to be too voluminous for one fingle 
 hand, he muft truft to thofe of his journey- 
 men and difciples, who, too often, are nei- 
 ther fkilful nor cautious enough to follow 
 their matter's defign 5 and if once the fmalleft 
 trifle be cut wrong, for it is impoffible to 
 fix, by this method, the limits of the cuts, 
 all is loft. 
 
 It is to be remarked in general, that 
 every fculptor, who carries on his chiffelings 
 their whole length, on firft fafhioning his 
 marble, and does not prepare them by gra- 
 dual cuts for the lafl final ftrokes ; it is to 
 be remarked, I fay, that he never can keep 
 his work free from faults. 
 
 Another
 
 44 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 Another chief defect in that method is 
 this : the artift cannot help cutting off, every 
 moment, the lines on his block -, and though 
 he reftore them, cannot poffibly be fure of 
 avoiding miftakes. 
 
 On account of this unavoidable uncer- 
 tainty, the artifts found themfelves obliged 
 to contrive another method, and that which 
 the French academy at Rome firft made ufe 
 of for copying antiques, was applied by 
 many even to modelled performances. 
 
 Over the ftatue which you want to copy, 
 you fix a well-proportioned fquare, di- 
 viding it into equally diftant degrees, by 
 plummets : by thefe the outlines of the 
 figure are more diftinßly marked than they 
 could poffibly be by means of the former 
 method : they moreover afford the artift an 
 exact meafure of the more prominent or 
 lower parts, by the degrees in which thefe 
 parts are near them, and in fhort, allow him 
 to go on with more confidence. 
 
 But
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 45 
 
 But the undulations of a curve being not 
 determinable by a lingle perpendicular, the 
 Contours of the figure are but indifferently 
 indicated to the artift; and among their 
 many declinations from a ftraight furface, 
 his tenour is every moment loft. 
 
 The difficulty of difcovering the real pro-» 
 portions of the figures, may alfo be eafily 
 imagined : they feek them by horizontals 
 placed acrofs the plummets. But the rays 
 reflected from the figure through the fquares, 
 will ftrike the eye in enlarged angles, and 
 confequently appear bigger, in proportion as 
 they are high or low to the point of view. 
 
 Neverthelefs, as the ancient monuments 
 muft be moft cautioufly dealt with, plum- 
 mets are ftill of ufe in copying them, as no 
 furer or eafier method has been difcovered : 
 but for performances to be done from mo- 
 dels they are unfit for want of precision. 
 
 Michael Angelo went alone a way un- 
 known before him, and (ftrange to tell!) 
 
 untrcd
 
 46 Reßexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 untrod fince the time of that genius of mo- 
 dern fculpture. 
 
 This Phidias of latter times, and next to 
 the Greeks, hath, in all probability, hit the 
 very mark of his great mafters. We know 
 at leaft no method fo eminently proper for 
 expreffing on the block every even the mi- 
 nuteft, beauty of the model. 
 
 Vafari n feems to give but a defective 
 defcription of this method, viz. Michael 
 
 n Vafari vite de Pittori, Scult. et Arch. edit. 1568. 
 
 Part III. p. 776. " Quattro prigioni bozzati, 
 
 " che poffano infegnare a cavare de' Marmi le figure 
 ** con un modo ficuro da non iftorpiare i faffi, che 
 <c il modo e quefto, che s' e' fi pigliafli una figura di 
 <c cera 6 d' akra materia dura, e fi metefli a giacere 
 Ci in una conca d' acqua, la quale acqua eflendo per 
 <c la fua natura nella fua fommitä piana et pari, al- 
 * c zando la detta figura a poco del pari, coli ven- 
 * c gono ä fcoprirfi prima le parti piu relevate e a 
 <c nafconderfi i fondi, cioe le parti piu bafTe della 
 <e figura, tanto che nel fine ella cofi viene fcoperta 
 <c tutta. Nel medefimo modo fi debbono cavare con 
 ic lo fcarpello le figure de' Marmi, prima fcoprendo 
 <c le parti piu rilevate, e di mano in mano le piu bafle, 
 " il quale modo fi vede cfTervato da Michael Angelo 
 " ne' fopra detti prigioni, i quali fua Eccellenza 
 «< vuole, che fervino per «fempio de fuoi Academic!. " 
 
 Angela
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks . 47 
 
 Angeh took a veffel filled with water, in 
 which he placed his model of wax, or fome 
 fuch indiffoluble matter : then, by degrees, 
 raifed it to the furface of the water. In this 
 manner the prominent parts were unwet, 
 the lower covered, 'till the whole at length 
 appeared. Thus fays Vafari, he cut his 
 marble, proceeding from the more promi- 
 nent parts to the lower ones. 
 
 Vafariy it feems, either miftook fomething 
 in the management of his friend, or by the 
 negligence of his account gives us room to 
 imagine it fomewhat different from what he 
 relates. 
 
 The form of the veffel is not determined ; 
 to raife the figure from below would prove 
 too troublefome, and prefuppofes much more 
 than this hiflorian had a mind to inform us 
 of. 
 
 Michael Angeh y no doubt, thoroughly ex- 
 amined his invention, its conveniencies and 
 inconveniencies, and in all probability ob- 
 ferved the following method. 
 
 2 He
 
 48 Reflexions on the hiitation of the 
 
 He took a veffel proportioned to his mo- 
 del 5 for inftance, an oblong fquare : he 
 marked the furface of its fides with certain 
 dimenfions, and thefe he transferred after- 
 wards, with regular gradations, on the mar- 
 ble. The infide of the veffel he marked 
 to the bottom with degrees. Then he laid, 
 or, if of wax, fattened his model in it 5 he 
 drew, perhaps, a bar over the veffel fuitable 
 to its dimenfions, according to whofe num- 
 ber he drew, firft, lines on his marble, and 
 immediately after, the figure - y he poured wa- 
 ter on the model till it reached its outmoft 
 points, and after having fixed upon a pro- 
 minent part, he drew off as much water as 
 hind red him from feeing it, and then went 
 to work with his chiffel, the degrees (hew- 
 ing him how to go on ; if, at the fame time, 
 fome other part of the model appeared, it 
 was copied too, as far as feen. 
 
 V/ater was again carried off, in order to 
 let the lower parts appear ; by the degrees 
 he faw to what pitch it was reduced, and 
 
 by
 
 Painthig and Sculpture of the Greeks. 49 
 
 by its fmoothnefs he difcovered the exact 
 furfaces of the lower parts ; nor could he go 
 wrong, having the fame number of degrees 
 to guide him, upon his marble. 
 
 The water not only pointed him out the 
 heights or depths, but alfo the Contour of 
 his model ; and the fpace left free on the 
 infides to the furface of the water, whole 
 largenefs was determined by the degrees of 
 the two other fides, was the exact meafure 
 of what might fafely be cut down from the 
 block. 
 
 His work had now got the firft form, and 
 a correct one : the levelnefs of the water 
 had drawn a line, of which every promi- 
 nence of the mafs was a point -, according 
 to the diminution of the water the line funk 
 in a horizontal direction, and was followed by 
 the artift 'till he difcovered the declinations 
 of the prominences, and their mingling with 
 the lower parts. Proceeding thus with every 
 degree, as it appeared, he finifhed the Con- 
 tour, and took his model out of the water. 
 
 E His
 
 50 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 His figure wanted beauty : he again pour- 
 ed water to a proper height over his model, 
 and then numbering the degrees to the line 
 defcribed by the water, he defcried the ex- 
 ad height of the protuberant parts ; on thefe 
 he levelled his rule, and took the meafure 
 of the diftance, from its verge to the bot- 
 tom ; and then comparing all he had done 
 with his marble, and finding the fame num- 
 ber of degrees, he was geometrically fure of 
 fuccefs. 
 
 Repeating his talk, he attempted to ex- 
 prefs the motion and re-adion of nerves and 
 mufcles, the foft undulations of the fmaller 
 parts, and every imitable beauty of his mo- 
 del. The water infinuating itfelf, even into 
 the moll inaccefiible parts, traced their Con- 
 tour with the. corredeft fharpnefs and pre- 
 cifion. 
 
 This method admits of every poflible 
 
 pofture. In profile efpecialiy, it difcovers 
 
 every inadvertency ; (hews the Contour of 
 
 1 the
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks . 5 1 
 
 the prominent and lower parts, and the 
 whole diameter. 
 
 All this, and the hope of fuccefs, pre- 
 fuppofes a model formed by fkilful hands, 
 in the true tafte of antiquity. 
 
 This is the way by which Michael An- 
 gelo arrived at immortality. Fame and re- 
 wards confpired to procure him what leifure 
 he wanted, for performances which required 
 fo much care. 
 
 But the artifl of our days, however en- 
 dowed by nature and induftry with talents 
 to raife himfelf, and even though he per- 
 ceive precifion and truth in this method, is 
 forced to exert his abilities for getting bread 
 rather than honour : he of courfe refts in 
 his ufual fphere, and continues to truft in an 
 eye direded by years and pradice. 
 
 Now this eye, by the obfervations of which 
 he is chiefly ruled, being at laft, though by 
 a great deal of uncertain pradice, become 
 almoft decifive: how refined, how exad 
 
 E 2 might
 
 52 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 might it not have been, if, from early youth, 
 acquainted with never-changing rules ! 
 
 And were young artifts, at their firft be- 
 ginning to fhape the clay or form the wax, 
 fo happy as to be inftrudted in this fure me- 
 thod of Michael Angelo> which was the fruit 
 of long refearches, they might with reafon 
 hope to come as near the Greeks as he did. 
 
 VI. Painting. 
 
 /^REEK Painting perhaps would fhare 
 all the praifes beftowed on their Sculp- 
 ture, had time and the barbarity of man- 
 kind allowed us to be decifive on that 
 point. 
 
 All the Greek painters are allowed is 
 Contour and Expreffion. Perfpe&ive, Com- 
 pofition, and Colouring, are denied them \ a 
 judgment founded on fome bas-reliefs, and 
 the new-difcovered ancient (for we dare not 
 fay Greek) pictures, at and near Rome, in 
 the fubterranean vaults of the palaces of 
 
 Maecenas,
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 5 3 
 
 Maecenas, Titus, Trajan, and the Antonini; 
 of which but about thirty are preferved en- 
 tire, fome being only in Mofaic. 
 
 Turnbull, to his treatife on ancient paint- 
 ing, has fubjoined a collection of the moll 
 known ancient pictures, drawn by Camillo 
 Paderni, and engraved by Mynde ; and thefe 
 alone give fome value to the magnificent 
 and abufed paper of his work. Two of 
 them are copied from originals in the cabinet 
 of the late Dr. Mead. 
 
 That Poußn much ftudied the pretended 
 Aldrovandine Nuptials; that drawings are 
 found done by Annibal Carracci, from the 
 prefumed Marcius Coriolanus -, and that there 
 is a moft ftriking refemblance between the 
 heads of Guido t and thofe on the Mofaic re- 
 prefenting Jupiter carrying off Europa, are 
 remarks long fince made. 
 
 Indeed, if ancient Painting were to be 
 judged by thefe, and fuch like remains of 
 Frefco pidures, Contour and Expreflion might 
 be wrefted from it in the fame manner. 
 
 E 3 For
 
 54 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 For the pictures, with figures as big as life, 
 pulled off with the walls of the Hercula- 
 nean theatre, afford but a very poor idea of 
 the Contour and Expreflicn of the ancient 
 painters. Thefeus, the conqueror of the 
 Minotaur, worfhipped by the Athenian 
 youths -, Flora with Hercules and a Faunus ; 
 the pretended judgment of the Decemvir 
 Appius Claudius, are on the teflimony of an 
 artift who faw them, of a Contour as mean 
 as faulty -, and the heads want not only Ex- 
 prefiion, but thofe in the Claudius even 
 Character. 
 
 But even this is an evident inftance of the 
 meanneis of the artifts : for the fcience of 
 beautiful Proportions, of Contour, and Ex- 
 preflicn, could not be the exclufive privilege 
 of Greek fculptors alone. 
 
 However, though 1 am for doing juftice 
 to the ancients, I have no intention to leflen 
 the merit of the moderns. 
 
 In Perfpe&ive there is no companion be- 
 tween them and the ancients, whom no 
 
 learned
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks . 5 j 
 
 earned defence can intitle to any fuperiority 
 in that fcience. The laws of Compofition 
 and Ordonnance feem to have been but im- 
 perfectly known by the ancients : the re- 
 liefs of the times when the Greek arts were 
 flourishing at Rome, are inftances of this. 
 The accounts of the ancient writers, and the 
 remains of Painting are likewife, in point of 
 Colouring, decifive in favour of the mo- 
 derns. 
 
 There are feveral other objeds of Paint- 
 ing which, in modern times, have attained 
 greater perfection: fuch are landfcapes and 
 cattle pieces. The ancients feem not to 
 have been acquainted with the handfomer 
 varieties of different animals in different 
 climes, if we may conclude from the horie 
 of M. Aurelius ; the two horfes in Monte 
 Cavallo y the pretended Lyfippean horfes 
 above the portal of St. Mark's church at 
 Venice 5 the Farnefian bull, and other ani- 
 mals of that groupe. 
 
 E 4. I ob-
 
 56 Reßexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 I obferve, by the bye, that the ancients 
 were carelefs of giving to their horfes the 
 diametrical motion of their legs ; as we fee 
 in the horfes at Venice, and the ancient 
 coins : and in that they have be-tn followed, 
 nay even defended, by fome ignorant mo- 
 derns. 
 
 'Tis chiefly to oil-painting that our land- 
 fcapes, and efpecially thofe of the Dutch, 
 owe their beauties : by that their colours ac- 
 quired more strength and liveiinefs 5 and even 
 nature herfelf feems to have given them a 
 thicker, moifter atmofphere, as an advantage 
 to this branch of the art. 
 > Thefe, and fome other advantages over 
 the ancients, deferve to be fet forth with 
 more folid arguments than we have hitherto 
 had. 
 
 VII. Allegory. 
 
 >~pHERE is one other important ftep 
 
 left towards the atchievement of the 
 
 art : but the artift, who, boldly forfaking 
 
 the
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 57 
 
 the common path, dares to attempt it, finds 
 himfelf at once on the brink of a precipice, 
 and ftarts back difmayed. 
 
 The ftories of martyrs and faints, fables 
 and metamorphofes, are almoft the only 
 objeds of modern painters — repeated athou- 
 fand times, and varied almoft beyond the 
 limits of pofiibility, every tolerable judge 
 grows fick at them. 
 
 The judicious artift falls afleep over a 
 Daphne and Apollo, a Proferpine carried 
 off by Pluto, an Europa, &c. he wifihes for 
 occafions to fhew himfelf a poet, to produce 
 fignificant images, to paint Allegory. 
 
 Painting goes beyond the fenfes : there is 
 its moft elevated pitch, to which the Greeks 
 ftrove to raife themfelves, as their writings 
 evince. Parrhafius, like Ariftides, a painter 
 of the foul, was able to exprefs the cha- 
 racter even of a whole people : he painted 
 the Athenians as mild as cruel, as fickle as 
 fteady, as brave as timid. Such a repre- 
 fentation owes its pofiibility only to the al- 
 legorical
 
 58 "Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 legorical method, whofe images convey ge^ 
 neral ideas. 
 
 But here the artift is loft in a defarr. 
 Tongues the moft favage, which are entirely 
 deftitute of abftradted ideas, containing no 
 word whofe fenfe could exprefs memory, 
 Jpace, duration, &c. thefe tongues, I fay, 
 are not more deftitute of general figns, 
 than painting in our days. The painter 
 who thinks beyond his palette longs for 
 fome learned apparatus, by whofe ftores he 
 might be enabled to inveft abftracted ideas 
 with fenfible and meaning images. Nothing 
 has yet been publifhed of this kind, to 
 fatisfy a rational being -, the effays hitherto 
 made are not confiderabie, and far beneath 
 this great defign. The artift himfelf knows 
 beft in what degree he is fatisfied with 
 Ripa's Iconology, and the emblems of an- 
 cient nations, by Van Hooghe. 
 
 Hence the greateft artifts have chofen but 
 vulgar objects. Annibal Caracci, inftead of 
 reprefenting in general fymbols and fenfible 
 
 images
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 5 9 
 images the hiftory of the Farnefian family, 
 as an allegorical poet, wafted all his ikill in 
 fables known to the whole world. 
 
 Go, vifit the galleries of monarchs, and 
 the publick repofitories of art, and fee what 
 difference there is between the number of 
 allegorical, poetical, or even hiftorical per- 
 formances, and that of fables, faints, or 
 madonnas. 
 
 Among great artifts, Rubens is the moft 
 eminent, who firft, like a fublime poet, 
 dared to attempt this untrodden path. His 
 moft voluminous compofition, the gallery of 
 Luxembourg, has been communicated to 
 the world by the hands of the beft en- 
 gravers. 
 
 After him the fublimeft performance un- 
 dertaken and finifhed, in that kind, is, no 
 doubt, the cupola of the imperial library at 
 Vienna, painted by Daniel Gran, and en- 
 graved by Sedelmaycr. The Apotheofis of 
 Hercules at Verfailles, done by Le Moine, 
 and alluding to the Cardinal Hercules de 
 
 Fleury,
 
 6o Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 Fkury y though deemed in France the moft 
 auguft of compositions, is, in cornparifon of 
 the learned and ingenious performance of 
 the German artift, but a very mean and fhort- 
 fighted Allegory, refembling a panegyric, the 
 moft ftriking beauties of which are relative to 
 the almanack. The artift had it in his power 
 to indulge grandeur, and his flipping th§. 
 occafion is aftoniihing : but even allowing, 
 that the Apotheoiis of a minifter was all 
 that he ought to have decked the chief 
 deling of a royal palace with, we never- 
 thelefs fee through his fig-leaf. 
 
 The artift would require a work, containing 
 every image with which any abPcradled idea 
 might be poetically inverted : a work colle&ed 
 from all mythology, the beft poets of all 
 ages, the myfterious philofophy of different 
 nations, the monuments of the ancients on 
 gems, coins, utenfils, &c. This magazine 
 fhould be diftributed into feveral claffes, and, 
 with proper applications to peculiar poffible 
 cafes, adapted to the inftruäion of the artift. 
 
 This
 
 Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 6 1 
 
 This would, at the fame time, open a vaft 
 field for imitating the ancients, and parti- 
 cipating of their fublimer tafte. 
 
 The tafte in our decorations, which, fince 
 the complaints oiVitruvius y hath changed for 
 the worfe, partly by the grotefques brought 
 in vogue by Morte da Feltro, partly by our 
 trifling houfe-painting, might alio, from 
 more intimacy with the ancients, reap the 
 advantages of reality and common fenfe. 
 
 The Caricatura-carvings, and favourite 
 fhells, thofe chief fupports of our orna- 
 ments, are full as unnatural as the candle- 
 flicks diVitrmiüSy with their little caftles 
 and palaces : how eafy would it be, by the 
 help of Allegory, to give fome learned con- 
 venience to the fmalleft ornament ! 
 
 Redder e perfonce fctt convenientia cuique. 
 
 Hor. 
 
 Paintings of ceilings, doors, and chimney- 
 pieces, are commonly but the expletives of 
 thefe places, becaufe they cannot be gilt 
 
 all
 
 62 Reflexions on the Imitation of the 
 
 all over, Not only they have not the leail 
 relation to the rank and circumftances of the 
 proprietor, but often throw fome ridicule or 
 refle&ion upon him. 
 
 'Tis an abhorrence of barennefs that fills 
 walls and rooms; and pictures void of 
 thought muft fupply the vacuum. 
 
 Hence the artift, abandoned to the di&ates 
 of his own fancy, paints, for want of Alle- 
 gory, perhaps a fatire on him to whom 
 he owes his induftry ; or, to (hun this Cha- 
 rybdis, finds himfelf reduced to paint figures 
 void of any meaning. 
 
 Nay, he may often find it difficult to 
 meet even with thofe, 'till at laft 
 
 velut cegri Somnia, vancz 
 
 Finguntur Species. Hor. 
 
 Thus Painting is degraded from its mod: 
 eminent prerogative, the reprefentation of 
 invifible, pafl: and future things. 
 
 If pictures be fometimes met with, which 
 might be fignificant in fome particular 
 
 place,
 
 Tainting and Sculpture of the Greeks, 6 3 
 
 place, they often lofe that property by ftupid 
 and wrong applications. 
 
 Perhaps the mafter of fome new building 
 
 Dives agris y dives pofitis in fcenore 
 nummis Hor. 
 
 may, without the leaft compundlion for of- 
 fending the rules of perfpe&ive, place figures 
 of the fmalleft fize above the vaft doors of 
 his apartments and falloons. I fpeak here of 
 thofe ornaments which make part of the 
 furniture ; not of figures which are often, 
 and for good reafons, fet up promifcuoufly 
 in colle&ions. 
 
 The decorations of architecture are often 
 as ill-chofen. Arms and trophies deck a 
 hunting-houfe as nonfenfically, as Gany- 
 mede and the eagle, Jupiter and Leda, 
 figure it among the reliefs of the brazen 
 gates of St. Peter's church at Rome. 
 
 Arts have a double aim : to delight and 
 to inftrudl. Hence the greateft landfcape- 
 painters think, they have fulfilled but half 
 
 their
 
 64 Reßxions on the Imitation, &c. 
 
 their tafk in drawing their pieces without 
 figures. 
 
 Let the artifl's pencil, like the pen of 
 Ariftotle, be impregnated with reafon ; that, 
 after having fatiated the eye, he may nou- 
 rifh the mind : and this he may obtain by 
 Allegory ; inverting, not hiding his ideas. 
 Then, whether he chufe fome poetical 
 object himlelf, or follow the dictates of 
 others, he fhall be infpired by his art, fhall 
 be fired with the flame brought down from 
 heaven by Prometheus, fhall entertain the 
 votary of art, and inftrudt the mere lover 
 of it. 
 
 A LET-
 
 LETTER, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 OBJECTIONS 
 
 AGAINST 
 
 The foregoing Reflexions.
 
 [ 6 7 ] 
 A 
 
 LETTER 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 Objections againft the foregoing 
 
 Reflexions. 
 
 S I R, 
 
 A S you have written on the Greek arts 
 and artifts, I wifh you had made your 
 treatife as much the objefl of your caution 
 as the Greek artifts made their works ; 
 which, before difmiffing them, they exhibited 
 to publick view, in order to be examined by 
 everybody, andefpecially by competent judges 
 of the art. The trial was held during the 
 grand, chiefly the Olympian, ^ames ; and all 
 Greece was interefted on ./Etion's producing 
 his pidure of the nuptials of Alexander and 
 Roxana. You, Sir, wanted a Proxenidas 
 
 F 2 to
 
 68 Objections againß 
 
 to be judged by, as well as that artift; and 
 had it not been for your myfterious con- 
 cealment, I might have communicated your 
 treatife, before its publication, to fome learned 
 men and connoiffeurs of my acquaintance, 
 without mentioning the author's name. 
 
 One of them vifited Italy twice, where 
 he devoted all his time to a moft anxious 
 examination of painting, and particularly 
 feveral months to each eminent picture, at 
 the very place where it was painted ; the 
 only method, you know, to form a con- 
 noifleur. The judgment of a man able to 
 tell you which of Guido's altar-pieces is 
 painted on taffeta, or linnen, what fort of 
 wood Raphael chofe for his transfiguration, 
 &c. the judgment of fuch a man, I fancy, 
 muft be allowed to be decifive. 
 
 Another of my acquaintance has fludied 
 antiquity : he knows it by the very fmell -, 
 
 Callet & Artificem folo depr ender e Odor e. 
 
 Sedan. Sat. 
 He
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 69 
 
 He can tell you the number of knots on 
 Hercules's club 3 has reduced Neftor's goblet 
 to the modern meafure : nay, is fufpedted of 
 meditating folutions to all the queftions pro- 
 pofed by Tiberius to the grammarians. 
 
 A third, for feveral years paft, has negle<3> 
 ed every thing but hunting after ancient 
 coins. Many a new difcovery we owe to 
 him ; efpecially feme concerning the hiftory 
 of the ancient coiners ; and, as I am told, he 
 is to roufe the attention of the world by a Pro- 
 dromus concerning the coiners of Cyzicum. 
 
 What a number of reproaches might you 
 have efcaped; had you fubmitted your Eflay 
 to the judgment of thefe gentlemen! they were 
 pleafed to acquaint me with their obje&ions, 
 and I fhould be forry, for your honour, to 
 fee them published. 
 
 Among other objections, the firft is fur- 
 prized at your pafling by the two Angels, in 
 your defcription of the Raphael in the royal 
 cabinet at Drefden ; having been t Id, that a 
 Boiognefe painter, in mentioning this piece, 
 
 F 3 which
 
 jo ObjeStions againft 
 
 which he faw at St. Sixtus's at Piacenza, 
 breaks into thefe terms of admiration : O ! 
 what Angels of Paradife a ! by which he 
 fuppofes thofe Angels to be the moft beau- 
 tiful figures of the picture. 
 
 The fame perfon would reproach you for 
 having defcribed that picture in the manner 
 of Raguenet b . 
 
 The fecond concludes the beard of Lao- 
 coon to be as worthy of your attention as 
 his contracted belly : for every admirer of 
 Greek works, fays he, mufl pay the fame 
 refpcft to the beard of Laocoon, which fa* 
 ther Labat paid to that of the Mofes of Mi- 
 chael Angelo. 
 
 This learned Dominican, 
 
 Qui mores hominum multorum vidit & urbes, 
 has, after fo many centuries, drawn from 
 
 * Lettere d'alcuni Bolognefi, Vol. I. p. 159. 
 
 b Compare a defeription of a St. Sebaftian of Bee« 
 cafurni, another of a Hercules and Antaeus of Lan- 
 franc, &c. in Raguenet's Monumens de Rome, 
 Paris, i2mo, 
 
 this
 
 the foregoing Reßeöliojis. ji 
 
 this very ilatue an evident proof of the true 
 fafhion in which Mofes wore his own indi- 
 vidual beard, and whofe imitation muft, of 
 courfe, be the diftinguifhing mark of every 
 true Jew c . 
 
 There is not the leaft fpark of learning, 
 fays he, in your remarks on the Peplon of 
 the three veftals : he might perhaps, on the 
 very inflection of the veil, have difcovered 
 to you as many curiofities as Cuper himfelf 
 found on the edge of the veil of Tragedy 
 in the Apotheofis of Homer *. 
 
 We alfo want proof of the veftals being 
 
 c LabatvoyageenEfpagne&enltal. T.III. p. 213. 
 " Michel Ange etoit aufli favant dans l'antiquitt 
 
 " que dans l'anatomie, la fculpture, la peinture, et 
 " l'architeclure ; et puifqu' il nous a reprefente Moyfe 
 " avec une ü belle et A longue barbe, il eft für, et 
 " doit patter pour conftant, que le prophete la por- 
 " toit ainfi ; et par une confequence neceflaire les 
 ' c Juifs, qui pretendent le copier avec exactitude, et 
 <c qui font la plus grande partie de leur religion de 
 " l'obfervance des ufages qu J il a laifle, doivent avoir 
 « de la barbe comme lui, ou renoncer ä la qualite 
 « de Juifs." 
 d Apotheof. Hcmeri, p. 81, 82. 
 
 F 4 really
 
 J 2 Objections againfi 
 
 really Greek performances : our reafon fails 
 us too often in the moft obvious things. If 
 unhappily the marble of thefe figures mould 
 be proved to be no Lychnites, they are loft, 
 and your treatife too : had you but flightly 
 told us their marble was large-grained, that 
 would have been a fufficient proof of their 
 authenticity - y for it would be fomewhat dif- 
 ficult to determine the bignefs of the grains 
 with fuch exaclnefs as to diftinguifh the 
 Greek marble from the Roman of Luna. 
 But the worft is, they are even denied the 
 tide of veftals. 
 
 The third mentioned fome heads of Livia 
 and Agrippina, without that pretended pro- 
 file of yours. Here he thinks you had the 
 moft lucky occafion to talk of that kind of 
 nofe by the nncients calleu S>uadrata, as an 
 ingredient of beauty. But you no doubt 
 know, that the nofes of fome of the moft 
 famous Greek ftatues, viz. the Medicean 
 Venus, and the Picchinian Meleager, are 
 
 much
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 73 
 
 much too thick for becoming the model of 
 beauty, in that kind, to our artifts. 
 
 I fhall not, however, gall you with all 
 the doubts and objections raifed againft your 
 treatife, and repeated to naufeoufnefs, upon 
 the arrival of an Academician, the Margites 
 of our days, wh d', being fhewed your treatife, 
 gave it a flight giance, then laid it afide, 
 offended as it were at rirft fight. But it was 
 eafy to perceive that he wanted his opinion 
 to be afked, which we accordingly all did. 
 " The author, faid he very peremptorily, 
 feerr.s not to have been at much pains with 
 this treatife : I cannot find above four or five 
 quotations, and thofe negligently infertedj 
 no chapter, no page, cited ; he certainly col- 
 le&eo his remarks from books which he is 
 afhamed to produce." 
 
 Yet cannot I help introducing another 
 gentleman, fharp-fighted enough to pick 
 ©ut fornething that had efcaped all my at- 
 tention} viz. that the Greeks were the 
 
 firft
 
 74 Objections againfl 
 
 firft inventors of Painting and Sculpture ; an 
 aflertion, as he was pleafed to exprefs him- 
 felf, entirely falfe, having been told it was 
 the Egyptians, or fome people ftill more an- 
 cient, and unknown to him. 
 
 Even the mod whimfical humour may be 
 turned to profit: neverthelefs, I think it 
 manifeft that you intended to talk only of 
 good Tafte in thofe arts j and the firft Ele- 
 ments of an art have the fame proportion to 
 good Tafte in it, as the feed has to the 
 fruit. That the art was ftill in its infancy 
 among the Egyptians, when it had attained 
 the higheft degree of perfeclion among the 
 Greeks, may be feea by examining one 
 fmgle gem : you need only confider the head 
 of Ptolomaus Philopator by Aulus, and the 
 two figures adjoining to it done by an 
 Egyptian % in order to be convinced of the 
 little merit this nation could pretend to in 
 point of art. 
 
 e Stofch Pierr. Grav. pi. XIX. 
 
 The
 
 the foregoing "Reflexions. 75 
 
 The form and tafte of their Painting have 
 been afcertained by Middleton. f The 
 pictures of perfons as big as life, on two 
 mummies in the royal cabinet of antiquities 
 at Drefden, are evident inftances of their in- 
 capacity. But thefe relicks being curious, 
 in feveral other refpe&s, I mall hereafter 
 fubjoin a fhort account of them. 
 
 I cannot, my friend, help allowing fome 
 reafon for feveral of thefe objections. Your 
 negligence in your quotations was, no doubt, 
 fomewhat prejudicial to your authenticity : 
 the art of changing blue eyes to black ones, 
 certainly deferved an authority. You imi- 
 tate Democritus ; who being afked, u What 
 is man ?" every body knows what was his 
 reply. What reafonable creature will fub- 
 mit to read all Greek fcholiafts ! 
 
 Jbit eo, quo vis, qui Zonam perdidit—* 
 
 Hor. 
 
