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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36766	De arte graphica The art of painting / by C.A. Du Fresnoy ; with remarks ; translated into English, together with an original preface containing a parallel betwixt painting and poetry, by Mr. Dryden ; as also A short account of the most eminent painters, both ancient and modern, continu'd down to the present times, according to the order of their succession, by another hand.; De arte graphica. English	Dufresnoy, Charles-Alphonse, 1611-1668.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Graham, Richard, fl. 1680-1720. Short account of the most eminent painters.	1695 (1695)	Wing D2458; ESTC R18532	173,861	426

the Sight and even of Animals which are not easily to be dispos'd By this rule we plainly see how necessary it is for a Painter to know how to model and to have many Models of soft Wax Paul Veronese had so good store of them with so great a quantity of different sorts that he would paint a whole historical Composition on a perspective Plan how great and how diversified soever it were Tintoret practis'd the same and Michael Angelo as Giovan. Bapt. Armenini relates made use of it for all the Figures of his day of Iudgment 'T is not that I would advise any one who would make any very considerable work to finish after these sorts of Models but they will be of vast use and advantage to see the Masses of great Lights and great Shadows and the effect of the whole together For what remains you are to have a Lay-man almost as big as the life for every Figure in particular besides the natural Figure before you on which you must also look and call it for a witness which must first confirm the thing to you and afterwards to the Spectators as it is in reality You may make use of these Models with delight if you set them on a Perspective Plan which will be in the manner of a Table made on purpose You may either raise or let it down according to your convenience and if you look on your Figures through a hole so contriv'd that it may be mov'd up and down it will serve you for a point of Sight and a point of Distance when you have once fix'd it The same hole will further serve you to set your Figures in the Ceiling and dispos'd upon a Grate of Iron-wire or supported in the Air by little Strings rais'd at discretion or by both ways together You may joyn to your Figures what you see fitting provided that the whole be proportion'd to them and in short what you your self may judge to be of no greater bigness than theirs Thus in whatsoever you do there will be more of truth seen your work it self will give you infinite delight and you will avoid many doubts and difficulties which often hinder you and chiefly for what relates to lineal perspective which you will there infallibly find provided that you remember to proportion all things to the greatness of your Figures and especially the points of Sight and of Distance but for what belongs to aerial perspective that not being found the judgment must supply it Tintoret as Ridolphi tells us in his life had made Chambers of Board and Past board proportion'd to his Models with Doors and Windows through which he distributed on his Figures artificial Lights as much as he thought reasonable and often pass'd some part of the night to consider and observe the effect of his Compositions His Models were of two Foot high We are to consider the places where we lay the Scene of the Picture c. This is what Monsieur de Chambray calls to do things according to Decorum See what he says of it in the Interpretation of that word in his Book of the Perfection of Painting 'T is not sufficient that in the Picture there be nothing found which is contrary to the place where the action which is represented passes but we ought besides to mark out the place and make it known to the Spectator by some particular Address that his mind may not be put to the pains of discovering it as whether it be Italy or Spain or Greece or France whether it be near the Sea shore or the Banks of some River whether it be the Rhine or the Loyre the Po or the Tyber and so of other things if they are essential to the History Nealces a man of Wit and an ingenious Painter as Pliny tells us being to paint a Naval Fight betwixt the Egyptians and the Persians and being willing to make it known that the Battle was given upon the Nile whose waters are of the same Colour with the Sea drew an Ass drinking on the Banks of the River and a Crocodile endeavouring to surprize him Let a Nobleness and Grace c. It is difficult enough to say what this Grace of Painting is 't is to be conceiv'd and understood much more easily than to be explain'd by words It proceeds from the illuminations of an excellent Mind which cannot be acquir'd by which we give a certain turn to things which makes them pleasing A Figure may be design'd with all its proportions and have all its parts regular which notwithstanding all this shall not be pleasing if all those parts are not put together in a certain manner which attracts the Eye to them and holds it fix'd upon them For which reason there is a difference to be made betwixt Grace and Beauty And it seems that Ovid had a mind to distinguish them when he said speaking of Venus Multaque cum formâ gratia mista suit A matchless Grace was with her Beauty mix'd And Suetonius speaking of Nero says he was rather beautifull than gracefull Vultu pulchro magis quam venusto How many fair women do we see who please us much less than others who have not such beautifull Features 'T is by this grace that Raphael has made himself the most renown'd of all the Italians as Apelles by the same means carry'd it above all the Greeks This is that in which the greatest difficulty consists c. For two reasons both because great study is to be made as well upon the ancient Beauties and on noble Pictures as upon nature it self and also because that part depends entirely on the Genius and seems to be purely the gift of Heaven which we have receiv'd at our Birth upon which account our Author adds Undoubtedly we see but few whom in this particular Jupiter has regarded with a gracious Eye so that it belongs only to those elevated Souls who partake somewhat of Divinity to work such mighty wonders Though they who have not altogether receiv'd from Heaven this precious Gift cannot acquire it without great Labour nevertheless 't is needfull in my opinion that both the one and the other should perfectly learn the character of every Passion All the Actions of the sensitive Appetite are in Painting call'd Passions because the Soul is agitated by them and because the Body suffers through them and is sensibly alter'd They are those divers Agitations and different Motions of the Body in general and of every one of its parts in particular that our excellent Painter ought to understand on which he ought to make his study and to form to himself a perfect Idea of them But it will be proper for us to know in the first place that the Philosophers admit eleven Love Hatred Desire Shunning Ioy Sadness Hope Despair Boldness Fear and Anger The Painters have multiply'd them not onely by their different Degrees but also by their different Species for they will make for example six

