Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/treatiseonpaintiOOburn PUBLISHED BY JAMES CARPENTER, OLD BOND STREET. jpine arts. IN ONE VOLUME, QUARTO, PRICE 25S. IN EXTRA CLOTH BOARDS, UNIFORM WITH THE AUTHOR'S OTHER WORKS, AN ESSAY ON THE EDUCATION OF THE EYE, WITH REFERENCE TO PAINTING. ILLUSTRATED BY COPPER PLATES AND WOOD CUTS. BY JOHN BURNET. A few Copies are printed on Royal Paper, Price 21. 2 s. IN ONE VOLUME 4TO. PRICE 3^. 3S. IN BOARDS, A NEW EDITION. PRACTICAL HINTS ON PAINTING. 1. ON COMPOSITION. Price 15s. 2. ON LIGHT AND SHADE. Price 18s. 3. ON COLOUR. Price U. lis. 6d. Illustrated by nearly One Hundred Etchings from celebrated Pictures of the Italian. Flemish, and English Schools. By JOHN BURNET. " Mr. Burnet has now completed his 'Practical Hints on Painting;' and a more interesting Work- has never come under our notice. In this third and last part of it, he has shown with great ability, that, as in composition and in chiaroscuro, so also in the general management of colour in a picture, the great masters proceeded upon principles, varying, yet harmonious; and which, while they occasionally seemed to be in direct hostility to one another, always tended to the same triumphant results. To the professor these remarks must be invaluable ; and the library of no lover of the Fine Arts can henceforth be considered complete without Mr. Burnet's Work." — Literary Gazette. This Work is particularly recommended to the Student in Art in the New Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. — See the Article Drawing. %* A few Copies remain unsold of the Royal Paper, with Pioof Impressions of the Plates on India Paper. And a Portrait of the Author. In French boards, and lettered. Price Six Guineas. A PORTRAIT OF MR. JOHN BURNET, Of a size to be inserted in the Work, engraved in the line manner by Mr. Fox, from a Drawing by Mr. Denning. Price 7s. 6d. ; or, Proofs on India Paper, 15s. PUBLISHED BY JAMES CARPENTER. COESVELT GALLERY. COLLEC- TION OF PICTURES OF W. G. COESVELT, Esq. Etched by F. JOUBERT. Royal 4to. French boards. Price 41. 4s. A SERIES OF SUBJECTS FROM THE WORKS OF THE LATE R. P. BONINGTON. Lithographed by J. H. Harding. Atlas 4to. Price 21. 12s. 6d. Proofs, 31. 8s. A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS, from the Revival of Painting and the alleged Discovery of Eugraving^by Finiguerra. By MICHAEL BRYAN. In this work are two Indexes, alphabetical and chro- nological ; and the introduction comprises a brief Ac- count of the Painters of Antiquity. It also contains Five Plates, exhibiting the particular Marks and Mono- grams used by the different Engravers; together with a List of their Works, in Two thick Volumes, in 4to. Price 51. 5s. in boards; and on Superfine Royal Paper, 9/. " We congratulate the lovers of the Fine Arts on the appearance of this important publication. The Work, a great improvement as well as an enlargement of Pilkington's design, is evidence of the diligence and talents of the author, which will hand down his name with distinction to the latest posterity. Having con- stant need of reference to it, we can take upon ourselves to vouch for its general accuracy, research, and ability. Several of the original sketches are, indeed, admirably written ; and the whole forms a compendium and index of arts and artists unequalled, as far as we know, in any language." — Literary Gazette. • # * Archdeacon Coxe,in his interesting sketches of the Lives of Corregio and Parmagiano, speaks of the accuracy of Mr. Bryan's work. In Folio, Price 7s. 6d. Proofs 10s. 64 AN ESSAY ON' THE by strong colours, from the excitement which they produce. De la Hire says, u the different degrees of excitement produced by colours may be observed by keeping the eye shut, after looking at the sun or any luminous object, for the image left upon the retina will be first red, then yellow, then green, and last of all blue." We also perceive that the effect produced by strong colours may be increased or diminished, by bringing them in contact with others of an opposite hue ; large portions of strong blue coming in contact with red or white (for we find the ground colour often a great cause of opposition) affect the eye in a different manner from what the same colours produce when in smaller quantities ; or on a ground of a neutral tint, such as we see in the specimens found in the Egyptian tombs, contrasted with the same colours distributed over a Persian shawl : in the latter case, the rays coming to the eye from every separate colour, cross each other, so as to produce an agreeable harmony 31 . In the former case, one colour makes too strong an impression on the eye to be obliterated easily ; impressions remaining of long or short duration, if there be, it must however admit of much greater latitude than the harmony between sounds, since all mixtures and degrees of colour, unless when the quantity of light overpowers the eye, are pleasant : however one colour may be more so originally than another. Black appears to be originally disagreeable to the eyes of children ; it becomes disagreeable also very early from associated influences. In adults, the pleasures of mere colours are very languid, in comparison of their present aggregates of pleasure formed by association. However, the original pleasures of mere colours remain in a small degree to the last, and those transfused upon them by association with other pleasures (for the influence is reciprocal without limits) is a considerable one, — so that our intellectual pleasures are not only at first generated, but afterwards supported and resuscitated in part from the pleasures affecting the eye, which holds particularly in respect of the pleasures afforded by the beauties of nature, and by the imitation of these which the arts of painting and poetry furnish us with." — Hurtle}) on Man, Sense of Sight. 31 Sir Isaac Newton remarks, that when the refrangibility of any particular ray produced a certain colour, he found it impossible to change that colour, if sufficiently large ; he could subdue its intensity, by intercepting its rays by coloured mediums, but could not change it in specie. (We find this, which is a kind of glazing, was even practised by the ancients.) He found a transmutation of colours might be made by a mixture of different kinds of rays, but in such mixtures the component colours themselves do not appear, but by their mutually allaying each ZiMisfiedTetfJS37. 3y J. Gupmtan OidJBond Sb-eet. EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 65 according to the intensity of light or brightness of the object producing them. Reynolds mentions three modes of harmony existing in the arrange- ment of colours; one where the colours are of a full and strong body, such as we find in the works of Raffaelle, and which he denominates the Roman manner ; another the Bologna style, which mixes several colours together, so as to produce a general union in the whole, without reminding you of the original colours of which they are composed, and which is carried to the greatest perfection in the small works of the Dutch school ; the third is the Venetian, where the brightest colours are admitted, with the two extremes of warm and cold hues, and the whole reconciled and harmonised by being dispersed over the picture, presenting to the eye that sensation arising from a bunch of flowers. Each method seems to have its peculiar province allotted to it, corresponding to the subject or style of composition, in the design, and chiaro oscuro, according as they depart more or less from common representations of nature, or retain an entireness or severity of outline : harmony arising from a corresponding- agreement of the several parts, we can easily imagine a suitableness in the colouring to preserve such unity. In the early stages of painting, when the figures possessed a dry continuous outline, we find the colours laid in strong and bright, so as to give relief unconnected with the effect of aerial perspective. As the art advanced, we find colours made use of in the character of chiaro oscuro ; and when foreshortening and perspective effect occupied a large share in the conduct of the work, we perceive that colour became more subordinate, and the outline, light and shade, and colour, assimilated with each other in producing an effect upon the spectator, arising from neither having a preponderance in claiming his other, constitute a middle colour ; and therefore if, by refraction, the different rays be separated, colours will emerge different from that of the composition. Thus blue and yellow powders finely mixed appear green to the naked eye, and yet the colours of the component particles are not thereby really changed, but only blended ; for when they are viewed with a microscope, they still appear blue and yellow. — Priestley's Remarks on Newton's Optics. K 66 AN ESSAY ON THE attention. In entering upon a diffuse examination of the foregoing remarks, each separate division would require a lengthened essay to particularise the way in which the eye receives delight from the various modifications of colour: a work of this brief description can do little more than point out where the various examples are to be met with, and how they are modified and arranged to harmonise with those sensations which exist in the mind, and cannot be altered or diverted into other channels by the caprice or false taste of any one. I would fain hope I have gone further : I have endeavoured to prove, that those sources of enjoyment which lie dormant in the human mind, and which through the sense of sight are vivified and called into operation, can only, by the cultivation of that sense, be productive of pleasure 32 . I have also endea- voured to prove the great utility of the education of the eye, as a means of general instruction, giving employment to thousands, while it opens those avenues to science, which even to the great power of language remain as " books sealed and fountains shut up." STUDYING FROM NATURE. Objects drawn from nature possess a very characteristic difference from those drawn from the combinations of fancy, or from those images presented to the imagination. We find in sketches from nature many minute circumstances, a truth and precision, a variety and beauty, that 32 Addison remarks, that a man of polite imagination is let into a great many pleasures that the vulgar are not capable of receiving. He can converse with a picture, and find an agreeable companion in a statue. He meets with a secret refreshment in a description, and often feels a greater satisfaction in the prospect of fields and meadows than another does in the possession. It gives him, indeed, a kind of property in every thing he sees, and makes the most rude uncultivated parts of nature administer to his pleasures : so that he looks upon the world as it were in another light, and discovers in it a multitude of charms that conceal themselves from the generality of mankind. — Spectator, No. 411. EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 07 objects drawn from memory, or those images under the guidance of the mind only, have no pretension to ; the latter possess the general appearance merely like the confused character of nature presented to indistinct vision; or if made out with detail, the minutiae contain a select set of touches or forms, become agreeable from habit, which constitutes mannerism ; such imperfections can be avoided only by having accustomed the eye in the tirst instance to a scrupulous exactness in delineating objects from nature, as one or two parts left out may destroy the richness and variety of lines, and an unequal proportion of the forms may deprive the copy of the truth and beauty of the original. These peculiarities are also to be examined and contemplated upon, that this character may be engrafted upon works of imagination. Reynolds says, " I very much doubt whether a habit of drawing correctly what we see will not give a proportionable power of drawing what we imagine." To educate the eye to accomplish this, it is necessary, in the first instance, to select such objects as are simple in their forms, that the eye may perceive them distinctly, and make them gradually give place to others more complicated, to fit the eye and the hand to a variety of lines. It is also of the first importance that the drawings be made sufficiently large, that an opportunity may be given for filling up the various spaces with the minute parts, and also to prevent the hand acquiring a cramped, or little manner of drawing: it is also of equal importance, that the object chosen for representation be such as can be compared with the original, to test the exactness of the copy; much injury and fallacy has arisen from not attending early to a proper mode of study ; how often, for example, do we perceive in those who draw landscapes the incapability of drawing the human figure with any degree of correctness; this arises entirely from careless drawing in the first instance. A tree may be imperfectly drawn, yet look sufficiently true to please most spectators ; but the human figure possesses proportions, the want of which can be easily detected ; but had we an opportunity of comparing the tree with 68 AN ESSAY ON THE the original in nature, we should discover the resemblance to be equally imperfect; for an eye capable of drawing correctly, can draw any object presented to it, whether simple or complicated. Educating the eye in the first instance in the elements of lineal and aerial perspective, gives it a clearer insight into the causes of the changes of form and shadow, observable in all objects ; while drawing from the objects them- selves in place of copies, gives it a power of perception 33 , and a knowledge of embodying forms in composition, quite unattainable by any other method. When we consider that the images of objects dwell upon the retina only while the eye is directed to them, and, like the pictures on the table of the camera obscura, instantaneously vanish when we turn to something else, we may perceive the necessity of keeping each several part sufficiently long under examination before delineating it, that the mind may be put in possession of its form and colour, so as to retain it in the memory not only while copying it, but with such an impression as will improve and enrich the imagination with a multiplicity of imagery. Those who advocate the study of nature, without educating the eye in the first instance, are not aware that it is the superficies of things only which present themselves to the outward vision, and without a monitor to direct, the art would always be in its infancy 34 . A tree drawn by a beginner 33 Dr. Jurin observes, that the eye, as well as other parts of the frame, acquires strength and perfection from frequent use of the muscles, as is noticed in the eyes of sportsmen, travellers, sailors, &c, who see better at long distances ; while those whose professions lead them to close examination, see better at small distances : but drawing from nature, especially distant prospects, perfects the eye in both these extremes, as we have to carry the vision to examine objects far oft", and immediately transfer it to a near examination on the paper close to the eye, for this organ is wonderfully provided with the means of changing the crystalline lens, both for pushing it forward from the retina, and rendering it more convex when viewing near objects ; and also for drawing it more within the vitreous humour and rendering it flatter when examining distant objects. — See Dr. Jurin on Distinct Vision, and Potterjield on the Eye. 34 " Cicero remarks, that not to know what has been transacted in former times, is to continue always a child. If no use is made of the labours of past ages, the world must remain always in the EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 09 represents a flat image, like a plant or a piece of sea weed dried between the leaves of a book ; a figure represents but the section of one, for even if the foreshortened portions were perceived, he is incapable of giving them the perspective appearance, or lifting it from the ground by means of the application of light and shade. The first restorers of the art in Italy advanced but little beyond the flat brasses that supplied them with the means of design : even in the hands of Giotto and Massaccio fore- shortening was but little attended to, and then from a want of light and shade to give the parts their relative situations, looked cramped and feeble ; it was not till the master minds of Leonardo da Vinci and Michael Angelo grappled with the subject that difficulties disappeared; those portions of the figure were no longer represented in profile views, but advanced or receded from the spectator, and whole groups, in place of looking like a continuous frieze, were turned round, and sunk in the depths of the composition by means of lineal and aerial perspective. Raflaelle, by taking advantage of the works of those who had preceded him, carried the art to a state of perfection, which the study of nature, notwithstanding his constant application to her, never could have enabled him to achieve ; the contemplation of the fine works of antiquity created elevated visions of ideal composition, while his constant application to nature for the details enabled him to give a reality and identity to the creations of his imagination. Without the eye being made acquainted with the beauties of those who have advanced the art to its present state, either progressively, by studying the best works, or by commencing a course of drawing from antique sculpture, it will be impossible to select what is beautiful in nature, or be able to choose one point of view more interesting than another. It will also be impossible to combine a variety of objects, infancy of knowledge. The discoveries of every man must terminate in his own advantage, and the studies of every age be employed on questions which the past generation had discussed and determined. We may with as little reproach borrow science as manufactures from our ancestors ; and it as rational to live in caves till our own hands have erected a palace, as to reject all know- ledge of architecture, which our understandings will not supply." — Dr. Johnson. 70 AN ESSAY ON THE unless we have a knowledge of those principles upon which the various works are constructed that have given satisfaction ; for though, as is the case with music, the varieties are endless, yet the science is simple, and to be perceived by those who investigate the arrangements of harmony. He who attempts to study from nature unassisted by education in the first instance, will find himself often mistaken in his results ; neither will he arrive at so certain, or so expeditious a method of delineating objects with truth and feeling, as he will be continually in dread of falling into error. Leonardo da Vinci says, u theory is the great director of experi- ment, the only interpreter of the works of nature which is never wrong ; it is our judgement which is sometimes deceived, because we are expecting results which experiment refuses to give ; we must consult experiment, and vary the circumstances till we have deduced general rules, for it alone can furnish us with them ; and general rules direct us in our inquiries into nature, and the operations of art ; they keep us from deceiving ourselves and others, by promising ourselves results which we can never obtain." This is the experience which enables the artist to select and combine, to leave out or add to the various appearances presented to his eye. Why is it, for example, that the portrait painter, when his sitter is placed before him, turns the head, first to one side, then to the other, and contemplates it also under a variety of effects of light and shade ? It is to observe the best arrangement of the features, to select that view of the head, which developes the greatest character, and the most beautiful points. To enable the eye to make these selections, it is necessary to combine with the study of nature the study of the works of those eminent men who have preceded us. The works of Titian will convince the student how much quiet grandeur is to be produced by simplicity and breadth ; the works of Vandyke exemplify the art of arrangement, and a beautiful distribution of the features, also the art of uniting the several parts by means of light and shade, or disposition of the hair, or subordinate accessories. This power of planning out or adjusting the several parts to EDUCATION OF THE EYE. 71 the best advantage may be acquired by long contemplation of the various combinations observed in nature ; but a reference to the etchings by Vandyke, and the prints after him, will facilitate the student in his inquiries. We know that Rubens advised Vandyke and Velasquez to study the works of Titian as the best means of arriving at perfection in portrait painting ; and so uniform has been this mode of acquiring correct knowledge, that the works of Reynolds or of Lawrence may be studied as the best means of shortening labour, these artists having adopted the principles existing in the works of their great predecessors, so as to suit the fashion and taste of their own times, but along with such study bringing their own genius to the incessant contemplation of nature : for, as Bacon observes, " to spend too much time in studies, is sloth ; to use them too much for ornament, is atfectation ; to make judgement wholly by their rules is the humour of a scholar, they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience ; for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study, and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience." The art of studying from nature may be therefore considered as implying that which we perceive through the medium of our own eyes, and those things made apparent through the spectacles of other men ; for seeing nature does not merely mean seeing the exact length and breadth of any object, but means the power of discerning her