 Confidering, however, how eafily the hu- 
 
 f Monum. Antiquit. p. 255. 
 
 man
 
 j 6 (jbjccliom againß 
 
 man mind is biaßed, either by friendiliip 
 or animofity, I took cccafion from thefe ob- 
 jections to examine your treatife with more 
 exactnefs ; and fhall now, by the moft im- 
 partial cenfure, ftrive to clear myfelf from 
 every imputation of prepofieffion in your 
 favour. 
 
 I will pafs by the firft and fecond page, 
 though fomething might be faid on your 
 comparifon of the Diana with the Nauficaa, 
 and the application : nor would it have been 
 amifs, had you thrown fome more light on the 
 remark concerning the mifufed pictures of 
 Corregio (very likely borrowed from Count 
 Teffin's letters), by giving an account of the 
 other indignities which the pictures of the 
 beft artifts, at the fame time, met with at 
 Stockholm. 
 
 It is well known that, after the furrender 
 
 of Prague to Count Konigfmark, the 15th 
 
 of July 1648, the moft precious pictures of 
 
 the Emperor Rodolph II. were carried off 
 
 3 
 
 9 to
 
 the foregoing Reßexions. 77 
 
 to Sweden g . Among thefe were fome pic- 
 tures of Corregio, which the Emperor had 
 been prefented with by theif firfl pofleflbr, 
 Duke Frederick of Mantua; two of them be- 
 ing the famous Leda, and a Cupid handling 
 his bow h . Chriftina, endowed at that time 
 rather with fcholaftic learning than tafte, 
 treated thefe treafures as the Emperor Clau- 
 dius did an Alexander of Apelles > who or- 
 dered the head to be cut off, and that of 
 Auguftus to fill its place *. In the fame 
 manner heads, hands, feet were here cut 
 off from the moft beautiful pi&ures ; a car- 
 pet was plaftered over with them, and the 
 mangled pieces fitted up with new heads, 
 &c. Thofe that fortunately efcaped the 
 common havock, among which were the 
 pieces of Corregio, came afterwards, toge- 
 ther with feveral other pidtures, bought by 
 
 i PufFendorf Rer. Suec. L. XX. §. 50. p. 796. 
 h Sandrart Acad. P. IL L. 2. c. 6. p. 118. Conf. 
 St.Gelais defer. desTabl. du Palais Royal, p. 12. &feq. 
 * Plin. Hift. Nat. L. 35. c. 10, 
 
 the
 
 78 ObjeEliom againß 
 
 the Queen at Rome) into the pofieffion of 
 the Duke of Orleans, who purchafed 250 
 of t&em, and among thofe eleven of Cor- 
 regio, for 9000 Roman crowns. 
 
 But I am not contented with your charg- 
 ing only the northern countries with bar* 
 barifm, on account of the little efteem they 
 paid to the arts. If good tafte is to be judged 
 in this manner, I am afraid for our French 
 neighbours. For having taken Bonn, the 
 refidence of the Ele&or of Cologne, after 
 the death of Max. Henry, they ordered the 
 •largeft pidtures to be cut out of their frames, 
 without diftinction, in order to ferve for co- 
 verings to the waggons, in which the moft 
 valuable furniture of the ele&oral caftle was 
 carried off for France. But, Sir, do not 
 prefume on my continuing with mere hifto- 
 rical remarks : I fhali proceed with my ob- 
 je&ions, after making the two following ge- 
 neral obfervations. 
 
 I. You have written in a ftyle too con- 
 cife for being diftinft. Were you afraid of 
 
 being 
 3
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. jg 
 
 being condemned to the penalty of a 
 Spartan, who could not reftrain himfelf to 
 only three words, perhaps that of reading 
 Picciardin's Pifan War ? Diftinftnefs is re- 
 quired where univerfal inftruction is the end. 
 Meats are to fuit the tafle of the guefts, 
 rather than that of the cooks, 
 
 — — Ccence fercula noflrce 
 Malim convivis quam placuijfe coqais. 
 
 II. There appears, in almoft every line of 
 yours, the moft paffionate attachment to 
 antiquity; which perhaps I mall convince 
 you of, by the following remarks. 
 
 The firft particular objection I have to 
 make is againft your third page. Remem- 
 ber, however, that my paffing by two 
 pages is very generous dealing : 
 
 non temerc a me 
 %uivis ferret idem: Hor. 
 
 but let us now begin a formal trial. 
 
 The
 
 8o Objections againfi 
 
 The author talks of certain negligences in 
 the Greek works, which ought to be con- 
 lidered fuitably to Lucian's precepts concern- 
 ing the Zeus of Phidias : " Zeus himfelf, 
 not his footftool % k though perhaps he could 
 not be charged with any fault in the foot-ftool, 
 but with a very grievous one in the ftatue. 
 
 Is it no fault that Phidias made his Zeus 
 of fo enormous a bulk, as almoft to reach 
 the cieling of the temple, w 7 hich muft in- 
 fallibly have been thrown down, had the 
 god taken it in his head to rife ? ! To have 
 left the temple without any cieling at all, 
 like that of the Olympian Jupiter at Athens, 
 had been an inftance of more judgment ™. 
 
 'Tis but juftice to claim an explication of 
 what the author means by cc negligences". 
 He perhaps might be pleated to get a paff- 
 port, even for the faults of the ancients, 
 by fheltering them under the authority of 
 
 k Lucian de Hid. Scrib. 
 
 1 Strabo Geogr. L. VIII. p. 542. 
 
 m Vitruv. L. III. c. 1, 
 
 fuch
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 8 1 
 
 fuch titles ; nay, to change them into beau- 
 ties, as Alcaeus did the fpot on the finger of 
 his beloved boy. We too often view the 
 blemifhes of the ancients, as a parent does 
 thofe of his children : 
 
 Strabonem 
 Appellat pcetum pater \ & pullum> male parvus 
 Si cid fllius efl. Hor. 
 
 If thefe negligences were like thofe wifhed 
 for in the Jalyfus of Protogenes, where the 
 chief figure was out-fhone by a partridge, 
 they might beconfidered as theagreeable neg- 
 ligee of a fine lady j but this is the queftion. 
 Befides, had the author confulted his in- 
 tereft, he never would have ventured citing 
 the Diomedes of Diofcorides : but being too 
 well acquainted with that gem, one of the 
 moft valued, moil: finished monuments of 
 Greek art 5 and being apprehenfive of the 
 prejudice that might arife againfl: the meaner 
 productions of the ancients, on difcovering 
 many faults in one fo eminent as Diomedes - y 
 G he
 
 82 Object ions againfi 
 
 he endeavoured to keep matters from being 
 too nearly examined, and to foften every 
 fault into negligence. 
 
 How ! if by argument I fliall attempt to 
 fhew that Diofcorides underftood neither 
 perfpe&ive, nor the mod: trivial rules of the 
 motion of a human body $ nay, that he of- 
 fended even againft poffibility ? I'll venture 
 to do it, though 
 
 tncedo per ignes 
 Suppofitos cineri dolofo. Hor, 
 
 And perhaps I am not the firfl; difcoverer of 
 his faults : yet I do not remember to have 
 feen any thing relative to them. 
 
 The Diomedes of Diofcorides is either a 
 fitting, or a rifing figure ; for the attitude is 
 ambiguous. It is plain he is not fitting ; 
 and rifing is inconfiftent with his action. 
 
 Our body endeavouring toraife itfelf from 
 a feat, moves always mechanically towards 
 its iought-for centre of gravity, drawing back 
 
 the
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 83 
 
 the legs, which were advanced in fitting n j 
 inftead of which the figure ftretches out his 
 fight leg. Every erection begins with ele- 
 vated heels, and in that moment all the 
 weight of the body is fupported only by the 
 toes, which was obferved by Felix °, in his 
 Diomedes : but here all refts on the fole. 
 
 Nor can Diomedes, (if we fuppofe him 
 to be a fitting figure, as he touches with his 
 left leg the bottom of his thigh) find, in 
 railing himfelf, the centre of his gravity, 
 only by a retraction of his legs, and of 
 courfe cannot rife in that pofture. His left 
 hand reding upon the bended leg, holds the 
 palladion, whilft his right touches negli- 
 gently the pedeital with the point of a fhort 
 fword; confequently he cannot rife, neither 
 moving his legs in the natural and eafy 
 manner required in any erection, nor making 
 
 n Borell. de motu animal. P. I. c. 18. prop. 142. 
 p. 142. edit. Bernoue. 
 
 • Stofch. Pierr. Grav. pi. XXXV. 
 
 G 2 ufe
 
 84 Objections againß 
 
 ufe of his arms to deliver himfelf from that 
 uneafy fituation. 
 
 There is at the fame time a fault com- 
 mitted againft the rules of perfpedtive. 
 
 The foot of the left bended leg, touch- 
 ing the cornice of the pedeftal, fhews it 
 over-reaching that part of the floor, on which 
 the pedeftal and the right foot are fituated, 
 confequently the line defcribed by the hinder- 
 foot is the fore on the gem, and vice verfa. 
 
 But allowing even a poffibility to that 
 fituation, it is contrary to the Greek cha- 
 racter, which is always diftinguifhed by the 
 natural and eafy. Attributes neither to be 
 met with in the contorfions of Diomedes, 
 nor in an attitude, the impoflibility of which 
 every one muft be fenfible of, in endeavour- 
 ing to put himfelf in it, without the help 
 of former fitting. 
 
 Felix, fuppofed to have lived after Diof- 
 corides, though preferving the fame attitude, 
 has endeavoured to make its violence more 
 natural, by oppofing to him the figure of 
 
 Ulyfles,
 
 the foregoing Reßexions. 85 
 
 Ulyfies, who, as we are told, in order to 
 bereave him of the honour of having feized 
 the Palladion, offered to rob him of it, but 
 being difcovered, was repulfed by Diomedes ; 
 which being his fuppofed adion on the gem, 
 allows violence of attitude p . 
 
 Diomedes cannot be a fitting figure, for 
 the Contour of his buttock and thigh is 
 free, and not in the leaft compreffed : the 
 foot of the bent leg is vifible, and the leg 
 itfelf not bent enough. 
 
 The Diomedes reprefented by Mariette 
 is abfurd $ the left leg refembling a claiped 
 pocket-knife, and the foot being drawn up 
 fo high as to make it impoflible in nature 
 that it fhould reach the pedeftal q . 
 
 Faults of this kind cannot be called ne£- 
 ligences, and would not be forgiven in any 
 modern artift. 
 
 Diofcorides, 'tis true, in this renowned 
 performance did but copy Polycletus, whofe 
 
 p Stofch Pierr. Grav. pi. XXXV. 
 * Mariette Pierr. Grav. T. II. n. 94. 
 
 G 3 Dorypho-
 
 86 Objections againfi 
 
 Doryphorus (as is commonly agreed) was 
 the bed rule of human proportions r . But, 
 though a copyift, Diofcorides efcaped a fault 
 which his mailer fell into. For the pe- 
 deftal, over which the Diomedes of Poly- 
 cletus leans, is contrary to the moft com- 
 mon rules of perfpettive -, its cornices, which 
 (hould be parallel, forming two different 
 lines. 
 
 I wonder at Perraul t's omitting to make 
 objections againft the ancient gems. 
 
 I mean not to do any thing derogatory to 
 the author, when I trace fome of his parti- 
 cular obfervations to their fource. 
 
 The food prefcribed to the young wreftlers, 
 in the remoter times of Greece, is mentioned 
 by Paufanias s . But if the author alluded 
 to the paffage which I have in view, why 
 does he talk in general of milk-food, when 
 Paufanias particularly mentions foft cheefe ? 
 
 « Stofch Pierr. Grav. pi. LIV. 
 * Paufanias, L, VL c. 7, p, 470. 
 
 Dromeus
 
 the foregoing Reflexions 87 
 
 Dromeus of Stymphilos, we learn there, firft 
 introduced flefh meat. 
 
 My refearches, concerning their myfterious 
 art of changing blue eyes to black ones, 
 have not fucceeded to my wifli. I find it 
 mentioned but once, and that only by the 
 bye by Diofcorides \ The author, by clear- 
 ing up this art, might perhaps have thrown 
 a greater luftre over his treatife, than by 
 producing his new method of ftatuary. He 
 Itfid it in his power to fix the eyes of the 
 Newtons and Algarotti's, on a problem worth 
 their attention, and to engage the fair fex, 
 by a difcovery fo advantageous to their charms, 
 efpecially in Germany, where, contrary to 
 Greece, large, fine, blue eyes are more fre- 
 quently met with than black ones. 
 
 There was a time when the fafhion re- 
 quired to be green eyed ; 
 
 Et fi bei oeil vert & riant & clair : 
 
 Le Sire de Coucy, chanf. 
 
 t Diofcorid, de Re Medica, L. V. c. 179. Conf. 
 Salmaf. Exercit. Plin. c. 15. p. 134, b. 
 
 G 4 But
 
 88 Objections againß 
 
 But I do not know whether art had any 
 {hare in their colouring. And as to the fmall- 
 pox, Hippocrates might be quoted, if gram- 
 matical difquifitions fuited my purpofe. 
 
 However, I think, no effects of the fmall- 
 pox on a face can be fo much the reverfe cf 
 beauty, as that defect which the Athenians were 
 reproachfully charged with, viz. a buttock as 
 pitiful as their face was perfect". Indeed 
 Nature, in fo fcantily iupplying thofe parts, 
 feemed to derogate as much from the Athe- 
 nian beauty, as, by her lavifhnefs, from that 
 of the Indian Enotocets, whofe ears, we 
 are told, were large enough to ferve them 
 for pillows. 
 
 As for opportunities to ftudy the nudities, 
 our times, I think, afford as advantageous 
 ones as the Gymnafies of the ancients. 
 'Tis the fault of our artifts to make no 
 ufe of that w propofed to the Parifian artifts, 
 
 u Ariftoph.Nub. v. 1178. ibid. v. 1363. Et Scho- 
 liaft. 
 
 w Obfcrvat. fur les arts, fur quelques morceaux de 
 peint. & fculpt. expofes au Louvre en 1748, p. 18. 
 
 viz,
 
 the foregoing Reßexions. 89 
 
 viz. to walk, during the fummer feafon, along 
 the Seine, in order to have a full view of 
 the naked parts, from the fixth to the 
 fiftieth year. 
 
 'Tis perhaps to Michael Angelo's frequent- 
 ing fuch opportunities that we owe his cele- 
 lebrated Carton of the Pifan war *, where 
 the foldiers bathing in a river, at the found 
 of a trumpet leap out of the water, and 
 make hafte to huddle on their cloaths. 
 
 One of the moft ofFenfive paffages of the 
 treatife is, no doubt, the unjuft debafement 
 of the modern fculptors beneath the an- 
 cients. Thefe latter times are poffefled of 
 feveral Glycons in mufcular heroic figures, 
 and, in tender youthful female bodies, of 
 more than one Praxiteles. Michael Angelo, 
 Algardiy and Sluter, whofe genius embel- 
 lifhed Berlin, produced mufcular bodies, 
 
 — Inviffi membra G/ycoms, 
 
 Hor. 
 
 x Ripofo di Raffaello Borghini, L. I. p. 46.
 
 go Objeclions againfl 
 
 in a flyle rivalling that of Glycon himfelf ; 
 and in delicacy the Greeks are perhaps even 
 outdone by Bernini, Fiammingo, Le Gros, 
 Rauchmüller) Donner. 
 
 The unfkilfulnefs of the ancients, in 
 fhaping children, is agreed upon by our ar- 
 tifts, who, I fuppofe, would for imitation 
 choofe a Cupid of Fiammingo rather than 
 of Praxiteles himfelf. The ftory of M. An- 
 gelo's placing a Cupid of his own by the fide 
 of an antique one, in order to inform our 
 times of the fuperiority of the ancient art, is 
 of no weight here : for no work of Michael 
 Angelo can bring us fo near perfection as 
 Nature berfelf. 
 
 I think it no hyperbole to advance, that 
 Fiammingo, like a new Prometheus, pro- 
 duced creatures which art had never {ten 
 before him. For, if from almoft all 
 the children on ancient gems y and re- 
 
 * See the Cupid by Solon, Stofch. 64. the Cupid 
 leading the Lionefs, by Sostratus, Stofch. 66. and 
 -a Child and Faun, by AjCEOCÄüS, Stofch 20. 
 
 2 liefs
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. g\ 
 
 liefs z , we may form a conclufion of the art 
 itfelf, it wanted the true expreffion of child- 
 hood, as loofer forms, more milkinefs, and 
 unknit bones. Faults which, from the epoch 
 of Raphael, all children laboured under, till 
 the appearance of Francis ®uefno)\ called 
 Fiammingo, whofe children having the ad- 
 vantages of fuitable innocence and nature, 
 became models to the following artifts, as in 
 youthful bodies Apollo and Antinous are: 
 an honour which Algardi^ his contemporary, 
 may be allowed to (hare. 
 
 Their models in clay are, by our artifts, 
 efteemed fuperior to all the antique marble 
 children'; and an artift of genius and ta- 
 lents affured me, that during a flay of {even 
 years at Vienna, he faw not one copy taken 
 from an ancient Cupid in that academy. 
 
 Neither do I know on what Angular idea 
 of beauty, the ancient artifts founded their 
 cuftom, of hiding the foreheads of their 
 
 2 Vide Bartoli Admiranda Rom. fol. 50, 51. 61. 
 Zanetti Stat. Aiitich. P. II. fol« 33. 
 
 children
 
 p2 Objections againß 
 
 children and youths with hair. Thus a 
 Cupid was reprefented by Praxiteles a ; thus 
 a Patroclus, in a picture mentioned by Phi- 
 loftratus b : and there is no ftatue nor buft, 
 no gem nor coin of Antinous, in which we 
 do not find him thus drefled. Hence, per- 
 haps, that gloom, that melancholy, with 
 which all the heads of this favourite of Ha- 
 drian are marked. 
 
 Is not there in a free open brow more 
 noblenefs and fublimity r and does not 
 Bernini feem to have been better acquainted 
 with beauty than the ancients, when he re- 
 moved the over-fhadowing locks from the 
 forehead of young Lewis XIV. whofe buft 
 he was then executing ? " Your Majefty, 
 faid Bernini, is King, and may with con- 
 fidence fhew your brow to all the world/* 
 From that time King and court drefled their 
 hair ä la Bernini c . 
 
 a Vide Calliftrat. p. 903. 
 b Vide Philoftrati Heroic. 
 * Vide Baldinucci vita del Caval. Bernin. p. 47. 
 
 His
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 93 
 
 His judgment of the bas-reliefs on the 
 monument of Pope Alexander VI d . leads us 
 to fome remarks on thofe of antiquity, 
 <c The fkill in bas-relief, faid he, confifts 
 in giving the air of relief to the flat : the 
 figures of that monument feem what they 
 are indeed, not what they are not." 
 
 The chief end of bas-relief is to deck 
 thofe places that want hiftorical or allego- 
 rical ornaments, but which have neither cor- 
 nices fufficiently fpacious, nor proportions 
 regular enough to allow groupes of entire 
 ftatues : and as the cornice itfelf is chiefly 
 intended to {heiter the fubordinate parts from 
 being diredly or indiredtly hurt, no bas- 
 relief muft exceed the projedlion thereof; 
 which would not only make the cornice of 
 no ufe, but endanger the figures themfelves. 
 
 The figures of ancient bas-reliefs fhoot 
 commonly fo much forward as to become 
 almoft round. But bas-relief being founded 
 
 * Vide Baldinucci vita del Caval, Bernin. p. 72. 
 
 on 
 3
 
 94 Objections againfl 
 
 on fidion, can only counterfeit reality ; its 
 perfedion is well to imitate > and a natural 
 mafs is again ft its nature if flat, ought to 
 appear projected, and vice verja. If this be 
 true, it muft of courfe be allowed that 
 figures wholly round are inconiiftent with it, 
 and are to be coniidered as folid marble 
 pillars built upon the theatre, whofe aim is 
 mere illufion ; for art, as is faid of tragedy, 
 wins truth from fiction, and that by truth. 
 To art we often owe charms fuperior to 
 thofe of nature : a real garden and vegetating 
 trees, on the ftage, do not affed us fo agree- 
 ably, as when well expreffed by the imitating 
 art. A rofe of Van Huijum, mallows of 
 Vee?~endal, bewitch us more than all the 
 darlings of the moft fkilful gardener: the 
 moft enticing landicape, nay, even the 
 charms of the TheiTalian Tempe, would not, 
 perhaps, affeQ us with that irrefiftible de- 
 light which, flowing from Dietrich's pencil, 
 enchants our fenfes and imagination. 
 
 By
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. g$ 
 
 By fuch inftances we may fafely form a 
 judgment of the ancient bas-reliefs : the 
 royal cabinet at Drefden is poffeffed of two 
 eminent ones: a Bacchanal on a tomb, and 
 a facrifice to Priapus on a large marble 
 vafe. 
 
 The bas-relief claims a particular kind 
 of fculpture ; a method that few have fuc- 
 ceeded in, of which Matielli may be an in- 
 ftance. The Emperor Charles VI. having 
 ordered fome models to be prepared by the 
 moil: renowned artifts, in bas-relief, intend- 
 ed for the fpiral columns at the church of 
 S. Charles Borromso j Matielli, already fa- 
 mous, was principally thought of; but how- 
 ever refufed the honour of fo confiderable a 
 work, on account of the enormous bulk of 
 his model, which requiring too great cavi- 
 ties, would have diminished the mafs of the 
 ftone, and of courfe weakened the pillars. 
 Made?" was the artift, whofe models were 
 univerfally applauded, and who by his ad- 
 mirable execution proved that he deferved 
 
 that
 
 96 the foregoing Reflexions. 
 
 that preference. Thefe bas-reliefs reprefent 
 
 the ftory of the patron of this church. 
 
 It is in general to be obferved, firft, that 
 this kind of fculpture admits not indifferently 
 of every attitude and adtion -> as for inftance, 
 of too ftrong projections of the legs. Se- 
 condly, That, befides difpofing of the feveral 
 modelled figures in well-ranged groupes^ the 
 diameter of every one ought to be applied 
 to the bas-relief itfelf, by a leffened fcale : 
 as for inftance, the diameter of a figure in 
 the model being one foot, the profile of the 
 fame, according to its fize, will be three 
 inches, or lefs : the rounder a figure of that 
 diameter, the greater the fkill. Commonly 
 the relief wants perfpedlive, and thence arife 
 mofl of its faults. 
 
 Though I propofed to make only a few 
 remarks on the ancient bas-relief, I find 
 myfelf, like a certain ancient Rhetor, almofl 
 under a necefiity of being new-tuned. I 
 have ftrayed beyond my limits - y though at 
 the fame time I remembered that there is a 
 
 law
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. gy 
 
 law among commentators, to content them- 
 selves with bare remarks on the contents of a 
 treatife : and alfo fenfible that I am writing 
 a letter, not a book, I confider that I may 
 draw fome infiru&ions for my own ufe, 
 
 ■■ ut vineta egomet ccedam mea, 
 
 from fome people's impetuofity againft the 
 author ; who, becaufe they are hired for it, 
 feem to think that writing is confined to 
 them alone. 
 
 The Romans, though they worfhipped 
 the deity Terminus (the guardian God of li- 
 mits and borders in general ; and, if it pleafe 
 thefe gentlemen, of the limits in arts and 
 fciences too), allowed neverthelefs an uni- 
 verfal unreftrained criticifm : and the de- 
 cilions of fome Greeks and Romans, in 
 matters of an art, which they did not 
 pra&ife, feem neverthelefs authentick to our 
 artifts. 
 
 H Nor
 
 9 8 Objections againß 
 
 Nor can I find, that the keeper of the 
 temple of peace at Rome, though poflefled 
 of the regifter of the pictures there, pre- 
 tended to monopolize remarks and criticifms 
 upon them > Pliny having defcribed moft of 
 them. 
 
 Publica materies privati juris fit— 
 
 Hor. 
 
 'Tis to be wifhed, that, roufed by a Pam- 
 philus and an Apelles, artifts would take up 
 the pen themfelves, in order to difcover the 
 myfteries of the art to thofe that know how 
 to ufe them, 
 
 Ma di coßor\ che ä lavorar j' accingono, 
 ^uattro quinti, perDio y nonfanno leggere.- 
 Salvator Rofa, Sat. III. 
 
 Two or three of thefe are to be commend- 
 ed ; the reft contented themfelves with giv- 
 ing fome hiftorical accounts of the frater- 
 nity. But what could appear more aufpi- 
 eious to the improvement of the art, even 
 
 by
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 99 
 
 by the remoteft pofterity, than the work 
 attempted by the united forces of the cele- 
 brated Pietro da Cortona e and Padre Otto- 
 nelli ? Neverthelefs this fame treatife, except 
 only a few hiftorical remarks, and thefe too 
 to be met with in an hundred books, feems 
 good for nothing, but 
 
 Ne fcombris tunica deßnt, piperique cuculli. 
 
 Sedan. Sat. 
 
 How trivial, how mean are the great 
 Pouffins reflexions on painting, publifhed 
 by Bellori, and annexed to his life of that 
 artift f ? 
 
 Another digreffion ! — let me now again 
 refume the character of your Ariftarchus. 
 
 You are bold enough to attack the au- 
 thority of Berniniy and to challenge a 
 man, the bare mention of whole name 
 would do honour to any treatife. It was 
 
 e Trattato dell a pittura e fcultura, ufo et abufc 
 loro, compofto da un theologo e da un pittore. Fio- 
 renza, 1652. 4. 
 
 < Bellori vitc de 'pittori, &c. p. 300. 
 
 H 2 Ber-
 
 loo ObjeBions again/! 
 
 Bernini, you ought to recoiled, Sir, who 
 at the fame age in which Michael Angelo 
 performed his Studiolo z ^ viz. in his eighteenth 
 year, produced his Daphne, as a convincing 
 inftance of his intimacy with the ancients, 
 at an age in which perhaps the genius of 
 Raphael was yet labouring under darknefs 
 and ignorance ! 
 
 Bernini was one of thofe favourites of 
 nature, who produce at the fame time ver- 
 nal bloflbms and autumnal fruits; and I 
 think it by no means probable, that his ftu- 
 dying nature in riper years milled either him 
 or his difciples. The fmoothnefs of his flefti 
 was the refult of that ftudy, and imparted 
 to the marble the higheft poffible degree of 
 life and beauty. Indeed 'tis nature which 
 endows art with life, and " vivifies forms," 
 as Socrates fays h , and Clito the fculptor al- 
 lows. The great Lyfippus, when afked 
 
 s Richardfon, Tom. III. p. 94. 
 
 h Xenophon Memorab. L. III. c. 6, 7. 
 
 which
 
 the foregoing ReßeBions. i c i 
 
 which of his anceftors he had chofen for 
 his matter, replied, <c None; but nature 
 alone.'' It is not to be denied, that the too 
 clofe imitation of antiquity is very often apt 
 to lead us to a certain barrennefs, unknown 
 to thofe who imitate nature : various her- 
 felf, nature teaches variety, and no votary 
 of her 's can be charged with a famenefs : 
 whereas Guido, Le Brun, and fome other 
 votaries of antiquity, repeated the fame face 
 in many of their works. A certain ideal 
 beauty was become fo familiar to them, as 
 to Aide into their figures even againft their 
 will. 
 
 But as for fuch an imitation of nature, 
 as is quite regardlefs of antiquity, 1 am 
 entirely of the author's opinion -, though I 
 fhould have chofen other artifts as inftances 
 of following nature in painting. 
 
 Jordans certainly has not met with the re- 
 gard due to his merit ; let me appeal to an 
 authority univerfally allowed. cc There is, 
 H 3 "fays
 
 102 Objections againfi 
 
 " fays Mr. d'Argenville, more expreffion and 
 
 <c truth in Jordans, than even in Rubens, 
 
 " Truth is the bafis and origin of per- 
 " fection and beauty ; nothing, of any kind 
 " whatever, can be beautiful x)T perfedt, 
 <c without being truly what it ought to be, 
 cc without having all it ought to have." 
 
 The folidity of this judgment prefup- 
 pofed, Jordans, according to Rochefoucault's 
 maxims, ought rather to be ranked among 
 the greateft originals, than among the mi- 
 micks of common nature, where Rembrandt 
 may fill up his place, as Raoux or Vatteau 
 that of Stella , though all thefe painters do 
 nothing but what Euripides did before them ; 
 they draw man ad vivutn. There are no 
 trifles, no meanneffes in the art, and if we 
 recoiled: of what ufe the Caricatura was to 
 Bernini, we fhould be cautious how we 
 pais judgment even on the Dutch forms» 
 That great genius, they fay \ owed to this 
 
 * Vide Baldinucci vita dd Cav. Bernini, p. 66. 
 
 monfter
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 103 
 
 monfter of the art, a diftinction for which 
 he was fo eminent, the " Franchezza del 
 Tocco." When I reflect on this, I am forced 
 to alter my former opinion of the Carica- 
 ture fo far as to believe that no artift ever 
 acquired a perfection therein without gaining 
 a farther improvement in the art itfelf. " It 
 is, fays the author, a peculiar diftinction of 
 the ancients to have gone beyond nature :'■ 
 our aitifts do the fame in their Caricaturas : 
 but of what avail to them are the voluminous 
 works they have publifhed on that branch 
 of the art ? 
 
 The author lays it down, in the pe- 
 remptory ftyle of a legiflator, that " Pre- 
 cifion of Contour can only be learned from 
 the Greeks :" but our academies unani- 
 moufly agree, that the ancients deviate from 
 a ftricl Contour in the clavicles, arms, knees, 
 &c. over which, in fpite of apophyfes and 
 bones, they drew their fkin as fmooth as 
 over mere flefh; whereas our academies 
 teach to draw the bony and cartilaginous 
 
 li 4 parts,
 
 104 Objections againß 
 
 parts, more angularly, but the fat and flefhy 
 ones more fmooth, and carefully to avoid 
 falling into the ancient ftyle. Pray, Sir, can 
 there be any error in the advices of acade- 
 mies in corpore ? 
 
 Parrhaßus himfelf, the father of Contour, 
 was not, by Pliny's account k , mafter enough 
 to hit the line by which completenefs is di- 
 ftinguifhed from fuperfluity : fhunning cor- 
 pulency he fell into leannefs : and Zeuxiss 
 Contour was perhaps like that of Rubens, if 
 it be true that, to augment the majefty of 
 his figures, he drew with more complete- 
 nefs. His female figures he drew like thofe 
 of Homer \ of robuft limbs : and does not 
 even the tendered of poets, Theocritus, draw 
 his Helen as flefhy and tall m as the Venus 
 of Raphael in the aflembly of the gods in 
 the little Farnefe ? Rubens then, for painting 
 like Homer and Theocritus, needs no apo- 
 logy. 
 
 k Plin. Hift. Nat. L. 35. c. 10. 
 
 J Quintilian. Inftit. Or. L. 12. c. 19. 
 
 • Idyll. 18. v. 29. 
 
 The
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 105 
 
 The character of Raphael, in the treatife, 
 is drawn with truth and exaclnefs : but well 
 may we afk the author, as Antalcidas the 
 Spartan afked a fophift, ready to burft forth 
 in a panegyrick on Hercules, " Who blames 
 him ?" The beauties however of the Ra- 
 phael at Drefden, efpecially the pretended 
 ones of the Jefus, are ftill warmly difputed. 
 
 What you admire, we laugh at. 
 
