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DIALOGUE VI.

of the CLEAR OBSCURE.

A. [0] AM perfuaded, that notwithstanding all the pains you have taken, to form a juft idea of the Clear obfcure, from the writings of Vafari, Felibian, and the reft, you will agree with me, that you have more fatisfaction in this matter, from a fingle glance at a picture of Correggio, than from all you have ever read on that fubject. Whether this proceeds from a want of knowledge in those writers, or our ignorance of the mechanic of the art, which they are fo apt to confound with the ideal,

[o] Tandem fefe ars ipfa diftinxit, et invenit lumen atque umbras, differentiâ colorum alterna vice fefe excitante. Plin. lib. xxxv. c. 5.

I fhall

I fhall not take upon me to determine: But, certain it is, had we not before our eyes the examples to which they refer us, we should be often at a lofs for their meaning. Now, in treating of the Clear obfcure of the ancients, we have neither the works [p] nor writings of their painters to guide us. Happily, their claffic authors, men of parts and erudition, were univerfally admirers of this art. Hence their frequent allufions to it; their metaphors borrowed from it; with the defcriptions of particular paintings, and their effects. In these last we cannot be deceived; like effects, in picture, as in nature, muft proceed from uniform caufes: And when

[] I do not mention in this place the paintings found at Herculaneum, becaufe I cannot look on them as of a clafs to reft on them the merits of the ancient artifts. There are beauties, it is true, fcattered through. out them; but, they are the beauties morientis artis, of an art in its decline; fuch as Pliny defcribes it to have been in his time; when, as he feelingly laments, there was nulla nobilis pi&ura.

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we find these to correfpond exactly with our own obfervations on the works of the moderns, this analogy leads us into a certainty, as to the fimilitude of the means by which they were produced.

B. SUCH inferences as thefe, when they are natural and unforced, are more conclufive than pofitive affertions; for we are more apt to be deceived by authority, than by the reason of things.

A. [9]" LONGINUS obferves, that, if we " place in parallel lines, on the fame plane, "a bright and an obfcure colour, the for"mer fprings forward, and appears much "nearer to the eye." Hence we may remark, that when painters would give a pro

[2] Επι του αυλου κειμένων επιπέδου παράλληλων εν χρόνο μασι της σκιάς τε και φίλος, όμως προυβανία τε το φως τάις εψεσι, και ου μόνον έξοχον, αλλά και εγγύτερω παρα πολύ Parrilar. Longinus, fect. xviii.

jection

jection to any part of a figure, as the breafts of a virgin, and the like, they throw its extremities into fhade; that these retiring from the eye, the intermediate parts may have their just relief. From this fimple law of nature, fprings all the magic of the Clear obscure; not only parts are diftinguished, but intire figures are detached from their fond; feem furrounded by air; and meet the imagination with all the energy of life. Thus Philoftratus prettily defcribes the picture of a Venus: "[r] The "goddess will not seem to be painted, but "springs from the canvafs, as if she would "be pursued." The fame writer tells us, that Zeuxis, Polygnotus, and Euphranor, were, above all things, [s] attentive, to fhade happily, and animate their figures;

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[+] Ου βουλεται γι γραφθαι δοκειν η θεός, εκκείται δε οία λαβέθαι. De pictura Veneris, lib. ii. p. 810.

[3] Το ευσκιον ησπασανο, και ευπνουν, και το εισέχον τε και εξέχον. In vita Apollonii, lib. ii. p. 72.

by which he infinuates, that animation, or the foul of painting, owes its being to a just conduct of lights and fhades: And hence it was, no doubt, that the paintings

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of Parrhafius were termed realities; they being poffeffed of fuch a force of Clear obfcure, as to be no longer the imitations of, things, but the things themselves: Agreeable to this, is the observation of an ancient writer," That in painting, [] the contour

of the illumined part, fhould be blended "with and loft in the fhade; for on this, joined to the advantage of colouring, de

pend animation, tenderness, and the fimilitude to truth."

Αψεύδεις.

[1] Δει ταν σκιαν και ταν γραμμαν παρεμφαίνεσθαι επι της γραφεις. Το γας εμψυχον και το άπαλον, και το μεμιμη μενον την αληθείαν, συν τη χρησιοτηλι των χρωμαίων, μας λιστα γινεται δια τούτων. Theages Pythagoricus apud Stobæum.

B. OVID