beauties and defects, those portions which are to be preserved, and the mode of heightening their effect upon the eye of the spectator, and the several parts which operate detrimentally to the general arrangement of the whole, which are to be intercepted by other objects, or left out entirely 35 . For, as the accidental 35 Nothing can be so unphilosophical as a supposition that we can form any idea of beauty or excellence out of or beyond nature, which is and must be the fountain-head from whence all our ideas must be derived. This being acknowledged, it must follow of course, that all the rules which this theory, or any other teaches, can be no more than teaching the art of seeing nature. The 72 AN ESSAY ON THE combinations of nature are thrown together uncontrolled by the likings or dislikings of any one, the greatest study is necessary, so as to form a complete work, which shall possess all the appearance of chance combined with the most skilful adjustment: for example, what a variety of appear- ances do not the effects of light and shade produce upon the same scene, viewed at various times of the day, or seen under the advantages or disadvantages of accidental arrangements of objects ; this power of discernment is therefore to be acquired by the study of the works of those who have excelled in the different departments of the art, and afterwards perfected in searching out and contemplating the beautiful combinations which lie scattered in the endless varieties of nature : this mode of study alone can enable one artist to surpass another in the power of selection ; and the same scene, bald and ineffective in the hands of one, may be rendered full and of rich effect by another, who has watched a more favourable arrangement, and who has followed up and completed the various hints derived from accidental combinations, as in Plate vii. Fig. 1 and 2. Thus the study of nature is conducive to perfect the education of the rules of art are formed on the various works of those who have studied nature most successfully ; by this advantage, of observing the various manners in which various minds have contemplated her works, the artist enlarges his own views, and is taught to look for and see what otherwise would have escaped his observation. It is to be remarked, that there are two modes of imitating nature ; one of which refers for its truth to the sensations of the mind, and the other to the eye. Some schools, such as the Roman and Florentine, appear to have addressed themselves principally to the mind ; others solely to the eye, such as the Venetian, in the instances of Paul Veronese and Tintoret ; others, again, have endeavoured to unite both, by joining the elegance and grace of ornament with the strength and vigour of design ; such are the schools of Bologna and Parma. All these schools are equally to be considered as followers of nature. He who produces a work analogous to the mind or imagination of man is as natural a painter as he whose works are calcu- lated to delight the eye ; the works of Michael Angel o or Julio Romano, in this sense, may be said to be as natural as those of the Dutch painters. — Repwldss Notes upon Fresnoys Art of Pain t in g. Fig. 1. Zeruicn,. Puilts/uei Fetf ISX fy J. Carpenter. Old JSorul Street- PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. iLLUSTR ATFD BY Examples from tfje CJitat Jttastcrs OF THE ITALIAN, FLEMISH, AND DUTCH SCHOOLS. BY JOHN BURNET. " Invention is one of the great marks of genius; but, if we consult experience, we shall find that it is by being conversant with the inventions of others that we learn to invent, as, by reading the thoughts of others we learn to think." sir joshva Reynolds. SIXTH EDITION. LONDON : JAMES CARPENTER, OLD BOND STREET. 1815. CHISWICK: PRINTED BY C. WHITTINGHAM. PREFACE. The Plates hereto annexed were originally intended to illustrate the first part of a Practical Essay on Painting, which I have long had in contemplation to publish ; but have delayed, from year to year, from its interruption to my professional engagements, from doubts respecting its utility, and a love of ease which, after the day's employment, suggests a more natural recreation than the investigation of an abstruse study ; I now publish the plates with a few loose hints thrown together, in the hope of their being useful. Should they be thought of advantage to the younger students of painting, in directing their minds to a regular mode of investigating the intricacies of the art, I shall follow them with others illustrative, in the first instance, of Light and Shade, and, ultimately, of the arrangement of Colour. On the contrary, should the work not be considered a desideratum, by publishing only a first part, I escape a heavy responsibility and expense — a tax to which I do not wish that either my vanity or my love for the fine arts should subject me. March 25, 1822. PRACTICAL HINTS ON COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. COMPOSITION. Composition is the art of arranging figures or objects, so as to adapt them to any particular subject. In composition four requisites are necessary ; — that the story be well told ; that it possess a good general form ; that it be so arranged as to be capable of receiving a proper effect of light and shade ; and that it be susceptible of an agreeable disposition in colour. The form of a composition is best suggested by the subject or design, as the fitness of the adaptation ought to appear to emanate from the circumstances themselves : hence the variety of compositions. The point of time being fixed upon, the action, expression, and incidental circumstances oblige us often to determine on a particular arrangement, that we may be enabled to place the most interesting objects in the most prominent places. Unless our attention be directed to such arrangement in the first instance, we shall often be obliged to put an emphasis on an insignificant object, or throw into repose an interesting- point of the action, when we come to consider their relation to a good effect of light and shade. 8 PRACTICAL HINTS ON To secure a good general form in composition, it is necessary that it should be as simple as possible. A confused complicated form may hide the art, but can never invite the attention. Horace, in his Art of Poetry, inculcates the same doctrine, " Denique sit quod vis, simplex duntaxat et unum." Whether this is to be produced by a breadth of light and shade, which is often the case with Rembrandt, even on a most complicated out- line, or by the simple arrangement of colour, as we often find in Titian, or by the construction of the group in the first instance, evident in many of Raffaelle's works, must depend upon the taste of the artist : it is sufficient to direct the younger students to this particular, their minds being gene- rally carried away by notions of variety and contrast. In giving a few examples of composition, I have confined myself to the four simple and principal forms ; not only from their being most palpable, but also from their possessing a decided character, which is at all times desirable. To those who imagine that such rules tend to fetter genius, I shall merely quote Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose works, if properly understood, render all other writings on the subject of painting super- fluous. " It must, of necessity, be, that even works of genius, like every other effect, as they must have their cause, must likewise have their rules; it cannot be by chance, that excellencies are produced with any constancy or any certainty, for this is not the nature of chance ; but the rules, by which men of extraordinary parts and such as are called men of genius work, are either such as they discover by their own peculiar observations, or of such a nice texture as not easily to admit being expressed in words ; especially as artists are not very frequently skilful in that mode of communicating ideas. Unsubstantial, however, as these rules may seem, and difficult as it may be to convey them in writing, they are still seen and felt in the mind of the artist ; and he works from them with as much certainty as if they were embodied, as I may say, upon paper. It is true these refined prin- ciples cannot be always made palpable, like the more gross rules of art ; yet it does not follow, but that the mind may be put in such a train that it COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 9 shall perceive, by a kind of scientific sense, that propriety which words, particularly words of unpractised writers such as we are, can but very feebly suggest." Sixth Discourse. To assist in putting the mind in such a train is all that these examples aim at; and to render apparent to the young artist what he will find wrapped up in theoretical disquisition. The specimens here given merely happened to be in my possession : there are many others that will serve the student, perhaps better, for illustration, which he ought by all means to procure, or make sketches of; as it is only by rendering himself master of the subject that he can hope to avoid the common-place effects which swim upon the surface, and, being palpable, are adopted by every one whose judgment cannot carry him into the intricacies of the art. Concealing the art is one of its greatest beauties ; and he best can accomplish that who can discover it under all its disguises. I ought, however, to caution the young artist on this head, not to be too fastidious in trying to conceal what can be obvious only to a small number ; for, in endeavouring to render his design more intricate, he may destroy character, simplicity, and breadth ; qualities which affect and are appre- ciated by every one. 10 PRACTICAL HINTS ON ANGULAR COMPOSITION. Explanation of Plate I. Fig. 1. In commencing a composition, it is customary to mark the middle of the space, for the purpose of arranging those points we consider of most importance to the subject ; dividing the picture for the regulation of the masses of light and shade, of ascertaining and fixing the horizontal line, &c. This mode of constructing the composition is often suggested from the perspective effect requiring a length of line, thereby obliging us to place the point of sight at one side of the picture : sometimes from the group requiring a large space ; which a diagonal line secures, as in the Elevation of the Cross by Rubens, or from the conduct of light, as in his picture of the Descent from the Cross, &c. Cuyp, in adopting this mode of composition in most of his pictures (which are generally Sunset or Sunrise), places the focus of light at the bottom of the sky, thereby enabling the distant part of the landscape to melt into it by the most natural means ; while the strongest part of his sky, being at the opposite angle, produces the greatest expanse, and mixes and harmonizes with the dark side of the picture. Thus the eye is carried round the composition, until the two extremes are brought in contact, the most prominent with the most retiring. In compositions constructed on this principle (particularly where the landscape occupies a large portion), many artists carry the lines of the clouds in a contrary direction, to counteract the appearance of all the -London, Fublishtd- by J? Carpenter, Bond Street, JuneJ Jl J622. COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 11 lines running to one point. Thus using the darks of the clouds, &c. to antagonize, as it is termed, may apparently produce a better equipoise, but sacrifices many advantages; for we observe in many of the pictures of Cuyp, Rubens, and Teniers, where the figures, landscape, and sky are all on the same side of the composition, that a rich and soft effect is pro- duced ; the strong light and dark touches of the figures telling with great force against a background of houses, trees, &c. which are prevented from being harsh and cutting, by mixing their edges with the clouds, or dark blue of the sky. This doubling of the lines (if I may so express it) gives a picture that rich fulness which we often perceive in a first sketch, from its possessing several outlines. Those who imagine that, by thus throwing the whole composition on one side, a want of union will be produced, will be convinced of their error by perceiving how small an object restores the balance ; since, by its being detached and opposed to the most distant part, it receives a tenfold consequence. Plate I. Fig. 3 and 4. In these compositions Potter has made use of the sky as a background, by which mode the high lights of his group have more value, and it is rendered less harsh and cutting; which is the case with his famous picture of the Bull, the figures in which are brought up against the light side of the sky. If deception and strong relief were all he aimed at, he has gained them both, though at the expense of some of the higher qualities of the art, " a melting and union," as Reynolds terms it, of the figures with the background. The art is now too far advanced to allow us to be gratified with violent contrast ; and a small portion of the group coming firm off the ground, is found to be sufficient to give the appearance of natural solidity to the whole. Fig. 5. The original of this sketch, a small etching by Ostade, ought to be in the possession of every artist, for its beautiful arrangement of light and shade, and the skilful way in which they are woven together. As 12 PRACTICAL HINTS ON I ought to have noticed above, that the principal mass of light in out of door scenes (both in nature and the best masters) is generally placed in the sky, or upper part of the picture, I may here remark, that in interiors (especially such as are constructed upon this plan) it is generally reversed, the roof and background being reserved for a mass of shadow and repose. Ostade, in his compositions, displays such an ingenuity in their construc- tion as to render his pictures an endless source of gratification and study to the artist. In some of his works, the art is so completely hid as to make it difficult to say, whether his background or figures were the first composed. We have not only objects intercepting each other in the most natural and picturesque manner, but the figures carried up against them ; thus coming in contact with various forms, different in size, distance, and colour. This, when done with judgment, gives a rich and inartificial effect. On the contrary, in the pictures of Teniers, we often find a number of objects cast down in one corner, evidently for the mere purpose of being painted ; which, however, from their situation, their picturesque arrange- ment, and the mechanical skill of the execution, acquire a force, natural sharpness, and beauty, that amply compensate for the ostentatious display of such excellencies. Teniers' backgrounds are also totally different from Ostade's principle ; his figures being generally surrounded with black spaces of shadow or half tint. When a story is to be told, that requires the spectator to be directed to the heads and hands for expression and action, this breadth is more allowable; but breadth, as Mr. Fuseli justly observes, ought never to have the appearance of " flatness or insipidity." It is observable that, in an exhibition where there are a number of objects to distract the attention, those pictures please us most on which the eye is allowed to rest, from their possessing a vacant space ; but those very pictures uniformly look blank and unfurnished when hung up singly in a room. Plate I. Fig. 6. Claude, in many of his compositions, displays very COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 13 little address in bringing up his strong dark against the light. In him, it often looks like unaffected primitive simplicity ; but it might not be so considered in an artist of the present day. When Claude introduces a figure for such purpose, or in order to give a retiring delicacy to his distance, we often find it of a strong dark blue, which serves also to bring down the same colour from the opposite angle of the sky, thereby producing a union between both sides of the picture. Plate II. Fig. 1. As this is merely a further illustration of the prin- ciple noticed in Plate I., I can only refer to the remarks contained in the explanation of that plate. I may here, however, point out the length of line produced by the cattle, goats, &c. as it assists the perspective effect in conveying the eye into the picture, serving also as a base line for the landscape to rest upon. When the sun is placed near the point of sight, we sometimes see shadows made use of for the same purpose. A straight line is often necessary also for the sake of variety ; and when architecture is not present, we must get it how and where we can. Fig. 2. Rubens in this landscape has carried the lines of the clouds, trees, and ground, all in the same direction ; and, from his placing the sun near the point of sight, even his shadows take the same course. When the most prominent or strong dark of the foreground is detached from the side of the picture, it has not only a less formal appearance, but acquires a force from its being cut out on both sides by light; as we shall find when we come to treat of Chiaroscuro. The lights also acquire a force and brilliancy from their being surrounded with dark, and the extent of the distance and continuity of the line are not altogether interrupted. Fig. 3. In this subject, " Huntsman going out in the Morning," we have the principal group of a complete form in itself, yet forming a part of a whole, in consequence of its being carried round by the 14 PRACTICAL HINTS ON two dogs in the foreground, and connected by the principal dog in the other group turning round to the noise. As it is a doubt in the minds of some artists, how far it is agreeable to the rules of composition to admit a figure complete in itself as a portion of a group, I shall only observe here, that, as far as form is concerned, their objection cannot apply ; and as to individual parts, we see not only heads and hands complete as to form and light and shade ; but we find that even an eye is capable of possessing all the characteristic beauties of the art. In fact, this application of it in the abstract, as well as in the aggregate, pervades every thing. An object must not only appear to possess those properties adapted by nature for its purpose and protection, but also those qualities which have been found by the experience of the best masters productive of beauty : this renders it a source of gratification ; and it is then said to be true to nature and art. For example, if we examine an eye turned from the light, we perceive a breadth of chiaroscuro ; the white, or cornea, producing a mass of light, the iris and pupil a mass of shade. We find each of these focused, and a small portion of the strong dark and strong light brought in contact ; and the light passing through the iris gives it its transparency, and serves instead of reflected light to clear up the shadow : the watery fluid, in the bottom of the eye and on the under eyelid, gives us that portion of minute finish necessary in all works of art, to which even the protecting hairs contribute. We have here a picture complete in itself ; but if we carry our examination to the surrounding lines in the orbit, we perceive an harmonious communication and extension of its form, lights, and darks, by which its harshness is softened and diffused, and it becomes a part of the composition of the whole countenance. Plate II. Fig. 4. I have given a gradual advancement of the most prominent and dark part of a composition, until, in this example, we COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 15 have the strongest point brought into the centre. In the original, " The Embarkation of the Prince of Orange," the two principal figures are dressed in strong red, and strong black, and are the most cutting part of the group ; and, from their being brought into the centre and against the most retiring part, and surrounded by light, Cuyp has rendered them of the greatest importance, though occupying only a very small portion of the picture. 