 Lucian, Ep. I. 
 
 Why did not he rather difplay his patriotiim 
 againft thofe Italian connoifleurs, whofe 
 fqueamifh ftomachs rife againft every Flemifh 
 production ? 
 
 Turpis Romano Belgiens ore color. 
 
 Propert. L. II. Eleg. 8. 
 
 And indeed are not colours fo effential, that 
 without them no picture can afpire to uni- 
 verfal applaufe ? Do not their bewitching 
 charms cover the moft grievous faults ? They 
 are the harmonious melody of painting ; 
 
 \vhat-
 
 lo6 Objedüom againß 
 
 whatever is offenfiye vaniihes by their fplen- 
 dor, and fouls animated with their beauties 
 are abforbed in beholding, as the readers of 
 Homer are by his flowing harmony, fo as 
 to find no faults. Thefe, joined to that 
 important fcience of Chiaro-Ofcuro, are the 
 characlerifticks of Flemish painting. 
 
 Agreeably to affect our eye is the firft 
 thing in a picture °, which to obtain, obvious 
 charms are wanted ; not fuch as fpring only 
 from reflection. Colouring moreover be- 
 longs peculiarly to pictures ; whereas defign 
 ought to be in every draught, print, &c. and 
 indeed feems eafier to be attained than co- 
 louring. 
 
 The belt colourifts, according to a cele- 
 brated writer °, have always come after the 
 inventors and contourifts ; we all know the 
 vain attempts of the famous Poufiin. In 
 ihort, all thofe 
 
 * De Pile's Converfat. fur la peint. 
 
 • Du Bos Refl. fur la poefie & fur la peint. 
 
 •%'
 
 the foregoing Reßexions. toy 
 
 Qui rem Romanam Latiumque augefcere 
 ßudent, Ennius. 
 
 muft here acknowledge the fuperiority of the 
 Flemifh art -> the painter being really but 
 nature's mimick, is the more perfect the 
 better he mimicks her. 
 
 Aß heiCy quem nunc tu tarn turpiter 
 increpuißi, Ennius. 
 
 the delicate Van der Werf, whofe perform- 
 ances, worth their weight in gold, are the 
 ornaments of royal cabinets only, has made 
 nature inimitable to every Italian pencil \ he 
 allures the connoifleur's eye as well as that 
 of the clown ; and, as an Englifh poet fays, 
 " that no pleafing poet ever wrote ill," 
 furely the Flemiih painter obtained that ap- 
 plaufe which was denied to Pouffin. 
 
 I fhould be glad to fee many pictures as 
 happily fancied, as well compofed, as en- 
 ticingly painted as fome of Gherard Lairejfe : 
 let me appeal to every unprepolTeiTed artifc 
 
 at
 
 Io8 ObjeBiom againß 
 
 at Paris, acquainted with the Stratonice> 
 the moft eminent, and no doubt the firft 
 ranked picture in the cabinet of Mr. de la 
 Boixieres p . 
 
 The fubjedt is of no trivial choice : King 
 Seleucus I. q refigned his wife Stratonice, a 
 daughter of Demetrius Poliorcetes, to his fon 
 Antiochus, whom a violent paffion for his 
 mother-in-law had thrown into a dangerous 
 ficknefs : after many unfuccefsful inquiries, 
 the phyfician Erafiftratus difcovered the true 
 caufe, and found that the only means of 
 reftoring the prince's health, was, the con- 
 defcenfion of the father to the love of his 
 fon : the King refigned his Queen, and at 
 the fame time declared Antiochus King of 
 the Eaft. 
 
 p The Stratonice was twice painted by LairefTe. 
 The picture we talk of is the fmalleft of the two : the 
 figure is about one foot and a half, and differs from 
 the other in the difpofition of the Parerga. 
 
 * See Plutarch, in Demetr. k Lucian. de Dea 
 Syria. 
 
 Stratonice,
 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 109 
 
 Stratonice, the chief perfon, is the nobleft 
 figure, a figure worthy Raphael himfelf. 
 The charming Queen, 
 
 Colle fob idceo sincere digna deas, 
 
 Ovid. Art. 
 
 with flow and hefitating fteps, approaches 
 the bed of her new lover ; but ftill with the 
 countenance of a mother, or rather of a fa- 
 cred veftal. In the profile of her face you 
 may read fhame mingled with gentle refig- 
 nation to the will of her lord. She has the 
 foftnefs of her fex, the majefty of a queen, 
 an awful fubmiffion to the facred ceremony, 
 and all the fagenefs required in fo extraor- 
 dinary and delicate a fituation. Drefled 
 with a maflerly fkill, the artift, from the 
 colour of her cloaths, may learn how to 
 paint the purple of the ancients 3 for it is 
 not generally known that it refembled fade- 
 ing, ruddy, vine-leaves r . 
 
 r Vide Lettre de Mr. Huet fur la Pourpre : dans les 
 Diflertat. de Tilladet. Tom. II. p. 169. 
 
 Behind
 
 ioo Objections againß 
 
 Behind her ftands the King, drefled in ä 
 darker habit, in order to give the more re- 
 lief to the Queen, to fpare confufion to her, 
 fhame to the Prince, and not to interrupt 
 his joy. Expectation and acquiefcence are 
 blended in his face, which is taken from the 
 profile of his beft coins. 
 
 The Prince, a beautiful half-naked youth* 
 fitting in his bed, has fome refemblance of 
 his father > his pale face bears witnefs of the 
 fever, that lately had raged in his veins -, but 
 fancy fees returning health, not {hame, in 
 that foft-rifing ruddinefs diffufed over his 
 cheeks. 
 
 The phyfician and prieft Erafiftratus, ve- 
 nerable like the Calchas of Homer, {land- 
 ing before the bed, is the only fpeaker, au- 
 thorifed by the King, whofe will he declares 
 to the Prince ; and whilft, with one hand, 
 he leads the Queen to the embraces of her 
 lover, with the other he prefents him with 
 the diadem. Joy and aftonifliment flafli 
 
 from
 
 ike foregoing Reflexions. 1 1 1 
 
 from the Prince's face on the approach of 
 his Queen 
 
 — . darting all theßul in mißve hue ; 
 
 though nobly reftrained by reverence, he 
 bends his head, and feems to comprife his 
 happinefs in a fingle thought. 
 
 The charaders indeed are diftributed with 
 fo much ingenuity, that they feem to give a 
 luftre and energy to each other. 
 
 The largeft (hare of light is difplayed 
 on Stratonice : fhe claims our firft regard. 
 The pried, though in a weaker light, is 
 raifed by his gefture : he is the fpeaker, and 
 around him reign folemn ftillnefs and atten- 
 tion. 
 
 The Prince, the fecond perfon, has a 
 larger (hare of light •> and though the artift, 
 led by his fkill, chofe rather to make a 
 beautiful Queen the chief fupport of his 
 groupe than a fick Prince, He neverthelefs 
 maintains his due rank, and becomes the 
 moft eminent perfon of the whole, by his 
 
 cxpreA
 
 112 ObjeSiiom ägainß 
 
 expreffion» His face contains the greateft 
 fecrets of the art, 
 
 duales nequeo monßrare G? fentio tantum. 
 Juvenal. Sat. VII. 
 
 Even thofe motions of the foul, which 
 otherwife feem oppofite to each other, 
 mingle here with peaceful harmony -> a 
 timid red fpreading over his fickly face, an- 
 nounces health, like the faint glimmerings 
 of the morn, which, though veiled by night, 
 announce the day, and even a bright one. 
 
 The genius and tafte of the artift fhines 
 forth in every part of his work : even the 
 vafes are copied from the beft antique ones ; 
 the table before the bed, is, like Homer's, of 
 ivory. 
 
 The distances behind the figures repre- 
 fent a magnificent Greek building, whofe 
 decorations feem allegorical. The roof of 
 a portal is fupported by Cariatides embracing 
 each other, as images of the tender friend- 
 
 fhip
 
 the foregoing Reßexions. 113 
 
 fhip between father and fon, and alluding, 
 at the fame time, to the nuptial cere-, 
 mony. 
 
 Though faithful to hiftory, the painter was 
 neverthelefs a poet: in order to reprefent 
 fome circumftances, he filled even the fur- 
 niture with fentiments. The Sphinxes by 
 the Prince's bed allude to his problematic 
 ficknefs, the enquiries of Erafiftratus, and 
 his fagacity in difcovering its true caufe. 
 
 I have been told that fome young Italian 
 artifts, when confidering this picture, and 
 perceiving the Prince's arm perhaps a trifle 
 too big, went off without enquiring into the 
 fubjedt itfelf. Should even Minerva herfelf, 
 as flie once did to Diomedes, attempt to de- 
 liver fome people from the mift they labour 
 under, by heaven ! the attempt w r ere vain ! 
 
 — — panel dignofcere poßiint 
 
 Vera bona> atque Ulis mnltum dlverfa, remota 
 
 Errorls nebula. 
 
 Juv. X. 
 
 I I have
 
 114 Objections againß 
 
 I have run into this long digreffion, in 
 order to throw fome light on one of the firft 
 productions of the art, which is neverthe- 
 lefs but little known. 
 
 The idea of noble fimplicity and fedate 
 grandeur in Raphael's figures, might rather, 
 as two eminent authors exprefs it ', be called 
 cc ftill life." It is indeed the ftandard of the 
 Greek art : however, indifcreetly commended 
 to young artifts, it might beget as dangerous 
 confequences, as precepts of energetick con- 
 ciienefs in the ftyle; the dired method to 
 make it barren and unpleafing. 
 
 " In youths, fays Cicero', there muft 
 " be fome fuperftuity, fomething to be taken 
 C£ off: prematurity fpoils the juices, and it 
 " is eafier to lop the young rank branches of 
 " a vine, than to reftore its vigour to a 
 cc worn out trunk." Not to mention, that 
 figures wanting gefture would, by the bulk 
 
 * St. Real Caefanon, T. II. Le Blanc Lettre fur 
 l'Expof. des Ouvrages de Peint, &c. 1747. 
 1 De Oratore, L. II. 2i> 
 
 2 Of
 
 the foregoing "Reflexions. 1 1 5 
 
 of mankind, be received as a fpeech before 
 the Areopagites, where, by a fevere law, the 
 fpeaker was forbid to raife any paffions, 
 though ever fo gentle u : nay, pictures of 
 this kind would be fo many portraits of 
 young Spartans, who, with hands hid un- 
 der their coats, and down-caft eyes, flalk 
 forth in filent folemnity w . 
 
 Neither am I quite of the author's opi- 
 nion with regard to allegory , the applying 
 of which would too frequently do in paint- 
 ing, what was done in geometry by intro- 
 ducing algebra : the one would foon be as 
 difficult as the other, and painting would 
 degenerate into Hieroglyphicks. 
 
 The author attempts, in vain, to perfuade 
 us, that the majority of the Greeks thought 
 as the Egyptians. There was no more learn- 
 ing in the painting of the platfond of the 
 temple of Juno at Samos, than in that of 
 theFarnefe gallery. It reprefented the love- 
 
 ■ Ariftot. Rhet. L I. c. 1. §. 4. 
 
 w Xenophon Refp. Laced, c. 3, §. 5. 
 
 I 2 intrigues
 
 n6 ObjeSiiGns againfi 
 
 intrigues of Jupiter and Juno x : and, in 
 the front of a temple of Ceres at Eleufis, 
 there was nothing but reprefentations of a 
 ceremony at the rites of that goddefs r 
 
 How to reprefent abftract ideas I do not 
 yet diftinftly conceive. There may be the 
 fame difficulties which attend the endeavours 
 of reprefenting to the fenfes a mathematical 
 point — perhaps nothing lefs than impoffibi- 
 lity ; and Theodoretus z has fome reafon in 
 confining painting to the fenfes. For thofe 
 Hieroglyphicks which hint at abftradt ideas, 
 in fuch a manner as to exprefs, for inftance a , 
 youth by the number XVI ; impojjibility by 
 two feet ftanding on water : thofe, I fay, 
 are monograms, not images : to indulge 
 them in painting is foilering chimseras, is 
 
 x Origines Contra Celf. L. IV. p. 196. Edit. 
 Cantabr. 
 
 * Perrault fur Vitruve Explic. de la Planche IX. 
 p. 62. 
 
 z Dialog. Inconfuf. p. 76. 
 
 a Horapoll. Hierogl. c. 33. Conf. Blackwell's 
 Enq. into Horn. p. 17c, 
 
 adding
 
 the foregoing Reflexions nj 
 
 adding to Chinefe pictures Chinefe explica- 
 tions. 
 
 An adverfary of allegory believes that Par- 
 rhafius, without any help from it, could re^- 
 prefent the contradidions in the charader of 
 the Athenians ; that he did it perhaps in fe- 
 veral pidures. Suppofing which 
 
 Et fapit, & mecum fach, & Jove judicat 
 cequo. Hor. 
 
 Thefentence of death pronounced againft the 
 leaders of the Athenian navy, after their 
 vidory over the Spartans near the Arginufes, 
 afforded the artift a very fenfible and rich 
 image, to reprefent the Athenians, at the 
 fame time, merciful and cruel. 
 
 The famous Theramenes, one of the 
 leaders, accufed his fellow-chieftains of hav- 
 ing negleded to gather and bury the bodies 
 of their ilain countrymen : a charge fufficient 
 to roufe the rage of the mob againft the 
 vidors ; only fix of whom had returned to 
 Athens, the reft having declined the ftorm. 
 
 I 3 Thera :
 
 1 1 8 ObjeBlom again fi 
 
 Theramenes harangued the people in the 
 moft pathetick manner ; intermixing his 
 fpeech with frequent paufes, in order to 
 give vent to the loud plaints of thofe who, 
 in the battle, had loft their parents or rela- 
 tions. He, at the fame time, produced a 
 man, who protefted he had heard the laft 
 words of the drowned, imprecating the pub- 
 lick revenge on their leaders. In vain did 
 Socrates, then a member of the council, 
 with a few others, oppofe the accufation : 
 the brave chieftains, inftead of the honours 
 they hoped for, were condemned to die. 
 One of them was the only fon of Pericles 
 and Afpajia. 
 
 Was it not in the power of Parrhafius, 
 who was then alive, to enlarge the mean- 
 ing of his picture beyond the extent of 
 bare hifiory, only by drawing the true cha- 
 racters of the authors of this fcene, without 
 the leaft help from allegory ? It would have 
 been in his power, had he lived in our days. 
 
 Your
 
 the foregoing Reßexions. 1 1 9 
 
 Your pretenfions concerning allegory feem 
 indeed as reafonable an impofition upon the 
 painter, as that of Columella upon his far- 
 mer; who wifhed to find him a philofo- 
 pher like Democritus, Pythagoras, or Eu- 
 doxus b . 
 
 No better fuccefs, in my opinion, is to 
 be expected from applying allegory to deco- 
 rations : the author would, at leaft, meet 
 with as many difficulties as Virgil, when 
 hammering on the names of a Vibius Cau- 
 dex, Tanaquil Lucumo, or Decius Mus, to 
 fit them for his Hexameter. 
 
 Cuftom has given its fandion to the ufe 
 of fhelis in decorations : and is not there as 
 much nature in them as in the Corinthian 
 capital ? You know its origin : a bafket fet 
 upon the tomb of a young Corinthian girl., 
 filled with fome of her play-things, and co- 
 vered with a large brick, being overgrown 
 
 b De Re ruft, praf. ad L. I. §. 32. p. 392. Edit. 
 
 Gefn. 
 
 I 4 with
 
 120 Objections againß 
 
 with the creeping branches of an acanthus, 
 which had taken root under it, was the 
 firft occafion of forming that capital. Cal- 
 limackus c the fculptor, furprized at the ele- 
 gant fimplicity of that composition, took 
 thence a hint for enriching architecture with 
 a new order. 
 
 Thus this capital, deftined to fupport all 
 the entablature of the column, is but a baf- 
 ket of flowers -, fomething fo apparently in- 
 confiftent with the ideas of architecture, that 
 there was no ufe made of it in the time of 
 Pericles : for Pocock d thinks it ftrange that 
 the temple of Minerva at Athens had Doric, 
 inftead of Corinthian pillars. But time foon 
 changed this feeming oddity into nature ; 
 the bafket loft, by cuftom, all its former 
 ofFenfivenefs, and 
 
 Quod fuerat vitium definit ejfe mora. 
 
 Ovid. Art, 
 
 c Vitruv. L. IV. c. i, 
 d Travels, T. II. 
 
 We
 
 the foregoing Reflexions, 121 
 
 We acknowledge no Egyptian law to for- 
 bid arbitrary ornaments ; and fo fond have 
 the artifts of all ages been, both of the 
 growth and form of fhells, as to change 
 even the chariot of Venus into an enormous 
 one. The ancile, that Palladium of the Ro- 
 mans, was fcooped into the form of a (hell - : 
 we find them on antique lamps f . Nay, na- 
 ture herfelf feems to have produced their 
 immenfe variety, and marvellous finuations, 
 for the benefit of the art. 
 
 I have no mind to plead the bad caufe 
 of our unfkilful decorators : only let me 
 adduce the arguments ufed by a whole tribe, 
 (if the artifts will forgive the term), in order 
 to prove the reafonablenefs of their art. 
 
 The painters and fculptors of Paris, en- 
 deavouring to deprive the decorators of the 
 title of artifts, by alledging that they em- 
 ployed neither their own intellectual facul- 
 
 • Plutarch. Numa. p, 149. L, 14. Edit.Bryani. 
 i PafTerii Lucern. 
 
 ties,
 
 122 Objections aßainfi 
 
 ties, nor thofe of the connoifleurs, upon 
 works not produced by nature, but rather 
 the offsprings of capricious art ; the others 
 are faid to have defended themfelves in the 
 following manner : " We are the followers 
 cc of nature : like the bark of a tree, vari- 
 ! c oufly carved, our decorations grow into 
 ce various forms : then art joins fportive na- 
 " ture, and corrects her : we do what the 
 " ancients did : confult their decorations." 
 
 Variety is the great and only rule to which 
 decorators fubmit. Perceiving that there is 
 no perfect refemblance between two things 
 in nature, they likewife forfake it in their 
 decorations -, and carelefs of anxious twining, 
 leave it to the parts themfelves to find their 
 like, as the atoms of Epicurus did. This 
 liberty we owe to the very nation, which, 
 after having nobly exceeded all the narrow 
 bounds of focial formalities, beftows fo much 
 pains upon communicating her improve- 
 ments to her neighbours. This ftyle in de- 
 corations got the epithet of Barroque tafte, 
 
 derived 

 
 the foregoing Reflexions. 123 
 
 derived from a word fignifying pearls and 
 teeth of unequal fize g . 
 
 Shells have at leaft as good a claim for 
 being admitted among our decorations, a» 
 the heads of fheep and oxen. You know 
 that the ancients placed thofe heads, ftript of 
 the fkin, on the frizes, efpecially of the 
 Doric order, between the Triglyphs, or on 
 the Metopes. We even meet with them on 
 the Corinthian frife of an old temple of Vefta, 
 at Tivoli h ; on tombs, as on one of the 
 Metellus-family near Rome, and another of 
 Munatius Plancus near Gaeta * ; on vafes, 
 as on a pair in the royal cabinet at Drefden. 
 Some modern artifts, finding them perhaps 
 unbecoming, changed them into thunder- 
 bolts, like Vignola, or to rofes, like Palladio 
 and Scamozzi \ 
 
 s Menage Diclion. Etymol. v. Banoque. 
 h Vide Defgodez Edifices antiq. de Rome, p. 91. 
 1 Bartoli Sepolcri Antichi, p. 67. ibid. fig. 91. 
 k Perrault notes fur Vitruv. L. IV. ch. 2. n. 21. 
 p. 118. 
 
 Wc
 
 124 Objections agai?ift 
 
 We conlude from all this, that learning 
 never had, nor indeed ought to have, any 
 fhare in an art fo nearly related to what we 
 call Lufus Natura. 
 
 Thus the ancients thought : for, pray, 
 what could be meant by a lizard on Men- 
 tor's cup ? ■ The 
 
 Pifti fquailentia terga lacerti 
 
 Virg. G. IV. 
 
 make, to be fure, a lovely image amidft the 
 flowers of a Rachel Ruyfch, but a very 
 poor figure on a cup. Of what myfterious 
 meaning are birds picking grapes from vines, 
 on an urn ? m Images, perhaps, as void of 
 fenfe, and as arbitrary, as the fable of Ga- 
 nymede embroidered on the mantle, which 
 iEneas prefented to Cloanthus, as a reward 
 of his victory in the naval games \ 
 
 1 Martial, L. III. Ep. 41. 1. 
 " Bellori Sepolchri ant. f. 99. 
 * Virgil, JEn. V. v. 250. & feq. 
 
 To
 
 the foregoing Reßexions. 125 
 
 To conclude : is there any thing contra- 
 dictory between trophies and the hunting- 
 houfe of a Prince ? Surely the author, 
 though fo zealous a champion for the Greek 
 tafle, cannot pretend to propofe to us that 
 of King Philip and the Macedonians, who, 
 by the account of Paufanias °, did not eredt 
 their own trophies. Diana perhaps, amidft 
 her nymphs and hunting-equipages, 
 
 Qualis in Eurotce ripis, aut per juga 
 
 Cynthiy 
 Exercet Diana choros, quam mille fecutce> 
 Hinc atque hinc glomerantur, Or cades — 
 
 Virg. 
 
 might better fuit the place -, but we know 
 that the antient Romans hung up the arms 
 of their defeated enemies over the out-fides 
 of their doors, to be everlafting monitors of 
 bravery to every fucceeding owner of the 
 houfe. Can trophies, having the fame de- 
 
 • Paufanias, L. IX. c.40. p. 794. Conf. Spanhem. 
 Not. fur les Csefars de l'Emp. Julien, p. 240. 
 
 fign.
 
 I2Ö Objections againß, GV. 
 
 fign, ever be mifplaced on any building of 
 the Great ? 
 
 I vvifh for a fpeedy anfwer to this letter. 
 You cannot be angry at feeing it publifhed. 
 The tribe of authors now imitate the con- 
 duit of the ftage, where the lover, with his 
 foliloquy, entertains the pit. For the fame 
 reafon I fhall receive, with all my heart, an 
 anfwer, 
 
 Quam legeret tereretque viritim publicus 
 ufus : Hor. 
 
 for 
 
 Hanc veniam petimufque damufque vi- 
 cißm* Id. 
 
 A N
 
 A N 
 
 ACCOUNT 
 
 O F A 
 
 MUMMY, 
 
 I N 
 
 The Royal Cabinet of Antiquities 
 
 at Dresden.
 
 [ I2 9 ] 
 
 A N 
 
 ACCOUNT 
 
 O F A 
 
 MUMMY, 
 
 r n 
 
 The Royal Cabinet of Antiquities 
 at Dresden. 
 
 AMONG the Egyptian Mummies of 
 the royal cabinet, there are two pre- 
 ferved perfectly entire, and not in the leail 
 damaged, viz. the bodies of a man and 
 woman. The former, among ail thofe 
 that were brought into, and publickly known 
 in Europe, is perhaps the only one of its 
 kind 3 on account of an infcription thereon, 
 which none of thofe who have written on 
 Mummies, except Delia Valle alone, difco- 
 
 K i vered
 
 130 An Account of a Mummy in the 
 
 vered on thofe bodies ; and Kircher, among 
 all the drawings of Mummies communi- 
 cated to him, and publifhed in his Oedipus, 
 has but one, (the fame which Delia Valle 
 had been poffefled of,) with an infcription; 
 though his wooden cut a is as faulty as all 
 the copies made afterwards \ On that 
 Mummy there are thefe letters ET+TXL 
 
 This fame infcription is on the royal 
 Mummy, of which I propofe to give a brief 
 account, and in examining which I have 
 employed all my attention, that I might be 
 certain of its being genuine, and not drawn 
 by a modern hand from the infcription of 
 Delia Valle : for 'tis well known, that thofe 
 bodies frequently pafs through the hands of 
 Jews. But the letters are evidently drawn 
 with the fame blackifh colour with which 
 the face, hands, and feet are ftained. The 
 firft letter on our Mummy has the form of 
 
 a KircheriOedip.yEgypt. T.III. p. 405, £433. 
 Bianchini Iftor. Univ. p. 412. 
 
 1 a large
 
 Cabinet of Antiquities at Drefden. 1 3 1 
 
 a large Greek g, exprefled by Delia Valle 
 with an E angular, the other not being 
 ufual in printing-prefles. 
 
 All the four Mummies of the royal ca- 
 binet being bought at Rome, I propofed to 
 examine whether the Mummy with the in- 
 fcription, was that which Delia Valle was 
 poflerTed of, and found that both the entire 
 royal Mummies were exadt refemblances of 
 thofe defcribed by him. 
 
 Both, befides the linnen bandages, of a 
 Barracan-texture, rolled innumerable times 
 around the bodies, are wrapt up in feveral 
 (and, according to an obfervation made in 
 England c , in three) kinds of coarfer linnen ; 
 which, by particular bandages of the girdle- 
 kind, is fattened in fuch a manner as to in- 
 volve even the fmallefl prominence of the 
 face. The firft covering is a nice bit of 
 linnen, (lightly tinged with a certain ground, 
 
 c Nehem. Grew Mufaeum Societ. Reg. Lond. 
 168 1. fol. p. 1. 
 
 K 2 much
 
 132 An Account of a Mummy In the 
 
 much gilt, decked with various figures, and 
 with a painted one of the deceafed. 
 
 On the Mummy marked with the in- 
 fcription, this figure reprefentt a man, who 
 died in the flower of life, with a thin curled 
 beard, not as reprefented by Kircher, like 
 an old man with a long pointed one. The 
 colour of the face and hands is brown : 
 the head encircled with gilt diadems, marked 
 with the lockets of jewels. From the gold 
 chain, painted around the neck, a fort of 
 medal hangs down, marked with various 
 characters, crefcents, &c. and this over- reaches 
 the neck of a bird, that of a hawk perhaps, as 
 on the breafts of other Mummies d . In the 
 right hand of the figure. is a diih filled with 
 a red fluff, which being like that ufed by 
 the facrificers e , the deceafed may be fuppofed 
 to have been a prieft. The firft and laft 
 finger of the left hand have rings - } and in 
 
 d VideGabr. Bremond Viaggi nell'Egitto. Roma. 
 1579. 4. L. I. c. 15. p. 77. 
 
 e Clemens Alex. Strom. L. VI. p. 456. 
 
 the
 
 Cabinet of Antiquities *?/Drefden. 133 
 
 the hand itfelf there is fomething round, of 
 a dark-brown colour; which, as Delia Valle 
 pretends, is a well-known fruit. The feet 
 and legs are bare, with fan dais ; the firings 
 of which appearing between the great toe c , 
 are, with a flip, fattened on the fcot itfelf. 
 
 The infeription, above-mentioned, is be- 
 neath the breaft. 
 
 The fecond Mummy is the dill more re- 
 fined figure of a young woman. Among 
 a great many medals, feemingly gilt, and 
 other figures, there are certain birds, and 
 quadrupeds fomething analogous to lions ; 
 and towards the extremities of the body there 
 is an ox, perhaps an apis. Down from one 
 of the neck-chains hangs a gilt ima^e of 
 
 CD O O 
 
 the fun. She has ear-ring?, and double 
 bracelets on both her arms : rings on each 
 hand, and on every finger of the left one, 
 but two on the firft : whereas the right hand 
 has but two: with this hand (lie holds, 
 like Ifis, a fmall gilt veffel, of the Greek 
 Spondeion-kind, which was a fymbol of the 
 K 3 ferti«
 
 134 dn Account of a Mummy in the 
 
 fertility of the Nile, when held by the god- 
 defs f . In the left hand there is a fort of 
 fruit, like an ear of corn, of a greenifh caft. 
 The leaden feals, mentioned by Delia Valle, 
 ftill remain on the firft Mummy. 
 
 Compare this defcription with that in his 
 travels g , and you'll find the Mummies of 
 the royal cabinet to be the fame with thofe, 
 which were taken out of a deep well or 
 cave, covered with fand, and fold to this 
 celebrated traveller by an Egyptian ; and I 
 believe they were purchafed from his heirs at 
 Rome, though in the manufcript catalogue, 
 joined to that cabinet of antiquities, there is 
 not the leaft hint of any fuch purchafe. 
 
 I have no defign to attempt an explica- 
 tion of the ornaments and figures ; fome re- 
 marks of that kind having already been 
 made by Delia Valle. The following ob- 
 fervations concern only the infcription. 
 
 f Shaw, Voyage, T. II. p. 123. 
 s Delia Valle Viaggi. Lettr. 11. §.9. p. 325. & 
 feq. 
 
 The
 
 Cabinet of Antiquities at Drefden. 135 
 
 The Egyptians, we know, employed a 
 double character in expreffing themfelves h , 
 the facred and the vulgar : the Surft was 
 what is called hieroglyphick ; the other 
 contained the characters of their naliooal 
 language, and this is commonly faid to be 
 loft. All we know is confined to the twen- 
 ty-five letters of their alphabet. i Delia 
 Valle feems inclined to give an inftance 
 of the contrary, in that inscription 3 which 
 Kircher, pufhing his conjectures ftill farther, 
 endeavours to lay down as a foundation for 
 a new fcheme of his, and to fuppcrt it by 
 two other remains of the fame kind. For, 
 he attempts to prove k , that the dialect was 
 the only difference between the old Egyptian 
 and Greek tongue. According to his ta- 
 lent of finding what no body looks for, he 
 makes free with fome ancient hiftorical ac- 
 counts 5 upon which he obtrudes a fictitious 
 
 h Herodot. L. II. c. 36. Diod. Sic. 
 * Plutarch, de Ifid. & Ofirid. p. 374.. 
 k Kircher Oed. I. c. ej. Prodrom. Copt. c. 7. 
 
 K 4 fenfe,
 
 136 An Account of a Mummy in the 
 fenfe, in order to make them tally with 
 
 his fcheme. 
 
 Herodotus, according to him, tells us, that 
 King Pfammetichus defired fome Greeks, 
 who were perfect matters of their language, 
 to go over to Egypt, in order to inftruct his 
 people in the purity of the tongue. Hence 
 he concludes, that there was but one lan- 
 guage in both countries. But that Greek 
 hiftorian ] gives an account entirely oppofite : 
 he tells us, that Pfammetichus, having re- 
 ceived feme fervices from the Carians and 
 Ionians, permitted them to fettle in Egypt, 
 for the imtruction of youth in the Greek; 
 language, in order to bring up interpreters. 
 
 There is no folidity in the reft of the Kir- 
 cherian arguments ; fuch as thofe deduced 
 from the frequent voyages of the Greek 
 fages into Egypt, and the mutual commerce 
 between the two nations ; which have not 
 even the ftrength of conjectures. For the 
 
 1 Herodot. L. II. c. 153, 
 
 very
 
 Cabinet of Antiquities at Drefikru 137 
 
 very fkill of Democritus, in the facred tongue 
 of the Babylonians and Egyptians ¥, proves 
 only, that the travelling fages learned the lan- 
 guages of the nations they converfed with. 
 
 Nor does the teftimony of Diodorus, 
 that Attica was originally an Egyptian co- 
 lony n , feem to be here of any weight. 
 