not properly speaking a part of the main Action But Virgil concludes with the death of Turnus sor after that difficulty was remov'd Aeneas might marry and establish the Trojans when he pleas'd This Rule I had before my Eyes in the conclusion of the Spanish Fryar when the discovery was made that the King was living which was the knot of the Play unty'd the rest is shut up in the compass of some few lines because nothing then hinder'd the Happiness of Torismond and Leonora The faults of that Drama are in the kind of it which is Tragi comedy But it was given to the people and I never writ any thing for my self but Anthony and Cleopatra This Remark I must acknowledge is not so proper for the Colouring as the Design but it will hold for both As the words c. are evidently shown to be the cloathing of the Thought in the same sense as Colours are the cloathing of the Design so the Painter and the Poet ought to judge exactly when the Colouring and Expressions are perfect and then to think their work is truly finish'd Apelles said of Protogenes That he knew not when to give over A work may be over-wrought as well as under-wrought too much Labour often takes away the Spirit by adding to the polishing so that there remains nothing but a dull correctness a piece without any considerable Faults but with few Beauties for when the Spirits are drawn off there is nothing but a caput mortuum Statius never thought an expression could be bold enough and if a bolder could be found he rejected the first Virgil had Judgment enough to know daring was necessary but he knew the difference betwixt a glowing Colour and a glaring as when he compar'd the shocking of the Fleets at Actium to the justling of Islands rent from their Foundations and meeting in the Ocean He knew the comparison was forc'd beyond Nature and rais'd too high he therefore softens the Metaphor with a Credas You would almost believe that Mountains or Islands rush'd against each other Credas innare revulsas Cycladas aut montes concurrere montibus aequos But here I must break off without finishing the Discourse Cynthius aurem vellit admonuit c. the things which are behind are of too nice a consideration for an Essay begun and ended in twelve Mornings and perhaps the Iudges of Painting and Poetry when I tell them how short a time it cost me may make me the same answer which my late Lord Rochester made to one who to commend a Tragedy said it was written in three weeks How the Devil could he be so long about it For that Poem was infamously bad and I doubt this Parallel is little better and then the shortness of the time is so far from being a Commendation that it is scarcely an Excuse But if I have really drawn a Portrait to the Knees or an half length with a tolerable Likeness then I may plead with some Justice for my self that the rest is left to the Imagination Let some better Artist provide himself of a deeper Canvas and taking these hints which I have given set the Figure on its Legs and finish it in the Invention Design and Colouring THE PREFACE OF THE French Author AMong all the beautiful and delightful Arts that of Painting has always found the most Lovers the number of them almost including all Mankind Of whom great multitudes are daily found who value themselves on the knowledge of it either because they keep company with Painters or that they have seen good Pieces or lastly because their Gusto is naturally good Which notwithstanding that Knowledge of theirs if we may so call it is so very superficial and so ill grounded that it is impossible for them to describe in what consists the beauty of those Works which they admire or the faults which are in the greatest part of those which they condemn and truly 't is not hard to find that this proceeds from no other cause than that they are not furnish'd with Rules by which to judge nor have any solid Foundations which are as so many Lights set up to clear their understanding and lead them to an entire and certain knowledge I think it superfluous to prove that this is necessary to the knowledge of Painting 'T is sufficient that Painting be acknowledg'd for an Art for that being granted it follows without dispute that no Arts are without their Precepts I shall satisfy my self with telling you that this little Treatise will furnish you with infallible Rules of judging truly since they are not onely founded upon right Reason but upon the best Pieces of the best Masters which our Author hath carefully examin'd during the space of more than thirty years and on which he has made all the reflections which are necessary to render this Treatise worthy of Posterity which though little in bulk yet contains most judicious Remarks and suffers nothing to escape that is essential to the Subject which it handles If you will please to read it with attention you will find it capable of giving the most nice and delicate sort of Knowledge not onely to the Lovers but even to the Professors of that Art It would be too long to tell you the particular advantages which it has above all the Books which hath appear'd before it in this kind you need onely to read it and that will convince you of this truth All that I will allow my self to say is onely this That there is not a word in it which carries not its weight whereas in all others there are two considerable faults which lie open to the sight viz That saying too much they always say too little I assure my self that the Reader will own 't is a work of general profit to the Lovers of Painting for their instruction how to judge exactly and with Knowledge of the Cause which they are to judge And to the Painters themselves by removing their difficulties that they may work with pleasure because they may be in some manner certain that their Productions are good 'T is to be used like Spirits and precious Liquours the less you drink of it at a time 't is with the greater pleasure read it often and but little at once that you may digest it better and dwell particularly on those passages which you find mark'd with an Asterism* For the observations which follow such a Note will give you a clearer Light on the matter which is there treated You will find them by the Numbers which are on the side of the Translation from five to five Veres by searching for the like Number in the Remarks which are at the end of it and which are distinguish'd from each other by this note ¶ You will find in the latter Pages of this Book the Judgment of the Author on those Painters who have acquir'd the greatest Reputation in the World Amongst whom he was not willing to comprehend those who are now