16 PRACTICAL HINTS ON ANGULAR COMPOSITION. Plate III. Fig. 1. The plan of composition I have here taken up is in the form of a diamond ; which we find often adopted, either as a complete group, or as forming part of a more complicated arrangement. In com- mencing a composition, I have mentioned, " that it is of importance to mark in those points most necessary to our purpose." For example, when a story is to be told, the heads and hands, the seats of action and expres- sion, are often referred to each other for the completion of form or extension of light ; as by such means the eye of the spectator is led to the commencement and operation of the incident. After arranging the principal points, what are called the K secondary" require the greatest consideration ; whether for the repetition of the lines, extension of the form, or conduct of the light and shade. Sometimes we are actuated by our requiring a second or third group for the better illustration of the story, which naturally leads us in the direction that affords us the greatest space ; sometimes by the principal group demanding a considerable portion of the ground for a mass of shadow, beyond which a strong point is required, as a link of communication between the figures and the background. By making this point the strongest of a secondary group of objects, either from its size, lights, or darks, the eye is carried into the most remote circumstances, which become a part of the whole, from the principal group being made to depend upon such point for the completion of its form, the extension of the light, or the repetition of colour. Fig. 2. In designs constructed upon this plan (especially of the Dutch School), we generally find the lower part of the form strongly pronounced, either by colour, or by light upon a dark ground, or vice versa ; this gives the group a firm foundation, and also enables the artist to keep the other I" I COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 17 objects in their proper situations as to distance from the eye. I wish particularly to direct the student's attention to this particular, as a doctrine, founded upon the rays of vision, has been attempted to be established, viz. that objects as they recede from the centre of the picture, either to the sides or bottom, ought to be deprived of part of their force of light and shade and colour. This is neither nature nor art. If the subject requires those objects to be kept subordinate, true art does not deprive them of their natural force, by robbing them of their lights, darks, or colours : it renders them less obtrusive by the ground which surrounds them, or substitutes other objects of a less attractive quality. Plate III. Fig. 3. By making the circumstance from which the story springs a strong point (either from situation, force, or colour), and surrounding it with those objects more immediately connected, and most illustrative of its effects, the picture explains itself at a glance ; which is one of the strong distinctions of painting from poetry, — the one proceeding in a circuitous route to hide the denouement, and keep hold of the attention, the other proclaiming instantaneously the beginning and end of the story. I do not mean that the circumstance ought always to occupy the centre, any more than that the hero should always occupy the centre ; but as it is of use to explain the cause of his action and expression, it has, in my mind, a prior claim to consideration. Plate III. Fig. 4 and 6. Plate IV. Fig. 5. We have the strongest light coming in contact with the strong dark in the most cutting manner, in the knee and leg of the falling figure, the arm of the man writing, and in the head of the infant Christ. When this can be done without inter- fering with the breadth of light, it is of the greatest consequence, both on account of its giving a thickness or rotundity to the group, and also because it enables us to keep the most projecting points and the most retiring in their proper places by analogy to one another. I am aware c 18 PRACTICAL HINTS ON that the management of light and shade often requires a sacrifice of this principle ; where we can accomplish our object without such a sacrifice it has always the most natural appearance. Many accidental combinations and beautiful effects of nature arise, not merely from their possessing a good general form and a pictorial arrangement of light and shade, but also from the most projecting points being often assisted by a combination of a harsh cutting line, strong dark and light, or opposition of local colour, and hence they strike the artist as being applicable to painting ; these being the means he finds frequently adopted by the best masters. It is only under such favourable circumstances that the artist can enter the lists with nature ; and, having but a flat surface to work upon, he is warranted in availing himself of every assistance science can afford. In arranging objects scientifically, to give them at the same time the appearance of natural accident, is one of the perfections of the art. As the best practical hints are derived from accidental combinations in nature, whose sudden changes prevent the possibility of sketching, the mind ought to be trained to the most regular and even mechanical mode of arranging the ideas ; that in an instant we may be able to determine whether the effects, which we perceive, depend upon a particular form, upon particular arrangement of the light and shade, or upon the manner in which the hot and cold colours are brought in contact. By thus tracing effects to their proper causes, we secure the principal points as a sort of short-hand notes to guide and assist the memory. This practice will also open a road of communication between the eye and the operations of the mind, which neither a hasty sketch nor the most learned dissertation can, separately, produce. At first it may seem more difficult than it really is ; but a few trials will convince the student of its practicability, especially as the effects that strike him to be the most pictorial are generally the most simple. Plate III. Fig. 4. The cards lying on the ground, in this subject, COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 19 indicate the cause of the quarrel ; and the figure entering from an adjoining apartment gives us a hint of the noise generally attending such brawls. As a moral is here introduced, I shall make a few remarks (otherwise irrelevant to the purpose) in this place. When a picture possesses a moral, it is certainly a great advantage, provided we are not disgusted by its vulgarity, as is the case in the representation of drunkenness, &c. in some of the Dutch School, or by affected sentiment, as in many of the present works of all the schools. The moral must also never injure the picture in its higher requisites. In the early ages, representations of vice were necessary as strong lessons of morality ; but as mankind grew more enlightened, they were referred to books, not pictures, for improvement. Besides, an artist ought always to recollect, that he paints for the higher, not for the lower classes of men ; and as his business is to convey pleasure, not pain, a little intercourse with society will convince him, that men in all ranks have often enough to vex them, or to produce a variance with their fellow creatures, without hanging up on their walls representations tending to increase either the one or the other feeling. The absence of these considerations in an artist (of which we see daily proofs) dooms his works to that neglect which he ascribes to the want of encouragement to the arts generally. Representations of tragical events also (though possessing a fine moral or sentiment) have received but little patronage in this country ; whether it is that they are not suited to the character of the nation, who, though not averse to the representation of a tragedy on the stage, are unwilling to choose a constant companion from such a class, or that there are few of those connoisseurs whose feelings are completely absorbed in the contemplation of high art, is a question which this is not the proper place to discuss : the fact is, however, indisputable. Plate III. Fig. 6. As this composition consists of a single figure, I shall notice here the method Metzu has taken to render it a part of the whole, especially as we shall have to refer to other plates, when we come to treat of light and shade, and colour. The figure is dressed in black and 20 PRACTICAL HINTS ON white, coming in contact and contrast in the strongest manner ; the black is repeated by the hat, and diffused by the black marble in the floor, the white is referred to the white marble in the floor and collected into a mass by the white wall ; the carpet, which is of red and warm colours, focused at the light by a stick of wax, is repeated by the back of the chair, and carried up by the outside of the window on the edge of the picture, which is painted of a pale red ; the forms are echoed and repeated with the same simplicity, and the picture frame on the wall, from being smaller than the frame of the window, serves at the same time to assist the per- spective effect : even the fastening of the casement is not without its use in the composition. In thus obliging a design to depend on its ground for support, consists the principle of union and harmony ; but, as I have at present only to draw the student's attention to the arrangement of form and that portion of composition that arises from the repetition and con- nection of lines, I shall notice one good plan amongst many others, which is, to mark in strongly those points in the ground which of necessity must be introduced from natural circumstances, at the same time contriving the group so that those points become of the greatest consequence to the composition. This often gives a characteristic stamp of nature to the whole. Plate III. Fig. 7. We have here the strong dark point coming in contact with the light ground in the most cutting manner ; which is more naturally accounted for by its being the most projecting ; as it is the inside of an empty drinking cup, it perhaps indicates the commencement of the story as well as any other means. Plate IV. Fig. 1. As an outline can give us little idea of this arrangement, I may be allowed to observe, that the four points of light are the upper halves of both the figures (being of a pale yellow), the white dog and a light wall above the fireplace brought in contact with a black powder horn. JbTmBumel Sc. London, Published by J? Carp enter, Bond Street, June. 1"1S2Z. COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 21 Plate IV. Fig. 2. Ostade's pictures have the peculiarly valuable property of looking well at a distance, thereby attracting the attention of the spectator towards them. When we come nigh to examine, we find that this is produced by their possessing a decided mass of light, obtained by means of a light wall, sky, &c. His heads and hands form a number of luminous spots in a mass of half tint, and are rendered of more value by the introduction of blue and dark draperies ; this requires much considera- tion, in order that those spots may take agreeable and decided forms to prevent confusion. In Ostade's works it is rendered the more easy, as he has seldom any particular story to interfere with the arrangement. His pictures call to my mind a passage in Hervey, which appears like the language of a painter, so completely consonant is it to the principles on which he constructs his work. Speaking of the stars, Hervey says, u On a careless inspection, you perceive no accuracy or uniformity in the position of the heavenly bodies, they appear like an illustrious chaos, a promiscuous heap of shining globes, neither ranked in order nor moving by line; but what seems confusion is all regularity ; what carries a show of negligence is really the result of the most masterly contrivance." Fig. 3. P. de Laer, from his long residence amongst the Italian painters, has constructed most of his pictures, though generally in the low walks of art, on the most regular and severe principles of their grandest compositions. As this regularity is considered by some to be incompatible with the negligence of arrangement which they suppose necessary to the picturesque, I shall here make a few observations on that doctrine. I consider it to be false, and not tenable, when referred to the operations of nature ; for we find her conducting and exhibiting the most beautiful appearances and effects in the humblest and most trifling of her works, by the same laws that regulate her in the formation of the most sublime. Abernethy says, " That work is beheld with admiration and delight, as the result of deep counsel, which is complicated in its parts, yet simple in its operations, where a variety of effects are seen to arise from one principle 22 PRACTICAL HINTS ON operating uniformly." When we refer to the great masters in poetry, we find that the Idyls of Theocritus are not less regular than the Iliad of Homer; or the Georgics and Eclogues of Virgil than the Eneid. The English pastorals have failed in giving pleasure, not by the regularity of their construction, but in consequence of their not being founded on truth ; the language and scenery not being that of nature in such situations. Let me here caution the student against supposing that I mean gross- ness and vulgarity as proper accompaniments in his representations of common nature ; he must convey such scenes to us with the appearance of their having passed through a susceptible and amiable mind, anxious to render nature agreeable, not to make her disgusting. In the works of the best painters in the lower walks of the art, there are numberless examples of this regularity. Even Wouvermans, whose soft and delicate touch seems ill suited to severe regularity of form, or light and shade, has received an advantage by its adoption ; his best pictures being founded on the simple construction of his rival. A regular form can always be rendered sufficiently irregular by the means of light and shade ; and if P. de Laer's pictures possess this property of light and shade too decidedly for such a purpose, we must recollect that from his painting upon a dark red ground (as was used at the time by many of the Italians) his works often look harsh ; the lights, from being thickly- painted, having resisted the influence of the ground, while his half tints are absorbed and indented in the shadow. As the student will have occasion to refer to the prints after the different designs here given, I beg leave to remark, that, in most of the Italian prints which I compared with the original pictures, I found the characteristic points often not attended to. The strong lights wanted their value, either from the shadows being deficient in their proper strength and quietness, or from the introduction of aerial perspective (a circumstance COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 23 seldom influencing the conduct of the great masters either of the Italian or Venetian schools), or from the manner in which the strong darks and lights were brought in contact. I believe sufficient has already been written on engraving, nor am I against its being considered a liberal trans- lation ; the beauty of lines is, perhaps, the only substitute engravers can give for the absence of colours; but surely it is not too much to request, that a strong red, or a strong blue (however ornamented by lines), be referred to its proper scale, either as the extension of light, or the pro- duction of shadow. These errors seem to have arisen from contemplating the picture in the twilight, for the more easy detection of the light and shade ; a most fallacious method ; for, in such case, the most projecting and the most retiring colours are rendered similar. Plate IV. Fig. 5. As in figure 2, we may observe this form influ- encing the arrangement of the whole group ; we have here the heads composed on the same principle, and repeating each other with a simplicity which is safe only in the hands of the best painters. I have mentioned regularity as a quality to be found in the most sublime subjects in painting ; but to infer from that, that regularity constituted sublimity, were as absurd as to say, irregularity constituted the picturesque. 24 PRACTICAL HINTS ON CIRCULAR COMPOSITION. We come now to speak of the Circular form of Composition, which is applicable to the highest walks of art from its simplicity and extensive sweep ; and to the lowest, from its being finely adapted for the purposes of light and shade. Plate V. Fig. 1. In this Cartoon we have a fine specimen of this form of composition. In the design, a strict adherence to the plan laid down has secured a decided character to the picture. With RafFaelle this seems to have been invariably of the first importance ; his worst compositions have always a strong feature to recommend them. In this design we have the figures gradually declining from the sides to the centre of the circle on the foreground, which enables the spectator to view the whole of the persons employed : to assist which arrangement, Raffaelle has placed the Apostles on an elevated plane ; and, by placing the principal in the centre, has enabled them to acquire that consequence their diminution would other- wise have deprived them of. The regularity of the composition is also increased by the division of the group into seven figures on each side, and no one, except Ananias and Sapphira, performs an action that is not repeated. Thus simply has Raffaelle contrived not only to tell his story, but also those circumstances which preceded and followed it. This regularity will strike the student as being particularly suited to religious subjects ; but a few attempts, to make such uniformity appear a natural emanation, will compel him to exclaim with the poet, " Within that circle none durst walk but he." COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 25 As I shall have occasion to speak of the repetition of form, as being- no less essential towards the production of harmony than the repetition of colour, I may call the student's attention to it in this place. In compo- sitions embracing many figures, a repetition of form and action is often found to be indispensable ; a single figure, in such case, being found too small to give importance to any action, is referred to the next for assist- ance; as, in colouring, one colour is often made to depend upon the adjoining for its shadow or enlargement. But, independently of its acquiring a consequence by such extension, harmony requires, that a strong action should be as it were broken down and diffused through the group. In writing, this is generally the case, and the reader is prepared for one sentence by what has preceded it. This simplicity and harmo- nious communication is to be found in nature, in the antique, in the best Italian masters, and in many of the Dutch, particularly Ostade. It is seldom to be met with in the French school, which is fond of sudden contrast, and insulated action, light, and colour. Plate V. Fig. 2. In compositions of out-of-door scenes, this circular form of arrangement is often the only opportunity we have of procuring a mass of shade so necessary to the group in a pictorial point of view. I am aware that some sculptors consider the arrangement of their figures degraded by any attention to the picturesque effect of light and shade, which to painters seems more extraordinary, as sculptors have not the means of local colour to produce it. With sculpture, however, it is not our province to interfere ; I shall only observe that such reasoning never seems to have influenced Coreggio. The most picturesque arrangements in form, and in light and shade, are to be found in his grandest composi- tions. We have here six heads placed in the most unequal manner, numerically speaking ; the shadow is increased by the dark blue dress of the Virgin, and the two most projecting points by the light drapery of the Magdalen and the strong red of St. Jerome ; yet this picture is not less sublime than that of " the Doctors of the Church" (Fig. 3), where the six D 26 PRACTICAL HINTS ON heads are placed in the most regular manner; four round the altar, and one at each side, for the purpose of connecting the lower and upper half of the picture ; the consultation of the doctors, and the vision expressive of the subject of their research. The prominent points in this work are the same as in Fig. 2, the figure with the book being in a strong red, and the other in white. Plate VI. Fig. 1. In this subject Rubens displays all the easy fluency of a great master, who would consider such a design only as an amuse- ment. The manner in which the figures are interwoven with each other, the mode resorted to, to assist the projecting and retiring points, and the velocity with which the whole appears to move, are all worthy of the artist's attention. Fig. 2. The student may compare this admirable design of West's, « The Death of General Wolfe," with Fig. 4. " The Death of St. Jerome," as Dominichino has adopted the same means to produce his mass of shadow in the middle of the group, and to bring it in contact with the light on the principal figure. Fig. 3. As I shall have occasion to refer to the examples of this great master of light and shade in their proper place, it would be unfair to make any observations on him here, where he appears, as Milton would express it, " shorn of his beams." I may, however, remark, that, from his making use of mean materials, he often destroys the beauty of that structure which the splendour of its light is so well calculated to adorn. Fig. 5. As the merits of this composition have been descanted on by every critic, — being a subject well suited for a display of the powers of eloquence, — I shall merely offer one or two practical remarks. Raffaelle has made the principal figure of the lower group (an interesting young female) detach itself from the ground by a strong warm light cutting ndon. Published by J! Carpenter Bond Street. JuneJ'W22 Plate 7. Zondorh,Publis?iecL by J* Carpenter. Bond Street, June. J 3t 2822. COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 27 against the shadow, and by a dark blue mantle coming in contact with the light ; by her addressing the Apostles, and pointing to the demoniac, the two sides are united, and the figures are so linked together that the eye is carried round until we arrive at the most projecting points, the hands and feet of the Apostle with the book. The Disciples express their inability to perform the cure ; and, by two of them pointing to the mount, refer the people to Christ, who has retired thither to pray. This is the arrange- ment, but it was not alone by the expression or arrangement of his figures that Raffaelle holds his rank in the art ; it was also by the bold and original conception of his subject. He has here displayed the vision of the Transfiguration in the most sublime manner, and by raising his figures from the ground (one of those movements of the mind which are above restraint) has stamped them with the strong feature of immortal beings. Mr. Fuseli luminously describes them rising like " a flame : " if not too metaphorical, he might have said, " like a bright flame issuing as if from a sacrifice, and ascending unto God." Plate VII. It is not only necessary that a group should have hollows for the reception of shadow, but also projections for the light to rest upon ; it not only ought to possess a good general form in the outline which defines it, but the figures must also be linked together in such a way as to lead the spectator in amongst them. They must appear to have room to stand upon, and every figure must keep his place in its relative distance from the eye ; hence a form composed of a concave and convex line has been often adopted as the simplest and best, and possessing the greatest variety of advantages. That it is so generally used will cease to surprise us, when we find it applicable both to the regularity of Raffaelle and the irregularity of Rembrandt. 