 The infcription of the Mummy might in- 
 deed admit of Kircherian, or fuch like con- 
 jectures, were the Mummy itfelf of the an- 
 tiquity pretended by Kircher. Cambyfes, 
 the conqueror of Egypt, partly exiled, and 
 partly killed the priefts \ from which fact 
 Kircher confidently deduces as confequences, 
 the total abolition of the facred rites, and 
 from that the ceafing to embalm bodies. 
 He again appeals to a paffage of Herodotus °, 
 which, upon his word alone, others have as 
 confidently quoted. Nay, a certain pedant 
 
 m Diogen. Laert. v. Democr. 
 a Diodor. Sic. L. I. c. 29. Edit. Weflel. 
 Kircher Oedip I. c. — it. ejufd. China illuftra- 
 ta. III. c. 4. p. 151. 
 
 went
 
 138 An Account of a Mummy in the 
 
 went fo far as to pretend, that the Egyptian 
 cuftom of painting their dead, upon the 
 varniflied linnen of the Mummies, ceafed 
 with the epoch of Cyrus p . 
 
 But Herodotus fays not a word, either of 
 the total abolition of the facred rites, or of 
 the abolition of the cuftom of preferv- 
 ing the dead from putrefa&ion, after the 
 time of Cambyfes ; nor does Diodorus Si- 
 culus give any fuch hint : we may, on the 
 contrary, from his account of the funeral rites 
 of the Egyptians, rather conclude, that this 
 cuftom prevailed even in his time ; that ig 
 to fay, when Egypt was changed into a Ro- 
 man province. 
 
 Hence it cannot be demon ftra ted that 
 our Mummy was embalmed before the Per- 
 fian conqueft, — But fuppofing it to be of 
 that date, is it a neceifary confequence that 
 a body preferved in the Egyptian manner, 
 or even taken care of by their priefts, fhould 
 be marked with Egyptian words ? 
 
 p Alberti Englifche Briefe, B- . 
 
 Perhaps
 
 Cabinet of Antiquities at Drefden. 139 
 
 Perhaps it is the body of fome naturalifed 
 Ionian or Carian. We know that Pytha- 
 goras entered into the Egyptian confeffion ; 
 nay, even confented to be circumcifed q , in 
 order to fhorten his way to the myfteries of 
 their priefts. The Carians themfelves ob- 
 ferved the facred folemnities of Ills, and 
 even went fo far in their fuperftition, as to 
 mangle their faces during the facrifices of- 
 fered to that deity r . 
 
 Change the letter r, in the infcription, into 
 the diphthong g/, and you have a Greek word : 
 fach negligences are often to be met with in 
 Greek marbles s , and ftill more in Greek ma- 
 nufcripts ; and with the fame termination 
 it is to be found on a gem, and fignifies, 
 « FAREWELL" r , which was the ufual 
 ejaculation addrefled by the living to the de- 
 ceafed ; the fame we meet with on ancient 
 
 1 Clem. Alex. Strom. L. I. p. 354. Edit. Pott. 
 r Herodot. L. II. c. 61. 
 
 s Montfaucon Palasogr. Graec. L.III. c. 5. p. 230. 
 Kuhn. Not. ad Paufan. L. II. p. 128. 
 1 Auguftin. Gem. P. II, 1. 32. 
 
 epitaphs -,
 
 1 40 An Account of a Mummy in the 
 
 epitaphs " 5 public decrees w j and of letter? 
 it was the final concluiion*. 
 
 There is on an ancient epitaph the word 
 ET*TXI y j the form of the ¥ on ancient 
 ftoncs and manufcripts is exactly the feme z 
 with the third letter of ET+TXI, which 
 was perhaps confounded with it. 
 
 But fuppofing the Mummy to be of later 
 times, die adoption of a Greek word be- 
 comes yet eafier. The round form of the £ 
 might be (omething fufpicious, with regard to 
 its pretended antiquity; that form being ne- 
 ver found on the gems or coins before Au- 
 guftus \ But this fufpieion becomes of no 
 weight, by fuppofing that the Egyptians 
 
 u Grutcr. Corp. Infer, p. DCCCLXI. \u7u%utu 
 jj>*#pt7t, && 
 
 w Prideaux Alarm. Oxon. 4. & i~q. 
 x Dcmofth. Orat. pro Corona, p. 485. 499. Edit. 
 Frc. 1604. 
 
 y Gruter Corp. Infcript p. DCXLI. 8. 
 
 2 Montfaucon Pakeogr. L. IV. c. 10. p. 336. 
 
 338. 
 * Montf. L. I. c. 4. II. c. 6. p. 152. 
 
 1 conti*
 
 Cc. fjfatiqui Dfltflkn. 141 
 
 c; .tinued their embalmir. gn after the 
 
 time of that Emperor. 
 
 However, the word cannot 
 ban one, being inconfiflent with the remains 
 güe in the modern Cap- 
 tick, as well as with the rit- 
 :om the right left, 
 as the Etrurians did *; w': he wore 
 qoeftion (like : tian charafter 
 : fan I '-': :he right, Ai 
 discovered by 
 interpreter has yet be: d. The G 
 dan rote in the occi- 
 dental manner, for hx hur.i be- 
 fore the chriftian era, .itnefs the Sigsean 
 ription, which is laid to be of that 
 
 V. aid relates alio to an 
 
 II. 
 
 .::, Lettx. VII. 
 
 ■ De:':; L c.
 
 142 An Account of a Mummy y &c. 
 
 infeription upon a piece of'ftone f , with 
 Egyptian figures, communicated to Kircher 
 by Carolo Vintimiglia, a Palerman patri- 
 cian. The letters ITPHXI are two words, 
 and fignify, <c Let the foul come") This ftone 
 has met with the fame fate as the gem en- 
 graved with the head of Ftolomaeus Philo- 
 pator : for here an Egyptian has joined two 
 random figures, and there the infeription 
 may be of a Greek hand. The litterati 
 know what little change it wants to be or- 
 thographical. 
 
 f Kircher. Obelifc, Pamph, c. 8. p. 147.
 
 A N 
 
 ANSWER 
 
 TO THE FOREGOING 
 
 LETTER, 
 
 AND 
 
 A further Explication of the 
 Subject.
 
 [ H5 3 
 
 A N 
 
 ANSWER 
 
 TO THE FOREGOING 
 
 LETTER, 
 
 AND 
 
 A Further Explication of 
 the Subject, 
 
 i 
 
 COULD not prefüme that fo fmall a 
 treatife as mine would be thought of 
 confequence enough to be brought to a 
 publick trial. As it was written only for a 
 few co?2?2oiJ[eurs, it feemed fuperfluous to give 
 it a learned air, by multiplying quotations. 
 Artifts want but hints : their tafk, accord- 
 ing to an ancient Rhetor, is <c to perform, 
 not to perufe ;" confequently every author, 
 
 L who
 
 146 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter, 
 
 who writes for them, ought to be brief. 
 Beino- befides convinced, that the beauties 
 
 o 
 
 of the art are founded rather on a quick 
 fenfe, and refined tafte, than on profound 
 meditation, I cannot help thinking that the 
 principle of Neoptolemus a , " to philofo- 
 phize only with the few," ought to be the 
 chief confideration in every treatife of this 
 kind. 
 
 Several paflages of my EfTay are fufcep- 
 tible of explications, and, having been pub- 
 lickly tried by an anonymous author, fhould 
 be explained and defended at the fame time, 
 if my circumftances would permit me to en- 
 large \ As to his other remarks, the au- 
 thor, I hope, will guefs at my anfvver, 
 without my giving one explicitly. — Indeed 
 they do not require any. 
 
 I am not in the leaft moved by the cla- 
 mours concerning thofe pieces of Corregio, 
 which, by undoubted accounts, were not 
 
 a Cicero de Oratore, L. II. c. 37. 
 b The author was then preparing for a journey to 
 Rome. 
 
 only
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter, i 47 
 
 only brought to Sweden c , but even hung up 
 in the ftables at Stockholm. Reafoning is of 
 no ufe here t arguments of this kind admit 
 of no other evidence but that of M?nilim 
 Scaufus againft Valerius of Sucro : " He de- 
 nies 5 I affirm : Romans ! 'tis yours to 
 judge." 
 
 And why fhoiild there be any thing more 
 derogatory to the honour of the Swedes, in 
 my repeating Count Tejjin% relation, than in 
 his giving it ? Perhaps, becaufe the learned 
 author of the circumliantial life of Queen 
 Chrißina omits her indifcreet generofity to- 
 wards Bourdon^ and that bad treatment 
 which the pictures of Corregio met with ? 
 or was Härleman d himfelf charged with 
 indifcretion or malice, on his relating that* 
 at Lincb'pi?2g, he found a college, and feveri 
 profeflbrs, but not one phyiician or arti- 
 ficer ? 
 
 '- Argenville abrege de la V. d, P. T\ IL p. 287. 
 4 Reife, p. 21. 
 
 L 2 Jt
 
 1 48 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 it was my delign to explain myfelf more 
 particularly, concerning the negligences 
 of the Greeks, had I been allowed time. 
 The Greeks, as their criticifm on the part- 
 ridge of Protogenes, and his blotting it % 
 evidently fhews, were not ignorant in learned 
 negligence. But the Zeus of Phidias was 
 the ftandard of fublimity, the fymbol of the 
 omniprefent Deity; like Homer's Eris, he 
 flood upon the earth, and reached heaven ; 
 he was, in the ftyle of facred poefy, <c What 
 encompajfes him ? &c." And the world has 
 been candid enough to excufe, nay, even to 
 juftify on fuch reafons, the difproportions in 
 the Carton of Raphael, reprefenting the 
 fiihing of Peter f . The criticifm on the.D/0- 
 medes y though folid, is not againft me: his 
 adion, abftradedly confidered, with his 
 noble and expreffive contour, are flandards 
 of the art s and that was all I advanced V 
 
 The 
 
 * Strabo, L. XIV. p. 652. al. 965. 1. if. 
 f Richardfon Eflay, &c. p. 38, 39. 
 
 * Diomedes, for ought I can i"ee, is neither a 
 
 fitting
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 149 
 
 The reflections on the Painting and Sculp- 
 ture of the Greeks may be reduced to four 
 heads, viz. 
 
 I. The perfeft Nature of the Greeks ; 
 
 II. The Charadterifticks of their works - y 
 
 III. The Imitation of thefe ; 
 
 IV. Their manner of Thinking upon the 
 Art y and Allegory. 
 
 Probability was all I pretended to, with 
 regard to the firfl 5 which cannot be fully 
 demonftrated, notwithftanding all the afiifr- 
 ance of hiftory. For, thefe advantages of 
 the Greeks were, perhaps, lefs founded on 
 their nature, and the influences of the cli- 
 mate, than on their education. 
 
 The happy fituation of their country was, 
 however, the bafis of all ; and the want of 
 refemblance, which was obferved between 
 the Athenians and their neighbours beyond 
 
 fitting nor a (landing figure, in both which cafes the 
 critick. muft be allowed to be juft. He defcends. 
 
 Remark of tbeT.L, 
 
 L 1 the
 
 150 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter, 
 
 the mountains, was owing to the difference 
 
 of air and nourishment h . 
 
 The manners and perfons of the new-« 
 fettled inhabitants, as well as the natives of 
 every country, have never failed of being 
 influenced by their different natures. The 
 ancient Gauls, and their fucceffors the Ger- 
 man Franks, are but one nation : the blind 
 fury, by which the former were hurried 
 on in their firft attacks, proved as unfuc- 
 cefsful to them in the times of Ca^far \ as it 
 did to the latter in our days. They pof- 
 feffcd certain other qualities, which are ftill 
 in vogue among the modern French -, and 
 the Emperor Julian k tells us, that in his 
 time there were more dancers than citizens 
 &t Paris. 
 
 Whereas the Spaniards, managing their 
 affairs cautioufly, and with a certain frigi- 
 dity, kept the Romans longer than any 
 
 I Cicero de Fato, c. 4. 
 
 * Strabo, L. IV. p. 196. al. 299. 3. 22. 
 
 k Mifopog. p. 342, J, 13. 
 
 other
 
 Ajißver to the foregoing Letter. 1 5 1 
 
 other people from conquering the coun- 
 try \ 
 
 And is not this chara&er of the old Ibe- 
 rians re-aflumed by the Weft-Goths, the 
 Mauritanians, and many other people, who 
 over-ran their country ? m 
 
 It is eafy to be imagined what advantages 
 the Greeks, having been fubjedt to the fame 
 influences of climate and air, muft have 
 reaped from the happy fituation of their 
 country. The moft temperate feafons reign- 
 ed through all the year., and the refrefhing 
 fea-gales fanned the voluptuous iflands of 
 the Ionick fea, and the (hores of the conti- 
 nent. Induced by thefe advantages, the 
 Peloponnefians built all their towns along 
 the coaft; fee Dicearchus, quoted by Ci- 
 cero". 
 
 Under a iky fo temperate, nay balanced 
 between heat and cold, the inhabitants can- 
 
 1 Strabo, L. III. p. 158. al. 238. 
 ■ Du Bos Reflex, fur la Poefie et f. 1. P. II. 144. 
 r Herodot. L. III. c. 106. Cicero ad Attic. L. VI. 
 rp. 2. 
 
 L a not
 
 152 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 not fail of being influenced by both. Fruits 
 grow ripe and mellow, even fuch as are 
 wild improve their natures > animals thrive 
 well, and breed more abundantly. " Such 
 a iky, fays Hippocrates °, produces not only 
 the raoft beautiful of men, but harmony 
 between their inclinations and {nape." Of 
 which Georgia, that country of beauty, 
 where a pure and ferene Iky pours fertility, 
 is an inftance p . Among the elements, 
 beauty owes fo much to water alone, that, 
 if we believe the Indians, it cannot thrive, in 
 a country that has it not in its purity q . And 
 the Oracle itfelf attributes to the lymph 
 of Arethufa a power of forming beauty r . 
 
 The Greek tongue affords us alfo fome 
 arguments in behalf of their frame. Na- 
 
 nsp; ronw. p. 288. edit. Foefii. Galenus oti 
 
 fol. 171. B. I. 43. edit. Aid. T.J. 
 
 p Chardin voyage en Perfe, T. II. p. 127. & feq. 
 
 q Journal des Scavans l'An. 1684. Aur. p. 153. 
 
 r Apud Eufeb. Praepar. Evang. L. V. c. 29. p. 
 226. edit. Colon. 
 
 ture
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 153 
 
 ture moulds the organs of fpeech according 
 to the influences of the climate. There are 
 nations that rather whiffle than fpeak, like 
 the Troglodytes s ; others that pronounce 
 without opening their lips ' -> and the Pha- 
 fians, a Greek people, had, as has been 
 faid of the Englifh u , a hoarfe voice : an un- 
 kind climate forms harfh founds, and con- 
 fequently the organs of fpeech cannot be 
 very delicate. 
 
 The fuperiority of the Greek tongue is 
 inconteftible : I do not fpeak now of its rich- 
 nefs, but only of its harmony. For all the 
 northern tongues, being over-loaded with 
 confonants w , are too often apt to offend with 
 an unpleafmg aufterity ; whereas the Greek 
 
 8 Plin. Hift. Nat. L.V. c. 8. 
 
 x Lahontan Memoir. T. II. p. 217. Conf. WoI- 
 dike de ling. Grönland, p. 144, & feq. A&. Hafn. 
 T. II. 
 
 a Clarmont de Aere,Le»cls,& aquis Angliae. Lond. 
 1672. 12. 
 
 w Wotton's Reflex, upon ancient and modern 
 Learning, p. 4. Pope's Letter to Mr. Walfh, 
 T, 1. 74. 
 
 tongue
 
 154 Atifwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 tongue is continually changing the confo« 
 nant for the vowel, and two vowels, meet- 
 ing with but one confonant, generally grow 
 into a diphthong \ The fweetnefs of the 
 tongue admits of no word ending with thefe 
 three harfh letters 0, 3>, X, and for the 
 fake of Euphony, readily changes letters 
 for their kindred ones. Some feemingly 
 harfh words cannot be objected here \ none 
 of us being acquainted with the true Greek 
 or Roman pronunciation. All thefe advant- 
 ages gave to the tongue a flowing foftnefs, 
 brought variety into the founds of its words, 
 and facilitated their inimitable compofition. 
 And from thefe alone, not to mention the 
 meafure which, even in common conver- 
 fation, every fyilable enjoyed, a thing to be 
 defpaired of in occidental tongues -, from 
 thefe alone, I fay, we may form the higheft 
 idea of the organs by which that tongue 
 was pronounced, and may more than con- 
 
 x Lakemacher Obferv. Philolog. P. III. Obferv. 
 IV. p. 250, &c. 
 
 jefture
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter, ire 
 )e&ure, that, by the language of the Gods, 
 Homer meant the Greek, by that of Men, 
 the Phrygian tongue. 
 
 It was chiefly owing to that abundance of 
 vowels, that the Greek tongue was prefer- 
 able to all others, for expreffing by the found 
 and difpofition of its words the forms and 
 fubftances of things. The difcharge, the 
 rapidity, the diminution of ftrength in pierc- 
 ing, the flownefs in gliding, and the flopping 
 of an arrow, are better exprefied by the found 
 of thefe three verfes of Homer, Iliad A. 
 
 125. A/yi*s ]3io?, vsugy] cAg y\y 'ia%zv, a>Slo cP' oiVoj v 
 
 135. Aia juev ag' ^oüs - ?^©' z\'n\dlo JaicPahiciO) 
 
 136. Kai (Ptci S t ai3yjx.©' iff okv<Pai (Poky ti$i$ei$o 9 
 
 than even by the words themfelves. You 
 fee it difcharged, flying through the air, and 
 piercing the belt of Menelaus. 
 
 The defcription of the Myrmidons in bat- 
 tle-array, Iliad II. v. 215. 
 
 \A.a7rh ap d?7iicP' t^icPt, ko^vs y.q^uv driven. <P' an?. 
 
 y Th' impatient weapon whizzes on the wing ; 
 Sounds the tough horn, and twangs the quiv'ring 
 
 dring, &c. Pope. 
 
 2 is
 
 156 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 is of the fame kind, and has never been hit 
 by any imitation : what beauties in one 
 line! 
 
 Plato's periods were, from their harmony, 
 compared y to a noifelefs fmooth-running 
 ftream. But we mould be miftaken in con- 
 fining the tongue to the fofter harmonies 
 only : it became a roaring torrent, boifterous 
 as the winds by which UlyrTes' fails were 
 torn, fplit only in three or four places by 
 the words, but rent by the found into a 
 thoufand tatters z . This was the <c vhida 
 exprefflo," the living found - 7 fupremely beau- 
 tiful, when properly and fparingly ufed ! 
 
 How quick, how refined muft the organs 
 have been, which were the depofitaries of 
 fuch a tongue! The Roman itfelf could 
 not attain its excellence : nay, a Greek fa-» 
 ther, of the fecond century of the chriftian 
 
 y Longin. ris?/ v4» Se&. 13. §. 1. 
 z Odyflf. a. v. 71. Conf. Iliad, f. v. 363. & Euflatb. 
 ad h. 1. p. 424. L. 10. edit. Rom. 
 
 sera,
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 157 
 ara a , complains of the horrid found of the 
 Roman laws. 
 
 Nature keeps proportion % confequently 
 the frame of the Greeks was of a fine clay, 
 of nerves and mufcles moft fenfibly elaftic, 
 and promoting the flexibility of the body : 
 hence that eafinefs, that pliant facility, ac- 
 companied with mirth and vigour, which 
 animated all their adions. Imagine bodies 
 moft nicely balanced between leannefs and 
 corpulency: both extremes were ridiculed 
 by the Greeks, and their poets fneer at the 
 Philefiafes b , Philetafes c , and Agoracritufes 4 . 
 
 But though they were beautiful, and by 
 their law early initiated into pleafure, they 
 were not effeminate Sybarites. As an in- 
 ftance of which we fhall only repeat what 
 Pericles pleaded in favour of the Athenian 
 manners, againft thofe of Sparta, which 
 
 a Gregor. Thaumat. Orat. Paneg. ad Origen. 49. 
 * Ariftoph. Ran. v. 1485. 
 
 c Athen. Deipnof. L. XII. c. 13. ./Elian. V. H. 
 I. ix. 14. 
 4 Ariftoph. Equit. 
 
 were
 
 1^8 Änfwer to the foregohlg Letter. 
 
 were as different from thofe of the reft of 
 Greece, as their public oeconomy was : 
 «* The Spartans, fays Pericles, employ their 
 youth to get, by violent exercifes, manly 
 ftrength : but we, though living indo- 
 lently, encounter every danger as well as 
 they \ calmly, not anxioufly, mindful of 
 its approaches, we meet it with voluntary 
 magnanimity, and without any compul- 
 fion of the law. Not difconcerted by its 
 impending threats, we meet its moft fu- 
 <c rious attacks, with no lefs boldnefs than 
 <c they, whom perpetual practice has pre- 1 
 " pared for its ftrokes. We are fond of 
 €< elegance, without loving finery 5 of ge- 
 <c nius, without being emafculate. In fhort> 
 " to be fit for every great enterprize, is the 
 " chara&eriftic of the Athenians e ." 
 
 I cannot, nor will I pretend to fix a rule 
 without allowing exceptions. There was 
 a Therfites in the army of the Greeks. But 
 it is worth obferving, that the beauty of a 
 nation was always in proportion to their cul- 
 
 * Thucyd. L, IL c. 39. 
 
 tiva-
 
 'Afifwer to the foregoing Letter, 159 
 
 tivation of the arts. Thebes, wrapt up in 
 a mifty fky, produced a fturdy uncouth 
 race f , g according to Hippocrates's obferva- 
 tion on fenny, watry foils h j and its fterility 
 in producing men of genius, Pindar only 
 excepted, is an old reproach. Sparta was 
 as defective in this refpedt as Thebes, hav- 
 ing only Alcman to boaft of $ but the rea- 
 fons were different : whereas Attica enjoyed 
 a pure and ferene iky, which refined the 
 fenfes \ and of courfe fhaped their bodies in 
 proportion to that refinement ; and Athens 
 was the feat of arts. The fame remark 
 may be made with regard to Sicyon, Co- 
 rinth, Rhodes, Ephefu9, &c. all which 
 having been fchools of the arts, could not 
 want convenient models. The paflage bf 
 Ariftophanes, infifted on in the letter k , I 
 
 f Horat. L. II. Ep. I. v. 244. 
 g Cicero de fato. c. 4. 
 
 h US?/ TQHTGOV. p. 204. 
 
 * Cicero Orat. c. 8. Conf. Dicaearch, Geogr. edit. 
 H. Steph. c. 2. p. 16. 
 k Nubes, v. 1365. 
 
 take
 
 i6o Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 take for a joke, as it really is— and thereby 
 hangs a tale : to have the parts, whereon 
 
 Sedet aternumque fedebit 
 Infelix Tbefeus, Virg. 
 
 moderately complete, were Attick beauties. 
 Thefeus \ made prifoner by the Thefpro- 
 tians, was delivered from his captivity by 
 Hercules, but not without fome lofs of the 
 parts in queftion $ a lofs bequeathed to all 
 his race. This was the true mark of the 
 Thefean pedigree ; as a natural mark,repre- 
 fenting a Ipear m , fignified a Spartan extrac- 
 tion , and we find the Greek artifts imitating^ 
 in thofe places the fparing hand of nature. 
 
 But this liberality of nature was confined 
 to Greece, in a narrower fenfe. Its colonies 
 underwent the fame fate, which its eloquence 
 met with when going abroad. " As foon, 
 <c fays Cicero n , as eloquence fet out from 
 
 1 Schol. ad Ariftoph. Nub. v. icio. 
 
 ■ Plutarch, de Sera Numin. Vindicta, p. 563. 9. 
 
 A Cicero de Orat. 
 
 " the
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 161 
 
 cc the Athenian port, me plumed hcrfelf 
 " with the manners of all the iflands in 
 " her way, adopted the Afiatick luxury, 
 c{ and forfaking her found Attick expref- 
 cc fion, loft her health." The Ionians, 
 tranfp] anted by Nileus from Greece into 
 Afia, after the return of the Heraclides, 
 grew ftill more voluptuous beneath that 
 glowing fky. Heaps of vowels brought 
 wantonnefs into every word ; the neighbour- 
 ing iflands partook of their climate and 
 manners, which a fingle Lefbian coin may 
 convince us of °. No wonder then, if their 
 bodies degenerated as much from thofe of 
 their anceftors, as their manners. 
 
 The remoter the colonies the greater the 
 difference. Thofe Greeks, who had choien 
 their abode in Africa, about Pithicujfa, fell 
 in with the natives in adoring apes ; nay, 
 even gave the names of thofe animals to 
 their children p . 
 
 • Golzius, Tab. XIV. T. II. 
 
 p Diodorus Sic. L. XX. p. 763. al. 449. 
 
 M The
 
 1 6 2 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 The modern Greeks, though compofed 
 of various mingled metals, ftill betray the 
 chief mafs. Barbarifm has deftroyed the 
 very elements of fcience, and ignorance over- 
 clouds the whole country ; education, courage, 
 manners are funk beneath an iron foray, and 
 even the fhadow of liberty is loft. Time, in 
 its courfe, diffipates the remains of antiqui- 
 ty : pillars of Apollo's temple at Delos q , are 
 now the ornaments of Englifh gardens : the 
 nature of the country itfelf is changed. In 
 days of yore the plants of Crete r were fa- 
 mous over all the world $ but now the 
 fireams and rivers, where you would go in 
 quefl of them, are mantled with wild luxu- 
 riant weeds, and trivial vegetables \ 
 
 Unhappy country ! How could it avoid 
 being changed into a wildernefs, when fuch 
 
 * Stukely's Itinerar, III, p» 32, 
 
 ■ Theophraft. Hift. PL L. IX. c. 16. p. 113!.. 
 2. 7. ed. Amft. 1644. foL Galen de Antidot. L fol. 
 63. B. I. 28. Idem de Theriac. ad Pifon. fol. 85. 
 A, I. 20. 
 
 * Tourncfort Voyage, Lett. L p, 10. edit. Amft. 
 
 2 popu-
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 163 
 populous tracts of land as Samos, once 
 mighty enough to balance the Athenian 
 power at fea, are reduced to hideous de- 
 farts ' ! 
 
 Notwithstanding all thefe devaftations, 
 the forlorn profpeft of the foil, the free paf- 
 fage of the winds, flopped by the inextri- 
 cable windings of entangled mores, and 
 the want of almoft all other commodities j 
 yet have the modern Greeks preferved many 
 of the prerogatives of their anceftors. The 
 inhabitants of feveral iflands, (the Greek race 
 being chiefly preferved in the iflands), near 
 the Natolian fhore, eipecially the females, 
 are, by the unanimous account of travellers, 
 the moft beautiful of the human race '. 
 
 Attica flill preferves its air of philanthropy v : 
 all the fhepherds and clowns welcomed the 
 two travellers, Spon and Wheeler \ nay, pre- 
 
 1 Belon. Obferv. L. II. ch. 9. p. 151. a. 
 u Idem. L. III. ch. 34. p. 350. b. Corn, le Brun. 
 V. fol. p. 169. 
 F Dicjearch, Geogr. c. |. p. x. 
 
 M 2 vented
 
 164 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 vented them with their falutations x : neither 
 have they loft the Attick fait, or the en- 
 terprifing Ipirit of the former inhabitants y . 
 
 Objections have been made againft their 
 early exercifes, as rather derogating from, 
 than adding to, the beauteous form of the 
 Greek youths, 
 
 Indeed, the continual efforts of the nerves 
 and mufcles feem rather to give an angu- 
 lar gladiatorial turn, than the foft Contour 
 of beauty, to youthful bodies. But this may 
 partly be anfwered by the character of the 
 nation itfelf : their fancy, their actions, were 
 eafy and natural ; their affairs, as Pericles 
 fays, were managed with a certain careleff- 
 nefs, and fome of Plato's dialogues - may 
 give us an idea of that mirth and chearful- 
 nefs which prevailed in all the Gymnaftick 
 exercifes of their youth. Hence his defire 
 of having thefe places, in his common- 
 
 * Voyage de Spon et Wheeler, T. II. p. 75, 76. 
 ■t Wheeler's Journey into Greece, p. 347. 
 a Corf. Lyfis, p. 499. Edit. Fref. 1602. 
 
 wealth,
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter, i6j 
 
 wealth, frequented by old folks, in 'order 
 to remind them of the joys of their youth \ 
 
 Their games commonly began at furl 
 rife b j and Socrates frequented them at that 
 time. They chofe the morning-hours, in or- 
 der to avoid being incommoded by the heat : 
 as foon as their garments were laid down* 
 the body was anointed with the elegant At- 
 tick oil, partly to defend it from the bleak 
 morning-air -, as it was ufual to praöice, 
 even during the fevereft cold c $ and part- 
 ly to prevent a too copious perfpiration > 
 where it was intended only to carry off 
 fuperfluous humours d . To this oil they 
 afcribed alfo a flrengthening quality \ The 
 
 a De Republ. 
 
 b De Leg. L. VII. p. 892, 1. 30-6. Conf. Petiti 
 Leg. att. p. 296. Maittaire Marm. ArUnd. p. 4S3. 
 Gronov. ad Plaut. Bacchid. v. Ante Solem Exorien- 
 tem* 
 
 c Galen, de Simpl. Medic. Facült. L. II. c. 5. 
 fol. 9. A.Opp. Tcm. II. Frontin. Stratag. L. I. c. 7. 
 
 d LucianGymn. p. 907. Opp. T. II. Edit. Reitz. 
 
 e Dion. Halic. A. R. c. 1. §. 6. de vi dicendi in 
 Demoft. 29. Edit, Oxon. 
 
 M 3 exercifes
 
 1 66 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 exercifes being over, they went to bathe, 
 and there fubmitted to a frefh undtion ; and 
 a perfon leaving the bath in this ftate ce ap- 
 pears, fays Homer, taller, ftronger, and 
 fimilar to the immortal Gods f * 
 
 We may form a very diftindt idea of the 
 different kinds and degrees of wreftling 
 among the ancients, from a vafe once in 
 the poffeffion of Charl. Patin, and, as he 
 gueffes, the urn of a gladiator g . 
 
 Had it been a prevailing cuftom among 
 the Greeks to walk, either barefooted, like 
 the heroes in their performances h , or with 
 a fingle fole, as we commonly believe, their 
 feet muft have been bruifed. But there are 
 many instances of their extreme nicety in 
 this refpedt ; for, they had names for above 
 ten different forts of fhoes '. 
 
 * 'OA. T. v. 230. 
 
 * Numifm. Imp. p. 160. 
 
 h Philoftrat. Epift. 22. p. 922. Conf. Macrob. Sat. 
 L. V. c. 18. p. 357. Edit. Lond. 1694. 8. Hygin. 
 Sat. 12. 
 
 1 Conf. Arbuthnot's Tabl. of Anc. Coins, ch. 6. 
 p. 116. 
 
 The
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 167 
 
 The coverings of the thighs were thrown 
 off at the publick exercifes, even before the 
 flourifhing of the art k 5 which was a great 
 advantage to the artifts. As for the nou- 
 rifhment of the wreftlers in remoter times, 
 I found it more proper to mention milk in 
 general, than foft cheefe. 
 
