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' equal in the strength, proportion, and knitting ' of his limbs, to the Hercules of Farnese, made by Glycon; or any woman, who can justly be compared with the Medicean Venus of Cleo6 menes. And And upon this account, the noblest poets and the best orators, when they desired to celebrate any extraordinary beauty, are forced ' to have recourse to statues and pictures, and to draw their persons and faces into comparison. < Ovid endeavouring to express the beauty of Cyllarus, the fairest of the Centaurs, celebrates ' him as next in perfection to the most admirable 'statues :

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Gratus in ore vigor, cervix, humerique, manusque,
Pectoraque artificum laudatis proxima signis.

A pleasing vigour his fair face express'd;

His neck, his hands, his shoulders, and his breast,
Did next, in gracefulness and beauty, stand
To breathing figures of the sculptor's hand.

In another place he sets Apelles above Venus:
Si Venerem Cous nunquam pinxisset Apelles,

Mersa sub æquoreis illa lateret aquis.

Thus varied:

One birth to seas the Cyprian goddess ow'd,
A second birth the painter's art bestow'd:
Less by the seas than by his power was given;
They made her live, but he advanc'd to heaven.

The idea of this beauty is indeed various, * according to the several forms which the painter or sculptor would describe; as one in strength, < another in magnanimity: and sometimes it con

sists in cheerfulness, and sometimes in delicacy; ⚫ and is always diversified by the sex and age.

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The beauty of Jove is one, and that of Juno another: Hercules and Cupid are perfect beau'ties, though of different kinds; for beauty is only that which makes all things as they are in 'their proper and perfect nature, which the best painters always choose by contemplating the ⚫ forms of each. We ought farther to consider, 'that a picture being the representation of a hu'man action, the painter ought to retain in his 'mind the examples of all affections and passions, ' as a poet preserves the idea of an angry man, of one who is fearful, sad, or merry, and so of all the rest; for it is impossible to express that ' with the hand, which never entered into the imagination. In this manner, as I have rudely < and briefly shewn you, painters and sculptors, choosing the most elegant natural beauties, per'fectionate the idea, and advance their art, even

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above nature itself in her individual productions; which is the utmost mastery of human performance.

From hence arises that astonishment, and almost adoration, which is paid by the knowing to ' those divine remainders of antiquity. From • hence Phydias, Lysippus, and other noble sculp

tors, are still held in veneration; and Apelles, 'Zeuxis, Protogenes, and other admirable painters, though their works are perished, are and will be eternally admired; who all of them drew after

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the ideas of perfection, which are the miracles of nature, the providence of the understanding, the exemplars of the mind, the light of the fancy; the sun which, from its rising, inspired the statue "of Memnon, and the fire which warmed into life the image of Prometheus. It is this, which causes the Graces and the Loves to take up their habitations in the hardest marble, and to subsist in the emptiness of light and shadows. But since the idea of eloquence is as far inferior to that of painting, as the force of words is to the sight, I must here break off abruptly, and having conducted the reader, as it were, to a secret walk, there leave him in the midst of silence to contemplate those ideas which I have only sketched, and which every man must finish for ' himself.'

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In these pompous expressions, or such as these, the Italian has given you his Idea of a Painter; and though I cannot much commend the style, I must needs say, there is somewhat in the matter. Plato himself is accustomed to write loftily, imitating, as the criticks tell us, the manner of Homer; but surely that inimitable poet had not so much of smoke in his writing, though not less of fire. But in short, this is the present genius of Italy. What Philostratus tells us in the proem of his FIGURES,' is somewhat plainer; and therefore I

3 The EIKONEZ of Flavius Philostratus, who flourished in the beginning of the third century, was first printed by Aldus in 1502.

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will translate it almost word for word: 'He who will rightly govern the art of painting, ought of necessity first to understand human nature. He ought likewise to be endued with a genius to express the signs of their passions, whom he represents; and to make the dumb as it were to speak. He must yet further understand what is ⚫ contained in the constitution of the cheeks, in 'the temperament of the eyes, in the naturalness ' (if I may so call it) of the eyebrows; and in short, whatsoever belongs to the mind and thought. He who thoroughly possesses all these things, will obtain the whole; and the hand will exquisitely represent the action of every parti'cular person. If it happen that he be either 'mad or angry, melancholick or cheerful, a sprightly youth or a languishing lover; in one word, he will be able to paint whatsoever is proportionable to any one. And even in all this there is a sweet errour, without causing any shame; for the eyes and minds of the beholders being fastened on objects which have no real being, as if they were truly existent, and being induced by them to believe them so, what plea

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sure is it not capable of giving? The ancients, • and other wise men, have written many things 'concerning the symmetry which is in the art of 'painting,-constituting, as it were, some certain laws for the proportion of every member; not thinking it possible for a painter to undertake the expression of those motions which are in the

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mind, without a concurrent harmony in the 'natural measure: for that which is out of its own

kind and measure, is not received from nature, 'whose motion is always right. On a serious ⚫ consideration of this matter it will be found, that the art of painting has a wonderful affinity with that of poetry; and that there is betwixt them a ⚫ certain common imagination. For as the poets introduce the gods and heroes, and all those things which are either majestical, honest, or ' delightful, in like manner the painters, by the 'virtue of their outlines, colours, lights, and shadows, represent the same things and persons in their pictures.'

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Thus, as convoy-ships either accompany or should accompany their merchants,* till they may prosecute the rest of their voyage without danger, so Philostratus has brought me thus far on my way, and I can now sail on without him. He has begun to speak of the great relation betwixt painting and poetry, and thither the greatest part of this discourse, by my promise, was directed. I have not engaged myself to any perfect method, neither am I loaded with a full cargo; it is sufficient if I bring a sample of some goods in this voyage. It will be easy for others to add more, when the commerce is settled; for a Treatise twice as large as this of Painting, could not con

* Merchant, in old language, signified not only a trader, but also a merchant-man, or ship of trade; and so Shakspeare has used the word in THE TEMPEST, Act II. sc. i.

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