28 PRACTICAL HINTS ON Plate VIII. Fig. 1. In this design, 8 The Landing of Charles II." West has placed the principal figure in the middle of the picture. Com- mencing his composition at the nighest point, he carries on his group until it ends in the distance. Neither in the situation of the hero, nor in the form of the group, does he seem solicitous to hide the science. He has brought the nigh point in contact with the shadow, and strengthened it by the female whom the boy accompanies, being dressed in strong dark : when this is brought sharp off the ground, as is the case also in Fig 2, it enables us to keep the other figures in their places better than by diminishing the firmness of their shadows or colours. Fig. 2. 8 Cattle returning Home in a Shower." In this composition the principal light falls on the convex part of the group, and the depth of the shadow is assisted by the local colour of the objects placed in it. The goat in the foreground is connected to the rest by some white flowers of an elder bush, which cannot be expressed in an outline. As this is from a design of my late brother's, I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without expressing the great loss I feel in not having his assistance, not only in these notes, but in every thing connected with the art : though practising painting but for a short time of a short life, his strength of mind, his fine eye for colour, and a taste for the beauties of pastoral painting, convince me the English School has lost one that would have been an ornament to that department of the science. Fig. 3. Is a repetition of the same form. Plate IX. This plate consists of Wilkie's admirable composition of the Blind Fiddler, the Salutation of the Virgin by Rembrandt, and a Dance by Ostade. I shall leave it to the student's own judgment to investigate the various forms on which these compositions depend. By making the principal heads depend upon one mode of arrangement, Plate8 COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 29 the general appearance of the group on a different mode, the background on a third, and so on with the minor points (provided they all tend to the assistance of one another), his composition will not only have intricacy without confusion, but that variety which is so characteristic in nature. A beautiful combination in nature will often appear to evade every rule by her being perfect in every mode of examination. All her varieties emanate from a straight line and a curve. A judicious arrangement of objects possessing these various forms gives the strongest natural appearance to a picture ; nor ought the artist to leave out rashly what he may conceive to be void of beauty. In colouring, harsh tints are admitted to produce harmony in the other colours ; and the most picturesque arrangements often depend on the presence of what might be otherwise considered ugly forms. As I have made use of the terms " beautiful and agreeable arrange- ments," it is proper to give an explanation of the sense in which they are applied. By a beautiful arrangement, I mean a proper adaptation of those principles that arrest a common observer, and give a pleasurable sensation, which to a cultivated mind increases (not diminishes) by the investigation of the cause which produces it. For example, a beautiful appearance in nature affects the savage and the philosopher from their sensations merely as men ; but a painter, whose life is spent in a constant competition with nature in producing the same effects, receives a tenfold gratification in following her through those assemblages which to the world beside are, as it were, " a fountain sealed and a book shut up." Hence, in art, a beautiful arrangement must be a selection of those forms, lights, and colours that produce a similar result ; and the taste of an artist is shown, in heightening their effect by the absence of those circumstances which are found by experience to produce the contrary. Did an investigation of the means pursued by the great masters tend to abridge an artist's pleasurable sensations, instead of being the most favoured, he would be rendered the most miserable of beings ; but the 30 PRACTICAL HINTS ON opposite is the by such means he is taught an alphabet that enables him to understand the language of nature. It may be supposed that in my search after so desirable an object, I have perused all the works written to define Beauty and Taste, and which endeavour to circumscribe with a line that endless variety and omnipresence which make nature a source of gratification to all nations under every alteration of the mind ; but as I wish to avoid all controversy on the subject, which we often find merely renders the most sublime truths more obscure, I shall only remark, that, as far as painting is concerned, the authors of many of these works have done an irreparable injury. Artists generally prefer the opinions of untutored children to the remarks of the most learned philosophers, whose advancement in other sciences really seems to increase their ignorance of this. If I have explained my definition of the terms sufficiently for the artist's comprehension, I am satisfied. To explain them to others would be equally impossible as that those others should be able to define them to us. The mind must have received its education through the medium of the eye, not of the ear, to enjoy the faculty of conceiving such ideas, or the power of tracing them to their original source in nature or in art, as a test of their truth. Before I conclude, I have to apologize for the paucity and brevity of these observations, and beg the reader's constant reference to the plates as the only method of making myself correctly understood. Painting is a practical branch of philosophy, and can only be rendered clear by satis- fying the observations of the eye, as well as the reflections of the mind : this, perhaps, is one reason why so much has been written on the subject without those truths being made sufficiently obvious, which the writers wished to demonstrate. I have also been anxious to avoid tautology, as it will be necessary to go over, in a great measure, the same ground, when I come to treat of Light and Shade, and Colour; when many observations which appear to Plate.9 Iondon.,Pabkshed by J' Carpenter, Bond StreeC. June-l"1822 COMPOSITION IN PAINTING. 31 be omitted here will present themselves, from belonging more properly to those divisions of the work. I must also caution the young artist against supposing that these modes of arrangement are given for his imitation ; I merely wish him to be acquainted with the advantages any particular composition possesses, that in adopting any invention of his own, he may engraft upon it those or similar advantages. A design that has nothing but novelty to recommend it is a conceit, not a composition. The student in painting can hope to derive advantage from theory only, when rendered obvious by ocular demonstration. One great cause of the obscurity which envelopes the art is the criticism of those whose ideas on the subject are obscure ; — to free the world from their influence is perhaps impossible ; but the artist must free himself. FINIS. CHISWICK : PRINTED BY C. WHITTINGHAM. PRACTICAL HINTS (IN LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. ILLUSTRATED BY ^Examples from t&c Italian, Jplemtsft, wife IDutcfj ^d&ools. BY JOHN BURNET. The highest finishing is labour in vain, unless at the same time there be preserved a breadth of light and shadow." Reynolds's Notes on Du Fbesnoy. FIFTH EDITION. LONDON : JAMES CARPENTER, OLD BOND STREET. 1838. PREFACE. I am now induced to take up the second part of the Practical Hints on Painting, from the encouragement the first has met with ; but more especially from the approbation of many of our best Painters, who are undoubtedly the best judges of the utility of the work. In this part, treating of the conduct of the Light and Shade, I shall follow the same mode as before, merely throwing out hints as they occur, without any relation to connexion, or a regular treatise. The mind is naturally fond of variety, and by leading it through a succession of images, provided their advantages are shown and explained, the end of instruction is accomplished. There is no fixed mode for conveying instruction ; those things which appear to the reader to be useful, he will connect in his own mind by a chain of reasoning, shorter than the shortest which could be furnished by writing; and the longest vi PREFACE. dissertation to prove the existence or utility of that which appears of no advantage would be unavailing. I have endeavoured to trace the effects, as much as possible, to their first causes operating in various ways on the minds of the different Artists who have adopted them. Whether they were guided by rules, or imitative instinct, we cannot now determine ; nor is it my wish to inculcate any doctrine where the Student has a better mode of his own to serve as a guide. Let him, however, always bear in mind, that in Painting, as in other things, to use the words of Dr. Johnson, " The accidental compositions of heterogeneous modes are dissolved by the chance which combined them, but the uniform simplicity of primitive qualities neither admits increase, nor suffers decay/' CONTENTS. Page Light and Shade 1 Plate I 4 Plate II 14 Plate III 16 Plate IV 20 Plate V , 22 Plate VI 26 Plate VII 34 Plate VIII 38 LIGHT PRACTICAL HINTS ON AND SHADE IN PAINTING. LIGHT AND SHADE. Hefore proceeding to investigate light and shade in their various intricate situations, it may be proper to notice a few of the more palpable and self- evident combinations, and for the better comprehending of which, I shall divide them into five parts : viz. light, half light, middle tint, half dark, and dark. When a picture is chiefly composed of light and half light, the darks will have more force and point : but, without the help of strong- colour to give it solidity, it will be apt to look feeble : and when a picture is composed mainly of dark and half dark, the lights will be more brilliant; but they will be apt to look spotty for want of half light to spread and connect them ; and the piece be in danger of becoming black and heavy : B 2 PRACTICAL HINTS ON and when a picture is composed chiefly of middle tint, the dark and light portions have a more equal chance of coming into notice ; but the general effect is in danger of being common and insipid. Light and shade are capable of producing many results; but the three principal are relief, harmony, and breadth. By the first the Artist is enabled to give his works the distinctness and solidity of nature. The second is the result of a union and consent of one part with another ; and the third, a general breadth, is the necessary attendant on extent and magnitude. A judicious management of these three properties is to be found in the best pictures of the Italian, Venetian, and Flemish Schools, and ought to employ the most attentive examination of the Student ; for by giving too much relief, he will produce a dry hard effect; by too much softness and blending of the parts, woolliness and insipidity ; and in a desire to preserve a breadth of effect, he may produce flatness. Relief is most necessary in large works ; as their being seen from a greater distance than easel pictures prevents their looking harsh or cutting, and gives them that sharpness and clearness of effect so necessary to counteract heaviness. Not only the works of Raphael and those of the Italian School possess this quality, but we find it in the greatest perfection in the pictures of Paul Veronese and Tintoretto ; and even the larger works of Titian and Coreggio have a flatness and precision which we look for in vain in the succeeding School of Caracci and their disciples ; Guido excepted. Harmony, or a union of the different parts of a composition, depends upon the intermediate parts serving as a link or chain, either by conveying LIGHT AND SHADE IN FAINTING. 3 a sensation of the same colours with those in immediate contact, or by neutralizing- and breaking down the harsh asperities of the two extremes, and thus producing a connexion or agreement. Breadth of effect is only to be produced by a great extent of light or shade pervading the picture. If an open daylight appearance is intended, such as we see in Cuyp, &c. it will be best produced by leaving out part of the middle tint, and allowing a greater spread of light and half light; this will also give the darks the relative force which they possess in nature. If a breadth of shadow is required, such as we find in Rem- brandt, &c. the picture ought to be made up of middle tint and half dark. In the one treatment the darks ought to tell sharp and cutting, which is the characteristic of strong daylight ; in the other the lights ought to appear powerful and brilliant, enveloped in masses of obscurity. The influence of shadow upon any composition, when carried beyond the necessary depth for the relief or distinct marking of the several parts, is breadth, from its absorbing many of the half tints, and rendering the darks less cutting ; and repose, from there being fewer of the outlines visible ; hence arises a certain grandeur attendant upon space, and an agreeable sensation, from the spectator being allowed to exercise his own fancy in embodying indistinct forms. Thus the gloomy solitude of a wood is increased by the absence of the twittering light through the trees, the absence of their harsh colour, and the distinct form and crisp marking of the leaves. Rembrandt has carried this property of shadow beyond the hope of any improvement, and by this means has clothed the most trifling- subject with a portion of sublimity. If we allow ourselves to be influenced by the association of ideas, it is capable of imparting a greater degree of 4 PRACTICAL HINTS ON horror to any subject of terror; as imaginary dangers appear greater than real; being augmented by the operations of the mind. Milton has made use of this quality in describing the situation of the fallen Angels : " From those flames No light, but rather darkness visible Served only to discover sights of woe." And Titian, in his picture of the Martyrdom of St. Laurence, which otherwise is disagreeable from its being cold and black. Having thus denned some of the characteristic features of shadow, the effects of light in a great measure explain themselves, being in most instances of an opposite nature. Its cheerful influence operates on the mind of the spectator, either when viewing the festivities of a village holiday or when he beholds it diffused over the general face of nature : it may be termed the Allegro in Painting. Explanation of Plate I. Fig. 1. If light, collected into a focus by means of a lens, be thrown obliquely upon a wall, it will explain to us one of its principal properties, upon which many Artists have founded their principles of light and shade. Where the bundles of rays are collected, the light is increased in bright- ness ; and when they become more diffused and spread out, it naturally becomes more feeble, losing itself in half tint. In this example we have some of the most essential qualities of light as applicable to the purposes of painting. We have a principal light, which, being produced by the Ziwrfon Fu/i/ir/ud July J. 7826 LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 5 collecting of the rays, leaves that portion of the ground the darkest which comes in contact with it, thereby assisting its brightness. We have an innumerable variety of gradations, until the light is dissipated and lost. Some Artists maintain, and justly, that every light, however small, ought to have a focus, or one part brighter than another ; and as we find this to be a general law in nature, it is surely safe ground to go upon. For the same reason we ought to have one portion of a dark more decided than the rest. If these two extremes are brought in contact, we make them assist each other, one becoming brighter, and the other darker, from the effect of contrast. If they are placed at the opposite sides of the picture, we have greater breadth and a more equal balance. Let us now examine how these properties have been made use of in the management of the light and shade of a picture. If, for example, we take a head by Rembrandt, we find the principal light or focus in the upper part of the face (which he often, to render more luminous, surrounds with a black bonnet or hat, and even this he keeps of a cold tone, to give more value to the flesh) ; the light is then allowed to fall down on the figure, producing thereby a union and an appearance of his light giving out rays of the same hue as itself. If we follow him in the conduct of some of his larger compositions, we find the same principle adopted, whether they consist of many figures, such as the hundred Guilder print, or of few, as in the small Nativity in the National Gallery; thus rendering the most complicated compositions subservient to the simplest principles of light and shade. A few experiments 011 a ground of a middle tint, with a penoil filled with white, and another dipped in black, will give the Student an insight into all the changes capable of being produced upon this principle. 6 PRACTICAL HINTS ON Plate I. Fig. 2. If a diagonal line be drawn through the picture, and the extreme dark and extreme light be placed at opposite sides, we must of necessity have the greatest breadth of effect. If a balance or union between the two sides be wished, there is no other way but by borrowing a portion of the one and exchanging it for a portion of the opposite ; and not. only may this practice be made use of for the harmony of the whole, but the light and the shade will be thus rendered more intense by the force of opposition. Now, whether the dark which is carried to the light side be very small, or very large, and vice versa, we have the groundwork of some of the most powerful and most natural effects in painting. If the light is placed near the horizon, as in evening skies, for example, such as it frequently is in Cuyp, we see it rising upwards until lost in middle tint in the upper part of the picture, and the middle tint descending into shadow by means of trees, figures, &c. thus making a sweep round the picture, and thereby affording the greatest opportunity for breadth of effect. If the two extreme points are connected by intermediate figures, so as to form but one group, we have the greatest firmness, as the light part of the group will be relieved by a dark ground, and the dark part of the group by a light ground : if we pursue the contrary practice, and place the dark part of the group on the dark ground, and the light part of the group on the light ground, we have more breadth and softness of effect. There is no want of examples, either in nature or in pictures, to warrant our following either mode. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 7 Plate I. Fig. 3. Sometimes we find the principal light in the centre of the picture gradating to the extremities with a border of dark binding in the whole. By this mode the light has great brilliancy, especially if a small portion of dark is brought in contact with it. This melting of the light into shadow has been carried to great perfection by Coreggio and Rembrandt, who most frequently relieved the dark side of their figures by a still darker background, which Reynolds (who has adopted this mode in so many of his works) mentions as giving a rich effect. If this method is pursued in the management of the light on a hand, or a single head, it is equally applicable, as in a more extensive work. In the landscapes of Claude, who has often placed the sun near the centre of his compositions, we find the light managed upon the same broad principle, gradating to the sides of the canvass by means of buildings, ships, &c. with often a clump of dark trees jutting into the mass of light, thereby giving it its brilliant character, and serving at the same time to convey the dark sides into the picture. If he reminds us occasionally of Rembrandt, it arises from his great breadth of effect; if of Coreggio, it is the soft union of its lights with the shadow. A few walks in the evening in the twilight, and at night in scenery where nature has an opportunity of showing her various effects, will put the Student in possession of a power to unravel all her mysteries. We do not know whether Claude, Coreggio, and Rembrandt were acquainted with the works of one another, but we have the most evident proofs that they were well acquainted with > 8 PRACTICAL HINTS ON the principle by which nature produces her most striking effects ; and a breadth of light and shade, soft and subdued tones of colour, and every requisite for forming the mind of an Artist, is still to be found in the same School in which they studied. Plate I. Fig. 4. If the lights are to predominate in a picture from the ground being low in tone, it is of the utmost consequence that they should not only be varied in form and magnitude, but that they should produce an agreeable arrangement in the picture, seeing that they will attract greater notice than when the ground is lighter. I shall here take the liberty of introducing a passage from Reynolds's works, as nothing cau exceed it in utility and justness of observation. In his notes upon Fresnoy, speaking of light and shade, he says, "The same rules, which have been given in regard to the regulation of groups of figures, must be observed in regard to the grouping of lights; that there shall be a superiority of one over the rest, that they shall be separated and varied in their shapes, and that there should be at least three lights ; the secondary lights ought, for the sake of harmony and union, to be of nearly equal brightness, though not of equal magnitude with the principal." The Dutch painters particularly excelled in the management of light and shade, and have shown, in this department, that consummate skill which entirely conceals the appearance of art. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 9 " Jan Steen, Teniers, Ostade, Dusart, and many otliers of that school may be produced as instances, and recommended to the young artist's careful study and attention. "The means by which the painter works, and on which the effect of his picture depends, are light and shade, and warm and cold colours. That there is an art in the management and disposition of those means will be easily granted, and it is equally certain, that this art is to be acquired by a careful examination of the works of those who have excelled in it. " I shall here set down the result of the observations which I have made on the works of those artists who appear to have best understood the management of light and shade, and who may be considered as examples for imitation in this branch of art. "Titian, Paul Veronese, and Tintoretto were among the first painters who reduced to a system what was before practised without any fixed principle, and consequently neglected occasionally. From the Venetian painters Rubens extracted his scheme of composition, which was soon understood and adopted by his countrymen, and extended even to the minor painters of familiar life in the Dutch school. " When I was at Venice, the method I took to avail myself of their principles was this : when I observed an extraordinary effect of light and shade in any picture, I took a leaf of my pocket-book, and darkened every part of it in the same gradation of light and shade as the picture, leaving the white paper untouched to represent light, and this without any attention to the subject or to the drawing of the figures. A few trials of c 10 PRACTICAL HINTS ON this kind will be sufficient to give the method of their conduct in the management of their lights. After a few experiments I found the paper blotted nearly alike : their general practice appeared to be, to allow not above a quarter of the picture for the light, including in this portion both the principal and secondary lights ; another quarter to be as dark as possible ; and the remaining half kept in mezzotint or half shadow. u Rubens appears to have admitted rather more light than a quarter, and Rembrandt much less, scarce an eighth : by this conduct Rembrandt's light is extremely brilliant, but it costs too much : the rest of the picture is sacrificed to this one object. That light will certainly appear the brightest which is surrounded with the greatest quantity of shade, supposing equal skill in the Artist. " By this means you may likewise remark the various forms and shapes of those lights, as well as the objects on which they are flung ; whether a figure or the sky, a white napkin, animals, or utensils, often introduced for this purpose only. It may be observed, likewise, what portion is strongly relieved, and how much is united with its ground ; for it is necessary that some part (though a small one is sufficient) should be sharp and cutting against its ground, whether it be light on a dark or dark on a light ground, in order to give firmness and distinctness to the work ; if, on the other hand, it is relieved on every side, it will appear as if inlaid on its ground. Such a blotted paper, held at a distance from the eye, will strike the spectator as something excellent for the disposition of light and shadow, though he does not distinguish whether it is a history, a portrait, a landscape, dead game, or any thing else ; for the same principles extend to every branch of the art. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 11 " Whether 1 have given an exact account, or made a just division of the quantity of light admitted into the works of those painters, is of no very great consequence ; let every person examine and judge for himself: it will be sufficient if I have suggested a mode of examining pictures this way, and one means at least of acquiring the principles on which they wrought." This is so admirable as to need no comment, and ought never to be lost sight of, as upon the management of light and shade depends the general look of the picture. Plate I. Fig. 5. As a wall or flat surface recedes from the light, it necessarily becomes darker, and as the outline is more or less defined, it has the property of advancing or receding. These may seem to be properties too evident to every one to need any explanation ; but when we see a foreground, in place of coming flat up to the edge of the frame, appear to slope down like a declivity, we must either suppose that the painter knew not the principle of assisting the perspective by means of light and shade, or had not the faculty of seeing nature. When we consider that nature spreads out her landscape upon a horizontal plane, and that we have to compete with her upon an upright surface, we shall find we have not only to call in to our aid strong light, coming in contact with sharp dark, warm colours, and such as have the property of advancing, but to subdue the more distant part of the ground by soft shadow and retiring cool tints. 12 PRACTICAL HINTS ON Plate I. Fig. 6. When the composition is kept dark, forming a mass of shadow in the centre of the canvass, the light is often conducted round it by means of the sky, water, or light foreground ; and as the dark becomes in a manner isolated, it receives great vigour and importance. As this is the reverse of Fig. 3, we find the same simple broad principle predominant, and whether it be composed of a clump of trees, or the dark dress of a whole-length figure, we find the management guided by the same rules ; only if a portrait, the circumstance of the face coming light off the back- ground requires the feet or base of the figure to tell dark on the ground, for the sake of firmness ; and if any part is more lost in the background than another, it perhaps ought to be the middle portion of the figure. If a clump of trees, such as we often find in Claude, is to be represented, their stems shoot out from a ground of the same darkness, thereby producing a union of the trees with the shadow which they cast on the ground. As a light in the centre of dark tints must thereby acquire an increased consequence, so a dark in the middle of light tints receives the same importance. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 13 Plate L Fig. 7. I have noticed in another place the union of one part of the picture with another, by means of a repetition of the light: it will therefore be unnecessary to say any thing further upon such management. I may however observe, that it is not only of service to repeat the light, but also, that it should be of the same colour ; accordingly we observe in Cuyp, whose principal light is often yellow, that it is carried into the dark part of the picture by means of yellow drapery, a cow, sheep, or a few touches of golden colour, according as he wishes such extension of his light large or small. If the principal light is cold, such as blue and white, we find it repeated either by a reflection in water, or a figure dressed in the same cold tint. Portrait painters generally make use of the light in the sky to repeat the lights of their head and hands, by making it of the same colour. 14 PRACTICAL HINTS ON Plate II. Rembrandt, from his first commencement in the art, seems to have been always solicitous to represent the brightness of light at the sacrifice of every other quality ; and in his first works it often forms a circumscribed spot, for, as Reynolds justly observes, " that light must appear the brightest which is surrounded by the greatest quantity of shade;" but though this conduct enables the artist to give light one of its strong- characteristics, whether it be the sun, a candle, fire, &c. yet there are other properties quite as essential, and more easy to contend with, which are its effects on the different objects it illuminates. Rembrandt's close attention to nature soon led him to expand his principle ; for example, he perceived the flame of a candle exceeded in brightness every thing round it in a tenfold ratio, which could be expressed only by darkening the whole, and leaving the light in a spot, and thereby extinguishing its influential effect: but if the candle itself was hid, the appearance of every object under its influence was not only more easily given, but the effect of the whole became more deceptive and natural. His extending of the light through the picture gradually became more enlarged; and even his deepest shadows are illuminated by streaks of red or rich brown running into theni^ which (from his principal light being of a warm tone) keep up a connexion without destroying the breadth of light and shade. In Fig. 1 of this Plate, " Christ restoring the Daughter of Jairus," we have a principle upon which many of his pictures are constructed, viz. a ray of light falling into an apartment, and received upon a light object LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 15 which, as in nature, reflects back the rays, and illuminates the surrounding objects, giving- thus his principal light the properties of light itself. The shadows of all objects receiving such direct rays, we sometimes see strongly defined, as is the case in nature, and indeed we often find Rembrandt placing objects for the express purpose of producing such shadows, which gives an appearance of truth to the whole effect; at other times we find the shadows swallowed up in the splendour of the light, as if afraid of disturbing its breadth. Sometimes we find his strong light, his strong dark, and his hot and cold colours, all focused at one point ; and at other times his darks employed to clear up the middle tint, and his strongest colours made the means of uniting his light with the shade. In short, whatever was his practice, he seems always to have had some end to accomplish, and when we find him departing from what would be the effect in nature under such circumstances, we may rest assured that such departure did not arise from ignorance. We often see the attempts of de Hooge and others of representing light confined to its effect in the sky or on the objects out of doors, while it is but sparingly admitted on the figures seen within the apartment ; on the contrary, Rembrandt's figures are lighted up with a splendour which extinguishes every other subordinate light, and which we often cannot account for upon the common principles of nature. The subject below in Plate II. is from a picture in the Louvre, and shows how small a portion of light sometimes engaged Rembrandt's solicitude. He has employed the edge of the frame work, the dark under the cradle, and the dark dress of the figure to give it its value. The curtain is a dull red, and is carried into the picture by the dress of the child being of the same colour. 16 PRACTICAL, HINTS ON Plate III. Fig. 1, and 2. Fig. 1 and 2 represent the "Taking down from the Cross" and the "Presentation in the Temple." Daulby, in his catalogue, mentions two states of the original etchings more worked upon ; but I find, on examination, they are merely the plates left without being much wiped, thereby casting a stain over the whole, except a high light on the cap of the figure holding the crosier, and a light at the torch in the " Taking down from the Cross," the copper being made clean at those places. In many of the varieties of Rembrandt's etchings he has got credit for effects supposed to be produced by much labour, which were the result of the printing alone. In the Descent from the Cross he has kept the principal light in the upper part of the picture in contact with the strong dark ; in the other it is kept below, and is carried upwards by a chain of communication to the head of the crosier. Where the light is at one side, or low down in the picture, such as in the " Wise Men's Offering," in the king's collection, there is greater space for a breadth of shadow, than when the light is kept in the centre, as was the principle of most of his first works. In some of his designs he seems to have allowed the entire half of his canvass for repose, and to have confined his composition, with all its lights, and darks, and colours, to the other half. Very little often serves to connect the two. J'/att . < FuZ&sforf July 2.1826. LIOHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 17 The dark manner of Rembrandt has advantages over every other, if kept within due bounds, as it enables the painter to give a rich tone to his colours without their appearing heavy, which more feeble backgrounds would not admit of, unless the colours are to stand as darks instead of lights; accordingly we find Titian, Tintoretto, Giorgione, Rembrandt, and our own Reynolds, all swayed by the same opinion. Plate 1U. Fig. 3. When the light part of the composition is placed upon the dark side of the background, and the dark part upon the light side, greater firmness and solidity are produced, and a more equal balance is kept up. The contrary method has more breadth and softness of effect, but unless the light part is of a different hue from the light ground upon which it may be placed, and the dark part is of a warmer or colder tone than the shadow which surrounds it, there is a danger of their losing their substance and becoming flat. Vandyck, in this composition, has made the colours of his figures assist his arrangement of light and shade; the white dress of the child and the yellow dress of the queen make the principal light; the white is repeated by the cap, ruff, &c. of the other figures; the yellow is carried across by the embroidery upon the king's dress, and spread out upon the under part of the sky; the darks are D 18 PRACTICAL HINTS ON made up of the dark dress of the king and the child's dress, which is a dull green ; the latter tint is carried across the picture by part of the curtain turned up, of the same colour ; the curtain itself is a dull yellow and brown, serving as a ground to the queen's dress ; the red cloth of the table is repeated by the two chairs ; the floor being a dark neutral tint gives a firmness to the bottom of both the figures. If the Student, in examining the light and shade of a picture, remarks what colours are resorted to for such purpose, in a few trials he will find that which at first appears complicated and difficult to unravel will become easy and beneficial, serving to strengthen his powers of reflection in the highest degree. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 11) Plate III. Fig. 4. The dark forming the greatest mass of shadow of the picture is often, before being brought in contact with the extreme light, increased and collected to a point by some object whose local colour conduces to such purpose, as in the example here given ; where the black dress of the female is brought, at its darkest portion, in contact with the lightest portion of the white dress. This serves to give air to the deepest shades of the background, and greater firmness to the object so relieved. The collecting to one head all the light, and all the dark, of a piece, gives the Artist the greatest force of the palette. To enable the other side of the picture to keep up with so much vigour, Metzu has thrown his strong colour into the scale, and brought his red and blue in contact, by a glove lying upon the chair, at the point nearest the eye. The warm colour is taken to the other side by a dog, &c. and the white of the female repeated by a handkerchief the man holds in his hand, his neckcloth, &c. 20 PRACTICAL HINTS ON Plate IV. Fig. 1. In a single head we often have but one light; it is therefore necessary to get it to harmonize with the shadow, either in the background or upon the dress. Rembrandt, accordingly, frequently painted the light of the dress of the same colour as the shadow side of the face, thereby keeping up a union and simplicity. In Fig. 2 we have the hands making a second light; and in Fig. 3 we have three spots of light, the shirt and ruffles of both hands : this is the Titian Reynolds thus mentions in the description of the Dusseldorf gallery, and which is now in Munich : " A portrait of a gentleman, by Titian, a kitcat; one hand a-kimbo, the hand itself not seen, only a bit of the ruffle ; the other, the left, rests on what appears to be his sword ; he is looking off. This portrait has a very pleasing countenance, but is not painted with much facility, nor is it at all mannered ; the shadows are of no colour ; the drapery being black, and the ground being very near as dark as it, prevents the arm a-kimbo from having a bad effect. It is no small part of our art to know what to bring- forward in the light, and what to throw into shade." The linen in this picture, and most others of Titian, is light and cutting, the flesh forming the half light. Reynolds, talking of the Descent from the Cross, by Reubens, says, " he well knew what effect white linen, opposed to flesh, must have, with his powers of colouring ; and the truth is, that none but great colourists can venture to paint pure white linen near flesh ; but such know the advantage of it." In Rembrandt we generally find the same treatment, although I have often observed the linen kept LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 21 cool when near the face. To give the flesh a luminous character, he often introduces cool tints coining near it, and, when he can find nothing else, uses the shadows of linen for such purpose. In Vandyck's early Italian manner we find the linen much brighter than in his later works, where it became more of a leaden cast. Plate IV. Fig. 4, and 5. We sometimes find the light of the sky introduced for the purpose of repeating the lights of the heads and hands, as in Fig. 4; sometimes to spread and enlarge the lights of the head, and give it more consequence, as in Fig. 5. To assist the hand in keeping its situation in this picture, he has defined it by the hat and shadow on the chair. As it is of the utmost consequence that every object should keep its relative distance with regard to the eye of the spectator, it is a good method to define those parts we wish to advance by a dark shadow coming in contact with them, and to surround the retiring portions with the ground of a less opposing character ; as we know lines strongly and sharply defined will approach, and those of a softer nature will retire. Such blots are afterwards to be accounted for by the contrivance of the artist: in this consists the application of the background of the figures, one of the most difficult and essential portions of the art. As light and shade determine the concavities or convexities of all objects, without them the most intelligent outline would be but as a map 22 PRACTICAL HINTS ON or flat surface. If, for example, we take a cup and examine the influence of light and shade upon it, we find in nature those principles which artists have applied to many purposes in painting. We perceive the near edge strongly defined by the light side coming in contact with the shadow, which becomes darker as it descends into the cup; we have the dark side brought firmly off the light, thus giving it the simplest and most effective means of a true representation of its character. This may appear too evident to notice in a work of this nature, which does not profess to give the mere rudiments of the art; but I am convinced that the most intricate principles of painting emanate from very few sources, and that these sources are of a very simple nature. Every thing within our view is filled with examples, and the mind of the Student requires only to be directed to an examination and investigation of the subject, before commencing any work, or while in the progress. He must not only know what is his intention, but must be in possession of the best method of expressing such intention. Plate V. Fig. 1. When a shadow is carried through the middle of the picture, we have not only an opportunity of giving a breadth of effect; but the receding portion of the sky and perspective of the ground are assisted by their sharpness being swallowed up in repose ; see this principle noticed at Fig. 1. Plate V. Zbilished Jidy J.J82ff. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 23 Plate V. Fig. 2, and 3. When the principal light is kept at one side, we have an opportunity of introducing a larger portion of shadow, than when the light is in the centre, which is often of the first consequence, especially if repose is required in the work. When, as in Fig. 2, a multitude of small objects are introduced into a picture, or when the general arrangement consists of many figures, it is impossible to get a breadth of light and shade, unless many of them are united together of the same strength, so as to form a mass of light, or of dark; but which to do with skill is one of the greatest difficulties; for unless the science is in some measure concealed, it is no longer science. In the confusion of a battle, for example, it is unlikely that two or three white horses should be collected, so as to form a mass of light ; and yet we see in Salvator Rosa, and Wouvermans, this method adopted ; or in a representation of dead game it is equally improbable that we should always find a swan for the same purpose, as in Weeninx. To obviate such apparent artifice of the painter, we find P. Veronese, Tintoretto, and others, making use of the sky, or light buildings, for a principal mass in their large works, consisting of many figures. In the small works of the Dutch School we find the light upon a wall, or on the ground, or in a window, in indoor subjects, and the sky, &c. in open daylight, made use of for this purpose. 