 If I remember right, you think it ftrange, 
 and even undemonftrable, that the primi- 
 tive church mould have dipped their pro- 
 felytes, promifcuoufly : confult the note l . 
 
 As I am now entering upon the difcuf- 
 fion of my fecond point, I could wifh that 
 thefe probabilities of a more perfect nature, 
 among the Greeks, might be allowed to 
 have fome conclufive weight; and then I 
 mould have but a few words to add* 
 
 k Thücyd. L. I. c. 6. Eufhth ad Iliad. 4- p- 1324. 
 i. 16. 
 
 1 Cyrilli Hierof. Catech. Myftag. II. c. 2, 3, 4. 
 p. 284. ed. Thorn. Miles, Oxon. 1703. fol. 305. 
 Vice Comitis Obferv. de Antiq. Baptifini rit. L. IV. 
 c. 10. p. 286 — 89. Binghami Orig. Ecelef. T. IV. 
 L. XI. c. 11. Godeau Hift. dc l'Eglife, T.I. L. III. 
 p. 623, 
 
 M 4 Charmo-
 
 1 68 Anßver to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 Charmoleos, a Megarian youth, a fmgle 
 kifs of whom was valued at two talents™, 
 was, no doubt, beautiful enough to ferve 
 for a model of Apollo: Him, Alcibiades y 
 CbarmideSy and Adimanthus n , the artifts could 
 fee and ftudy to their wifh for feveral hours 
 every day : and can you imagine thofe trifling 
 opportunities propofed to the Parifian artifts, 
 equivalents for the lofs of advantages like 
 ihefe ? But granting that, pray, what is 
 there to be feen more in a fwimmer than in 
 any other perfon ? The extremities of the 
 body you may fee every where. As for that 
 author °, who pretends to find in France 
 beauties fuperior to thofe of Alci blades, I 
 cannot help doubting his ability to maintain 
 what he afferts. 
 
 What has been faid hitherto might alfo 
 
 m Lucian. Dial. Mort. X. §. 3. 
 
 n Idem. Navig. E. 2. p. 248. 
 
 De la Chambre Difcours ; ou il ell prouve que 
 les Francois font les plus capabies de tous les peuples 
 de la perfection de Feloquence, p. J 5. 
 
 an-
 
 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 169 
 
 anfwer the objection drawn from the judgment 
 of our academies, concerning thofe parts of the 
 body which ought to be drawn rather more 
 angular than we find them in the antiques. 
 The Greeks, and their artifts, were happy 
 in the enjoyment of figures endowed with 
 youthful harmony -, for, we have no reafon 
 to doubt their exa&nefs in copying nature, 
 if we only confider the angular fmartnefs 
 with which they drew the wrift-bones. 
 Agafias's celebrated Gladiator, in the Borg- 
 heje, has none of the modern angles, nor 
 the bony prominences authorifed by our ar- 
 tiils : all his angular parts are thofe we meet 
 with in the other Greek ftatues. And this 
 ftatue, which was perhaps one of thofe that 
 were eredled, in the very places where the 
 games were held, to the memory of the 
 feveral victors, may be fuppofed an exadfc 
 copy of nature. The artift was bound to 
 reprefent any vi&or in the very attitude, and 
 inftantaneous motion, in which he overcame 
 
 his
 
 170 Anßver to the firegoing Letter* 
 
 his antagonifl, and the Amphi&yones were 
 the judges of his performance p . 
 
 Many authors having written on this, and 
 the following point of the treatife, I have 
 contented myfelf with giving a few remarks 
 of my own. Superficial arguments, in mat- 
 ters of this kind, can neither fuit the deeper 
 views of our times, nor lead to general con- 
 clufions. Neverthelefs we do not want au- 
 thors whofe premature decifions often get 
 the better of their judgment, and that not 
 in matters concerning the art alone. Pray, 
 what decifions of an author may be depended 
 upon, who* when defigning to write on the 
 arts in general, fhews himfelf fo ignorant 
 of their very elements, as to afcribe to Tku~ 
 cydides, whofe concife and energetick flyle 
 was not without difficulties, even for Tully q , 
 the character of fimplicity r * Another of 
 
 p Lucian. pro Imagin. p. 490. Edit, Reitz. T. II. 
 * Cic. Brut. c. 7. & 83. 
 
 r Confiderations fur les Revolutions des Arts» 
 Paris, j 755. p. 33. 
 
 that
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 1 7 1 
 
 that tribe, feems as little acquainted with 
 Diodorm Sicuhts, when he delcribes him as 
 hunting after elegance*. Nor want we 
 blockheads enough who admire, in the an- 
 cient performances, fuch trifles as are be- 
 low any reafonable mans attention. " The 
 tc rope, fays a travelling fcribler, which ties 
 * c together Dirce and the ox, is to connoif« 
 " feurs the mod beautiful objedt of the 
 €c whole groupe of the Toro Farnefe \" 
 
 Ah mifer agrota putruit cut mente falillum ! 
 
 I am no ftranger to thofe merits of the mo- 
 dern artifts which you oppofe to the an- 
 cients : but at the fame time I know, that 
 the imitation of thefe alone has elevated the 
 others to that pitch of merit ; and it would 
 be eafy to prove that, whenever they for- 
 
 * Pagi Difcours fur l'Hiftoire Grecque, p. 45. 
 1 Nouveau Voyage d'HoJIande, de l'AHem. de 
 Suiflfe & d'Icalie, par M. de Blainville, 
 
 fook
 
 172 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 fook the ancients, they feil into the faults 
 
 of thofe, whom alone I intended to blame. 
 
 Nature undoubtedly milled Bernini : a 
 Carita of his, on the monument of Pope 
 Urban the VHIth, is faid to be corpulent, 
 and another on that of Alexander the Vllth, 
 even ugly u . Certain it is, that no ufe could 
 be made of the Equeftrian ftatue of Lewis 
 XIV. on which he had beftowed fifteen 
 years, and the King immenfe fums. He 
 was reprefented as afcending, on horfeback, 
 the mount of honour : but the action both 
 of the rider and of the horfe was exao> 
 gerated, and too violent 5 which was the caufe 
 of baptizing it a Curtius plunging into the 
 gulph,and its having been placed only in the 
 Thuilleries : from which we may infer, that 
 the moft anxious imitation of nature is as little 
 fufficient for attaining beauty, as the ftudy 
 of anatomy alone for attaining the jufteft 
 proportions : thefe Laireffe, by his own ac- 
 
 u Richardfon's Account, Sec. 294, 295. 
 
 count,
 
 Anfwef to the foregoing Letter. 175 
 
 count, took from the fkeletons of Bidloo -, 
 but, though a profeflbr in his art, com- 
 mitted many faults, which the good Ro- 
 man fchool, efpecially Raphael, cannot be 
 charged with. However, it is not meant 
 that there is no heavinefs in his Venus ; nor 
 does it clear him from the faults imputed to 
 him in the Maffacre of the Innocents, engrav- 
 ed by Marc. Antonio, as has been attempted 
 in a very rare treatife on painting w -, for there 
 the female figures labour under an exuber- 
 ance of breafts - y whereas the murderers look 
 ghaftly with leannefs : a contrail: not to be 
 admired : the fun itfelf has fpots. 
 
 Let Raphael be imitated in his beft man- 
 ner, and when in his prime ; thofe works 
 want no apology : it was to no purpofe to 
 produce Parrhafius and Zeuxis in order to 
 excufe Him, and the Dutch proportions! 
 'Tis true, the paflage of Pliny x , which you 
 
 w Chambray Idee de la Pcint. p. 46. au Mans, 
 1662. 4to. 
 * Plin. Hift, Nat. L, XXXV. c. 10. 
 
 quote
 
 1 74 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 quote concerning Parrhafius, meets com^ 
 monly with the fame interpretation, viz. 
 that, ßunning corpulency he fell into lean- 
 nefs y . But fuppofing Pliny to have under- 
 flood what he wrote, we muft clear him of 
 contradiäing himfelf. A little before he 
 allowed to Parrhafius a fuperiority in the 
 contour, or in his own words, in the out- 
 lines ; and in the paffage before us, Parrha- 
 bqfiuSy compared with himfelf feems> in Point 
 
 OF THE MIDDLE PARTS, to fall ß?0rt of 
 
 himfelf The queftion is, what he means 
 by middle parts ? Perhaps the parts border- 
 ing on the outlines : but is not the defigner 
 obliged to know every poffible attitude of 
 the frame, every change of its contour ? If 
 fo, it is ridiculous to give this explication 
 to our paffage : for the middle parts of a 
 full face are the outlines of its profile, and 
 f j on. Confeqnently, there is no fuch thing 
 
 y (Durand) Extrak de PHifloire de la Peint. de 
 Pline. p. 56. 
 
 as
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 175 
 
 as middle parts to be met with by a de~ 
 figner : the idea of a painter, well-fkilled in 
 the contour of the outlines, but ignorant of 
 their contents, is an abfurd one. Parrha*- 
 fius perhaps either wanted fkill in the Chiar- 
 ofcuro, or Keeping in the difpofition of his 
 limbs, and this feems the only explication* 
 which the words of Pliny can reafonably 
 admit of. Unlefs we choole to make him 
 another La Fage, who, though a celebrated 
 defigner, never failed fpoiling his contours 
 with his colours. Or, perhaps, to indulge 
 another conjecture, Parrhafius fmoothed the 
 outlines of his contour, where it bordered 
 011 the grounds, in order to avoid being 
 rough 5 a fault committed, as it feems, by 
 his contemporaries, and by the artifts who 
 flourifhed in the beginning of the fixteenth 
 century, who circumfcribed their figures, as 
 it were with a knife 3 but thofe fmooth con- 
 tours wanted the fupport of keeping, and of 
 maffes gradually riling or finking, in order 
 to become round, and to ftrike the eye : by 
 
 fail-
 
 jyb Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 failing in which, his figures got an air of 
 fiatnefs ; and thus Parrhafius fell fhort of 
 himfelf, without being either too corpulent 
 or too lean. 
 
 We cannot conclude, from the Ho- 
 meric fhape which Zeuxis gave his female 
 figures, that he raifed them, like Rubens, 
 into flefh-hills. There is fome reafon to 
 believe, from the education of the Spartan 
 ladies, that they had fomething of a maf- 
 culine vigour, though they were the chief 
 beauties of Greece ; and fuch a one is the 
 Helena of Theocritus. 
 
 All this makes me doubt of finding among 
 the ancients any companion for Jacob Jor- 
 dans, though he is fo zealoufly defended in 
 your letter. Nor am I afraid of maintain- 
 ing what I have faid concerning him. Mr. 
 cTArgenville is indeed a very induftrious 
 collector of criticifms upon the artifts ; but 
 as his defign is not very extenfive, fo his de- 
 cifions are often too general, to afford us 
 chara&eriftical ideas of his heroes. 
 
 A good
 
 Jlnfwer to the foregoing Letter. %jj 
 
 A good eye muft be allowed to be a bet- 
 ter judge, in matters of this kind, than all 
 the ambiguous decisions of authors : and to 
 fix the character of Jordans, I might con- 
 tent myfelf with appealing to his Diogenes, 
 and the Purification, in the royal cabinet 
 at Drefden. But, for the reader's fake, let 
 me inquire into» the meaning of what you 
 call Truth in painting. For if truth, in the 
 general fenfe, can by no means be ex- 
 cluded from any branch of the arts, we 
 have, in the decifion of Mr. d'Argenville, a 
 riddle to unfold, which, if it has any mean- 
 ing at all, muft have the following : 
 
 Rubens, enabled by the inexhauftible fer- 
 tility of his genius, to pour forth fictions 
 like Homer himfelf, difplays his riches even 
 to prodigality : like him he loved the mar- 
 vellous, as well in thought and grandeur 
 of conception, as in compoiition, and chiar- 
 ofcuro. His figures are compofed in a man- 
 ner unknown before him, and his lights, 
 jointly darting upon one great mafs, diffufe 
 
 N over
 
 178 Ahfiver to the foregoing Letter". 
 
 over all his works a bold harmony, and 
 amazing fpirit. Jordans, a genius of ä 
 löwer clafs, cannot, in the ideal part of 
 painting, by any means be compared with 
 his great mailer. He had no wings to foar 
 above nature ; for whieh reafon he humbly 
 followed, and painted her as he found her : 
 and if this be truth, he, no doubt, had a 
 larger fhare of it than Rubens. 
 
 If the modern artifts, with regard to 
 forms and beauty, are not to be diredled 
 by antiquity, there is no authority left to in- 
 fluence them. Some, in painting Venus, 
 would give her a Frenchified air z -, another 
 would prefent her with an Aquiline nofe, 
 the Medicean Venus, as they would fay, 
 having fuch a one a : her hands would be 
 provided with fpindles inftead of fingers ; 
 
 a Obfervat. fur les Arts & fur quelques morceaux 
 de Peint. & de Sculpt, expofes au Louvre, 1748. 
 p. 6 5; 
 
 a Nouvelle Divifion de la Terre par les differentes 
 Efpeces d'Hommes, Sic, dans le Journ. des S^ar. 
 1704. Avr. 152. 
 
 and
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter \ iyg 
 
 and me would ogle us with Chinefe eyes, 
 like the beauties of a new Italian fchooh 
 Every artift, in fhort, would, by his per- 
 formance, betray his country : but, as De- 
 mocritus fays b , if the artifts ought to pray 
 the gods to let them meet with none but 
 aufpicious images, thofe of the ancients will 
 beft fuit their wifhes. 
 
 Let us, however, make fome exception 
 in favour of Fiamingo's children. For* 
 luftinefs and full health being the common 
 burden of the praifes of children, whofe in- 
 fant forms are not ftridly fufceptible of that 
 beauty, which belongs to the fteadinefs of 
 riper years; the imitation of his children 
 has reafonably become a fafhion among our 
 artifts. But neither this, nor me indul- 
 gence of the academy at Vienna, can be, 
 or indeed was meant to be decifive, in fa- 
 vour of the modern children ; it only leads 
 us to make a diftin&ion. The ancients 
 
 * Plutarch. Vit, /Emil, p. 147. ed. Bryani. T. II. 
 N 2 went
 
 i So Ahfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 went beyond nature, even in their children : 
 the moderns only follow her; and, pro- 
 vided their infant forms, exuberant as they 
 are, do not influence their ideas of youth- 
 ful and riper bodies, they may be allowed 
 to be in the right, though, at the fame time, 
 the ancients were not in the wrong. 
 
 Our artifts are, likewife, at full liberty 
 to drefs the hair of their figures as they 
 pleafe : but, being fo fond of nature, they 
 muff needs know, that it is nature which 
 fhades, with pendant locks, the forehead and 
 temples of all thofe, whofe life is not fpent 
 between the comb and the looking-glafs : 
 and finding this manner carefully obferved 
 in moft ftatues of the ancients, they may 
 take it as a proof of their attachment to 
 fimpHcity and truth ; a proof of the more 
 weight, as they did not want people, bufier 
 in adorning their bodies than their minds, 
 and as nice in adj lifting their hair, as the 
 moft elegant of our European courtiers. But 
 it was commonly looked upon as a mark of 
 
 an
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter \ 1 8 1 
 
 an ingenuous and noble extraction, to drefs 
 the hair in the manner of the ftatues c . 
 
 The imitation of the ancient contour has 
 indeed never been rejected, not even by thofe 
 whofe chief want was that of correclnefs : 
 but we differ about imitating that " noble 
 fimplicity and fedate grandeur" in their 
 works. An expreflion which hath feldom 
 met with general approbation, and never 
 pronounced without hazard of being mif- 
 underflood. 
 
 In the Hercules of Bandinelli, the idea of 
 it was deemed a fault d : an ufurpation on 
 Raphael's Maffacre of the Innocents c . 
 
 The idea of " nature at reft/' I own, 
 might, perhaps, produce figures like the 
 young Spartans of Xenophon ; nor would 
 the bulk of mankind be better pleafed wiii 
 performances in the tafte of my treatife, 
 (fuppofing even all its precepts authorifed 
 
 c Lucian. Navig. S. Votum, c. 2. p. 249. 
 d Borghini Ripofo, L. II. p. 129. 
 * Chambray Idee de la Peint, p. 47. 
 
 N 3 by
 
 1 8 2 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 by the judges of the art) than with a fpeech 
 made before the Areopagites. But it is not 
 on the bulk of mankind that we ought to 
 confer the legiflative power in the art. 
 And though works of an extenfive com- 
 pofition ought certainly to have the fupport 
 of a vigour and fpirit proportioned to their 
 extent, yet there are limits which mud not 
 be overleapt : ufe not fo much fpirit as to 
 reprefent the everlafting Father like the cruel 
 God of war, or an ecftafied faint like a 
 prieftefs of Bacchus. 
 
 Indeed, in the eyes of one unacquainted 
 with this characteriftick of the fublime, a 
 Madonna of Trevifani will feem preferable 
 to that of Raphael in the royal cabinet at 
 Drefden. I know that even artifts were of 
 opinion, that its being placed fo near one of 
 the former, was not a little difadvantageous 
 to it. Hence it feemed not fuperfluous to 
 enquire into the true grandeur of that in- 
 eftimabie picture, as it is the only pro« 
 
 duftiofl
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter, 183 
 
 duäion of this Apollo of painters, that 
 Germany is pofTeffed of. 
 
 No comparifon, indeed, is to be made 
 of its compofition with that of the trans- 
 figuration ; which, however, I think fully 
 compenfated by its being genuine : whereas 
 Julio Romano might perhaps claim one half 
 of the other as his own. The difference of 
 the hands is vifible : but in the Madonna, 
 the fpirit of that epoch, in which Raphael 
 performed his Athenian fchool, fhines with, 
 fo full a luftre, as to make even the autho*- 
 rity of Vafari fuperfluous. 
 
 'Tis no eafy matter to convince a critick, 
 conceited enough to blame the Jefus of the 
 Madonna, that he is miftaken. Pythagoras, 
 fays an antient philofopher f , and Anaxai- 
 goras look at the fun with different eyes : 
 the former fees a God, the latter 3 fton$. 
 We want but experience to difcover truth 
 and beauty in the faces of Raphael, with- 
 
 ' Maxim. Tyr. Diflf. 25. p. 303. Edit Markl. 
 
 N 4 out
 
 1 84 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 out enquiring into their dignity : beauty 
 pleafes, but ferious graces charm g . Such 
 are the beauties of the ancients, which 
 gave that ferious air to Antinous, which 
 we generally afcribe to his fhading locks. 
 Sudden raptures, or the enticement of a 
 glance, are often momentary ; let an attentive 
 eye dwell upon thofe confufed beauties 
 which the tranfient look conveys, and the 
 paint will vanifh. True charms owe their 
 durability to reflection, and hidden graces al- 
 lure our enquiries : reluctant and unfatisfied 
 we leave a coy beauty, in continual ad- 
 miration of fome new-fancied charm : and 
 fuch are the beauties of Raphael and the 
 ancients \ not agreeably trifling ones, but 
 regular and full of real graces \ By that 
 Cleopatra became the beauty of all enfuing 
 ages : nobody * was aftonimed at her face, 
 t>ut her air engaged every eye, and fubdued 
 
 s Vide Spe&ator, N. 418. 
 
 h Philoftrat. Icon. Anton, p. 91, 
 
 * Plutarch. Ant 
 
 1 the
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 185 
 
 the melted heart. A French Venus at her 
 toilet is much like Seneca's wit : which, if 
 put to the teft, difappears k . 
 
 The companion of Raphael and fome of 
 the moft celebrated Dutch, and new Italian 
 painters, concerns only the management, 
 (Trattamento). The endeavours of the former 
 of thefe, to hide the laborious induftry that 
 appears in all their works, gives an addi- 
 tional fanction to my judgment $ for, hiding 
 is labour. The moft difficult part in per- 
 formances of the arts, is to fpread an air 
 of eafinefs, the " ut sibi quivis " over 
 them l -, of which, among the ancients, the 
 pictures of Nicomachus were entirely defti- 
 tute m . 
 
 All this, however, is not meant to dero- 
 gate from Vanderwerf s fuperior merit ; his 
 works give a luftre even to the cabinets of 
 kings. He diffufed over them an inconceiv- 
 
 k Obfervat. fur les Arts, &c, p. 65. 
 
 1 QuintiJ. L. IX. c. 14. 
 
 m Plutarch. Timoleon. P, 142. 
 
 able
 
 1 86 An/wer to the foregoing Letter, 
 
 able polifh \ every trace of his pencil, one 
 would think, is molten ; and, in the colli- 
 quation of his tints, there reigns but 
 one predominant colour. He might be 
 faid to have enamelled rather than paint- 
 ed. 
 
 His works indeed pleafe. But does the 
 character of painting confift in pleafing a- 
 lone ? Denner's bald pates pleafe likewife. 
 But what, do you imagine, would the wife 
 ancients think of them ? Plutarch, from 
 the mouth of fome Ariftides or Zeuxis, 
 would tell him, that beauty never dwells in 
 wrinkles n . 
 
 'Tis faid, the Emperor Charles VI. when 
 he firft faw one of Denner's pictures, was 
 loud in its praife, and in admiration of his 
 induftry. The painter was immediately de- 
 fired to make a fellow to the firft, and was 
 magnificently rewarded : but the Emperor, 
 
 B Plutarch. Adul. & Amici difcrim. p. 53. D. 
 
 com-
 
 Anjwer to the foregoing Letter. 187 
 
 comparing each of them with fbme pieces 
 of Rembrant and Vandyke, declared, " that 
 having now fatisfied his curiofity, he would 
 on no account have any more from this ar~ 
 tift." An Englifh nobleman was of the 
 fame opinion : for being fhewn a pi&ure of 
 Denner's, " You are in the wrong, faid he, 
 if you believe that our nation efteems per- 
 formances, which owe their merits to in- 
 duftry rather than to genius." 
 
 I am far from applying thefe remarks to 
 Vanderwerf; the difference between him 
 and Denner is too great : I only joined them 
 ill order to prove, that a picture which 
 only pleafes can no more pretend to uni- 
 verfal approbation than a poem. No ; their 
 charms muft be durable ; but here we meet 
 with caufes of difguft in the very parts, 
 where the painter endeavoured to pleafe 
 
 us. 
 
 Thofe parts of nature that are beyond 
 
 pbfervation, were the chief objects of thefe 
 
 2 painters ;
 
 1 88 Anfiver to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 painters : they were particularly cautious of 
 changing the fituation even of the minuteit 
 hair, in order to furprize the moft fharp- 
 fighted eye with all the microcofm of na- 
 ture. They may be compared to thofe dif- 
 ciples of Anaxagoras, who placed all hu- 
 man wifdom in the palm of the hand — but 
 mark, as foon as they attempt to ftretch 
 their art beyond thefe limits, to draw larger 
 proportions, or the nudities, the painter ap- 
 pears 
 
 Jnfelix operis fummd, (juia ponere totum 
 nejeit. 
 
 Hor. 
 
 Defign is as certainly the painter's firft, fe- 
 cond, and third requjfite, as adion is that of 
 the orator. 
 
 I readily allow the folidity of your re- 
 marks, concerning the " reliefs'' of the an- 
 cients. In my treatife I myfelf charged 
 them with a want of fufficient fkill in per- 
 
 fpedtive -,
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 189 
 
 fpedtive ; and hence the faults in their re- 
 liefs. 
 
 The fourth point chiefly concerns Alle- 
 gory. 
 
 In painting we commonly call fidion al- 
 legory : for, though imitation arifes from 
 the very principles of painting as well as of 
 poetry, it conftitutes, by itfelf, neither of 
 them °. A picture, without allegory, is but 
 a vulgar image, and refembles Davenant's 
 Gondibert, an epopee without fiction. 
 
 Colouring and defign are to painting 
 what metre and truth, or the fable, are to 
 poetry ; a body without foul. Poetry, fays 
 Ariftotle, was firft infpired with its foul, 
 with fiction, by Homer 3 and with that the 
 painter muft animate his work. Defign and 
 colouring are the fruits of attention and 
 practice : perfpective and compofition, in 
 the ftricteft fenfe, are eftablifhed or fixed 
 rules j they are of courfe but mechanical - y 
 
 Ariftot. Rhet. L. I. c. 11. p. 61. Edit. Lond. 
 1619. 4to. Plato Phsed. p. 46. I. 44. 
 
 and
 
 igö Anjwer to the foregoing Letter* 
 
 and, if I may be allowed the expreffion, only 
 mechanical fouls are wanting to underftand 
 and to admire them* 
 
 Pleafures in general, fave only thofe which 
 rob the bulk of mankind of their invaluable 
 treafure, time, become durable, and are free 
 from tedioufnefs and difguft, in proportion 
 as they engage our intellectual faculties. 
 Mere fenfual fentiments foon languifh -, they 
 do not influence our reafon : fuch is the de- 
 light we take in the common landfcape, 
 flower, and fruit paintings : the artift, in 
 performing them, thinks but very little j 
 and the connoiiTeur, in confidering them, 
 thinks no more. 
 
 A mere hiftory-piece differs from a land- 
 fcape only in the object : in the former you 
 draw fads and perfons, in the latter, iky, 
 land, feas, &c. both, of courfe, being 
 founded on the fame principle, imitation, are 
 eflentially but of one kind. 
 
 If it be not a contradiction to ftretch the 
 limits of painting, as far as thofe of poetry, 
 
 and
 
 Anßwer to the foregoing Letter. 1 9 1 
 
 and confequently, to allow the painter 
 the fame ability of elevating himfelf to the 
 pitch of the poet as the mufician enjoys ; 
 it is clear that hiftory, though the fublimeft 
 branch of painting, cannot raife itfelf to the 
 heighths of tragick or epick poetry, by imi- 
 tation alone. 
 
 Homer, as Cicero tells us p , has trans- 
 formed man into God : which is to fay 3 he 
 not only exceeded truth, but, to raife his 
 fiction, preferred even the impoffible, if 
 probable, to the barely poffible q . In this 
 Ariftotle fixes the very effence of poetry, and 
 tells us that the pictures of Zeuxis had that 
 characleriftick. The poffibility and truth, 
 which Longinus requires of the painter, as 
 oppofites to abfurdity in poetry, are not con- 
 tradictory to this rule. 
 
 This heighth the hiftory-painter cannot 
 reach, only by a contour above common na- 
 ture, or a noble expreflion of the paffions : 
 
 » Cicero Tufc. L. I. c. 28. 
 s Ariftot. Poet. c. 28. 
 
 for
 
 192 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 for thefe are requifite in a good portrait- 
 painter, who is able to execute them with- 
 out diminishing the likenefs of his model. 
 They are but imitation, only prudently 
 managed. The heads of Vandyke are. 
 charged with too exact an obfervation of na- 
 ture 5 an exa&nefs that would be faulty in 
 a hiftory-piece. 
 
 Truth, lovely as it is in itfelf, charms 
 more, penetrates deeper, when invefted with 
 fiction: fable, in its ftriclefl fenfe, is the 
 delight of childhood ; allegory that of riper 
 years. And the old opinion, that poetry was 
 of earlier date than profe, as unanimoufly 
 attefied by the annals of different people, 
 makes it evident, that even in the moft bar- 
 barous times, truth was preferred, when ap- 
 pearing in this drefs. 
 
 Our underftanding, moreover, labours un- 
 der the fault of bellowing its attention chiefly 
 on things, whofe beauties are not to be per- 
 ceived at firft fight, and of inadvertently 
 flighting others, becaufe clear as day : images 
 
 of
 
 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 193 
 
 of this kind, like a fhip on the waves, leave 
 but momentary traces in our memory. Hence 
 the ideas of our childhood are the moft per* 
 manent, becaufe every common occurrence 
 then feems extraordinary. Thus, if nature 
 herfelf inftructs us, that (he is not to be 
 moved by common things, let art, as the 
 Orator, ad Herennium, advifes us, follow 
 her dictates. 
 
 Every idea increafes in ftrength, if ac- 
 companied by another or more ideas, as in 
 comparifons; and the more flill as they 
 differ in kind: for ideas, too analogous to 
 each other, do not ftrike : as for inftance, a 
 white fkin compared to fnow. Hence the 
 power of difcovering a fimilarity, in the moft 
 different things, is what we commonly 
 call wit ; Ariftotle, " unexpected ideas : 
 and thefe he requires in an orator r . The 
 more you are furprized by a picture, the 
 more you are affected 5 and both thofe ef- 
 
 r Ariftot. Rhct. III. c. 2. §. 4. 
 
 O fects
 
 194 Anßwer to the foregoing Letter, 
 
 fects are to be obtained by allegory, like to 
 fruit hid beneath leaves and branches, which 
 when found furprizes the more agreeably, the 
 lefs it was thought of. The imalleft com- 
 pofition is fufceptible of the fublimeft powers 
 of art : all depends upon the idea. 
 
 Neceffity firfl taught the artifts to ufe 
 allegory. No doubt, they began with the 
 reprefentation of fingle objects of one clafs : 
 but as they improved, they attempted to ex- 
 prefs what was common to many particu- 
 lars ; /. e. general ideas. All the qualities 
 of fingle objects afford fuch ideas : but to 
 become general, and at the fame time fen- 
 iible, they cannot preferve the particular 
 fhape of fuch or fuch an object, but muft 
 be fubmitted to another fhape, effential to 
 that object, but a general one. 
 
 The Egyptians were the firfl, who went 
 in fearch of images of that kind. Such 
 were their hieroglyphicks. All the deities of 
 antiquity, efpecially thofe of Greece, nay, 
 their very names, were originally Egyp- 
 2 tian.
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 195 
 
 tian\ Their perfonal theology was quite 
 allegorical 5 and fo is ours. But the fymbols 
 of thefe inventors, partly preferved by the 
 Greeks, were often fo myfterioufly arbitrary, 
 as to make it altogether impoffible to find 
 out their meaning, even by the help of thofe 
 authors that are ftill extant -, and fuch a dis- 
 covery was looked upon as a nefarious pro- 
 fanation :«i Thus facredly myfterious was 
 the pomegranate u in the hand of the Samian 
 Juno : and to divulge the Eleufinian rites, 
 was thought worfe than the robbery of a 
 temple w . 
 
 The relation of the fign to the thing fig- 
 nified, was in fome meafure founded on the 
 known or pretended qualities of the latter. 
 The Egyptian Horfemarten was ofthat kind; 
 an image of the fun, becaufe his fpecies was 
 
 • Herodot. L. II. c. 50. 
 
 * Herodot. L. II. c. 3. 047. Conf. L. II. c. 6i« 
 Paufan. L. II. p. 71. I. 45. p. 114. 1. 57- L. V. 
 p. 317. 1.6. 
 
 u Paufan. L. II. c. 17. p. 149. 1. 24. 
 w Arrian. EpicT;. L. III. c. 21. p. 439. Edit. Up- 
 ton. 
 
 O 2 faid
 
 196 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 faid to have no female, and to live fix months 
 under and fix above ground \ In like 
 manner the cat, being fuppofed to bring 
 forth a number of kittens equal to that of 
 the days in a month, became the fymbol of 
 Ifis, or the moon y , 
 
 The Greeks, on the contrary, endowed 
 with more wit, and undoubtedly with more 
 fenfibility, made ufe of no figns but fuch as 
 had a true relation to the thing fignified, 
 or were moft agreeable to the fenfes : all 
 their deities they inverted with human 
 forms z . Wings, among the Egyptians, 
 were the fymbol of eager and effectual fer- 
 vices ; a fymbol conformable to their nature, 
 and continued bv the Greeks : and if the 
 Attick Victoria had none, it was meant to 
 fignify, that me had chofen Athens for her 
 
 * Plutarch, de Ifid. & Ofir. p. 355. Clem. Alex. 
 Strom. L. V. p. 657, 58. Edit. Potteri. JElizn. Hift. 
 Anim. L. 10. c. 15. 
 
 y Plut. L. C. p. 376. Androvand. de Quadr. 
 digit. Vivipar. L. III. p. 574. 
 