24 PRACTICAL HINTS ON Gerard Douw, notwithstanding his extreme finish, contrived to preserve that breadth of light and shade, which his instruction in the school of Rembrandt had empowered him to do ; and in small works this breadth of effect is the more difficult to retain, seeing that there is so little space for the middle tints, darks, lights, and reflected lights, to be observed in nature, and withal, for a certain bluntness in the outline, to prevent the several objects from looking like small models. Reynolds, in his notes to Fresnoy, to illustrate this quality, says, " We may have recourse to Titian's bunch of grapes, which we will suppose placed so as to receive a broad light and shadow ; here, though each individual grape on the light side of the bunch has its light, and shadow, and reflection, yet altogether they make but one broad mass of light ; the slightest sketch, therefore, where this breadth is preserved, will have a better effect, will have more the appearance of coming from a master hand, that is, in other words, will have more the characteristic and generate of nature, than the most laborious finishing where this breadth is lost or neglected." One method amongst many which we sometimes find Gerard Douw adopting, so as to convey an appearance of high finishing, and yet preserve the breadth of nature, is to give the texture, or surface, of an object without altering the tints. For example, in painting a piece of carpet or tapestry, he seems to have laid in his broad lights and shadows, and, while wet, applied a piece of fine cloth, so as to leave an impression of the threads over the whole, then in the high lights to have touched each thread with light, and in the shadow with dark touching, which, did the lines accord with the undulation of the folds, would have given a true appearance of the breadth and detail of nature. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 25 The art of giving a finished look to a picture is one of the most difficult departments of painting, for under it is implied the exact strengthening of the different shades and colours, which defines their relative situations in the picture, the introduction of and detailing the minute parts, without disturbing the great breadth of the whole, and the giving to different substances their several and proper characters. The term finish, when applied to colouring, implies giving to the representations of objects that exact tone which the objects themselves possess in nature under the same circumstances, either by repeated glazings with transparent washes, or by a careful mixture of the colours on the palette in the first instance. As the principle of placing the light at the side of the picture has already been noticed at Plate III., I shall, in adverting to Fig. 3 of the present plate, merely mention the colour. The principal light is composed of the white and blue garments of Christ, and repeated in the sky, it being of the same cool tint; the warm light of the angel makes the principal for the head and hands of Christ, and is repeated by a torch carried by figures in the distance. So much cold colour being admitted on the lights, requires the shadows to be kept warm, to prevent the picture from looking heavy ; accordingly we find Coreggio has kept the darks of a rich brown : Rembrandt, who was master of this department of art, when his light is cool, makes his shadows the hotter the darker they become : Rubens, who formed his style of colouring upon the Venetian, seems to have been guided by the same opinion. In one of his maxims he says, " Begin by painting in your shadows lightly, taking care that no white is suffered to glide into them ; it is the poison of a picture except in the lights ; if ever your shadows are E 26 PRACTICAL HINTS ON corrupted by the introduction of this baneful colour, your tones will no longer be warm and transparent, but heavy and leady. It is not the same in the lights, they may be loaded with colour as much as you think proper." Whoever examines the works of the great colourists, will find this impasting of the lights, and keeping the shadows rich, juicy, and transparent, was their universal practice. The original of this subject, which is in the possession of the cluke of Wellington, has this character, as indeed have all the works from Coreggio's own hand. Opie in his lectures gives a clear definition of Coreggio's management of chiar- oscuro, as follows : " By classing his colours, and judiciously dividing them into few and large masses of bright and obscure, gently rounding off his light, and passing, by almost imperceptible degrees, through pellucid demi-tints and warm reflections, into broad, deep, and transparent shade ; he artfully connected the fiercest extremes of light and shadow, harmonized the most intense opposition of colours, and combined the greatest possible effect with the sweetest and softest repose imaginable." Plate VI. Fig. 1. I have noticed in another place, that when the darks of the group are brought off the light side of the background, greater firmness is obtained, and more vivacity, which latter is the peculiar character of daylight. Cuyp, by placing his figures in such a position as to throw long shadows across the picture, gives a great appearance of sunshine. If the strong LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 27 darks are placed on the delicate half light, instead of on the strong light, they have greater force, as the ground has a more retiring quality : the strong colours have also a more natural appearance, "as in the event of colours being opposed to the glare of light, their brilliancy is destroyed. A few small touches of light are sufficient to convey the light into the dark side of the picture, and to take off the heaviness of the shadows. In compositions, when the background is very dark, we find shining substances, such as mirrors, metal, armour, &c. employed, as they take on a sharp light, and thereby connect the shade with the light without destroying its breadth ; on the contrary, they add to its depth. Plate VI. Fig. 2. When the light part of the group is placed upon the light side of the ground, provided there can be sufficient firmness given, we must of necessity have a greater breadth of etfect. Vandyck has in this picture kept the principal light upon the sleeve of the jacket (which makes the most prominent point), and has diffused it upon the sky. The cool tints of the shadows of the jacket, and part of a blue ribbon detach it from the under part of the sky, which is warm. The warm colouring of the boy, and the cloak which he carries, and the king's breeches being of a dull 28 PRACTICAL HINTS ON red, assist the arrangement. The warm colours are carried into the shadow side of the picture by the dun colour of the horse, the stump of the tree, and the saddle-cloth. The cool blue of the sky mixes with the foliage of the trees, and prevents it from interfering with the hat, which has greater point in consequence, and balances the shadow side of the picture, besides drawing the attention of the spectator to the head. The warm colour of the flesh necessarily detaches itself from the cool ground ; but in such situations we often find Rubens and all his pupils bring- strong blue in contact with the head, which gives it a great value, and a luminous effect. We thus perceive a light figure may be strongly relieved even by a light background, provided the colours are opposed to each other ; thereby preserving the greatest breadth of light. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 29 Plate VI. Fig. 3. We have in this subject the dark of the group brought off the light part of the ground with great firmness, and a very large portion of the outline sharp and cutting, which, though it may give the strong feature of natural objects, has a harsh appearance at first sight. Whether it be that in real objects their actual existence enables them to harmonize with the harshest effects of light and shade ; or that the real separation of one part from another admits of a strength of colour incompatible with a fiat surface, such as an outline on canvass, is worthy of the Student's examination; as in nature he will often find the most distant parts of an object more sharp and cutting than the nearest outlines, and yet keep their situation. To represent this on canvass requires the most scientific management; as a work may have the strength and freshness of nature, without being a just representation, when the situation of one part with regard to another is taken into the account. Potter in this picture (in which the objects are of the natural size) has made use of the simplest and firmest principles, as regards light and shade. We have the group strongly defined by part of it coming light off a dark ground, and dark off a light one j we have the composition 30 PRACTICAL HINTS ON taking a decided form in one direction, and the light running across it in another : we have therefore the strong look of nature, which consists of simplicity, decision, and strength. In the early masters we have these qualities often in a high degree ; and had they less of an inlaid flat appearance, would be more valuable than the more harmonious softenings of modern light and shade ; but we must never forget that objects in nature are more or less round, that they are delicate as well as forcible, and that the harshest colours are under the influence of light and shade. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING 31 Plate VI. Fig. 4. The light part of the group is here brought in contact with the light part of the background, and the shadow assisted in its strength by the local colour of the objects placed within it. The yellow cow, which makes the light, is surrounded by others of a dull red and brown, which are relieved by a still darker ground. This gives a great breadth to the group. The cool colour of the upper part of the sky is carried across the picture by the grass and leaves being of a cool green ; the dark sharp marking of the horns, eyes, &c. gives a lightness and finish to the whole, as it allows the broad lights and shadows to have more union. In Cuyp the local colour of his objects, whether hot or cold, is kept up undisturbed by the light and shade ; this gives great breadth and the distinctness of nature in open daylight. Plate VI. Fig. 5. In this subject we have the light figure upon the dark ground, and vice versa. In nature we often perceive strong effects arising out of simple and decided principles, which, if sketched at the time, will be of the utmost value to the Student, by giving him an insight into the science of light and shade; and will often serve as a key to commence with in forming larger combinations. Reynolds mentions a mode of composing 32 PRACTICAL HINTS ON by taking a figure from some celebrated master, and designing others to correspond with it ; thereby imparting a grandeur of style to the whole. So, by commencing with something sketched from nature, we give a decided look of truth to the other parts of the picture. Many painters model their groups for the purpose of obtaining a true representation of the light and shade. Small figures, however rude in form, will serve this purpose, and give the Artist many invaluable hints. Tintoretto and Coreggio, both great masters of chiaroscuro, are known to have availed themselves of this method ; and the Student must have a most erroneous idea of his art, who imagines excellence can be obtained without the assistance of every auxiliary. The most learned arrange- ments of light and shade may astonish ; but there is a charm in the chiaroscuro of nature which carries irresistible sway. Plate VI. Fig. 6. In this subject we have the dark group brought off the light side of the background in the simplest and most decided manner ; and the principles of light and shade made applicable to giving the strong look of nature, viz. breadth and solidity to the ground, and light and extent to the sky. Rembrandt has often been accused of being artificial in his effects, but he never misses his aim, either in representing the splendid emanations of light, or the quiet depths of shadow ; the peculiar character of an object, LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 33 either in texture or in colour, and that appearance, familiar to the recollection of every one; but to convey which, either in poetry or in painting, is only in the power of a few. Rembrandt seems always to have taken up a leading feature in his works, and never to have lost sight of it. The varieties in his prints are but corroborations of this : as in his anxiety for its preservation we trace him destroying every impediment, either by covering down or burying whole groups in shadow, or by leaving in, an unfinished state other groups, with a mere outline to define them. For example, if we take the first state of the print of the great Ecce Homo, we perceive he has made Christ in the centre of a group, in a quiet broad mass of light, with the strong darks gradating from him, right and left, and surrounded by masses of half tint. He has then etched in the principal group, commencing with the figure addressing the multitude, and terminating with the right hand of Pilate. This portion being in strong light, interspersed with a variety of strong darks, acquires by this means great brilliancy and agitation. We have therefore the quiet character of Christ preserved, and his superiority maintained, by his forming the centre of one group, and the apex of the other, rising, as Fuseli describes it, u like a pyramid from the tumultuous waves below." If we take his print of the Angels appearing to the Shepherds, in the first state we find a broad mass of shadow running through the centre in a diagonal line, thus giving it its greatest magnitude. In the upper part is preserved the principal light, radiating from a centre, with a multitude of children, sporting in its beams, and out of which the angel addresses F 34 PRACTICAL HINTS ON the shepherds across this gulf of shadow. The second light, which is in the lower portion of the print, he has, in the next state, cut up by a number of darks and lights, irregularly dispersed, thus conveying the appearance of confusion and terror to the shepherds, their herds, and flocks, which are represented flying in all directions. These two examples out of many, which the Student will discover by his own examination, will suffice to show that light and shade may be made to contribute to the character and fitness of the subject; and that of this adaptation of it, Rembrandt holds unrivalled possession. Plate VII. When a picture is chiefly composed of light and half tint, the darks of the figures must necessarily tell with great force, from there being so little of half shade to rob them of their value ; the midday sun, filling with intense light every particle of the atmosphere, gives that luminous appearance, which is so strongly characteristic of an out of door effect, the dark local colours of the figures, from the absorption of the rays, retain undiminished power, and give that firmness and vivacity to the scene which prevents it from looking feeble. In nature, figures from their upright position, have a greater consequence from the flat shadows being Pk& 7. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 35 weakened by the light of the sky falling into them ; for, seeing that the whole heavens are tilled with light, it is showered down and reflected in all directions. Also, from their being in motion, they attract the eye; a circumstance to be noticed by the Artist, who has to give them their relative value on canvass, as they possess in reality. The consideration of all these circumstances influences many painters, in giving the darks the full force of the palette. As a general character and the leading features of strong daylight are to be purchased at any sacrifice, critics who do not sufficiently investigate these matters, may complain of want of air, but the Student, by a close attention to the subject, will not easily be scared by the cry of "sans vapeur." Birds in the air, boats on the water, figures on the sands, cornfields, or light roads, have all this characteristic feature in a high degree, from the middle tint being on so light a key. Cuyp often accomplishes this by the general tone of the picture being- warm, and his shadows brownish, thereby allowing his blue draperies and cool blacks to have greater point. P. Veronese and Rubens have many pictures on the same principle. Opposition of colour is of great importance in the treatment of pictures on a light key, as it gives great relief and distinctness without cutting up the breadth of light ; such as blue upon a warm ground, or red upon a cool one, bright yellow upon a cool gray, &lc. In No. 3, Claude has made great use of such opposition. The general appearance of the picture is warm, the dark blue of the water is carried across the piece by the dark blue draperies of some of the figures, and is suffused upon 36 PRACTICAL HINTS ON the upper part of the sky. The red is interspersed upon the boats and the draperies of the other figures; and, warming the near part of the buildings, is repeated at the top by a figure looking over the balcony and two red flags upon the blue of the sky. He has placed two blue flags upon the warm part of the sky, to repeat the cool colour. Pictures painted on a dark key have already been noticed as possessing many advantages, which have led our greatest colourists to its adoption. But as low toned pictures are apt to look heavy and black, unless richness of shadows, or sharpness of lights be preserved ; so pictures painted on a light key are apt to look flat and unfinished, unless the greatest circumspection be used. In nature, the intense light of the sky, and the atmosphere, which is filled with its innumerable refractions, spread a luminous character over the whole scene; to represent which the Artist can employ only a greater degree of whiteness, a very inadequate quality, and hence the great difficulty of imitating the splendid brightness of midday, or the brilliant effects of an evening sky. In treating the one, unless the delicate varieties of the half lights are attended to with the greatest care, the picture will look crude and unfinished ; for the tints being so nearly allied to each other, the exact sharpness to define them, and their exact tone, either by repeated scumbling, or mixing them to the proper tint in the first instance, require an attention and study of the most refined quality ; without which the shadows will be powdery instead of pearly, or the lights white instead of luminous. In the other arrange- ment the yellow tones may become solid and foxy, if deprived of the delicate cool tints so necessary to prevent their appearing too hot, and to give the whole that tremulous unsteady appearance which light possesses in nature. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. Light pictures, from the tenderness of their light and shade, require the colours opposed to each other, whether blue opposed to red, or yellow to cool gray, to be managed with the greatest delicacy ; otherwise their strength will destroy all appearance of light and air. In light pictures strong colours can stand only as middle tint, or for leading the light into the shade, but can appear as lights only by being relieved by strong shadow. We often find them, as in P. Veronese, &c. standing as darks, or made use of to give objects an appearance of solidity, without breaking up the general mass of light in the picture. 38 PRACTICAL HINTS ON Plate VIII. I shall here recur to the subject of middle tint, for the purpose of taking a general view of the various modes of arranging this important branch of light and shade ; as upon the strength of the middle tint depends, in a great measure, the general look of the picture. By the middle tint is meant the medium between the extreme dark and extreme light; but as such a scale is too gross to take in all the gradations lying between so opposite qualities, I have, for the sake of clearness, made use of inter- mediate links, viz. half dark and half light. If we take a ground of a shade composed chiefly of half dark and middle tint, and introduce the strongest lights, we shall find it necessary to introduce a portion of half light to spread and break down their harshness. If the extreme dark is placed upon the middle tint, it will by contrast render it more in union with the half light ; if it be placed on the half dark, a breadth of shadow and softness will be the result. Harshness of effect in treating pictures upon a dark scale arises, most commonly, from the want of sufficient quantities of middle tint and half light, thereby causing the principal light to be too much defined ; as we frequently observe in the works of Michael Angelo Caravaggio. Rembrandt and Coreggio excelled all others in the introduction of demi tints, which illuminate their deepest shadows. In their works and Fui? ' Ju2y JS26,ty f&j>m£er& San. Old .Bond Street. LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 39 in nature we perceive the lowest tones of middle tint are removed from blackness, either by their warmth, or the introduction of some positive black or blue, to produce an appearance of air floating within them. The exact quantity of middle tint must depend upon the arrangement of the subject and the taste of the painter ; but it is absolutely necessary, to prevent it from always interposing betwixt the extreme light and extreme dark. This invariably gradual declination of the light into the shadow is one cause of the insipid look of most of Vanderwerf's works, nor is it, as Sir Joshua Reynolds justly observes, consonant with the effects in nature. Variety demands some portion of the composition to be sharp and cutting ; and richness is to be obtained only by a continual changing of portions coming sometimes dark and sometimes light off the ground ; this endless variety in nature can be imitated only by this intricate weaving of the outline with the background ; so that the same sound principles which guide the conduct in the treatment of the whole, may be traced in the management of the detail. Middle tint, in pictures painted on a light key, ought to be in some measure robbed of its consequence, either by the introduction of reflected lights, or positive half lights; for if it occupies too large a portion of the canvass, the work must of necessity lose its characteristic feature. We must therefore depend upon some other agent to prevent the picture being flimsy, and void of that solidity which is so inherent in the most delicate of nature's works. Accordingly we find small sharp darks introduced, the value of which has been noticed in another place; and 40 PRACTICAL HINTS ON (what is of the utmost importance) a sharp edge to the lights and half shadows throughout the whole. The light pictures of Teniers and Cuyp are full of this precision in the touch, a flatness in the shades, a sharpness in the handling, and a distinctness in the most approximate colours ; by this alone a general breadth can be preserved, and the most splendid light (even of a sky) filled with a multitude of forms. In this notice of middle tint or ground of the picture, I may appear to have recapitulated what has already been said in other parts of the work ; but my anxiety to put the Student in possession of every informa- tion in my power urges me to place it before his eyes in every point of view. The management of light and shade, as relates to a whole, ought to be always present in the Student's mind, as it is from inattention to this alone that a work is often destroyed in its progress. In the commence- ment of a picture those parts only are strongly defined, or marked in, which are of the greatest importance; and the other portions are left in a broader and less obtrusive state. But in the progress of the work the proper subordination of the latter is often injuriously diminished. The general character of an object is its most important feature, and this is to be preserved at the price of every other quality, if it cannot be retained upon other terms ; as it is this which is imprinted on the mind of every one, and which is therefore paramount to all its other properties. If the object does not possess this feature upon the canvass, it cannot LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 41 attract or interest the spectator, as in all probability its other properties are unveiled except to the Artist alone, who has examined it attentively. For example, in a portrait, when we see the head alone finished, it often pleases more than when the work is complete ; our attention is led involuntarily to the countenance, which would be the case were we introduced to the original ; and this preponderance, which exists in nature, must of necessity become less when in the finished work the other portions of the picture have received a greater consequence. The importance of the countenance, the general character of the flesh, viz. its transparency, breadth of local colour, luminous appearance, &c. may be all lost from the injudicious introduction, in the other parts of the picture, of lights, darks, and middle tints, in the Artist's anxiety for richness of effect, or in his wish to give splendour and harmony by the strength or variety of his colours. In sketching a landscape from nature, when we have time only to put down the leading features, detailing such objects alone as are striking or interesting, we find the spectator often more satisfied from feeling a corresponding sensation from the truth of the representation imprinted on his mind, than when, in a more finished work, the painter has destroyed the great breadth and luminous character of the sky for the purpose of mixing the shadows of the clouds with the trees, &c. to counteract flatness, or when he has subdued the strength of his colours for the sake of taking off their harshness. When he begins to define the different parts for the sake of finish, unless he has the treatment of the picture as a whole constantly before his eye, the expansive look of the sky, the fresh and decided appearance of nature in the colours, the gray tones and soft G 42 PRACTICAL HINTS ON markings of the aerial perspective may all disappear, and give place to requisites of an inferior kind. In all objects in nature there is something predominant, and which alone has struck the observation of every one. If the Artist gives that, he brings his object at once home to " men's bosoms," and without which his greatest labour is but industrious trifling. The character of an object depends upon a particular colour, a particular touch, a particular concentration or diffusion of light, according to its form or substance ; to obtain which ought to be the constant study of the Student, as it is the language of his art, and the only language universally understood. I have in these brief notices of the art of light and shade endeavoured to point out the various modes of establishing a scientific arrangement of its powers, and applying them to any subject the Student may have in hand. The changes are infinite ; but, by an attentive examination of the effects in nature or in art, he will find the sources from which they arise few and simple. Opie in his lectures, speaking of chiaroscuro, strongly recommends the study of the several masters who have excelled in this department of the art : " By studying the works of the great masters of chiaroscuro, he will by degrees become acquainted with all the artifices of contrasting light to shade, colour to colour, to produce relievo, of joining light objects together, and dark objects together, in masses, in order to give splendour and breadth of effect ; of gradually sinking some objects wholly or partly in shadow, and losing their outlines in the ground, to produce softness and harmony; and of making, in other places, abrupt breaks and sharp transitions, to produce vivacity and spirit. He will LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 43 also learn their rules for shaping their masses, and of adapting them in regard to force or softness to the nature of the subject, whether grave or gay, sublime or terrible. By this he must be directed when to give his light the form of a globe, or when to send it in a stream across his canvass ; when to make a dark mass on a light ground, or a light mass on a dark ground ; when he may let his light die away by imperceptible gradations, when diffuse it in greater breadth and abundance, and when it may more properly be concentrated into one vivid flash." This is so excellent, and embraces so many of the best modes of the management of light and shade, that the Student, who can comprehend them and put them in practice, requires no farther instruction in this part of the art. He will be in possession of a key to unlock the richest stores of nature ; he will be in possession of a sort of short-hand to note down her most fleeting effects ; and, by understanding the cause which gives them exist- ence, rivet them in his memory. Without having accustomed himself to this mode of arranging his observations, his life will be spent in an endless search after that which is continually passing before his eyes. Light and shade, considered as a means of producing a deception, by making parts of the picture advance, and other parts retire, so that every thing may keep its relative situation, as regards the distance from the spectator, is a necessary attendant upon perspective. It is, however, often violated in the best works, for the purpose of giving a general breadth, or of preserving the light in a good shape ; but, when compatible with both these, it is of the utmost consequence ; and the painter can enter into a competition with nature only by a perfect knowledge of the best modes of adapting it to such purpose. 44 PRACTICAL HINTS ON Richness of effect, either by a mixture of the light and shade, so as to give an appearance of doubling to the outline, or by relieving the outline by a ground possessed of a variety of strengths ; and distinctness of form, surrounded by flatness, when we wish any part to attract notice, or to preserve the expression undisturbed, are both under the dominion of chiaroscuro, to whose control the whole array of colours yields implicit obedience. The application of light and shade, in a poetical point of view, is capable of creating an association of ideas, without which the imagination of the spectator would experience nothing but disappointment. For example, if we represent a scene remarkable for disasters or shipwrecks, the mind is excited, and an expectation raised, which none but an Artist imbued with the poetry of the art can gratify, by clothing the scene in all the ominous effects of elemental strife : whether the shadow " Strangles the travelling lamp : ********* That darkness doth the face of earth entomb, When living light should kiss it ?" — or " The sky seems to pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting in the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out." Shakspeare, who was possessed of all the poetry of the art, clothes his scenery with those circumstances which awaken a thousand pleasing or awful sensations as the subject may require ; whether " The gray-eyed morn smiles on the frowning night, Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light." LIGHT AND SHADE IN PAINTING. 45 Whether " The glorious sun Stays in his course and plays the alchemist ; Turning with splendour of his precious eye The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold " — . or when " Light thickens; and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood" — or when he bids " Thick night Pall herself in the dunnest smoke of hell " — we have him adopting the softness and breadth of Coreggio, the splendour and gorgeous effects of Veronese, Rubens, or Cuyp, or the ominous twilight and midnight darkness of Rembrandt or Michael Angelo Caravaggio. His light and shade is the chiaroscuro of nature passing through a mind susceptible of its finest impressions, and capable of placing such effects before the eye of the spectator, " unshorn of their beams," or unimpaired in their sublimity. FINIS. C. Whittingham, Chiswick. PRACTICAL HINTS ON COLOUR IN PAINTING. ILLUSTRATED BY Examples from tfjc 32torfts VENETIAN, FLEMISH, AND DUTCH SCHOOLS. BY JOHN BURNET. " With respect to Colouring, though it may appear at first a part of painting merely mechanical, yet it still has its rules, and those grounded upon that presiding principle which regulates both the great and the little in the study of a painter." sir j. Reynolds. FIFTH EDITION. LONDON : JAMES CARPENTER, OLD BOND STREET. 1813. CHlSWIfK : PRINTED BY C. WHITT1.NGH AM. PREFACE. In this Third Part of the Work, which treats of Colour in Painting, my endeavour has been to investigate and arrange under some tangible form the many loose suggestions which lie scattered in the different authors who have treated of the subject ; to collect and commit to paper those rules of practice which artists are guided by, without, perhaps, being aware from what source they have been derived, but which, as Reynolds says, " pass current from one to another ;" and to illustrate by slight examples many of the arrangements of Colour from the Venetian school (who, with the Bolognese school, were the first to collect Vlll PREFACE. into masses their warm and cold colours), down to the Flemish and Dutch schools, who may be said, by the excellence of their works, to have established upon unerring principles the whole theory of chiaroscuro and colouring. All that constitutes harmony and breadth of effect, and the soft and vigorous tones of nature, is contained in their works ; and, various as their combinations of colours appear, they seem to depend upon the simplicity of arrangement for the certainty of their effect. If, by these few hints thrown together, I have pointed out a shorter road to the student, something has been gained ; and should it stimulate his mind to investigate the different combi- nations of colour which please or offend his eye, a degree of certainty will attend his practice, unattainable by the mere habit of copying either from nature or from art. I have aimed at establishing no theory but such as exists in the works of the best colourists, and those effects in nature which are daily passing before us. If my researches have led me to differ in opinion from former writers, I trust it will be ascribed only to a desire of establishing the truth, a feeling which ought at all times to be paramount to every other consideration. Should it appear that these hints carry the student but little on his way, it must be PREFACE. i\ remembered that little exists in the shape of a practical treatise upon the science of colour, and even that that little lies scattered in a multitude of disjointed criticisms. To present these in a collected and concentrated form must abridge his labour ; to establish them by illustrations derived from widely scattered sources, must abridge it still more. February, 1827. CONTENTS. Pagt f Colour . . . 1 Plate 1 6 Plate II 12 Plate III 24 Plate IV 28 Plate V 44 Plate VI 46 Plate VII 56 Plate VIII 60 PRACTICAL HINTS ON COLOUR IN PAINTING. OF COLOUR. The proper situation of strong colour is neither in the high light nor in the deep shade, for it would destroy the character of either ; but if it is made use of as an intermediate link, it will unite both ; at the same time preserve a greater consequence. Whether it is to be warm or cold must depend upon the colour of the principal light, of which it is to be considered as an extension, conveying its influence into the darkest recesses ; and the light will be either warm or cold, according as it mixes itself with the following arrangements : white, yellow, red, brown, black ; white, gray, green, blue, black. Vide Plate I. Fig. 4t and 5. Yet, although colour holds the station of middle tint, it is nevertheless more capable of giving the true representation of natural objects than the most scientific arrangements of chiaroscuro ; and by the judicious manage- ment of it, a picture is rendered pleasing and attractive. Reynolds justly observes, " By this the first effect of a picture is produced ; and as this is performed, the spectator, as he walks the gallery, will stop or pass along." That this principal light influences the other lights, we see in nature, and B 2 PRACTICAL HINTS in the best colourists ; but Mengs says, "that the deepest shades ought also to be of the tint of which the general harmony is composed ; because it is supposed that the air is already tinged with this colour, through which the light must of necessity pass." The general tone of the picture, therefore, ought to be determined on in the first instance, as every thing- ought to accord with it for the sake of harmony and truth ; what this tone is to consist of is therefore of the utmost importance to the student to inquire. Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the notes to Du Fresnoy, says, " The predominant colours of the picture ought to be of a warm mellow kind, red or yellow ; and no more cold colour should be introduced than will be just enough to serve as a ground or foil to set off and give value to the mellow colours; and never should itself be a principal. For this purpose a quarter of the picture will be sufficient ; those cold colours, whether blue, gray, or green, are to be dispersed about the ground or surrounding parts of the picture, wherever it has the appearance of wanting such a foil, but sparingly employed in the masses of light." Also in his Eighth Discourse he recapitulates the same advice. u It ought, in my opinion, to be indispensably observed, that the masses of light in a picture be always of a warm mellow colour, yellow, red, or a yellowish white ; and that the blue, the gray, or the green colours be kept almost entirely out of these masses, and be used only to support and set off" these warm colours : and for this purpose a small proportion of cold colours will be sufficient. Let this conduct be reversed; let the light be cold, and the surrounding colours warm, as we often see in the works of the Roman and Florentine painters ; and it will be out of the power of art, even in the hands of Rubens or Titian, to make a picture splendid and harmo- nious." Now if this advice was always to be acted upon, the student would not only become a mannerist, but the school to which he belonged become a school of monotony. Pleasure can be conveyed only by imi- tating the variety always existing in nature. I believe Gainsborough painted the portrait of a boy dressed in blue, now in the possession of Lord Grosvenor, to show the fallacy of this doctrine ; which, from his ON COLOUR IN PAINTING. 3 surrounding the light with rich brown and warm shadows, has produced a splendid effect. Gainsborough seems always to have been aware of the value of warm and transparent shadows: his rich brown tones serve as a foil to the green of his trees, &c., while this colour brings down the blue and yellow tints of his sky and distance, and by this means unites the hot and cold colours in harmony. In nature we as often find the light cool as warm ; also in the pictures of many of the Flemish and Dutch schools, where, as Sir Joshua himself mentions, " the silver gray or pearly is predominant, and are valued by the connoisseurs in proportion as they possess this excellence of a silver tint." In the Venetian school he instances the famous Marriage at Cana, in St. George's Church at Venice, (now in the Louvre), " where the sky, which makes a considerable part of the picture, is of the lightest blue colour, and the clouds perfectly white ; the rest of the picture is in the same key, wrought from this high pitch." In Rubens we have many examples where the light is cooler than the shadow : one in particular painted upon this principle struck me to be one of the best of his works; the small picture of the " Fall of the Damned" in Munich, formerly the Dusseldorf Gallery. Sir Joshua says " it is impossible to form an idea of the powers of Rubens without having seen this picture." The upper part of the picture, which represents the abode of the Blessed, consists of sweet pearly tints, gradually diffused over the falling group, while the under part is lighted up by the red glare of the fiery gulf into which they are tumbling. This picture is finished with the greatest care and delicacy, and many parts are drawn with the refined taste of Vandyck. It therefore may be considered to have been a carefully studied work. In Rembrandt, and others of the Dutch school, we find this principle adopted, and the light which is admitted from an opening into the apartment mixed with cool pearly tints, while the shadow is illuminated by a fire in the opposite corner of the picture, evidently introduced for this purpose. If, therefore, Le Brun and others of the French school have failed in producing splendour by such arrangement of colour, we must attribute their failure to some other cause. What 4 PRACTICAL HINTS appears to me of infinitely more consequence than the colour of the light, are the colours which compose the shadows and middle tint ; if these be warm, the light may be cold, and yet a rich effect preserved ; if these are cold, no red or yellow will ever make the work splendid. It therefore appears that strong colour requires rich deep shadow to support it, and render it a portion of the light; and no one was more aware of this than Sir Joshua himself. The warm rich browns of Titian, Rembrandt, and Coreggio, authorize us in this conduct. That the picture should consist of hot and cold colours seems therefore as indispensable as that it should have light and shade ; but which shall form the shade, or which the light, is entirely in the option of the artist. It is however necessary that they should have separate situations, and also unite both extremes of the work by an exchange of portions of each colour. We also perceive that according as the shadow is increased in warmth, the light partakes of a portion of its influence : thus in Rembrandt, where the dark masses contain burnt sienna or lake, the blues and grays receive a tinge of yellow; while, in Teniers, whose shades are of a cooler brown, the blues and grays retain a greater degree of freshness. The breadth and harmony observed in nature are produced by the influence of one part over another, and the greatest distinctions are reconciled by an imper- ceptible adjunct. That this harmony, however varied and endless in nature, can be reduced to tangible precepts is proved by our receiving the same plea- surable sensations from the contemplation of the best paintings, whether the mind of the spectator be cultivated or uneducated. As the eye is the organ through which we receive all the sensations derived from painting, its prejudices, its likings and dislikings, and the circumstances which have given rise to all these feelings, are to be investigated in the first instance. Colours that are most agreeable to the eye are such as the eye has become accustomed to from their constantly being presented to the sight; such as blue, white, or gray, in skies; green, in trees and grass; brown, or warm gray, in earth, road, or stone. As, therefore, the eye ON COLOUR IN PAINTING. :> has been formed upon the contemplation of such colours, the general look of nature can be given only by admitting large portions of such colours into the picture ; if they are more viv id than are most commonly observed in nature, the charm is destroyed. All colours rendered familiar by the introduction of artificial means are guided by the same laws ; and a green, though quite unnatural when employed upon herbage, might be strictly natural in representing the local colour of a piece of drapery; yet we may safely admit that the most brilliant colours may receive an advantage in being toned to those hues most common in nature, especially if they form a large miss in the picture. This breaking down of the colours by glazing or scumbling is a great cause of that harmonious sweetness observable in the works of the best colourists, and without which a work will always look crude and unnatural. Without entering into the philosophy of colours, or stopping to inquire whether this harmony depends upon their possessing that order in arrange- ment which they are found in nature to possess, when separated by the prism or observable in the iris, we cannot but remark in nature a certain accordance arising from each object possessing its due portion of every arrangement. For example, in sunrise, when his disk is visible by reason of the density of the atmosphere, we observe the yellow light round his situation tempered and softened down with delicate gray; which tint being also diffused over the local colours in the landscape gives truth and harmony. In Claude we perceive the same breadth, delicacy, and softness. In the evening, when the atmosphere is less dense, we find the colour of the light more brilliant and less interrupted, tinging with the same hue every object placed within its influence; and this we find also in Cuyp and others who have painted landscapes under the same circumstances. Now as this union of one part with another is observable to every one, we see one great cause of harmony, which must be a good foundation for the artist to commence upon ; and seeing that this union depends upon the medium between two extremes, we can only produce an agreeable 6 PRACTICAL HINTS and natural appearance by employing such means. White and black can be reconciled only by the interposition of gray, and red and blue by the presence of a third colour, combining the properties of hot and cold. Light will more easily be spread by the lesser lights partaking of the same hue as the principal, and shadow diffused by the same means, we thus preserve the breadth observable in nature : but as this would in many cases produce monotony, we have a third quality to consult, which is variety, and which in nature being endless, we have an inexhaustible source to draw upon ; and very few colours are necessary to produce this multiplicity of changes, in the employment of which we must however always bear in mind the necessity of preserving the breadth of light and shade, and the balance and union of hot and cold colours. EXPLANATION OF PLATE I. Fig. 1 represents the colours of the iris, which Sir I. Newton describes as seven, their proportions when produced by means of a prism he calculates to be as follows: supposing the whole to form 100 — Red 11, Orange 8, Yellow 14, Green 17, Blue 17, Purple 11, Violet 22; whether the harmony depends upon their natural arrangement, or upon the pro- portions of each, is more an object of philosophy than of painting, which has to produce an agreeable sensation, independent of all theoretical dis- quisition. Treatises have been written to prove that the harmony existing in the seven natural notes in music depend upon the same coincidence, insomuch that ocular harpsichords have been constructed exhibiting colours instead of sounds, and professing to give the same gratification to the eye that the common ones give to the ear, thus endeavouring to prove Lmdm. ft/bKjhed tv J. Carpenter k Joa .OH Bond Jtra* 1927 ON COLOUR IN PAINTING. 