 * Strabo, L. XVI. p. 760. al. 1104. 
 
 abode.
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 1 97 
 
 abode \ A goofe, among the Egyptians, 
 was the fymbol of a cautious leader ; in 
 confequence of which the prows of their 
 fhips were formed like geefe b . This the 
 Greeks preferved alfo, and the ancient Rof- 
 trum refembled the neck of a goofe c . 
 
 Of all the figures, whofe relation to their 
 intended meaning is fomewhat obfeure, the 
 Sphinx perhaps alone was continued by the 
 Greeks. Placed in the front of a temple, 
 it was, among the Greeks, almoft. as in- 
 ftrudtive, as it was fignificant among the 
 Egyptians d . The Greek Sphinx was wing- 
 ed e , its head bare, without that ftole which 
 it wears on fome Attick coins f . 
 
 a Paufan. L. III. p. 245. 1. 21. 
 
 b Kircher Oedip. JEg. T. III. p. 64. Lucian. 
 Nav. 3 Vol. c. 1. Bayf. de re Nav. p. 130. edit. 
 Baf. 1537. 4. 
 
 c Schaffer de re Nav. L. III. c. 3. p. 196. Paf- 
 ferii Luc. T. II. tab. 93. 
 
 d Laaant. adv. 253. L. VII. Thebaid. 
 
 e Beger. Thef. Palat. p. 234. Numifm, MufelL 
 Reg. et Pop. T. 8. 
 
 f Haym. Teforo Britt. T. I. p. 168. 
 
 O 3 It
 
 198 Anßver to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 It was in general a characleriftic of the 
 Greeks, to mark their produ&ions with a 
 certain chearfulnefs : the mufes love not 
 hideous phantoms : and Homer himfelf, 
 when by the mouth of fome god he cites an 
 Egyptian allegory, always cautioufly begins 
 with " We are told." Nay, the elder 
 Pampho s , though he exceeds the Egyptian 
 oddities, by his defcription of Jupiter wrapt 
 up in horfe-dung, approaches never thelefs 
 the fublime idea of the Englifh poet : 
 
 As ful^ as perfeEl, in a hair as heart y 
 As full y as perfeB y in vile man that mourns y 
 As the rapt feraphy that adores and burns. 
 
 Pope. 
 
 It will be no eafy matter to find, among 
 the old Greek coins, an image like that of a 
 fnake encircling an egg h , on a Syrian coin 
 of the third century. None of their monu- 
 
 * Ap. Philoftr. Heroic, p. 693. 
 h VailJant Num. Colon. Rom. T, II. p. 136. 
 Conf. Bianchini Iftor. Unic. p. 74, 
 
 ments
 
 Anfwcr to the foregoing Letter. 199 
 
 ments are marked with any thing ghaftly : 
 of thefe they were, if poffible, mil more 
 cautious than of iil-omen'd words. The 
 image of death is not to be feen, perhaps,, 
 but on one gem*, and that in the fhape com- 
 monly exhibited at their feafts k ; viz. danc- 
 ing to a flute, with intent to make them 
 enjoy the prefent pleafures of life, by re- 
 minding them of its fhortnefs. On another 
 gem \ with a Roman infeription, there is a 
 fkeleton, with two butterflies as images of 
 the foul, one of which is caught by a bird - y 
 a pretended fymbol of the metempfychofis : 
 but the performance is of latter times. 
 
 It has been like wife obferved, that m among 
 thofe myriads of altars, facred even to the 
 mod whimfical deities, there never was one 
 fet apart to death > fave only on the folitary 
 
 i Muf. Flor. T. I. Tab. 91. p. 175. 
 k Petron. Sat. c. 34. 
 1 Spon. Mifcell. Sea. I. Tab. 5. 
 m Kircher Oedip. T. III. p. 555. Cuper de Ele- 
 phant. Exercit. c. 3. p. 32. 
 
 O 4 coafts.
 
 200 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 coafts, which were deemed the borders of 
 the world n . 
 
 The Romans, in their beft times, thought 
 like the Greeks; and always, in adopting 
 the iconology of a foreign nation, traced the 
 footfteps of thefe their matters. An elephant, 
 one of the latter myfterious fymbols of the 
 Egyptians ° (for there is on the moft ancient 
 monuments neither elephant p nor hart, of- 
 trich nor cock, to be found), was the image 
 of different things q , and perhaps of eter- 
 nity, as on fome Roman r coins, becaufe of 
 his longevity. But on a coin of the emperor 
 Antoninus, this animal, with the infcription, 
 munificentia, cannot poffibly hint at any 
 other thing but the grand games, the mag- 
 nificence of which was augmented by thofe 
 animals. 
 
 n In Extremis Gadibus. v. Euftath. ad II. A. p. 
 744. I.4. ad. Rom. Id. adDionyf. nsfitiy. ad v. 453. 
 p. 84. Ed. Oxon. 17 12. 
 
 • Kircher Oed. Aeg. T. III. p. 555. 
 p Horapoll. Hierogl. L. II. c. 84. 
 
 * Cuper. 1. c. Spanh. DifT. T. I. p. 169. 
 ' Agqft, Pialog. II. p. 6&. 
 
 But
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 201 
 
 But it is no more my defign to attempt 
 an inquiry into the origin of every allegori- 
 cal fymbol among the Greeks and Romans, 
 than to write a fyftem of allegory. All I 
 propofe is, to defend what I have advanced 
 concerning it, and at the fame time to direct 
 the artift to the images of thofe ancients, in 
 preference to the iconologies and ill-judged 
 fymbols of fome moderns. 
 
 We may, from a little fpecimen, form a 
 judgment of the turn of mind of thofe an- 
 cients, and of the poffibility of fubjecting 
 abftracted ideas to the fenfes. The fymbols 
 of many a gem, coin, and monument, en- 
 joy their fixed and univerfally received in- 
 terpretation ; but fome of the moil memo- 
 rable, not yet brought to a proper ftandard, 
 deferve a nearer determination. 
 
 Perhaps the allegory of the ancients might 
 be divided, like painting and poetry in ge- 
 neral, into two claffes, viz. the fublime, 
 and the more vulgar. Symbols of the one 
 might be thofe by which fome mythological 
 
 or
 
 202 Anfwcr to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 or philofophical allufion, or even fome un- 
 known or myfterious rite, is expreffed. 
 
 Such as are more commonly underftood, 
 viz. perfonified virtues, vices, &c. might be 
 referred to the other. 
 
 The images of the former give to per- 
 formances of the art the true epick grandeur : 
 one fingle figure is fufficient to give it : the 
 more it contains, the fublimer it is : the 
 more it engages our attention, the deeper it 
 penetrates, and we of courfe feel it the 
 more. 
 
 The ancients, in order to reprefent a child 
 dying in his bloom, painted him carried oft 
 by Aurora s : a flriking image ! taken, per- 
 haps, from the cuftom of burying youths at 
 day-break. The ideas of the bulk of our 
 artifts, in this refpect, are too trivial to be 
 mentioned here. 
 
 The animation of the body, one of the 
 moft abftradted ideas, was reprefented by 
 
 s Homer. Oa. E. v. 121. Conf. Heraclid. Pontic, 
 de AUegoria Homeri. p. 492. Meurf. de funere. c. 7. 
 
 the
 
 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 203 
 the loveliefl, moft poetical images. An artift, 
 who mould imagine he could exprefs this 
 idea by the Mofaick creation, would be mil- 
 taken 5 for his image would be merely his- 
 torical, and nothing but the creation of 
 Adam : a hiftory altogether too facred for 
 being either admitted as the allegory of a 
 mere philofophical idea, or into every place : 
 neither does it feem poetical enough for the 
 flights of the art. This idea appears on 
 coins and gems \ as defcribed by the mod: 
 ancient poets and philofophers : Prometheus 
 forming a man of that clay, of which large 
 petrified heaps were found in Phocis in the 
 time of Paufanias u -, and Minerva holding 
 a butterfly, as an image of the foul, over 
 his head. The fnake encircling a tree be- 
 hind Minerva, on the above coin of Anto- 
 ninus Pius, is a fuppofed fymbol of his pru- 
 dence and fagacity. 
 
 * Venuti Num. max. moduli. T. 25. Rom. 1739. 
 fol. Bellori Admir. fol. 30. 
 u Paufan. L> X. p. 806. 1. 16. 
 
 It
 
 204 Aiifwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 It cannot be denied that the meaning of 
 many an ancient allegory is merely conjectu- 
 ral, and therefore not to be applied on every 
 occafion. A child catching a butterfly on an 
 altar was pretended to fignify Amicitia ad 
 eras, or, c< which is not to exceed the bor- 
 ders of jufticeV On another gem, Love, 
 endeavouring to pull off the branch of an 
 old tree, where a nightingale is perching, is 
 faid to allegorize love of wifdom \ Eros, 
 Himeros, and Pathos, the fymbols of Love, 
 Appetite, and Defire, are reprefented, they 
 fay y , on a gem, encompaffing the facred 
 fire on an altar -, Love behind the fire, 
 his head only over-reaching the flames ; 
 Appetite and Defire on both fides of the 
 altar ; Appetite with one hand only in 
 the fire, with the other holding a gar- 
 land ; Defire with both his hands in the 
 flames. A Victoria crowning an anchor, on 
 a coin of king Seleucus, was formerly re- 
 
 w Licet. Gem. Anul. c. 48. 
 
 * Beger. Theo. Brand. T. 1. p. 182. 
 
 y Ibid. p. 281. 
 
 garded
 
 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 205 
 
 garded as an image of peace and fecurity pro- 
 cured by vi&ory, till by the help of hiftory 
 we have been enabled to give it its true in- 
 terpretation. Seleucus is faid to have been 
 born with a mark refembling an anchor % 
 which not only he himfelf, but all his de- 
 fendants, the Seleucidae, have preferved on 
 their coins a . 
 
 There is another Victoria with butterfly's 
 wings b , fattened on a trophy. This, they 
 fay, is the fymbol of a hero, who, like 
 Epaminondas, died in the very act of con- 
 quering. At Athens fuch a ftatue c , and an 
 altar to an unwinged Vidoria, was the 
 fymbol of their perpetual fuccefs in battle : 
 ours may admit of the fame explication as 
 Mars in chains at Sparta d . Nor was me, as 
 I prefume, provided at random with wings 
 ufually given to Pfyche, her own being 
 
 z Juftin. L. XV. c. 4. p. 412. edit. Gronov. 
 a Spanh. DilT. T. I. p. 407. 
 h Ap. D. C. de Moezinsky. 
 c Pauf. L. V. p. 447. 1. 22. 
 d Ibid. L. 1. p. 52. 1. 4. 
 
 thofe
 
 2c6 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 thofe of an eagle : they perhaps fignify the 
 foul of the deceafed : however, all thefs 
 conjectures might be tolerable, if a Victoria 
 fattened on trophies of conquered enemies 
 could reafonably correfpond with their being 
 vanquifhed. 
 
 Indeed the fublimer allegory of the an- 
 cients has not been tranfmitted to us, with- 
 out the lofs of its mod valuable treafures : it is 
 poor, when compared with the fecond kind, 
 which is often provided with feveral fymbols 
 for one idea. Two different ones, fignify- 
 ing the happinefs of the times, are expreffed 
 on coins of the emperor Commodus : the 
 one a lady % fitting with an apple or ball in 
 her right, and a dial in her left hand, be- 
 neath a leafv tree : three children are before 
 her, two in a vafe or flower-pot, the ufual 
 fymbol of fertility : the other reprefents four 
 children, who, as is clear by the things they 
 bear, are the feafons. Both have the fub- 
 fcription felicitas temporvm. 
 
 e Paufan. L. III. p. 245. 1. 20. Morel Specim. 
 Rei. N. XII. 
 
 But
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 207 
 
 But thefe, and all the fymbols that want 
 infcriptions, are of a lower rank 3 and fome 
 of them might as well be taken for figns of 
 different ideas. Hope f and Fertility g , for in- 
 ftance, might be Ceres, Nobility h , Minerva. 
 Patience \ on a coin of Aurelian, wants her 
 true chara&eriftick, as does Erato > and the 
 Parese k are only by their garments diftin- 
 guifhed from the Graces. On the contrary, 
 ideas which are often confounded in mo- 
 rality, as Juftice and Equity, are extremely 
 well diftinguifhed by the ancients. The 
 former is reprefented, as drawn by Gellius \ 
 with a ftern look, a diadem, and dreffed 
 hair m -, the latter with a mild countenance, 
 and waving ringlets -> ears of corn arifing 
 from her balance, as fymbols of the advan- 
 
 f Spanhem. DifT. T. I. p. 154. 
 
 2 Spanhem. Obf. ad Juliani Imp. Orat. I. p. 282. 
 
 h Montfaucon Ant. expl. T. III. 
 
 1 Morell. Specim. Rei Num. T. VIII. p. 92. 
 
 k Artemidor. Oneirocr. L. II. c. 49. 
 
 1 No&. Attic. L. XIV. c. 4. 
 
 m Agoft. Dialog. II. p. 45. Rom. 1650. fol. 
 
 tages
 
 2o8 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 tages of equity ; and fometimes flie holds in 
 her other hand n a cornu-copia. 
 
 Peace, on a coin of the emperor Titus, 
 is to be ranked among thofe of a more ener- 
 getick expreffion. The goddefs of Peace 
 leans on a pillar with her left arm, in the 
 hand of which {he holds the branch of an 
 olive-tree, whilft the other waves the ca- 
 duceus over the thigh of a victim on a little 
 altar, which hints at the bloodlefs facrifices 
 ofthat goddefs : the victims were flaughtered 
 out of the temple, and nothing but the 
 thighs were offered at the altar, which was 
 not to be ftained with blood. 
 
 Peace ufually appears with the olive- 
 branch and the caduceus, as on another coin 
 of this emperor ° -, or on a ftool placed on a 
 heap of arms, as on a coin of Drufus p . On 
 fome of Tiberius's and Vefpafian's coins' 1 
 Peace appears in the act of burning arms. 
 
 ■ Triftan. Comm. hift. de l'Emp. T. I. p. 297. 
 
 Numifm. Mufell. Imp. R. tab. 38. 
 p Ibid. Tab. II. 
 
 1 Ibid. Tab. XXIX. Eriflb Dichiaraz. di Medagl. 
 ant. P. II. p. 130. 
 
 2 On
 
 a&ißöer to the foregoing Letter. 209 
 
 On a coin of the Emperor Philip there is 
 a noble image -, a fleeping Victory : which, 
 with better reafon, may be taken for the 
 fymbol of confidence in conquer!:, than for 
 that in the fecurity of the world ; as the in 
 fcription pretends. Of an analogous idea was 
 the picture, by which the Athenian General 
 Timotheus was ridiculed, for the blind luck 
 with which he obtained his victories : he 
 was reprefented afleep, with Fortune catch- 
 ing Towns in her Net r . 
 
 The Nile, with his fixteen children, is of 
 this fame clafs\ The child that reaches 
 the ears of corn, and the fruits, in his 
 Cornu, is the fymbol of the higheft ferti- 
 lity 5 but thofe that over-reach them are 
 figns of mifcarrying feafons. Pliny explains 
 the whole \ Egypt is at the height of its 
 fertility, when the Nile rifes fixteen feet : 
 but if it either falls fhort of, or exceeds that 
 
 r Plutarch Syll. p. 50, 51. 
 s Conf. Philoftrat. Imag. p. 737. 
 1 Plin.Hift.N.L. XVIII. c.47. Agoft. Dial. III. 
 p. J04. 
 
 P meafurc
 
 210 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 meafure, it equally blafts the land with un- 
 fruitfulnefs. Roffi, in his colle&ion, neg- 
 lected the children. 
 
 Satyrical pidures belong alfo to this clafs : 
 the Afs of Gabrias, for inftance u , which 
 imagines itfelf worshipped by the people, 
 as they bow to the ftatue of Ifis on its 
 back. It is impoffible to give a live- 
 lier image of the pride of the Vulgar- 
 Great. 
 
 The fublimer allegory might be fupplied 
 by the lower clafs, had it not met with the 
 fame fate. We are, for inftance, not ac- 
 quainted with the figure of Eloquence, or 
 Peitho ; or that of the Goddefs of Comfort, 
 Parergon, reprefented by Praxiteles, as Pau- 
 fanias tells us w . Oblivion had an altar a- 
 mong the Romans x , and perhaps a figure : 
 as may alfo be fuppofed of Chaftity, whofe 
 
 u Gabrias Fab. p. 169. in JEfop. Fab. Venet. 
 1709. 8. 
 
 w Paufan. L. I. c. 43. p. 105. L. 7. 
 * Plutarch. Sympof. L. IX. qu. 6. 
 
 altar
 
 Anßjwr to the fore gohig Letter. 2 1 1 
 altar is to be found on coins y -, and of 
 Fear, to which Thefeus offered lacrifices 2 . 
 
 However, the remains of ancient allegory 
 are not yet worn out : there are flill many 
 fecret ftores : the poets, and other monu- 
 ments of antiquity, afford numbers of beau- 
 tiful images. Thofe, who in our time, and 
 that of our fathers, were bufy in improving 
 allegory, and in facilitating the endeavours 
 of the artifts ; thofe, I fay, fhould reafon- 
 ably have had recourfe to fo rich and pure 
 a fountain. But there was an epoch to ap* 
 pear, in which a mocking croud of pedants 
 fhould, with downright madnefs, confpire 
 in an univerfal uproar againft every the 
 leait glimpfe of good tafte. Nature, in their 
 eyes, was puerile, and ought to be fafhioned : 
 blockheads, both young and old, vied in 
 painting devices and emblems, for the benefit 
 of artifts, philofophers, and divines 3 and 
 woe to him who made a compliment, with- 
 
 * Vaillant Numifm. Imp. T. II. p. 133. 
 
 * Plutarch. Vit. Thcf. p. 26. 
 
 P 2 OUt
 
 212 Anßwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 out drafting it up in an emblem ! Symbols 
 void of fenfe were illuftrated with in- 
 fcriptions, giving an account of what they 
 meant, and meant not : thefe are the trea- 
 fures which are dug for, even in our times, 
 and which, being then in high fafhion, out- 
 fhone all antiquity had left. 
 
 The ancients, for inftance, reprefented 
 Munificence by a woman holding a Cornu- 
 copia in one hand, and the table of the Ro- 
 man Congiarium in the other a : an image 
 which looked too parfimonious for modern 
 liberality ; another therefore was contrived b , 
 with two horns; one of them inverted, 
 the better to pour out its contents ; an eagle, 
 the meaning of which is too hard for me 
 to guefs at, was fet upon her head - y others 
 painted her with a pot in each hand c . 
 Eternity was, by the ancients, drawn either 
 
 a Agoft. Dial. II. p. 66, 67. Numifm. Mufell. 
 Imp. Rom. Tab. 115. 
 b Ripalconol. n. 87. 
 c Thefaur. de Arguta Di&. 
 
 fitting
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 213 
 
 fitting on a Globe, or rather Sphere d , with a 
 Hafta in her hand - y or ftanding e , with the 
 Sphere in one hand, and the Hafta in the 
 other j or with the Sphere in her hand, and 
 no Hafta ; or elfe covered with a floating 
 Veil f . Thefe are the images of Eternity on 
 the coins of the Emprefs Fauftina : but there 
 was not gravity enough in them for the mo- 
 dern artifts. Eternity, fo frightful to many, 
 required a frightful image g ; a form female 
 down to the breaft, with Globes in each 
 hand 5 the reft of the Body a circling ftar- 
 marked Snake turning into itfelf. 
 
 Providence very often has a Globe at her 
 feet, and a Hafta in her left hand h . On a 
 coin of the Emperor Pertinax 1 , fhe ftretches 
 out both her hands, towards a Globe falling 
 
 d Numifm. Mufell. Imp. R. Tab. 107. 
 c Ibid. Tab. 106. 
 f Ibid. Tab. 105. 
 « Ripa Iccnol. P. I. n. 53. 
 
 h Agoft. Dial. II. p. SI* Numifm. Mufell. I. c. 
 Tab. 68. 
 
 1 Agoft. 1. c. 
 
 P 3 from
 
 2 1 4 Anfwcr to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 from the clouds. A female figure, with 
 two heads, feemed more exprefiive to the 
 moderns k . 
 
 Conftancy, on fome of Claudius's coins ! , 
 is either fitting or {landing, with a Helmet 
 on her head, and a Hafta in her left hand j 
 or without Helmet and Hafta, but always 
 with a finger pointing to her face, as if 
 clofely debating fome point. For diftindtion 
 fake the moderns joined a couple of pil- 
 lars m . 
 
 It is very probable, that Ripa was often 
 at a lofs with his own figures. Chaftity, in 
 his Iconology, holds in one hand a Whip", 
 (a ftrange incitement to virtue) in the other 
 a Sieve : The firft inventor, perhaps, hinted 
 at Tuccia the veftal ; which Ripa not re^. 
 membring, indulges the moft abfurd whirry 
 not worth repeating. 
 
 k Ripa Ic. P. I. n. 135. 
 1 Agoft. Dial. II. p. 47. 
 ™ Ripa Iconol. P. I. n. 31. 
 ■ Ibid, P, I. n, 25. 
 
 By
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 2 1 e 
 
 By thus contraffing ancient and modern 
 allegory, I mean not to divert our times of 
 their right of fettling new allegories: but 
 from the different manners of thinking, I 
 fhall draw ibme rules, for thofe that are to 
 tread thefe paths. 
 
 The chara >r of noble fimplicity was the 
 chief aim of the Greeks and Romans : of 
 which Rome) . de Hooghe has given the 
 very contrail:. His book, in general, may 
 very fitly be compared to the elm in Virgil's 
 hell: 
 
 Hanc fedem /omnia vulgo 
 Vana te?iere ferunt, foliifque fub omnibus 
 hcerent. ./En. VI. 
 
 The diftindnefs of the ancient allegory was 
 owing to the individuation of its images. 
 Their rule, (if we except only a few of thofe 
 above-mentioned), was to avoid every ambi- 
 guity ; a rule flightly obferved by the mo- 
 derns : the Hart, for inftance, fymbolizing ° 
 
 Vide Picinelli Mund. Symb. 
 
 P 4 baptifm,
 
 2 1 6 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 baptifm, revenge, remorfe, and flattery $ 
 the Cedar, a preacher, worldly vanities, a 
 fcholar, and a woman dying in the pangs of 
 child-birth. 
 
 That fimplicity and diflinflnefs were al- 
 ways accompanied by a certain decency. 
 A hog fignifying, among the Egyptians, a 
 fcrutator of myfkries p , together with all the 
 fwine of Ceefar Ripa and ibme of the mo- 
 derns, would have been thought, by the 
 Greeks, too indecent a fymbol of any thing 
 whatever : fave only where that animal 
 made part of the arms of a place, as it ap- 
 pears to be on the Eleufinian coins q . 
 
 The iaft rule of the ancients was to be- 
 ware of figns too near a-kin to the thing 
 fignified. Let the young allegorift obferve 
 thefe rules, and ftudy them, jointly with 
 mythology, and the remoteft hiftory. 
 
 Indeed fome modern allegories, (if thofe 
 ought to be called modern that are entirely 
 
 p Shaw Voyag. T. I. 
 
 * Hayrn?.n Teibro Brit. T. I. p. 219, 
 
 m
 
 'Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 217 
 in the tafte of antiquity), may perhaps be 
 compared with the fubiimer clafs of the an- 
 cient. 
 
 Two brothers of the Barbarigo-family, 
 immediately fuceeeding each other r , in the 
 dignity of Doge of Venice, are allegorized 
 by Caflor and Pollux s ; one of whom, as 
 the fable tells us, gave the other part of 
 that immortality which Jupiter had con- 
 ferred on him alone. Pollux, in the alle- 
 gory, prefents his brother, reprefented by 
 a fkull, with a circling fnake, as the fym- 
 bol of eternity -, on the reverfe of a ficti- 
 tious coin, beneath the defcribed figures, 
 there drops a broken branch from a tree, 
 with the Virgilian infeription, 
 
 Primo avulfo non deficit alter. 
 
 Another idea on one of Lewis XlVth's 
 
 r 
 
 ' '6* 
 
 Egnatius de exempl. illuftr. Vir. Venet. L. V. 
 
 P- x 33- 
 
 5 Numifm. Barbar. Gent. n. 37. Padova. 1732. 
 
 fol. 
 
 coins,
 
 2 1 8 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 coins, is as worthy of notice ; being ftruck \ 
 on occafion of the Duke of Lorrain s quit- 
 ing his dominions, after the furrender of 
 Marfal, for having betrayed both the French 
 and Auitrian courts. The Duke is Proteus 
 overcome by the arts of Menelaus, and 
 bound, after having, in vain, tried all his 
 different forms. At a diftance the con- 
 quered citadel is to be feen, and the year 
 of its furrender marked in the infcription. 
 Tnere was no occafion for the fuperfluous 
 epigraph : Protei Artes deluftz. 
 
 Patience, or rather a longing earneft de- 
 fire u , reprefented by a female figure, with 
 folded hands, gazing on a watch, is a very 
 good image of the lower clafs. It muft in- 
 deed be owned, that the inventors of the 
 moil pidurefque allegories have contented 
 themfelves with the remains of antiquity ; 
 none having been authorifed to eftablifh 
 
 ' Medailles de Louis le Grand, a. 1663. Paris 1702» 
 
 to). 
 
 u Thefaur. de Argut, Dia. 
 
 images
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 2 1 9 
 
 images of their own fancy, for the general 
 imitation of the artifts. Neither has any 
 attempt of latter times deferved the honour ; 
 for in the whole Iconology of Ripa, of two 
 or three that are tolerable ones, 
 
 Nantes in gurgite vaßo; 
 
 an Ethiopian wafliing himfelf, as an allufion 
 to labour loft w , is perhaps the beft. There 
 are indeed images, and ufeful hints, difperfed 
 in fome books of greater note, (as for in- 
 ftance, The Temple of Stupidity in the Spec- 
 tator *,) which ought to be collected, and 
 made more general. Thus, were the trea- 
 fures of fcience joined to thofe of art, the 
 time might come, when a painter would be 
 able to reprefent an ode, as well as a tra- 
 gedy. 
 
 I (hall myfelf fubmit to the publick fome 
 images : for rules inftruct, but examples 
 füll more. Friendship, I find every where 
 
 w Ripa Iconol. P. II. p. 166. 
 
 I Spectator, Edit. 1724. Vol. II. p. 201. 
 
 pitifully
 
 220 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 pitifully reprefented, and its emblems are 
 net worth mentioning : their flying fcribbled 
 labels fhew us the depth of their inventors. 
 
 This nobleft of human virtues I would 
 paint in the figures of thofe two immortal 
 friends of heroic times, Thefeus and Piri- 
 thous. The head of the former is faid to 
 be on gems y : he likewife appears with the 
 club z won from Peripheres, a fon of Vul- 
 can, on a gem of Philemon. Thefeus con- 
 fequently might be drawn with fome re- 
 femblance. FrieruJfliip, at the brink of 
 danger, might be taken from the idea of an 
 old pidture at Delphos, as defcribed by Pau- 
 fanias a . Thefeus was painted in the adion 
 of defending himfelf and his friend againft 
 the Theiprotians, with his own fword in 
 one hand, and another drawn from the fide 
 of his friend, in the other. The beginnino: 
 of their friendfhip, as defcribed by Plu- 
 
 * Canini Imag. des Heros. N. I. 
 
 * Stoch Pier. Grav. P]. LI. 
 
 * Paufan. L.X. p. 870. %ft, 
 
 tarch^
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 221 
 tarch b , might alfo be an image ofthat idea. 
 I am aftonifhed not to have met, among 
 the emblems of the great men of the Bar- 
 barigo-family, with an image of a good 
 man and eternal friend. Such was Nicolas 
 Barbarigo, who contracted with Marco Tri- 
 vifano a friendfhip worthy of immortality ; 
 
 Monumentum cere perennius : 
 
 a little rare treatife alone has preferved their 
 memory c . 
 
 A little hint of Plutarch's might furnifh 
 an image of Ambition : he mentions d the 
 facrifices of Honour, as being performed 
 bareheaded ; whereas all other facrifices, fave 
 only thofe of Saturn e , were offered with co- 
 vered heads. This cuftom he believes to 
 
 b Vit. Thefei. p. 29. 
 
 c De Monftrofa Amicitia refpe&u perfe£tionis inter 
 Nie. Barbar. & Marc. Trivifan. Venet. apud Franc. 
 Baba. 1628. 4. 
 
 d Vita Marcelli. Ortelii Capita Deor. L. II. 
 fig. 41. 
 
 e Thomafin. Donar. Vet. c. 5. 
 
 have
 
 222 Anfiver to the foregoing Letter* 
 
 have taken its rife from the ufual falutation 
 in fociety ; though it may as well be vice 
 verfa : perhaps it fprung from the Pelafgian 
 rites f , which were performed bareheaded. 
 Honour is likewife reprefented by a female 
 figure, crowned with laurels, a Cornucopia 
 and Haß a in her hands g . Accompanied by 
 Virtue, a male figure with a helmet, ihe is 
 to be found on a coin of Vitellius h : and the 
 heads of both on thofe of Gordian and 
 Galien \ 
 
 Prayers might be perfonified from an idea 
 of Homer. Phoenix, the tutor of Achilles, 
 endeavouring to reconcile him to the Greeks, 
 makes ufe of an allegory. " Know Achil- 
 c< les, fays he, that prayers are the daughters 
 <c of Zeus k 5 they are bent with kneeling ; 
 " their faces forrowful and wrinkled, with 
 
 f Plutarch. Quad. Rom. P. 266. F. 
 * Vulp. Latium. T. I. L. I. c. 27. p. 406. 
 h Agoftin. Dialog. II. p. 81. 
 1 Ibid. & Beger Obf. in Num. p. 56. 
 k Iliad, i. \\~498. Conf, Heraclides Pontic, de 
 Allegoria Homeri, p. 457, 58. 
 
 cc 
 
 3 " e )" 
 
 'es
 
 cc 
 
 Anywer to the foregoing hotter. 223 
 
 eyes lifted up to heaven. They follow 
 <£ Ate ; who, with a bold and haughty 
 " mien marches on, and, light of foot as 
 " {he is, runs over all the world, to feize 
 <c and torment mankind ; for ever endea- 
 <c vouring to efcape the Prayers, who incef- 
 " fantly prefs upon her footfteps, in order 
 " to heal thofe whom fhe hath hurt. Who- 
 " ever honours thefe daughters of Zeus, on 
 <c their approach, may obtain much good 
 <c from them ; but meeting with repulfe, 
 " they pray their fire to punifli by Ate the 
 <c hard-hearted wretch." 
 
 The following well-known old fable might 
 alfo furnifh a new image. Salmacis, and 
 the youth beloved by her, were changed to 
 a fountain, unmanning to fuch a degree, 
 that 
 
 Quifqui s in hos font es vir venerit, exeat inde 
 Semivir : & taölis fubito mollefcat in 
 unclis, 
 
 Ovid. Metam. L. IV. 
 
 The
 
 224 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter, 
 The fountain was near Halicarnaffus in Ca- 
 ria. Vitruvius 1 thought he had difcovered 
 the truth of that fiction : fome inhabitants 
 of Argos and Trcezene, fays he, going thither 
 with a mind to fettle, difpofleffed the Ca- 
 rians and Leleges $ who, fheltering them- 
 felves among the mountains, began to ha- 
 rafs the Greeks with their excurfions : but 
 one of the inhabitants having difcovered 
 fome particular qualities in that fountain, 
 erected a building near it, for the conve- 
 nience of thofe who had a mind to make 
 ufe of its water. Greeks and Barbarians 
 mingled there; and thefe at length, ac- 
 cuftomed to the Greek civility, loft their 
 favagenefs, and were infenfibly moulded 
 into another nature. The fable itfelf is 
 well known to the artifts : but the narrative 
 of Vitruvius might inftruct them how to 
 draw the allegory of a people taught huma- 
 nity and civilifed, like the Ruflians by Pe- 
 
 i Architeft. L. II. c. 8. 
 
 ter
 
 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 225 
 
 ter the Firft. The fable of Orpheus might 
 ferve the fame purpofe. Expreffion only 
 mull decide the choice. 
 
 Suppofing the above general obfervations 
 upon allegory infufficient to evince its necef- 
 fity in painting, the examples will at leafl 
 demonstrate, that painting reaches beyond 
 the fenfes. 
 
 The two chief performances in allego- 
 rical painting, mentioned in my treatife, viz. 
 the Luxemburg gallery, and the cupola of 
 the Imperial Library at Vienna, may fhew 
 how poetical, how happy an ufe their au- 
 thors made of allegory. 
 
 Rubens propofing to paint Henry IV. 
 as a humane victor, with lenity and good- 
 nefs prevailing, even in the punifhment of 
 unnatural rebels, and treacherous banditti, 
 reprefents him as Jupiter ordering the gods 
 to overthrow and punifh the vices : Apollo 
 and Minerva let fly their darts upon them, 
 and the vices, hideous monfters, in a tu- 
 multuous uproar tumble over each other : 
 Q^ MarV,
 
 226 Anfeer to the foregoing Letter, 
 Mars, entering in a fury, threatens total 
 definition ; but Venus, image of celeflial 
 love, gently lays hold of his arm : — you 
 fancy you hear her blandiming petition to 
 the mailed god : cc rage not with cruel re- 
 venge againft the vices — they are punißi- 
 ed." 
 
 The whole performance of Daniel Gran m 
 is an allegory, relative to the Imperial Li- 
 brary, ar*l all its figures are as the branches 
 of one fingle tree, 'Tis a painted Epopee, 
 not beginning from the eggs of Led a ; but, 
 as Homer chiefly rehearfes the anger of 
 Achilles, this immortalizes only the Em- 
 peror's care of the fciences. The prepara- 
 tions for the building of the library are re- 
 presented in the following manner : 
 
 Imperial majefty appears as a lady fitting, 
 her head fumptuoufly dreffed, and on her 
 breaft a golden heart, as a fymbol of the 
 Emperor's generofity. With her fceptrc flic 
 
 m Vide ReprefenUtio Bibliothecae Cefarea Viennas 
 1737. fol. übt. 
 
 gives
 
 'Anfwer to the foregoijig Letter. 227 
 
 gives the fummons to the builders ; at her 
 feet fits a genius with an angle, palette, and 
 chiffel ; another hovers over her with the 
 figures of the Graces, as fymbols of that 
 good tafte which prevailed in the whole. 
 Next to the chief figure fits general Libe- 
 rality, with a purfe in her hand 3 below 
 her a genius, with the table of the Roman 
 Congiarius, and behind her the Auftrian 
 Liberality, her mantle embroidered with 
 larks. Several Genii gather the treafures 
 that flow from the Cornucopia, in order to 
 diftribute them among the votaries of the 
 arts and fciences, chiefly thofe, whofe good 
 offices to the library had entitled them to 
 regard. The execution of the Imperi -.1 or- 
 ders perfonined, diredls her face to the com- 
 manding figure, and three children prcfent 
 the model of the home. Next her an old 
 man, the image of Experience, rneafurcs 
 on a table the plan of the building, a ge- 
 nius ftanding beneath him with a plummet, 
 as ready to begin. Next the old man fits 
 
 Q^ Inven-
 
 228 Anjwer to the foregoing Letter, 
 Invention, with a ftatue of Ifis in her right, 
 and a book in her left hand, fignifying, that 
 Nature and Science are the fathers of Inven- 
 tion, the puzzling fchemes of which are re- 
 prefented by a Sphinx lying before her. 
 
 This performance was compared to the 
 great platfond of Le Moine at Verfailles, 
 with an eye to the neweft productions of 
 France and Germany alone : for the great 
 gallery of the fame palace, painted by 
 Charles le Brun, is, without doubt, the 
 fublimeft performance of poetick painting, 
 fince the time of Rubens ; and being pof- 
 fcffed of this, as well as of the gallery of 
 Luxemburg, France may boaft of the two 
 moft learned allegorical performances. 
 
 The gallery of Le Brun contains the hif- 
 tory of Louis XIV. from tjie Pyrenaean 
 peace, to that of Nimeguen, in nine large, 
 and eighteen fmaller pieces : that in which 
 the King determines war againft Holland, 
 contains, in itfelf alone, an ingenious and 
 fublime application of almofl the whole 
 
 mytho-
 
 Anfwcr to the foregoing heiter. 229 
 
 mythology ° : its beauties are too exuberant 
 for this treatife ; let the arthTs ideas be 
 judged only by two of the fmaller compo- 
 fitions. He reprefents the famous paiTage 
 over the Rhine : his hero fits in a chariot, 
 a thunderbolt in his hand, and Hercules, 
 the image of heroifm, drives him through 
 the midft of tempeftuous waves. The figure 
 reprefenting Spain is born down by the cur- 
 rent : the river god, aghaft, lets fall his 
 oar : the victories, approaching on rapid 
 wings, prefent fhields, marked with the 
 names of the towns conquered after the 
 pafTage. Europa aftonifhed beholds the 
 fcene. 
 
 Another reprefents the conclusion of the 
 peace. Holland, though with-held by the 
 Imperial Eagle, fnatching her robe, runs to 
 meet peace, defcending from heaven, fur- 
 rounded by the Genii of gaiety and pleafure, 
 fcattering flowers all around her. Vanity, 
 
 This piece is engraved by Simmoneau Senior 
 Conf. Lepicie Vies des p. P. de R. T. I. p. 64. 
 
 0^3 crowned
 
 230 Anfiver to the foregoing Letter* 
 
 crowned with peacocks feathers, endeavours 
 to with-hold Spain and Germany from fol- 
 lowing their alTociate : but perceiving the 
 cavern where arms are forged for France 
 and Holland, and hearing fame threatening 
 in the fkies, they likewife follow her ex- 
 ample. Is not the former of thefe two per- 
 formances comparable, in fublimity, to the 
 Neptune of Homer, and the ftrides of his 
 immortal horfes ? 
 
 But let examples be never fo ftriking, 
 allegory will ftill have adverfaries : they 
 rofe in times of old, againft that of Homer 
 himfelf. There are people of too delicate 
 a confcience, to bear truth and fiction in 
 one piece : they are fcandalized at a poor 
 river- god in fome iacred flory. Pouffin 
 met with their reproaches, for perfonify- 
 ing the Nile in his Mofes p . A ftill fironger 
 
 ? Another representation of that (lory, and one of 
 PoufTin's beft originals, is in the gallery of Drefden, 
 in which the river god is extremely advantageous to 
 the compofni.on of the whole, 
 
 party
 
 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 23 s 
 
 party has declared againft the obfcurity of 
 allegory $ for which they cenfurecl, and ftill 
 continue to cenfure, Le Brim. But who is 
 there fo little experienced as not to know, 
 that perfpicuky and obfcurity depend often 
 upon time and circumftances ? When Phi- 
 dias firft added a tortoife q to his Venus, 'tis 
 likely that few were acquainted with his 
 defign in it, and bold was the artiii who 
 firfl dared to fetter her : time, however, 
 made the meaning as clear as the figures 
 themfelves. Allegory, as Plato fays r pf 
 poetry in general, has fomething enigmatick 
 in itfelf, and is not calculated for the bulk 
 of mankind. And mould the painter, from 
 the fear of being obfcure, adapt his perform- 
 ance to the capacity of thofe, who look 
 upon a picture as upon a tumultuous mob, 
 he might as well check every new and ex- 
 traordinary idea. The deiign of the famous 
 Fred. Barocci, in his Martyrdom of St. Vi- 
 
 1 Plin. 
 
 ' Plato Alcibiad. II. P. 457. I 30. 
 
 ^U tali*
 
 232 Anfmtr to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 talis, by drawing a little girl alluring a 
 magpye.with a cherry, muft have been very 
 myfterious to many ; the cherry s alluding 
 to the fcafon, in which that faint fuffered. 
 
 The painting of the greater machines, 
 and of the larger parts of publick buildings, 
 palaces, &c. ought to be allegorical. Gran-, 
 deur is relative to grandeur 5 and heroick 
 actions are not to be fung in elegiack ftrains. 
 But is every ficlion allegorical in every place ? 
 The Venetian Doge might as well pretend 
 to enjoy his fuperiority in Terra fir ma. I 
 am miftaken if the Farnefian gallery is to 
 be ranked among the allegorical perform- 
 ances. Neverthelefs Annibal, perhaps not 
 having it in his power to choofe his fiibjecT:, 
 may have been too roughly ufed in my trea r 
 tife : it is known that the Duke of Orleans 
 
 * Ealdinucci, Notiz, de 'P. d. D. P. 118. Ar- 
 genville feems not to have underftood the word, Ci~ 
 liegt a : he faw that it mould be a fymbol of fpring, 
 and changed the cherry to a butterfly ; the chief 
 object of the picture he omits, and talks only of the 
 girl, 
 
 defired
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing heiter. 233 
 
 defired Coypel to paint in his gallery the 
 hiftory of iEneas \ 
 
 The Neptune of Rubens u , in the gallery 
 at Drefden, painted on purpofe to adorn the 
 magnificent entry of the Infant Ferdinand 
 of Spain into Antwerp, as governor of the 
 Netherlands 3 was there, on a triumphal 
 arch, allegorical w . The god of the ocean 
 frowning his waves into peace, was a po- 
 etick image of the Prince's efcaping the 
 ftorm, and arriving fafe at Genoa. But 
 now he is nothing more than the Neprune 
 of Virgil. 
 
 Vafari, when pretending to find allegory 
 in the Athenian fchool of Raphael x , viz. 
 a comparison of philofophy and aflronomy 
 with theology, feems to have required, and, 
 by the common opinion of his time, to 
 have been authoriied to require fomething 
 
 1 Lcpicie Vies des P. R. P. II. p. 17, 18. 
 u Rec'ueil d'Eftamp. de Ja Gall. deDrefd. t'ol. 48. 
 w Pompa k Intrcitus Fcrdinaiidi Hifp. Inf. p. j^. 
 Antv. 164L fol. 
 
 * Vafari vite. P. III. Vol. I. p. 76, 
 
 grand
 
 234 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 grand and above the vulgar, in the decora- 
 tions of a grand apartment : though indeed 
 there be nothing but what is obvious at firft 
 look, and that is, a reprefentation of the 
 Athenian academy y . 
 
 But in ancient times, there was no flory 
 in a temple > that was not, at the fame time, 
 allegorical ; allegory being clofely interwo- 
 ven with mythology : the gods of Homer, 
 fays an ancient, are the mod lively images 
 of the different powers of the univerfe • fha- 
 dows of elevated ideas : and the gallantries of 
 Jupiter and Juno, in the platfond of a tem- 
 ple of that goddefs at Samos, were looked 
 on as fuch ; air being reprefented by Jupiter, 
 and earth by Juno z , 
 
 Here I think it incumbent upon me to 
 dear up what I have faid concerning the 
 contradictions in the character of the Athe- 
 nians, as reprefented by Parrhafius. This 
 
 y Chambray Idee de la P. p. 107, 108. Bellori 
 Defcriz. delle Imagini dip. da Raffacllo, &c. 
 
 ~ Heraclid. Pontic, de Allcgoiia Homcri, p. 443. 
 
 you
 
 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 235 
 
 you think an eafy matter ; the painter hav- 
 ing done it either in the hiilorical way, or 
 in feveral pictures : which latter is abfurd. 
 Has not there been even a ftatue of that 
 people, done by Leochares, as well as a 
 temple 2 ? The compofition of the picture 
 in queftion, has ftill eluded a]l probable con- 
 jectures b ; and the help of allegory having 
 been called in, has produced nothing but 
 Teforo's c ghaftly phantoms. This fatal 
 picture of Parrhafius, I am afraid, will of 
 itfelf be a perpetual inftance of the fuperior 
 fkill of the ancients in allegory. 
 
 What has been faid already of allegory, 
 in general, contains likewife what remarks 
 may be made upon its being applied to de- 
 corations; neverthelefs as you iniift upon 
 that point particularly, I fhall lightly men- 
 tion it too. 
 
 There are two chief laws in decoration, 
 
 f Jofephi Antiq. L. XIV. c. 8. Edit. Haverc, 
 
 b Dati vite de Tittori. p. 73. 
 
 F Thefaur. Idea Arg, Dia. C. III. p. 84. 
 
 VIZ,
 
 236 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 viz. to adorn fuitably to the nature of things 
 and places, and with truth 5 and not to fol- 
 low an arbitrary fancy. 
 
 The firft, as it concerns the artifts in ge- 
 neral, and dictates to them the adjufting of 
 things in fuch a manner, as to make them 
 relative to each other, claims efpecially a 
 Ariel: propriety in decorations : 
 
 «• Non tit placidis coeant immiiia — 
 
 . Hor. 
 
 The facred fhall not be mixed with the 
 profane, nor the terrible with the fublime : 
 this was the reafon for rejecting the fheeps- 
 heads d , in the Doric Metopes, at the chapel 
 of the palace of Luxemburg at Paris. 
 
 The fecond law excludes licentioufnefs j 
 nay circumfcribes the architect and deco- 
 rator within much narrower limits than the 
 painter; w 7 ho fometimes muft, in fpite of 
 reafon, fubject his own fancy, and Greece, to 
 
 d Blondel Maifons de Plaifance, T. II. p. 26. 
 4 fafhion,
 
 Arifwcr to the foregoing Letter. 237 
 
 fafhion, even in hifbry-pieces : but pub- 
 lick buildings, and fuch works as are made 
 for futurity, claim decorations that will out- 
 laft the whims of fafhion ; like thofe that, 
 by their dignity and fuperior excellence, bore 
 down the attacks of many a century : other- 
 wife they fade away, grow infipid and out 
 of fafhion, perhaps before the finifhing of 
 the very work to which they are added. 
 
 The former law directs the artifl to alle- 
 gory : the latter to the imitation of antiqui- 
 ty ; and this concerns chiefly the fmaller 
 decorations. 
 
 Such I call thofe that make not up of 
 themfclvcs a whole, or thofe that are addi- 
 tional to the larger ones. The ancients ne- 
 ver applied fhells, when not required by the 
 fable ; as in the cafe of Venus and the Tri- 
 tons -, or by the place, as in the temples of 
 Neptune : and lamps decked with fhells e 
 are fuppofed to have made part of the imple- 
 ments of thofe temples. For the fame rea- 
 
 r PafTerii Lüccmae fi£. Tab. 51. 
 
 fori
 
 238 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 
 fon they may give luitre, and be very fig- 
 nificant, in proper places ; as in the feftoons 
 of the Stadthoufe at Amfterdam f . 
 
 Sheep and ox-heads {tripped of their fkin, 
 fo far from justifying a promifcupus ufe of 
 fhells, as the author feems inclined to think, 
 are plain arguments to the contrary : for they 
 not only were relative to the ancient facri- 
 fices, but were thought to be endowed with 
 a power of averting lightning 8 5 and Numa 
 pretended to have been fecretly inftrufted 
 about them by Jupiter \ Nor can the Co- 
 rinthian capital ferve for an inftance of a 
 feemindv abiurd ornament, authorifed and 
 rendered fafhionable by time alone : for it 
 feems of an origin more natural and reafon- 
 
 f Quellinus Maifon de la Ville d'Amft. 1655. fo!. 
 
 s Arnob, adv. Gentes L. V. p. 157. Edit. Lugd. 
 1651. 4. 
 
 h An ox-head on the reverfe of an Attick gold 
 coin, (lamped with the head of Hercules and his club, 
 is fuppofed to allude to his labours, (Hayrn. Teforo 
 Britt. 1. 182.) and to be, in general, a fymbol of 
 ftrength, induftry, or patience, (Hypnerotomachia 
 Pglvphiu. Venet, Aid. fol.J 
 
 able
 
 An/wer to the foregoing Letter. 239 
 
 able than Vitruvius makes it; which is, 
 however, an enquiry more adapted to a 
 treatife on architecture. Pocock believed 
 that the Corinthian order had not much 
 reputation in the time of Pericles, who 
 built a temple to Minerva : but he fhould 
 have been reminded, that the Doric order 
 belonged to the temples of that goddefs, as 
 Vitruvius informs us \ 
 
 Thefe decorations ought to be treated like 
 architecture in general, which owes its gran- 
 deur to fimplicity, to a fyftem of few parts, 
 which being not complex themfelves, branch 
 out into grace and fplendour. Remember 
 here the channelled pillars of the temple of 
 Jupiter, at Agrigentum, (Girgenti now) which 
 were large enough to contain, in one fingle 
 gutter, a man at full length k . In the fame 
 manner thefe decorations muft not only be 
 few, but thofe mufl likewife confift of few 
 
 Vitruv. L. I. c. 1, 
 
 Diodor. Sic. L. XUL p. 375. al. 507. 
 
 part 4
 
 240 Anfwer to the foregoing Lettei\ 
 
 parts, which are to appear with an air of 
 grandeur and eafe. 
 
 The firft law (to return to allegory) 
 might be lengthened out into many a fub- 
 altern rule : but the nature of things and 
 circumftances is, and ever muft be, the ar- 
 tift's firft aim ; as for examples, refutation 
 promifes rather more inftrudion than au- 
 thority, 
 
 Arion riding on his dolphin, as unmean- 
 ingly reprefented upon a Sopra-porta, in a 
 new treatife on architecture *, though a fig- 
 nificant image in the apartments of a French 
 Dauphin, would be a very poor one in any 
 place where Philanthropy, or the protectioa 
 of artifts like him, could not immediately 
 be hinted at. On the contrary, he would 
 even to this day, though without his lyre, 
 be an ornament to any publick building at 
 Tarentum, becaufe the ancient Tarentines, 
 ftamped on their coins the image of Taras, 
 
 d Elondel Maifons de Plaifance. 
 
 one
 
 'Anfaer to the foregoing Letter. 241 
 
 one of the fons of Neptune, riding on a 
 dolphin, on a fuppofition of his being their 
 firft founder. 
 
 The allegorical decorations of a build- 
 ing, raifed by the contributions of a whole 
 nation, I mean the Duke of Marlborough's 
 palace at Blenheim, are abfurd : enormous 
 lions of mafly ftone, above two portals, 
 tearing to pieces a little cock m . The hint 
 fprung from a poor pun. 
 
 Nor can it be denied that antiquity fur- 
 nifhes fome ideas feemingly analogous to 
 this : as for inftance, the lionefs on the 
 tomb of Leaena, the miftrefs of Ariftogiton, 
 raifed in honour of her conftancy amidft the 
 torments applied by the tyrant, in order to 
 extort from her a confeffion of the confpi- 
 rators againft him. But from this, I am 
 afraid, nothing can arife in behalf of the 
 above pitiful decoration : that miftrefs of 
 the martyr of liberty having been a no- 
 torious woman, and whofe name could 
 
 * Vide Spe&ator, N°. 51. 
 
 R not
 
 242 Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 not decently ftand a publick trial. Of the 
 fame nature are the lizards and frogs on a 
 temple n , alluding to the names of the two 
 architects, Saurus and Batrachus : the a- 
 bove-mentioned lionefs having no tongue, 
 made the allegory frill more expreffive. The 
 lionefs on the tomb of the famous Lais % 
 holding with her fore-paws a ram, as a 
 fymbol of her manners \ was perhaps an 
 imitation of the former. The lion was, in 
 general, fet upon the tombs of the brave. 
 
 It is not indeed to be pretended that every 
 ornament and image of the ancient vafes, 
 tools, • &c. fhould be allegorical ; and to ex- 
 plain many of them, in that way, would be 
 equally difficult and conjectural. I am not 
 bold enough to maintain, that an earthen 
 lamp r , in the fhape of an ox's-head, means a 
 perpetual remembrance of ufeful labours, on 
 
 n Paufan. L. I. c. 43. 1. 22. 
 
 • Plin. HifL N. L. XXXVI. c. 5. 
 P Pauf. L. II. c. 2. P. 115. 1. 11. 
 
 * Idem. L. IX. c. 40. P. 795. 1. 1 r. 
 
 1 Aldrovand. de Quadrup. bifulc. p. 141. 
 
 account
 
 'Anßver to the foregoing Letter. 243 
 
 adcount of the perpetuity of the fire ; nor to 
 decypher here a myfterious facrifice to Pluto 
 and Proferpine s . But the image of a Tro- 
 jan Prince, carried off by Jupiter, to be his 
 favourite, was of great and honourable fig- 
 nification in the mantle of a Trojan. Birds 
 pecking grapes feem as fuitable to an urn, 
 as the young Bacchus brought by Mercury 
 to be nurfed by Leucothea, on a large mar- 
 ble vafe of the Athenian Salpion \ The 
 grapes may be a fymbol of the pleafures the 
 deceafed enjoy in Elyfium: the pleafures 
 of hereafter being commonly fuppofed to be 
 fuch, as the deceafed chiefly delighted in 
 when alive. A bird, I need not fay, was 
 the image of the foul. A Sphinx, on a 
 cup facred to Bacchus, is fuppofed to be an 
 allufion to the adventures of Oedipus at 
 Thebes, Bacchus's birth place u 3 as a 
 
 • Bellori Lucern. Sepulcr. P. I. fig. 17. 
 
 * Spon.Mifc. Sea. II. Art. I. P. 25. 
 
 1 Vide Buonarotti Oflerv. fopra alcuni Medagli. 
 Proem, p. XXVI. Roma. 1693, 4. 
 
 R 2 Li-
 
 244 " Anfwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 Lizard on a cup of Mentor, may hint 
 at the pofleflbr, whofe name perhaps was 
 Saurus. 
 
 There is fome reafon to fearch for alle- 
 gory, in moft of the ancient performances, 
 when we conlider, that they even built al- 
 legorically. Such an allufive building was 
 a gallery at Olympia w , facred to the feven 
 liberal arts, and re-echoing feven times a 
 poem read aloud there. A temple of Mer- 
 cury, fupported, inftead of pillars, by 
 Herms, or, as we now fpell, Terms, on 
 a coin of Aurelian x , is of the fame kind : 
 there is on its front a dog, a cock, and a 
 tongue -, figures that want no explication. 
 
 Yet the temple of Virtue and Honour, 
 built by Marcellus, was ftill more learnedly 
 executed : having confecrated his Sicilian 
 fpoils to that purpofe, he was difappointed 
 by the priefts, whom he firfl confulted on 
 
 w Plutarch, de Garrulit. p. 502. 
 x Triftan Comment. Hift. des Emper. T. I, 
 p. 632, 
 
 that
 
 A?ifwer to the foregoing Letter. 245 
 
 that defign ; who told him, that no fingle 
 temple could admit of two divinities. Mar- 
 cellus therefore ordered two temples to be 
 built, adjoining to each other, in fuch a 
 manner that whoever would be admitted to 
 that of Honour mud pafs through that of 
 Virtue 7 -, thus publickly indicating, that vir- 
 tue alone leads to true honour : this tern* 
 pie was near the Porta Capena z . And here 
 I cannot help remembering thofe hollow 
 ftatues of ugly fatyrs a , which, when opened, 
 were found replete with little figures of the 
 graces, to teach, that no judgment is to be 
 formed from outward appearances, and that 
 a fair mind makes amends for a homely 
 body. 
 
 Perhaps, Sir, fome of your objections- may 
 have been omitted : if fo, it was againft my 
 will and at this inftant, 1 remember one 
 
 y Plutarch. Marcell. p. 277. 
 
 2 Vulpii Latium, T. II. L. II. c. 20. p. 175. 
 
 a Banier Mythol. T. II. L.I. ch. 11. p. 181. 
 
 R 3 con-
 
 246 Afifwer to the foregoing Letter. 
 concerning the Greek art of changing blue 
 eyes to black ones. Diofcorides is the only 
 writer that mentions it \ Attempts of this 
 kind have been made in our days: a cer- 
 tain Silefian counteis was the favourite beauty 
 of the age, and univerfally acknowledged 
 to be perfeit, had it not been for her blue 
 eyes, which fome of her admirers wifhed 
 were black. The lady, informed of the 
 wiihes of her adorers, by repeated endea- 
 vours overcame nature 5 her eyes became 
 black, — and flie blind. 
 
 I am not fatisfied with myfelf, nor per- 
 haps have given you fatisfaclion : but the 
 art is inexhauftible, and all cannot be writ- 
 ten. I only wanted to amufe myfelf agree- 
 ably at my leifure hours ; and the conven- 
 tion of my friend Frederic Oeser, a true 
 imitator of Ariftides, the painter of the foul, 
 was not a little favourable to my purpofe : 
 the name of which worthy friend and ar- 
 
 b Diofcorid. de 'Re Med. L. V. c. 179. 
 
 tift
 
 dnjwer to the foregoing Letter. 247 
 tift c fhall fpread a luftre over the end of 
 my treatife. 
 
 e Fred. Oefer, one of the mod extenfive geniufes 
 which the prefent age can boaft of, is a German, 
 and now lives at Drefden; where, to the honour 
 of his country, and the emolument of the art, he 
 gets his livelihood by teaching young blockheads, 
 of the Saxon-race, the elements of drawing ; and by 
 etching after the Flemifh painters. N. of Tranfl. 
 
 K 4 IN-
 
 INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 CONNOISSEUR.
 
 f Hi ] 
 INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 CONNOISSEUR. 
 
 11 Non, fi quid turbida Roma 
 Elevet, accedas : examenve improbum in ilia 
 Cafliges trutina : nee te quafiveris extra. 
 Nam Roma efi Quis non ? 
 
 XT O U call yourfelf a ConnoiJJeur, and the 
 firft thing you gaze at, in confidering 
 works of art, is the workmanfhip, the de- 
 licacy of the pencilling, or the polifh given 
 by the chiffel. It was the idea how- 
 ever, its grandeur or meannefs, its dig- 
 nity, fitnefs, or unfitnefs, that ought firfl: 
 to have been examined : for induftry and 
 talents are independent of each other. A 
 piece of painting or fculpture cannot, mere- 
 ly on account of its having been laboured, 
 4 claim
 
 252 InflruBiom for 'the Connoifeur. 
 
 claim more merit than a book of the fame 
 fort. To work curioufly, and with unne- 
 ceflary refinements, is as little the mark of 
 a great artift, as to write learnedly is that 
 of a great author. An image anxioufly 
 finished, in every minute trifle, may be fitly 
 compared to a treatife crammed with quo- 
 tations of books, that perhaps were never 
 read. Remember this, and you will not 
 be amazed at the laurel leaves of Bernini's 
 Apollo and Daphne, nor at the net held 
 by Adams s ftatue of water at Potzdam : you 
 will only be convinced that workmanfhip is 
 not the ftandard which diftinguifhes the an- 
 tique from the modern. 
 
 Be attentive to difcover whether an artift 
 had ideas of his own, or only copied thofe 
 of others ; whether he knew the chief aim 
 of all art, Beauty, or blundered through the 
 dirt of vulgar forms ; whether he performed 
 like a man, or played only like a child. 
 
 Books
 
 InfiruBiom for the Connoijfeur. 253 
 
 Books may be written, and works of art 
 executed, at a very fmall expence of ideas. 
 A painter may mechanically paint a Ma- 
 donna, and pleafe j and a profeflbr, in the 
 fame manner, may write Metaphyfics to the 
 admiration of a thoufand ftudents. But 
 would you know whether an artift deferves 
 his name, let him invent, let him do the fame 
 thing repeatedly : for as one feature, may 
 modify a mien, fo, by changing the atti- 
 tude of one limb, the artift may give a new 
 hint towards a charadleriftic diftin&ion of two 
 figures, in other refpe&s exactly the fame, 
 and prove himfelf a man. Plato, in Ra- 
 phael's Athenian fchool, but flightly moves 
 his finger : yet he means enough, and infi- 
 nitely more than all Zucchari's meteors. 
 For as it requires more ability to fay much 
 in a few words, than to do the contrary ; and 
 as good fenfe delights rather in things than 
 (hews, it follows, that one fingle figure may 
 be the theatre of all an artift's fkill : though, 
 by all that is ftale and trivial ! the bulk of 
 
 painters,
 
 254 Inßruftions for the Connoiffeur. 
 painters would think it as tyrannical to be 
 fometimes confined to two or three figures, 
 in great only, as the ephemeral writers of 
 this age would grin at the propofal of be- 
 ginning the world with their own private 
 flock, all public hobby-horfes laid afide : 
 for fine cloaths make the beau. 'Tis hence 
 that moft young artifts, 
 
 Enfranchise from their tutors care y 
 
 choofe rather to make their entrance with 
 fome perplexed compofition, than with one 
 figure ftrongly fancied and mafterly execut- 
 ed. But let him, who, content to pleafe 
 the few, wants not to earn either bread or 
 applaufe from a gaping mob, let him re- 
 member that the management of a " little* 9 
 more or lefs really diftinguifhes artift from 
 artifts that the truly fenfible produces a 
 multiplicity, as well as quicknefs and delicacy 
 of feelings, whilft the dafhing quack tickles 
 only feeble fenfes and callous organs ; that 
 he may confequently be great in fingle 
 
 figures,
 
 InflruBiom for the Connoißur, 255 
 figures, in the fmalleft compofitions, and 
 new and various in repeating things the moft 
 trite. Here I (peak out of the mouth of 
 the ancients : this their works teach : and 
 both our writers and painters would come 
 nearer them, did not the one bufy them* 
 felves with their words only, the other with 
 their proportions. 
 
 In the face of Apollo pride exerts itfelf 
 chiefly in the chin and nether lip; anger 
 in the noftrils ; and contempt in the open- 
 ing mouth -, the graces inhabit the reft of 
 his divine head, and unruffled beauty, like 
 the fun, ftreams athwart the paffions. In 
 Laocoon you fee bodily pains, and indigna- 
 tion at undeferved fufferings, twift the nofe, 
 and paternal fympathy dim the eye-balls. 
 Strokes like thefe are, as in Homer, a whole 
 idea in one word ; he only finds them who 
 is able to underftand them. Take it for 
 certain, that the ancients aimed at expref- 
 fing much in little, 
 
 Their
 
 Z$(> hßruftions for the Connoijjeur. 
 
 ' ^Tloeir ore was rich, and /even times purg'J 
 of lead: 
 
 whereas moft moderns, like tradefmen in 
 diftrefs, hang out all their wares at once. 
 Homer, by raifing all the gods from their 
 feats, on Apollo's appearing amongft them *, 
 gives a fublimer idea than all the learning of 
 Callimachus could furnifli. If ever a pre- 
 judice may be of ufe, 'tis here ; hope largely 
 from the ancient works in approaching them, 
 nor fear dilappointments ; but examine, pe- 
 rufe, with cool fedatenefs and filenced paf- 
 fions, left your difturbed brain find Xeno- 
 phon flat and Niobe infipid. 
 
 To original ideas, we oppofe copied, not 
 imitated ones. Copying we call the flavifh 
 crawling of the hand and eyes, after a cer- 
 tain model : whereas reafonable imitation 
 Juft takes the hint, in order to work by it- 
 felf. Domenichino, the painter of Tender- 
 nefs, imitated the heads of the pretended 
 
 a Hymn, in Apoll. 
 
 Alex-
 
 Itiflr nations for the Connnoijfcur. 257 
 
 Alexander at Florence, and of the Niobe at 
 Rome 5 ; but altered them like a mafter. 
 On gems and coins you may find many a 
 figure of Poußirfs : his Salomon is the Ma- 
 cedonian Jupiter : but whatever his imita- 
 tion produced, differs from the firft idea, as 
 the bloffoms of a tranfplanted tree differ 
 from thofe that fprung in its native foil. 
 
 Another method of copying is, to com- 
 pile a Madonna from Maratta ; a S. Jofeph 
 from Barocci ; other figures from other mat- 
 ters, and lump them together in order to 
 make a whole. Many fuch altar-pieces 
 you may find, even at Rome ; and fuch a 
 painter was the late celebrated Mafucci of 
 
 that city. Copying I call, moreover, the 
 
 following a certain form, without the leaft 
 confcioufnefs of one's being a blockhead- 
 Such was he who, by the command of 
 a certain Prince, painted the nuptials of 
 
 b Alexander, in his S. John, in St. Andrea della 
 Voile at Rome; Niobe, in a piclure belonging to the 
 Teßro di S, German?^ at Naples. 
 
 S Pfyche,
 
 258 Inf ructions for the Conmiffeuf. 
 
 Pfyche,or,if you will, the Queen of Sheba: — 
 'twas a pity there was no other Pfyche to be 
 found, but that dangerous one of 'Raphael. 
 Moft of the late great ftatues of the faints, 
 in St. Peter's at Rome, are of the fame fluff 
 —-the block at 500 Roman crowns from 
 the quarry. 
 
 The fecond characteriftic of works of art 
 is Beauty. The higheft object of medita- 
 tion for man is man, and for the artifl 
 there is none above his own frame. 'Tis by 
 moving your fenfes that he reaches your 
 foul : and hence the analyfis of the bodily 
 fyftem has no lefs difficulties for him, than 
 that of the human mind for the philofo- 
 pher. I do not mean the anatomy of the 
 mufcles, veffels, bones, and their different 
 forms and fituations -, nor the relative mea- 
 fure of the whole to its parts, and vice 
 verfa : for the knife, exercife, and patience, 
 may teach ycu all thefe. I mean the ana- 
 lyfis of an attribute, effential to man, but 
 fluctuating with his frame, allowed by all, 
 
 mif-
 
 Inßrucliom for the Connoijjhir. 259! 
 
 mifconftrued by many, known by few :-^ 
 the analyfis of beauty, which no definition 
 can explain, to him whom heaven hath de- 
 nied a foul for it. Beauty confifts in the 
 harmony of the various parts of an indi- 
 vidual* This is the philofopher's ft-one, 
 which all artifts mud fearch for, though a 
 a few only find it: 'tis nonfenfe to him, 
 who could not have formed the idea out 
 of him (elf. The line which beauty defcribes 
 is elliptical, both uniform and various : 'tis not 
 to be defcribed by a circle, and from every 
 point changes its direction. All this is eafily 
 faid; but to apply it — • — there is the rab a 
 'Tis not in the power of Algebra to determine 
 which line, more or lefs elliptic, forms the 
 divers parts of the fyftcm into beauty—but 
 the ancients knew it;- I atteft their works* 
 from the gods down to their vafes. The hu- 
 man form allows of no circle, nor has any 
 antique vafe its profile femicircular. 
 
 After this, mould any one defire me to 
 äffift him more fenfibly iri his inquiries 
 
 K 2 concern-
 
 26o InßruSiions for the Connoißnr. 
 
 concerning beauty, by fetting down fome 
 rules (a hard tafk), I would take them from 
 the antique models, and in want of thefe, 
 from the mod beautiful people I could meet 
 with at the place where I lived. But to in- 
 ilrucl, I would do it in the negative way ; 
 of which I fhall give fome inftances, con- 
 fining myfelf however to the face. 
 
 The form of real beauty has no abrupt 
 or broken parts. The ancients made this 
 principle the bafis of their youthful pro- 
 file ; which is neither linear nor whimfical, 
 though feldom to be met with in nature : 
 the growth, at leaft, of climates more in- 
 dulgent than ours. It confifts in the foft 
 coalefcence of the brow with the nofe. 
 This uniting line fo indifpeniibly accompa- 
 nies beauty, that a perfon wanting it may 
 appear handfome full-faced; but mean, nay 
 . even ugly, when taken in profile. Bernini^ 
 that deflroyer of art, defpifed this line, 
 when legiflatcr of tafle, as not finding it 
 I in
 
 Inßru&iom for the Connoijfeur . 261 
 
 in common nature, his only model -, and 
 therein was followed by all his fchool. 
 From this fame principle it neceffarily fol- 
 lows, that neither chin nor cheeks, deep- 
 marked with dimples, can be confiftent with 
 true beauty. Hence the face of the Medi- 
 cean Venus is to be degraded from the firft 
 rank. Her face, I dare fay, was taken 
 from fome celebrated fair one, contempo- 
 rary with the artift. Two other Venufes, 
 in the garden behind the Farnefe, are ma- 
 nifeftly portraits. 
 
 The form of real beauty has neither the 
 projected parts obtufe, nor the vaulted ones 
 fharp. The eye-bone is magnificently rout- 
 ed, the chin thoroughly vaulted. Thus 
 the beft ancients drew : though, when tafle 
 declined amongft them, and the arts were 
 trampled on in modern times, thefe parts 
 changed too: then the eve-bone became 
 roundifli and obtufely dull, and the chin 
 mincingly pretty. Hence we may fafely 
 affirm* that what they call Antinous, in the 
 
 S 3 Belve-
 
 262 Inßriicliom for the Cmmifjhur. 
 
 Belvedere, whofc eye-bone is rather obtufe, 
 cannot be a work of the higheft antiquity, 
 any more than the Venus. 
 
 As thefe remarks are general, they like^ 
 wife concern the features of the face, the 
 form only. There is another charm, that 
 gives expreflion and life to forms, which 
 we call Grace ; and we fhall give fome loofe 
 reflexions on it feparately, leaving it to 
 others to give us fyftems. 
 
 The figure of a man is as fufceptible of 
 beauty as that of a youth : but as a va^- 
 rious one, not the various alone, is the 
 Gordian knot, it follows, that a youthful 
 figure, drawn at large, and in the higheft 
 poflible degree of beauty, is, of all pro- 
 blems that can be propofed to the defigner, 
 the moil: difficult. Every one may convince 
 himfelf of this : take the moft beautiful 
 face in modern painting, and it will go 
 hard, but you fhall know a ftill more 
 beautiful one in nature. — -I fpeak thus, af«? 
 
 m
 
 I?ißru6tiom for the Connoijfeur. 263 
 
 ter having confidered the treafures of Rome 
 and Florence. 
 
 If ever an artift was endowed with beau- 
 ty, and deep innate feelings for it ; if ever 
 one was verfed in the tafle and fpirit of the 
 ancients, 'twas certainly Raphael: yet are 
 his beauties inferior to the moil beautiful 
 nature. I know perfons more beautiful than 
 his unequalled Madonna, in the Palazzo 
 Petti at Florence, or the Alcibiades in his 
 academy. The Madonna in the Chriftmas- 
 night of Cor regio, (a piece juftly celebrated 
 for its chiar'-ofcuro) is no fublime idea ; 
 ftill lefs fo is that of Maratta at Drefden. 
 Titian s celebrated V r enus c in the Tribuna 
 
 c So are the goddcfTes of the Theopaegnia at Blen- 
 heim, in Oxfordfhire ; and hence it is clear, that 
 another Venus, analogous to that in the Tribuna, 
 among the pictures of a gentleman in London, can- 
 not be the production of that genius-in-flefh only. 
 This daughter of the Idalian graces feems to thrill 
 with inward pleafijre, and to recollect a night of 
 blifs 
 
 There is language in her eye, her check, her lip: 
 
 Nay, her foot fpeaks . 
 
 Shakespear, 
 
 S 4 at
 
 264 Inßruäions for the Connoijfeur. 
 
 at Florence is common nature. The little 
 heads of AWano have an air of beauty - y but 
 it is a different thing to exprefs beauty in 
 little, and in great. To have the theory of 
 navigation, a.nd to guide a fhip through the 
 ocean, are two things. Fonßn^ who had 
 fludied antiquity more than his predeceffors, 
 knew perfectly well what his fhoulders 
 could bear, and never ventured into the 
 great. 
 
 The Greeks alone feem to have thrown 
 forth beauty, as a potter makes his pot. 
 The heads on all the coins of their Free- 
 ftates have forms above nature, which they 
 owe to the line that forms their profile. 
 Would it not be eafy to hit that line ? Yet 
 have all the numifmatic compilers deviated 
 from it. Might not Raphael^ who com- 
 plained of the fcarcity of beauty, might not 
 he have recurred to the coins of Syracufe, as 
 the bell: ftatues, Laocoon alone excepted, 
 were not yet difcovered ? 
 
 Far-
 
 InßruBions for the Connoijfeur. 265 
 
 Farther than thofe coins no mortal idea can 
 go. I wilh my reader an opportunity of 
 feeing the beautiful head of a genius in the 
 Villa Bcrghefe, and thofe images of un- 
 paralleled beauty, Niobe and her daughters. 
 On the wellern fide of the Alps he mull be 
 contented with gems and partes. Two of 
 the moll beautiful youthful heads are a Mi- 
 nerva of Afpafius, now at Vienna, and a 
 young Hercules in the Mufeum of the late 
 Baron Stofch, at Florence. 
 
 But let no man, who has not formed his 
 tafte upon antiquity, take it into his head 
 to act the connoiffeur of beauty : his ideas 
 mull be a parcel of whims. Of modern 
 beauties I know none that could vie with 
 the Greek female dancer of Mr. Mengs, 
 big as life, painted in Crayons on wood, for 
 the Marquis Croimare at Paris, or with his 
 Apollo amidft the mufes, in the Villa Al- 
 bano, to whom that of Guido in the Aurora, 
 compared, is but a mortal. 
 
 All
 
 266 Inßruftiom for the Connoiffeur. 
 
 All the modem copies of ancient gems 
 give us another proof of the decifive autho- 
 rity of beauty in criticifms on works of art. 
 Natter has dared to copy that head of Mi- 
 nerva mentioned above, in the fame fize and 
 fmaller, but fell fhort. The nofe is a hair 
 too big, the chin too flat, and the mouth 
 mean. And this is the cafe of modem 
 imitators in general. What can we hope 
 then of felf-fancied beauties ? Conclude not, 
 however, from this, againft the pofiibility 
 of a perfect imitation of antique heads : 
 'tis enough to fay, that it has not yet ex^ 
 ifted : 'twas probably the fault of the imi- 
 tators themfelves. Natter's treatife on an- 
 cient gems is rather (hallow ; and what he 
 wrought and wrote, even on that fingle 
 branch of engraving, for which he was 
 chiefly celebrated, has neither the itrength 
 nor the eafe of genius. 
 
 To this confcioufnefs of inferiority we owe 
 the fcarcity of modern fuppofititious gem.s 
 
 and
 
 Inflrufiiom for tbeConnmjJeur. 267 
 
 and coins. Any man of tafte may, upon 
 companion, diftinguifn even the beft mo 
 dern coin from the antique original. — I fpeak 
 of the bell antiques : for as to the lower 
 Imperial coins, where the cheat was eafier, 
 the artifts have been liberal enough. Pa- 
 doanos ftamps, for copying antique coins, 
 are in the Earberini Collection at Rome, and 
 thofe of one Michel, a Frenchman, and falfc 
 coiner in tafle, at Florence, in that of the 
 late Baron Stolen. 
 
 The third characteriftic of works of art Is 
 Execution r, or, the fketch being made, the 
 method of finishing. And even here we 
 commend good fenfe above induflrv. As 
 in judging of flyles, we diilinguiih the 
 good writer by the clearnefs, fluency, and 
 nervoufnefs of his di&ion -, fo in works of 
 art, we difcover the mailer by the manly 
 ftrength, freedom, and fteadinefs of his 
 hand. The auguft contour, and eafinefs 
 of mien, in the figures of Chriit, St. Peter, 
 gnd the other apoftles, on the right fide of 
 
 the
 
 268 hiß ructions for the Cotvioijfeur. 
 
 the Transfiguration, fpeak the claffic hand 
 of Raphael, as ftrongly as the fmooth, anxi- 
 ous nicety of fome of Julio Romanos figures, 
 on the left, the more wavering one of the 
 difciple. 
 
 Never admire either the marble's radiant 
 polifh, or the picture's gloffy furface_ For 
 that the journeyman fweated -, for this the 
 painter vegetated only. Bernini's Apollo 
 is as poliflied as HE in the Belvedere > and 
 there is much more labour hid in one of 
 Trevifams Madonnas, than in that of Corre- 
 gio. Whenever trufty arms and laborious 
 induftry prevail, we defy all the ancients. 
 We are not their inferiors even in managing 
 porphyry, though a mob of fcriblers, with 
 Clarencas in their rear-guard, deny it. 
 
 Nor (whatever Mqffei thinks d ,) did the 
 ancients know a peculiar method of giv- 
 ing a nicer poliih to the figures of their con- 
 cave gems (Intagli.) Our artifts polifli as 
 
 d Veron, illuftr. P. III. c. 7. p. 269. 
 
 nicely:
 
 hiflruEliom for the Connoijfeur. 269 
 
 nicely: but flatues and gems may be de- 
 teftable, for all their polifh, as a face may be 
 ugly, with the fofteft fkin. 
 
 This however is not meant to blame a 
 ftatue for its polifh, as it is conducive to 
 beauty: though Laocoon informs us, that 
 the ancients knew the fecret of finifhing 
 ftatues, merely with the chiffel. Nor does 
 the cleannefs of the pencil, on a picture, 
 want its merit: yet it ought to be diftin- 
 guifhed from enamelled tints. A barked 
 ftatue, and a briftly picture are alike abfurd. 
 Sketch with fire, and execute with phlegm. 
 We blame workmanfhip only as it claims 
 the firft rank ; as in the marbles a la Ber- 
 nini, and the linn en of Scybold and Den- 
 ner. 
 
 Friend, thefe infiru&ions may be of ufe. 
 For as the bulk of mankind amufe them- 
 felves with the (hells of things only, your 
 eye may be captivated by polifh and glare, 
 as they are the mod obvious ; to put you 
 on your guard againfl which, is leading you 
 
 the
 
 zyo hißrutiiom for the Connoijjeur. 
 
 the firft ftep to true knowledge. For daily 
 obfervation, during feveral years, in Italy, has 
 taught me how lamentably moft young tra- 
 vellers are duped by a fet of blind leaders. 
 To fee them fkip about in the the tempi* 
 of art and genius, all quite fober and coolj 
 puts me in mind of a fwarm of new-fledged 
 grafhoppers wantoning in the fpring» 
 
 O N
 
 O N 
 
 GRACE.
 
 [ 273 ] 
 ON 
 
 GRACE. 
 
 f"^ RACE is the harmony of agent and 
 aftion. It is a general idea: for what- 
 ever reafonably pleafes in things and adtions is 
 gracious. Grace is a gift of heaven ; though 
 not like beauty, which muft be born with 
 the pofleflbr : whereas nature gives only the 
 dawn, the capability of this. Education 
 and reflection form it by degrees, and cuftom 
 may give it the fandtion of nature. As wa- 
 ter, 
 
 That leaf of foreign principles partakes^ 
 Is befl: 
 
 So Grace is perfect when moft fimple, when 
 freeft from finery, conftraint, and afFefled 
 wit. Yet always to trace nature through 
 the vaft realms of pleafure, or through all 
 
 T the
 
 274 ® n Gmce e 
 
 the windings of characters, and circum- 
 ftances infinitely various, feems to require 
 too pure and candid. a tafte for this age, 
 cloyed with pleafure, in its judgments either 
 partial, local, capricious, or incompetent. 
 Then let it fuffice to fay, that Grace can 
 never live where the paffions rave; that 
 beauty and tranquillity of foul are the centre 
 of its powers. By this Cleopatra fubdued 
 Gcfar ; Anthony flighted O&avia and the 
 world for this; it breathes through every 
 line of Xenophon ; Thucydides, it feems, 
 difdained its charms ; to Grace Apelles and 
 Corregio owe immortality ; but Michael 
 Angdo was blind to it ; though all the re- 
 mains of ancient art, even thofe of but mid- 
 dling merit, might have fatisfied him, that 
 Grace alone places them above the reach of 
 modern fkilL 
 
 The criticifms on Grace in nature, and 
 on its imitation by art, feern to differ I for 
 many are not (hocked at thofe faults in the 
 latter, that certainly would incur their fflC- 
 
 pleafure
 
 On Grace. 275 
 
 pleafure in the former. This diverfity of 
 feelings lies either in imitation itfelf, which 
 perhaps affects the more the lefs it is akin to 
 the thing imitated ; or in the fenfes being 
 little exercifed, and in the want of attention, 
 and of clear ideas of the objeds in queftion. 
 But let us not from hence infer that Grace 
 is wholly fictitious : the human mind ad- 
 vances by degrees ; nor are youth, the pre- 
 judices of education, boiling paffions, and 
 their train of phantoms, the flandard of its 
 real delight— remove fome of thefe, and 
 it admires what it loathed, and fpurns what 
 it doted on. Myriads, you fay, the bulk of 
 mankind, have not even the leaft notion of 
 Grace — but what do they know of beauty, 
 tafte, generofity, or all the higher luxuries 
 of the foul ? Thefe flowers of the human 
 mind were not intended for univerfal growth, 
 though their feeds lie in every breaft. 
 
 Grace, in works of art, concerns tfic 
 human figure only 5 it modifies the atti- 
 tude and countenance, drcfs and drapery. And 
 
 T 2 here
 
 <zj*6 On Grace, 
 
 here I muft obferve, that the following re~ 
 marks do not extend to the comic part o* 
 art. 
 
 The attitude and geftures of antique 
 figures are fuch as thofe have, who, con- 
 icious of merit, claim attention as their due, 
 when appearing among men of fenfe. Their 
 motions always mew the motive; clear, pure 
 blood, and fettled fpirits; nor does it fig- 
 nify whether they ftand, fit, or lie -, the at- 
 titudes of Bacchanals only are violent, and 
 ought to be fo. 
 
 In quiet fituatlons, when one leg alone 
 fupports the other which is free, this re- 
 cedes only as far as nature requires for put- 
 ting the figure out of its perpendicular. Nay, 
 in the Fauni, the foot has been obferved to 
 have an inflected direction, as a token of fa- 
 vage, regardlefs nature. To the modern artifts 
 a quiet attitude feemed infipid and fpiritlefs, 
 and therefore tbey drag the leg at reft for- 
 wards, and, to make the attitude ideal, re- 
 move part of the body's weight from the 
 
 fup-
 
 On Grace. zjj 
 
 iupporting leg, wring the trunk oat of its 
 centre, and turn the head, like that of a 
 perfon fuddenly dazzled with lightning* 
 Thofe to whom this is not clear, may pleafe 
 to recollect fome ftage-knight, or a con- 
 ceited young Frenchman. Where room 
 allowed not of fuch an attitude, they, left 
 unhappily the leg that has nothing to do 
 might be unemployed, put fomething ele- 
 vated under its foot, as if it were like that 
 of a man who could not fpeak without 
 fetting his foot on a ftool, or ftand without 
 having a ftone purpofely put under it. The 
 ancients took fuch care of appearances, that 
 you will hardly find a figure with crofled 
 legs, if not a Bacchus, Paris, or Nireus • 
 and in thefe they mean to exprefs effeminate 
 indolence. 
 
 In the countenances of antique figures, 
 joy burfts not into laughter; 'tis only the 
 reprefentation of inward pleafure. Through 
 the face qf a Bacchanal peeps only the dawn 
 of luxury. In forrow and anguifh they rc- 
 
 T 3 fenVole
 
 278 On Grace. 
 
 femble the fea, whofe bottom is calm, 
 whilft the furface raves. Even in the ut- 
 moft pangs of nature, Niobe continues ftill 
 the heroine, who difdained yielding to La- 
 tona. The ancients feem to have taken ad- 
 vantage of that fituation of the foul, in 
 which, ftruck dumb by an immenfity of 
 pains, (he borders upon infenfibility ; to ex- 
 prefs as it were, characters, independent of 
 particular actions • and to avoid fcenes too 
 terrifying, too paffionate, fometimes to paint 
 the dignity of minds fubduing grief. 
 
 Thofe of the moderns, that either were 
 ignorant of antiquity, or neglefled to en- 
 quire into Grace in nature, have exprefled, 
 not only what nature feels, but likewife 
 what (lie feels not. A Venus at Potzdam, 
 by Pigal\ is reprefented in a fentiment 
 
 which 
 
 a <c Et toi, rival des Praxiteles & des Phidias ; toi 
 «' dont les anciens auroient employe Je eifeau a leur 
 «< faire des dieux capables d'excufer a nos yeux leur 
 * c Idolatrie ; inimitable Pigal, ta main fe refoudra a 
 " vendre des magots, ou il faudra qu'elle demeure 
 
 « oiiive."
 
 On Grace. 279 
 
 which forces the liquor to flow out at both 
 fides of her mouth, feemingly gafping for 
 breath ; for flie was intended to pant with 
 luft: yet, by all that's defperate! was this 
 very Pigal feveral years entertained at Rome 
 to ftudy the antique. A Carita of Bernini y 
 on one of the papal monuments in St. Pe- 
 ter's, ought, you'll think, to look upon her 
 children with benevolence and maternal 
 fondnefs \ but her face is all a contradiction 
 to this : for the artift, inftead of real graces, 
 applied to her his noftrum, dimples, by 
 which her fondnefs becomes a perfect fneer. 
 As for the expreffion of modern forrow, 
 every one knows it, who has feen cuts, hair 
 torn, garments rent, quite the reverfe of the 
 antique, which, like Hamlet's, 
 
 . • hath that wiihin r which paffeth fhew : 
 
 *lhefi\ but the trappings , and the Jin ts of' woe. 
 
 " oifive." J. J. RoufTeau Difc. fi 3e Retabl. 
 d. A. S. &c. 
 
 This, my dear countryman ! is the only pafTage of 
 thine, where pofterity will find the orator forgot the 
 philofopher. N. of Tr. 
 
 T 4 The
 
 28 o On Grace. 
 
 The geftures of the hands of antique figures, 
 and their attitudes in general, are thofe of 
 people that think themfelves alone and un- 
 obferved : and though the hands of but very 
 few ftatues have efcaped deftrudion, yet may 
 you, from the dire&ion of the arm, guefs 
 at the eafy and natural motion of the hand. 
 Some moderns, indeed, that have fupplied 
 ftatues with hands or fingers, have too often 
 given them their own favourite attitudes — 
 that of a Venus at her toilet, difplaying to 
 her levee the graces of a hand, 
 
 ■ far lovelier when beheld. 
 
 The a£tion of modern hands is commonly 
 like the gesticulation of a young preacher, 
 piping-hot from the college. Holds a figure 
 her cloths ? You would think them cob- 
 web. Nemefis, who, on antique gems, 
 lifts her peplum foftly from her bofom, 
 would be thought too griping for any new 
 performance — how can you be fo unpolite 
 to think any thing may be held, without 
 
 the
 
 On Grace. 281 
 
 the three laft fingers genteely ftretched 
 forth ? 
 
 Grace, in the accidental parts of antiques, 
 confifts, like that of the eflential ones, in 
 what becomes nature. The drapery of the 
 moft ancient works is eafy and flight : hence 
 it was natural to give the folds beneath the 
 girdle an almoft perpendicular direction.— 
 Variety indeed was fought, in proportion 
 to the increafe of art ; but drapery ftill re- 
 mained a thin floating texture, with folds 
 gathered up, not lumped together, or 
 indifcreetly fcattered. That thefe were the 
 chief principles of ancient drapery, you 
 may coavince yourfelf from the beautiful 
 Flora in the Campidoglio, a work of Ha- 
 drian's times. Bacchanals and dancing fi- 
 gures had, indeed, even if ftatues, more 
 waving garments, fuch as played upon the 
 air ; fuch a one is in the Palazzo Riccardi at 
 Florence; but even then the artifts did not 
 neglect appearances, nor exceed the nature 
 of the materials. Gods and heroes are re- 
 
 pre-
 
 282 On Grace. 
 
 preferred as the inhabitants of facred places* 
 the dwellings of filent awe, not like a fport 
 for the winds, or as wafting the colours : 
 floating, airy garments are chiefly to be met 
 with on gems — where Atalanta flies 
 
 As meditation fwift, fwift as the thoughts 
 of love. 
 
 Grace extends to garments, as fuch were given 
 to the Graces by the ancients. How would 
 you wifh to fee the Graces drefled ? Certainly 
 not in birth-day robes 5 but rather like a 
 beauty you loved, ftill warm from the bed, 
 in an eafy negligee. 
 
 The moderns, fince the epoch of Raphael 
 and his fchool, feem to have forgot that 
 drapery participates of Grace, by their giving 
 the preference to heavy garments, which 
 might not improperly be called the wrap- 
 pers of ignorance in beauty : for a thick 
 large-folded drapery may fpare the artifts the 
 pains of tracing the Contour under it, as 
 the ancients did. Some of the modern 
 
 figures
 
 On Grace. 283 
 
 figures feem to be made only for lading. 
 Bernini and Peter of Cortona introduced 
 this drapery. For ourfelves, we choofe light 
 eafy dreffes 5 why do we grudge our figures 
 the fame advantage ? 
 
 He that would give a Hiftory of Grace, 
 after the revolution of the arts, would per- 
 haps find himfelf almoft, reduced to nega- 
 tives, efpecially in fculpture. 
 
 In fculpture, the imitation of one great 
 man, of Michael Angeh, has debauched the 
 artifts from Grace. He, who valued him- 
 felf upon his being " a pure intelligence" 
 defpifed all that could pleafe humanity ; his 
 exalted learning difdained to Hoop to tender 
 feelings and lovely grace. 
 
 There are poems of his published, and 
 in manufcript, that abound in meditations 
 on fublime beauty : but you look in vain 
 for it in his works. — Beauty, even the beau- 
 ty of a God, wants Grace, and Mofes, 
 without it, from awful as he was, becomes 
 only terrible. Immoderately fond of all that 
 
 was
 
 284 ® n Grace, 
 
 was extraordinary and difficult, he fooi> 
 broke through the bounds of antiquity, 
 grace, and nature; and as he panted for 
 occafions of difplaying fkill only, he grew 
 extravagant. His lying ftatues, on the 
 ducal tombs of St, Lorenzo at Florence, 
 have attitudes, which life, undiftorted, can- 
 not imitate : fo carelefs was he, provided 
 he might dazzle you with his mazy learn- 
 ing, of that decency, which nature and 
 the place required, that to him we might 
 apply, what a poet fays of St. Lewis in 
 hell: 
 
 Laißznt le vray pour prendre la grimace^ 
 
 U fut toujours au de la de la Grace \ 
 
 Et bien plus loin que les comniandemenis. 
 
 He was blindly imitated by his difciples, 
 and in them the want of Grace fhocks 
 you flill more : for as they were far his 
 inferiors in fcience, you have no equiva- 
 lent at all. How little Guiliclmo delta 
 
 Porta,
 
 On Grace, 285 
 
 Perfa, the beft of them all, underftood 
 grace and the antique, you may fee in that 
 marble groupe, called the Farnefe-bull ; 
 •where Dirce is his to the girdle. John di 
 Bologna, Algardi, Fiammingo> are great 
 names, but likewife inferior to the ancients, 
 in Grace. 
 
 At I aft Lorenzo Bernini appeared, a man 
 of fpirit and fuperior talents, but whom 
 Grace had never vifited even in dreams. 
 He aimed at encyclopaedy in art; painter, 
 architect, ftatuary, he ftruggled, chiefly as 
 inch, to become original. In his eighteenth 
 year he produced his Apollo and Daphne ; 
 a work miraculous for thofe years, and pro- 
 mifing that fculpture by him fhould attain 
 perfection« Soon after he made his Da- 
 vid, which fell fliort of Apollo. Proud of 
 general applaufe, and feniible of his im- 
 potency, either to equal or to ofFufcate the 
 antiques; he feems, encouraged by the 
 daftardly tafte of that age, to have formed 
 
 the
 
 286 On Grace. 
 
 the projecl of becoming a legiflator in art, 
 for all enfuing ages, and he carried his 
 point. From that time the Graces entirely 
 forfook him : how could they abide with 
 a man who begun his career from the 
 end oppofite to the ancients ? His forms 
 he compiled from common nature, and 
 his ideas from the inhabitants of climates 
 unknown to him ; for in Italy's happieft 
 parts nature differs from his figures. He 
 was worshipped as the genius of art, and 
 univerfally imitated ; for, in our days, fta- 
 tues being erected to piety only, none to 
 wifdom, a ftatue a la Bernini is likelier 
 to make the kitchen profper than a Lao- 
 coon. 
 
 From Italy, reader, I leave you to 
 guefs at other countries. A celebrated 
 Pugety Girardofiy with all his brethren in 
 On, are worfe. Judge of the connoifleurs 
 of France by Watelet> and of its defigners, 
 by Mariettas gems. 
 
 At
 
 On Grace. 287 
 
 At Athens the Graces flood eaftward, 
 in a facred place. Our artifts fhould place 
 them over their work-houfes ; wear them 
 in their rings; feal with them; facrificc 
 to them ; and, court their fovereign charms 
 to their lafl: breath* 
 
 THE END.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Tagt 20. Line 13» for comma after fays, place femi-colon. 
 
 P. 61. L. 7. for Morte read Mortd. 
 
 P. 83. Note, for Bernoue read Bernoull. 
 
 P. 94. L. 3. after Nature add a colon — after flat add it. 
 
 P. 105. L. 10. dele Lucian, Ep. I. 
 
 P. 166. Notef. infleadof'O&.T. v. 230. read^. V. 163, 
 
 P. 181. L. 1 $. for on read in. 
 
 P. 189. L. 20. for or read on. 
 
 P. 197. Note d. for adv. read ad v. 
 
 P. 227. L. 12. for the raz</ her. 
 
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