7 that painting and music are governed by the same laws of harmony. This harmony arising from the iris is noticed by Leonardi da Vinci in his chapter on the beauty of colour ; he says, " If you mean that the proximity of one colour should give beauty to another that terminates near it, observe the rays of the sun in the composition of the rainbow;" and I believe the late Mr. West endeavoured to establish a theory upon the same foundation. However, as from any thing I have yet read, and after a careful examination of the best pictures of the greatest colourists, from Titian to our own Reynolds, I shall not perplex the student by a repe- tition of the theory; that portion which may be of service to the student (and the worst theory may have some remarkable points of coincidence with that which I am about to discuss) I shall endeavour to preserve in its proper place. Plate I. Fig. 2. I have given here the arrangement of Leonardi da Vinci, who says, "The first of all simple colours is white, though philosophers will not acknowledge white or black to be colours, because the first is the cause or receiver of colours, the other totally deprived of them. But as painters cannot do without either, we shall place them among the others; and according to this order of things, white will be the first, yellow the second, green the third, blue the fourth, red the fifth, and black the sixth." From the little Da Vinci has written upon colour (for I believe the work he contemplated upon the subject never was begun) he reduces the number of primary colours to two, for he says, " Blue and green are not simple colours in their nature; for blue is composed of light and darkness, such as the azure of the sky, which is produced by the transparent body of the air illumined by the sun, and interposed between the darkness of the expanse above, and will appear bluer in proportion to the darkness of the space behind it : and green is composed of a simple and mixed colour, being by blue and yellow." Harmony of colouring requires, he adds, " that the colours ought to be of the same nature ; and contrast is produced by bringing colours in 8 PRACTICAL HINTS contact with others of an opposite character, such as a blue near a yellow, a green near a red, &c. ; because each colour is more distinctly seen when opposed to its contrary than to any other similar to it." In these two modes of producing force and harmony he may be said to have laid a foundation for principles to be traced through the works of the best colourists to the present day. Plate I. Fig. 3 represents the arrangement of Mengs, who says, " Colours, properly speaking, are but three ; yet as we cannot do without black and white," he makes the primary colours five : viz. u white, yellow, red, blue, black ; and secondary colours, or first tints mixed from them, are orange, green, purple, gray, and brown. Harmony" he considers "to consist in the true equilibrium of the different colours regulated by the general tone of the light by which they are illuminated : thus, if the light is yellow, all the colours will appear tinged with the same hue, as the air interposed between them and the eye of the spectator is already tinged with that colour. In the same manner when the air is clear, and the objects illuminated without sunshine, the harmony will be blue, and in all harmony one ought to observe particularly those colours most opposite to the general tone, that they may be used in the foreground, as they will appear more advanced or less under the influence of the atmosphere, also upon their situation one with another : for example, if one employs pure yellow, one should accompany it with the violet, because this is composed of red and blue mixed together; and if we use pure red, we should add for the same reason green, which is a mixture of blue and yellow, using as a foil to each colour one composed of the other two. "Supposing that harmony has that effect in music which is commonly attributed to it, the sweetness and acuteness of colours will depend upon the natural effect which they occasion to our sight, or produce upon the optic nerves. The most clear colours have more force than the most obscure, because their luminous rays striking the visual nerves cause in part the same effect as a direct light, by filling all the internal part of the ON COLOUR IN PAINTING. 9 eye with light, occasioning- a painful sensation to the eye. Obscure colours have not this effect, because they do not reflect all the rays with the same force: clear colours being most apt to give sensations to our eyes, they ought to be employed where it is required that the eye of the spectator should be attracted, and which the painter wishes shall be the most principal." Now in all these theories there seem many points of coincidence, and much to be observed, that has a foundation in truth and nature ; but when applied to the examination of the works of those who have excelled in colouring, they are inapplicable. In many of the arrangements, the coincidence leads us to conclude that a safe and certain combination exists, equally applicable to the study of nature and the works of the best colourists ; and which, therefore, must please the eye of the common observer as well as the connoisseur. To endeavour to point out this satisfactorily to the student, with the imperfect imitations which so small memoranda of the colours can convey (especially as we find harmony to consist more in the media which unite the several colours than in the colours themselves), will require every indulgence. It will have the advantage, however, of diminishing his labour, and enable him to examine many works in a shorter period. I would chiefly have him to observe the quantity of hot and cold colours in a picture, and how the equilibrium is sustained under the infinite variety of combinations ; how the light and shade is assisted by the arrangement, and the principal objects are thrown into notice : he will then cease to censure those works which have a cold colour where he expected to find a warm, or a harsh colour where he would have placed a more retiring. Plate I. In Fig. 4 and 5, I have given the arrangement of warm and cold colours, which constitute the scale of hot or cold pictures ; by a proper balance of which the characteristic feature of nature may be given, and an harmonious effect produced. In both arrangements we have the greatest breadth preserved ; a union of one part with another, and a c 10 PRACTICAL HINTS general harmony pervading the whole. Cool colours produce a softer influence upon the eye than warm, and excite it less ; their predominance therefore in subjects of a soft or tender nature is according to the practice of the best masters, and founded upon a union of the several parts, to preserve the general character of the picture. The introduction of a warm colour will increase this harmony, as those tints which appear distinct from each other will appear less so when compared with one of a still more opposite character : thus the white, blue, gray, and green existing in a landscape will appear more harmonious, and a greater freshness will be produced by the introduction of a red, and that colour will have greater point from the harshness arising from its situation. Warm colours produce a greater excitement, and therefore arrest the attention or attract the spectator in a greater degree ; and their union will be increased by the introduction of a cold colour : thus we find those figures red which are required to attract the eye ; and the harmony of a picture, composed of white, yellow, red, and brown, is increased by the introduction of a blue, which in its turn will have more value from its partaking less of that harmony which unites the other colours. This mode of making the light harmonize with the shade is one cause why we often find a hot or cold colour introduced into a variety of situations ; we also find the harmony of a picture sustained by a proper equilibrium of hot and cold, which requires a warm colour to be placed on the cold side of a picture, and vice versa ; we often find a red or blue placed where the light rounds into the shadow, for the sake of breadth and extension of the light : and seeing that they are the strongest and more opposed than any of the other colours, they are often placed upon the same figure, to draw the attention of the spectator to such point; and notwithstanding we are told by Du Fresnoy and others, u not to permit two hostile colours to meet without a medium to unite them," we see from the earliest times it has been the practice of all the great painters ; so that red and blue has in a manner become the dress, in which, from custom, we always expect to find certain figures clothed, such as Christ, the Virgin, &c. ON COLOUR IN PAINTING. 11 Plate I. Fig. 6. The means by which a painter produces his effect is by light and shade, hot and cold colours. By dividing- the picture into masses of warm and cold colours, he preserves the greatest breadth: his warm tones increase in splendour and richness, from opposition and contrast ; also the aerial perspective will be increased, and solidity given to the foreground figures, without the assistance of black shadows. As we find, in the management of chiaroscuro, a small portion of each sufficient to produce an harmonious union, so in the balance of hot and cold colours. By the same means harmony may be produced, and yet the greatest breadth preserved. In nature we find that most objects illumi- nated by the sun increase in splendour according as they are opposed to a ground of a colder tone ; such as buildings, &c. in the evening coming in contact with the northern or eastern sky ; and even the moon and stars assume a brightness as the blue deepens. We therefore find in nature those principles existing which artists have applied to painting, in the treatment of a single head, up to the most extensive compositions. Independent, however, of our introducing cool colours for the purpose of giving splendour and brightness; by the means of contrast, of giving breadth from its resolving the other colours into larger masses ; we give that variety which is so characteristic a feature, and which is found to exist in the most trifling as well as in the grandest combinations of nature's colouring. Fig. 7. The nature of light upon any object is to communicate the colour of its rays to such object, either by impinging them with such colour directly, or from their taking it on from reflection according as they are more or less smooth, or from both causes. We, therefore, see a reason, if the light is of a cool colour, for spreading its effects upon objects receiving its rays, and depriving others of those effects less within its influence ; thereby giving it its strong character. For example, when in a picture of common daylight we introduce its rays into an apartment, the objects receiving the strongest impressions from such rays ought to 12 PRACTICAL HINTS produce a sensation of the cool colours, such as the blue, grays, or greens existing without doors, and which impression ought to become more feeble, according as the light is broken up by the reflection of the several colours within the apartment. For all reflected lights being of a warmer colour when the light is cool and (vice versa), give a warmth to the shadows. This then being the leading feature of light, the artist, in conducting it through the picture, so places those local colours that they will assist him in preserving such feature, and heightening with their oppo- sites the properties of the shadows ; the employment of science being the investigation of the phenomena existing in nature, and the preservation of their several features unimpaired in the representation. PLATE II. Fig. 1. That harmony arising from the reflection of one colour upon the adjoining, so as to produce a blending and union of the several hues, has been practised with the greatest success by many of the Dutch school, producing a chain of connexion between the two extremes of hot and cold. This reflection of colour is more or less powerful according to the brightness of the colour receiving the light in the first instance, and the degree of shadow existing on that part of the adjoining object which receives such reflection. It also depends on the situation of the several objects : it will also be guided by the smoothness or roughness of the objects, for reflected light is regulated by both of these circumstances. For example, the polished surface of grass or foliage, when the light falls upon it, renders such part less green from its reflecting the colour of the sky ; and, therefore, when that light is thrown off' upon any adjoining object, it is less impinged with green colour. We must also bear in mind that one object receives the colour of the adjoining from two causes; for example, when a ray of light falls upon any object, it is refracted, r J,8. " Mr. Burnet lias now completed his 'Practical Hints on Painting;' and a more interesting Work has never i oine under our notice. In this third and last part of it, he has shown with great ability, that, as in composition and in chiaroscuro, so also in the general management of colour in a picture, the great masters proceeded upon principles, varying, yet harmonious; and which, while they occasionally seemed to be in direct hostility to one another, always tended to the same triumphant results. To the professor these remarks must be invaluable ; and the library of no lover of the Fine Arts can henceforth be considered complete without Mr. Burnet's Work." — Literary Gazette. This Work is particularly recommended to the Student in Art in the New Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. — See the Article Drawing. %* A few Copies remain unsold of the Royal Paper, with Proof Impressions of the Plates on India Paper. And a Portrait of the Author. In French boards, and lettered. Price 7l. 10s. A PORTRAIT OF MR. JOHN BURNET, Of a size to be inserted in the Work, engraved in the line manner by Mr. Fox, from a Drawing by Mr. Denning. Price 7s. 6d.; or, Proofs on India Paper, 15s. CHEMISTRY AS APPLIED TO THE FINE ARTS, By G. H. Bachhoffner, Lecturer on Chemistry. 8vo. Price 7s. 6d. in cloth boards. PUBLISHED BY JAMES CARPENTER. COESVELT GALLERY. COLLEC- TION OF PICTURES OF W. G. COESVELT, Esq. Etched by F. JOUBERT. Royal 4to. French boards. Price 41. 4s. A SERIES OF SUBJECTS FROM THE WORKS OF THE LATE R. P. BONINGTON. Lithographed by J. H. Harding. Atlas 4to. Price 2/. 12s. 6d. Proofs, 31. 8s. A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF PAINTERS AND ENGRAVERS, from the Revival of Painting and the alleged Discovery of Engraving by Finiguerra. By MICHAEL BR VAN. In this work are two Indexes, alphabetical and chro- nological ; and the introduction comprises a brief Ac- count of the Painters of Antiquity. It also contains Five Plates, exhibiting the particular Marks and Mono- grams used by the different Engravers; together with a List of their Works, in Two thick Volumes, in 4to. Price 51. 5s. in boards; and on Superfine Royal Paper, 9/. " We congratulate the lovers of the Fine Arts on the appearance of this important publication. The Work, a great improvement as well as an enlargement of Pilkington's design, is evidence of the diligence an I talents of the author, which will hand down his name with distinction to the latest posterity. Having con- stant need of reference to it, we can take upon ourselves to vouch for its general accuracy, research, and ability. Several of the original sketches are, indeed, admirably written ; and the whole forms a compendium and index of arts and artists unequalled, as far as we know, in any language."— Literary Gazelle. *»* Archdeacon Coxe, in his interesting sketches of the Lives of Coreggio and Parmagiano, speaks of the accuracy of Mr. Bryan's work. In Folio, Price 7s. 6d. Proofs 10s. 6d. RUSTIC FIGURES. Drawn on Stone, from Life, by THOMAS SYDNEY COOPER. In a Portfolio, Price 41. 4s. (Inscribed to Sir Walter Scott, Bart.) VISIONS OF AN AMATEUR; being a Collection of Forty-five Etchings. By SIR JAMES STUART, BART. " These etchings are about forty in number, and are chiefly of a chivalrous and romantic character; several of them are illus- trations of Scott and Byron. The story of Mazeppa, for instance, is very spiritedly told. They do the highest credit to Sir James's taste and artist-like feeling."— Literary Gazette, June, 1828. DESIGNS FOR VILLAS IN THE ITA- LIAN STYLE OF ARCHITECTURE, on a mode- rate Scale of Expense. By ROBERT WETTEN, Architect, Royal 4to. Price 1/. 16s. DESIGNS FOR VILLAS, on a mode- rate Scale of F>pense, adapted to the Vicinity of the Metropolis and large Towns. By J. G. JACKSON. 4to. In Numbers, at 5s. each. ON THE LANDSCAPE ARCHITEC- TURE OF THE GREAT PAINTERS OF ITALY. Illustrated by Fifty-five Plates. 4to. By G. L. MEASON, Esq. "In tliis Volume (of which it appears that only one hundred and fifty copies have been printed for private circulation), one of the most interesting and important branches of the Fine Arts, Architecture — is taken up in a very novel manner, and is admir- ably treated, not only as connected with another branch of the Fine Arts, Painting— but with reference to its own origin, quali- ties, and effects."— Literary Gazette. HISTORICAL MEMOIRS OF THE HOUSE OF RUSSELL, from the Time of the Nor- man Conquest. By J. II. WIFFEN, M. R.S.L. Corresponding Member of the Society of Antiquaries of Normandy, &c. &c. In Two Volumes, 8vo. with Plates and Portraits. Price 21. 2s. Royal 8vo. India Proofs, 31. 13s. 6d. MEMOIRS OF THE RACE OF AN- CESTRY WHENCE THE HOUSE OF RUSSKl.L HAD ITS ORIGIN. Royal 8vo. Price 7s. in boards. SPENCE'S ANECDOTES. With an Appendix of Original Letters, by Pope, Hume, Horace W a i.pole, &c. Published from the Original Papers; with a Life of the Author, by Samuel Weller Singer. In Octavo. Price 14s. "These Anecdotes of Spence, after having, while in MS., fur- nished much amusement and instruction to the literary antiquaries of the last generation, took their place at once, on being pub- lished in exienso, among the most valuable parlour window books in this or any other language."— Quarterly Review, 105, for Julij 1835. In 4to. Price 16s. or with the Plates carefully coloured, 11. lis. 6d. OBSERVATIONS ON THE MECHA- NISM OF THE HORSE'S FOOT, illustrated with Sixteen Plates. By STRICKLAND FREEMAN, Esq. Also, by the same Author, in 4to. Price 11. lis. 6d. THE ART OF HORSEMANSHIP, al- tered and abbreviated according to the Principles of the late Sir Sidney Meadows. Illustrated by Thirty Copper Plates, engraved in line by Skelton, from De- signs by Ciialon. The Publishers, having purchased the stock of these Works, are enabled to offer them at the present reduced prices. In One Vol. small 8t)0. Price 6s. in boards, a New Edition. THE LIFE OF LORD RODNEY. By LIEUT.-GENERAL MUNDY. GETTY CENTER LIBRARY iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiui