HtSxijvwxvgr

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Bought with the Fund given to
THE LIBRARY ASSOCIATES
by
ELIZABETH WHEBLER MANWARING
Ph. D. 1924

DISCOURSES DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS
OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY

Finally, good painting is a
music and a melody which
intellect only can appreciate,
and that with difficulty.
Michelangelo.

DISCOURSES
DELIVERED
TO THE STUDENTS OF THE ROTAL ACADEMr
BY
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, Kt.
WITH INTRODUCTIONS Ss" NOTES BY
ROGER FRY

LONDON
SEELEY &f CO. LIMITED
38 Great Russell Street
*9°5

IN. MEMORIAM T. LI. D.

PREFACE
It is a pleasure to acknowledge help received from
friends in many discussions of the more difficult and
abstract questions suggested by Reynolds' theories.
My thanks are due to many, but I wish to acknowledge
my indebtedness in particular to the late Mr Theodore
Llewelyn Davies and the Hon. Bertrand Russell for
assistance in elucidating the philosophical, and to Mr
W. Bateson, F.R.S., in the scientific, ideas involved in
Reynolds' conception of beauty as the common form.
I have also derived assistance from Mr G. Santayana's
admirable study of esthetics, " The Sense of Beauty."
The introductions have in one or two cases taken
inevitably the form of commentaries. In such cases —
of which that of the Third Discourse is the most
aggravated — the reader will do well to read the intro
duction after and not before the Discourse itself.
I have made some use of almost all previous editions
of the Discourses, of which much the most thorough is
that published in German by Dr Leisching. I have
made use of several of his identifications of Reynolds'
classical quotations, but, like him, I have failed to find
the simile attributed to Pliny the younger on p. 151.
All other editors have maintained on this and many
other points a discreet silence.
In the illustrations I have selected, so far as possible,

Preface
the pictures mentioned by Reynolds. I have, however,
taken the opportunity to include the works of some
artists whom he does not mention, because they seemed
necessary to complete the very brief survey of a now
forgotten and unfashionable phase of art which was
familiar to Reynolds and his hearers. I take this oppor
tunity of thanking Lady Wantage and Mrs Ludwig
Mond for their kind permission to reproduce pictures
in their possession.

VI

INTRODUCTION
Of Reynolds the man there is no need to speak here
at length ; the outlines of his character are so simple,
so familiar, they have been retraced so often by his
contemporaries and successors, and that with such a
remarkable uniformity of commendation — if we except
a few spiteful phrases in Cunningham's Life and the
singular view of his actions taken by Sir Walter
Armstrong — that to repeat them here again would be
superfluous. One need only refer to the rounded com
pleteness and harmony, the deliberation and method he
showed in all his undertakings, and the freedom from
all that is petty or narrow, which distinguished him
in life as much as in art, and made each so nicely
complementary to the other. And as a critic his moral
qualities, his sweet reasonableness, his elevation and
detachment of mind, and — to put down his limita
tions as well — a certain eighteenth-century cautiousness
which sometimes gives the appearance of coldness — pro
foundly affect his work. It is to them he owes the
power to hold the balance true between praise and
blame — the nice poise of mind which for just criticism
is so necessary, and yet so rare, a complement to keen
ness of perception and quick sensibility. In any case,
it is not a little to these moral qualities that the Dis
courses owe their permanent value. The geniality of
vii

Introduction
the man arouses our affection, and, disarming all
querulous and captious opposition, inclines us to a
favourable attitude for learning.
Of Reynolds as an artist also this is not the place
to speak in detail. But since it affects the value
of his teaching we must consider briefly the charge
of inconsistency brought against him. Cunningham
in his Life says : " Barry was a proud artist and
a suspicious man. . . . He followed his own ideas
in the course he pursued, but probably he reflected
that he was also obeying the reiterated injunctions
of Sir Joshua, who, constantly, in his public lectures
and private counsels, admonished all who loved what
was noble and sublime to study the great masters and
labour at the grand style. This study had brought
Barry to a garret and a crust; the neglect of it had
spread the table of Reynolds with that sluttish abund
ance which Courteney describes, and put him in a
coach with gilded wheels and the seasons painted on
its panels." The fact is as true as the implication of
motive is unfair. Reynolds found by his own failures
in poetical composition that he had not the particular
gift of invention, without which such work falls into
turgid rhetoric, and though he continued from time
to time in such endeavours he probably never concealed
from himself his real failure. He saw that his im
agination was interpretative rather than creative; that
it was stimulated by definite objects before his eyes
rather than by poetical ideas; and he conceived that
his real work lay in giving to portraiture something
viii

Introduction
of the representative and universal character which is
the mark of the greatest creations. Still more, he
saw that it might be enriched by all the beauties of
what he defined as the ornamental style. Thus it
comes about that he scarcely ever attempted the
Michelangelesque — the Mrs Siddons as the Tragic Muse
is, indeed, almost the only work which gives palpable
proof of Reynolds' prolonged study of the Sistine
Chapel. On the other hand, he found the beauties
of the Caracci more within his range, and in several
works, notably the St John the Baptist, in Sir Frederick
Cook's collection, he strove to surpass Lodovico's
quality of colour, and to approximate to his refinement
of design. No less marked at times is the influence
of Guercino in the general lighting and disposition of
his portraits, and of Guido Reni in the movement and
expression. But Reynolds must have been aware
that he never could compass mastery in draughtsman
ship, and that for him expression must take for the
most part the way of chiaroscuro and colour. He
studied Rembrandt, and still more Tintoretto, for the
former, and Titian above all for the latter, while
his feeling for Rubens amounted at times to enthu
siastic admiration. The notion that Reynolds as a critic
ought to have bound himself within the limits of his
own talent as an artist, that he was to recommend
others to do no more than he had done himself, is
palpably absurd. It is just because he had the gift,
an unusual one among artists, of rising to a general view
of art as a whole, and of regarding his own perform
ance with obj ective impartiality, that he is so remarkable
ix

Introduction
as a critic. He was, moreover, intensely optimistic
about the future of art in England, and he, therefore,
looked forward to a generation which should surpass
himself as much, or more, than he had surpassed
Hudson and Richardson. That he put before the
rising generation ideals higher than he himself could
compass is a sign only of his generosity and detach
ment from personal feelings.
In considering Reynolds as a critic we come to the
crucial question of the value of Reynolds' Discourses
for the artist and amateur of to-day. The present
edition has been undertaken from a belief that their
value still persists, that the Discourses are not merely
a curious and entertaining example of eighteenth-century
literature, but that they contain principles, and exhibit
a mental attitude, which are of the highest value to the
artist. The artist can make as little use of the pure
esthetics of professed philosophers as the practical
engineer can of the higher mathematics; what he
requires is an applied sesthetics, and it is rarely indeed
that a writer has at once the practical knowledge and the
power of generalisation requisite to produce any valuable
work in this difficult and uncertain science. Reynolds
was one of the first, and he remains one of the best,
who have attempted it. He keeps, as a rule, close to
the point at which the artist must attack the problems
of aesthetics, and he succeeds in proportion as he does
so. When he endeavours to find support in abstract
philosophical principles he is less happy, though he
never fails to be ingenious and suggestive. It results

Introduction
the lofty key of great imaginative art. And in so
far as he does this we are bound, I think, to differ
from him, and to admit the possibility of another kind of
unity, even in the grand style.
There are, in fact, two contending principles in art —
one of which makes for richness of content, the other
for unity of expression. Some kind of balance between
these seems to be necessary for a great work, since, on
the one hand, a chaos of unrelated forms, however
beautiful in themselves, would distress us by the im
possibility of bringing them together ; and, on the other
hand, a skilfully arranged composition of vapid and
meaningless forms could only arouse a languid interest
in the artist's dexterity. Two examples may make this
clear. As an example of such a unity as Reynolds had
in view we may take the Rubens's altarpiece of St
Augustine at Antwerp; for our other the Worship of
the Lamb, by Van Eyck, in St Bavon's at Ghent.
In Rubens's picture, almost before the eye has had
time to realise what the forms represent, it is struck
by the completeness and unity of the pattern they make.
The great spiral curve of figures which descends from
the Virgin's throne, and ends in the nude figure of
St Sebastian, is reinforced again by a second variant of
the main theme in the great diagonal of the bishop
to the right; higher up, the extraordinary figure of
St John the Baptist seems to find its only explana
tion in the admirable way that it takes up again the
line, and carries it into the clouds, whence it re-enters
the composition by the diagonal of the curtain. In
such a composition the unity is so self-contained, the
xiv

Introduction
art which kindled the enthusiasm of Winkelmann
and Goethe. The discovery of Botticelli and Van Eyck,
though it has not lessened our love for Michelangelo, and
has hardly interfered with Raphael's fame, has madej
us unfairly indifferent to the beauties of seventeenth-;
century Italian art. Moreover, we now recognise the
essential kinship between Greek and Gothic sculpture.
Classic and Gothic have ceased to be opposites, and
the frontier has become one of time rather than place.
The degree of development of an art, not the race
or the religion that produced it, has become the essential
point. Our warmest affections have turned from a later
to an earlier stage of that development; we love
sincerity and intensity of feeling more than the artifices
of a careful rhetoric.
And hence arises a question which must be faced.
It is impossible for us to doubt that the beauties we
find in Mantegna and Van Eyck are real artistic beauties,
and yet most of Reynolds' precepts are directed to
wards a kind of beauty which is at least very different
from theirs, possibly incompatible with it. There runs
throughout the Discourses a constant appeal to the
student to aim, above all, at unity. He is to look
with the "dilated eye," to seize the general effect,
to avoid all detail which will interfere with this ; to
subordinate and sacrifice parts, however excellent and
expressive in themselves, to this general agreement and
coherence of the parts in the whole. Reynolds does not
deny that other methods are possible to the artist, as
his unstinted praise of Jan Steen declares, but he appears
to deny that any other method is compatible with
xiii

Introduction
Again, in his Italian sketch-book, now in the British
Museum, we find, as Mr Laurence Binyon was the first
to point out,1 studies from Mantegna's Eremitani frescoes.
In his own collection were to be found two Holbeins,
a Diirer, a Quentin Matsys, a Lucas van Leyden,
a Pieter Breughel ; nor was he blind to the beauties of
Memlinc, since he bought for a patron the exquisite
Madonna now in the Goldschmidt Collection in Paris.
We are rather, then, forced to the conclusion that
Reynolds was ahead of his generation in critical acumen ;
that he was, in fact, on the verge of making the dis
covery of primitive art, and that had he thought fit
in the Discourses to give free rein to these inclinations
instead of repressing them he would have appeared
as a pioneer in art criticism.
As it is, however, the difference between his survey
of art and that which we now command is great enough
to make it a question for us how far it destroys the
value of his teaching.
The two great discoveries made since Reynolds wrote
are the discovery of Greek as opposed to Graeco-Roman
art, and the discovery of the art of the Middle Ages
and early Renaissance. These discoveries both make in
the same direction — the discovery of Greek art has
dissipated for our eyes the over-blown beauties of that
versifiers, who, carrying no weight of thought, easily fall into that false
gallop of verses which Shakespeare ridicules in ' As you like it.' "
" It is much more entertaining to look at the works of those old
masters than slight commonplace pictures of many modern painters."
1 Catalogue of Drawings by British Artists, preserved in the
Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. By
Laurence Binyon, vol. iii. p. 206. xii

Introduction
from this — from his approaching the subject with the
artist rather than with the philosopher — that his methods
will often be found of real value even when the greater
knowledge and greater critical insight which our genera
tion may justly claim, invalidate his conclusions.
Reynolds' limitations are obvious enough to us ; for
him classical sculpture was summed up in the Apollo
Belvedere and the Portland Vase, and Italian painting
began with Michelangelo and Raphael. To suppose
that this argues a lack of critical power on Reynolds'
part is unfair; he was the child of his time, and his
caution prevented him from venturing on what would
have appeared impossible paradoxes to his contemporaries.
Rather, one may well be surprised at the many small
indications of his appreciation of primitive art. It is
not improbable that in his Discourses he may have
minimised this admiration out of deference to contem
porary opinion, for the strongest expressions of it are
found in his more intimate notes on a "Journey to
Flanders and Holland." There we find a genuine ad
miration of Hubert van Eyck's altarpiece at Ghent ; J
and a comparison between Jan van Eyck's altarpiece at
Bruges with two heads by Rubens to the disadvantage
of the latter. Elsewhere he admires pictures by Pieter
Breughel2 and Quentin Matsys.
1 " It contains a great number of figures in a hard manner, but there
is great character of truth and nature in the heads, and the landscape
is well coloured."
2 " This painter was totally ignorant of all the mechanical art of
making a picture ; but there is here a great quantity of thinking, a
representation of variety of distress, enough for twenty modern pictures.
In this respect he is like Donne, as distinguished from the modern

Introduction
lines return so completely into the pattern, that we
cannot imagine its being continued outside the limits
of the frame. The parts cohere like the atoms in a
molecule, so that we feel that the detachment of one
part would break up the whole conformation. Now,
such a disposition affects the mind vividly, and pre
disposes the imagination to be moved by the images
which present themselves to the eye with such a single
impact, but it can hardly be accomplished without
sacrifices. Even a Rubens, exuberant inventor and vital
delineator as he was, in order to accede to the demands
of so vigorous a scheme of pattern, has to give to
some of his figures more strained and more theatrical
poses than either their character or the situation quite
demand — and that precisely because, in those rhetorical
gesticulations of arms and legs, there is a greater
flexibility and flow of contour than in poses more self-
contained. These figures have vitality, extraordinary
vitality, and some of them have even noble character;
but it is not the life or the character that quite agrees
with the finest conception of such a scene: the char
acter cannot here be rendered in its profounder aspects.
Amid all this turmoil of convolved forms only the salient
and obvious distinctions can be seized, and these must
be so underlined, in order that they may tell at all,
that there is no room for finer shades. There is not
one of these saints that seizes the imagination deeply
enough to join that circle of ideal characters which
dwells permanently in our minds and becomes a part
of our life.
Let us turn now to our example of the opposite
xv

Introduction
tendency in art, in which wealth and intensity of
content is aimed at before formal unity.
In Van Eyck's altarpiece we have an open stretch
of undulating country, fertile and intensely green,
with here and there thickets and bosky dells. Through
this land there converge in a central space bands of
holy men and women, coming forward to where the
Lamb stands on an altar by the Fountain of Life.
With all this mass of detail; these crowds of people,
each one carefully and separately realised ; these thick
woods, where each branch, each leaf, is perfectly de
lineated, we can scarcely expect to find any large pattern
in the forms, any dominating silhouette, any of those
leading lines and large contrasts, which bound together
Rubens' design. We find a generally symmetric
arrangement of the groups of figures, one nearer and
one more distant group on either side of the central
altar and fountain ; but there is no apparatus by which
these are summed up, there is no system of subordina
tion by which the eye can deal with a whole group as a
single mass, and count it as a single unit in the design.
Each of the foremost groups contains nearly fifty figures,
and each figure is realised as an end in itself.
And yet, though there is no unity in Reynolds' sense,
if we examine the picture in detail we shall find the
most marvellous sense of relationship in the parts — not
a face of all these hundreds but has that stamp of
uniformity which makes for us a definite character,
not a fold of drapery that does not fall harmoniously
with its neighbours, not a spray of foliage which fails
of the rhythm expressive of organic life. As the eye

Introduction
follows along any contour it will be conscious of
purpose, and singular rightness of purpose, in each
minutest change of form; it will find that down to
the smallest atomic divisions of the parts the pervading
sense of creative purpose informs and animates the
design. Now, this implies a highly-developed sense of
relationship and rhythm, and these are the essentials
of that unity which Reynolds so rightly praises. What
are we to say, then, of Van Eyck's failure to attain
the same visible unity in his whole composition which
the separate parts discover so unmistakably? The
answer is that his parts cohere by reason of a different
principle. Visibly, indeed, they cohere only by the
general symmetry of disposition, which is here a weak
and negative force, affording, as it were, an intellectual
approval of order rather than any strong visual grati
fication or assistance. But we must consider that the
unity is here essentially poetic and imaginative, and
not visual. It lies in the conception of all these kings
and heroes, saints and virgins, gathering from all parts
of the earth to adore the mystic Lamb. That, it is true,
might have been visibly realised in an arrangement
of large silhouettes and strong chiaroscuro — we can
imagine Tintoretto treating it as he treated the story
of the eleven thousand virgins — and such an arrange
ment would have conformed to Reynolds' conception of
unity. But this would have been at the cost of telling
us only that a number of people came together to
worship the Lamb, and Van Eyck wanted to tell us who
these people were, and in what a place, adorned with
what miraculous beauties of fruit and flowers. To

xvn

Introduction
do this he was obliged to give to each part the fullest
possible detail; and when he has told us who each
of these men and women were, given us a sense of
the reality and the nobility of each saint and hero —
a reality almost as insistent as that of a character
in Shakespeare — the fact that these great, and to us now
intimately known, men and lovable women have gathered
around the Lamb has an altogether richer and more
stimulating effect on our emotions than any mere
representation of a scenic effect, however imposing.
It would appear, then, that the unity of a picture
may lie in its perfect conformity to a poetical idea, as
well as in the subordination of its parts to a single
easily-apprehended pattern; and that where, as in Van
Eyck's picture, that poetical idea can only be strongly
aroused by the complete and independent realisation
of all the parts, this may yet acquire such a hold upon
the mind that the enjoyment of each part is indefinitely
heightened by the consciousness of its relation to that
ideal whole. So that, although we can get no very
intense feeling, if we regard the picture with the
"dilated pupil," the eye being constantly baffled by
the multiplicity and insubordinate equality of the parts,
yet as we examine it in detail, as we in imagination
walk over the enamelled meadows, and address in turn
each of these profound and stately, but intensely
human, spirits, we experience an intense imaginative
satisfaction at finding them thus brought together, and
at finding in so delectable a place such fit inhabitants.
Some such reflection as this seems needful if we
are still to apply Reynolds's doctrine of unity and yet

xvin

Introduction
retain our new-found admiration for that primitive art
which at first sight seems to contradict it so palpably.
If, then, Reynolds' value as a critic is not altogether
impaired for us by his ignorance of certain aspects of
art with which we are now familiar, we shall certainly
be ready to admit his value as a teacher. Nor has
there ever been a time since their first publication when
the main tendencies of his teaching were likely to be
better understood than the present. Reynolds' con
tention was that art was not a mechanical trick of
imitation, but a mode of expression of human experi
ence, and one that no civilised human society could
afford to neglect ; that this expression required for its
perfection serious intellectual effort, and that, however
diverse the forms it might take, it depended on principle;
which were more or less discoverable in the greafi
traditions of past masters. He regarded this tradition
as embodying, approximately, these fundamental prin
ciples somewhat as the actual laws of a country
embody the ideals of jurisprudence. Finally, he main
tained a belief in the possibility of an organised co
operative advance in the knowledge of these principles
of artistic expression comparable in some degree with
the advance in scientific knowledge.
That his hopes in these respects have not been
fulfilled is no proof that they are altogether vain.
There have been times when tradition did secure this
community of knowledge, this gradual building up, step
by step and generation after generation, of positive
acquisitions in the knowledge of how to find artistic
xix

Introduction
expression for feelings and ideas, and there is nothing
chimerical in hoping for their recurrence.
It must, however, be conceded that the history of
nineteenth-century art has been uniformly unfavourable
to such hopes. Tradition may, indeed, degenerate into
complete sterility, for the laws of artistic expres
sion differ in this from those of science, that their
value is not fixed once for all — it depends upon the
ardour and force of conviction with which they are
accepted. For want of this a complete bankruptcy
of tradition was reached in the first half of the nine
teenth century, and the subsequent history of art has
been the story, not of a gradual process of construction,
but of successive revolutions, each illuminated by one
or more heroic figures, and each ending without es
tablishing more than a provisional government. The
greatest art of the period has been an art of revolt,
and it bears the trace of its origins in its extravagant
individualism, its feverish and quickly exhausted energy,
its waste of power in fruitless experiment, and its small
actual accomplishment. We have tried, in fact, every
alternative ; denied, in turn, every principle that governed
the act of the past, and nearly always the genuine artist
has been among the iconoclasts.
But this process has left us almost paralysed, without
faith, and with no very certain notion of how a work
of art is made. Everyone has to build for himself from
the foundations for want of that organised and collective
experience without which no complete human creation
can be brought into being. Ten years ago the re
volutionary forces were still strong; it still seemed

Introduction
worth while to destroy and to liberate ; but the rising
generation of artists, especially in England, is turning
with a new reverence to the art of the past; is be
ginning to realise that there are definite things to be
learned, a positive knowledge to be acquired and handed
on from master to pupil ; that there are problems in art
the solution of which requires the persistent application
of intelligence rather than the improvisation of genius.
We are tired of a too self-assertive individualism;
the cult of genius has passed its climax with the death
of Whistler ; and we are ready to listen with profit to
the sage counsels and constructive policy of Reynolds.
Whether we accept his indications of the laws of
artistic expression or not — and he himself would have
welcomed investigation and correction — we may at least
admit that he remains one of the few writers who have
approached the subject from the artist's point of view,
and that he more than any other has suggested the
lines along which profitable generalisations may be
deduced from past experience. The mere belief in
the existence of law in an activity which is assigned,
by romantic enthusiasts on the one hand, and by
contemptuous sceptics on the other, to caprice, is already
much, and in that belief Reynolds never faltered. His
creed may be defined in Goethe's words : " The genuine
law-giving artist strives for artistic truth; the artist
who knows no law, but follows a blind inner instinct,
strives for natural verisimilitude." l
1 " Der echte, gesetzgebende Kiinstler strebt nach Kunstwahrheit ;
der gesetzlose, der einem, inneren, blinden Triebe folgt, nach Natur-
wirklichkeit." xxi

PAGE V

CONTENTS

' DISCOURSE I
Preface .......
General Introduction .....
Introduction ......
The advantages proceeding from the institution of a Royal
Academy — Hints offered to the consideration of the pro
fessors and visitors ; — That an implicit obedience to the
rules of art be exacted from the young students ; — That
a premature disposition to a masterly dexterity be re
pressed; — That diligence be constantly recommended,
and, that it may be effectual, directed to its proper
object ......

DISCOURSE II
Introduction . . . . . .17
The course and order of study — The different stages of art —
Much copying discountenanced — The artist at all times
and in all places should be employed in laying up materials
for the exercise of his art . . . .19
" DISCOURSE III
Introduction ...... 39
The great leading principles of the grand style — Of beauty —
The genuine habits of nature to be distinguished from
those of fashion . . . . .49
xxiii

Contents

v DISCOURSE IV PACK
Introduction ...... °7
General ideas, the presiding principle which regulates every
part of art ; invention, expression, colouring, and drapery
— Twojdjtfintt^sjals^^
the ornamental. — The schools in which each is to Detotmd
— The composite style — The style formed on local
customs and habits, or a partial view of nature . 71

DISCOURSE V
Introduction ...... 107
Circumspection required in endeavouring to unite contrary
excellences — The expression of a mixed passion not to
be attempted — Examples of those who excelled in the
great style ;— RafFaelle, Michel Angelo, those two extra
ordinary men compared with each other — The character -
istical style — Salvator Rosa mentioned as an example of
that style ; and opposed to Carlo Maratti — Sketch of the
characters of Pouss^m^nd^Rubens^^These twJTpainters
entirely' dissimilar, but consistent with themselves — This
consistency required in all parts of the art . . ill
DISCOURSE VI
Introduction . . . . . 137
Imitation — Genius .begins.-: where rules end— Invention : ac
quired by being conversant with the inventions of others
— The true method of imitating — Borrowing, how far
allowable — Something to be gathered from every school 141
DISCOURSE VII
Introduction . . . . . .177
The reality of a standard of taste, as well as of corporal beauty
— Beside this immediate truth, there are seconda.-y truths,
which are variable ; both requiring the attention of the
artist, in proportion to their stability or their influence 181
xxiv

Contents
DISCOURSE VIII
PAGE
Introduction ...... 223
The principles of art, whether poetry or painting, have their
foundation in the mind ; such as novelty, variety, and
contrast ; these in their excess become defects — Sim
plicity, its excess disagreeable — Rules not to be always
observed in their literal sense : sufficient to preserve the
spirit of the law — Observations on the prize pictures . 225

DISCOURSE IX
Introduction .

259

On the removal of the Royal Academy to Somerset Place —
The advantages to society from cultivating intellectual
pleasure ...... 261

DISCOURSE X
Introduction ...... 265
Sculpture : — Has but one style — Its objects, form, and char
acter — Ineffectual attempts of the modern sculptors to
improve the art — 111 effects of modern dress in sculpture 267
* DISCOURSE XI
Introduction ...... 287
feenius — Consists principally in the comprehension of a whole ;
' in taking general ideas only . . . .291
DISCOURSE XII
Introduction . . . . . .319
Particular methods of study of little consequence — Little of
the art can be taught — Love of method often a love of
idleness — Pittori improvvisatori apt to be careless and
incorrect ; seldom original and striking — This proceeds
from their not studying the works of other masters . 321
xxv

Contents

^DISCOURSE XIII
PAGE
Introduction ...... 347
JLrtxnot merely imitation, but under the direction of the
imagination — In what manner poetry, painting, acting,
gardening, and architecture, depart from nature . 349

DISCOURSE XIV
Introduction . . . . . .371
Character of Gainsborough ; his excellences and defects . 373
"DISCOURSE XV
Introduction ...... 399
The President takes leave of the Academy — A review of the
Discourses — The study of the works of Michel Angelo
recommended . . . . . .401
Notes ...... 429
Index ....... 441

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Annibale Caracci
Lodovico Caracci

Lorenzo Bernini
Le Sueur
Tintoretto .
Paolo Veronese
Claude .
Correggio .
Guido Reni .
Salvator Rosa
Nicolas Poussin
Raphael GuercinoCaravaggio .
BaroccioGuido Reni .
Tintoretto .
Jacopo Bassano
Annibale Caracci
Rubens .

TO FACE PAGE

Cymon and Iphigenia Buckingham Palace
Youth pouring a Libation British Museum
Virgin and Child between St Francis
and St Jerome . . Bologna
David . Borghese Gallery, Rome
Descent from the Cross . Louvre
The Last Supper . . Venice
The Marriage of St Catherine Venice
The Enchanted Castle
Lady Wantage's Collection
St Thomas and St James the Less
Parma
Pietk  Bologna
Cain and Abel Doria Gallery, Rome
Memoria della Morte . Louvre
Crucifixion Dr Ludwig Monads Collection
St Bruno's Vision . . Bologna
Entombment . Vatican Gallery
Holy Family Corsini Gallery, Rome
Samson Drinking from the Jawbone
of an Ass . . . Bologna
The Road to Calvary . Venice
11 Riposo .... Milan
Landscape. The Flight into Egypt
Doria Gallery, Rome
Landscape in Moonlight
In the possession of Mrs Mond
xxvii

16
32
78 8286
90
96

114126130

158
162170
174
188
204208
228
250

List of Illustrations

Rembrandt .
ParmegianinoTitian .
Titian .
Correggio .
Rubens .
i. Filippino Lippi
2. Raphael .

Salvator Rosa .
Sebastian Bourdon
Pellegrino Tibaldi
Michelangelo

TO FACE PAGE

Man in Armour
Corporation Gallery, Glasgow 254
Madonna " del collo lugno "
Pitti Palace, Florence 274
St Sebastian . . . Brescia 300
Detail from the Bacchus and Ari-
adane . . National Gallery 306
Drawing for La Notte British Museum 310
Altarpiece of St Augustine's Antwerp 314
St Paul Visiting St Peter in Prison
Florence 334
Part of the Cartoon of St Paul
Preaching at Athens 334
Victoria and Albert Museum
Landscape  388
Return ofthe Ark National Gallery 392
Liechtenstein Gallery, Vienna 414
Pen Drawing British Museum Lid

xxviii

TO THE KING
The regular progress of cultivated life is from necessaries
to accommodations, from accommodations to ornaments.
By your illustrious predecessors were established Marts for
manufactures, and Colleges for science ; but for the arts of
elegance, those arts by which manufactures are embellished,
and science is refined, to found an Academy was reserved
for Your Majesty.
Had such patronage been without effect, there has been
reason to believe that Nature had, by some insurmountable
impediment, obstructed our proficiency ; but the annual
improvement of the Exhibitions which Your Majesty has
been pleased to encourage, shows that only encouragement
had been wanting.
To give advice to those who are contending for royal
liberality has been for some years the duty of my station
in the Academy ; and these Discourses hope for Your
Majesty's acceptance, as well-intended endeavours to incite
that emulation which your notice has kindled, and direct
those studies which your bounty has rewarded.
May it please Your Majesty,
Your Majesty's
Most dutiful Servant
And most faithful Subject,
[i778] JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

XX1X

TO the
MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL
ACADEMY
Gentlemen,
That you have ordered the publication of this
discourse, is not only very flattering to me, as it
implies your approbation of the method of study
which I have recommended ; but likewise, as this
method receives from that act such an additional
weight and authority, as demands from the
Students that deference and respect, which can
be due only to the united sense of so considerable
a Body of Artists. I am,
With the greatest esteem and respect,
Gentlemen,
Your most humble, and obedient Servant,
JOSHUA REYNOLDS.

XXXI

INTRODUCTION TO
THE FIRST DISCOURSE
In establishing an Academy of Design the English were
only following in the wake of other countries. In Italy
there was hardly any break between the mediaeval guild
and the modern Academy, since in 1577 the Guild of
St Luke became the Academy of the same name. France
and Germany followed suit in the seventeenth century. In
the early eighteenth century Academies of design were
founded in Denmark, Sweden, and Spain. Even St Peters
burg could boast of an Academy before London. The idea
of such a foundation had already been propounded by Evelyn
in 1662, but it took a century to germinate. The exotic
origin and very late development of painting in England, as
well as the temperamental inertia of our race, accounts for
this curious fact. In any case, it was not surprising that
with so large a group of talented artists as London could
boast in the middle of the eighteenth century, even a
George III. should at last be moved to give royal sanction
to such a foundation. For the detailed story of the rivalries
between two groups of artists, for the intrigues which finally
resulted in the more talented body securing the King's favour,
and the part played in the whole matter by Reynolds, the
reader should consult Sir Walter Armstrong's lucid account
in his Life of Reynolds, though he should bear in mind that
the interpretation there put upon Reynolds' conduct is purely
hypothetical. There is nothing to show that Reynolds, who
held aloof from all the cabals and intrigues, and was per
suaded with difficulty to join, at the last moment, the success-
A I

Sir Joshua Reynolds
fui group as their President,' acted as he did from any care
ful and unworthy calculation of his own advantage. The
choice of Reynolds as President of such a society was in
evitable alike from his artistic and social talents, and it was
chiefly due to his guidance that the Academy took from the
first so high a position in the social and public life of En
gland. He desired above all that art should gain by de
serving it — the respect of the intellectual. He possessed the
academic spirit in its best form, and he wished to make of
the Academy the repository of a scholarly and learned tradi
tion of art. Experience has shown that Academies have not
the power once possessed by the Guilds, of thus storing up
the experience of past masters, and handing it on to each
successive generation; but in Reynolds' time it was natural
to indulge the hope that they might accomplish a great
work of national education. In any case, Reynolds' idea was
a noble one ; and after the usual apologetic and ceremonial
phrases which etiquette prescribed, and of which Reynolds
acquits himself with more grace and no more insincerity than
is customary, he immediately lays down as the primary func
tion of the Academy the upholding of the traditions of the
greatest masters.
The other point which Reynolds raises seems almost too
much a matter of detail to have been treated in an inaugural
address, but it was one upon which Reynolds felt strongly —
the necessity of teaching correct, or colourless, drawing from
the figure instead of stylistic drawing. He may have felt the
necessity of this from what he had seen of teaching in the
French schools. One might agree that the style of drawing
there taught was not of the highest kind ; but the value of
teaching some style is apparent from the much higher average
of craftsmanship that French art displays throughout the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. There is, perhaps,
more chance of producing an artist by the teaching of a bad
style than of none at all.

SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.J.
Cymon and Iphigenia
collection of h. m. the king. buckingham palace

Reynolds' finest work was, of course, in portraiture. It is, indeed, in
such works as the Lord Ligonier and the Three Graces in the National
Gallery, and Lord Iveagh's Duke and Duchess of Manchester, that one
can best discover Reynolds' principles of design. It seemed right,
however, since the Discourses are concerned so entirely with what
was known as "history," or, as we should say, poetical compositions,
to give for comparison one of Sir Joshua's rare essays in this kind.
It must be admitted that he was by no means always successful, that
his invention and sentiment were not always of the finest, but in this
instance he has surely succeeded. The conception of the figure, even
the type of face, are reminiscent of Guido Reni, which is curious con
sidering the late date of the work, 1789. In some of his earlier
paintings the influence of the Bolognese school is obvious, but for
the most part the influence of Rubens, Vandyke, Titian, and Tintoretto
predominates in Reynolds' work. Here, as regards the figure, he
returns to the seventeenth-century tradition, but his far finer sense of
values and his broad, effective handling and rich, transparent colour
show the happy results of following the great colourists of Venice and
Flanders. A Bolognese master treating such a theme would have
drawn the figure with a science and precision of which Reynolds was
quite incapable ; he would have disposed the draperies with a more
logical sequence of folds ; above all, he would have found more decided
silhouettes for his trees and for the figure of Cymon, but his flesh
would have cut upon the background with frigid sharpness of contour,
his shadows would have been opaque where Reynolds' glow with
translucent colour. The unity of design might have been more in
tense, the unity of tone and colour would have been far less. Tin
toretto is here Reynolds' master : the motive of Iphigenia's arm
passing through a cast shadow and coming forward again into light
is his ; his too is the method of defining Cymon's dark silhouette by the
forced reflected light on his arm ; his too the crumbled impasto, the
mysterious gloom broken by shafts of light in the background.

THE FIRST DISCOURSE
Delivered at the Opening of the Royal Academy, January 2, 1769
The advantages proceeding from the institution of a Royal Academy
— Hints offered to the consideration of the professors and
visitors ; — That an implicit obedience to the rules of art be
exacted from the young students ; — That a premature disposition
to a masterly dexterity be repressed; — That diligence be con
stantly recommended, and, that it may be effectual, directed to its
proper object.
Gentlemen,
An Academy, in which the Polite Arts may be regularly
cultivated, is at last opened among us by Royal Muni
ficence. This must appear an event in the highest
degree interesting, not only to the Artist, but to the
whole nation.
It is indeed difficult to give any other reason, why an
empire like that of Britain should so long have wanted
an ornament so suitable to its greatness, than that slow
progression of things, which naturally makes elegance
and refinement the last effect of opulence and power.
An Institution like this has often been recommended
upon considerations merely mercantile ; but an Academy,
founded upon such principles, can never effect even its
own narrow purposes. If it has an origin no higher,
no taste can ever be formed in manufactures; but if
the higher Arts of Design flourish, these inferior ends
will be answered of course.

Sir Joshua Reynolds
We are happy in having a Prince, who has conceived
the design of such an Institution, according to its true
dignity ; and who promotes the Arts, as the head of a
great, a learned, a polite, and a commercial nation ; and
I can now congratulate you, Gentlemen, on the accom
plishment of your long and ardent wishes.
The numberless and ineffectual consultations which
I have had with many in this assembly to form plans
and concert schemes for an Academy, afford a sufficient
proof of the impossibility of succeeding but by the in
fluence of Majesty. But there have, perhaps, been
times, when even the influence of Majesty would have
been ineffectual ; and it is pleasing to reflect, that we are
thus embodied, when every circumstance seems to concur
from which honour and prosperity can probably arise.
There are, at this time, a greater number of excellent
artists than were ever known before at one period in
this nation ; there is a general desire among our Nobility
to be distinguished as lovers and judges of the Arts;
there is a greater superfluity of wealth among the people
to reward the professors; and, above all, we are
patronized by a Monarch, who, knowing the value of
science and of elegance, thinks every art worthy of his
notice, that tends to soften and humanise the mind.
After so much has been done by His Majesty, it will
be wholly our fault, if our progress is not in some
degree correspondent to the wisdom and generosity
of the Institution: let us show our gratitude in our
diligence, that, though our merit may not answer his
expectations, yet, at least, our industry may deserve his
protection. 6

The First Discourse
But whatever may be our proportion of success, of
this we may be sure, that the present Institution will
at least contribute to advance our knowledge of the
Arts, and bring us nearer to that ideal excellence which
it is the lot of genius always to contemplate, and never
to attain.
The principal advantage of an Academy is, that, be
sides furnishing able men to direct the Student, it will
be a repository for the great examples of the Art.
These are the materials on which Genius is to work, and
without which the strongest intellect may be fruitlessly
or deviously employed. By studying these authentic
models, that idea of excellence which is the result of
the accumulated experience of past ages, may be at once
acquired ; and the tardy and obstructed progress of our
predecessors may teach us a shorter and easier way.
The Student receives, at one glance, the principles which
many Artists have spent their whole lives in ascertaining ;
and, satisfied with their effect, is spared the painful in
vestigation by which they came to be known and fixed.
How many men of great natural abilities have been lost
to this nation, for want of these advantages ! They
never had an opportunity of seeing those masterly efforts
of genius, which at once kindle the whole soul, and
force it into sudden and irresistible approbation.
Raffaelle, it is true, had not the advantage of study
ing in an Academy; but all Rome, and the works of
Michel Angelo in particular, were to him an Academy.
On the sight of the Capella Sistina, he immediately
from a dry, Gothic, and even insipid manner, which
attends to the minute accidental discriminations of

Sir Joshua Reynolds
particular and individual objects, assumed that grand
style of painting, which improves partial representation
by the general and invariable ideas of nature.
Every seminary of learning may be said to be sur
rounded with an atmosphere of floating knowledge,
where every mind may imbibe somewhat congenial to
its own original conceptions. Knowledge, thus ob
tained, has always something more popular and useful
than that which is forced upon the mind by private
precepts, or solitary meditation. Besides, it is generally
found, that a youth more easily receives instruction
from the companions of his studies, whose minds are
nearly on a level with his own, than from those who
are much his superiors ; and it is from his equals only
that he catches the fire of emulation.
One advantage, I will venture to affirm, we shall
have in our Academy, which no other nation can boast.
We shall have nothing to unlearn. To this praise the
present race of Artists have a just claim. As far as
they have yet proceeded, they are right. With us
the exertions of genius will henceforward be directed
to their proper obj ects. It will not be as it has been in
other schools, where he that travelled fastest only
wandered farthest from the right way.
Impressed, as I am, therefore, with such a favourable
opinion of my associates in this undertaking, it would
ill become me to dictate to any of them. But as these
Institutions have so often failed in other nations;
and as it is natural to think with regret, how much
might have been done, I must take leave to offer a
few hints, by which those errors may be rectified,
8

The First Discourse
and those defects supplied. These the Professors and
Visitors may reject or adopt as they shall think proper.
I would chiefly recommend, that an implicit obedience^
to the Rules of Art, as established by the practice of.
the great Masters, should be exacted from the young
Students. That those models, which have passed
through the approbation of ages, should be considered
by them as perfect and infallible guides ; as subj ects for
their imitation, not their criticism.
I am confident, that this is the only efficacious method
of making a progress in the Arts; and that he who
sets out with doubting, will find life finished before he
becomes master of the rudiments. For it may be laid '
down as a maxim, that he who begins by presuming on
his own sense, has ended his studies as soon as he has
commenced them. Every opportunity, therefore, should
be taken to discountenance that false and vulgar opinion, '
that rules are the fetters of genius; they are fetters
only to men of no genius ; as that armour, which upon
the strong is an ornament and a defence, upon the weak
and misshapen becomes a load, and cripples the body
which it v/as made to protect.
How much liberty may be taken to break through
those rules, and, as the Poet expresses it,
To snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,
may be "a subsequent consideration, when the pupils
become masters themselves. It is then, when their
genius has received its utmost improvement, that rules
may possibly be dispensed with. But let us not destroy
the scaffold, until we have raised the building.
9

Sir Joshua Reynolds
The Directors ought more particularly to watch over
the genius of those Students, who, being more advanced,
are arrived at that critical period of study, on the nice
management of which their future turn of taste depends.
At that age it is natural for them to be more captivated
with what is brilliant, than with what is solid, and to
prefer splendid negligence to painful and humiliating
exactness. A facility in composing, — a lively, and what is called
a masterly, handling of the chalk or pencil, are, it must
be confessed, captivating qualities to young minds, and
become of course the objects of their ambition. They
endeavour to imitate these dazzling excellences, which
they will find no great labour in attaining. After much
time spent in these frivolous pursuits, the difficulty will
be to retreat ; but it will be then too late ; and there
is scarce an instance of return to scrupulous labour,
after the mind has been debauched and deceived by
this fallacious mastery.
By this useless industry they are excluded from all
power of advancing in real excellence. Whilst boys,
they are arrived at their utmost perfection ; they have
taken the shadow for the substance; and make the
mechanical felicity the chief excellence of the art, which
is only an ornament, and of the merit of which few but
painters themselves are judges.
This seems to me to be one of the most dangerous
sources of corruption ; and I speak of it from experience,
not as an error which may possibly happen, but which
has actually infected all foreign Academies. The
directors were probably pleased with this premature
10

The First Discourse
dexterity in their pupils, and praised their dispatch at
the expense of their correctness.
But young men have not only this frivolous ambition
of being thought masters of execution, inciting them
on one hand, but also their natural sloth tempting them
on the other. They are terrified at the prospect before
them of the toil required to attain exactness. The
impetuosity of youth is disgusted at the slow approaches
of a regular siege, and desires, from mere impatience
of labour, to take the citadel by storm. They wish
to find some shorter path to excellence, and hope
to obtain the reward of eminence by other means
than those which the indispensable rules of Art
have prescribed. They must, therefore, be told
again and again, that labour is the only price of
solid fame, and that, whatever their force of genius
may be, there is no easy method of becoming a good
Painter. When we read the lives of the most eminent painters,
every page informs us, that no part of their time was
spent in dissipation. Even an increase of fame served
only to augment their industry. To be convinced with
what persevering assiduity they pursued their studies,
we need only reflect on their method of proceeding in
their most celebrated works. When they conceived a
subject, they first made a variety of sketches ; then a
finished drawing of the whole ; after that a more correct
drawing of every separate part, — heads, hands, feet,
and pieces of drapery; they then painted the picture,
and after all retouched it from the life. The pictures,
thus wrought with such pains, now appear like the
ii

Sir Joshua Reynolds
effect of enchantment, and as if some mighty Genius
had struck them off at a blow.
But, whilst diligence is thus recommended to the
Students, the Visitors will take care that their diligence
be effectual; that it be well directed, and employed
on the proper object. A student is not always ad
vancing because he is employed ; he must apply his
strength to that part of the Art where the real difficul
ties lie ; to that part which distinguishes it as a liberal
Art ; and not by mistaken industry lose his time in
that which is merely ornamental. The Students, in
stead of vying with each other which shall have the
readiest hand, should be taught to contend who shall
have the purest and most correct outline ; instead of
striving which shall produce the brightest tint, or,
curiously trifling, shall give the gloss of stuffs so as
to appear real, let their ambition be directed to contend,
which shall dispose his drapery in the most graceful
folds, which shall give the most grace and dignity to
the human figure.
I must beg leave to submit one thing more to the
consideration of the Visitors, which appears to me a
matter of very great consequence, and the omission
of which I think a principal defect in the method of
education pursued in all the Academies I have ever
visited. The error I mean is, that the Students never
draw exactly from the living models which they have
before them. It is not, indeed, their intention, nor
are they directed to do it. Their drawings resemble
the model only in the attitude. They change the form
according to their vague and uncertain ideas of beauty,
12

The First Discourse
and make a drawing rather of what they think the
figure ought to be, than of what it appears. I have
thought this the obstacle that has stopped the progress
of many young men of real genius; and I very much
doubt whether a habit of drawing correctly what we
see, will not give a proportionable power of drawing
correctly what we imagine. He who endeavours to
copy nicely the figure before him, not only acquires
a habit of exactness and precision, but is continually
advancing in his knowledge of the human figure; and
though he seems to superficial observers to make a
slower progress, he will be found at last capable of
adding (without running into capricious wildness) that
grace and beauty which is necessary to be given to his
more finished works, and which cannot be got by the
moderns, as it was not acquired by the ancients, but
by an attentive and well compared study of the human
form. What I think ought to enforce this method is, that
it has been the practice (as may be seen by their draw
ings) of the great Masters in the Art. I will mention
a drawing of Raffaelle, The Dispute of the Sacrament,
the print of which, by Count Cailus, is in every hand.
It appears, that he made his sketch from one model;
and the habit he had of drawing exactly from the form
before him, appears by his making all the figures with
the same cap, such as his model then happened to
wear; so servile a copyist was this great man, even at
a time when he was allowed to be at his highest pitch
of excellence.
I have seen also Academy figures by Annibale
13

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Caracci, though he was often sufficiently licentious in
his finished works, drawn with all the peculiarities of
an individual model.
This scrupulous exactness is so contrary to the
practice of the Academies, that it is not without great
deference, that I beg leave to recommend it to the
consideration of the Visitors ; and submit to them,
whether the neglect of this method is not one of the
reasons why Students so often disappoint expectation,
and, being more than boys at sixteen, become less than
men at thirty.
In short, the method I recommend can only be detri
mental where there are but few living forms to copy;
for then Students, by always drawing from one alone,
will, by habit, be taught to overlook defects, and mis
take deformity for beauty. But of this there is no
danger; since the Council has determined to supply
the Academy with a variety of subjects; and, indeed,
those laws which they have drawn up, and which the
Secretary will presently read for your confirmation,
have in some measure precluded me from saying more
upon this occasion. Instead, therefore, of offering my
advice, permit me to indulge my wishes, and express
my hope, that this Institution may answer the expecta
tion of its Royal Founder; that the present age may
vie in Arts with that of Leo the Tenth ; and that the
dignity of the dying Art (to make use of an expression
of Pliny) may be revived under the Reign of George
the Third.

14

ANNIBALE CARACCI
Youth pouring a Libation
drawing in sanguine. british museum

As Reynolds points out, the masterpieces of the seventeenth-century
Italian art are in fresco. Unfortunately, the series in the Zampieri
Palace at Bologna, which he specially recommends for study, is so
poorly photographed that reproductions of them were impossible.
Annibale Caracci's greatest work is the series of decorative frescoes
of the Farnese Palace. In these, in spite of the fact that the cult of
Pagan mythology was already becoming frigid and pedantic, and in
spite of the obvious plagiarisms from Raphael, Michelangelo, and
Correggio, Annibale shows himself a brilliant designer, and in the
cool schemes appropriate to fresco, an original and tasteful colourist.
The whole decoration is impressive and harmonious, and is, perhaps,
the nearest approach that the painters of the Baroque style made
to the 'great works of the full Renaissance. It certainly deserves
more recognition than it now receives. On the other hand, Annibale's
oil paintings, excepting those in which landscape predominates, and
his rare essays in genre, repel one, in spite of great technical science,
by their sentimentality, which is at once cold and abandoned. They
have not the imaginative conviction which makes it just possible to
forgive the same attitude in Guido Reni. Annibale's genuine power
as a designer can, therefore, be best appreciated in his drawings, which
are often of great beauty. His touch is masterly, his rhythm ample and
easy, and he almost succeeds in his attempt to combine the logical
precision and succinctness of form of the Roman school with the grace
and " morbidezza" of Correggio. Indeed, eclectic though he is, his
feeling for the figure is immediately recognisable as distinct and
personal.

INTRODUCTION TO
THE SECOND DISCOURSE
The Second Discourse is devoted to giving the student his
proper orientation in the domain of art. Reynolds shows alike
his knowledge of art and his genial understanding of human
nature. Recognising as he does that the language of art is
difficult, not only to speak, but even to understand aright, he
feels bound to impress on the student a feeling of reverence
for accepted standards of worth. To " accept the world's
verdict rather than his own " is the only way to build a sure
foundation of critical understanding. To be prepared to find
the experience of the past valid is the right attitude for one
who would hope to be able ultimately to modify and improve
its judgments. And for the young artist, liable as he is to
be captivated by minor excellences which answer to some
personal predisposition, it is no less important to enlarge and
correct his sympathies by a willing docility. Reynolds,
perhaps, hardly allows enough for the necessity to the artist
of specialising in his appreciations. Few artists can be as
eclectic as Reynolds without suffering shipwreck ; and the
method he had found good for himself is not for everyone.
Appreciation and admiration of a general kind for all that
has been canonised by the consensus of past criticism an
artist may well cultivate, but his personal devotion and
passionate study must be given to a few whose work can
help him towards the making of his own style.
But Reynolds sees too the dangers of the docility he in
culcates and he endeavours to mitigate them. Since the
destruction of the guild and apprentice system of the Middle
B 17

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Ages, when a man learned painting almost as one now might
learn engineering, there has been no real education in art.
All that the schools and academies can do is to provide the
possibilities of a man's teaching himself; and it is towards
this self-education that the Discourses are directed. Reynolds'
calm and observant temperament led him to a just and detached
view of human nature, and in his advice to students he never
assumes impossible virtues or even inculcates heroic ones.
He tells the student to take his own nature with all its
proneness to vanity and indolence as it is, and to try only
to get the best possible out of it. He enforces humility, but
would not have the student press this too far, or crush his
self-confidence by an immoderate rigour ; he is even to
indulge that "affection which we bear to the teacher"
when we learn from ourselves. It is indeed remarkable, •
considering the addiction of his age to moral precepts, how
free Reynolds is from that particular kind of untruthfulness
which is supposed to make for edification.

IS

THE SECOND DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of
the Prizes, December II, 1769
The course and order of study — The different stages of art — Much
copying discountenanced — The artist at all times and in all places
should be employed in laying up materials for the exercise of
his art.
Gentlemen,
I congratulate you on the honour which you have
just received. I have the highest opinion of your
merits, and could wish to show my sense of them in
something which possibly may be more useful to you
than barren praise. I could wish to lead you into such
a course of study as may render your future progress
answerable to your past improvement; and, whilst I
applaud you for what has been done, remind you how
much yet remains to attain perfection.
I flatter myself, that from the long experience I have
had, and the unceasing assiduity with which I have
pursued those studies, in which, like you, I have been
engaged, I shall be acquitted of vanity in offering some
hints to your consideration. They are, indeed, in a
great degree founded upon my own mistakes in the
same pursuit. But the history of errors, properly
managed, often shortens the road to truth. And
although no method of study, that I can offer, will of
19

Sir Joshua Reynolds
itself conduct to excellence, yet it may preserve industry
from being misapplied.
In speaking to you of the Theory of the Art, I shall
only consider it as it has a relation to the method of
your studies.
Dividing the study of painting into three distinct
periods, I shall address you as having passed through
the first of them, which is confined to the rudiments;
including a facility of drawing any object that presents
itself, a tolerable readiness in the management of
colours, and an acquaintance with the most simple and
obvious rules of composition.
This first degree of proficiency is, in painting, what
grammar is in literature, a general preparation for what
ever species of the Art the Student may afterwards
choose for his more particular application. The power
of drawing, modelling, and using colours, is very
properly called the Language of the Art; and in this
language, the honours you have just received prove you
to have made no inconsiderable progress.
When the Artist is once enabled to express himself
with some degree of correctness, he must then en
deavour to collect subjects for expression; to amass a
stock of ideas, to be combined and varied as occasion
may require. He is now in the second period of study,
in which his business is to learn all that has been
known and done before his own time. Having hitherto
received instructions from a particular Master, he is
now to consider the Art itself as his master. He must
extend his capacity to more sublime and general in
structions. Those perfections which lie scattered
20

The Second Discourse
among various Masters, are now united in one general
idea, which is henceforth to regulate his taste, and
enlarge his imagination. With a variety of models
thus before him, he will avoid that narrowness and
poverty of conception which attends a bigoted admira
tion of a single Master, and will cease to follow any
favourite where he ceases to excel. This period is,
however, still a time of subjection and discipline.
Though the Student will not resign himself blindly to
any single authority, when he may have the advantage
of consulting many, he must still be afraid of trusting
his own judgment, and of deviating into any track
where he cannot find the footsteps of some former
Master. The third and last period emancipates the Student
from subjection to any authority, but what he shall
himself judge to be supported by reason. Confiding
now in his own judgment, he will consider and separ
ate those different principles to which different modes
of beauty owe their original. In the former period
he sought only to know and combine excellence,
wherever it was to be found, into one idea of
perfection: in this he learns, what requires the most
attentive survey, and the most subtle disquisition, to
discriminate perfections that are incompatible with
each other.
He is from this time to regard himself as holding
the same rank with those masters whom he before
obeyed as teachers ; and as exercising a sort of sove
reignty over those rules which have hitherto restrained
him. Comparing now no longer the performances of
21

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Art with each other, but examining the Art itself by
the standard of Nature, he corrects what is erroneous,
supplies what is scanty, and adds, by his own obser
vation, what the industry of his predecessors may
have yet left wanting to perfection. Having well
established his judgment, and stored his memory, he
may now without fear try the power of his imagina
tion. The mind that has been thus disciplined, may
be indulged in the warmest enthusiasm, and venture
to play on the borders of the wildest extravagance.
"The habitual dignity which long converse with the
greatest minds has imparted to him, will display itself
in all his attempts; and he will stand among his
instructors, not as an imitator, but a rival.
These are the different stages of the Art. But as
I now address myself particularly to those Students
who have been this day rewarded for their happy
passage through the first period, I can with no
propriety suppose they want any help in the initiatory
studies. My present design is to direct your view
to distant excellence, and to show you the readiest
path that leads to it. Of this I shall speak with
such latitude, as may leave the province of the
professor uninvaded; and shall not anticipate those
precepts, which it is his business to give, and your
duty to understand.
It is indisputably evident that a great part of
every man's life must be employed in collecting
materials for the exercise of genius. Invention,
strictly speaking, is little more than a new combina
tion of those images which have been previously
22

The Second Discourse
gathered and deposited in the memory: nothing can
come of nothing: he who has laid up no materials,
can produce no combinations.
A Student unacquainted with the attempts of
former adventurers, is always apt to over-rate his own
abilities; to mistake the most trifling excursions for
discoveries of moment, and every coast new to him,
for a new-found country. If by chance he passes
beyond his usual limits, he congratulates his own
arrival at those regions which they who have steered
a better course have long left behind them.
The productions of such minds are seldom distin
guished by an air of originality: they are anticipated
in their happiest efforts; and if they are found to
differ in any thing from their predecessors, it is only
in irregular sallies and trifling conceits. The more
extensive, therefore, your acquaintance is with the
works of those who have excelled, the more extensive
will be your powers of invention; and what may
appear still more like a paradox, the more original
will be your conceptions. But the difficulty on this
occasion is to determine what ought to be proposed
as models of excellence, and who ought to be con
sidered as the properest guides.
To a young man just arrived in Italy, many of
the present painters of that country are ready enough
to obtrude their precepts, and to offer their own
performances as examples of that perfection which
they affect to recommend. The Modern, however,
who recommends himself as a standard, may justly
be suspected as ignorant of the true end, and un-
23

Sir Joshua Reynolds
acquainted with the proper object of the art which
he professes. To follow such a guide will not only
retard the Student, but mislead him.
On whom, then, can he rely, or who shall show
him the path that leads to excellence? The answer
is obvious: those great masters who have travelled
the same road with success are the most likely to
conduct others. The works of those who have stood
the test of ages, have a claim to that respect and
veneration to which no modern can pretend. The
duration and stability of their fame is sufficient to
evince that it has not been suspended upon the
slender thread of fashion and caprice, but bound to
the human heart by every tie of sympathetic approba
tion. There is no danger of studying too much the
works of those great men; but how they may be
studied to advantage is an enquiry of great importance.
Some who have never raised their minds to the
consideration of the real dignity of the Art, and who
rate the works of an Artist in proportion as they
excel or are defective in the mechanical parts, look
on theory as something that may enable them to
talk but not to paint better; and confining themselves
entirely to mechanical practice, very assiduously toil
on in the drudgery of copying; and think they
make a rapid progress while they faithfully exhibit
the minutest part of a favourite picture. This appears
to me a very tedious, and I think a very erroneous
method of proceeding. Of every large composition,
even of those which are most admired, a great
24

The Second Discourse i
part may be truly said to be common-place. This,
though it takes up much time in copying, conduces
little to improvement. I consider general copying
as a delusive kind of industry; the Student satisfies
himself with the appearance of doing something; he
falls into the dangerous habit of imitating without
selecting, and of labouring without any determinate
object; as it requires no effort of the mind, he sleeps
over his work: and those powers of invention and
composition which ought particularly to be called out,
and put in action, lie torpid, and lose their energy
for want of exercise.
How incapable those are of producing any thing
of their own, who have spent much of their time
in making finished copies, is well known to all who
are conversant with our Art.
To suppose that the complication of powers and
variety of ideas necessary to that mind which aspires
to the first honours in the Art of Painting, can be
obtained by the frigid contemplation of a few single
models, is no less absurd, than it would be in him
who wishes to be a Poet, to imagine that by translating
a Tragedy he can acquire to himself sufficient knowledge
of the appearances of Nature, the operations of the
passions, and the incidents of life.
The great use in copying, if it be at all useful,
should seem to be in learning to colour; yet even
colouring will never be perfectly attained by servilely
copying the model before you. An eye critically nice
can only be formed by observing well-coloured pictures
with attention: and by close inspection, and minute
25

Sir Joshua Reynolds
examination, you will discover, at last, the manner of
handling, the artifices of contrast, glazing, and other
expedients by which good colourists have raised the
value of their tints, and by which Nature has been so
happily imitated.
I must inform you, however, that old pictures, de
servedly celebrated for their colouring, are often so
changed by dirt and varnish, that we ought not to
wonder if they do not appear equal to their reputation
in the eyes of unexperienced painters, or young
Students. An artist whose judgment is matured by
long observation, considers rather what the picture
once was, than what it is at present. He has by
habit acquired a power of seeing the brilliancy of tints
through the cloud by which it is obscured. An exact
imitation, therefore, of those pictures, is likely to fill
the student's mind with false opinions ; and to send
him back a colourist of his own formation, with ideas
equally remote from Nature and from Art, from the
genuine practice of the masters, and the real appear
ances of things.
Following these rules, and using these precautions,
when you have clearly and distinctly learned, in what
good colouring consists, you cannot do better than
have recourse to Nature herself, who is always at hand,
and in comparison of whose true splendour the best
coloured pictures are but faint and feeble.
However, as the practice of copying is not entirely
to be excluded, since the mechanical practice of paint
ing is learned in some measure by it, let those choice
parts only be selected which have recommended the
26

The Second Discourse
work to notice. If its excellence consists in its general
effect, it would be proper to make slight sketches of
the machinery and general management of the picture.
Those sketches should be kept always by you for the
regulation of your style. Instead, of copying the
touches of those great masters, copy only their. con
ceptions. Instead of treading in their footsteps,
endeavour only to keep the same road. Labour to
invent on their general principles and way of thinking.
Possess yourself with their spirit. Consider with your
self how a Michel Angelo or a Raffaelle would have
treated this subject: and work yourself into a belief
that your picture is to be seen and criticised by them
when completed. Even an attempt of this kind will
rouse your powers.
But as mere enthusiasm will carry you but a little
way, let me recommend a practice that may be equiva
lent to and will perhaps more efficaciously contribute
to your advancement, than even the verbal corrections
of those masters themselves, could they be obtained.
What I would propose is, that you should enter into a
kind of competition, by painting a similar subject, and
making a companion to any picture that you consider
as a model. After you have finished your work, place
it near the model, and compare them carefully together.
You will then not only see, but feel, your own deficien
cies more sensibly than by precepts, or any other
means of instruction. The true principles of painting
will mingle with your thoughts. Ideas thus fixed by
sensible objects, will be certain and definite; and,
sinking deep into the mind, will not only be more just,
27

Sir Joshua Reynolds
but more lasting than those presented to you by
precepts only, which will always be fleeting, variable,
and undetermined.
This method of comparing your own efforts with
those of some great master, is indeed a severe and
mortifying task, to which none will submit, but such
as have great views, with fortitude sufficient to forego
the gratifications of present vanity for future honour.
When the Student has succeeded in some measure to
his own satisfaction, and has felicitated himself on his
success, to go voluntarily to a tribunal where he knows
his vanity must be humbled, and all self-approbation
must vanish, requires not only great resolution, but
great humility. To him, however, who has the am
bition to be a real master, the solid satisfaction which
proceeds from a consciousness of his advancement (of
which seeing his own faults is the first step), will very
abundantly compensate for the mortification of present
disappointment. There is, besides, this alleviating
circumstance. Every discovery he makes, every ac
quisition of knowledge he attains, seems to proceed
from his own sagacity; and thus he acquires a con
fidence in himself sufficient to keep up the resolution
of perseverance.
We all must have experienced how lazily, and con
sequently how ineffectually, instruction is received
when forced upon the mind by others. Few have
been taught to any purpose who have not been their
own teachers. We prefer those instructions which
we have given ourselves, from our affection to the
instructor; and they are more effectual, from being
28

The Second Discourse
received into the mind at the very time when it is
most open and eager to receive them.
With respect to the pictures that you are to choose /
for your models, I could wish that you would take the/
world's opinion rather than your own. In other words,'
I would have you choose those of established reputa
tion rather than follow your own fancy. If you should
not admire them at first, you will, by endeavouring
to imitate them, find that the world has not been
mistaken. It is not an easy task to point out those various
excellences for your imitation, which lie distributed
amongst the various schools. An endeavour to do
this may, perhaps, be the subject of some future dis
course. I will, therefore, at present only recommend
a model for style in Painting, which is a branch of the
art more immediately necessary to the young Student.
Style in painting is the same as in writing, a power
over materials, whether words or colours, by which
conceptions or sentiments are conveyed. And in this
Ludovico Caracci (I mean in his best works) appears to
ine~fcT^.pproach the nearest to perfection. His un
affected breadth of life and shadow, the simplicity of
colouring, which, holding its proper rank, does not
draw aside the least part of the attention from the
subject, and the solemn effect of that twilight which
seems diffused over his pictures, appear to me to cor
respond with grave and dignified subjects, better than
the more artificial brilliancy of sunshine which en
lightens the pictures of Titian : though Tintoret
thought that Titian's colouring was the model of per-
29

Sir Joshua Reynolds
fection, and would correspond even with the sublime
of Michel Angelo; and that if Angelo had coloured
like Titian, or Titian designed like Angelo, the world
would once have had a perfect painter.
It is our misfortune, however, that those works of
Caracci, which I would recommend to the Student, are
not often found out of Bologna. The St Francis in the
Midst of his Friars, The Transfiguration, The Birth of
St John the Baptist, The Calling of St Matthew, The St
Jerome, The Fresco Paintings in the Zampieri palace,
are all worthy the attention of the Student. And I
think those who travel would do well to allot a much
greater portion of their time to that city than it has
been hitherto the custom to bestow.
In this Art, as in others, there are many teachers
who profess to show the nearest way to excellence;
and many expedients have been invented by which the
toil of study might be saved. But let no man be
seduced to idleness by specious promises. Excellence
is never granted to man, but as the reward of labour.
It argues indeed no small strength of mind to perse
vere in habits of industry, without the pleasure of
perceiving those advances ; which, like the hand of a
clock, whilst they make hourly approaches to their
point, yet proceed so slowly as to escape observation.
A facility of drawing, like that of playing upon a
musical instrument, cannot be acquired but by an in
finite number of acts. I need not, therefore, enforce
by many words the necessity of continual application;
nor tell you that the port-crayon ought to be for ever
in your hands. Various methods will occur to you by
30

LODOVICO CARACCI
Virgin and Child between St Francis and
St Jerome
pinacoteca. bologna

Reynolds' declaration, that Lodovico Caracci in his best works came
the nearest of any artist to perfection in style, is, perhaps, the hardest
saying for the modern reader in the whole of the Discourses. Style
he defines as the power over materials by which conceptions or senti
ments are conveyed. Unfortunately, Lodovico has no conceptions
which can interest, no sentiments which can deeply touch us. Here,
for instance, the sentiment is of that religiose, Jesuitical kind which
it is difficult for us, accustomed as we now are to the virile sincerity
of primitive art, to tolerate at all. We do tolerate it when the artist
incidentally communicates, as Rubens does, some stirring and vital
interpretation of life. But this is hardly the case with Lodovico.
His St Francis, for instance, is a show saint, not one whom we can either
believe in or respect. His St Jerome comes directly from Correggio,
and has lost his fire and originality on the way. The Christ is
Correggio's again, but less fanciful, less engaging, and hardly more
noble. The Madonna is certainly original, but her character is
negative and too abstract to convince us clearly of her existence.
What, however, we do find if we examine this picture carefully is that,
if Lodovico had had anything to say which interested us, he would
have said it with exquisite choice of manner. Everything here is
select and distinguished ; there is no redundancy, no confusion. The
contours are everywhere the result of deliberation and taste ; the pro
portion of the masses, the pattern of the silhouettes, show the same
scrupulous care, the same desire, to avoid excess. If one compares
it for a moment to the familiar treatment of such a theme by
Murillo, the superiority of this in style is at once apparent. Beside
this Murillo's appears as the writing of a clever and unscrupulous '
journalist beside that of Goldsmith. This picture, like all Lodovico'sl
best pictures, has what few others of the Bolognese school display,
a remarkable unity of atmosphere : a. peculiar suffused light plays
across the shadows, and gives, as Reynolds remarks, the beauty of a
solemn twilight. A very similar effect, but with a greater intensity '¦
of mood, is found in certain pictures by Savoldo. The photograph, it;
should be said, by unduly forcing some ofthe darks, fails to reveal fully
this beautiful tonality. In a picture of St John in Sir Frederick
Cook's collection, Reynolds appears deliberately to have imitated this
effect.

I'rjtn a photograph by Anrier.

The Second Discourse
which this power may be acquired. I would parti
cularly recommend, that after you return from the
Academy (where I suppose your attendance to be
constant), you would endeavour to draw the figure by
memory. I will even venture to add, that by perse
verance in this custom, you will become able to draw
the human figure tolerably correct, with as little effort
of the mind as is required to trace with a pen the
letters of the alphabet.
That this facility is not unattainable, some members
in this Academy give a sufficient proof. And be as
sured, that if this power is not acquired whilst you are
young, there will be no time for it afterwards : at least
the attempt will be attended with as much difficulty as
those experience, who learn to read or write after they
have arrived at the age of maturity.
But while I mention the port-crayon as the Student's
constant companion, he must still remember, that the
pencil is the instrument by which he must hope to
obtain eminence. What, therefore, I wish to impress
upon you is, that whenever an opportunity offers, you
paint yonr studies instead of drawing them. This will
give you such a facility in using colours, that in time
they will arrange themselves under the pencil, even
without the attention of the hand that conducts it. If
one act excluded the other, this advice could not with
any propriety be given. But if Painting comprises
both drawing and colouring, and if by a short struggle
of resolute industry, the same expedition is attainable
in painting as in drawing on paper, I cannot see what
objection can justly be made to the practice; or why
C 33

Sir Joshua Reynolds
that should be done by parts which may be done
altogether. If we turn our eyes to the several Schools of Paint-
! ing, and consider their respective excellences, we shall
i find that those who excel most in colouring pursued
I this method. The Venetian and Flemish schools,
which owe much of their fame to colouring, have en
riched the cabinets of the collectors of drawings with
very few examples. Those of Titian, Paul Veronese,
Tintoret, and the Bassans, are in general slight and
undetermined. Their sketches on paper are as rude
as their pictures are excellent in regard to harmony of
colouring. Correggio and Baroccio have left few, if
any, finished drawings behind them. And in the
Flemish school, Rubens and Vandyck made their de
signs for the most part either in colours or in chiaro-
oscuro. It is as common to find studies of the Venetian
and Flemish Painters on canvas as of the schools of
Rome and Florence on paper. Not but that many
finished drawings are sold under the names of those
Masters. Those, however, are undoubtedly the pro
ductions either of engravers or their scholars, who
copied their works.
These instructions I have ventured to offer from my
own experience; but as they deviate widely from re
ceived opinions, I offer them with diffidence; and
when better are suggested, shall retract them without
regret. There is one precept, however, in which I shall only
be opposed by the vain, the ignorant, and the idle. I
am not afraid that I shall repeat it too often. You
34

The Second Discourse
must have no dependence on your own genius. If you
have great talents, industry will improve them; if you
have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their j
deficiency. Nothing is denied to well-directed labour :
nothing is to be obtained without it. Not to enter into
metaphysical discussions on the nature or essence of
genius, I will venture to assert, that assiduity unabated
by difficulty, and a disposition eagerly directed to the
object of its pursuit, will produce effects similar to those
which some call the result of natural powers.
Though a man cannot at all times, and in all places,
paint or draw, yet the mind can prepare itself by laying
in proper materials, at all times, and in all places.
Both Livy and Plutarch, in describing Philopcemen,
one of the ablest generals of antiquity, have given us
a striking picture of a mind always intent on its pro
fession, and by assiduity obtaining those excellences
which some all their lives vainly expect from nature.
I shall quote the passage in Livy at length, as it runs
parallel with the practice I would recommend to the
Painter, Sculptor, and Architect.
"Philopcemen was a man eminent for his sagacity
and experience in choosing ground, and in leading
armies; to which he formed his mind by perpetual
meditation, in times of peace as well as war. When,
in any occasional journey, he came to a strait difficult
passage, if he was alone, he considered with himself,
and if he was in company he asked his friends, what it
would be best to do if in this place they had found an
enemy, either in the front or in the rear, on the one
side or on the other. 'It might happen,' says he,
35

Sir Joshua Reynolds
' that the enemy to be opposed might come on drawn
up in regular lines, or in a tumultuous body formed
only by the nature of the place.' He then considered
a little what ground he should take ; what number of
soldiers he should use, and what arms he should give
them; where he should lodge his carriages, his bag
gage, and the defenceless followers of his camp; how
many guards, and of what kind, he should send to
defend them ; and whether it would be better to press
forward along the pass, or recover by retreat his former
station : he would consider likewise where his camp
could most commodiously be formed; how much
ground he should enclose within his trenches; where
he should have the convenience of water, and where
he might find plenty of wood and forage; and when
he should break up his camp on the following dav,
through what road he could most safely pass, and in
what form he should dispose his troops. With such
thoughts and disquisitions he had from his early years
so exercised his mind, that on these occasions nothing
could happen which he had not been already accustomed
to consider."
I cannot help imagining that I see a promising young
painter equally vigilant, whether at home or abroad, in
the streets or in the fields. Every object that presents
itself is to him a lesson. He regards all Nature with a
view to his profession ; and combines her beauties, or
corrects her defects. He examines the countenance of
men uncTeT the influence of passion ; and often catches
the most pleasing hints from subjects of turbulence or
deformity. Even bad pictures themselves supply him
36

The Second Discourse
with useful documents; and, as Lionardo da Vinci has
observed, he improves upon the fanciful images that
are sometimes seen in the fire, or are accidentally
sketched upon a discoloured wall.
The Artist who has his mind thus filled with ideas,
and his hand made expert by practice, works with ease
and readiness ; whilst he who would have you believe
that he is waiting for the inspirations of Genius, is in
reality at a loss how to begin ; and is at last delivered
of his monsters with difficulty and pain.
The well-grounded painter, on the contrary, has only
maturely to consider his subject, and all the mechanical
parts of his art follow without his exertion. Conscious
of the difficulty of obtaining what he possesses, he
makes no pretensions to secrets, except those of closer
application. Without conceiving the smallest jealousy
against others, he is contented that all shall be as great
as himself, who have undergone the same fatigue ; and
as his pre-eminence depends not upon a trick, he is free
from the painful suspicions of a juggler, who lives in
perpetual fear lest his trick should be discovered.

37

INTRODUCTION TO
THE THIRD DISCOURSE
" Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a higher thing
than history: for poetry tends to express the universal, history the
particular." — Aristotle, Poetics ix. 3 [Butcher's Translation).
In the Third Discourse Reynolds endeavours to lay the
foundations of his principles of aesthetics, principles which he
constantly appeals to in the remainder of the Discourses and
which merit close inquiry. His main thesis is that in works
which aim at an exalted imaginative effect, particular and
individual forms are out of place ; that the forms in such
work must be general and representative ; that, for instance,
in a great dramatic composition the introduction of literal
portraiture would lower the imaginative key, and deprive the
work of its exalting and ennobling effect. In this main
contention Reynolds' verdict is, to put it on purely empirical
grounds, borne out by the practice of the greatest masters :
Giotto, Masaccio, Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo stand
as witnesses to this truth.
It is not, however, so easy for us to follow Reynolds in his
proofs as in his conclusions, nor is it possible to acquit him
altogether of confusion of thought and inconsistency in the
use of words. Above all, that difficult and dangerous word
" Nature " is used by him with a wilfulness which reminds
one of the control over the meanings of words which Humpty
Dumpty vaunted to Alice. He uses it (1) in the ordinary
sense in which artists use the word — -as the sum of visible
phenomena not made by artifice. " There are excellences in
the art of painting beyond what is commonly called the imita-
39

Sir Joshua Reynolds
tion of Nature." (2) It is used in an Aristotelian sense as an
immanent force working in the refractory medium of matter
towards the highest perfection of form. " The terms beauty,
or nature, which are general ideas, are but different modes
of expressing the same thing". (3) Finally, Nature is not(
.only what Nature actually produces, or what Nature ^.strives/
to produce, but whatever is agreeable to the affections and-
predispositions of the mind. " In short, whatever pleases1,
'has in it what is analogous to the mind, and is, therefore, in
the highest and best sense of the word, natural."
Of these senses the second Aristotelian sense is that with
which the present Discourse is most concerned. For Reynolds
here endeavours to show that the beautiful in every species is
the " common form " of the species, the specific type-form from
which every individual departs in some particular. Beauty is
the lowest common denominator of the forms of the individual
members of the species. It is the average, and might almost
be arrived at by taking a compound photograph of all the
individuals that compose that species. In the third letter to
The Idler this theory of beauty as the mean of all the possible
individual variations is more fully developed. Reynolds says :
" Every species of the animal as well as the vegetable creation
may be said to have a fixed or determinate form, towards
which Nature is continually inclining, like various lines ter
minating in the centre ; or it may be compared to pendulums
vibrating in different directions over one central point ; and as
they all cross the centre, though only one passes through any
other point, so it will be found that perfect beauty is oftener
produced by Nature than deformity." He then goes on, in
anticipation of Herbert Spencer, to explain that our acceptance
of this common form as beauty is due to nothing other than
use. "As we are, then, more accustomed to beauty than
deformity, we may conclude that to be the reason why we
approve and admire it, as we approve and admire customs and
fashions of dress for no other reason than that we are used to
40

The Third Discourse
them; so that though habit or custom cannot be said to be
the cause of beauty, it is certainly the cause_of our. liking it."
In this passage Reynolds denies any fundamental predilec
tions of the human sense organs for one kind of stimulus
rather than another. He denies, rashly we think, for the sense
of sight that preference for certain rhythmic stimuli which
are undeniable when we consider the sense of sound. He
eliminates the musical element in art, and makes of beauty
merely an affair of use and wont. Fortunately, he is not con
sistent with such- aTsceptical and empiric view, as his use of
Nature in the third sense indicates.
But we must return to a closer examination of the idea of
the common specific form. This is clearly derived, though
probably indirectly, from Aristotle. In Aristotle Nature is
herself an artist working always for perfection of form, but
obstructed by the refractory nature of matter, by " accident."
The artist frees the form of its accidental obscurities, and
reveals it as "Nature" intended. In Reynolds a similar idea
of the artist's function is given : he is to find Nature by
eliminating the particular and the accidental. But a difference
comes in. "With Aristotle the higher reality, to /3eArtov, which
thejartist discovers, is an ideal form more perfect and more~
harmonious than any that Nature produces. It is that form
towards which it is the nature of every individual to strive ;
it is the end proposed by Nature but never reached. JRey-
nolds, already anticipating the attitude of the nineteenth
century, finds the ideal in a mere average^ But he still keeps
the Aristotelian distinction of Nature and Accident. His
average specific form is what Nature aims at but is always
diverted from by accident.
Let us inquire what meaning this idea has for us in the light
of subsequent scientific thought. In the first place, the word
Accident might give rise to a difficulty, since for us all results,
deformity as well as regularity, are equally the result of immut
able laws. However, the idea of Accident still holds good when
41

Sir Joshua Reynolds
we consider any particular order of events. Thus we do re
cognise that, as regards any particular organism, the conditions
in which it has been placed are either adverse or favourable to
its development, so that we talk of a well-grown or a stunted
specimen of a flower or tree. But, as a matter of fact, the
well-favoured specimen is not the average specimen, but the one
which has had exceptionally favourable circumstances of soil,
of light and temperature, and so forth. Similarly, in human
beings we recognise that some are well formed and others ill ;
and we notice that it is among the aristocracy of any race, those
members who have succeeded in getting the best conditions
of nourishment, the widest range of sexual selection, that the
finer specimens are to be found. From the Darwinian point
of view, therefore — which regards species as nothing but the
form corresponding to a particular set of conditions — the ideal
specific form would be one which had every organ as perfectly
developed for its functions as was compatible with the full
development of every other organ. So that in a man it would
have the utmost muscular strength compatible with the utmost
swiftness, the utmost brain power compatible with physical
development, and so on. But in this idea of harmonious de
velopment, which would certainly have an aesthetic value as
well as a scientific, we are probably unconsciously importing
those aesthetic elements which we then proceed to find. If
we choose as our specific type one in which there is what we
call a harmonious development of the parts, what wonder that
we find harmony and proportion in it. But Nature is in
different to this : if conditions arise which demand the
abnormal development of an organ, no compunctions about
harmony or proportion stand in her way. She will drag out
the proboscis of an insect to five times the length of its body,
or make an ape's arms half as long again as its legs, and at the
same time dock it of a tail, which might have balanced their
monstrous overgrowth. In the case of the human species this
is becoming evident. The type which tends to predominate
4^

The Third Discourse
is no longer that of the Greek athlete but that of the city
magnate, as highly specialised for certain functions as is
the giraffe or the elephant. We take the Greek athlete as
the central type of humanity because it is beautiful, not
because it is, or ever was, really central. There is beauty
and ugliness in Nature, but it is we, not Nature, who decide
which is which.
This only may be said, that the full development of certain
organs designed for certain functions tends towards a definite-
ness and precision of form which has an aesthetic value. This
is especially so with organs formed for motion, as the wings
of a bird and the legs of a horse. The more perfectly the
latter fulfil their functions the freer will they be of obscuring
connective tissue ; the clearer and more apparent will the
articulations and insertions of the muscles become ; the nearer
will they approach to that desirable lucidity of form which
our sense of beauty requires. But who could say the same
of a perfection of the organs of nutrition and digestion ? — else
were the prize pig finer than the wild boar, and the fatted
calf than the bull of Bashan.
But for us the unsatisfactory nature of Reynolds' theory of
specific type-forms as the basis of beauty becomes still more
evident when we consider that modern science hesitates to
define species. The purely empirical definition of species as
a group of organisms capable of interbreeding with fertile
results has given place to the Darwinian view of species as the
response of organic nature to particular sets of conditions.
But biologists are becoming increasingly uneasy as to whether
after all this explanation will cover the whole range of facts.
It does not, of course, follow that because we cannot define
species it may not contain the clue to ideal beauty, but it
becomes increasingly difficult to look to it for any basis of
aesthetic theory. In Reynolds' time the absolute nature of
species was not questioned. God had created all species
definitely, and it was, therefore, not impossible to suppose
43

Sir Joshua Reynolds
that there existed for each species a kind of divine archetype,
such as Plato conceived, the form of which might be arrived
at by comparison and induction, and that if it could be
discovered, this divine archetype would have perfect beauty.
This seems, indeed, to have been the inspiring idea of all
those attempts at canons of proportion for the human figure
which have occupied thoughtful and ingenious artists, like
Leonardo and Durer.
To sum up, then, we must abandon Reynolds' theory of.
beauty as the " common form " of the species, while we accept
the conclusion to support which he constructed it. Still more
decisively must we dismiss the theory of use and habit as the -
ultimate cause of our recognition of beauty which he derived
from it.
! Reynolds' theory is, in point of fact, a development of_
i classical notions of aesthetics derived, as we have seen, primarily
from Aristotle, repeated by Latin writers, and taken up by the
French and Italian aesthetic writers of the seventeenth century.
It was probably from a passage in Bellori, quoted by Dryden _
in his preface to Du Fresnoy's " Parallel between Poetry and
Painting," that Reynolds actually ^derived his main ideas, though
he has developed them with an ingenuity and resource that
are all his own. The theory of common form was evidently
developed as an afterthought. His practice as an artist, and his
fine critical sense, had convinced him already of the need of
generalisation, and from Bellori's passage he thought he could
draw a philosophical support for his convictions. For us his
convictions have naturally more value than his philosophy.
Nor was Reynolds himself quite at ease about his theory. In
this very Discourse he finds himself bound to modify it
seriously. He has throughout had in his mind the idea that
this common specific form was expressed in Greek, or rather
in Graeco-Roman, sculpture,1 but he bethinks him that among
1 Though the incompatibility of this with his theory of average
form is sufficiently shown when we reflect that the average number of
44

The Third Discourse
these sculptures there is far too great a variety to refer them
all to this specific type-form — " the beauty of the Hercules is
one, of the Gladiator another, of the Apollo another." He
consoles himself, however, by saying : " Still, none of them is
the representation of an individual, but of a class." This,
of course, destroys the value of the specific type-form as a
basis, since each of these figures is the " common form " of
a group, arbitrarily selected,by the artist from the whole species,
and has, therefore, no authority from Nature for "its beauty
such as the specific type-form lays claim to. Reynolds too
perceived this, for he adds as a corrective : " Yet the highest
perfection of the human figure is not to be found in them,
but in that form which is taken from all."
But further reflection — a reminiscence, perhaps, of Raphael's
cartoon of the Healing of the Cripple — suggests to Reynolds'
mind an even more serious difficulty, and one which, had he
pursued it, might have greatly changed his aesthetics.
What about deformity ? This too enters into art and
into the works of the grand style. And he adds : " There is
likewise a kind of symmetry, or proportion, which may
properly be said to belong to deformity." And yet the whole
effort of the artist in his search for the " common form " was
precisely to distinguish between beauty and deformity, and
reject the latter. With this, and one other sentence to the
same purpose, Reynolds dismisses the whole subject of the
ugly in art, apparently unconscious of its immense importance.
Had he gone in where he thus lightly skates over he
would have been the originator of a new world of aesthetic
speculation. Being thus, unfortunately, compelled to reject Reynolds'
explanation of the necessity for generalisation in works of
the grand or imaginative style, we may, perhaps, since we
heads contained in the figure of a European is 7^, while those classical
sculptures which Reynolds most admired, frequently contain 8, or even
8£, heads to the figure. 45

Sir Joshua Reynolds
agree with his conclusion, desire to find other and surer
grounds for a result so important to the artist.
We must look for them not in Nature, regarded objectively,
but in the reaction of the human mind to Nature, being satisfied
if we can find in that a sufficiently wide basis to give our
conclusions validity for the ordinarily constituted human being
without seeking for a divine sanction. There is in all pro
bability some scientific and objective validity for the classifica
tion of species of animals. But with regard to species with
which we are closely familiar, we are forced, in order to deal
with the infinite number of individuals which we encounter, to
adopt a further classification which is practical and imaginative
rather than scientific. In the case of our own species in
particular, this classification is very extensive, and of such
importance, that the mere names of the classes often awake
reverberations in the recesses of our imagination. The mere
names king, knight, beggar have such power because of the
rich significance for life of the types they represent. And
for each of these classes we carry in our mind a vaguely
outlined typical form, a kind of mental compound photograph
of the various individuals who compose the class, so that we
can say at once, by applying these type-forms of the mind, that
a man has, for example, a lawyer's or a coachman's face. It is
the part of poetry to draw on these organs of our imaginative
existence by the vague evocation of words. It is the part
of such poetical design as Reynolds is here concerned with,
at once to call up the mental type-form, and to give it greater
precision and content than it had before. When we look at a
picture, let us say Peter and Paul healing the Cripple, we at
once recognise to which type each figure belongs, and a large
part of our sense of the worth of the picture depends on
whether the figures before us worthily present the ideal of
their class ; whether they exceed the vague mental image we
bring for comparison, or fall short of it ; whether they enrich
the furniture of our mind, giving us stronger and more
46

The Third Discourse
poignant ideals of the type, or not. We ask of the St Paul
and St Peter whether they add to our conception of the
fervour and humble assurance of the Apostolic type ; of the
Cripple whether he too has fully the qualities of his class.
Now, this would very rarely be accomplished by the artist
if he exactly portrayed a particular individual, since such a one
would scarcely have all the common characteristics of his class
well marked, nor should we feel that a particular individual
could adequately answer to the requirements of the ideal type
which is already present for comparison in our mind.
The individual and particular, indeed, stands for nothing but
itself. It may satisfy curiosity, as does the photograph of
someone about whom we have heard a great deal but have
not seen, but it scarcely can have significance for the imagina
tion. So that even a portrait which proposes to be the
description of an individual will scarcely hold the admiration
of mankind for long — unless, like the Monna Lisa, or Reynolds'
own Heathfield, it partakes in some way of the universal: and
certainly, in proportion as the imaginative key of a composition
is raised, in proportion as the painting aims at a similar inten
tion to that of great poetry (and that is the comparison that
Reynolds, following Du Fresnoy, always had in mind), just
in this proportion will it have to avoid the particular, and aim
at universal truth. So that we are brought back for painting
to Aristotle's view of poetry quoted at the head of this
chapter.

47

THE THIRD DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students ofthe Royal Academy, on the Distribution of
the Prizes, December 14, 1770
The great leading principles of the grand style — Of beauty — The
genuine habits of nature to be distinguished from those of
fashion.
Gentlemen,
It is not easy to speak with propriety to so many
Students of different ages and different degrees of
advancement. The mind requires nourishment adapted
to its growth ; and what may have promoted our earlier
efforts, might retard us in our nearer approaches to
perfection. The first endeavours of a young Painter, as I have
remarked in a former discourse, must be employed in
the attainment of mechanical dexterity, and confined to
the mere imitation of the object before him. Those
who have advanced beyond the rudiments, may, per
haps, find advantage in reflecting on the advice which
I have likewise given them, when I recommended the
diligent study of the works of our great predecessors ;
but I at the same time endeavoured to guard them
against an implicit submission to the authority of any
one master, however excellent ; or by a strict imitation
of his manner, precluding themselves from the abund-
D 49

Sir Joshua Reynolds
ance and variety of Nature. I will now add, that
Nature herself is not to be too closely copied. There
are excellences in the art of Painting beyond what is
commonly called the imitation of Nature; and these
excellences I wish to point out. The Students who,
having passed through the initiatory exercises, are
more advanced in the Art, and who, sure of their
hand, have leisure to exert their understanding,
must now be told, that a mere copier of Nature
can never produce anything great; can never raise
and enlarge the conceptions, or warm the heart of
the spectator.
The wish of the genuine painter must be more ex
tensive : instead of endeavouring to amuse mankind
with the minute neatness of his imitations, he must
endeavour to improve them by the grandeur jjfLhis
ideas; instead of seeking praise, by deceiving the
superficial sense of the spectator, he must strive for
ffame, by captivating the imagination.
The principle" now laid down, that the perfection of
this Art does not consist in mere imitation, is far from
being new or singular. It is, indeed, supported by
the general opinion of the enlightened part of man
kind. The poets, orators, and rhetoricians of antiquity,
are continually enforcing this position ; that all the arts
receive their perfection from an ideal beauty, superior
to what is to be found in individual nature. They are
ever referring to the practice of the painters and
sculptors of their times, particularly Phidias (the
favourite artist of antiquity), to illustrate their asser
tions. As if they could not sufficiently express their
So

The Third Discourse
admiration of his genius by what they knew, they have
recourse to poetical enthusiasm : they call it inspiration ;
a gift from heaven. The artist is supposed to have
ascended the celestial regions, to furnish his mind with
this perfect idea of beauty. " He," says Proclus,1 " who
takes for his model such forms as Nature produces, and
confines himself to an exact imitation of them, will
never attain to what is perfectly beautiful. For the
works of Nature are full of disproportion, and fall very
short of the true standard of beauty. So that Phidias,
when he formed his Jupiter, did not copy any object
ever presented to his sight ; but contemplated only that
image which he had conceived in his mind from Homer's
description." And thus Cicero, speaking of the same
Phidias : " Neither did this artist," says he, " when he
carved the image of Jupiter or Minerva, set before him
any one human figure, as a pattern, which he was
to copy; but having a more perfect idea of beauty
fixed in his mind, this he steadily contemplated, and
to the imitation of this, all his skill and labour were
directed." The Moderns are not less convinced than the An
cients of this superior power existing in the Art; nor
less sensible of its effects. Every language has adopted
terms expressive of this excellence. The gusto grande
of the Italians, the beau ideal of the French, and the
great style, genius, ancL taste among the English, are
but different appellations of the same thing. It is this
intellectual dignity, they say, that ennobles the Painter's
1 Lib. 2. in Timaeum Platonis, as cited by Junius de Pictura
Vetcrum. — R. SI

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Art; that lays the line between him and the mere
mechanic; and produces those great effects in an in
stant, which eloquence and poetry, by slow and re
peated efforts, are scarcely able to attain.
Such is the warmth with which both the Ancients
and Moderns speak of this divine principle of the Art;
but, as I have formerly observed, enthusiastic admira
tion seldom promotes knowledge. Though a Student
by much praise may have his attention roused, and a
desire excited, of running in this great career ; yet it
is possible that what has been said to excite, may only
serve to deter him. He examines his own mind, and
perceives there nothing of that divine inspiration with
which he is told so many others have been favoured. .
He never travelled to heaven to gather new ideas ; and
he finds himself possessed of no other qualifications
than what mere common observation and a plain
understanding can confer. Thus he becomes gloomy
amidst the splendour of figurative declamation, and
thinks it hopeless to pursue an object which he sup
poses out of the reach of human industry.
But on this, as upon many other occasions, we ought
to distinguish how much is to be given to enthusiasm,
and how much to reason. We ought to allow for, and
we ought to commend that strength of vivid expres
sion, which is necessary to convey, in its full force, the
highest sense of the most complete effect of Art ; taking
care, at the same time, not to lose in terms of vague
admiration that solidity and truth of principle, upon
which alone we can reason, and may be enabled to
practise. 52

The Third Discourse
It is not easy to define in what this great style con
sists ; nor to describe, by words, the proper means of
acquiring it, if the mind of the Student should be at all
capable of such an acquisition. Could we teach taste
or genius by rules, they would be no longer taste and
genius. But though there neither are, nor can be,
any precise invariable rules for the exercise or the
acquisition of these great qualities, yet we may truly
say, that they always operate in proportion to our
attention in observing the works of Nature, to our skill
in selecting, and to our care in digesting, methodising,
and comparing our observations. ^There are many
beauties in our Art that seem, at first, to lie without
the reach of precept, and yet may easily be reduced to
practical principles. Experience is all in all ; but it
is not every one who profits by experience ; and most
people err, not so much from want of capacity to find
their object, as from not knowing what object to pur
sue. This great ideal perfection and beauty are not to
be sought in the heavens, but upon the earth. They
are about us, and upon every side of us. But the
power of discovering what is deformed in Nature, or,
in other words, what is particular and uncommon,
can be acquired only by experience; and the whole
beauty and grandeur of the Art consists, in my
opinion, in being able to get above all singular,
forms, local customs? particularities, and details of
every kind.
All the objects which are exhibited to our view by
Nature, upon close examination will be found to have
their blemishes and defects. The most beautiful forms
53

Sir Joshua Reynolds
have something about them like weakness, minuteness,
or imperfection. But it is not every eye that perceives
these blemishes. It must be an eye long used to
the contemplation and comparison of these forms ; and
which, by a long habit of observing what any set of
objects of the same kind have in common, has acquired
the power of discerning what each wants in particular,
fThis long laborious comparison should be the first
study of the Painter who aims at the greatest style. By
this means, he acquires a just idea of beautiful forms;
he corrects Nature by herself, her imperfect state by
her more perfect. His eye being enabled to distin
guish the accidental deficiencies, excrescences, and de
formities of things, from their general figures, he
makes out an abstract idea of their forms more per
fect than any one original; and what may seem a
paradox, he learns to design naturally by drawing his
figures unlike to any one object. This idea of the
perfect state of Nature, which the Artist calls the
Ideal beauty, is the great leading principle by which
works of genius are conducted. By this Phidias ac
quired his fame. He wrought upon a sober principle
what has so much excited the enthusiasm of the world ;
and by this method you, who have courage to tread
the same path, may acquire equal reputation.
This is the idea which has acquired, and which
seems to have a right to the epithet of divine ; as it
may be said to preside, like a supreme judge, over all
the productions of Nature, appearing to be possessed
of the will and intention of the Creator, as far as they
regard the external form of living beings. When a
54

The Third Discourse
man once possesses this iclea in its perfection, there
is no danger but that he will be sufficiently warmed
by it himself, and be able to warm and ravish every one
else. Thus it is from a reiterated experience, and a close ,
comparison of the objects in Nature, that an artist be
comes possessed of the idea of that central form, if I
may so express it, from which every deviation is de
formity. But the investigation of this form, I grant,
is painful, and I know but of one method of shorten
ing the road ; this is, by a careful study of the works
of the ancient sculptors; who, being indefatigable in
the School of Nature, have left models of that perfect
form behind them, which an artist would prefer as
supremely beautiful, who had spent his whole life in
that single contemplation. But if industry carried
them thus far, may not you also hope for the same
reward from the same labour? We have the same
school opened to us that was opened to them ; for
Nature denies her instructions to none, who desire to
become her pupils.
This laborious investigation, I am aware, must ap
pear superfluous to those who think every thing is
to be done by felicity, and the powers of native
genius. Even the great Bacon treats with ridicule
the idea of confining proportion to rules, or of produc
ing beauty by selection. " A man cannot tell," says
he, " whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more
trifler: whereof the one would make a personage by
geometrical proportions ; the other, by taking the
best parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent,
55

Sir Joshua Reynolds
. . . The painter " (he adds) " must do it by a kind
of felicity . . . and not by rule."
It is not safe to question any opinion of so great
a writer, and so profound a thinker, as undoubtedly
Bacon was. But he studies brevity to excess ; and
therefore his meaning is sometimes doubtful. If he
means that beauty has nothing to do with rule, he.
is mistaken. There is a rule, obtained out of general
Nature, to contradict which is to fall into deformity.
Whenever any thing is done beyond this rule, it is
in virtue of some other rule which is followed along
with it, but which does not contradict it. Every
thing which is wrought with certainty is wrought
upon some principle. If it is not, it cannot be repeated.
If by felicity is meant any thing of chance or hazard,
or something born with a man, and not earned, I
cannot agree with this great philosopher. Every
object which pleases must give us pleasure upon some
certain principles : but as the objects of pleasure are
almost infinite, so their principles vary without end,
and every man finds them out, not by felicity or
successful hazard, but by care and sagacity.
To the principle I have laid down, that the idea
of beauty in each species of beings is an invariable
one, it may be objected, that in every particular
species there are various central forms, which are
separate and distinct from each other, and yet are
undeniably beautiful; that in the human figure, for
instance, the beauty of the Hercules is one, of the
Gladiator another, of the Apollo another ; which makes
so many different ideas of beauty.
56

The Third Discourse
It is true, indeed, that these figures are eachV
perfect in their kind, though of different characters]
and proportions; but still none of them is.„rJie~.4su_|
presentation of an individual, but of a class. And '

as there is one general form. whicrTj~as if" have said] o:'

belongs to the Truman kind at large, so in each
thesq classes'"^1Te7e'~iT'13n^"'conYnion" idea_and .centra
form, which is^the abstract of the various>jrjrlJ3adjia
forms, belonging to that class. Thus, though the
— •*•" " * — u ..." .. ft?  »   ¦¦' »¦— «"y--° ' _ °
forms of childhood and age differ exceedingly, there
is a common form in childhood, and a common form
in age, which is the more perfect, as it is more re
mote from all peculiarities. But I must add further,
that though the _ most perfect forms, of each of the
general divisions of the human figure are ideal, and
superior to any individual form of thatjdasj§; yet the
highest perfection of the human figure is JiQLJsube
found in^myone of them. It is not in the Hercules,
nor in the liladiator, nor" in the Apollo; ,but in that
forrri which is taken from all, and which partakes
equally___^^Tpe^acTrvity~ or the Gladiator, of the
delicacy of the Apollo, and of the muscular strength
of the Hercules. For perfect beauty in any species
must combine all the characters which are beautiful
in that species. It cannot consist in any one to the
exclusion of the rest: no one, therefore, must be
predominant, that no one may be deficient.
The knowledge of these different characters, and
the power of separating and distinguishing them, is
undoubtedly necessary to the painter, who is to
vary his compositions with figures of various forms
57

Sir Joshua Reynolds
and proportions, though he is never to lose sight
of the general idea of perfection in each kind.
There is, likewise, a kind of symmetry, or propor
tion, which may properly be said to belong to defor
mity. A figure lean or corpulent, tall or short, though
deviating from beauty, may still have a certain
union of the various parts, which may contribute to
make them on the whole not unpleasing.
When the Artist has by diligent attention acquired
a clear and distinct idea of beauty and symmetry;
when he has reduced the variety of nature to the
abstract idea ; his next task will be to become ac
quainted with the genuine habits of Nature, as dis
tinguished from those of fashion. For in the same
manner, and on the same principles, as he has ac
quired the knowledge of the real forms of Nature,
distinct from accidental deformity, he must endeavour
to separate simple chaste Nature, from those adven
titious, those affected and forced airs or actions, with
which she is loaded by modern education.
Perhaps I cannot better explain what I mean, than
by reminding you of what was taught us by the
Professor of Anatomy, in respect to the natural
position and movement of the feet. He observed,
that the fashion of turning them outwards was
contrary to the intent of Nature, as might be seen .
from the structure of the bones, and from the
weakness that proceeded from that manner of stand
ing. To this, we may add the erect position of the
head, the projection of the chest, the walking with
straight knees, and many such actions, which we
58 !

The Third Discourse
know to be merely the result of fashion, and what
Nature never warranted, as we are sure that we have
been taught them when children.
I have mentioned but a few of those instances, in
which vanity or caprice have contrived to distort and
disfigure the human form; your own recollection will
add to these a thousand more of ill-understood me
thods, which have been practised to disguise Nature
among our dancing-masters, hairdressers, and tailors,
in their various schools of deformity.1
However the mechanic and ornamental Arts may
sacrifice to fashion, she must be entirely excluded
from the Art of Painting; the painter must neverf
mistake this capricious changeling for the genuine
offspring of Nature; he must divest himself of all
prejudices in favour of his age or country ; he must
disregard all local and temporary ornaments, and look
only on those general habits which are every where
and always the same ; he a33resses his works to the1
people of every country and every age, he calls upon
posterity to be his spectators, and says, with Zeuxis,
In ceternitatem pingo.
The neglect of separating modern fashions from
the habits of Nature, leads to that ridiculous style
which has been practised by some painters, who
have given to Grecian heroes the airs and graces
practised in the court of Lewis the Fourteenth ; an
i " Those," says Quintilian, " who are taken with the outward
show of things, think that there is more beauty in persons, who are
trim, curled, and painted, than uncorrupt Nature can give ; as if beauty
were merely the effect of the corruption of manners," — R .
59

Sir Joshua Reynolds
absurdity almost as great as it would have been to
have dressed them after the fashion of that court.
To avoid this error, however, and to retain the
true simplicity of Nature, is a task more difficult than
at first sight it may appear. The prejudices in favour
of the fashions and customs that we have been used
to, and which are justly called a second Nature, make
^it too often difficult to distinguish that which is
natural from that which is the result of £ducatfon;
they frequently even give a predilection in favour of
the artificial mode ; and almost every one is apt to be
guided by those local prejudices, who has not chastised
his mind, and regulated the instability of his affections
by the eternal invariable idea of Nature.
Here then, as before, we must have recourse to the
Ancients as instructors. It. is from a careful study of
their works that you will be enabled to attain to the
f real simplitity of Nature ; they will suggest many
observations which would probably escape you, if your
Utudy were confined to Nature alone. And, indeed, I
cannot help suspecting, that in this instance the ancients
had an easier task than the Moderns. They had, pro-
Ibably, little or nothing to unlearn, as their manners
ywere nearly approaching to this desirable simplicity;
¦while the modern Artist, before he can see the truth ;
of things, is obliged to remove a veil, with which the
:ashion of the times has thought proper to cover her.
Having gone thus far in our investigation of the
great style in painting ; if we now should suppose that
the Artist has found the true idea of beauty, which -
enables him to give his works a correct and perfect
60

The Third Discourse
design; if we should suppose, also, that he has acquired!
i knowledge of the unadulterated habits of Nature,/
which gives him simplicity ; the rest of his task is, per-j
haps, less than is generally imagined. Beauty ancTJ
simplicity have so great a share in the composition of/
a great style, that he who has acquired them has little/
else to learn. It must not, indeed, be forgotten, than
there is a nobleness of conception, which goes beyond
any thing in the mere exhibition even of perfect form;j
there is an art of animating and dignifying the figures!
with intellectual grandeur, of impressing the appearance!
of philosophic wisdom, or heroic virtue. This can only!
be acquired by him that enlarges the sphere of his'
understanding by a variety of knowledge, and warms
his imagination with the best productions of ancient
and modern poetry.
A hand thus exercised, and a mind thus instructed,
will bring the Art to a higher degree of excellence than,
perhaps, it has hitherto attained in this country. Such
a Student will disdain the humbler walks of Painting,
which, however profitable, can never assure him a per
manent reputation. He will leave the meaner- Artist
servilely to suppose that those are the best pictures
which are most likely to deceive the spectator. He
will permit the lower painter, like the florist or collector
of shells, to exhibit the minute discriminations, which
distinguish one object of the same specie s'Tromanother ;
while he, like the philosopher, will consider Nature in\
the abstract, and rep£esent_Jn every one of his figures]
the character of its species.
If deceiving the eye were the only business of the
61

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Art, there is no doubt, indeed, but the minute painter
wxmld be more apt to succeed; but it is not the eye,
[it is the jnind which the painter of genius desires
\ to address ; nor will he waste a moment upon those
smaller objects which only serve to catch the sense, to
divide the attention, and to counteract his great design
of speaking to the heart.
This is the ambition which I wish to excite in your
minds; and the object I have had in my view, through
out this discourse, is that one great idea which gives to
painting its true dignity, which entitles it to the name
of a Liberal Art, and ranks it as a sister of poetry.
It may possibly have happened to many young
Students, whose application was sufficient to overcome
all difficulties, and whose minds were capable of em
bracing the most extensive views, that they have, by a
wrong direction originally given, spent their lives in the
meaner walks of painting, without ever knowing there
jwas a nobler to pursue. Albert Durer, as Vasari has
justly remarked, would probably have been one of the
first painters of his age (and he lived in an era of
great Artists) had he been initiated into those great
principles of the Art, which were so well understood and
practised by his contemporaries in Italy. But unluckily
having never seen nor heard of any other manner, he,
without doubt, considered his own as perfect.
As for the various departments of painting, which "
do not presume to make such high pretensions, they
are many. None of them are without their merit,
though none enter into competition with this universal
presiding idea of the Art. The painters who have
62

The Third Discourse
applied themselves more particularly to low and vulgar-]
characters, and who express with precision the various
shades of passion, as they are exhibited by vulgar
minds (such as we see in the works of Hogarth), deserve
great praise ; but as their genius has been employed on
low and confined subjects, the praise which we give
must be as limited as its object. The merry-making or
quarrelling of the Boors of Teniers; the same sort of
productions of Brouwer or Ostade, are excellent in
their kind ; and the excellence and its praise will be inj
proportion, as, in those limited subjects, and peculiar"
forms, they introduce more or less of the expression of
those passions, as they appear in general -and more.
enlarg£d--^fafirre] This principle may be applied to
the Battle-pieces of Bourgognone, the French Gallan
tries of Watteau, and even beyond the exhibition of
animal life, to the Landscapes of Claude Lorraine, and
the Sea- Views of Vandervelde. All these painters have,
in general, the same right, in different degrees, to the
name of a painter, which a satirist, an epigrammatist, a
sonneteer, a writer of pastorals or descriptive poetry,
has to that of a poet.
In the same rank, and perhaps of not so great merit,
is the cold painter of portraits. But his correct and
just imitation of his object has its merit. Even the
painter of still life, whose highest ambition is to give
a minute representation of every part of those low
objects which he sets before him, deserves praise in
proportion to his attainment; because no part of this
excellent Art, so much the ornament of polished life,
is destitute of value and use. These, however, are by
63

Sir Joshua Reynolds
no means the views to which the mind of the Student
ought to be primarily directed. Having begun by
aiming at better things, if from particular inclination,
or from the taste of the time and place he lives in, or
from necessity, or from failure in the highest attempts,
he is obliged to descend lower, he will bring into the
j lower sphere of Art a grandeur of composition and
/ character, that will raise and ennoble his works far
^ above their natural rank.
A man is not weak, though he may not be able to
wield the club of Hercules ; nor does a man always
practise that which he esteems the best ; but does that
which he can best do. In moderate attempts there are
many walks open to the Artist. But as the idea of
beauty is of necessity but one, so there can be but one -
great mode of painting ; the leading principle of which
I have endeavoured to explain.
I should be sorry, if what is here recommended
should be at all understood to countenance a careless
or undetermined manner of painting. For though the
painter is to overlook the ajccio^taj^di.s^rjjtri^uia^ions_of
Nature, he is to exhibit distinctly, and with precision,
the genpi-al forms of things. A firm and determined
outline is one of the characteristics of the great style
in painting ; and let me add, that he who possesses the
knowledge of the exact form which every part of Nature
ought to have, will be fond of expressing that know
ledge with correctness and precision in all his works.
To conclude ; I have endeavoured to reduce the
idea of beauty to general principles: and I had the
pleasure to observe that the Professor of Painting pro-
64

The Third Discourse
ceeded in the same method, when he showed you that
the artifice of contrast was founded but on one prin
ciple. I am convinced that this is the only means of
advancing science ; of clearing the mind from a con
fused heap of contradictory observations, that do but
perplex and puzzle the Student, when he compares
them, or misguide him if he gives himself up to their
authority ; bringing them under one general head can
alone give rest and satisfaction to an inquisitive mind.

65

INTRODUCTION TO
THE FOURTH DISCOURSE
The principle of generalised form laid down in the last Dis
course is here applied, and the necessity for it shown in each
of the stages of the execution of a work — Invention, Composi
tion, Expression, Colouring. In carrying out this investigation
Reynolds comes upon a class of work which, as an artist, he
cannot but admire, and yet which does not conform strictly
to the canons laid down for the highest kind of imaginative
design. For this class he discovers, therefore, another and lower
aim, that of being ornamental, of giving us pleasing and de
lightful combinations of form and colour, the disposition of
which is not controlled by any great imaginative idea. The
pleasure from this class of work is, he urges, of a lower
kind, inasmuch as it is more sensual and _Ies& .intellectual.
These two styles, the grand and the ornamental, Reynolds
considers as entirely distinct, and governed by opposite
principles, inasmuch as particular and local features may
properly be introduced into the latter, while they must be
rigidly excluded from the former. The exponents of the
grand style are found chiefly in the Roman, Florentine, and
eclectic Bolognese schools, and in the French school of the
seventeenth century. Somewhat strangely, Reynolds classifies
the Venetian and Dutch schools together, as belonging to the
ornamental. In the England of the eighteenth century, when
even the lesser Venetians were eagerly bought by our country
gentlemen, such an apparent slight upon the Venetians could
not pass without comment, and' Reynolds is conscious of the
67

Sir Joshua Reynolds
need to defend his attitude. In the first place, he excludes
Titian, and gives him almost to a nicety the position which
most critics of to-day would adopt. Then he admits that
the Venetians attained to perfection in their lower line of
effort ; elsewhere he enlarges this by admitting that success
in the lower is more admirable than ambitious failure in the
higher style, so that he would have had nothing to object to
our preferring a Paolo Veronese to the great mass of Bolog
nese or French art ; indeed, his own judgment would have
confirmed such a view. True, he quotes Vasari's hard sayings
upon Tintoretto ; but, much as these go against the general
current of the taste of to-day, a really impartial study of the
mass of Tintoretto's work will show that they contain a
profound truth : that Tintoretto is frequently capricious,
superficial, and essentially frivolous. While, when we come
to the lesser Venetians, to Pordenone, Bordone, and Boni-
fazio, we may fairly admit that the splendour of decorative
and non-significant colour is almost the only claim they have
to our reverence.
In this attack upon the Venetians, which is certainly ex
cessive in some phrases, Reynolds seems to have been
striving at a iudicial impartiality in the face of his own
instinctive feelings. He was himself so entirely at home
in Venetian art ; he felt its appeal so intensely, even basing
upon it his own most magnificent designs, and learning
from it the secret of his rich and transparent colouring,
that in the endeavour not to rate beyond its worth a
style of which he himself was a master, he actually decried
it more than justice required. Indeed it is curious to find
that Tintoretto appealed to him so strongly that in his
Italian sketch-book there are more notes made of his disposi
tions of chiaroscuro than of any other artist's.
But this effort at judicial impartiality, which leads Reynolds
to incline the balance against his feelings, is one proof of
the genuine critical poise of his mind. Indeed, whether we

The Fourth Discourse

accept this application in detail or not, the whole Discourse
contains principles of criticism of the widest scope and
profoundest significance — ideas that can be applied to the
education of taste with the most fruitful results. For there
is nothing which stimulates more a true critical appreciation
of art than the attempt to go beyond the mere judgment
that a work is excellent, to inquire of what kind its
excellence is, and how it stands in regard to other excellences. :
In one point alone it seems that it might be possible to
alter Reynolds' classification so as to agree better with the
judgment of recent times. The sharp line between the
grand and ornamental styles seems rather arbitrary ; and a
classification which separates Tintoretto entirely from Titian,
and places him alongside of Teniers, is something of a shock
to our feelings. It might be fairer to say that there are
infinite gradations in the degree of imaginative intensity of
a conception, and that what is required of a work of art is
the exact correspondence of the expression to the imagin
ative key. Then we shall find that Reynolds' principle-1,
holds true, that a greater particularisation is possible in the ]
lyrical key of a Correggio than could be allowed in the j
epical of a Michelangelo or the dramatic of a Leonardo, and '
that as we descend through Watteau's pastorals to the prose
of Metsu and Terborgh the particular and local are increas- |
ingly appropriate. It is the want of this proper adjustment
that shocks us so much in the inflated ambitions of some ;
Italianising Northerners.

69

THE FOURTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of
the Prizes, December IO, 177 1.
General ideas, the presiding principle which regulates every part of
art ; invention, expression, colouring, and drapery — Two distinct
styles in history painting ; the grand and the ornamental — The
schools in which each is to be found — The composite style — The
style formed on local customs and habits, or a partial view of
nature.
Gentlemen,
The value and rank of every art is in proportion to
the mental labour employed in it, or the mental
pleasure produced by it. As this principle is observed
or neglected, our profession becomes either a liberal
art, or a mechanical trade. In the hands of one man
it makes the highest pretensions, as it is addressed to
the noblest faculties : in those of another, it is reduced
to a mere matter of ornament ; and the painter has but
the humble province of furnishing our apartments with
elegance. This exertion of mind, which is the only circum
stance that truly ennobles our Art, makes the great
distinction between the Roman and Venetian schools.
I have formerly observed, that perfect form is produced
by leaving out particularities, and retaining only general
ideas: I shall now endeavour to show that this
principle, which I have proved to be metaphysically
7i

Sir Joshua Reynolds
just, extends itself to every part of the Art; that it
gives what is called the grand style, to Invention, to
Composition, to Expression, and even to Colouring and
Drapery. Invention in Painting, does not imply the invention
of the subject; for that is commonly supplied by the
Poet or Historian. With respect to the choice, no
subject can be proper that is not generally interesting.
It ought to be either some eminent instance of heroic
action or heroic suffering. There must be something
either in the action, or in the object, in which men
are universally concerned, and which powerfully strikes
upon the public sympathy.
Strictly speaking, indeed, no subject can be of uni
versal, hardly can it be of general, concern ; but there
are events and characters so popularly known in those
countries where our Art is in request, that they may
be considered as sufficiently general for all our pur
poses. Such are the great events of Greek and Roman
fable and history, which early education, and the usual
course of reading, have made familiar and interesting
to all Europe, without being degraded by the vulgarism
of ordinary life in any country. Such too are the
capital subjects of Scripture history, which, beside their
general notoriety, become venerable by their connection
with our religion.
As it is required that the subject selected should be
a general one, it is no less necessary that it should be
kept unembarrassed with whatever may any way serve
to divide the attention of the spectator. Whenever a
story is related, every man forms a picture in his mind
72

The Fourth Discourse
of the action and expression of the persons employed.
The power of representing jhis mental picture on
canvas is what we call Invention in a Painter. And as
in the conception of this ideal picture, the mind does
not enter into the minute peculiarities of the dress,
furniture, or scene of action; so when the painter
comes to represent it, he contrives those little necessary
concomitant circumstances in such a manner, that they
shall strike the spectator no more than they did him
self in his first conception of the story.
I am very ready to allow, that some circumstances of
minuteness and particularity frequently tend to give an
air of truth to a piece, and to interest the spectator in
an extraordinary manner. Such circumstances there
fore cannot wholly be rejected : but if there be any
thing in the Art which requires peculiar nicety of
discernment, it is the disposition of these minute cir
cumstantial parts; which, according to the judgment
employed in the choice, become so useful to truth, or
so injurious to grandeur.
However, the usual and most dangerous error is on
the side of minuteness ; and therefore I think caution
most necessary where most have failed. The general
idea constitutes real excellence. All smaller things,
however perfect in their way, are to be sacrificed
without mercy to the greater. The Painter will not
inquire what things may be admitted without much
censure : he will not think it enough to show that they
may be there ; he will show that they must be there ;
that their absence would render his picture maimed and
defective. 73

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Thus, though to the principal group a second or
third be added, and a second and third mass of light,
care must be taken that these subordinate actions and
lights, neither each in particular, nor all together, come
into any degree of competition with the principal :
they should merely make a part of that whole which
would be imperfect without them. To every kind of
painting this rule may be applied. Even in portraits,
the grace, and, we may add, the likeness, consists more
in taking the general air, than in observing the exact
similitude of every feature.
Thus figures must have a ground whereon to stand;
they must be clothed ; there must be a background ;
there must be light and shadow; but none of these
ought to appear to have taken up any part of the
Artist's attention. They should be so managed as not
even to catch that of the spectator. We know well
enough, when we analyze a piece, the difficulty and
the subtilty with which an Artist adjusts the back
ground, drapery, and masses of light; we know that
a considerable part of the grace and effect of his
picture depends upon them; but this Art is so much
concealed, even to a judicious eye, that no remains of
any of these subordinate parts occur to the memory
when the picture is not present.
The great end of the Art is to strike the imagination.
The Painter therefore is to make no ostentation of the
means by which this is done ; the spectator is only to
feel the result in his bosom. An inferior Artist is un
willing that any part of his industry should be lost
upon the spectator. He takes as much pains to dis-
74

The Fourth Discourse
cover, as the greater Artist does to conceal, the marks
of his subordinate assiduity. In works of the lower
kind, every thing appears studied, and encumbered ; it
is all boastful Art, and open affectation. The ignorant
often part from such pictures with wonder in their
mouths and indifference in their hearts.
But it is not enough in Invention that the Artist
should restrain and keep under all the inferior parts of
his subject; he must sometimes deviate from vulgar
and strict historical truth, in pursuing the grandeur
of his design.
How much the great style exacts from its professors
to conceive and represent their subjects in a poetical
manner, not confined to mere matter of fact, may be
seen in the Cartoons of Raffaelle. In all the pictures
in which the Painter has represented the Apostles, he
has drawn them with great nobleness ; he has given
them as much dignity as the human figure is capable
of receiving; yet we are expressly told in Scripture
they had no such respectable appearance; and of St
Paul, in particular, we are told, by himself, that his
bodily presence was mean. Alexander is said to have
been of a low stature : a Painter ought not so to re
present him. Agesilaus was low, lame, and of a mean
appearance : none of these defects ought to appear in
a piece of which he is the hero. In conformity to
custom, I call this part of the Art History Painting;
it ought to be called Poetical, as in reality it is.
All this is not falsifying any fact ; it is taking an
allowed poetical licence. A Painter of portraits retains
the individual likeness ; a Painter of history shows the
75

Sir Joshua Reynolds
man by showing his actions. A Painter must compen
sate the natural deficiencies of his Art. He has but
one sentence to utter, but one moment to exhibit. He
cannot, like the poet or historian, expatiate, and im
press the mind with great veneration for the character
of the hero or saint he represents, though he lets us
know, at the same time, that the saint was deformed,
or the hero lame. The Painter has no other means
of giving an idea of the dignity of the mind, but by
that external appearance which grandeur of thought
does generally, though not always, impress on the
countenance ; and by that correspondence of figure to
sentiment and situation, which all men wish, but can
not command. The painter who may, in this one parti
cular, attain with ease what others desire in vain, ought
to give all that he possibly can, since there are so
many circumstances of true greatness that he cannot
give at all. He cannot make his hero talk like a great
man; he must make him look like one. For which
reason he ought to be well studied in the analysis of
those circumstances which constitute dignity of appear
ance in real life.
As in Invention, so likewise in Expression, care
must be taken not to run into particularities. Those
expressions alone should be given to the figures which
their respective situations generally produce. Nor is
this enough; each person should also have that ex
pression which men of his rank generally exhibit.
The joy, or the grief, of a character of dignity is not
to be expressed in the same manner as a similar passion
in a vulgar face. Upon this principle, Bernini, perhaps,
76

LORENZO BERNINI
David
marble. borghese gallert, rome

Bernini's was the greatest artistic personality of the late Renaissance.
Like Michelangelo, to whom his contemporaries compared him, he
enjoyed a complete dictatorship in matters of art in Rome. Together
with Borromini the architect, and Pietro da Cortona the painter, he
established the Baroque style, and his influence upon the whole art of
the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries is preponderant. His
gifts really justified his position. His design of the great portico of St
Peter's shows that he was worthy in architecture at least to wear the
mantle of Michelangelo. In sculpture his influence was less salutary.
Though by no means the first Italian sculptor to attain to unlimited con
trol over his material, he was one of the first, as he certainly was the
greatest, to abuse that power for the illusory imitation of textures in
marble, an abuse which has been the curse of modern Italian sculpture.
His aim was to be striking at all costs, and he, therefore, chose momen
tary and startling actions, agitated draperies, and ecstatic moods ; and it
is these motives, pushed to their utmost limits with undeniable skill, that
make most of the sculpture of the seventeenth century so restless and
theatrical. A result of this was that sculpture lost its own character
istics, and set to work to imitate painting. Bernini's own St Theresa
is a masterpiece in this manner. Reynolds protests finely against these
perversions of the principles of sculpture in the Tenth Discourse, and
while recognising the undeniable genius of Bernini, saw also its disastrous
results. Here in the David, which is an early work, the aim is still
genuinely sculptural. The expression which Reynolds characterises as
mean is felt at once to be unworthy of the subject, because it too
exactly represents and exaggerates the actual thing. Our curiosity and
wonder at this exact representation of a momentary expression are
at once aroused, and inhibit any serious dramatic feeling. Such an
actual expression cannot adequately symbolise a dramatic idea.

From a photograph by Anderson.

The Fourth Discourse
may be subject to censure. This sculptor, in many
respects admirable, has given a very mean expression
to his statue of David, who is represented as just
going to throw the stone from the sling ; and in order
to give it the expression of energy, he has made him
biting his under lip. This expression is far from
being general, and still farther from being dignified.
He might have seen it in an instance or two ; and he
mistook accident for universality.
With respect to J^ojojiring, 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. By this, the first effect of
the picture is produced ; and as this is performed, the
spectator, as he walks the gallery, will stop, or pass
along. To give a general air of grandeur at first view,
all trifling or artful play of little lights, or an attention,
to a variety of tints, is to be avoided ; a quietness and
simplicity must reign over the whole work ; to which
a breadth of uniform and simple colour will very much
contribute. Grandeur of effect is produced by two
different ways, which seem entirely opposed to each
other. One is, by reducing the colours to little more
than chiara-oscuro, which was often the practice of
the Bolognian schools ; and the other, by making the
colours very distinct and forcible, such as we see in
those of Rome and Florence; but still, the presiding
principle of both those manners is simplicity. Cer
tainly, nothing can be more simple than monotony;
and the distinct blue, red, and yellow colours which
79

Sir Joshua Reynolds
are seen in the draperies of the Roman and Florentine
schools, though they have not that kind of harmony
which is produced by a variety of broken and trans
parent colours, have that effect of grandeur which was
intended. Perhaps these distinct colours strike the
mind more forcibly, from there not being any great
union between them; as martial music, which is in
tended to rouse the nobler passions, has its effect
from the sudden and strongly marked transitions from
one note to another, which that style of music re
quires; whilst in that which is intended to move the
softer passions, the notes imperceptibly melt into one
another. In the same manner as the historical Painter never
enters into the detail of colours, so neither does he
debase his conceptions with minute attention to the
discriminations of drapery. It is the inferior style
that marks the variety of stuffs. With him the
clothing is neither woollen, nor linen, nor silk, satin,
or velvet : it is drapery ; it is nothing more. The art
of disposing the foldings of the drapery makes a very
considerable part of the Painter's study. To make it
merely natural, is a mechanical operation, to which
neither genius nor taste are required ; whereas, it re
quires the nicest judgment to dispose the drapery, so
that the folds shall have an easy communication, and
gracefully follow each other, with such natural negli
gence as to look like the effect of chance, and at the
same time show the figure under it to the utmost
advantage. Carlo Maratti was of opinion, that the disposition of
80

LE SUEUR
Descent from the Cross
LOUVRE

Though Reynolds speaks little of Le Sueur, it is evident from the
position he gives him that he rated him high. He died young, but
what he accomplished deserves more renown that it has to-day. It
was in France that the protest of the Caracci against the vulgar exag
gerations of certain phases of Baroque art found its real fulfilment.
There the ideas of purity of style and chastity of design were taken up
with that peculiar enthusiasm for dry intellectual perfection which the
French temperament occasionally manifests. Le Sueur is the real
master of Ingres. He has something already of his scrupulous logic,
his impassioned coldness. We feel in him, indeed, that the emotional
and romantic elements of art are rigorously proscribed ; but what pre
vents his work from being entirely frigid is that this purely intellectual,
almost mathematical, ideal is pursued with passionate intensity. In
his great series of the life of St Bruno in the Louvre he reveals not a
religious but a dogmatic and theological fervour, which is the very
antithesis of the Jesuitical style. The admirable solution of the difficult
problem of designing within a round which this picture exhibits shows
how consummate a master of design Le Sueur was. He recovered
more completely than anyone else that perfect ordinance of masses
within a given space which distinguishes Raphael's art.

!¦> out a p/mf,,,- ,-ttplt I, \, Nm >-,{,-, n.

The Fourth Discourse
drapery was a more difficult art than even that of
drawing the human figure; that a Student might be
more easily taught the latter than the former; as the
rules of drapery, he said, could not be so well ascer
tained as those for delineating a correct form. This,
perhaps, is a proof how willingly we favour our own
peculiar excellence. Carlo Maratti is said to have
valued himself particularly upon his skill in this part
of his Art ; yet in him, the disposition appears so osten
tatiously artificial, that he is inferior to Raffaelle, even
in that which gave him his best claim to reputation.
Such is the great principle by which we must be
directed in the nobler branches of our Art. Upon this
principle, the Roman, the Florentine, the Bolognese
schools, have formed their practice; and by this they
have deservedly obtained the highest praise. These
are the three great schools of the world in the epic
style. The best of the French school, Poussin, Le
Sueur, and Le Brun, have formed themselves upon
these models, and consequently may be said, though
Frenchmen, to be a colony from the Roman school.
Next to these, but in a very different style of excel
lence, we may rank the Venetian, together with the
Flemish and the Dutch schools; all professing to
depart from the great purposes of painting, and catch
ing at applause by inferior qualities.
I am not ignorant that some will censure me for
placing the Venetians in this inferior class, and many
of the warmest admirers of painting will think them
unjustly degraded ; but I wish not to be misunderstood.
Though I can by no means allow them to hold any
83

Sir Joshua Reynolds
rank with the nobler schools of painting, they accom
plished perfectly the thing they attempted. But as
mere elegance is their principal object, as they seem
more willing to dazzle than to affect, it can be no
injury to them to suppose that their practice is useful
only to its proper end. But what may heighten the
elegant may degrade the sublime. There is a simplicity,
and, I may add, severity, in the great manner, which is,
I am afraid, almost incompatible with this comparatively
sensual style.
Tintoret, Paul Veronese, and others of the Venetian
school, seem to have painted with no other purpose
than to be admired for their skill and expertness in the
mechanism of painting, and to make a parade of that
Art, which, as I before observed, the higher style re
quires its followers to conceal.
In a conference of the French Academy, at which
were present Le Brun, Sebastian Bourdon, and all the
eminent Artists of that age, one of the Academicians
desired to have their opinion on the conduct of Paul
Veronese, who, though a painter of great considera
tion, had, contrary to the strict rules of Art, in his
picture of Perseus and Andromeda, represented the
principal figure in shade. To this question no satis
factory answer was then given. But I will venture to
say, that if they had considered the class of the Artist,
and ranked him as an ornamental Painter, there would
have been no difficulty in answering — "It was un
reasonable to expect what was never intended. His
intention was solely to produce an effect of light and
shadow ; every thing was to be sacrificed to that intent,
84

TINTORETTO
The Last Supper
st giorgio maggiore. venice

The Fourth Discourse
and the capricious composition of that picture suited
very well with the style which he professed."
Young minds are indeed too apt to be captivated by
this, splendour of style; and that of the Venetians is
particularly pleasing; for by them, all those parts of
the Art that gave pleasure to the eye or sense, have
been cultivated with care, and carried to the degree
nearest to perfection. The powers exerted in the
mechanical part of the Art have been called the language
of painters ; but we may say, that it is but poor elo
quence which only shows that the orator can talk.
Words should be employed as the means, not as the
end : language is the instrument, conviction is the
work. The language of Painting must indeed be allowed
these Masters ; but even in that, they have shown more
copiousness than choice, and more luxuriancy than
judgment. If we consider the uninteresting subjects
of their invention, or at least the uninteresting manner
in which they are treated ; if we attend to their capri
cious composition, their violent and affected contrasts,
whether of figures, or of light and shadow, the rich
ness of their drapery, and, at the same time, the mean
effect which the discrimination of stuffs gives to their
pictures ; if to these we add their total inattention to
expression, and then reflect on the conceptions and the
learning of Michel Angelo, or the simplicity of Raffaelle,
we can no longer dwell on the comparison. Even in
colouring, if we compare the quietness and chastity of
the Bolognese pencil to the bustle and tumult that fills
every part of a Venetian picture, without the least
87

Sir Joshua Reynolds
attempt to interest the passions, their boasted Art will
appear a mere struggle without effect ; " a tale told by
an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing^
Such as suppose that the great style might happily
be blended with the ornamental, that the simple, grave,
and majestic dignity of Raffaelle could unite with the
glow and bustle of a Paolo, or Tintoret, are totally
mistaken. The principles by which each is attained
are so contrary to each other, that they seem, in my
opinion, incompatible, and as impossible to exist to
gether, as that in the mind the most sublime ideas and
the lowest sensuality should at the same time be united.
The subjects of the Venetian painters are mostly
such as give them an opportunity of introducing a
great number of figures ; such as feasts, marriages,
and processions, public martyrdoms, or miracles. I can
easily conceive that Paolo Veronese, if he were asked,
would say, that no subject was proper for an historical
picture, but such as admitted at least forty figures:
for in a less number, he would assert, there could be
no opportunity of the Painter's showing his art in
composition, his dexterity of managing and disposing
the masses of light and groups of figures, and of intro
ducing a variety of Eastern dresses and characters in
their rich stuffs.
But the thing is very different with a pupil of the
greater schools. Annibale Caracci thought twelve
figures sufficient for any story; he conceived that
more would contribute to no end but to fill space;
that they would be but cold spectators of the general
action ; or, to use his own expression, that they would
88

PAOLO VERONESE
The Marriage of St Catherine
STA. CATERIXA. VENICE

Reynolds' criticism of Veronese is justified by almost every picture
that he painted. With the exception of the Martyrdom of St George
in San Giorgio in Braida at Verona, where the figure of the Saint is
visibly inspired by a certain restrained intensity of feeling, one may
look in vain for the expression of passion in Veronese's work. His aim
was quite simply scenic, and not dramatic, and for him a Martyrdom, a
Last Supper, and a Marriage of St Catherine are merely the occasions of
a public function. Here the Saint is a stolid and decorous bride ; the
Christ a cheerful and healthy baby ; and the attendant, who endeavours
to express emotion at the sight of the rejoicing cherubim, is a convenient
adjunct to the diagonal line of the composition. The picture is filled
with figures which, considered separately, have singular beauty and
naturalness of movement. In particular, the two seated angels are
exquisite, as refined and aristocratic genre. And though the painting
lacks imaginative intensity, and even unity, it has in a high degree
decorative unity, brought about by the most masterly disposition of line,
the most skilful massing of tone. As an exposition of the ostensible
theme it is utterly perfunctory ; but if we accept the artist's real inten
tion, and consider it as the visualisation of a public ceremony even more
stately and magnificent than those of Venice in Veronese's day, we may
allow it the highest praise which the perfect expression of such an idea
deserves. It is not, therefore, quite fair to say of such a work that " it
is but poor eloquence which only shows that the orator can talk."
Veronese has nothing whatever to say about St Catherine or Christ,
but he has something to say about the Venetian aristocracy. His
figures live a full, materialistic life, and they have the gestures which
agree, not with the emotions they are supposed to feel, but with their
social rank in contemporary Venice. It is interesting to note that
Veronese does not break Reynolds' rule of generalisation to any great
extent in his faces — these are never individualised in a Dutch sense.
Even his drapery, though sometimes, as in the robe of St Catherine,
strongly particularised, is often general in form, though not in texture ;
but the types he chooses, and his insistence on the magnificence of his
stuffs, both agree with a lower plane of imaginative conception than
that which Reynolds describes as the Grand Style.

From a photograph by Anderson.

The Fourth Discourse
be figures to be let. Besides, it is impossible for a
picture composed of so many parts, to have that effect
so indispensably necessary to grandeur, that of one
complete whole. However contradictory it may be in
geometry, it is true in taste, that many little things will ,
not make a great one. The Sublime impresses the mind
at once with one great idea ; it is a single blow : the
elegant, indeed, may be produced by repetition ; by an
accumulation of many minute circumstances.
However great the difference is between the com
position of the Venetian and the rest of the Italian
schools, there is full as great a disparity in the
effect of their pictures as produced by colours. And
though in this respect the Venetians must be allowed
extraordinary skill, yet even that skill, as they have
employed it, will but ill correspond with the great
style. Their colouring is not only too brilliant, but,
I will venture to say, too harmonious, to produce
that solidity, steadiness, and simplicity of effect, which
heroic subjects require, and which simple or grave
colours only can give to a work. That they are to
be cautiously studied by those who are ambitious of
treading the great walk of history is confirmed, if it
wants confirmation, by the greatest of all authorities,
Michel Angelo. This wonderful man, after having
seen a picture by Titian, told Vasari, who accompanied
him,1 " that he liked much his colouring and manner " ;
1 Dicendo, che molto gli piaceva il colorito suo, e la maniera ; ma
che era un peccato, che a Venezia non s'imparasse da principio a
disegnare bene, e che non havessano que' pittori miglior modo nello
studio. Fas. tom. Hi. p. 226 Vita di Tiziano. — R.
91

Sir Joshua Reynolds
but then he added, " that it was a pity the Venetian
painters did not learn to draw correctly in their early
youth, and adopt a better manner of study."
By this it appears, that the principal attention of
the Venetian painters, in the opinion of Michel An
gelo, seemed to be engrossed by the study of colours,
to the neglect of the ideal beauty of form, or propriety
of expression. But if general censure was given to
that school from the sight of a picture of Titian, how
much more heavily and more justly would the cen
sure fall on Paolo Veronese, and more especially on
Tintoret? And here I cannot avoid citing Vasari's
opinion of the style and manner of Tintoret. "Of
all the extraordinary geniuses," l says he, " that have
practised the art of painting, for wild, capricious,
extravagant, and fantastical inventions, for furious
impetuosity and boldness in the execution of his work,
there is none like Tintoret; his strange whimsies are
even beyond extravagance, and his works seem to
be produced rather by chance, than in consequence
of any previous design, as if he wanted to convince
the world that the art was a trifle, and of the most
easy attainment."
For my own part, when I speak of the Venetian
painters, I wish to be understood to mean Paolo
i Nelle cose della pittura, stravagante, capriccioso, presto, e resoluto,
et il piu terribile cervello, che habbia havuto mai la pittura, come si put)
vedere in tutte le sue opere ; e ne' componimenti delle storie, fantastiche,
e fatte da lui diversamente, e fuori dell' uso degli altri pittori : anzi ha
superato la stravaganza, con le nuove, e capricciose inventioni, e straw
ghiribizzi del suo intelleto, che ha lavorato a caso, e senza disegno,
quasi monstrando che quest' arte e una baia. — R.
92

The Fourth Discourse
Veronese and Tintoret, to the exclusion of Titian;
for though his style is not so pure as that of many
other of the Italian schools, yet there is a sort of sena
torial dignity about him, which, however awkward in
his imitators, seems to become him exceedingly. His
portraits alone, from the nobleness and simplicity of
character which he always gave them, will entitle
him to the greatest respect, as he undoubtedly stands
in the first rank in this branch of the art.
It is not with Titian, but with the seducing qualities
of the two former, that I could wish to caution you
against being too much captivated. These are the
persons who may be said to have exhausted all the
powers of florid eloquence, to debauch the young
and unexperienced ; and have, without doubt, been
the cause of turning off the attention of the connois
seur and of the patron of art, as well as that of the
painter, from those higher excellences of which the
art is capable, and which ought to be required in
every considerable production. By them, and their
imitators, a style merely ornamental has been dis
seminated throughout all Europe. Rubens carried it
to Flanders: Voet to France; and Lucca Giordano, to
Spain and Naples.
The Venetian is indeed the most splendid of the
schools of elegance ; and it is not without reason,
that the best performances in this lower school are
valued higher than the second-rate performances of
those above them; for every picture has value when
it has a decided character, and is excellent in its kind.
But the student must take care not to be so much
93

Sir Joshua Reynolds
dazzled with this splendour, as to be tempted to
imitate what must ultimately lead from perfection.
Poussin, whose eye was always steadily fixed on the
sublime, has been often heard to say, "That a
particular attention to colouring was an obstacle to the
student, in his progress to the great end and design
of the art; and that he who attaches himself to this
principal end, will acquire by practice a reasonably
good method of colouring."1
Though it be allowed that elaborate harmony of
colouring, a brilliancy of tints, a soft and gradual
transition from one to another, present to the eye,
what an harmonious concert of music does to the
ear, it must be remembered, that painting is not
merely a gratification of the sight. Such excellence,
though properly cultivated, where nothing higher
than elegance is intended, is weak and unworthy of
regard, when the work aspires to grandeur and
sublimity. The same reasons that have been urged to show
that a mixture of the Venetian style cannot improve
the great style, will hold good in regard to the
Flemish and Dutch schools. Indeed the Flemish
school, of which Rubens is the head, was formed
upon that of the Venetian; like them, he took his
figures too much from the people before him. But
it must be allowed in favour of the Venetians, that
i Que cette application singuli&re n'etoit qu'un obstacle pour em-
pecher de parvenir au veritable but de la peinture, et celui qui s'attache
au principal acquiert par le pratique une assez belle mani&re de piendre.
Conference de V Acad. Franc. — R. 94

CLAUDE
The Enchanted Castle
lady wantage's collection

Reynolds naturally takes Claude as the type of the generalising artist
in landscape. It is true that he did not generalise quite so much as
some of the eighteenth-century landscape painters, as Gainsborough or
Wilson for instance. His trees often belong to a recognisable species ;
their foliation is varied, and at times minutely studied. He does not
employ merely an abstract tree, but, on the other hand, he does usually
generalise his species. His trees are well-grown ideal examples of
their species ; he avoids the obvious picturesqueness of accidental and
decayed growths. Moreover, carefully though he studied individual
forms and even particular localities in his drawings, in his compositions
he puts these together in a peculiarly abstract way. His articulation
of land and sea, of lawn and temple, of tree and rock, has something
entirely wilful and preconceived about it. His precise and vigorous
conception will not allow of any of those accidental blurrings and
confusions which give the idea of verisimilitude. He literally composes
his pictures, adding object to object till the sum of these builds up the
expression of the poetical idea. His art is, indeed, peculiarly akin to
poetry, and, therefore, an apt illustration of Reynolds' main contention.
The poetical quality of this, perhaps Claude's finest work, has, indeed,
become familiar to us in Keats' translation. 7 pi arTfui,*. "*

The Fourth Discourse
he was more gross than they, and carried all their
mistaken methods to a far greater excess. In the
Venetian school itself, where they all err from the
same cause, there is a difference in the effect. The
difference between Paolo and Bassano seems to be
only, that one introduced Venetian gentlemen into
his pictures, and the other the boors of the district
of Bassano, and called them patriarchs and prophets.
The painters of the Dutch school have still more
locality. With them, a history piece is properly a
portrait of themselves; whether they describe the
inside or outside of their houses, we have their own
people engaged in their own peculiar occupations ;
working or drinking, playing or fighting. The cir
cumstances that enter into a picture of this kind
are so far from giving a general view of human life,
that they exhibit all the minute particularities of a
nation differing in several respects from the rest of
mankind. Yet, let them have their share of more
humble praise. The Painters of this school are
excellent in their own way; they are only ridiculous
when they attempt general history on their own
narrow principles, and debase great events by the
meanness of their characters.
Some inferior dexterity, some extraordinary mechani
cal power is apparently that from which they seek
distinction. Thus, we see, that school alone has the
custom of representing candle-light not as it really
appears to us by night, but red, as it would illuminate
objects to a spectator by day. Such tricks, however
pardonable in the little style, where petty effects are
G 97

Sir Joshua Reynolds
the sole end, are inexcusable in the greater, where the
attention should never be drawn aside by trifles, but
should be entirely occupied by ihc subject itself.
The same local principles which characterize the
Dutch school extend even to their Landscape Painters;
and Rubens himself, who has painted many land
scapes, has sometimes transgressed in this particular.
Their pieces in this way are, I think, always a repre
sentation of an individual spot, and each in its kind a
very faithful but a very confined portrait. Claude
Lorrain, on the contrary, was convinced, that taking
Nature as he found it seldom produced beauty. His
pictures are a composition of the various drafts which
he had previously made from various beautiful scenes
and prospects. However, Rubens in some measure
has made amends for the deficiency with which he is
charged ; he has contrived to raise and animate his
otherwise uninteresting views, by introducing a rain
bow, storm, or some particular accidental effect of light.
That the practice of Claude Lorrain, in respect to his
choice, is to be adopted by Landscape Painters in
opposition to that of the Flemish and Dutch schools,
there can be no doubt, as its truth is founded upon
the same principle as that by which the Historical
Painter acquires perfect form. But whether landscape
painting has a right to aspire so far as to reject what
the Painters call Accidents of Nature, is not easy to
determine. It is certain Claude Lorrain seldom, if
ever, availed himself of those accidents ; either he
thought that such peculiarities were contrary to that
style of general Nature which he professed, or that it
98

The Fourth Discourse
would catch the attention too strongly, and destroy that
quietness and repose which he thought necessary to that
kind of painting.
A Portrait Painter likewise, when he attempts his
tory, unless he is upon his guard, is likely to enter too
much into the detail. He too frequently makes his
historical heads look like portraits; and this was once
the custom amongst those old Painters, who revived the
Art before general ideas were practised or understood.
A History Painter paints man in general; a Portrait
Painter, a particular man, and consequently a defective
model Thus an habitual practice in the lower exercises of
the Art will prevent many from attaining the greater.
But such of us who move in these humbler walks of
the profession, are not ignorant that, as the natural
dignity of the subject is less, the more all the little
ornamental helps are necessary to its embellishment.
It would be ridiculous for a painter of domestic scenes,
of portraits, landscapes, animals, or still life, to say
that he despised those qualities which have made the
subordinate schools so famous. The Art of colouring,
and the skilful management of light and shadow, are
essential requisites in his confined labours. If we
descend still lower, what is the painter of fruit and
flowers without the utmost Art in colouring, and what
the painters call handling ; that is, a lightness of pencil
that implies great practice, and gives the appearance of
being done with ease? Some here, I beheve, must
remember a flower painter whose boast it was, that he
scorned to paint for the million : no, he professed to
99

Sir Joshua Reynolds
paint in the true Italian taste; and, despising the
crowd, called strenuously upon the few to admire him.
His idea of the Italian taste was to paint as black and
dirty as he could, and to leave all clearness and brilliancy
of colouring to those who were fonder of money than
immortality. The consequence was such as might be ex
pected. For these petty excellences are here essential
beauties ; and without this merit the artist's work will
be more short-lived than the objects of his imitation.
From what has been advanced, we must now be
convinced that there are two distinct styles in history
painting : the grand, and the splendid or ornamental.
The great style stands alone, and does not require,
perhaps does not so well admit, any addition from in
ferior beauties. The ornamental style also possesses
its own peculiar merit. However, though the union of
the two may make a sort of composite style, yet that
style is likely to be more imperfect than either of those
which go to its composition. Both kinds have merit,
and may be excellent though in different ranks, if
uniformity be preserved, and the general and particular
ideas of Nature be not mixed. Even the meanest of
them is difficult enough to attain; and the first place
being already occupied by the great artists in each
department, some of those who followed thought there
was less room for them, and feeling the impulse of
ambition and the desire of novelty, and being at the
same time, perhaps, willing to take the shortest way,
endeavoured to make for themselves a place between
both. This they have effected by forming an union of
the different orders. But as the grave and majestic
100

CORREGGIO
St Thomas and St James the Less
from the cupola of san giovanni at parma

Reynolds' words so exactly describe this that it is needless to add
anything, except that this has been chosen specially from Correggio's
work to illustrate that ' ' simplicity of the Grand Style " which is not
always apparent. Indeed many, misled by the superficial elegance
and seductiveness of Correggio's work, miss the strength and nobility
that underlie it.

The Fourth Discourse
style would suffer by an union with the florid and gay,
so also has the Venetian ornament in some respect been
injured by attempting an alliance with simplicity.
It may be asserted, that the great style is always
more or less contaminated by any meaner mixture.
But it happens in a few instances that the lower may
be improved by borrowing from the grand. Thus if
a portrait painter is desirous to raise and improve his
subject, he has no other means than by approaching
it to a general idea. He leaves out all the minute
breaks and peculiarities in the face, and changes the
dress from a temporary fashion to one more permanent,
which has annexed to it no ideas of meanness from its
being familiar to us. But if an exact resemblance of
an individual be considered as the sole object to be
aimed at, the portrait painter will be apt to lose more
than he gains by the acquired dignity taken from
general nature. It is very difficult to ennoble the
character of a countenance but at the expense of the
likeness, which is what is most generally required by
such as sit to the painter.
Of those who have practised the composite style,
and have succeeded in this perilous attempt, perhaps
the foremost is Correggio. His style is founded upon
modern grace and elegance, to which is superadded
something of the simplicity of the grand style. A
breadth of light and colour, the general ideas of the
drapery, an uninterrupted flow of outline, all conspire
to this effect. Next to him (perhaps equal to him),
Parmegiano has dignified the genteelness of modern
effeminacy, by uniting it with the simplicity of the
103

Sir Joshua Reynolds
ancients and the grandeur and severity of Michel
Angelo. It must be confessed, however, that these
two extraordinary men, by endeavouring to give the
utmost degree of grace, have sometimes perhaps ex
ceeded its boundaries, and have fallen into the most
hateful of all hateful qualities, affectation. Indeed,
it is the peculiar characteristic of men of genius to be
afraid of coldness and insipidity, from which they think
they never can be too far removed. It particularly
happens to these great masters of grace and elegance.
They often boldly drive on to the very verge of
ridicule ; the spectator is alarmed, but at the same time
admires their vigour and intrepidity :
Strange graces still, and stranger flights they had,
Yet ne'er so sure our passion to create,
As when they touch'd the brink of all we hate.
The errors of genius, however, are pardonable, and
none even of the more exalted painters are wholly free
from them ; but they have taught us, by the rectitude
of their general practice, to correct their own affected
or accidental deviation. The very first have not been
always upon their guard, and perhaps there is not a
fault, but what may take shelter under the most vener
able authorities; yet that style only is perfect, in
which the noblest principles are uniformly pursued;
and those masters only are entitled to the first rank in
our estimation, who have enlarged the boundaries of
their art, and have raised it to its highest dignity, by
exhibiting the general ideas of nature.
On the whole, it seems to me that there is but one
104

The Fourth Discourse
presiding principle which regulates and gives stability
to every art. The works, whether of poets, painters,
moralists, or historians, which are built upon general
nature, live for ever; while those which depend for
their existence on particular customs and habits, a
partial view of nature, or the fluctuation of fashion, can
only be coeval with that which first raised them from
obscurity. Present time and future may be considered
as rivals ; and he who solicits the one must expect to
be discountenanced by the other.

105

INTRODUCTION TO
THE FIFTH DISCOURSE
It follows of necessity from the principles laid down in the
last Discourse — namely, that every degree of imaginative eleva
tion in the theme must have its corresponding degree of
generalisation and abstraction from the particular in the
forms which give it expression — it follows from this, that
a mixture of the qualities of different degrees — or styles, as
Reynolds calls them — and any attempt to unite their various
excellences, must produce a discord. It is this application
which Reynolds, eclectic though he was, here enforces. His
advice to the student is to keep his attention fixed on the
higher excellences : "If you compass them, and compass
nothing more, you are still in the first class." Somewhat
dangerous advice, and hardly borne out by his own practice,
since it omits the case, which is certain to be a frequent one,
of an artist who might have succeeded on the lower plane,
failing entirely on the higher.
Reynolds goes on to point out the dangers of a too theoretical
eclecticism to which the student might have been inclined
by following incorrectly his remarks on the grand style — the
danger, namely, of insipidity. That is the danger which we
now feel, more clearly even than Reynolds did, to have beset
the art of the seventeenth century of Bologna and France
when it attempted the grand style. The generalised and
ideal type-form can only satisfy the imagination when it
contains as full and definite a content, when it is as real,
as the particular form. In so far as it fails of this, though
it may answer generally to the vague compound image of
107

Sir Joshua Reynolds
the type which we carry in our minds, it will not heighten
or enrich it, and we have a sense of disappointment : we miss
the expected stimulus, and find the work insipid, however
admirable our intellect tells us it should be. It is our growing
sense of the importance of this content of the type-forms
which has forced us to transfer our affections increasingly
from the art of the seventeenth century to that of the
fifteenth. We have seen already that Reynolds himself was
not without a suspicion of the justice of this view.
As against this danger of insipidity, Reynolds proposes to
the student the study of yet a third style, the " characteristic,"
of which he takes Salvator Rosa and Rubens as types. The
merit of this style consists not so much in the propriety of the
forms chosen as in their perfect consistency. Reynolds' use
of the word " characteristic " is here somewhat different from
the modern sense. We should be inclined to call a style
characteristic in which the characters of natural objects were
strongly accentuated. We should, for instance, apply the word
to such a style as Pollajuolo's, Signorelli's, or Diirer's. But
Reynolds appears rather to mean a style in which the char
acter of the artist is strongly impressed on everything that
he does ; or, as we might now say, a temperamental style.
The opposition between characteristic and insipid art in
troduces a classification which runs across the earlier one
of grand and ornamental. It might almost be expressed by
subjective and objective — the characteristic or subjective
artist tending always to emphasise his personal reaction,
the objective (who is, of course, not by any means necessarily
insipid) tending to emphasise the external validity of his
conceptions. On this basis we might divide artists, of what
ever imaginative rank, from the most poetical to the most
prosaic, into two groups : on the one hand we should have,
to take a few cases, Botticelli, Piero di Cosimo, Michelangelo,
Rubens, El Greco ; on the other Giotto, Mantegna, Raphael,
Titian, Veronese, Velasquez, and all the eclectics. The
108

The Fifth Discourse
classification is, of course, in no sense absolute : it is merely
a question of degree. All real art must have the impress
of its creator's character ; but there are immense differences
of degree between the artist who endeavours to mitigate,
and the artist who wilfully exaggerates this impress. In- ,
sipidity is at one end of the scale, and crazy caprice at the /
other.

109

THE FIFTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of the
Prizes, December IO, 1772
Circumspection required in endeavouring to unite contrary excellences —
The expression of a mixed passion not to be attempted — Examples
of those who excelled in the great style ; — Raffaelle, Michel
Angelo, those two extraordinary men compared with each other
— The characteristical style — Salvator Rosa mentioned as an
example of that style ; and opposed to Carlo Maratti — Sketch
of the characters of Poussin and Rubens — These two painters
entirely dissimilar, but consistent with themselves — This con
sistency required in all parts of the art.
Gentlemen,
I purpose to carry on in this discourse the subject
which I began in my last. It was my wish upon that
occasion to incite you to pursue the higher excellences
of the art. But I fear that in this particular I have
been misunderstood. Some are ready to imagine, when
any of their favourite acquirements in the art are
properly classed, that they are utterly disgraced. This
is a very great mistake : nothing has its proper lustre
but in its proper place. That which is most worthy of
esteem in its allotted sphere, becomes an object, not
of respect, but of derision, when it is forced into a
higher, to which it is not suited ; and there it becomes
doubly a source of disorder, by occupying a situation
which is not natural to it, and by putting down from
the first place what is in reality of too much magnitude
111

The Fifth Discourse
to become with grace and proportion that subordinate
station, to which something of less value would be
much better suited.
My advice, in a word, is this: Keep your principal
attention fixed upon the higher excellences. If you
compass them, and compass nothing more, you are still
in the first class. We may regret the innumerable
beauties which you may want ; you may be very im
perfect : but still, you are an imperfect artist of the
highest order.
If, when you have got thus far, you can add any, or
all, of the subordinate qualifications, it is my wish and
advice that you should not neglect them. But this is
as much a matter of circumspection and caution at least,
as of eagerness and pursuit.
The mind is apt to be distracted by a multiplicity
of objects; and that scale of perfection which I wish
always to be preserved, is in the greatest danger of
being totally disordered, and even inverted.
Some excellences bear to be united, and are im
proved by union ; others are of a discordant nature ;
and the attempt to join them, only produces a harsh
jarring of incongruent principles. The attempt to
unite contrary excellences (of form, for instance, in a
single figure) can never escape degenerating into the
monstrous, but by sinking into the insipid ; by taking
away its marked character, and weakening its expres
sion. This remark is true to a certain degree with regard
to the passions. If you mean to preserve the most
• perfect beauty in its most perfect state, you cannot
112

GUIDO RENI
PietA
pinacoteca. bologna

H

Reynolds' criticism of Guido Reni is true enough if we compare his
expression of passion with that of the great artists of the early and full
Renaissance, but it is, perhaps, hardly fair if we compare him with his
contemporaries, because he is among the Bolognese the one who
attempted most the expression of strong emotion. Though less
correct than the Caracci, he had more originality, and his invention
was fresher and more vital. The consequence is that we feel the
"faults of the sentiment of his time, its rhetorical display and want of
depth, more keenly in proportion as he really expresses more. Such
a work as this Pieta comes perilously near to the sentimentality of
our own time, of a Delaroche or an Ary Scheffer, but it is expressed
in more stately and dignified language. The forms have a breadth,
and the composition an architect) tonic unity and repose, which shows
that the great tradition was not yet extinct.

The Fifth Discourse
express the passions, all of which produce distortion
and deformity, more or less, in the most beautiful
faces. Guido, from want of choice in adapting his subject
to his ideas and his powers, or from attempting to pre
serve beauty where it could not be preserved, has in
this respect succeeded very ill. His figures are often
engaged in subjects that required great expression:
yet his Judith and Holofernes, the daughter of Herodias
with the Baptist's head, the Andromeda, and some
even of the Mothers of the Innocents, have little more
expression than his Venus attired by the Graces.
Obvious as these remarks appear, there are many
writers on our art, who, not being of the profession,
and consequently not knowing what can or cannot be
done, have been very liberal of absurd praises in their
descriptions of favourite works. They always find in
them what they are resolved to find. They praise ex
cellences that can hardly exist together; and above
all things are fond of describing with great exactness
the expression of a mixed passion, which more particu
larly appears to me out of the reach of our art.
Such are many disquisitions which I have read on
some of the Cartoons and other pictures of Raffaelle,
where the Criticks have described their own imagina
tions ; or indeed where the excellent master himself
may have, attempted this expression of passions above
the powers of the art; and has, therefore, by an in
distinct and imperfect marking, left room for every
imagination, with equal probability to find a passion
of his own. What has been, and what can be done
"5

Sir Joshua Reynolds
in the art, is sufficiently difficult; we need not be
mortified or discouraged at not being able to execute
the conceptions of a romantic imagination. Art has
its boundaries, though imagination has none. We
can easily, like the antients, suppose a Jupiter to be
possessed of all those powers and perfections which
the subordinate Deities were endowed with separately.
Yet, when they employed their art to represent him,
they confined his character to majesty alone. Pliny,
therefore, though we are under great obligations to
him for the information he has given us in relation to
the works of the ancient artists, is very frequently
wrong when he speaks of them, which he does very
often in the style of many of our modern connoisseurs.
He observes, that in a statue of Paris, by Euphranor,
you might discover at the same time three different
characters; the dignity of a Judge of the Goddesses,
the Lover of Helen, and the Conqueror of Achilles.
A statue, in which you endeavour to unite stately
dignity, youthful elegance, and stern valour, must
surely possess none of these to any eminent degree.
From hence it appears, that there is much difficulty
as well as danger, in an endeavour to concentrate, in a
single subject those various powers, which rising from
different points, naturally move in different directions.
The summit of excellence seems to be an assemblage
of contrary qualities, but mixed in such proportions,
that no one part is found to counteract the other.
How hard this is to be attained in every art, those only
know, who have made the greatest progress in their
respective professions. 116

The Fifth Discourse
To conclude what I have to say on this part of the
subject, which I think of great importance, I wish you
to understand, that I do not discourage the younger
students from the noble attempt of uniting all the
excellences of art; but suggest to them, that, beside
the difficulties which attend every arduous attempt,
there is a peculiar difficulty in the choice of the excel
lences which ought to be united. I wish you to
attend to this, that you may try yourselves, whenever
you are capable of that trial, what you can and what
you cannot do ; and that, instead of dissipating your
natural faculties over the immense field of possible
excellence, you may choose some particular walk in
which you may exercise all your powers : in order that
each of you may become the first in his way. If any
man shall be master of such a transcendant, command
ing, and ductile genius, as to enable him to rise to the
highest, and to stoop to the lowest, flights of art, and
to sweep over all of them unobstructed and secure,
he is fitter to give example than to receive instruction.
Having said thus much on the union of excellences,
I will next say something of the subordination in which
various excellences ought to be kept.
I am of opinion, that the ornamental style, which, in
my discourse of last year I cautioned you against con
sidering as principal, may not be wholly unworthy the
attention even of those who aim at the grand style,
when it is properly placed and properly reduced.
But this study will be used with far better effect, if
its principles are employed in softening the harshness
and mitigating the rigour of the great style, than if it
117

Sir Joshua Reynolds
attempt to stand forward with any pretensions of its
own, to positive and original excellence. It was thus
Ludovico Caracci, whose example I formerly recom
mended to you, employed it. He was acquainted with
the works both of Correggio and the Venetian painters,
and knew the principles by which they produced those
pleasing effects, which at the first glance prepossess
us so much in their favour ; but he took only as much
from each as would embellish, but not overpower, that
manly strength and energy of style, which is his peculiar
character. Since I have already expatiated so largely in my
former discourse, and in my present, upon the styles
and characters of Painting, it will not be at all unsuit
able to my subject if I mention to you some particulars
relative to the leading principles, and capital works
of those who excelled in the great style, that I may
bring you from abstraction nearer to practice, and by
exemplifying the positions which I have laid down,
enable you to understand more clearly what I would
enforce. The principal works of modern art are in Fresco, a
mode of painting which excludes attention to minute
elegancies ; yet these works in Fresco are the produc
tions on which the fame of the greatest masters
depends. Such are the pictures of Michel Angelo and
Raffaelle in the Vatican; to which we may add the
Cartoons; which, though not strictly to be called
Fresco, yet may be put under that denomination; and
such are the works of Giulio Romano at Mantua. If
these performances were destroyed, with them would
118

The Fifth Discourse
be lost the best part of the reputation of those illus
trious painters; for these are justly considered as the
greatest effort of our Art which the world can boast.
To these, therefore, we should principally direct our
attention for higher excellences. As for the lower
arts, as they have been once discovered, they may be
easily attained by those possessed of the former.
Raffaelle, who stands in general foremost of the first
painters, owes his reputation, as I have observed, to his
excellence in the higher parts of the Art ; his works in
Fresco, therefore, ought to be the first object of our
study and attention. His easel-works stand in a lower
degree of estimation: for though he continually, to
the day of his death, embellished his performances
more and more with the addition of those lower orna
ments, which entirely make the merit of some painters,
yet he never arrived at such perfection as to make him
an object of imitation. He never was able to conquer
perfectly that dryness, or even littleness of manner,
which he inherited from his master. He never ac
quired that nicety of taste in colours, that breadth of
light and shadow, that art and management of uniting
light to light, and shadow to shadow, so as to make
the object rise out of the ground with the plenitude
of effect so much admired in the works of Correggio.
When he painted in oil, his hand seemed to be so
cramped and confined, that he not only lost that facility
and spirit, but I think even that correctness of form,
which is so perfect and admirable in his Fresco-works.
I do not recollect any pictures of his of this kind,
except perhaps the Transfiguration, in which there are
119

Sir Joshua Reynolds
not some parts that appear to be even feebly drawn.
That this is not a necessary attendant on Oil painting,
we have abundant instances in more modern painters.
Ludovico Caracci, for instance, preserved in his works
in oil the same spirit, vigour, and correctness which he
had in Fresco. I have no desire to degrade Raffaelle
from the high rank which he deservedly holds; but
by comparing him with himself, he does not appear
to me to be the same man in Oil as in Fresco.
From those who have ambition to tread in this great
walk of the Art, Michel Angelo claims the next atten
tion. He did not possess so many excellences as
Raffaelle, but those which he had were of the highest
kind. He considered the Art as consisting of httle
more than what may be attained by sculpture ; correct
ness of form, and energy of character. We ought
not to expect more than an artist intends in his work.
He never attempted those lesser elegancies and graces
in the Art. Vasari says, he never painted but one
picture in oil, and resolved never to paint another,
saying, it was an employment only fit for women and
children. If any man had a right to look down upon the
lower accomplishments as beneath his attention, it was
certainly Michel Angelo: nor can it be thought
strange, that such a mind should have slighted or
have been withheld from paying due attention to all
those graces and embellishments of art, which have
diffused such lustre over the works of other painters.
It must be acknowledged, however, that together
with these, which we wish he had more attended to,
1 20

The Fifth Discourse
he has rejected all the false, though specious ornaments,
which disgrace the works even of the most esteemed
artists ; and, I will venture to say, that when those
higher excellences are more known and cultivated by
the artists and patrons of arts, his fame and credit will
increase with our increasing knowledge. His name
will then be held in the same veneration as it was in
the enlightened age of Leo the Tenth: and it is re
markable that the reputation of this truly great man
has been continually declining as the art itself has
declined. For I must remark to you, that it has long
been much on the decline, and that our only hope of
its revival will consist in your being thoroughly sensible
of its deprivation and decay. It is to Michel Angelo
that we owe even the existence of Raffaelle ; it is to
him Raffaelle owes the grandeur of his style. He was
taught by him to elevate his thoughts, and to conceive
his subjects with dignity. His genius, however, formed
to blaze and to shine, might, like fire in combustible
matter, for ever have lain dormant, if it had not
caught a spark by its contact with Michel Angelo;
and though it never burst out with his extraordinary
heat and vehemence, yet it must be acknowledged to
be a more pure, regular, and chaste flame. Though
our judgment must, upon the whole, decide in favour
of Raffaelle, yet he never takes such a firm hold and
entire possession of the mind as to make us desire
nothing else, and to feel nothing wanting. The effect
of the capital works of Michel Angelo perfectly corre
sponds to what Bouchardon said he felt from reading
Homer; his whole frame appeared to himself to be
121

Sir Joshua Reynolds
enlarged, and all nature which surrounded him,
diminished to atoms.
If we put these great artists in a light of comparison
with each other, Raffaelle had more Taste and Fancy;
Michel Angelo, more Genius and Imagination. The
one excelled in beauty, the other in energy. Michel
Angelo has more of the poetical Inspiration; his ideas
are vast and sublime; his people are a superior order
of beings; there is nothing about them, nothing in
the air of their actions or their attitudes, or the style
and cast of their limbs or features, that reminds us of
their belonging to our own species. Raffaelle's imagina
tion is not so elevated; his figures are not so much
disjoined from our own diminutive race of beings^
though his ideas are chaste, noble, and of great con
formity to their subjects. Michel Angelo's works
have a strong, peculiar, and marked character: they
seem to proceed from his own mind entirely, and that
mind so rich and abundant, that he never needed, or
seemed to disdain, to look abroad for foreign help.
Raffaelle's materials are generally borrowed, though
the noble structure is his own. The excellency of
this extraordinary man lay in the propriety, beauty,
and majesty of his characters, the judicious contrivance
of his composition, his correctness of Drawing, purity
of Taste, and skilful accommodation of other men's
conceptions to his own purpose. Nobody excelled
him in that judgment, with which he united to his
own observations on Nature, the energy of Michel
Angelo, and the Beauty and Simplicity of the Antique.
To the question, therefore, which ought to hold the
122

The Fifth Discourse
first rank, Raffaelle or Michel Angelo, it must be
answered, that if it is to be given to him who pos
sessed a greater combination of the higher qualities of
the art than any other man, there is no doubt but
Raffaelle is the first. But if, as Longinus thinks, the
sublime, being the highest excellence that human com
position can attain to, abundantly compensates the
absence of every other beauty, and atones for all
other deficiencies, then Michel Angelo demands the
preference. These two extraordinary men carried some of the
higher excellences of the art to a greater degree of
perfection than probably they ever arrived at before.
They certainly have not been excelled, nor equalled
since. Many of their successors were induced to leave
this great road as a beaten path, endeavouring to sur
prise and please by something uncommon or new.
When this desire of novelty has proceeded from mere
idleness or caprice, it is not worth the trouble of criti
cism; but when it has been the result of a busy mind
of a peculiar complexion, it is always striking and
interesting, never insipid.
Such is the great style, as it appears in those who
possessed it at its height: in this, search after novelty,
in conception or in treating the subject, has no place.
But there is another style, which, though inferior to
the former, has still great merit, because it shows that
those who cultivated it were men of lively and vigorous
imagination. This, which may be called the original
br characteristic style, being less referred to any true
archetype existing either in general or particular nature,
123

Sir Joshua Reynolds
must be supported by the Painter's consistency in the
principles which he has assumed, and in the union and
harmony of his whole design. The excellency of every
style, but of the subordinate styles more especially,
will very much depend on preserving that union and
harmony between all the component parts, that they
may appear to hang well together, as if the whole
proceeded from one mind. It is in the works of art
as in the characters of men. The faults or defects of
some men seem to become them, when they appear to
be the natural growth, and of a piece with the rest of
their character. A faithful picture of a mind, though
it be not of the most elevated kind, though it be ir
regular, wild, and incorrect, yet if it be marked with
that spirit and firmness which characterise works of
genius, will claim attention, and be more striking than
a combination of excellences that do not seem to unite
well together; or we may say, than a work that pos
sesses even all excellences, but those in a moderate
degree. One of the strongest marked characters of this kind,
which must be allowed to be subordinate to the great
style, is that of Salvator Rosa. He gives us a peculiar
cast of nature, which, though void of all grace, ele
gance, and simplicity, though it has nothing of that
elevation and dignity which belongs to the grand style,
yet has that sort of dignity which belongs to savage
and uncultivated nature : but what is most to be ad
mired in him, is the perfect correspondence which he
observed between the subjects which he chose, and
his manner of treating them. Everything is of a piece :
124

SALVATOR ROSA
Cain and Abel
doria gallery, rome

Whatever doubts one may have about the ultimate verdict on the
Bolognese school, there can be none whatever that the rival school of
the Naturalists produced two great artists. Salvator Rosa is at present
one of the most unfairly underestimated of all artists. Nor is it only
in landscape that he deserves recognition. Though the title "pittore
delle cose morall," which was once given to him, sounds rather strange
to us, it has a. certain meaning in thefgenum,e if somewhat over-
emphatic expression which he gives to the passions. This, for instance,
though it misses the heroic grandeur of Titian's version of the subject,
in the Salute, and the fantastic, almost lyrical beauty of Tintoretto's,
has, in spite of its terrible emphasis on the brutality of the act, a sense
of style which redeems it from vulgarity. Of the actual power to
conceive and delineate muscular tension, and to select the impressive
moments both in form and in chiaroscuro, it gives unmistakable proof.
The drawing and modelling of Abel's back show a grasp of form and
a unity of rhythm which Tintoretto never approached. It is only
in an inartistic and vehement forcing of the tone contrasts that
Salvator here betrays the taste of his day and belies the graver accent
of the sixteenth century.

Frcrn j;':::.';rr'; rv .tndtrsoii

The Fifth Discourse
his Rocks, Trees, Sky, even to his handling, have the
same rude and wild character which animates his figures.
With him we may contrast the character of Carlo
Maratti, who, in my opinion, had no great vigour of
mind or strength of original genius. He rarely seizes
the imagination by exhibiting the higher excellences,
nor does he captivate us by that originality which
attends the Painter who thinks for himself. He knew
and practised all the rules of art, and from a composi
tion of Raffaelle, Caracci, and Guido, made up a style,
of which the only fault was, that it had no manifest de
fects and no striking beauties ; and that the principles
of his composition are never blended together, so as to
form one uniform body original in its kind, or excellent
in any view.
I will mention two other Painters, who, though en
tirely dissimilar, yet by being each consistent with
himself, and possessing a manner entirely his own,
have both gained reputation, though for very opposite
accomplishments. The Painters I mean, are Rubens
and Poussin. Rubens I mention in this place, as I
think him a remarkable instance of the same mind
being seen in all the various parts of the Art. The
whole is so much of a piece, that one can scarce be
brought to believe but that if any one of the qualities
he possessed had been more correct and perfect, his
works would not have been so complete as they now
appear. If we should allow him a greater purity and
correctness of Drawing, his want of Simplicity in Com
position, Colouring, and Drapery, would appear more
gross. 127

Sir Joshua Reynolds
In his Composition his art is too apparent. His
figures have expression, and act with energy, but with
out simplicity or dignity. His colouring, in which he
is eminently skilled, is, notwithstanding, too much of
what we call tinted. Throughout the whole of his
works, there is a proportionable want of that nicety of
distinction and elegance of mind, which is required in
the higher walks of painting : and to this want it may
be in some degree ascribed, that those qualities which
make the excellency of this subordinate style appear
in him with their greatest lustre. Indeed the facility
with which he invented, the richness of his composi
tion, the luxuriant harmony and brilliancy of his colour
ing, so dazzle the eye, that whilst his works continue
before us, we cannot help thinking that all his de
ficiencies are fully supplied.
Opposed to this florid, careless, loose, and inaccurate
style, that of the simple, careful, pure, and correct style
of Pojissin, seems to be a complete contrast. Yet,
however opposite their characters, in one thing they
agreed ; both of them always preserving a perfect cor
respondence between all the parts of their respective
manners : insomuch that it may be doubted whether
any alteration of what is considered as defective in
either, would not destroy the effect of the whole.
Poussin lived and conversed with the ancient statues
so long, that he may be said to have been better
acquainted with them than with the people who were
about him. I have often thought that he carried his
veneration for them so far as to wish to give his works
the air of Ancient Paintings. It is certain he copied
128

NICOLAS POUSSIN
Memoria della Morte
louvre

Once more, as in the case of Le Sueur, we find the French temperament
contrasted with the Italian. While the Bolognese were drifting into
sentimental affectation, and the Neapolitans into melodramatic vehem
ence, the greatest French artist of the seventeenth century — though he
lived nearly entirely in Rome — - discovers a dry intellectual energy
similar to that of Le Sueur, though distinct in its aim. He is the
greatest of academic artists, but he betrays such a passion for restraint
and abstinence that it is impossible to confuse his dryness with mere
"dulness and formality. The intensity of his conviction discovers itself
even in what he denies. Reynolds clearly knew and appreciated
Poussin in spite of the extreme opposition of their respective attitudes,
though he repeats, unfairly, I think, the usual judgment about the
inferiority of his late works. In his early Roman style Poussin comes
near to Vouet, and, like him, learned from Titian a rich and
expressive handling, but his constant study of classic art led him
to conceive an entirely new and personal manner. He sought to
eliminate chiaroscuro without interfering with full relief and atmos
phere. Colour was to have its full local value throughout without
degradation of tint, and with only the slightest possible deepening in
the shadows. To do this and yet give to the picture its proper relief,
to relate the figures justly in the picture space, required a perfection of
design, a lucidity and conciseness in the rendering of form, which were
almost unattainable. By trying thus to do the utmost with the least
possible means, by gradually cutting off all the aids to expression which
decided action, contrast of light and shade, and emphatic handling
afford, he did undoubtedly lose much of the sentiment of life. But
he set a standard of strenuous asceticism in design which has had
profound influence on French art, and of which Puvis de Chavannes
was the great exponent in the nineteenth century.

The Fifth Discourse
some of the Antique Paintings, particularly the Marriage
in the Aldobrandini-Palace at Rome, which I believe
to be the best relic of those remote ages that has yet
been found.
No works of any modern have so much of the air of
Antique Painting as those of Poussin. His best per
formances have a remarkable dryness of manner, which
though by no means to be recommended for imitation,
yet seems perfectly correspondent to that ancient sim
plicity which distinguishes his style. Like Polidoro he
studied the ancients so much that he acquired a habit
of thinking in their way, and seemed to know perfectly
the actions and gestures they would use on every occa
sion. Poussin in the latter part of his life changed from
his dry manner to one much softer and richer, where
there is a greater union between the figures and
ground; as in the Seven Sacraments in the Duke of
Orleans's collection; but neither these, nor any of his
other pictures in this manner, are at all comparable to
many in this dry manner which we have in England.
The favourite subjects of Poussin were Ancient
Fables; and no painter was ever better qualified to
paint such subjects, not only from his being eminently
skilled in the knowledge of the ceremonies, customs,
and habits of the Ancients, but from his being so well
acquainted with the different characters which those
who invented them gave to their allegorical figures.
Though Rubens has shown great fancy in his Satyrs,
Silenuses, and Fauns, yet they are not that distinct
separate class of beings, which is carefully exhibited
131

Sir Joshua Reynolds
by the Ancients, and by Poussin. Certainly, when
such subjects of antiquity are represented, nothing in
the picture ought to remind us of modern times. The
mind is thrown back into antiquity, and nothing ought
to be introduced that may tend to awaken it from the
illusion. Poussin seemed to think that the style and the
language in which such stories are told, is not the
worse for preserving some relish of the old way of
painting, which seemed to give a general uniformity
to the whole, so that the mind was thrown back into
antiquity not only by the subject, but the execution.
If Poussin, in imitation of the Ancients, represents
Apollo driving his chariot out of the sea by way of
representing the Sun rising, if he personifies Lakes
and Rivers, it is nowise offensive in him; but seems
perfectly of a piece with the general air of the pic
ture. On the contrary, if the Figures which people
his pictures had a modern air or countenance, if they
appeared like our countrymen, if the draperies were
like cloth or silk of our manufacture, if the landscape
had the appearance of a modern view, how ridiculous
would Apollo appear instead of the Sun; and an old
Man, or a Nymph with an urn, to represent a River or

a Lake !

I cannot avoid mentioning here a circumstance in
portrait-painting, which may help to confirm what has
been said. When a portrait is painted in the Historical
Style, as it is neither an exact minute representation of
an individual, nor completely ideal, every circumstance
ought to correspond to this mixture. The simplicity
132

The Fifth Discourse
of the antique air and attitude, however much to be
admired, is ridiculous when joined to a figure in a
modern dress. It is not to my purpose to enter into
the question at present, whether this mixed style ought
to be adopted or not ; yet if it is chosen, it is necessary
it should be complete, and all of a piece ; the difference
of stuffs, for instance, which make the cloathing, should
be distinguished in the same degree as the head de
viates from a general idea. Without this union, which
I have so often recommended, a work can have no
marked and determined character, which is the pecu
liar and constant evidence of genius. But when this
is accomplished to a high degree, it becomes in some
sort a rival to that style which we have fixed as the
highest. Thus I have given a sketch of the characters of
Rubens and Salvator Rosa, as they appear to me to
have the greatest uniformity of mind throughout
their whole work. But we may add to these, all
those artists who are at the head of a class, and have
had a school of imitators from Michel Angelo down
to Watteau. Upon the whole it appears that, setting
aside the Ornamental Style, there are two different
modes, either of which a Student may adopt without
degrading the dignity of his Art. The object of the
first is, to combine the higher excellences and embel
lish them to the greatest advantage: of the other, to
carry one of these excellences to the highest degree.
But those who possess neither, must be classed with
them, who, as Shakspeare says, are men of no mark
or likelihood. 133

Sir Joshua Reynolds
I inculcate as frequently as I can your forming your
selves upon great principles and great models. Your
time will be much misspent in every other pursuit.
Small excellences should be viewed, not studied;
they ought to be viewed, because nothing should
escape a Painter's observation; but for no other
reason. There is another caution which I wish to give you.
Be as select in those whom you endeavour to please,
as in those whom you endeavour to imitate. Without
the love of fame, you can never do anything excellent ;
but by an excessive and undistinguishing thirst after
it, you will come to have vulgar views ; you will
degrade your style; and your taste will be entirely
corrupted. It is certain that the lowest style will be
the most popular, as it falls within the compass of
ignorance itself; and the vulgar will always be pleased
with what is natural, in the confined and misunderstood
sense of the word.
One should wish that such depravation of taste
should be counteracted with that manly pride which
actuated Euripides when he said to the Athenians
who criticised his works, " I do not compose my works
in order to be corrected by you, but to instruct you."
It is true, to have a right to speak thus, a man must
be an Euripides. However, thus much may be allowed,
that when an Artist is sure that he is upon firm ground,
supported by the authority and practice of his pre
decessors of the greatest reputation, he may then as
sume the boldness and intrepidity of genius; at any
rate, he^ust not be'tempted out of the^ right path by
134

The Fifth Discourse
any allurement of popularity, which always accompanies
the lower styles of painting.
I mention this, because our Exhibitions, while they
produce such admirable effects by nourishing emula
tion, and calling out genius, have also a mischievous
tendency, by seducing the Painter to an ambition of
pleasing indiscriminately the mixed multitude of people
who resort to them.

135

INTRODUCTION TO
THE SIXTH DISCOURSE
The Sixth Discourse is devoted to Reynolds' famous ex
posure of the theory of genius, and it contains, in spite of
the dry and sceptical attitude that the author discovers,
some of the most eloquent and persuasive passages in the
whole series of the Discourses, and this because in dispos
ing of a false and romantic superstition about the nature of
the creative imagination the author appeals to principles of
order and reason as against caprice and accident. It is only
to thoughtless and uncultured minds that this attempt to
replace chance by law, in the realm of the imagination will
appear a lessening of its dignity and charm.
"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." That is the charter by which alone the
student has a right to expect any reward for his labour.
Against this the theory of genius, as it is ordinarily held, sets
up the notion of a capricious and incalculable fate, which may
reward the careless and condemn the assiduous devotee. The
theory of genius as thus held by the public has reacted dis
astrously on the modern artist. Its destructive effects are,
however, due to the half-truth it contains. All men have not
equal gifts, as Reynolds would, in his anxiety for the student's
welfare, seem to suggest ; and though the effects of genius
have their causes, these are so hidden or complex that the
results, like those of meteorology, always surprise us, and
defy alike analysis and prediction.
Reynolds quite rightly insists on the exercise of his
137

Sir Joshua Reynolds
conscious intelligence by the artist ; but modern scientific
speculation shows that, however important this is, the syn
thetic power, the act of putting things together in a new
order, and, with a new significance which we call creation,
is a function of a part of our mind over which we have
no direct and immediate control. And though the fruits
which the artist may reap from his " subliminal self" will be
richer in proportion to the kind and quality of the seed
implanted by his conscious intelligence, the nature of the
soil, over which he has no control, will still be the largest
factor in the result. Reynolds, therefore, is right in inducing
his hearers to do all that a determined will and active intelli
gence can, to improve their science and taste, but assuredly
wrong in holding out to them the hopes of a more certain
and calculable reward than the diversity of human nature
allows. It is only right to add, seeing how much misunder
standing and criticism Reynolds' words have aroused, that he
elsewhere shows (in the passage about Maratti, p. 160) that
he was conscious of the inequality of natural gifts, and that
he only wished to emphasize here, even at the cost of some
exaggeration and some inconsistency, the more hopeful aspect
of the situation, which the value of conscious intelligent effort
supplies. The artist, indeed, does well to work as though the special
gift which we call genius did not exist, even though he pos
sesses it — the critic can hardly be blind to its overwhelming
importance. But even the critic may in justice admit what a
superstitious public will hardly allow — namely, that a poor and
uncultured genius may be of less importance in the influence
his art exerts than an artist who has only general capacity,
which he has cultivated to its utmost by thoughtful and
well-reasoned methods ; that, for example, Reynolds himself,
whose genius is not his most conspicuous trait, was, on the
whole, a more important figure in the history of British art
than Gainsborough, who had genius of the most striking kind.
138

The Sixth Discourse
Incidentally, Reynolds here gives what is, perhaps, the
truest account of the functions of art criticism that has ever
been framed. He declares that, though he must believe in
the existence of underlying laws, even in the most surprising
effects of genius, " these refined principles 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 shall perceive, by a kind of scientific sense, that propriety •which
words can but very feebly suggest." It is on the basis of a
belief in this logic of the sensations and emotions, however
difficult or even impossible it may be to define, that all
criticism and discussion of works of art must rest.
The rest of the Discourse is devoted to the discussion of
how the artist can best cultivate his gifts by the imitation
of what is great in the art of the past. The wisdom and
caution of Reynolds' advice on this head, the care with which
he discriminates between the investigation into the principles
of a great work, and the thoughtless imitation of its accidents
of manner, leave nothing to be desired.

139

THE SIXTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to tbe Students of the Royal Academy, on tbe Distribution
ofthe Prizes, December IO, 1774
Imitation — Genius begins where rules end — Invention : acquired by
being conversant with the inventions of others — The true
method of imitating — Borrowing, how far allowable — Some
thing to be gathered from every school.
Gentlemen,
When I have taken the liberty of addressing you on
the course and order of your studies, I never proposed
to enter into a minute detail of the Art. This I have
always left to the several professors, who pursue the
end of our institution with the highest honour to
themselves, and with the greatest advantage to the
Students. My purpose in the discourses I have held in the
Academy has been to lay down certain general posi
tions, which seem to me proper for the formation of a
sound taste : principles necessary to guard the pupils
against those errors, into which the sanguine temper
common to their time of life has a tendency to lead
them; and which have rendered abortive the hopes of
so many successions of promising young men in all
parts of Europe. I wished also, to intercept and
suppress those prejudices which particularly prevail
when the mechanism of painting is come to its per-
141

Sir Joshua Reynolds
fection; and which, when they do prevail, are certain
utterly to destroy the higher and more valuable parts
of this literate and liberal profession.
These two have been my principal purposes; they
are still as much my concern as ever; and if I repeat
my own notions on the subject, you who know how
fast mistake and prejudice, when neglected, gain ground
upon truth and reason, will easily excuse me. I only
attempt to set the same thing in the greatest variety of
lights. The subject of this discourse will be Imitation, as
far as a painter is concerned in it. By imitation, I do
not mean imitation in its largest sense, but simply the
following of other masters, and the advantage to be
drawn from the study of their works.
Those who have undertaken to write on our art,
and have represented it as a kind of inspiration, as a
gift bestowed upon peculiar favourites at their birth,
seem to insure a much more favourable disposition
from their readers, and have a much more captivating
and liberal air, than he who attempts to examine,
coldly, whether there are any means by which this art
may be acquired ; how the mind may be strengthened
and expanded, and what guides will show the way to
eminence. It is very natural for those who are unacquainted
with the cause of any thing extraordinary, to be aston
ished at the effect, and to consider it as a kind of magic.
They, who have never observed the gradation by which
art is acquired ; who see only what is the full result of
long labour and application of an infinite number and
142

The Sixth Discourse
infinite variety of acts, are apt to conclude, from their
entire inability to do the same at once, that it is not
only inaccessible to themselves, but can be done by
those only who have some gift of the nature of inspira
tion bestowed upon them.
The travellers into the East tell us, that when the
ignorant inhabitants of those countries are asked con
cerning the ruins of stately edifices yet remaining
amongst them, the melancholy monuments of their
former grandeur and long-lost science, they always
answer, that they were built by magicians. The un
taught mind finds a vast gulf between its own powers,
and those works of complicated art, which it is utterly
unable to fathom ; and it supposes that such a void can
be passed only by supernatural powers.
And, as for artists themselves, it is by no means their
interest to undeceive such judges, however conscious
they may be of the very natural means by which their
extraordinary powers were acquired ; though our art,
being intrinsically imitative, rejects this idea of inspira
tion, more perhaps than any other.
It is to avoid this plain confession of truth, as it
should seem, that this imitation of masters, indeed
almost all imitation, which implies a more regular and
progressive method of attaining the ends of painting,
has ever been particularly inveighed against with great
keenness, both by ancient and modern writers.
To derive all from native power, to owe nothing to
another, is the praise which men, who do not much
think on what they are saying, bestow sometimes
upon others, and sometimes on themselves; and their
143

Sir Joshua Reynolds
imaginary dignity is naturally heightened by a super
cilious censure of the low, the barren, the grovelling,
the servile imitator. It would be no wonder if a
student, frightened by these terrific and disgraceful
epithets, with which the poor imitators are so often
loaded, should let fall his pencil in mere despair
(conscious as he must be, how much he has been in
debted to the labours of others, how little, how very
little of his art was born with him) ; and consider it as
hopeless, to set about acquiring by the imitation of any
human master, what he is taught to suppose is matter
of inspiration from heaven.
Some allowance must be made for what is said in
the gaiety of rhetoric. We cannot suppose that any
one can really mean to exclude all imitation of others.
A position so wild would scarce deserve a serious
answer; for it is apparent, if we were forbid to make
use of the advantages which our predecessors afford us,
the art would be always to begin, and consequently re
main always in its infant state ; and it is a common
observation, that no art was ever invented and carried
to perfection at the same time.
But to bring us entirely to reason and sobriety, let
it be observed, that a painter must not only be of
necessity an imitator of the works of nature, which
alone is sufficient to dispel this phantom of inspiration,
but he must be as necessarily an imitator of the works
of other painters : this appears more humiliating, but is
equally true ; and no man can be an artist, whatever he
may suppose, upon any other terms.
However, those who appear more moderate and
144

The Sixth Discourse
reasonable, allow, that our study is to begin by imita
tion; but maintain that we should no longer use the
thoughts of our predecessors, when we are become able
to think for ourselves. They hold that imitation is as
hurtful to the more advanced student, as it was advanta
geous to the beginner.
For my own part, I confess, I am not only very much
disposed to maintain the absolute necessity of imitation
in the first stages of the art; but am of opinion, that
the study of other masters, which I here call imitation,
may be extended throughout our whole lives, without
any danger of the inconveniences with which it is
charged, of enfeebling the mind, or preventing us from
giving that original air which every work undoubtedly
ought always to have.
I am on the contrary persuaded that by imitation only,
variety, and even originality of invention, is produced.
I will go further ; even genius, at least what generally
is so called, is the child of imitation. But as this appears
to be contrary to the general opinion, I must explain my
position before I enforce it.
Genius is supposed to be a power of producing excel
lences, which are out of the reach of the rules of art ;
a power which no precepts can teach, and which no
industry can acquire.
This opinion of the impossibility of acquiring those
beauties, which stamp the work with the character of
genius, supposes that it is something more fixed, than
in reality it is ; and that we always do, and ever did
agree in opinion, with respect to what should be con
sidered as the characteristic of genius. But the truth
k 14S

Sir Joshua Reynolds
is, that the degree of excellence which proclaims Genius
is different, in different times and different places ; and
what shows it to be so is, that mankind have often
changed their opinion upon this matter.
When the Arts were in their infancy, the power of
merely drawing the likeness of any object, was con
sidered as one of its greatest efforts. The common
people, ignorant of the principles of art, talk the same
language even to this day. But when it was found
that every man could be taught to do this, and a great
deal more, merely by the observance of certain pre
cepts; the name of Genius then shifted its application,
and was given only to him who added the peculiar
character of the object he represented ; to him who
had invention, expression, grace, or dignity; in short,
those qualities, or excellences, the power of producing
which, could not then be taught by any known and
promulgated rules.
We are very sure that the beauty of form, the ex
pression of the passions, the art of composition, even
the power of giving a general air of grandeur to a work,
is at present very much under the dominion of rules.
These excellences were, heretofore, considered merely
as the effects of genius; and justly, if genius is not
taken for inspiration, but as the effect of close obser
vation and experience.
He who first made any of these observations, and
digested them, so as to form an invariable principle for
himself to work by, had that merit, but probably no
one went very far at once; and generally, the first
who gave the hint, did not know how to pursue it
146

The Sixth Discourse
steadily and methodically; at least not in the begin
ning. He himself worked on it, and improved it ;
others worked more, and improved further; until the
secret was discovered, and the practice made as general,
as refined practice can be made. How many more prin
ciples may be fixed and ascertained, we cannot tell ; but
as criticism is likely to go hand in hand with the art
which is its subject, we may venture to say, that as
that art shall advance, its powers will be still more
and more fixed by rules.
But by whatever strides criticism may gain ground,
we need be under no apprehension, that invention will
ever be annihilated, or subdued ; or intellectual energy
be brought entirely within the restraint of written law.
Genius will still have room enough to expatiate, and
keep always at the same distance from narrow com
prehension and mechanical performance.
What we now call Genius, begins, not where rules,
abstractedly taken, end; but where known vulgar and
trite rules have no longer any place. It must of neces
sity 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 excel
lences are produced with any constancy or any cer
tainty, 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 ex
pressed in words; especially as artists are not very
frequently skilful in that mode of communicating ideas.
147

Sir Joshua Reynolds
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 principles cannot be always made palp
able, 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 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.
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.
Whoever has so far formed his taste, as to be able
to relish and feel the beauties of the great masters, has
gone a great way in his study ; for, merely from a
consciousness of this relish of the right, the mind
swells with an inward pride, and is almost as power
fully affected, as if it had itself produced what it ad
mires. Our hearts, frequently warmed in this manner
by the contact of those whom we wish to resemble,
will undoubtedly catch something of their way of
thinking; and we shall receive in our own bosoms
some radiation at least of their fire and splendour.
That disposition, which is so strong in children, still
continues with us, of catching involuntarily the general
air and manner of those with whom we are most con-
148

The Sixth Discourse
versant; with this difference only, that a young mind
is naturally pliable and imitative ; but in a more ad- !
vanced state it grows rigid, and must be warmed and
softened, before it will receive a deep impression.
From these considerations, which a little of your
own reflection will carry a great way further, it appears
of what great consequence it is, that our minds should
be habituated to the contemplation of excellence ; and
that, far from being contented to make such habits
the discipline of our youth only, we should, to the
last moment of our lives, continue a settled intercourse
with all the true examples of grandeur. Their in
ventions are not only the food of our infancy, but
the substance which supplies the fullest maturity of
our vigour.
The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon
exhausted, and will produce no crop, or only one,
unless it be continually fertilized and enriched with
foreign matter.
When we have had continually before us the great
works of Art to impregnate our minds with kindred
ideas, we are then, and not till then, fit to produce
something of the same species. We behold all about
us with the eyes of those penetrating observers whose
works we contemplate ; and our minds, accustomed
to think the thoughts of the noblest and brightest
intellects, are prepared for the discovery and selection
of all that is great and noble in nature. The greatest
natural genius cannot subsist on its own stock : he who
resolves never to ransack any mind but his own, will
be soon reduced, from mere barrenness, to the poorest
149

Sir Joshua Reynolds
of all imitations ; he will be obliged to imitate himself,
and to repeat what he has before often repeated.
When we know the subject designed by such men,
it will never be difficult to guess what kind of work
is to be produced.
It is vain for painters or poets to endeavour to invent
without materials on which the mind may work, and
from which invention must originate. Nothing can
come of nothing.
Homer is supposed to be possessed of all the learning
of his time; and we are certain that Michel Angelo,
and Raffaelle, were equally possessed of all the know
ledge in the art which had been discovered in the works
of their predecessors.
A mind enriched by an assemblage of all the trea
sures of ancient and modern art, will be more elevated
and fruitful in resources, in proportion to the number
of ideas which have been carefully collected and
thoroughly digested. There can be no doubt but that
he who has the most materials has the greatest means
of invention; and if he has not the power of using
them, it must proceed from a feebleness of intellect;
or from the confused manner in which those collections
have been laid up in his mind.
The addition of other men's judgment is so far from
weakening our own, as is the opinion of many, that it
will fashion and consolidate those ideas of excellence
which lay in embryo, feeble, ill-shaped, and confused,
but which are finished and put in order by the author
ity and practice of those whose works may be said to
have been consecrated by having stood the test of ages.
150

The Sixth Discourse
The mind, or genius, has been compared to a si
of fire, which is smothered by a heap of fuel, and
vented from blazing into a flame: This simile, w[_
is made use of by the younger Pliny, may be easily
mistaken for argument or proof. But there is no
danger of the mind's being over-burthened with know
ledge, or the genius extinguished by any addition of
images; on the contrary, these acquisitions may as
well, perhaps better, be compared, if comparisons
signified any thing in reasoning, to the supply of living
embers, which will contribute to strengthen the spark,
that without the association of more fuel would have
died away. The truth is, he whose feebleness is such,
as to make other men's thoughts an incumbrance to
him, can have no very great strength of mind or genius j
of his own to be destroyed ; so that not much harm >
will be done at worst.
We may oppose to Pliny the greater authority of
Cicero, who is continually enforcing the necessity of
this method of study. In his dialogue on Oratory, he
makes Crassus say, that one of the first and most im
portant precepts is, to choose a proper model for our
imitation. Hoc sit primum in prceceptis meis, ut de-
monstremus quern imitemur.
When I speak of the habitual imitation and con
tinued study of masters, it is not to be understood that
I advise any endeavour to copy the exact peculiar
colour and complexion of another man's mind ; the
success of such an attempt must always be like his,
who imitates exactly the air, manner, and gestures of
him whom he admires. His model may be excellent,

Sir Joshua Reynolds
but the copy will be ridiculous : this ridicule does not
arise from his having imitated, but from his not having
chosen the right mode of imitation.
It is necessary and warrantable pride to disdain to
walk servilely behind any individual, however elevated
his rank. The true and liberal ground of imitation is
an open field ; where, though he who precedes has had
the advantage of starting before you, you may always
propose to overtake him: it is enough, however, to
pursue his course ; you need not tread in his footsteps ;
and you certainly have a right to outstrip him if you can.
Nor whilst I recommend studying the art from
artists, can I be supposed to mean, that Nature is to
be neglected : I take this study in aid, and not in
exclusion, of the other. Nature is, and must be the
fountain which alone is inexhaustible ; and from which
all excellences must originally flow.
The great use of studying our predecessors is, to
open the mind to shorten our labour, and to give us
the result of the selection made by those great minds
of what is grand or beautiful in Nature ; her rich stores
are all spread out before us ; but it is an art, and no
easy art, to know how or what to choose, and how to
attain and secure the object of our choice. Thus the
highest beauty of form must be taken from Nature;
but it is an art of long deduction and great experience,
to know how to find it. We must not content our
selves with merely admiring and relishing; we must
enter into the principles on which the work is wrought:
these do not swim on the superficies, and consequently
are not open to superficial observers.
152

The Sixth Discourse
Art in its perfection is not ostentatious ; it lies hid,
and works its effect, itself unseen. It is the proper
study and labour of an artist to uncover and find out
the latent cause of conspicuous beauties, and from
thence form principles of his own conduct: such an
examination is a continual exertion of the mind; as
great, perhaps, as that of the artist whose works he
is thus studying.
The sagacious imitator does not content himself with
merely remarking what distinguishes the different man
ner or genius of each master ; he enters into the con
trivance in the composition how the masses of lights
are disposed, the means by which the effect is pro
duced, how artfully some parts are lost in the ground,
others boldly relieved, and how all these are mutually
altered and interchanged according to the reason and
scheme of the work. He admires not the harmony
of colouring alone, but examines by what artifice one
colour is a foil to its neighbour. He looks close into
the tints, examines of what colours they are com
posed, till he has formed clear and distinct ideas, and
has learnt to see in what harmony and good colour
ing consists. What is learnt in this manner from the
works of others, becomes really our own, sinks deep,
and is never forgotten; nay, it is by seizing on this
clue that we proceed forward, and get further and
further in enlarging the principles and in improving
the practice of our art.
There can be no doubt, but the art is better learnt
from the works themselves, than from the precepts
which are formed upon those works ; but if it is diffi-
153

Sir Joshua Reynolds
cult to choose proper models for imitation, it requires
no less circumspection to separate and distinguish what
in those models we ought to imitate.
I cannot avoid mentioning here, though it is not my
intention at present to enter into the art and method
of study, an error which students are too apt to fall
into. He that is forming himself, must look with
great caution and wariness on those peculiarities, or
prominent parts, which at first force themselves upon
view ; and are the marks, or what is commonly called
the manner, by which that individual artist is dis
tinguished. Peculiar marks, I hold to be, generally, if not always,
defects ; however difficult it may be wholly to escape
them. Peculiarities in the works of art are like those in the
human figure : it is by them that we are cognizable,
and distinguished one from another, but they are
always so many blemishes : which, however, both in
real life and in painting, cease to appear deformities,
to those who have them continually before their eyes.
In the works of art, even the most enlightened mind,
when warmed by beauties of the highest kind, will by
degrees find a repugnance within him to acknowledge
any defects; nay, his enthusiasm will carry him so
far, as to transform them into beauties, and objects of
imitation. It must be acknowledged, that a peculiarity of style,
either from its novelty or by seeming to proceed from
a peculiar turn of mind, often escapes blame; on the
contrary, it is sometimes striking and pleasing; but
154

The Sixth Discourse
this it is a vain labour to endeavour to imitate ; because
novelty and peculiarity being its only merit, when it
ceases to be new it ceases to have value.
A manner, therefore, being a defect, and every
painter, however excellent, having a manner, it seems
to follow, that all kinds of faults, as well as beauties,
may be learned under the sanction of the greatest
authorities. Even the great name of Michel Angelo
may be used, to keep in countenance a deficiency, or
rather neglect of colouring, and every other orna
mental part of the art. If the young student is dry
and hard, Poussin is the same. If his work has a
careless and unfinished air, he has most of the Vene
tian school to support him. If he makes no selection
of objects, but takes individual nature just as he
finds it, he is like Rembrandt. If he is incorrect in
the proportions of his figures, Correggio was likewise
incorrect. If his colours are not blended and united,
Rubens was equally crude. In short, there is no
defect that may not be excused, if it is a sufficient
excuse that it can be imputed to considerable artists;
but it must be remembered, that it was not by
these defects they acquired their reputation; they
have a right to our pardon, but not to our ad
miration. However, to imitate peculiarities or mistake defects
for beauties, that man will be most liable, who con
fines his imitation to one favourite master; and even
though he chooses the best, and is capable of distin
guishing the real excellences of his model, it is not
by such narrow practice that a genius or mastery in
155

Sir Joshua Reynolds
the art is acquired. A man is as little likely to form
a true idea of the perfection of the art, by studying
a single artist, as he would be to produce a perfectly
beautiful figure, by an exact imitation of any individual
living model. And as the painter, by bringing to
gether in one piece those beauties which are dispersed
among a great variety of individuals, produces a figure
more beautiful than can be found in Nature, so that
' artist who can unite in himself the excellences of
the various great painters will approach nearer to
perfection than any one of his masters. He who
confines himself to the imitation of an individual, as
he never proposes to surpass, so he is not likely to
equal, the object of his imitation. He professes
only to follow ; and he that follows must necessarily
be behind.
a We should imitate the conduct of the great
artists in the course of their studies, as well as the
works which they produced, when they were perfectly
formed. Raffaelle began by imitating implicitly the
manner of Pietro Perugino, under whom he studied;
hence his first works are scarce to be distinguished
from his master's; but soon forming higher and
more extensive views, he imitated the grand outline
of Michel Angelo; he learned the manner of using
colours from the works of Leonardo da Vinci, and
Fratre Bartolomeo: to all this he added the con
templation of all the remains of antiquity that were
within his reach, and employed others to draw for
him what was in Greece and distant places. And
it is from his having taken so many models, that he
156

RAPHAEL
Crucifixion
dr ludwig mond's collection

Although Reynolds' remark about Raphael learning Perugino's style
is too familiar a truth to require illustration for the modem reader, it
seemed worth while to reproduce this as, perhaps, the most extraordinary
instance of a great artist's learning successfully by playing the "sedu
lous ape." It would be hard to find another example so complete as
this of an artist entirely suppressing his own personality, accepting so
completely the formula of another, and yet doing everything incompar
ably better than the original he copied. Raphael's personality does, of
course, transpire, but only unconsciously, in the exquisite choiceness and
delicacy with which he speaks Perugino's language.

From a photograph by Dixon & Son.

The Sixth Discourse
became himself a model for all succeeding painters;
always imitating, and always original.
If your ambition, therefore, be to equal Raffaelle,
you must do as Raffaelle did, take many models,
and not even him for your guide alone, to the
exclusion of others.1 And yet the number is infinite
of those who seem, if one may judge by their style,
to have seen no other works but those of their
master, or of some favourite, whose manner is their
first wish, and their last.
I will mention a few that occur to me of this
narrow, confined, illiberal, unscientific, and servile
kind of imitators. Guido was thus meanly copied
by Elizabetta, Sirani, and Simone Cantarini; Poussin,
by Verdier, and Cheron; Parmegiano, by Jeronimo
Mazzuoli. Paolo Veronese, and Iacomo Bassan, had
for their imitators their brothers and sons. Pietro
da Cortona was followed by Ciro Ferri, and Romanelli ;
Rubens, by Jacques Jordaens, and Diepenbeke; Guer
cino, by his own family, the Gennari. Carlo Maratti
was imitated by Guiseppe Chiari, and Pietro de Pietri ;
and Rembrandt, by Bramer, Eeckhout, and Flink.
All these, to whom may be added a much longer
list of painters, whose works, among the ignorant,
pass for those of their masters, are justly to be
censured for barrenness and servility.
To oppose to this list a few that have adopted a
more liberal style of imitation; — Pellegrino Tibaldi
Rosso, and Primaticcio, did not coldly imitate, but
1 Sed non qui maxime imitandus, etiam solus imitandus est.
— Quintilian. 159

Sir Joshua Reynolds
caught something of the fire that animates the
works of Michel Angelo. The Caraccis formed their
style from Pellegrino Tibaldi, Correggio, and the
Venetian School. Domenichino, Guido, Lanfranco,
Albano, Guercino, Cavidone, Schidone, Tiarini, though
it is sufficiently apparent that they came from the
School of the Caraccis, have yet the appearance of
men who extended their views beyond the model that
lay before them, and have shown that they had
opinions of their own, and thought for themselves,
after they had made themselves masters of the general
principles of their schools.
Le Sueur's first manner resembles very much that
of his master, Voiiet; but as he soon excelled him,
so he differed from him in every part of the art.
Carlo Maratti succeeded better than those I have
first named, and I think owes his superiority to the
extension of his views ; beside his master, Andrea
Sacchi, he imitated Raffaelle, Guido, and the Caraccis.
It is true, there is nothing very captivating in Carlo
Maratti; but this proceeded from a want which can
not be completely supplied; that is, want of strength
of parts. In this certainly men are not equal; and
a man can bring home wares only in proportion to
the capital with which he goes to market. Carlo, by
diligence, made the most of what he had ; but there was
undoubtedly a heaviness about him, which extended it
self, uniformly, to his invention, expression, his draw
ing, colouring, and the general effect of his pictures.
The truth is, he never equalled any of his patterns
in any one thing, and he added little of his own.
1 60

GUERCINO
St Bruno's Vision
pinacoteca. bologna

In all that concerns the building up of a composition by the adjustment
and balance of lighted and shaded planes Guercino must be accounted
a scientific, if not an inspired master ; and though Reynolds only alludes
to him, his own practice not unfrequently shows that he studied
him closely. Guercino was in a double sense an eclectic, since he
learned his design from Lodovico Caracci, and combined with that the
strong light and shade of the Naturalistic school. In his choice of
types, and in his conception of the subject also, he stands between the
two schools, but inclines much more nearly to the Bolognese. For all
that, there is a virility and force about this St Bruno which the Caracci
would perhaps have considered vulgar and wanting in ideality.

~ i'>

~^"*3gf

The Sixth Discourse
But we must not rest contented even in this
general study of the moderns; we must trace back
the art to its fountain-head ; to that source from
whence they drew their principal excellences, the
monuments of pure antiquity. All the inventions
and thoughts of the Ancients, whether conveyed to
us in statues, bas-reliefs, intaglios, cameos, or coins,
are to be sought after and carefully studied; the
genius that hovers over these venerable relics may
be called the father of modern art.
From the remains of the works of the ancients the
modern arts were revived, and it is by their means
that they must be restored a second time. However
it may mortify our vanity, we must be forced to allow
them our masters ; and we may venture to prophesy,
that when they shall cease to be studied, arts will
no longer flourish, and we shall again relapse into
barbarism. The fire of the artist's own genius operating upon
these materials which have been thus diligently col
lected, will enable him to make new combinations,
perhaps, superior to what had ever before been in the
possession of the art : as in the mixture of the variety
of metals, which are said to have been melted and run
together at the burning of Corinth, a new, and till then
unknown metal was produced, equal in value to any of
those that had contributed to its composition. And
though a curious refiner should come with his crucibles,
analyse and separate its various component parts, yet
Corinthian brass would still hold its rank amongst the
most beautiful and valuable of metals.
163

Sir Joshua Reynolds
We have hitherto considered the advantages of
imitation as it tends to form the taste, and as a prac
tice by which a spark of that genius may be caught,
which illumines those noble works that ought always
to be present to our thoughts.
I We come now to speak of another kind of imitation ;
the borrowing a particular thought, an action, attitude,
or figure, and transplanting it into your own work;
this will either come under the charge of plagiarism,
or be warrantable, and deserve commendation, accord
ing to the address with which it is performed. There
is some difference, likewise, whether it is upon the
ancients or moderns that these depredations are made.
It is generally allowed, that no man need be ashamed
of copying the ancients ; their works are considered as
a magazine of common property, always open to the
public, whence every man has a right to take what
materials he pleases; and if he has the art of using
them, they are supposed to become to all intents and
purposes his own property. The collection of the
thoughts of the Ancients which Raffaelle made with
so much trouble, is a proof of his opinion on this
subject. Such collections may be made with much
more ease, by means of an art scarce known in this
time ; I mean that of engraving ; by which, at an
easy rate, every man may now avail himself of the in
ventions of antiquity.
It must be acknowledged that the works of the
moderns are more the property of their authors. He
who borrows an idea from an ancient, or even from a
modern artist not his contemporary, and so accommo-
164

The Sixth Discourse
dates it to his own work, that it makes a part of it,
with no seam or joining appearing, can hardly be
charged with plagiarism ; poets practise this kind of
borrowing, without reserve. But an artist should not
be contented with this only; he should enter into a
competition with his original, and endeavour to im
prove what he is appropriating to his own work. Such
imitation is so far from having any thing in it of the
servility of plagiarism, that it is a perpetual exercise
of the mind, a continual invention. Borrowing or
stealing with such art and caution, will have a right
to the same lenity as was used by the Lacedemonians ;
who did not punish theft, but the want of artifice to
conceal it.
In order to encourage you to imitation, to the utmost
extent, let me add, that very finished artists in the in
ferior branches of the art, will contribute to furnish the
mind and give hints, of which a skilful painter, who is
sensible of what he wants, and is in no danger of being
infected by the contact of vicious models, will know
how to avail himself. He will pick up from dunghills
what by a nice chemistry, passing through his own
mind, shall be converted into pure gold ; and under
the rudeness of Gothic essays, he will find original, '
rational, and even sublime inventions.
The works of Albert Durer, Lucas Van Leyden, the
numerous inventions of Tobias Stimmer, and Jost Am
nion, afford a rich mass of genuine materials, which,
wrought up and polished to elegance, will add copious
ness to what, perhaps, without such aid, could have
aspired only to justness and propriety.
165

Sir Joshua Reynolds
In the luxuriant style of Paul Veronese, in the capri
cious compositions of Tintoret, he will find something,
that will assist his invention, and give points, from
which his own imagination shall rise and take flight,
when the subject which he treats will with propriety
admit of splendid effects.
In every school, whether Venetian, French, or Dutch,
he will find either ingenious compositions, extraordinary
effects, some peculiar expressions, or some mechanical
excellence, well worthy of his attention, and, in some
measure, of his imitation. Even in the lower class of
the French painters, great beauties are often found,
united with great defects. Though Coypel wanted a
simplicity of taste, and mistook a presumptuous and
assuming air for what is grand and majestic; yet he
frequently has good sense and judgment in his manner
of telling his stories, great skill in his compositions, and
is not without a considerable power of expressing the
passions. The modern affectation of grace in his
works, as well as in those of Bosch and Watteau, may
be said to be separated by a very thin partition, from
the more simple and pure grace of Correggio and
Parmegiano. Among the Dutch painters, the correct, firm, and
determined pencil, which was employed by Bamboccio
and Jean Miel, on vulgar and mean subjects, might,
without any change, be employed on the highest; to
which, indeed, it seems more properly to belong. The
greatest style, if that style is confined to small figures,
such as Poussin generally painted, would receive an
additional grace by the elegance and precision of pencil
1 66

The Sixth Discourse
go admirable in the works of Teniers ; and though the
school to which he belonged more particularly excelled
in the mechanism of painting; yet it produced many,
who have shown great abilities in expressing what must
be ranked above mechanical excellences. In the works
of Frank Hals, the portrait-painter may observe the
composition of a face, the features well put together,
as the painters express it ; from whence proceeds that
strong-marked character of individual nature, which is
so remarkable in his portraits, and is not found in
an equal degree in any other painter. If he had
joined to this most difficult part of the art, a patience
in finishing what he had so correctly planned, he
might justly have claimed the place which Vandyck,
all things considered, so justly holds as the first of
portrait-painters. Others of the same school have shown great power
in expressing the character and passions of those vulgar
people which were the subjects of their study and at
tention. Among these, Jan Steen seems to be one of
the most diligent and accurate observers of what passed
in those scenes which he frequented, and which were
to him an academy. I can easily imagine, that if this
extraordinary man had had the good fortune to have
been born in Italy, instead of Holland; had he lived
in Rome, instead of Leyden, and been blessed with
Michel Angelo and Raffaelle for his masters, instead
of Brouwer and Van Goyen; the same sagacity and
penetration which distinguished so accurately the dif
ferent characters and expression in his vulgar figures,
would, when exerted in the selection and imitation of
167

Sir Joshua Reynolds
what was great and elevated in nature, have been
equally successful ; and he now would have ranged
with the great pillars and supporters of our Art.
Men who, although thus bound down by the almost
invincible powers of early habits, have still exerted
extraordinary abilities within their narrow and confined
circle ; and have, from the natural vigour of their mind,
given a very interesting expression and great force and
energy to their works ; though they cannot be recom
mended to be exactly imitated, may yet invite an artist
to endeavour to transfer, by a kind of parody, their
excellences to his own performances. Whoever has
acquired the power of making this use of the Flemish,
Venetian, and French schools, is a real genius, and
has sources of knowledge open to him which were
wanting to the great artists who lived in the great
age of painting.
To find excellences, however dispersed, to discover
beauties, however concealed by the multitude of defects
with which they are surrounded, can be the work only
of him, who having a mind always alive to his art, has
extended his views to all ages and to all schools ; and
has acquired from that comprehensive mass which he
has thus gathered to himself, a well-digested and per
fect idea of his art, to which every thing is referred.
Like a sovereign judge and arbiter of art, he is pos
sessed of that presiding power which separates and
attracts every excellence from every school ; selects
both from what is great, and what is little ; brings
home knowledge from the East and from the West;
making the universe tributary towards furnishing his
1 68

CARAVAGGIO Entombment
vatican gallery

It is extraordinary that, treating so much as he does of Italian art of
the seventeenth century, Reynolds does not mention Caravaggio either
for blame or praise in the whole of the Discourses, though he mentions
him occasionally in his notes on a Journey in Flanders. And yet there
is hardly any one artist whose work is of such moment as his in the
development of modern art. In this picture, for example, we have the
whole material for the Spanish school of the seventeenth century.
Ribera, Zurbaran, Velasquez, and Murillo would not have been what
they were without him ; while, to come to later times, the art of the
nineteenth century is continually marked by an unconscious return to
his point of view. Manet, for instance, goes back rather to him than to
Velasquez. He was, indeed, in many senses the first modern artist ; the
first artist to proceed not by evolution but by revolution ; the first to
rely entirely on his own temperamental attitude and to defy tradition
and authority. Though in many senses his art is highly conventional
(the peculiar illumination, though possible under certain conditions,
giving us a sense of strangeness and unnaturalness in the whole effect)
he was also the first realist, in the most limited sense of the word, as
emphasising the commonplace — not to say the squalid — even in scenes
of heroic and poetical significance. For all this, his force and sincerity
compel our admiration, and the sheer power of his originality makes
him one of the most interesting figures in the history of art. His
peculiar illumination, with its polarised light and complete suppression
of reflected light, was a great invention, and perfectly suited to convey
his conception of the relentless and yet sublime prose of life. In spite
of a superficial resemblance, his notion of chiaroscuro differs toto calo
from Rembrandt's. The latter by emphasising the reflected lights, and
casting even over his deepest shades a golden film gives, to facts at least
as squalid and as frankly accepted as Caravaggio's a totally different
significance.

Front a photograph by .hidcrsoh

The Sixth Discourse
mind, and enriching his works with originality and
variety of inventions.
Thus I have ventured to give my opinion of what
appears to me the true and only method by which an
artist makes himself master of his profession ; which I
hold ought to be one continued course of imitation,
that is not to cease but with his life.
Those who, either from their own engagements and
hurry of business, or from indolence, or from conceit
and vanity, have neglected looking out of themselves,
as far as my experience and observation reaches, have
from that time, not only ceased to advance, and improve
in their performances, but have gone backward. They
may be compared to men who have lived upon their
principal, till they are reduced to beggary, and left
without resources.
I can recommend nothing better therefore, than that
you endeavour to infuse into your works what you learn
from the contemplation of the works of others. To
recommend this has the appearance of needless and
superfluous advice; but it has fallen within my own
knowledge, that artists, though they were not wanting
in a sincere love for their art, though they had great
pleasure in seeing good pictures, and were well skilled
to distinguish what was excellent or defective in them,
yet have gone on in their own manner, without any
endeavour to give a little of those beauties, which they
admired in others, to their own works. It is difficult
to conceive how the present Italian painters, who hve
in the midst of the treasures of art, should be contented
with their own style. They proceed in their common-
171

Sir Joshua Reynolds
place inventions, and never think it worth while to visit
the works of those great artists with which they are
surrounded. I remember, several years ago, to have conversed at
Rome with an artist of great fame throughout Europe ;
he was not without a considerable degree of abilities,
but those abilities were by no means equal to his own
opinion of them. From the reputation he had ac
quired, he too fondly concluded that he stood in the
same rank when compared with his predecessors, as he
held with regard to his miserable contemporary rivals.
In conversation about some particulars of the works of
Raffaelle, he seemed to have, or to affect to have, a
very obscure memory of them. He told me that he
had not set his foot in the Vatican for fifteen years
together; that he had been in treaty to copy a capital
picture of Raffaelle, but that the business had gone off,
however, if the agreement had held, his copy would
have greatly exceeded the original. The merit of this
artist, however great we may suppose it, I am sure
would have been far greater, and his presumption
would have been far less, if he had visited the Vatican,
as in reason he ought to have done, at least once every
month of his life.
I address myself, Gentlemen, to you who have made
some progress in the art, and are to be, for the future,
under the guidance of your own judgment and discre
tion. I consider you as arrived to that period, when
you have a right to think for yourselves, and to pre
sume that every man is fallible ; to study the masters
with a suspicion, that great men are not always exempt
172

BAROCCIO
Holy Family
corsini gallery, rome

Reynolds in his notes frequently alludes with enthusiasm to Baroccio,
and it is not to be wondered at, since he was the true precursor of
eighteenth century art. The contemporary of Paolo Veronese, we yet
inevitably think of him, when we forget our dates, as the fellow of
Battoni and Mengs. It is true that all the elements of eighteenth-
century grace and playfulness which we find in him exist in his real
master, Correggio, but they are there mingled with such contradictory
greatnesses that they are not so noticeable. Baroccio invented the
pretty. But it is the pretty at its best as it reappears throughout the
whole of eighteenth-century French art, frankly frivolous charming and
gay, and not spoilt by dull pretentions to higher qualities. Inferior
in every way to Correggio, he yet brings out some of his qualities — " the
gliding motion of his outline, the sweetness with which it melts into
the ground," to quote Reynolds, in a striking manner. "Yet," as
Reynolds adds in this note to du Fresnoy, "sometimes, in endeavour
ing at clearness or brilliancy of tint, he overshot the mark, and falls
under the criticism that was made on an ancient painter, that his
figures looked as if they fed upon roses."

Fi-oni a photograph by Anderson.

The Sixth Discourse
from great faults ; to criticise, compare, and rank their
works in your own estimation, as they approach to, or
recede from that standard of perfection which you have
formed in your own minds, but which those masters
themselves, it must be remembered, have taught you
to make, and which you will cease to make with cor
rectness, when you cease to study them. It is their
excellences which have taught you their defects.
I would wish you to forget where you are, and who
it is that speaks to you, I only direct you to higher
models and better advisers. We can teach you here
but very little; you are henceforth to be your own
teachers. Do this justice, however, to the English
Academy; to bear in mind, that in this place you
contracted no narrow habits, no false ideas, nothing
that could lead you to the imitation of any living
master, who may be the fashionable darling of the day.
As you have not been taught to flatter us, do not leam
to flatter yourselves. We have endeavoured to lead
you to the admiration of nothing but what is truly
admirable. If you choose inferior patterns, or if you
make your own former works your patterns for your
latter, it is your own fault.
The purport of this discourse, and, indeed, of most
of my other discourses, is, to caution you against that
false opinion, but too prevalent among artists, of the
imaginary powers of native genius, and its sufficiency
in great works. This opinion, according to the temper
of mind it meets with, almost always produces, either a
vain confidence, or a sluggish despair, both equally fatal
to all proficiency. 175

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Study, therefore, the great works of the great
masters, for ever. Study, as nearly as you can, in
the order, in the manner, and on the principles, on
which they studied. Study nature attentively, but
always with those masters in your company ; consider
them as models which you are to imitate, and at the
same time as rivals with whom you are to contend.

176

INTRODUCTION TO
THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE
To substitute in matters of taste " rational firmness " for " vain
presumption " is the object of this Discourse. Its aim, and
the general attitude it inculcates, are invaluable at all times,
since the denial of the existence of a standard of right and
wrong, of better and worse, is as disastrous in art as a similar
denial would he in morals. It is, moreover, a denial that is
almost universally made by those who lack the sensibility or
the cultivation to enable them to make right judgments, and
who, therefore, have an interest in bringing the whole matter
into a chaos of conflicting individual opinion, " De gustibus
non disputandum," and "One man's opinion is as good as
another," are the war-cries of aggressive Philistinism. Un
fortunately, that general consensus of trained experience, which
is all that can be demonstrated to such sceptics, is neither
exact, nor detailed enough, to impress them very profoundly;
and though those who have the sensibility and training to
pronounce upon a work of art, believe, not, as is supposed,
implicitly in their own infallibility, so much as in an objective
rightness of judgment towards which they continually strive
to approximate, it is hardly possible for them to justify their
faith to those who arc " so continually in the agitation of
gross and merely sensual pleasures, or so occupied in the low
drudgery of avarice, or so heated in the chase of honour and
distinction, that their minds, which had been used continually
to the storms of these violent and tempestuous passions, can
M 177

Sir Joshua Reynolds
hardly be put into motion by the delicate and refined play
of the imagination."1
But however this may be, Reynolds hardly succeeds in
what he sets out to demonstrate, and the whole teaching
suffers from a certain discursiveness and want of construction
that are unusual with him : it contains, nevertheless, some
' very important passages. Reynolds endeavours to distinguish
i between artistic truth which is absolute, and as far as human
things go eternal, and that which has its basis upon conven
tions, fashions, and habits which are local and temporary, but
which, if they are long continued and widely spread, may
almost take on the air of absolute truth. The absolute truth
would correspond to those specific type-forms which were
discussed in the third Discourse, while an example of a relative,
but still widely-extended, artistic truth is given in the
eighteenth-century practice of wrapping a modern senator
in a toga when he stood for a statue.
As we have, in the introduction to the third Discourse,
tried to show the impossibility of any such absolute external
standard of beauty as Reynolds conceived, we are thrown back
upon one principle, that of the conformity, within certain limits
of variation, of human nature. In every great work of art,
of whatever time or country, there are expressed certain
ideas which are of universal acceptance, while there are
many others which can only be appreciated by the artist's
countrymen and contemporaries. It is thus that a good
judge of Western art is able at once to recognise the
beauty of an Egyptian statue or a Chinese painting. There
is sufficient of what is universally applicable to human nature
to allow of this, but in neither case will he understand the
work of art completely. Many beauties will depend on a
recognition of local imaginative or religious ideas to which the
critic may have no clue ; much will depend on associated ideas
1 Burke, " On Taste." Introduction to second edition ofthe " Sub
lime and Beautiful." I78

The Seventh Discourse
which could only be present in their full force to the artist's
countrymen and contemporaries. This view, however, only
reinforces, though from a different standpoint, Reynolds' main
conclusion, that the more the appeal is made to what is common
and universal in human nature the wider in space and the longer
in time will be the acceptance of the work.
As part of the systematic education of taste, Reynolds again
discusses the artist's attitude to Nature, the necessity for him
to do more than copy the forms of Nature as they are presented
to him ; but he gives us yet another meaning for Nature than
that employed in the third Discourse, and one that carries with
it consequences which he scarcely foresaw. In the third
Discourse Nature is the mean of all the particulars of a species,
the end towards which existence constantly aims. We come
here to that third sense of the word Nature to which allusion
was made, in anticipation, in the Introduction to the third Dis
course. According to this, Nature "comprehends not only the
forms which Nature produces, but also the nature and internal
fabric and organisation, as I may call it, of the human mind and
imagination " ; and, farther on, " whatever pleases has in it
what is analogous to the mind, and is, therefore, in the best
and highest sense of the word, natural" Reynolds, it is
true, puts alongside of this, as though no difference existed,
his former idea of Nature and beauty as the common specific
form. But, really, we have got hold here of an entirely new
principle ; for when Nature is defined by Reynolds as
what is agreeable to our mental desires and aspirations,
and when he adds that the artist should follow Nature in
this sense, he allows much more than before. Man's mental
appetites and affections have demanded that there should be
beings of human form with wings, and a similar but rather
perverted appetite, to which Reynolds was himself subject,
demanded that there should be babies' heads with wings and
no bodies ; but Nature, taken even in Reynolds' second or
179

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Aristotelian sense, shows no indication of striving in this
direction. We have, therefore, got in this definition a new principle,
which cuts away the foundations, as it obviates the necessity
of the idea of beauty as the common form of each species.
iWe are now allowed to make beauty independent of the forms
of external nature, and to base it on what is found to satisfy
most completely and permanently the demands of our common
human nature. If we like to call this " Nature," as Reynolds
does, the artist still follows Nature ; but the term is now so
wide that there is little good gained in using it. But, at
least, we have here a principle of aesthetics which will allow us
to include in the beautiful the strangest dreams of human
fancy ; to discuss on common terms the complete realisations
of human form in Greek sculpture, and the impossible but
intensely significant contours of Simone Martini's Madonnas
or Utamaro's ladies. As we showed in discussing the
third Discourse, it is perfectly possible to substitute this
view for Reynolds' own view of beauty as the common form,
without invalidating his main conclusions ; and here at last
we have Reynolds himself, though apparently unconscious of
what might result from it, really acknowledging this larger
and more fundamental principle.

1 80

THE SEVENTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution
ofthe Prizes, December 10, 1776
The reality of a standard of taste, as well as of corporal beauty —
Beside this immediate truth, there are secondary truths, which
are variable ; both requiring the attention of the artist, in pro
portion to their stability or their influence.
Gentlemen,
It has been my uniform endeavour, since I first ad
dressed you from this place, to impress you strongly
with one ruling idea. I wish you to be persuaded,
that success in your art depends almost entirely on
your own industry ; but the industry which I prin
cipally recommended, is not the industry of the
hands, but of the mind.
As our art is not a divine gift, so neither is it a
mechanical trade. Its foundations are laid in solid
science: and practice, though essential to perfection,
can never attain that to which it aims, unless it
works under the direction of principle.
Some writers upon art carry this point too far,
and suppose that such a body of universal and pro
found learning is requisite, that the very enumeration
of its kinds is enough to frighten a beginner. Vit
ruvius, after going through the many accomplishments
of nature, arid the many acquirements of learning,
181

Sir Joshua Reynolds
necessary to an architect, proceeds with great gravity
to assert that he ought to be well skilled in the
civil law ; that he may not be cheated in the title of
the ground he builds on. But without such exaggera
tion, we may go so far as to assert, that a painter
stands in need of more knowledge than is to be
picked off his pallet, or collected by looking on his
model, whether it be in life or in picture. He can
never be a great artist who is grossly illiterate.
Every man whose business is description, ought to
be tolerably conversant with the poets, in some lan
guage or other; that he may imbibe a poetical spirit,
and enlarge his stock of ideas. He ought to acquire
a habit of comparing and digesting his notions. He
ought not to be wholly unacquainted with that part
of philosophy which gives an insight into human nature,
and relates to the manners, characters, passions, and
affections. He ought to know something concerning
the mind, as well as a great deal concerning the body
of man. For this purpose, it is not necessary that
he should go into such a compass of reading, as
must, by distracting his attention, disqualify him for
the practical part of his profession, and make him
sink the performer in the critic. Reading, if it can be
made the favourite recreation of his leisure hours, will
improve and enlarge his mind, without retarding his
actual industry. What such partial and desultory
reading cannot afford, may be supplied by the con
versation of learned and ingenious men, which is the
best of all substitutes for those who have not the
means or opportunities of deep study. There are
182

The Seventh Discourse
many such men in this age ; and they will be pleased
with communicating their ideas to artists, when they
see them curious and docile, if they are treated with
that respect and deference which are so justly their
due. Into such society, young artists, if they make
it the point of their ambition, will by degrees be
admitted. There, without formal teaching, they will
insensibly come to feel and reason like those they
live with, and find a rational and systematic taste
imperceptibly formed in their minds, which they will
know how to reduce to a standard, by apply
ing general truth to their own purposes, better
perhaps than those to whom they owed the original
sentiment. Of these studies, and this conversation, the desired
and legitimate offspring is a power of distinguishing
right from wrong ; which power applied to works of
art, is denominated Taste. Let me then, without
further introduction, enter upon an examination,
whether taste be so far beyond our reach, as be
unattainable by care ; or be so very vague and capri
cious, that no care ought to be employed about it.
It has been the fate of arts to be enveloped in
mysterious and incomprehensible language, as if it
was thought necessary that even the terms should
correspond to the idea entertained of the instability
and uncertainty of the rules which they expressed.
To speak of genius and taste, as in any way con
nected with reason or common-sense, would be, in
the opinion of some towering talkers, to speak like
a man who possessed neither; who had never felt
183

Sir Joshua Reynolds
that enthusiasm, or, to use their own inflated lan
guage, was never warmed by that Promethean fire,
which animates the canvas and vivifies the marble.
If, in order to be intelligible, I appear to degrade the
art by bringing her down from her visionary situation
in the clouds, it is only to give her a more solid man
sion upon the earth. It is necessary that at some time
for other we should see things as they really are, and
not impose on ourselves by that false magnitude with
which objects appear when viewed indistinctly as
through a mist.
We will allow a poet to express his meaning, when
his meaning is not well known to himself, with a cer
tain degree of obscurity, as it is one sort of the sublime.
But when, in plain prose, we gravely talk of courting
the Muse in shady bowers ; waiting the call and inspira
tion of Genius, finding out where he inhabits, and
where he is to be invoked with the greatest success;
of attending to times and seasons when the imagination
shoots with the greatest vigour, whether at the summer
solstice or the vernal equinox; sagaciously observing
how much the wild freedom and liberty of imagination
are cramped by attention to established rules ; and how
this same imagination begins to grow dim in advanced
age, smothered and deadened by too much judgment;
when we talk such language, or entertain such senti
ments as these, we generally rest contented with mere
words, or at best entertain notions not only groundless
but pernicious.
If all this means, what it is very possible was
originally intended only to be meant, that in order to
184

The Seventh Discourse
cultivate an art, a man secludes himself from the
commerce of the world, and retires into the country
at particular seasons ; or that at one time of the year
his body is in better health, and consequently his
mind fitter for the business of hard thinking than at
another time; or that the mind may be fatigued
by long and unremitted application: this I can under
stand. I can likewise believe, that a man eminent
when young for possessing poetical imagination, may,
from having taken another road, so neglect its cultiva
tion, as to show less of its powers in his latter life.
But I am persuaded, that scarce a poet is to be found,
from Homer down to Dryden, who preserved a sound
mind in a sound body, and continued practising his
profession to the very last, whose latter works are not
as replete with the fire of imagination, as those which
were produced in his more youthful days.
To understand literally these metaphors, or ideas
expressed in poetical language, seems to be equally
absurd as to conclude, that because painters sometimes
represent a poet writing from the dictates of a little
winged boy or genius, that this same genius did really
inform him in a whisper what he was to write ; and
that he is himself but a mere machine, unconscious of
the operations of his own mind.
Opinions generally received and floating in the
world, whether true or false, we naturally adopt and
make our own; they may be considered as a kind of
inheritance to which we succeed and are tenants for
life, and which we leave to our posterity very nearly in
the condition in which we received it; it not being
185

Sir Joshua Reynolds
much in any one man's power either to impair or im
prove it. The greater part of these opinions, like
current coin in its circulation, we are used to take
without weighing or examining; but by this inevitable
inattention many adulterated pieces are received, which,
when we seriously estimate our wealth, we must throw
away. So the collector of popular opinions, when he
embodies his knowledge, and forms a system, must
separate those which are true from those which are
only plausible. But it becomes more peculiarly a duty
to the professors of art not to let any opinions relating
to that art pass unexamined. The caution and circum
spection required in such examination we shall presently
have an opportunity of explaining.
Genius and taste, in their common acceptation,
appear to be very nearly related; the difference lies
only in this, that genius has superadded to it a habit
or power of execution; or we may say, that taste,
when this power is added, changes its name, and is
called genius. They both, in the popular opinion,
pretend to an entire exemption from the restraint of
rules. It is supposed that their powers are intuitive;
that under the name of genius great works are pro
duced, and under the name of taste an exact judgment
is given, without our knowing why, and without our
being under the least obligation to reason, precept, or
experience. One can scarce state these opinions without exposing
their absurdity ; yet they are constantly in the mouths
of men, and particularly of artists. They who have
thought seriously on this subject, do not carry the
1 86

GUIDO RENI
Samson Drinking from the Jawbone of an
Ass
PINACOTECA. BOLOGNA

If one once grants the rhetorical conventions of the stage, and allows
oneself to be convinced by the obviously fictitious, this figure must be
admitted a great and inspired invention. It is the close of the act, and
the curtain about to fall, amid frantic encores, upon the brilliant and
graceful Tenor. For some reason we can no longer admit this conven
tion in painting, though we can still enjoy the airs from Handel's operas.
We, therefore, can only allow the merits of this invention, the right
ness from its point of view of the mise-en-scinc, of the low horizon at
dawn, of the softly-illuminated figure rising against the night sky, and
of the plain strewn — and how admirably this is suggested ! — with
corpses. What, however, we may admit with more enthusiasm is the
sheer mastery and beauty of Guido's handling of paint, and in this
respect the Magdalene of the National Gallery must be admitted a
masterpiece.

Front a photograph by Anderson.

The Seventh Discourse
point so far; yet I am persuaded, that even among
those few who may be called thinkers, the prevalent
opinion allows less than it ought to the powers of
reason; and considers the principles of taste, which
give all their authority to the rules of art, as more
fluctuating, and as having less solid foundations, than
we shall find, upon examination, they really have.
The common saying, that tastes are not to be dis
puted, owes its influence, and its general reception, to
the same error which leads us to imagine this faculty
of too high an original to submit to the authority of
an earthly tribunal. It likewise corresponds with the
notions of those who consider it as a mere phantom of
the imagination, so devoid of substance as to elude
all criticism.
We often appear to differ in sentiments from each
other, merely from the inaccuracy of terms, as we are
not obliged to speak always with critical exactness.
Something of this too may arise from want of words
in the language in which we speak, to express the
more nice discriminations which a deep investigation
discovers. A great deal, however, of this difference
vanishes, when each opinion is tolerably explained and
understood by constancy and precision in the use of
terms. We apply the term Taste to that act of the mind by
which we like or dislike, whatever be the subject.
Our judgment upon an airy nothing, a fancy which has
no foundation, is called by the same name which we^
give to our determination concerning those truths which
refer to the most general and most unalterable prin-
189

Sir Joshua Reynolds
ciples of human nature : to the works which are only
to be produced by the greatest efforts of the human
understanding. However inconvenient this may be,
we are obliged to take words as we find them ; all we
can do is to distinguish the things to which they are
applied. We may let pass those things which are at once
subjects of taste and sense, and which having as much
certainty as the senses themselves, give no occasion to
.inquiry or dispute. The natural appetite or taste of
the human mind is for Truth ; whether that truth
results from the real agreement or equality of original
ideas among themselves ; from the agreement of the
representation of any object with the thing represented;
or from the correspondence of the several parts of any
arrangement with each other. It is the very same
taste which relishes a demonstration in geometry, that
is pleased with the resemblance of a picture to an
original, and touched with the harmony of music.
All these have unalterable and fixed foundations in
nature, and are therefore equally investigated by
reason, and known by study; some with more, some
with less clearness, but all exactly in the same way. A
picture that is unlike, is false. Disproportionate or-
donnance of parts is not right; because it cannot be
true, until it ceases to be a contradiction to assert, that
the parts have no relation to the whole. Colouring is
true, when it is naturally adapted to the eye, from
brightness, from softness, from harmony, from resem
blance ; because these agree with their object, Nature,
and therefore are true ; as true as mathematical de-
190

The Seventh Discourse
monstration ; but known to be true only to those who
study these things.
But besides real, there is also apparent truth, or
opinion, or prejudice. With regard to real truth, when
it is known, the taste which conforms to it is, and must
be, uniform. With regard to the second sort of truth,
which may be called truth upon sufferance, or truth by
courtesy, it is not fixed, but variable. However, whilst
these opinions and prejudices, on which it is founded,
continue, they operate as truth ; and the art whose
office it is to please the mind, as well as instruct it,
must direct itself according to opinion, or it will not
attain its end.
In proportion as these prejudices are known to be
generally diffused, or long received, the taste which
conforms to them approaches nearer to certainty, and
to a sort of resemblance to real science, even where
opinions are found to be no better than prejudices.
And since they deserve, on account of their duration
and extent, to be considered as really true, they become
capable of no small degree of stability and determina
tion, by their permanent and uniform nature.
As these prejudices become more narrow, more local,
more transitory, this secondary taste becomes more and
more fantastical ; recedes from real science ; is less to
be approved by reason, and less followed in practice ;
though in no case perhaps to be wholly neglected,
where it does not stand, as it sometimes does, in direct
defiance of the most respectable opinions received
amongst mankind.
Having laid down these positions, I shall proceed
191

Sir Joshua Reynolds
with less method, because less will serve to explain and
apply them.
We will take it for granted that reason is something
invariable and fixed in the nature of things ; and with
out endeavouring to go back to an account of first prin
ciples, which for ever will elude our search, we will
conclude, that whatever goes under the name of taste,
which we can fairly bring under the dominion of reason,
must be considered as equally exempt from change; If,
therefore, in the course of this enquiry, we can shew
that there are rules for the conduct of the artist which
are fixed and invariable, it follows of course, that the
art of the connoisseur, or, in other words, taste, has
likewise invariable principles.
Of the judgment which we make on the works of
art, and the preference that we give to one class of art
over another, if a reason be demanded, the question is
perhaps evaded by answering, I judge from my taste;
but it does not follow that a better answer cannot be
given, though, for common gazers, this may be suffi
cient. Every man is not obliged to investigate the
cause of his approbation or dislike.
The arts would lie open for ever to caprice and
casualty, if those who are to judge of their excellences
had no settled principles by which they are to regulate
their decisions, and the merit or defect of performances
were to be determined by unguided fancy. And indeed
we may venture to assert, that whatever speculative
knowledge is necessary to the artist, is equally and in
dispensably necessary to the connoisseur.
The first idea that occurs in the consideration of
192

The Seventh Discourse
what is fixed in art, or in taste, is that presiding prin
ciple of which I have so frequently spoken in former
discourses,— the general idea of Nature. The begin
ning, the middle, and the end of every thing that is
valuable in taste, is comprised in the knowledge of
what is truly nature; for whatever notions are not
conformable to those of nature, or funiversalqpinion,
must be considered as more or less capricious.
My notion of nature comprehends not only the forms
which nature produces, but also the nature and internal
fabric and organization, as I may call it, of the human
mind and imagination. The terms beauty, or nature,
which are general ideas, are but different modes of
expressing the same thing, whether we apply these
terms to statues, poetry, or pictures. Deformity is not
nature, but an accidental deviation from her accustomed
practice. This general idea therefore ought to be,
called Nature; and nothing else, correctly speakingj
has a right to that name. But we are so far from
speaking, in common conversation, with any such
accuracy, that, on the contrary, when we criticise
Rembrandt and other Dutch painters, who introduced
into their historical pictures exact representations of
individual objects with all their imperfections, we
say, — though it is not in a good taste, yet it is nature.
This misapplication of terms must be very often
perplexing to the young student. Is not art, he may
say, an imitation of nature ? Must he not therefore
who imitates her with the greatest fidelity be the best
artist? By this mode of reasoning Rembrandt has a
higher place than Raffaelle. But a very little reflection
N 193

Sir Joshua Reynolds
will serve to show us that these particularities cannot
be nature ; for how can that be the nature of man, in
which no two individuals are the same ?
It plainly appears, that as a work is conducted under
the influence of general ideas, or partial, it is principally
to be considered as the effect of a good or a bad taste.
As beauty therefore does not consist in taking what
lies immediately before you, so neither, in our pursuit
of taste, are those opinions which we first received and
adopted, the best choice, or the most natural to the
mind and imagination. In the infancy of our know
ledge we seize with greediness the good that is within
our reach ; it is by after-consideration, and in conse
quence of discipline, that we refuse the present for a
[greater good at a distance. The nobility or elevation
'of all arts, like the excellency of virtue itself, consists
in adopting this enlarged and comprehensive idea ; and
all criticism built upon the more confined view of what
is natural, may properly be called shallow criticism,
rather than false: its defect is, that the truth is not
sufficiently extensive.
It has sometimes happened, that some of the greatest
men in our art have been betrayed into errors by this
confined mode of reasoning. Poussin, who, upon the
whole, may be produced as an artist strictly attentive
to the most enlarged and extensive ideas of nature,
from not having settled principles on this point, has,
in one instance at least, I think, deserted truth for
prejudice. He is said to have vindicated the conduct
of Julio Romano for his inattention to the masses of
light and shade, or grouping the figures in the Battle
194

The Seventh Discourse
of Constantine, as if designedly neglected, the better
to correspond with the hurry and confusion of a battle.
Poussin's owti conduct in many of his pictures, makes
us more easily give credit to this report. That it was
too much his own practice, the Sacrifice to Silenus,
and the Triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne, may be
produced as instances; but this principle is still more
apparent, and may be said to be even more ostenta
tiously displayed in his Perseus and Medusa's Head.
This is undoubtedly a subject of great bustle and
tumult, and that the first effect of the picture may
correspond to the subject, every principle of composi
tion is violated; there is no principal figure, no prin
cipal light, no groups ; everything is dispersed, and in
such a state of confusion, that the eye finds no repose
anywhere. In consequence of the forbidding appear
ance, I remember turning from it with disgust, and
should not have looked a second time, if I had not
been called back to a closer inspection. I then
indeed found, what we may expect always to find in
the works of Poussin, correct drawing, forcible expres
sion, and just character ; in short, all the excellences
which so much distinguish the works of this learned
painter. This conduct of Poussin I hold to be entirely im
proper to imitate. A picture should please at first
sight, and appear to invite the spectator's attention : if,
on the contrary, the general effect offends the eye,
a second view is not always sought, whatever more
substantial and intrinsic merit it may possess.
Perhaps no apology ought to be received for offences
195

Sir Joshua Reynolds
committed against the vehicle (whether it be the organ
of seeing, or of hearing), by which our pleasures are
conveyed to the mind. We must take care that the
eye be not perplexed and distracted by a confusion of
equal parts, or equal lights, or offended by an un-,
harmonious mixture of colours, as we should guard
against offending the ear by unharmonious sounds.
We may venture to be more confident of the truth of
this observation, since we find that Shakspeare, on a
parallel occasion, has made Hamlet recommend to the
players a precept of the same kind, — never to offend
the ear by harsh sounds : In the very torrent, tempest,
and whirlwind of your passion, says he, you must acquire
and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.
And yet, at the same time, he very justly observes,
The end of playing, both at the first, and now, was and
is, to hold, as it were, the mirror up to nature. No one
can deny, that violent passions will naturally emit harsh
and disagreeable tones : yet this great poet and critic
thought that this imitation of nature would cost too
much, if purchased at the expense of disagreeable
sensations, or, as he expresses it, of splitting the ear.
The poet and actor, as well as the painter, of genius,
who is well acquainted with all the variety and sources
of pleasure in the mind and imagination, has little
regard or attention to common nature, or creeping
[after common- sense. By overleaping those narrow
'bounds, he more effectually seizes the whole mind, and
more powerfully accomplishes his purpose. This suc
cess is ignorantly imagined to proceed from inattention
to all rules, and a defiance of reason and judgment;
196

The Seventh Discourse
whereas it is in truth acting according to the best rules
and the justest reason.
He who thinks nature, in the narrow sense of the
word, is alone to be followed, will produce but a scanty
entertainment for the imagination : every thing is to be
done with which it is natural for the mind to be
pleased, whether it proceeds from simplicity or variety,
uniformity or irregularity; whether the scenes are
familiar or exotic ; rude and wild, or enriched and
cultivated ; for it is natural for the mind to be pleased
with all these in their turn. In short, whatever pleases
has in it what is analogous to the mind, and is, there
fore, in the highest and best sense of the word, natural.
It is the sense of nature or truth, which ought more
particularly to be cultivated by the professors of art:
and it may be observed, that many wise and learned
men, who have accustomed their minds to admit
nothing for truth but what can be proved by mathe
matical demonstration, have seldom any relish for those
arts which address themselves to the fancy, the recti
tude and truth of which are known by another kind of
proof; and we may add, that the acquisition of this
knowledge requires as much circumspection and sa
gacity as is necessary to attain those truths which are
more capable of demonstration. Reason must ulti-l
mately determine our choice on every occasion; but
this reason may still be exerted ineffectually by ap
plying to taste principles which, though right as far as
they go, yet do not reach the object. No man, for
instance, can deny, that it seems at first view very
reasonable, that a statue which is to carry down to
197

Sir Joshua Reynolds
posterity the resemblance of an individual, should be
dressed in the fashion of the times, in the dress which
he himself wore : this would certainly be true, if the
dress were part of the man : but after a time, the dress
is only an amusement for an antiquarian; and if it
obstructs the general design of the piece, it is to be
disregarded by the artist. Common sense must here
give way to a higher sense. In the naked form, and
in the disposition of the drapery, the difference be
tween one artist and another, is principally seen. But
if he is compelled to exhibit the modern dress, the
naked form is entirely hid, and the drapery is already
disposed by the skill of the tailor. Were a Phidias to
obey such absurd commands, he would please no more
than an ordinary sculptor ; since, in the inferior parts of
every art, the learned and the ignorant are nearly upon
a level. These were probably among the reasons that induced
the sculptor of that wonderful figure of Laocoon, to
exhibit him naked, notwithstanding he was surprised
in the act of sacrificing to Apollo, and consequently
ought to have been shown in his sacerdotal habits, if
those greater reasons had not preponderated. Art is
not yet in so high estimation with us, as to obtain
so great a sacrifice as the ancients made, especially
the Grecians ; who suffered themselves to be repre
sented naked, whether they were generals, law-givers,
or kings.
Under this head of balancing and choosing the
greater reason, or of two evils taking the least, we may
consider the conduct of Rubens in the Luxembourg
198

The Seventh Discourse
Gallery, where he has mixed allegorical figures with
the representations of real personages,_~wlilctrTrrttst be
acknowledged to be a fault; yet, if the artist con
sidered himself as engaged to furnish this gallery with
a rich, various, and splendid ornament, this could not
be done, at least in an equal degree, without peopling]
the air and water with these allegorical figures: he
therefore accomplished all that he purposed. In this
case all lesser considerations, which tend to obstruct
the great end of the work, must yield and give way..
The variety which portraits and modern dresses,
mixed with allegorical figures, produce, is not to be
slightly given up upon a punctilio of reason, when that
reason deprives the art in a manner of its very existence.
It must always be remembered that the business of a,,
great painter is to produce a great picture ; he must
therefore take special care not to be cajoled by specious
arguments out of his materials.
What has been so often said to the disadvantage of]
allegorical poetry, — that it is tedious, and uninterest
ing, — cannot with the same propriety be applied to
painting, where the interest is of a different kind. If
allegorical painting produces a greater variety of ideal
beauty, a richer, a more various and delightful com
position, and gives to the artist a greater opportunity
of exhibiting his skill, all the interest he wishes for is
accomplished : such a picture not only attracts, but
fixes the attention.
If it be objected that Rubens judged ill at first in
thinking it necessary to make his work so very orna
mental, this puts the question upon new ground. It
199

Sir Joshua Reynolds
was his peculiar style ; he could paint in no other ; and
he was selected for that work, probably because it was
his style. Nobody will dispute but some of the best
of the Roman or Bolognian schools would have pro
duced a more learned and more noble work.
This leads us to another important province of taste,
that of weighing the value of the different classes of the
art, and of estimating them accordingly.
All arts have means within them of applying them
selves with success both to the intellectual and sen
sitive part of our natures. It cannot be disputed,
supposing both these means put in practice with equal
abilities, to which we ought to give the preference ; to
him who represents the heroic arts and more dignified
passions of men, or to him who, by the help of mere
tricious ornaments, however elegant and graceful, cap
tivates the sensuality, as it may be called, of our taste.
Thus the Roman and Bolognian schools are reasonably
preferred to the Venetian, Flemish, or Dutch schools,
as they address themselves to our best and noblest
faculties. Well-turned periods in eloquence, or harmony of
numbers in poetry, which are in those arts what colour
ing is in painting, however highly we may esteem
them, can never be considered as of equal importance
with the art of unfolding truths that are useful to
mankind, and which make us better or wiser. Nor
can those works which remind us of the poverty and
meanness of our nature, be considered as of equal
rank with what excites ideas of grandeur, or raises
and dignifies humanity ; or, in the words of a late poet,
200

The Seventh Discourse
which makes the beholder learn to venerate himself as
man. It is reason^ and good sense, therefore, which ranks
and estimates every art, and every part_of that art,
according to its importance, from the painter of ani
mated, down to inanimated nature. We will not allow
a man who shall prefer the inferior style, to say it is
his taste ; taste here has nothing, or at least ought to
have nothing, to do with the question. He wants not
taste, but sense and soundness of judgment.
Indeed perfection in an inferior style may be reason
ably preferred to mediocrity in the highest walks of
art. A landscape of Claude Lorrain may be preferred
to a history by Luca Giordano ; but hence appears the
necessity of the connoisseur's knowing in what consists
the excellency of each class, in order to judge how
near it approaches to perfection.
Even in works of the same kind, as in history paint
ing, which is composed of various parts, excellence of
an inferior species, carried to a very high degree, will
make a work very valuable, and in some measure com
pensate for the absence of the higher kinds of merit.
It is the duty of the connoisseur to know and esteem,
as much as it may deserve, every part of painting : he
will not then think even Bassano unworthy of his
notice ; who, though totally devoid of expression,
sense, grace, or elegance, may be esteemed on account
of his admirable taste of colours, which, in his best
works, are little inferior to those of Titian.
Since I have mentioned Bassano, we must do him
likewise the justice to acknowledge, that though he
20 1

Sir Joshua Reynolds
did not aspire to the dignity of expressing the characters
and passions of men, yet, with respect to facility and
truth in his manner of touching animals of all kinds,
and giving them what painters call their character, few
have excelled him.
To Bassano we may add Paul Veronese and Tin
toret, for their entire inattention to what is justly
thought the most essential part of our art, the expres
sion of the passions. Notwithstanding these glaring
deficiencies, we justly esteem their works; but it must
be remembered, that they do not please from those
defects, but from their great excellences of another
tkind, and in spite of such transgressions. These ex
cellences, too, as far as they go, are founded in the
truth of general nature ; they tell the truth, though
not the whole truth.
By these considerations, which can never be too
frequently impressed, may be obviated two errors,
which, I observed to have been, formerly at least, the
most prevalent, and to be most injurious to artists;
that of thinking taste and genius to have nothing to do
with reason, and that of taking particular living objects
for nature.
I shall now say something on that part of taste,
which, as I have hinted to you before, does not belong
so much to the external form of things, but is addressed
to the mind, and depends on its original frame, or, to
use the expression, the organisation of the soul ; I
mean the imagination and the passions. The prin
ciples of these are as invariable as the former, and are
to be known and reasoned upon in the same manner,
202

TINTORETTO
The Road to Calvary
scuola de s. rocco. venice

Since we have given one example (p. 84) in which Tintoretto appears
to justify Reynolds' strictures, it is only fair to Tintoretto and to
Reynolds, who, after all, was deeply influenced by him, to give an
example of another kind. It is one, moreover, that Reynolds studied
carefully and copied in his Italian sketch-book. In the case of the
Last Supper, the predilection for scenic effect was destructive of the
deeper significance of the theme. Here, where the pathos is of a more
external kind, depending less upon subtle psychological contrasts, such
a scenic treatment as Tintoretto could conceive has no such un
fortunate results.
And of all the scenic effects which make upon us the impression of
terror, wonder, and pity Tintoretto was among the greatest masters that
the world has seen. His inexhaustible inventiveness, his impetuosity of
touch, which forces us to accept the most capricious and contradictory1
effects of illumination, and the rich pattern of his silhouettes, are all
used here to their finest and most imposing purpose.

The Seventh Discourse
by an appeal to common-sense deciding upon the
common feelings of mankind. This sense, and these
feelings appear to me of equal authority, and equally
conclusive. Now this appeal implies a general unifor
mity and agreement in the minds of men. It would be
else an idle and vain endeavour to establish rules of
art; it would be pursuing a phantom, to attempt to
move affections with which we were entirely unac
quainted. We have no reason to suspect there is a
greater difference between our minds than between our
forms ; of which, though there are no two alike, yet
there is a general similitude that goes through the
whole race of mankind ; and those who have cultivated
their taste can distinguish what is beautiful or deformed,
or, in other words, what agrees with or deviates from
the general idea of nature, in one case, as well as in the
other. The internal fabric of our minds, as well as the ex
ternal form of our bodies being nearly uniform; it
seems then to follow of course, that as the imagination
is incapable of producing anything originally of itself,
and can only vary and combine those ideas with which
it is furnished by means of the senses, there will be
necessarily an agreement in the imaginations, as in the
senses of men. There being this agreement, it follows,
that in all cases, in our lightest amusements, as well
as in our most serious actions and engagements of life,
we must regulate our affections of every kind by that
of others. The well - disciplined mind acknowledges
this authority, and submits its own opinion to the
public voice. It is from knowing what are the general
205

Sir Joshua Reynolds
feelings and passions of mankind, that we acquire a
true idea of what imagination is; though it appears
as if we had nothing to do but to consult our own
particular sensations, and these were sufficient to en
sure us from all error and mistake.
A knowledge of the disposition and character of the
human mind can be acquired only by experience : a
great deal will be learned, I admit, by a habit of ex
amining what passes in our bosoms, what are our own
motives of action, and of what kind of sentiments
we are conscious on any occasion. We may suppose
an uniformity, and conclude that the same effect will
be produced by the same cause in the minds of others.
This examination will contribute to suggest to us
matters of inquiry; but we can never be sure that
our own sentiments are true and right, till they are
confirmed by more extensive observation. One man
opposing another determines nothing; but a general
union of minds, like a general combination of the
forces of all mankind, makes a strength that is irre
sistible. In fact, as he who does not know himself,
Woes not know others, so it may be said with equal
truth, that he who does not know others, knows him
self but very imperfectly.
A man who thinks he is guarding himself against
prejudices by resisting the authority of others, leaves
open every avenue to singularity, vanity, self-conceit,
obstinacy, and many other vices, all tending to warp
the judgment, and prevent the natural operation of
his faculties. This submission to others is a deference
which we owe, and indeed are forced involuntarily to
206

JACOPO BASSANO
Il Riposo
ambrosiana. milan

While Bassano from his choice of peasant types is of all Venetians
the most naturally comparable to the Dutch, there are some pictures,
particularly early ones by Jacopo da Ponte, to which Reynolds' estimate
will hardly apply. Of this, for instance, and of Reynolds' own
picture, the Good Samaritan, now in the National Gallery, one could
hardly say that the author "did not aspire to the dignity of expressing
the characters and passions of men." It would be difficult to find in
all the work of Veronese and Tintoretto anything more intimately,
more tenderly, conceived than this head of the St Joseph. Jacopo
Bassano was, indeed, an artist of profound originality ; born nine years
before Tintoretto, and eighteen before Veronese, he anticipates both
in many of their characteristics, while in his serious and imaginative
treatment of peasant life he stands quite alone in Italian art, and
anticipates some of the finest work of the nineteenth century. The
immense number and the mediocrity of the pictures afterwards turned
out from the family workshop perhaps accounts for the comparative
neglect of this strikingly original creator. Reynolds is said always to
have kept the Good Samaritan in his studio, and one can discern his
strong personal liking through the measured justice of this estimate.

The Seventh Discourse
pay. In fact, we never are satisfied with our opinions,
whatever we may pretend, till they are ratified and
confirmed by the suffrages of the rest of mankind.
We dispute and wrangle for ever; we endeavour to
get men to come to us, when we do not go to them.
He therefore who is acquainted with the works
which have pleased different ages and different coun
tries, and has formed his opinion on them, has more
materials, and more means of knowing what is analo
gous to the mind of man, than he who is conversant
only with the works of his own age or country. What
has pleased, and continues to please, is likely to please
again : hence are derived the rules of art, and on this
immoveable foundation they must ever stand.
This search and study of the history of the mind,
ought not to be confined to one art only. It is by the!
analogy that one art bears to another, that many things;
are ascertained, which either were but faintly seen, or,!
perhaps, would not have been discovered at all, if the
inventor had not received the first hints from the
practices of a sister art on a similar occasion.1 The
frequent allusions which every man who treats of any
art is obliged to make to others, in order to illustrate
and confirm his principles, sufficiently show their near
connection and inseparable relation.
All arts having the same general end, which is to
please ; and addressing themselves to the same faculties
through the medium of the senses; it follows that
their rules and principles must have as great affinity,
1 Nulla ars, non alterius artis, aut mater, aut propinqua est. —
Tertull. as cited by Junius. — R.
o 209

Sir Joshua Reynolds
as the different materials and the different organs or
vehicles by which they pass to the mind, will permit
them to retain.1
We may therefore conclude, that the real substance,
as it may be called, of what goes under the name of
itaste, is fixed and established in the nature of things ;
'that there are certain and regular causes by which the
imagination and passions of men are affected; and
that the knowledge of these causes is acquired by a
laborious and diligent investigation of nature, and by
the same slow progress as wisdom or knowledge of
every kind, however instantaneous its operations may
appear when thus acquired.
It has been often observed, that the good and
virtuous man alone can acquire this true or just relish
even of works of art. This opinion will not appear
entirely without foundation, when we consider that
the same habit of mind, which is acquired by our
search after truth in the more serious duties of life,
is only transferred to the pursuit of lighter amusements.
The same disposition, the same desire to find something
steady, substantial, and durable, on which the mind
can lean, as it were, and rest with safety, actuates us
in both cases. The subject only is changed. We
pursue the same method in our search after the idea
of beauty and perfection in each ; of virtue, by looking
forwards beyond ourselves to society, and to the whole;
of arts, by extending our views in the same manner, to
all ages and all times.
1 Omnes artes quae ad humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam com
mune vinculum, et quasi cognatione inter se continentur. — Cicero. — R.
2IO

The Seventh Discourse
Every art, like our own, has in its composition
fluctuating as well as fixed principles. It is an atten
tive inquiry into their difference that will enable us to
determine how far we are influenced by custom and
habit, and what is fixed in the nature of things. I
To distinguish how much has solid foundation, we
may have recourse to the same proof by which some
hold that wit ought to be tried ; whether it preserves
itself when translated. That wit is false, which can
subsist only in one language ; and that picture whict
pleases only one age or one nation, owes its receptior
to some local or accidental association of ideas.
We may apply this to every custom and habit of
life. Thus, the general principles of urbanity, politer
ness, or civility, have been the same in all nations ;|
but the mode in which they are dressed is continually
varying. The general idea of showing respect is by
making yourself less; but the manner, whether by
bowing the body, kneeling, prostration, pulling off the
upper part of our dress, or taking away the lower,1 is a
matter of custom.
Thus, in regard to ornaments, — it would be unjust
to conclude, that, because they were at first arbitrarily
contrived, they are therefore undeserving of our at
tention: on the contrary, he who neglects the cultiva
tion of those ornaments, acts contrary to nature and
reason. As life would be imperfect without its highest
ornaments, the Arts, so these arts themselves would
be imperfect without their ornaments. Though we
1 " Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou
standest is holy ground." — Exodus iii. 5. — R.
211

Sir Joshua Reynolds
by no means ought to rank these with 'positive and
fubstantial beauties, yet it must be allowed, that a
:nowledge of both is essentially requisite towards
orming a complete, whole, and perfect taste. It is in
reality from the ornaments, that arts receive their
peculiar character and complexion; we may add, that
in them we find the characteristical mark of a national
taste ; as, by throwing up a feather in the air we know
which way the wind blows, better than by a more
heavy matter.
The striking distinction between the works of the
Roman, Bolognian, and Venetian schools consists more
in that general effect which is produced by colours,
than in the more profound excellences of the art;
at least it is from thence that each is distinguished
and known at first sight. Thus it is the ornaments,
rather than the proportions of architecture, which at
the first glance distinguish the different orders from
each other ; the Doric is known by its triglyphs, the
Ionic by its volutes, and the Corinthian by its acanthus.
What distinguishes oratory from a cold narration
is a more liberal, though chaste, use of those orna
ments which go under the name of figurative and
metaphorical expressions ; and poetry distinguishes
itself from oratory, by words and expressions still
more ardent and glowing. What separates and dis
tinguishes poetry, is more particularly the ornament
of verse ; it is this which gives it its character, and
is an essential without which it cannot exist. Custom
has appropriated different metre to different kinds of
composition, in which the world is not perfectly
212

The Seventh Discourse
agreed. In England, the dispute is not yet settled,]
which is to be preferred, rhyme or blank verse. But
however we disagree about what these metrical orna
ments shall be, that some metre is essentially necessary,
is universally acknowledged.
In poetry or eloquence, to determine how far figura
tive or metaphorical language may proceed, and when
it begins to be affectation or beside the truth, must]
be determined by taste ; though this taste, we must!
never forget, is regulated and formed by the pre-'
siding feelings of mankind, — by those works which
have approved themselves to all times and all persons.
Thus, though eloquence has undoubtedly an essential
and intrinsic excellence, and immoveable principles]
common to all languages, founded in the nature of]
our passions and affections ; yet it has its ornaments/
and modes of address, which are merely arbitraryl
What is approved in the eastern nations as grand ana
majestic, would be considered by the Greeks and
Romans as turgid and inflated ; and they, in return,
would be thought by the Orientals to express them
selves in a cold and insipid manner.
We may add likewise to the credit of ornaments,]
that it is by their means that Art itself accomplishes
its purpose. Fresnoy calls colouring, which is one of
the chief ornaments of painting, lena sororis, that
which procures lovers and admirers to the more valu
able excellences of the art.
It appears to be the same right turn of mind which'
enables a man to acquire the truth, or the just idea
of what is right, in the ornaments, as in the more
213

Sir Joshua Reynolds
stable principles of art. It has still the same centre of
perfection, though it is the centre of a smaller circle.
To illustrate this by the fashion of dress, in which
there is allowed to be a good or bad taste. The
component parts of dress are continually changing
from great to little, from short to long; but the
general form still remains; it is still the same general
dress, which is comparatively fixed, though on a very
slender foundation ; but it is on this which fashion
must rest. He who invents with the most success,
or dresses in the best taste, would probably, from
the same sagacity employed to greater purposes, have
discovered equal skill, or have formed the same correct
(taste, in the highest labours of art.
I have mentioned taste in dress, which is certainly
one of the lowest subjects to which this word is
applied ; yet, as I have before observed, there is a
right even here, however narrow its foundation,
respecting the fashion of any particular nation. But
we have still more slender means of determining, to
which of the different customs of different ages or
countries we ought to give the preference, since
they seem to be all equally removed from nature.
If an European, when he has cut off his beard, and
put false hair on his head, or bound up his own
Natural hair in regular hard knots, as unlike nature
as he can possibly make it ; and after having rendered
them immoveable by the help of the fat of hogs,
has covered the whole with flour, laid on by a
machine with the utmost regularity ; if, when thus
attired, he issues forth, and meets a Cherokee Indian,
214

The Seventh Discourse
who has bestowed as much time at his toilet, and
laid on with equal care and attention his yellow and
red ochre on particular parts of his forehead or
cheeks, as he judges most becoming; whoever of
these two despises the other for this attention to the
fashion of his country, whichever first feels himself
provoked to laugh, is the barbarian.
All these fashions are very innocent; neither worth
disquisition, nor any endeavour to alter them; as the
change would, in all probability, be equally distant
from nature. The only circumstance against which
indignation may reasonably be moved, is, where the
operation is painful or destructive of health ; such as
some of the practices at Otaheite, and the straib
lacing of the English ladies; of the last of which
practices, how destructive it must be to health and
long life, the professor of anatomy took an opportunity
of proving a few days since in this Academy.
It is in dress as in things of greater consequence.
Fashions originate from those only who have the
high and powerful advantages of rank, birth, and
fortune. Many of the ornaments of art, those at
least for which no reason can be given, are trans
mitted to us, are adopted, and acquire their conse
quence from the company in which we have been
used to see them. As Greece and Rome are the
fountains from whence have flowed all kinds of ex
cellence, to that veneration which they have a right
to claim for the pleasure and knowledge which they
have afforded us, we voluntarily add our approbation
of every ornament and every custom that belonged
215

Sir Joshua Reynolds
to them, even to the fashion of their dress. For it
may be observed that, not satisfied with them in
their own place, we make no difficulty of dressing
.statues of modern heroes or senators in the fashion
of the Roman armour or peaceful robe; we go
so far as hardly to bear a statue in any other
drapery. The figures of the great men of those nations have
come down to us in sculpture. In sculpture remain
almost all the excellent specimens of ancient art. We
have so far associated personal dignity to the persons
thus represented, and the truth of art to their manner
of representation, that it is not in our power any
longer to separate them. This is not so in painting;
because having no excellent ancient portraits, that
connection was never formed. Indeed we could no
more venture to paint a general officer in a Roman
military habit, than we could make a statue in the
present uniform. But since we have no ancient
portraits, — to show how ready we are to adopt those
kind of prejudices, we make the best authority among
the moderns serve the same purpose. The great
variety of excellent portraits with which Vandyke
has enriched this nation, we are not content to
admire for their real excellence, but extend our appro
bation even to the dress which happened to be the
fashion of that age. We all very well remember
how common it was a few years ago for portraits to
be drawn in this fantastic dress ; and this custom is not
yet entirely laid aside. By this means it must be
acknowledged very ordinary pictures acquired some-
216

The Seventh Discourse
thing of the air and effect of the works of Vandyke,
and appeared, therefore, at first sight to be better
pictures than they really were ; they appeared so,
however, to those only who had the means of making
this association; and when made, it was irresistible.
But this association is nature, and refers to thai]
secondary truth that comes from conformity to general
prejudice and opinion; it is, therefore, not merely
fantastical. Besides the prejudice which we have in
favour of ancient dresses, there may be likewise other
reasons for the effect which they produce ; among
which we may justly rank the simplicity of them,
consisting of little more than one single piece of
drapery, without those whimsical capricious forms by
which all other dresses are embarrassed.
Thus, though it is from the prejudice we have in
favour of the ancients, who have taught us architec
ture, that we have adopted likewise their ornaments ;
and though we are satisfied that neither nature nor
reason are the foundation of those beauties which we
imagine we see in that art, yet if anyone, persuaded
of this truth, should therefore invent new orders of
equal beauty, which we will suppose to be possible,
they would not please; nor ought he to complain,
since the old has that great advantage of having
custom and prejudice on its side. In this case we
leave what has every prejudice in its favour, to take
that which will have no advantage over what we have
left, but novelty; which soon destroys itself, and at
any rate is but a weak antagonist against custom.
Ancient ornaments, having the right of possession,
217

Sir Joshua Reynolds
ought not to be removed, unless to make room for
that which not only has higher pretensions, but such
pretensions as will balance the evil and confusion
which innovation always brings with it.
To this we may add, that even the durability of
the materials will often contribute to give a superiority
to one object over another. Ornaments in buildings,
with which taste is principally concerned, are com
posed of materials which last longer than those of
which dress is composed; the former, therefore, make
higher pretensions to our favour and prejudice.
Some attention is surely due to what we can no
more get rid of, than we can go out of ourselves. We
are creatures of prejudice; we neither can nor ought
to eradicate it ; we must only regulate it by reason ;
which kind of regulation is indeed little more than
obliging the lesser, the local and temporary prejudices, to
give way to those which are more durable and lasting.
He, therefore, who, in his practice of portrait paint
ing, wishes to dignify his subject, which we will sup
pose to be a lady, will not paint her in the modern
dress, the familiarity of which alone is sufficient to
destroy all dignity. He takes care that his work
shall correspond to those ideas and that imagination
which he knows will regulate the judgment of others;
and therefore dresses his figure something with the
general air of the antique for the sake of dignity, and
preserves something of the modern for the sake of
likeness. By this conduct his works correspond with
those prejudices which we have in favour of what
we continually see; and the relish of the antique
218

The Seventh Discourse
simplicity corresponds with what we may call the
more learned and scientific prejudice.
There was a statue made not long since of Voltaire,
which the sculptor, not having that respect for the
prejudices of mankind which he ought to have had,
made entirely naked, and as meagre and emaciated as
the original is said to be. The consequence was what
might have been expected : it remained in the sculp
tor's shop, though it was intended as a public orna
ment and a public honour to Voltaire, for it wa)
procured at the expense of his contemporary wits1
and admirers.
Whoever would reform a nation, supposing a bad
taste to prevail in it, will not accomplish his purpose
by going directly against the stream of their prejudices.
Men's minds must be prepared to receive what is
new to them. Reformation is a work of time. A
national taste, however wrong it may be, cannot be
totally changed at once ; we must yield a little to
the prepossession which has taken hold on the mind,
and we may then bring people to adopt what would
offend them, if endeavoured to be introduced by
violence. When Battista Franco was employed, in
conjunction with Titian, Paul Veronese and Tintoret,
to adorn the library of St Mark, his work, Vasari says,
gave less satisfaction than any of the others ; the dry
manner of the Roman school was very ill calculated to
please eyes that had been accustomed to the luxuriancy,
splendour, and richness of Venetian colouring. Had
the Romans been the judges of this work, probably the
determination would have been just contrary; for in
219

Sir Joshua Reynolds
the more noble parts of the art Battista Franco was
perhaps not inferior to any of his rivals.
Gentlemen,
It has been the main scope and principal end of
this discourse to demonstrate the reality of a standard
in taste, as well as in corporeal beauty; that a false
or depraved taste is a thing as well known, as easily
discovered, as any thing that is deformed, misshapen,
or wrong, in our form or outward make ; and that
this knowledge is derived from the uniformity of
sentiments among mankind, from whence proceeds
the knowledge of .what are the general habits _of
nature; the result of which is an idea of perfect
(beauty. If what has been advanced be true, — that beside
this beauty or truth, which is formed on the uniform,
eternal, and immutable laws of nature, and which of
necessity can be but one; that beside this one im
mutable verity there are likewise what we have called
apparent or secondary truths, proceeding from local
and temporary prejudices, fancies, fashions or acci
dental connection of ideas ; if it appears that these
last have still their foundation, however slender, in
the original fabric of our minds, it follows that all
these truths or beauties deserve and require the
attention of the artist, in proportion to their stability
or duration, or as their influence is more or less ex
tensive. And let me add, that as they ought not to
pass their just bounds, so neither do they, in a well-
regulated taste, at all prevent or weaken the influence
220

The Seventh Discourse
of those general principles, which alone can give to
art its true and permanent dignity.
To form this just taste is undoubtedly, in your own
power; but it is to reason and philosophy that you
must have recourse : from them you must borrow the
balance by which is to be weighed and estimated the
value of every pretension that intrudes itself on your
notice. The general objection which is made to the intro
duction of philosophy into the regions of taste is, thai
it checks and restrains the flights of the imagination.
and gives that timidity, which an over-carefulness not
to err, or act contrary to reason, is likely to produce.
It is not so. Fear is neither reason nor philosophy.
The true spirit of philosophy, by giving knowledge,
gives a manly confidence, and substitutes rational firm
ness in the place of vain presumption. A man of real
taste is always a man of judgment in other respects;
and those inventions which either disdain or shrink
from reason, are generally, I fear, more like the dreams
of a distempered brain, than the exalted enthusiasm of
a sound and true genius. In the midst of the highest
flights of fancy or imagination, reason ought to preside
from first to last, though I admit her more powerful
operation is upon reflection.
Let me add, that some of the greatest names of
antiquity, and those who have most distinguished
themselves in works of genius and imagination, were
equally eminent for their critical skill. Plato, Aris
totle, Cicero, and Horace ; and among the moderns,
Boileau, Corneille, Pope, and Dryden, are at least
221

Sir Joshua Reynolds
instances of genius not being destroyed by attention
or subjection to rules and science. I should hope,
therefore, that the natural consequence of what has
been said, would be, to excite in you a desire of
knowing the principles and conduct of the great
masters of our art, and respect and veneration for
them when known.

222

INTRODUCTION TO
THE EIGHTH DISCOURSE
Reynolds begins this Discourse with what looks like a
reminiscence of Burke's Treatise on the Sublime and
Beautiful. That it is unconscious we gather from a note
towards the end in which he refers to that work. But
though he begins by applying abstract ideas, such as novelty,
variety, and contrast, these are not systematically carried
through, and he soon takes up particular instances and applica
tions of general rules, discussing them with a clear idea of
the painter's needs in practice. We may differ from par
ticular interpretations that he gives to the rules, but the
spirit in which he reasons about them, his cautions against
a rigid and unintelligent application of them, are of the
utmost value to artists. There are few pieces of art criticism
which come so close to the questions at issue for the artist.

223

THE EIGHTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of
the Prizes, December IO, 1 778
The principles of art, whether poetry or painting, have their founda
tion in the mind ; such as novelty, variety, and contrast ; these
in their excess become defects— Simplicity, its excess disagree
able — Rules not to be always observed in their literal sense :
sufficient to preserve the spirit of the law — Observations on the
prize pictures.
Gentlemen,
I have recommended in former discourses, that Artists
should learn their profession by endeavouring to form
an idea of perfection from the different excellences
which lie dispersed in the various schools of painting.
Some difficulty will still occur, to know what is beauty,
and where it may be found : one would wish not to
be obliged to take it entirely on the credit of fame ;
though to this, I acknowledge, the younger Students
must unavoidably submit. Any suspicion in them of
the chance of their being deceived, will have more
tendency to obstruct their advancement, than even an
enthusiastic confidence in the perfection of their
models. But to the more advanced in the art, who
wish to stand on more stable and firmer ground, and
to establish principles on a stronger foundation than
authority, however venerable or powerful, it may be
safely told that there is still a higher tribunal, to which
p 225

Sir Joshua Reynolds
those great masters themselves must submit, and to
which indeed every excellence in art must be ulti
mately referred. He who is ambitious to enlarge the
boundaries of his art, must extend his views beyond
the precepts which are found in books or may be
drawn from the practice of his predecessors, to a
knowledge of those precepts in the mind — those opera
tions of intellectual nature — to which every thing that
aspires to please, must be proportioned and accommodated.
Poetry having a more extensive power than our art,
exerts its influence over almost all the passions ; among
those may be reckoned one of our most prevalent dis
positions, anxiety for the future. Poetry operates by
raising our curiosity, engaging the mind by degrees
to take an interest in the event, keeping that event
suspended, and surprising at last with an unexpected
catastrophe. The Painter's art is more confined, and has nothing
that corresponds with, or perhaps is equivalent to, this
power and advantage of leading the mind on, till at
tention is totally engaged. What is done by Painting,
must be done at one blow ; curiosity has received at
once all the satisfaction it can ever have. There are,
however, other intellectual qualities and dispositions
which the Painter can satisfy and affect as powerfully
as the Poet : among those we may reckon our love of
novelty, variety, and contrast; these qualities, on ex
amination, will be found to refer to a certain activity
and restlessness which have a pleasure and delight in
being exercised and put in motion ; Art therefore only
administers to those wants and desires of the mind.
226

ANNIBALE CARACCI
Landscape. The Flight into Egypt
doria gallery, rome

Alongside of the academic and rather characterless style of his
religious pieces and the grandiose style of his large decorations one
finds here and there traces in Annibale Caracci's work of a repressed
desire to strike out in new directions ; one finds genre pieces like the
Man eating Beans, in the Colonna GaUery ; and one finds a new kind
of genre landscape, of which the magnificent hunting and fishing
scenes in the Louvre, with figures in contemporary fashionable costume,
are, perhaps, the finest example. Indeed, in landscape his position is
of great importance. He forms the connecting link between Titian
and Claude. Titian, no doubt, treated landscape as an independent
form of art, and not merely as a background, but he did so only in
slight and, as it were, experimental pieces. Here we have landscape
on an imposing scale, with elaborate and carefully-planned design
treated entirely for its own sake, and already the way is fully prepared
for Claude and Gaspar Dughet.

The Eighth Discourse
It requires no long disquisition to show, that the
dispositions which I have stated actually subsist in the
human mind. Variety re-animates the attention, which
is apt to languish under a continual sameness. Novelty
makes a more forcible impression on the mind, than
can be made by the representation of what we have
often seen before ; and contrasts rouse the power of
comparison by opposition. All this is obvious; but,
on the other hand, it must be remembered, that the
mind, though an active principle, has likewise a dis
position to indolence ; and though it loves exercise,
loves it only to a certain degree, beyond which it is
very unwilling to be led, or driven ; the pursuit, there
fore, of novelty and variety may be carried to excess.
When variety entirely destroys the pleasure proceed
ing from uniformity and repetition, and when novelty
counteracts and shuts out the pleasure arising from
old habits and customs, they oppose too much the
indolence of our disposition: the mind, therefore, can
bear with pleasure but a small portion of novelty at
a time. The main part of the work must be in the
mode to which we have been used. An affection to
old habits and customs, I take to be the predominant
disposition of the mind, and novelty comes as an ex
ception : where all is novelty, the attention, the
exercise of the mind, is too violent. Contrast, in the
same manner, when it exceeds certain limits, is as
disagreeable as a violent and perpetual opposition ; it
gives to the senses, in their progress, a more sudden
change than they can bear with pleasure.
It is then apparent that those qualities, j however
229

Sir Joshua Reynolds
they contribute to the perfection of Art, when kept
within certain bounds, if they are carried to excess,
become defects, and require correction : a work conse
quently will not proceed better and better as it is more
varied ; variety can never be the ground-work and prin
ciple of the performance — it must be only employed to
recreate and relieve.
To apply these general observations, which belong
equally to all arts, to ours in particular. In a composi
tion, when the objects are scattered and divided into
many equal parts, the eye is perplexed and fatigued,
from not knowing where to find the principal action,
or which is the principal figure ; for where all are
making equal pretensions to notice, all are in equal
danger of neglect.
The expression which is used very often, on these
occasions is, the piece wants repose ; a word which
perfectly expresses a relief of the mind from that state
of hurry and anxiety which it suffers, when looking at
a work of this character.
On the other hand, absolute unity, that is, a large
work, consisting of one group or mass of light only,
would be as defective as an heroic poem without
episode, or any collateral incidents to recreate the mind
with that variety which it always requires.
An instance occurs to me of two painters (Rembrandt
and Poussin), of characters totally opposite to each other
in every respect, but in nothing more than in their
mode of composition, and management of light and
shadow. Rembrandt's manner is absolute unity; he
often has but one group, and exhibits little more than
230

lne Jiigrith discourse
one spot of light in the midst of a large quantity of
shadow : if he has a second mass, that second bears
no proportion to the principal. Poussin, on the con
trary, has scarce any principal mass of light at all,
and his figures are often too much dispersed, without
sufficient attention to place them in groups.
The conduct of these two painters is entirely the
reverse of what might be expected from their general
style and character; the works of Poussin being as
much distinguished for simplicity, as those of Rem
brandt for combination. Even this conduct of Poussin
might proceed from too great an affection to simplicity
of another kind ,¦ too great a desire to avoid that osten
tation of art, with regard to light and shadow, on which
Rembrandt so much wished to draw the attention:
however, each of them ran into contrary extremes, and
it is difficult to determine which is the most reprehen
sible, both being equally distant from the demands of
nature, and the purposes of art.
The same just moderation must be observed in
regard to ornaments ; nothing will contribute more
to destroy repose than profusion, of whatever kind,
whether it consists in the multiplicity of objects, or
the variety and brightness of colours. On the other
hand, a work without ornament, instead of simplicity,
to which it makes pretensions, has rather the appear
ance of poverty. The degree to which ornaments are
admissible, must be regulated by the professed style
of the work ; but we may be sure of this truth — that
the most ornamental style requires repose to set off
even its ornaments to advantage. I cannot avoid
231

Sir Joshua Reynolds
mentioning here an instance of repose, in that faith
ful and accurate painter of nature, Shakspeare ; the
short dialogue between Duncan and Banquo, whilst
they are approaching the gates of Macbeth's castle.
Their conversation very naturally turns upon the
beauty of its situation, and the pleasantness of the
air : and Banquo observing the martlets' nests in every
recess of the cornice, remarks, that where those birds
most breed and haunt, the air is delicate. The sub
ject of this quiet and easy conversation gives that
repose so necessary to the mind, after the tumultuous
bustle of the preceding scenes, and perfectly contrasts
the scene of horror that immediately succeeds. It
seems as if Shakspeare asked himself, What is a prince
likely to say to his attendants on such an occasion?
The modern writers seem, on the contrary, to be
always searching for new thoughts, such as never
could occur to men in the situation represented. This
is also frequently the practice of Homer ; who, from the
midst of battles and horrors, relieves and refreshes the
mind of the reader, by introducing some quiet rural
image, or picture of familiar domestic life. The writers
of every age and country, where taste has begun to
decline, paint and adorn every object they touch; are
always on the stretch ; never deviate or sink a moment
from the pompous and the brilliant. Lucan, Statius,
and Claud ian (as a learned critic has observed) are
examples of this bad taste and want of judgment; they
never soften their tones, or condescend to be natural;
all is exaggeration and perpetual splendour, without
affording repose of any kind. 232

The Eighth Discourse
As we are speaking of excesses, it will not be remote
from our purpose to say a few words upon Simplicity ;
which, in one of the senses in which it is used, is con
sidered as the general corrector of excess. We shall
at present forbear to consider it as implying that exact
conduct which proceeds from an intimate knowledge of
simple unadulterated nature, as it is then only another
word for perfection, which neither stops short of, nor
oversteps, reality and truth.
In our inquiry after Simplicity, as in many other
inquiries of this nature, we can best explain what is
right by showing what is wrong; and indeed, in this
case it seems to be absolutely necessary : simplicity,
being only a negative virtue, cannot be described or
defined. We must therefore explain its nature, and
show the advantage and beauty which are derived from
it, by showing the deformity which proceeds from its
neglect. Though instances of this neglect might be expected
to be found in practice, we should not expect to find
in the works of critics precepts that bid defiance to
simplicity and every thing that relates to it. Du Piles
recommends to us portrait painters, to add grace and
dignity to the characters of those, whose pictures we
draw: so far he is undoubtedly right; but, unluckily,
he descends to particulars, and gives his own idea of
grace and dignity: "If," says he, "you draw persons of
high character and dignity, they ought to be drawn in
such an attitude, that the portraits must seem to speak
to us of themselves, and, as it were, to say to us,
'•Stop, take notice of me, I am that invincible King,
233

Sir Joshua Reynolds
surrounded by Majesty ' .- ' / am that valiant com
mander, who struck terror every where ' : ' / am that
great minister, who knew all the springs of politics ' .-
' I am that magistrate of consummate wisdom and
probity.''" He goes on in this manner, with all the
characters he can think on. We may contrast the
tumour of this presumptuous loftiness with the natural
unaffected air of the portraits of Titian, where dignity,
seeming to be natural and inherent, draws spontaneous
reverence, and, instead of being thus vainly assumed,
has the appearance of an unalienable adjunct; whereas
such pompous and laboured insolence of grandeur is so
far from creating respect, that it betrays vulgarity and
meanness, and new-acquired consequence.
The painters, many of them at least, have not been
backward in adopting the notions contained in these
precepts. The portraits of Rigaud are perfect ex
amples of an implicit observance of these rules of Du
Piles ; so that, though he was a painter of great merit
in many respects, yet that merit is entirely overpowered
by a total absence of simplicity in every sense.
Not to multiply instances, which might be produced
for this purpose, from the works of history painters, I
shall mention only one — a picture which I have seen
of the Supreme Being, by Coypel.
This subject the Roman Catholic painters have taken
the liberty to represent, however indecent the attempt,
and however obvious the impossibility of any approach
to an adequate representation; but here the air and
character which the painter has given (and he has
doubtless given the highest he could conceive) are so
234

The Eighth Discourse
degraded by an attempt at such dignity as Du Piles has
recommended, that we are enraged at the folly and
presumption of the artist, and consider it as little less
then profanation.
As we have passed to a neighbouring nation for in
stances of want of this quality, we must acknowledge,
at the same time, that they have produced great ex
amples of simplicity, in Poussin and Le Sueur. But as
we are speaking of the most refined and subtle notion
of perfection, may we not inquire, whether a curious
eye cannot discern some faults, even in those great
men? I can fancy that even Poussin, by abhorring
that affectation and that want of simplicity, which he
observed in his countrymen, has, in certain particulars,
fallen into the contrary extreme, so far as to approach
to a kind of affectation: — to what, in writing, would
be called pedantry.
When Simplicity, instead of being a corrector, seems
to set up for herself; that is, when an artist seems to
value himself solely upon this quality; such an osten
tatious display of simplicity becomes then as disagree
able and nauseous as any other kind of affectation.
He is, however, in this case, likely enough to sit down
contented with his own work, for though he finds the
world look at it with indifference or dislike, as being
destitute of every quality that can recreate or give
pleasure to the mind, yet he consoles himself that it
has simplicity, a beauty of too pure and chaste a nature
to be relished by vulgar minds.
It is in art as in morals ; no character would inspire
us with an enthusiastic admiration of his virtue, if that
235

Sir Joshua Reynolds
virtue consisted only in an absence of vice ; something
more is required ; a man must do more than merely his
duty to be a hero.
Those works of the ancients, which are in the
highest esteem, have something beside mere simplicity
to recommend them. The Apollo, the Venus, the
Laocoon, the Gladiator, have a certain composition of
action, have contrasts sufficient to give grace and
energy in a high degree; but it must be confessed
of the many thousand antique statues which we have,
that their general characteristic is bordering at least
on inanimate insipidity.
Simplicity, when so very inartificial as to seem to
evade the difficulties of art, is a very suspicious virtue.
I do not, however, wish to degrade simplicity from
the high estimation in which it has been ever justly
held. It is our barrier against that great enemy to
truth and nature, Affectation, which is ever clinging
to the pencil, and ready to drop in and poison every
J thing it touches.
Our love and affection to simplicity proceeds in a
great measure from our aversion to every kind of affec
tation. There is likewise another reason why so much
stress is laid upon this virtue ; the propensity which
artists have to fall into the contrary extreme ; we
therefore set a guard on that side which is most
assailable. When a young artist is first told that his
composition and his attitudes must be contrasted, that
he must turn the head contrary to the position of the
body, in order to produce grace and animation; that
his outline must be undulating and swelling, to give
236

The Eighth Discourse
grandeur; and that the eye must be gratified with a
variety of colours; when he is told this, with certain
animating words, of spirit, dignity, energy, grace,
greatness of style, and brilliancy of tints, he becomes
suddenly vain of his newly acquired knowledge, and
never thinks he can carry those rules too far. It is
then that the aid of simplicity ought to be called in
to correct the exuberance of youthful ardour.
The same may be said in regard to colouring, which
in its pre-eminence is particularly applied to flesh. An
artist in his first essay of imitating nature, would make
the whole mass of one colour, as the oldest painters
did ; till he is taught to observe not only the variety of
tints, which are in the object itself, but the differences
produced by the gradual decline of light to shadow:
he then immediately puts his instruction in practice,
and introduces a variety of distinct colours. He must
then be again corrected, and told that though there is
this variety, yet the effect of the whole upon the eye
must have the union and simplicity of the colouring of
nature. And here we may observe, that the progress of an
individual Student bears a great resemblance to the
progress and advancement of the Art itself. Want of
simplicity would probably be not one of the defects
of an artist who had studied Nature only, as it was not
of the old masters, who lived in the time preceding the
great Art of Painting; on the contrary, their works
are too simple and too inartificial.
The Art in its infancy, like the first work of a
Student, was dry, hard, and simple. But this kind of
237

Sir Joshua Reynolds
barbarous simplicity would be better named penury,
as it proceeds from mere want; from want of know
ledge, want of resources, want of abilities to be other
wise : their simplicity was the offspring, not of choice,
but necessity.
In the second stage they were sensible of this
poverty ; and those who were the most sensible of the
want, were the best judges of the measure of the
supply. There were painters who emerged from
poverty, without falling into luxury. Their success
induced others, who probably never would of them
selves have had strength of mind to discover the original
defect, to endeavour at the remedy by an abuse; and
they ran into the contrary extreme. But however
they may have strayed, we cannot recommend to them
to return to that simplicity which they have justly
quitted ; but to deal out their abundance with a more
sparing hand, with that dignity which makes no parade,
either of its riches, or of its art. It is not easy to
give a rule which may serve to fix this just and correct
medium; because when we may have fixed, or nearly
fixed, the middle point, taken as a general principle,
circumstances may oblige us to depart from it, either
on the side of simplicity, or on that of variety and
decoration. I thought it necessary in a former discourse, speak
ing of the difference of the sublime and ornamental
style of painting — in order to excite your attention to
the more manly, noble, and dignified manner — to leave
perhaps an impression too contemptuous of those orna
mental parts of our Art, for which many have valued
238

The Eighth Discourse
themselves, and many works are much valued and
esteemed. I said then, what I thought it was right at that time
to say ; I supposed the disposition of young men more
inclinable to splendid negligence, than perseverance in
laborious application to acquire correctness : and there
fore did as we do in making what is crooked straight,
by bending it the contrary way, in order that it might
remain straight at last.
For this purpose, then, and to correct excess or
neglect of any kind, we may here add, that it is not
enough that a work be learned; it must be pleasing:
the painter must add grace to strength, if he desires to
secure the first impression in his favour. Our taste
has a kind of sensuality about it, as well as a love of
the sublime ; both of these qualities of the mind are
to have their proper consequence, as far as they do
not counteract each other ; for that is the grand error
which much care ought to be taken to avoid.
There are some rules, whose absolute authority, like
that of our nurses, continues no longer than while we
are in a state of childhood. One of the first rules, for
instance, that I believe every master would give to a
young pupil, respecting his conduct and management
of light and shadow, would be what Leonardo da
Vinci has actually given ; that you must oppose a light
ground to the shadowed side of your figure, and a
dark ground to the light side. If Leonardo had lived
to see the superior splendour and effect which has
been since produced by the exactly contrary conduct —
by joining light to light, and shadow to shadow —
239

Sir Joshua Reynolds
though without doubt he would have admired it, yet,
as it ought not, so probably it would not be the first
rule in which he would have begun his instructions.
Again; in the artificial management of the figures,
it is directed that they shall contrast each other accord
ing to the rules generally given; that if one figure
opposes his front to the spectator, the next figure is
to have his back turned, and that the limbs of each
individual figure be contrasted ; that is, if the right leg
be put forward, the right arm is to be drawn back.
It is very proper that those rules should be given
in the Academy; it is proper the young students
should be informed that some research is to be made,
and that they should be habituated to consider every
excellence as reducible to principles. Besides, it is the
natural progress of instruction to teach first what is
obvious and perceptible to the senses, and from hence
proceed gradually to notions large, liberal, and com
plete, such as comprise the more refined and higher
excellences in Art. But when students are more ad
vanced, they will find that the greatest beauties of
character and expression are produced without con
trast; nay more, that this contrast would ruin and
destroy that natural energy of men engaged in real
action, unsolicitous of grace. St Paul preaching at
Athens, in one of the Cartoons, far from any affected
academical contrast of limbs, stands equally on both
legs, and both hands are in the same attitude : add
contrast, and the whole energy and unaffected grace
of the figure are destroyed. Elymas the sorcerer
stretches both hands forward in the same direction,
240

The Eighth Discourse
which gives perfectly the expression intended. Indeed,
you never will find in the works of Raffaelle any of
those school-boy affected contrasts. Whatever con
trast there is, appears without any seeming agency of
art, by the natural chance of things.
What has been said of the evil of excesses of all
kinds, whether of simplicity, variety, or contrast, natu
rally suggests to the painter the necessity of a general
inquiry into the true meaning and cause of rules, and
how they operate on those faculties to which they are
addressed ; by knowing their general purpose and
meaning, he will often find that he need not confine
himself to the literal sense; it will be sufficient if he
preserve the spirit of the law.
Critical remarks are not always understood without
examples : it may not be improper, therefore, to give
instances where the rule itself, though generally re
ceived, is false, or where a narrow conception of it
may lead the artists into great errors.
It is given as a rule by Fresnoy, That, the principal
figure of a subject must appear in the midst of the
picture, under the principal light,' to distinguish it from
the rest. A painter who should think himself obliged
strictly to follow this rule, would encumber himself
with needless difficulties ; he would be confined to
great uniformity of composition, and be deprived of
many beauties which are incompatible with its obser
vance. The meaning of this rule extends, or ought
to extend, no further than this : — That the principal
figure should be immediately distinguished at the first
glance of the eye ; but there is no necessity that the
Q 241

Sir Joshua Reynolds
principal light should fall on the principal figure, or
that the principal figure should be in the middle of the
picture. It is sufficient that it be distinguished by its
place, or by the attention of other figures pointing it
out to the spectator. So far is this rule from being
indispensable, that it is very seldom practised; other
considerations of greater consequence often standing
in the way. Examples in opposition to this rule, are
found in the Cartoons, in Christ's Charge to Peter,
The Preaching of St Paul, and Elymas the Sorcerer,
who is undoubtedly the principal object in that picture.
In none of those compositions is the principal figure in
the midst of the picture. In the very admirable com
position of the Tent of Darius, by Le Brun, Alexander
is not in the middle of the picture, nor does the prin
cipal light fall on him ; but the attention of all the
other figures immediately distinguishes him, and dis
tinguishes him more properly; the greatest light falls
on the daughter of Darius, who is in the middle of the
picture, where it is more necessary the principal light
should be placed.
It is very extraordinary that Felibien, who has given
a very minute description of this picture, but indeed
such a description as may be called rather panegyric
than criticism, thinking it necessary (according to the
precept of Fresnoy) that Alexander should possess the
principal light, has accordingly given it to him; he
might with equal truth have said that he was placed
in the middle of the picture, as he seemed resolved to
give this piece every kind of excellence which he con
ceived to be necessary to perfection. His generosity
242

i he iiignth L>iscoui se
is here unluckily misapplied, as it would have de
stroyed, in a great measure, the beauty of the com
position. Another instance occurs to me, where equal liberty
may be taken in regard to the management of light.
Though the general practice is, to make a large mass
about the middle of the picture surrounded by shadow,
the reverse may be practised, and the spirit of the rule
may still be preserved. Examples of this principle
reversed, may be found very frequently in the works
of the Venetian school. In the great composition of
Paul Veronese, The Marriage at Cana, the figures are,
for the most part, in half shadow ; the great light is in
the sky ; and indeed the general effect of this picture,
which is so striking, is no more than what we often
see in landscapes, in small pictures of fairs and country
feasts ; but those principles of light and shadow, being
transferred to a large scale, to a space containing near
a hundred figures as large as life, and conducted, to all
appearance, with as much facility, and with an attention
as steadily fixed upon the whole together, as if it were
a small picture immediately under the eye, the work
justly excites our admiration: the difficulty being in
creased as the extent is enlarged.
The various modes of composition are infinite ; some
times it shall consist of one large group in the middle
of the picture, and the smaller groups on each side ; or
a plain space in the middle, and the groups of figures
ranked round this vacuity.
Whether this principal broad light be in the middle
space of ground, as in The School of Athens ; or in the
243

Sir Joshua Reynolds
sky, as in The Marriage'at Cana, in^the Andromeda,
and in most of the pictures of Paul Veronese ; or
whether the light be on the groups; whatever mode
of composition is adopted, every variety and licence
is allowable : this only is indisputably necessary, that,
to prevent the eye from being distracted and confused
by a multiplicity of objects of equal magnitude, those
objects, whether they consist of lights, shadows, or
figures, must be disposed in large masses and groups
properly varied and contrasted ; that to a certain
quantity of action a proportionate space of plain
ground is required ; that light is to be supported by
sufficient shadow; and we may add, that a certain
quantity of cold colours is necessary to give value
and lustre to the warm colours: what those propor
tions are cannot be so well learnt by precept as by
observation on pictures, and in this knowledge bad
pictures will instruct as well as good. Our inquiry
why pictures have a bad effect, may be as advan
tageous as the inquiry why they have a good effect;
each will corroborate the principles that are suggested
by the other.
Though it is not my business to enter into the detail
of our Art, yet I must take this opportunity of men
tioning one of the means of producing that great effect
which we observe in the works of the Venetian painters,
as I think it is not generally known or observed. 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 grey, or the green colours be
244

The Eighth Discourse
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
harmonious. Le Brun and Carlo Maratti were two painters of
great merit, and particularly what may be called
academical merit, but were both deficient in this
management of colours : the want of observing this
rule is one of the causes of that heaviness of effect
which is so observable in their works. The principal
light in the picture of Le Brun, which I just now
mentioned, falls on Statira, who is dressed very in
judiciously in a pale blue drapery: it is true, he has
heightened this blue with gold, but that is not enough ;
the whole picture has a heavy air, and by no means
answers the expectation raised by the print. Poussin
often made a spot of blue drapery, when the general
hue of the picture was inclinable to brown or yellow ;
which shows sufficiently, that harmony of colouring was
not a part of the art that had much engaged the atten
tion of that great painter.
The conduct of Titian in the picture of Bacchus and
Ariadne, has been much celebrated, and justly, for
the harmony of colouring. To Ariadne is given (say
the critics) a red scarf, to relieve the figure from the
~'45

Sir Joshua Reynolds
sea, which is behind her. It is not for that reason,
alone, but for another of much greater consequence;
for the sake of the general harmony and effect of the
picture. The figure of Ariadne is separated from the
great group, and is dressed in blue, which, added to the
colour of the sea, makes that quantity of cold colour
which Titian thought necessary for the support and
brilliancy of the great group ; which group is composed,
with very little exception, entirely of mellow colours.
But as the picture in this case would be divided into
two distinct parts, one half cold, and the other warm,
it was necessary to carry some of the mellow colours
of the great group into the cold part of the picture, and
a part of the cold into the great group; accordingly
Titian gave Ariadne a red scarf, and to one of the
Bacchante a little blue drapery.
The light of the picture, as I observed, ought to be
of a warm colour ; for though white may be used for
the principal light, as was the practice of many of the
Dutch and Flemish painters, yet it is better to suppose
that white illumined by the yellow rays of the setting
sun, as was the manner of Titian. The superiority of
which manner is never more striking than when in a
collection of pictures we chance to see a portrait of
Titian's hanging by the side of a Flemish picture (even
though that should be of the hand of Vandyck), which,
however admirable in other respects, becomes cold and
grey in the comparison.
The illuminated parts of objects are in nature of a
warmer tint than those that are in the shade : what I
have recommended, therefore, is no more than that
246

The Eighth Discourse
the same conduct be observed in the whole, which is
acknowledged to be necessary in every individual part.
It is presenting to the eye the same effect as that
which it has been accustomed to feel, which in this
case, as in every other, will always produce beauty;
no principle, therefore, in our art can be more certain,
or be derived from a higher source.
What I just now mentioned of the supposed reason
why Ariadne has part of her drapery red, gives me
occasion here to observe, that this favourite quality of
giving objects relief, and which Du Piles and all the
critics have considered as a requisite of the utmost im
portance, was not one of those objects which much
engaged the attention of Titian ; painters of an inferior
rank have far exceeded him in producing this effect.
This was a great object of attention when art was in
its infant state ; as it is at present with the vulgar and
ignorant, who feel the highest satisfaction in seeing a
figure which, as they say, looks as if they could walk
round it. But however low I may rate this pleasure
of deception, I should not oppose it, did it not oppose
itself to a quality of a much higher kind, by counter
acting entirely that fulness of manner which is so
difficult to express in words, but which is found in
perfection in the best works of Correggio, and, we may
add, of Rembrandt. This effect is produced by melt
ing and losing the shadows in a ground still darker
than those shadows ; whereas that relief is produced
by opposing and separating the ground from the figure,
either by light, or shadow, or colour. This conduct of
in-laying (as it may be called) figures on their ground,
247

Sir Joshua Reynolds
in order to produce relief, was the practice of the old
painters, such as Andrea Mantegna, Pietro Perugino,
and Albert Durer; and to these we may add the first
manner of Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione, and even
Correggio ; but these three were among the first who
began to correct themselves in dryness of style, by no
longer considering relief as a principal object. As
those two qualities, relief, and fulness of effect, can
hardly exist together, it is not very difficult to deter
mine to which we ought to give the preference. An
artist is obliged for ever to hold a balance in his hand,
by which be must determine the value of different
qualities; that, when some fault must be committed,
he may choose the least. Those painters who have
best understood the art of producing a good effect,
have adopted one principle that seems perfectly con
formable to reason ; that a part may be sacrificed for
the good of the whole. Thus, whether the masses
consist of light or shadow, it is necessary that they
should be compact and of a pleasing shape : to this
end some parts may be made darker and some lighter,
and reflections stronger than nature would warrant.
Paul Veronese took great liberties of this kind. It
is said, that, being once asked why certain figures were
painted in shade, as no cause was seen in the picture
itself, he turned off the inquiry by answering, "una
nuevola che passa" a cloud is passing, which has over
shadowed them.
But I cannot give a better instance of this practice
than a picture which I have of Rubens ; it is a repre
sentation of a Moonlight. Rubens has not only dif-
248

RUBENS
Landscape in Moonlight
in the possession of mrs mond

Through the kindness of Mrs Mond I have been enabled to reproduce
the picture here alluded to, and though the reproduction can only
faintly suggest the justice of Reynolds' remarks, it preserves something
of the beauty of what is, perhaps, the most perfect and the most poetica
interpretation of moonlight in the whole range of Western art.

¦4' ~

»%*

i

•
ii

a?.-

— —

j

1/ ,
- .-

r ^'

**5
JL"
o. - — ^
1 !
The Eighth Discourse
fused more light over the picture than is in nature,
but has bestowed on it those warm glowing colours by
which his works are so much distinguished. It is so
unlike what any other painters have given us of Moon
light, that it might be easily mistaken, if he had not
likewise added stars, for a fainter Setting Sun. Rubens
thought the eye ought to be satisfied in this case
above all other considerations : he might, indeed, have
made it more natural, but it would have been at the
expense of what he thought of much greater conse
quence — the harmony proceeding from the contrast and
variety of colours.
This same picture will furnish us with another in
stance, where we must depart from nature for a greater
advantage. The moon in this picture does not pre
serve so great a superiority in regard to its lightness
over the object which it illumines, as it does in nature;
this is likewise an intended deviation, and for the same
reason. If Rubens had preserved the same scale of
gradation of light between the moon and the objects,
which is found in nature, the picture must have con
sisted of one small spot of light only, and at a little
distance from the picture nothing but this spot would
have been seen. It may be said, indeed, that this
being the case, it is a subject that ought not to be
painted : but then, for the same reason, neither armour,
nor any thing shining ought ever to be painted; for
though pure white is used in order to represent the
greatest light of shining objects, it will not in the pict
ure preserve the same superiority over flesh as it has
in nature, without keeping that flesh-colour of a very
251

Sir Joshua Reynolds
low tint. Rembrandt, who thought it of more conse
quence to paint light than the objects that are seen by
it, has done this in a picture of Achilles which I have.
The head is kept down to a very low tint, in order to
preserve this due gradation and distinction between the
armour and the face; the consequence of which is,
that upon the whole, the picture is too black. Surely,
too much is sacrificed here to this narrow conception
of nature : allowing the contrary conduct a fault, yet
it must be acknowledged a less fault than making a
picture so dark that it cannot be seen without a peculiar
light, and then with difficulty. The merit or demerit
of the different conduct of Rubens and Rembrandt in
those instances which I have given, is not to be de
termined by the narrow principles of nature, separated
from its effect on the human mind. Reason and
common - sense tell us, that before and above all
other considerations, it is necessary that the work
should be seen, not only without difficulty or incon
venience, but with pleasure and satisfaction ; and every
obstacle which stands in the way of this pleasure and
convenience must be removed.
The tendency of this Discourse, with the instances
which have been given, is not so much to place the
artist above rules, as to teach him their reason; to
prevent him from entertaining a narrow confined con
ception of Art; to clear his mind from a perplexed
variety of rules and their exceptions, by directing his
attention to an intimate acquaintance with the passions
jand affections of the mind, from which all rules arise,
and to which they are all referable. Art effects its
252

REMBRANDT
Man in Armour
corporation gallery, glasgow

The picture alluded to by Reynolds as an Achilles in his possession is
that here reproduced. Reynolds' remarks are perfectly justified, and
apply even more to the similar picture at Berlin (8 1 1 A). But both are
exceptional in Rembrandt's work. As a rule he is remarkable for the
justness with which he emphasizes each part of his compositions accord
ing to its degree of significance for the imagination.

From a photograph by Annan.

The Eighth Discourse
purpose by their means ; an accurate knowledge, there
fore, of those passions and dispositions of the mind is
necessary to him who desires to affect them upon sure
and solid principles.
A complete essay or inquiry into the connection be
tween the rules of art, and the eternal and immutable
dispositions of our passions, would be indeed going at
once to the foundation of criticism;1 but I am too well
convinced what extensive knowledge, what subtle and
penetrating judgment would be required, to engage in such
an undertaking : it is enough for me, if in the language
of painters, I have produced a slight sketch of a part of
this vast composition, but that sufficiently distinct to show
the usefulness of such a theory, and its practicability.
Before I conclude, I cannot avoid making one obser
vation on the pictures now before us. I have observed,
that every candidate has copied the celebrated invention
of Timanthes in hiding the face of Agamemnon in his
mantle ; indeed such lavish encomiums have been be
stowed on this thought, and that too by men of the
highest character in critical knowledge — Cicero, Ouin-
tilian, Valerius Maximus, and Pliny — and have been
since re-echoed by almost every modern that has
written on the Arts, that your adopting it can neither
be wondered at, nor blamed. It appears, now, to be
so much connected with the subject, that the spectator
would, perhaps, be disappointed in not finding united in
the picture what he always united in his mind, and
considered as indispensably belonging to the subject.
1 This was inadvertently said. I did not recollect the admirable
treatise On the Sublime and Beautiful. — R.
255

Sir Joshua Reynolds
I But it may be observed, that those who praise this
I circumstance were not painters. They use it as an
I illustration only of their own art ; it served then-
purpose, and it was certainly not their business to
enter into the objections that lie against it in another
art. I fear we have but very scanty means of exciting
those powers over the imagination which make so very
considerable and refined a part of poetry. It is a
doubt with me, whether we should even make the
attempt. The chief, if not the only occasion which
the painter has for this artifice, is, when the subject is
improper to be more fully represented, either for the
sake of decency, or to avoid what would be disagree
able to be seen ; and this is not to raise or increase the
passions, which is the reason that is given for this
practice, but, on the contrary, to diminish their effect.
It is true, sketches, or such drawings as painters
generally make for their works, give this pleasure of
imagination to a high degree. From a slight, undeter
mined drawing, where the ideas of the composition
and character are, as I may say, only just touched
upon, the imagination supplies more than the painter
himself, probably, could produce ; and we accordingly
' often find that the finished work disappoints the ex-
I pectation that was raised from the sketch; and this
| power of the imagination is one of the causes of the
great pleasure we have in viewing a collection of draw
ings by great painters. These general ideas, which
are expressed in sketches, correspond very well to the
, art often used in poetry. A great part of the beauty
of the celebrated description of Eve in Milton's Para-
256

The Eighth Discourse
dise Lost, consists in using only general indistinct
expressions, every reader making out the detail accord
ing to his own particular imagination — his own idea
of Beauty, grace, expression, dignity, or loveliness :
but a painter, when he represents Eve on a canvas,
is obliged to give a determined form, and his own idea
of beauty distinctly expressed.
We cannot on this occasion, nor indeed on any
other, recommend an undeterminate manner or vague
ideas of any kind, in a complete and finished picture.
This notion, therefore, of leaving any thing to the
imagination, opposes a very fixed and indispensable
rule in our art — that every thing shall be carefully
and distinctly expressed, as if the painter knew, with
correctness and precision, the exact form and character
of whatever is introduced into the picture. This is
what with us is called science and learning: which
must not be sacrificed and given up for an uncertain
and doubtful beauty, which, not naturally belonging to
our art, will probably be sought for without success.
Mr Falconet has observed, in a note on this passage
in his translation of Pliny, that the circumstance of
covering the face of Agamemnon was probably not in
consequence of any fine imagination of the painter
— which he considers as a discovery of the critics, —
but merely copied from the description of the sacrifice,
as it is found in Euripides.
The words from which the picture is supposed to
be taken are these : " Agamemnon saw Jpbigenia advance
towards tbe fatal altar ; be groaned, be turned aside bis
bead, be sbed tears, and covered bis face w'rtb bis robe.n
R 257

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Falconet does not at all acquiesce in the praise that
is bestowed on Timanthes ; not only because it is not
his invention, but because he thinks meanly of this
trick of concealing, except in instances of blood, where
the objects would be too horrible to be seen; but,
says he, " in an afflicted father, in a king, in Agamem
non, you, who are a painter, conceal from me the most
interesting circumstance, and then put me off with
sophistry and a veil. You are " (he adds) " a feeble
painter, without resources : you do not know even
those of your art : I care not what veil it is, whether
closed hands, arms raised, or any other action that
conceals from me the countenance of the hero. You
think of veiling Agamemnon ; you have unveiled your
own ignorance. A painter who represents Agamem
non veiled, is as ridiculous as a poet would be, who,
in a pathetic situation, in order to satisfy my expec
tations and rid himself of the business, should say,
that the sentiments of his hero are so far above what
ever can be said on the occasion, that he shall say
nothing." To what Falconet has said, we may add, that, sup
posing this method of leaving the expression of grief
to the imagination to be, as it was thought to be, the
invention of the painter, and that it deserves all the
praise that has been given it, still it is a trick that will
serve but once ; whoever does it a second time, will not
only want novelty, but be justly suspected of using
artifice to evade difficulties. If difficulties overcome
make a great part of the merit of art, difficulties
evaded can deserve but little commendation.
258

INTRODUCTION TO
THE NINTH DISCOURSE
To Reynolds the establishment of the Royal Academy, and
its installation in a great public building, was primarily of
importance as an outward and visible sign — a public con
fession by a nation which has always inclined to utilitarianism
— of the real value of art as a form of disinterested intel
lectual activity. Once more he declares that its proper
function is the appeal to the imagination through the senses,
not the mere gratification of the senses without further issue.

259

THE NINTH DISCOURSE
Delivered at the Opening of the Royal Academy, in Somerset Place,
October i6, 1780
On the removal of the Royal Academy to Somerset Place — The
advantages to society from cultivating intellectual pleasure.
Gentlemen,
The honour which the Arts acquire by being permitted
to take possession of this noble habitation, is one of
the most considerable of the many instances we have
received of His Majesty's protection; and the strongest
proof of his desire to make the Academy respectable.
Nothing has been left undone that might contribute
to excite our pursuit, or to reward our attainments.
We have already the happiness of seeing the Arts in
a state to which they never before arrived in this
nation. This building, in which we are now assem
bled, will remain to many future ages an illustrious
specimen of the Architect's abilities. It is our duty
to endeavour that those who gaze with wonder at the
structure, may not be disappointed when they visit
the apartments. It will be no small addition to the
glory which this nation has already acquired from
having given birth to eminent men in every part of
science, if it should be enabled to produce, in conse
quence of this institution, a School of English Artists.
The estimation in which we stand in respect to our
261

Sir Joshua Reynolds
neighbours, will be in proportion to the degree in
which we excel or are inferior to them in the acquisi
tion of intellectual excellence, of which trade and its
consequential riches must be acknowledged to give
the means; but a people whose whole attention is
absorbed in those means, and who forget the end, can
aspire but little above the rank of a barbarous nation.
Every establishment that tends to the cultivation of
the pleasures of the mind, as distinct from those of
sense, may be considered as an inferior school of
morality, where the mind is polished and prepared
for higher attainments.
Let us for a moment take a short survey of the
progress of the mind towards what is, or ought to be,
its true object of attention. Man, in his lowest state,
has no pleasures but those of sense, and no wants but
those of appetite ; afterwards, when society is divided
into different ranks, and some are appointed to labour
for the support of others, those whom their superiority
sets free from labour, begin to look for intellectual
entertainments. Thus, whilst the shepherds were
attending their flocks, their masters made the first
astronomical observations ; so music is said to have had
its origin from a man at leisure listening to the strokes
of a hammer.
As the senses, in the lowest state of nature, are
necessary to direct us to our support, when that sup
port is once secure there is danger in following them
further; to him who has no rule of action but the
gratification of the senses, plenty is always dangerous :
it is, therefore, necessary to the happiness of individuals,
262

The Ninth Discourse
and still more necessary to the security of society, that
the mind should be elevated to the idea of general
beauty, and the contemplation of general truth ; by
this pursuit the mind is always carried forward in
search of something more excellent than it finds, and
obtains its proper superiority over the common senses
of life, by learning to feel itself capable of higher aims
and nobler enjoyments. In this gradual exaltation of
human nature, every art contributes its contingent
towards the general supply of mental pleasure. What
ever abstracts the thoughts from sensual gratifications,
whatever teaches us to look for happiness within
ourselves, must advance in some measure the dignity
of our nature.
Perhaps there is no higher proof of the excellency
of man than this — that to a man properly cultivated
whatever is bounded is little. The mind is continually
labouring to advance, step by step, through successive
gradations of excellence, towards perfection, which is
dimly seen, at a great though not hopeless distance,
and which we must always follow because we never
can attain; but the pursuit rewards itself; one truth
teaches another, and our store is always increasing,
though nature can never be exhausted. Our art, like
all arts which address the imagination, is applied to
a somewhat lower faculty of the mind, which ap
proaches nearer to sensuality : but through sense and
fancy it must make its way to reason ; for such is the
progress of thought, that we perceive by sense, we
combine by fancy, and distinguish by reason : and
without carrying our art out of its natural and true
263

Sir Joshua Reynolds
character, the more we purify it from every thing that
is gross in sense, in that proportion we advance its use
and dignity ; and in proportion as we lower it to mere
sensuality, we pervert its nature, and degrade it from
the rank of a liberal art; and this is what every artist
ought well to remember. Let him remember also,
that he deserves just so much encouragement in the
state as he makes himself a member of it virtuously
useful, and contributes in his sphere to the general
purpose and perfection of society.
The Art which we profess has beauty for its object;
this it is our business to discover and to express ; the
beauty of which we are in quest is general and intel
lectual; it is an idea that subsists only in the mind;
the sight never beheld it, nor has the hand expressed
it: it is an idea residing in the breast of the artist,
which he is always labouring to impart, and which he
dies at last without imparting ; but which he is yet
so far able to communicate, as to raise the thoughts
and extend the views of the spectator ; and which, by
a succession of art, may be so far diffused, that its
effects may extend themselves imperceptibly into public
benefits, and be among the means of bestowing on
whole nations refinement of taste ; which, if it does
not lead directly to purity of manners, obviates at
least their greatest depravation, by disentangling the
mind from appetite, and conducting the thoughts
through successive stages of excellence, till that con
templation of universal rectitude and harmony which
began by Taste, may, as it is exalted and refined,
conclude in Virtue. 264

INTRODUCTION TO
THE TENTH DISCOURSE
The Tenth Discourse is in many ways one of the least
satisfactory ; the subject is too large for such a slight treat
ment ; and Reynolds, speaking no longer from actual experi
ence, loses himself in confusing and contradictory qualifica
tions. For all that, the main thesis that sculpture should
aim, more exclusively than painting needs to do, at the es
sential generalities of form is sufficiently borne out by an
examination of what has actually been done. If we rule
out, as of a different category, miniature sculpture and bas-
relief we shall find but few instances where the lower
imaginative keys, genre, the pastoral, the lyric, or even
prosaic portraiture — have been successfully treated in the
round. A few Roman portrait heads, some of the more
lyrical and fantastic of French fourteenth-century sculpt
ures, the portraits of Desiderio, Rosellino, Mino da Fiesole,
and Leone Leoni, and for pure genre, certain figures by Guido
Mazzoni of Modena, and finally a considerable mass of eigh
teenth-century French and German sculpture, are, perhaps, the
chief examples that one may bring forward. There is no
thing — that is to say in sculpture — that can at all correspond
with the painting of artists like Palma, Veronese, and Rubens.
Sculpture in miniature is altogether different ; there we are
by no means so immediately conscious of the imitation of
nature ; the language is nearly as conventional as that of
painting, and almost anything is allowable that may charm or
amuse. We need not complain of the topical genre of a Tana-
gra figure ; and a Meissen porcelain has as good a right to its
265

Sir Joshua Reynolds
extravagant drapery and capricious conceits as the painting
of a Lancret or Pater. Even humorous grotesque and cari
cature, which would shock us intolerably on a large scale,
may be used in minute sculpture with perfect propriety. Had
Reynolds made this distinction his denunciation of the un
fortunate attempts of the sculptors of his own day to intro
duce the rococco into sculpture would have been entirely
justified. It is not by any means so easy to follow Reynolds in
two other principles which he here lays down as regards
sculpture : first, that correctness is of its essence ; and secondly,
that formal beauty should be its only aim to the exclusion of
expressive beauty. To both of these limitations of the art
we may oppose one word that Reynolds himself could scarce
have gainsaid — Michelangelo. There is hardly a figure in the
Medici Chapel which does not depart from the correct pro
portions of the human figure in some way or another ; and
who would base their admiration of either the Pieta in the
Duomo at Florence, or that still more wonderful sketch in
the Rondanini Palace, upon their formal beauty ? Sculpture,
indeed, aims at the expression of the profoundest imaginative
truth by the simplest and most effective method of appeal
that the senses admit, that of the hollow and the boss ; but
it is by the disposition of these in their most expressive, and
not merely in their most correct or elegant relations, that its
highest achievements are attained.

266

THE TENTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of
the Prizes, December il, 1780
Sculpture : — Has but one style — Its objects, form, and character —
Ineffectual attempts of the modern sculptors to improve the art
— Ill effects of modern dress in sculpture.
Gentlemen,
I shall now, as it has been customary on this day,
and on this occasion, communicate to you such observa
tions as have occurred to me on the Theory of Art.
If these observations have hitherto referred princi
pally to Painting, let it be remembered that this Art is
much more extensive and complicated than Sculpture,
and affords, therefore, a more ample field for criticism ;
and as the greater includes the less, the leading prin
ciples of Sculpture are comprised in those of Painting.
However, I wish now to make some remarks with
particular relation to Sculpture; to consider wherein,
or in what manner, its principles and those of Painting
agree or differ; what is within its power of perform
ing, and what it is vain or improper to attempt ; that
it may be clearly and distinctly known what ought to
be the great purpose of the sculptor's labours.
Sculpture is an art of much more simplicity and
uniformity than painting; it cannot with propriety
and the best effect be applied to many subjects. The
267

Sir Joshua Reynolds
object of its pursuit may be comprised in two words,
form and character; and those qualities are presented
to us but in one manner, or in one style only ; where
as the powers of Painting, as they are more various
and extensive, so they are exhibited in as great a
variety of manners. The Roman, Lombard, Florentine,
Venetian, and Flemish Schools, all pursue the same
end by different means. But Sculpture having but
one style, can only to one style of Painting have any
relation ; and to this (which is indeed the highest and
most dignified that painting can boast) it has a relation
so close, that it may be said to be almost the same art
operating upon different materials. The sculptors of
the last age, from not attending sufficiently to this
discrimination of the different styles of painting, have
been led into many errors. Though they well knew
that they were allowed to imitate, or take ideas for
the improvement of their own Art from the grand
style of painting, they were not aware that it was not
permitted to borrow in the same manner from the
ornamental. When they endeavour to copy the pict
uresque effects, contrasts, or petty excellences of
whatever kind, which not improperly find a place in
the inferior branches of painting, they doubtless imagine
themselves improving and extending the boundaries of
their art by this imitation; but they are in reality
violating its essential character, by giving a different
direction to its operations, and proposing to themselves
either what is unattainable, or at best a meaner object
of pursuit. The grave and austere character of sculpt
ure requires the utmost degree of formality in com-
268

The Tenth Discourse
position; picturesque contrasts have here no place;
every thing is carefully weighed and measured, one side
making almost an exact equipoise to the other : a child is
not a proper balance to a full-grown figure, nor is a figure
sitting or stooping a companion to an upright figure.
The excellence of every art must consist in the
complete accomplishment of its purpose ; and if by a
false imitation of nature, or mean ambition of producing
a picturesque effect or illusion of any kind, all the
grandeur of ideas which this art endeavours to excite
be degraded or destroyed, we may boldly oppose our
selves to any such innovation. If the producing of a
deception is the summit of this art, let us at once
give to statues the addition of colour; which will con
tribute more towards accomplishing this end than all
those artifices which have been introduced and pro
fessedly defended, on no other principle but that of
rendering the work more natural. But as colour is
universally rejected, every practice liable to the same
objection must fall with it. If the business of sculpture
were to administer pleasure to ignorance, or a mere
entertainment to the senses, the Venus of Medicis
might certainly receive much improvement by colour;
but the character of Sculpture makes it her duty to
afford delight of a different, and perhaps, of a higher
kind; the delight resulting from the contemplation
of perfect beauty : and this, which is in truth an in
tellectual pleasure, is in many respects incompatible
with what is merely addressed to the senses, such as
that with which ignorance and levity contemplate
elegance of form. 269

Sir Joshua Reynolds
The sculptor may be safely allowed to practise
every means within the power of his art to produce a
deception, provided this practice does not interfere
with or destroy higher excellences; on these con
ditions he will be forced, however loth, to acknowledge
that the boundaries of his art have long been fixed,
and that all endeavours will be vain that hope to
pass beyond the best works which remain of ancient
sculpture. Imitation is the means, and not the end of art ; it is
employed by the sculptor as the language by which
his ideas are presented to the mind of the spectator.
Poetry and elocution of every sort make use of signs,
but those signs are arbitrary and conventional. The
sculptor employs the representation of the thing itself;
but still as a means to a higher end — as a gradual
ascent always advancing towards faultless form and
perfect beauty. It may be thought at the first view,
that even this form, however perfectly represented, is
to be valued and take its rank only for the sake of a
still higher object, that of conveying sentiment and
character, as they are exhibited by attitude, and ex
pression of the passions. But we are sure from ex
perience, that the beauty of form alone, without the
assistance of any other quality, makes of itself a great
work, and justly claims our esteem and admiration.
As a proof of the high value we set on the mere
excellence of form, we may produce the greatest part
of the works of Michel Angelo, both in painting and
sculpture ; as well as most of the antique statues, which
are justly esteemed in a very high degree, though no
270

The Tenth Discourse
very marked or striking character or expression of any
kind is represented.
But, as a stronger instance that this excellence alone
inspires sentiment, what artist ever looked at the Torso
without feeling a warmth of enthusiasm, as from the
highest efforts of poetry ? From whence does this pro
ceed? What is there in this fragment that produces
this effect, but the perfection of this science of abstract
form? A mind elevated to the contemplation of excellence,
perceives in this defaced and shattered fragment, dis-
jecti membra poetee, the traces of superlative genius,
the relics of a work on which succeeding ages can
only gaze with inadequate admiration.
It may be said that this pleasure is reserved only to
those who have spent their whole life in the study and
contemplation of this art; but the truth is, that all
would feel its effects, if they could divest themselves
of the expectation of deception, and look only for what
it really is, a partial representation of nature. The
only impediment of their judgment must then proceed
from their being uncertain to what rank, or rather kind
of excellence, it aspires ; and to what sort of approba
tion it has a right. This state of darkness is, without
doubt, irksome to every mind ; but by attention to
works of this kind, the knowledge of what is aimed
at comes of itself, without being taught, and almost
without being perceived.
The sculptor's art is limited in comparison of others,
but it has its variety and intricacy within its proper
bounds. Its essence is correctness : and when, to cor-
271

Sir Joshua Reynolds
rect and perfect form, is added the ornament of grace,
dignity of character, and appropriated expression, as
in the Apollo, the Venus, the Laocoon, the Moses of
Michel Angelo, and many others, this art may be said
to have accomplished its purpose.
What grace is, how it is to be acquired or conceived,
are in speculation difficult questions; but causa latet,
res est notissima : without any perplexing inquiry, the
effect is hourly perceived. I shall only observe, that
its natural foundation is correctness of design; and
though grace may be sometimes united with incorrect
ness, it cannot proceed from it.
But to come nearer to our present subject. It has
been said that the grace of the Apollo depends on a
certain degree of incorrectness ; that the head is not
anatomically placed between the shoulders; and that
the lower half of the figure is longer than just propor
tion allows.
I know that Correggio and Parmegiano are often
produced as authorities to support this opinion ; but
very little attention will convince us, that the incor
rectness of some parts which we find in their works,
does not contribute to grace, but rather tends to destroy
it. The Madonna, with the sleeping Infant, and beau
tiful group of Angels, by Parmegiano, in the Palazzo
Pitti, would not have lost any of its excellence if the
neck, fingers, and indeed the whole figure of the
Virgin, instead of being so very long and incorrect,
had preserved their due proportion.
In opposition to the first of these remarks, I have
the authority of a very able sculptor of this Academy,
272

PARMEGIANINO
Madonna " del collo lugno "
pitti palace, florence

Reynolds' criticism of this picture seems made for edification. It is
surely an unfortunate instance of his point, since the whole picture has
been designed with a view to this exaggerated elongation which gives
elegance. And this intention is clearly expressed in all the accessories,
the impossible height and slimness of the colonnade, the spareness of
the figure beside it, the elongated oval of the jar to the left — and nothing
could be more insipid than such a composition reduced to correct pro
portions. That the idea of elegance is too trivial and too mundane for
the subject, that the Madonna would do better as a nymph at Fontaine-
bleau, might be true criticisms ; but, given his idea, Parmegianino could
not have realised it by correct drawing. Reynolds himself admits this
elsewhere — though not of this particular picture — when he derives art
from self-consistency of the parts and not from adherence to any
objective standard.

From a photograph by Brogi.

The Tenth Discourse
who has copied that figure, consequently measured and
carefully examined it, to declare, that the criticism is
not true. In regard to the last, it must be remem
bered that Apollo is here in the exertion of one of his
peculiar powers, which is swiftness ; he has, therefore,
that proportion which is best adapted to that character.
This is no more incorrectness, than when there is given
to an Hercules an extraordinary swelling and strength
of muscles.
The art of discovering and expressing grace is diffi
cult enough of itself, without perplexing ourselves with
what is incomprehensible. A supposition of such a
monster as Grace, begot by Deformity, is poison to the
mind of a young artist, and may make him neglect
what is essential to his art, correctness of design,
in order to pursue a phantom, which has no exist
ence but in the imagination of affected and refined
speculators. I cannot quit the Apollo, without making one obser
vation on the character of this figure. He is supposed
to have just discharged his arrow at the Python ; and,
by the head retreating a little towards the right
shoulder, he appears attentive to its effect. What I
would remark is, the difference of this attention from
that of the Discobolus, who is engaged in the same
purpose, watching the effect of his Discus. The grace
ful, negligent, though animated, air of the one, and
the vulgar eagerness of the other, furnish a signal
instance of the judgment of the ancient sculptors in
their nice discrimination of character. They are both
equally true to nature, and equally admirable.
275

Sir Joshua Reynolds
It may be remarked, that grace, character, and ex
pression, though words of different sense and meaning,
and so understood when applied to the works of
painters, are indiscriminately used when we speak of
sculpture. This indecision we may suspect to proceed
from the undetermined effects of the art itself; those
qualities are exhibited in sculpture rather by form
and attitude than by the features, and can therefore
be expressed but in a very general manner.
Though the Laocoon and his two sons have more
expression in the countenance than perhaps any other
antique statues, yet it is only the general expression of
pain ; and this passion is still more strongly expressed
by the writhing and contortion of the body than by the
features. It has been observed in a late publication, that if
the attention of the father in this group had been
occupied more by the distress of his children, than by
his own sufferings, it would have raised a much greater
interest in the spectator. Though this observation
comes from a person whose opinion, in every thing
relating to the arts, carries with it the highest
authority, yet I cannot but suspect that such refined
expression is scarce within the province of this art;
and in attempting it, the artist will run great risk of
enfeebling expression, and making it less intelligible to
the spectator.
As the general figure presents itself in a more con
spicuous manner than the features, it is there we must
principally look for expression or character; patuit in
corpore vultus ; and, in this respect, the sculptor's art
276

The Tenth Discourse
is not unlike that of dancing, where the attention of
the spectator is principally engaged by the attitude
and action of the performer, and it is there he must
look for whatever expression that art is capable of
exhibiting. The dancers themselves acknowledge this
by often wearing masks, with little diminution in the
expression. The face bears so very inconsiderable a
proportion to the effect of the whole figure, that the
ancient sculptors neglected to animate the features,
even with the general expression of the passions. Of
this the group of the Boxers is a remarkable instance ;
they are engaged in the most animated action with the
greatest serenity of countenance. This is not recom
mended for imitation (for there can be no reason why
the countenance should not correspond with the atti
tude and expression of the figure), but is mentioned in
order to infer from hence, that this frequent deficiency
in ancient sculpture could proceed from nothing but a
habit of inattention to what was considered as com
paratively immaterial.
Those who think sculpture can express more than
we have allowed, may ask, by what means we discover,
at the first glance, the character that is represented in
a Bust, Cameo, or Intaglio ? I suspect it will be found,
on close examination, by him who is resolved not to
see more than he really does see, that the figures are
distinguished by their insignia more than by any variety
of form or beauty. Take from Apollo his Lyre, from
Bacchus his Thirsus and Vine-leaves, and Meleager
the Boar's Head, and there will remain little or no
difference in their characters. In a Juno, Minerva, or
277

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Flora, the idea of the artist seems to have gone no
further than representing perfect beauty, and after
wards adding the proper attributes, with a total indif
ference to which they gave them. Thus John de
Bologna, after he had finished a group of a young man
holding up a young woman in his arms, with an old
man at his feet, called his friends together, to tell
him what name he should give it, and it was agreed
to call it The Rape of the Sabines ,• x and this is the
celebrated group which now stands before the old
Palace at Florence. The figures have the same
general expression which is to be found in most of
the antique sculpture ; and yet it would be no wonder
if future critics should find out delicacy of expression
which was never intended ; and go so far as to see, in
the old man's countenance, the exact relation which he
bore to the woman who appears to be taken from him.
Though Painting and Sculpture are, like many other
arts, governed by the same general principles, yet
in the detail, or what may be called the by-laws of
each art, there seems to be no longer any connection
between them. The different materials upon which
those two arts exert their powers, must infallibly
create a proportional difference in their practice.
There are many petty excellences which the painter
attains with ease, but which are impracticable in sculp
ture; and which, even if it could accomplish them,
wrould add nothing to the true value and dignity of the
work. Of the ineffectual attempts which the modern sculp-
1 See 77 Reposo di Raffaelle Borghini. — R.
278

The Tenth Discourse
tors have made by way of improvement, these seem to
be the principal ; the practice of detaching drapery from
the figure, in order to give the appearance of flying in
the air;
Of making different plans in the same bas-relievos ;
Of attempting to represent the effects of perspective :
To these we may add the ill effect of figures clothed
in a modern dress.
, The folly of attempting to make stone sport and
flutter in the air, is so apparent, that it carries with it
its own reprehension ; and yet to accomplish this,
seemed to be the great ambition of many modern
sculptors, particularly Bernini : his art was so much
set on overcoming this difficulty, that he was for ever
attempting it, though by that attempt he risked every
thing that was valuable in the art.
Bernini stands in the first class of modern sculptors,
and therefore it is the business of criticism to prevent
the ill effects of so powerful an example.
From his very early work of Apollo and Daphne,
the world justly expected he would rival the best pro
ductions of ancient Greece ; but he soon strayed from
the right path. And though there is in his works
something which always distinguishes him from the
common herd, yet he appears in his latter performances
to have lost his way. Instead of pursuing the study
of that ideal beauty with which he had so successfully
begun, he turned his mind to an injudicious quest
of novelty, attempted what was not within the province
of the art, and endeavoured to overcome the hardness
and obstinacy of his materials; which even supposing
279

Sir Joshua Reynolds
he had accomplished, so far as to make this species of
drapery appear natural, the ill effect and confusion
occasioned by its being detached from the figure to
which it belongs, ought to have been alone a sufficient
reason to have deterred him from that practice.
We have not, I think, in our Academy, any of
Bernini's works, except a cast of the head of his Nep
tune ; this will be sufficient to serve us for an example
of the mischief produced by this attempt of represent
ing the effects of the wind. The locks of the hair
are flying abroad in all directions, insomuch that it is
not a superficial view that can discover what the object
is which is represented, or distinguish those flying locks
from the features, as they are all of the same colour,
of equal solidity, and consequently project with equal
force. The same entangled confusion which is here occa
sioned by the hair, is produced by drapery flying off;
which the eye must, for the same reason, inevitably
mingle and confound with the principal parts of the
figure. It is a general rule, equally true in both Arts, that
the form and attitude of the figure should be seen
clearly, and without any ambiguity, at the first glance
of the eye. This the painter can easily do by colour,
by losing parts in the ground, or keeping them so ob
scure as to prevent them from interfering with the
more principal objects. The sculptor has no other
means of preventing this confusion than by attaching
the drapery for the greater part close to the figure ; the
folds of which, following the order of the limbs, when-
280

The Tenth Discourse
ever the drapery is seen, the eye is led to trace the
form and attitude of the figure at the same time.
The drapery of the Apollo, though it makes a large
mass, and is separated from the figure, does not affect
the present question, from the very circumstance of
its being so completely separated ; and from the regu
larity and simplicity of its form, it does not in the least
interfere with a distinct view of the figure. In reality,
it is no more a part of it than a pedestal, a trunk of
a tree, or an animal, which we often see joined to
statues. The principal use of these appendages is to strengthen
and preserve the statue from accidents ; and many are
of opinion, that the mantle which falls from the Apollo's
arm is for the same end ; but surely it answers a much
greater purpose, by preventing that dryness of effect
which would inevitably attend a naked arm, extended
almost at full length, to which we may add, the dis
agreeable effect which would proceed from the body
and arm making a right angle.
The Apostles, in the church of St John Lateran,
appear to me to fall under the censure of an injudicious
imitation of the manner of the painters. The drapery
of those figures, from being disposed in large masses,
gives undoubtedly that air of grandeur which magnitude
or quantity is sure to produce. But though it should
be acknowledged, that it is managed with great skill
and intelligence, and contrived to appear as light as the
materials will allow, yet the weight and solidity of
stone was not to be overcome.
Those figures are much in the style of Carlo Maratti,
281

Sir Joshua Reynolds
and such as we may imagine he would have made, if
he had attempted sculpture; and when we know he
had the superintendence of that work, and was an in
timate friend of one of the principal sculptors, we
may suspect that his taste had some influence, if he
did not even give the designs. No man can look at
those figures without recognising the manner of Carlo
Maratti. They have the same defect which his works
so often have, of being overlaid with drapery, and
that too artificially disposed. I cannot but believe,
that if Ruscono, Le Gros, Monot, and the rest of the
sculptors employed in that work, had taken for then-
guide the simple dress, such as we see in the Antique
Statues of the Philosophers, it would have given more
real grandeur to their figures, and would certainly
have been more suitable to the characters of the
Apostles. Though there is no remedy for the ill effect of those
solid projections which flying drapery in stone must
always produce in statues, yet in bas-relievos it is
totally different; those detached parts of drapery the
sculptor has here as much power over as the painter, by
uniting and losing it in the ground, so that it shall not
in the least entangle and confuse the figure.
But here again the sculptor, not content with this
successful imitation, if it may be so called, proceeds
to represent figures, or groups of figures on different
plans ; that is, some on the foreground, and some at a
greater distance, in the manner of painters in historical
compositions. To do this he has no other means than
by making the distant figures of less dimensions, and
282

The Tenth Discourse
relieving them in a less degree from the surface; but
this is not adequate to the end ; they will still appear
only as figures on a less scale, but equally near the eye
with those in the front of the piece.
Nor does the mischief of this attempt, which never
accomplishes its intention, rest here: by this division
of the work into many minute parts, the grandeur of
its general effect is inevitably destroyed.
Perhaps the only circumstance in which the modern
have excelled the ancient sculptors is the management
of a single group in basso-relievo ; the art of gradually
raising the group from the flat surface, till it imper
ceptibly emerges into alto-relievo. Of this there is no
ancient example remaining that discovers any approach
to the skill which Le Gros has shown in an Altar in the
Jesuits' Church at Rome. Different plans or degrees
of relief in the same group have, as we see in this
instance, a good effect, though the contrary happens
when the groups are separated, and are at some distance
behind each other.
This improvement in the art of composing a group
in basso-relievo was probably first suggested by the
practice of the modern painters, who relieve their
figures, or groups of figures, from their ground, by the
same gentle gradation ; and it is accomplished in every
respect by the same general principles ; but as the
marble has no colour, it is the composition itself that
must give it its light and shadow. The ancient sculptors
could not borrow this advantage from their painters,
for this was an art with which they appear to have
been entirely unacquainted : and in the bas-relievos of
283

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Lorenzo Ghiberti, the casts of which we have in the
Academy, this art is no more attempted than it was by
the painters of his age.
The next imaginary improvement of the moderns,
is the representing the effects of perspective in bas-
relief. Of this little need be said ; all must recollect
how ineffectual has been the attempt of modern sculp
tors to turn the buildings which they have introduced
as seen from their angle, with a view to make them
appear to recede from the eye in perspective. This,
though it may show indeed their eager desire to en
counter difficulties, shows at the same time how in
adequate their materials are even to this their humble
ambition. The Ancients, with great judgment, represented
only the elevation of whatever architecture they intro
duced into their bas-reliefs, which is composed of little
more than horizontal or perpendicular lines ; whereas
the interruption of crossed lines, or whatever causes a
multiplicity of subordinate parts, destroys that regularity
and firmness of effect on which grandeur of style so
much depends.
We come now to the last consideration; in what
manner statues are to be dressed, which are made in
honour of men, either now living, or lately departed.
This is a question which might employ a long dis
course of itself; I shall at present only observe, that
he who wishes not to obstruct the artist, and prevent
his exhibiting his abilities to the greatest advantage,
would certainly not desire a modern dress.
The desire of transmitting to posterity the shape of
284

The Tenth Discourse
modern dress must be acknowledged to be purchased at
a prodigious price, even the price of every thing that
is valuable in art.
Working in stone is a very serious business; and it
seems to be scarce worth while to employ such durable
materials in conveying to posterity a fashion of which
the longest existence scarce exceeds a year.
However agreeable it may be to the antiquary's
principles of equity and gratitude, that, as he has re
ceived great pleasure from the contemplation of the
fashions of dress of former ages, he wishes to give the
same satisfaction to future antiquaries : yet, methinks,
pictures of an inferior style, or prints, may be con
sidered as quite sufficient, without prostituting this
great art to such mean purposes.
In this town may be seen an Equestrian Statue in a
modern dress, which may be sufficient to deter future
artists from any such attempt : even supposing no other
objection, the familiarity of the modern dress by no
means agrees with the dignity and gravity of sculpture.
Sculpture is formal, regular, and austere ; disdains all
familiar objects, as incompatible with its dignity; and is
an enemy to every species of affectation, or appearance
of academical art. All contrast, therefore, of one figure
to another, or of the limbs of a single figure, or even
in the folds of the drapery, must be sparingly employed.
In short, whatever partakes of fancy or caprice, or goes
under the denomination of Picturesque (however to be
admired in its proper place), is incompatible with that
sobriety and gravity which are peculiarly the char
acteristics of this art. 285

Sir Joshua Reynolds
There is no circumstance which more distinguishes
a well - regulated and sound taste, than a settled
uniformity of design, where all the parts are compact,
and fitted to each other, every thing being of a piece.
This principle extends itself to all habits of life, as well
as to all works of art. Upon this general ground, there
fore, we may safely venture to pronounce, that the
uniformity and simplicity of the materials on which the
sculptor labours (which are only white marble) prescribes
bounds to his art, and teaches him to confine himself to
a proportionable simplicity of design.

286

INTRODUCTION TO
THE ELEVENTH DISCOURSE
In the Eleventh Discourse Reynolds returns once more to the
question of genius, but he uses the word in a more particular
sense to describe what we may call the specific talent of
the painter. Genius in the sense of creative power may exist
apart from any one particular aptitude for expression. The
higher parts of genius, the intellectual power which " enables
the artist to conceive his subject with dignity," lie outside of
any special aptitude. But Reynolds is here concerned with
that special aptitude for pictorial expression which, one has
sadly to admit, is sometimes given to those who lack the
higher power of noble conception. One can, perhaps, best
understand these two aspects of genius by an example.
Rossetti was pre-eminently a man of genius in the general
sense, endowed with the profoundest and most original notions ;
but he had very little specific talent, and this may account
for his forcing parallel roads for his ideas through language
and design. Millais was, on the other hand, richly gifted
with the specific talent for artistic expression, with genius,
as Reynolds here uses the word, but without any corre
sponding distinction of thought or feeling.
What then, Reynolds inquires, are the marks of this specific
talent ? He finds it in the power of seizing the general
characters of objects. From this he slips inadvertently into
talking of this power as though it were the same as
that power of comparing and choosing out the central form
of a class which he has proclaimed as the method of the
287

Sir Joshua Reynolds
grand style. In truth, there is a distinction, since this specific
talent occurs in connection with the lower as well as the
higher branches of art, and we must try to recognise and
isolate it whether it is occupied upon pots and pans or upon
gods and angels. It consists then, according to Reynolds, in
the power of seizing the general characteristics of whatever is
represented, but this is quite consistent with a particularising
and individualising which are altogether rejected from the grand
style. In portraiture, for instance, as Reynolds says, it consists
in placing the features correctly before or even without,
drawing them minutely ; but the doing of this may be used
to give mere likeness of the most prosaic kind. It is, in fact,
more than anything else, the secret of literal likeness. Rey
nolds is right, then, in fixing upon this power of seizing at
once upon the general relations of the parts as par excellence
the artist's gift, but we have no right in this particular con
nection to go further and prescribe the end to which this
power may be used. It may be used merely to arouse the
sense of likeness, or it may be used to express the noblest
conceptions. In whichever class of painters it occurs, whether
in the rhiparographer or the divine, we must acknowledge
genius in this sense of the word.
One further amplification of Reynolds' thesis must be
made in order that it may fit with our more catholic appre
ciations of art. Reynolds seems to imply that the use of
detail is in itself a sign of the want of this power. Here
he shows himself the child of his century, the period of
all others when artists were most easily satisfied with a
casual and superficial vision. We may be contented if the
artist seizes and holds the general characteristic relations
of the parts, and need not inquire whether he goes on to
elaborate them or not. He may merely place the features
with unerring certainty on the mask, as Mr Sargent does,
without saying very much what they are ; or he may go on
to describe every wrinkle, and count every eyelash, as Durer
288

The Eleventh Discourse
did. Providing he holds those main characteristic relations
firmly all the time, does not cease to see the wood, and
make it visible to the spectator, because of the trees, he will
have given equal if not superior proof of the specific talent
of the artist.

289

THE ELEVENTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students ofthe Royal Academy, on the Distribution of
the Prizes, December IO, 1782
Genius — Consists principally in the comprehension of a whole ; in
taking general ideas only.
Gentlemen,
The highest ambition of every Artist is to be thought
a man of Genius. As long as this flattering quality
is joined to his name, he can bear with patience the
imputation of carelessness, incorrectness, or defects of
whatever kind.
So far, indeed, is the presence of genius from imply
ing an absence of faults, that they are considered by
many as its inseparable companions. Some go such
lengths as to take indication from them, and not only
excuse faults on account of genius, but presume genius l
from the existence of certain faults.
It is certainly true, that a work may justly claim
the character of genius, though full of errors ; and it
is equally true, that it may be faultless, and yet not
exhibit the least spark of genius. This naturally sug
gests an inquiry, a desire at least of inquiring, what
qualities of a work and of a workman may justly entitle
a Painter to that character.
I have in a former discourse endeavoured to impress
291

Sir Joshua Reynolds
you with a fixed opinion, that a comprehensive and
critical knowledge of the works of nature is the only
source of beauty and grandeur. But when we speak
to painters, we must always consider this rule, and all
rules, with a reference to the mechanical practice of
their own particular art. It is not properly in the
learning, the taste, and the dignity of the ideas, that
genius appears as belonging to a painter. There is a
genius particular and appropriated to his own trade,
(as I may call it), distinguished from all others. For
that power, which enables the artist to conceive his
subject with dignity, may be said to belong to general
education; and is as much the genius of a poet, or
the professor of any other liberal art, or even a
good critic in any of those arts, as of a painter.
Whatever sublime ideas may fill his mind, he is a
painter only as he can put in practice what he
knows,, and communicate those ideas by visible repre
sentation. If my expression can convey my idea, I wish to dis
tinguish excellence of this kind by calling it the genius
of mechanical performance. This genius consists, I
conceive, in the power of expressing that which em
ploys your pencil, whatever it may be, as a whole ; so
that the general effect and power of the whole may
take possession of the mind, and for a while suspend
the consideration of the subordinate and particular
beauties or defects.
The advantage of this method of considering objects,
is what I wish now more particularly to enforce. At
the same time I do not forget, that a painter must
292

The Eleventh Discourse
have the power of contracting as well as dilating his
sight; because, he that does not at all express parti
culars, expresses nothing; yet it is certain, that a nice
discrimination of minute circumstances, and a punctilious
delineation of them, whatever excellence it may have
(and I do not mean to detract from it), never did confer
on the artist the character of genius.
Besides those minute differences in things which are
frequently not observed at all, and when they are,
make little impression, there are in all considerable
objects great characteristic distinctions, which press
strongly on the senses, and therefore fix the imagina
tion. These are by no means, as some persons think,
an aggregate of all the small discriminating particulars :
nor will such an accumulation of particulars ever ex
press them. These answer to what I have heard great
lawyers call the leading points in a case, or the leading
cases relative to those points.
The detail of particulars, which does not assist the
expression of the main characteristic, is worse than
useless, it is mischievous, as it dissipates the attention,
and draws it from the principal point. It may be re
marked, that the impression which is left on our mind,
even of things which are familiar to us, is seldom more
than their general effect; beyond which we do not
look in recognising such objects. To express this in
painting, is to express what is congenial and natural to
the mind of man, and what gives him by reflection his
own mode of conceiving. The other presupposes
nicety and research, which are only the business of the
curious and attentive, and therefore does not speak to
293

V

Sir Joshua Reynolds
the general sense of the whole species; in which
common, and, as I may so call it, mother tongue, every
thing grand and comprehensive must be uttered.
I do not mean to prescribe what degree of attention
ought to be paid to the minute parts ; this it is hard to
settle. We are sure that it is expressing the general
effect of the whole, which alone can give to objects
their true and touching character; and wherever this
is observed, whatever else may be neglected, we ac
knowledge the hand of a master. We may even go
further, and observe, that, when the general effect only
is presented to us by a skilful hand, it appears to
express the object represented in a more lively manner
than the minutest resemblance would do.
These observations may lead to very deep questions,
which I do not mean here to discuss ; among others,
it may lead to an inquiry, Why we are not always
pleased with the most absolute possible resemblance
of an imitation to its original object. Cases may
exist in which such a resemblance may be even dis
agreeable. I shall only observe that the effect of
figures in waxwork, though certainly a more exact
representation than can be given by painting or sculp
ture, is a sufficient proof that the pleasure we receive
from imitation is not increased merely in proportion as
it approaches to minute and detailed reality; we are
pleased, on the contrary, by seeing ends accomplished
by seemingly inadequate means.
To express protuberance by actual relief, to express
the softness of flesh by the softness of wax, seems
rude and inartificial, and creates no grateful surprise.
294

The Eleventh Discourse
But to express distances on a plain surface, softness
by hard bodies, and particular colouring by materials
which are not singly of that colour, produces that
magic which is the prize and triumph of art.
Carry this principle a step further. Suppose the
effect of imitation to be fully compassed by means
still more inadequate; let the power of a few well-
chosen strokes, which supersede labour by judgment
and direction, produce a complete impression of all
that the mind demands in an object; we are charmed
with such an unexpected happiness of execution, and
begin to be tired with the superfluous diligence, which
in vain solicits an appetite already satiated.
The properties of all objects, as far as a painter is
concerned with them, are, the outline or drawing, the
colour, and the light and shade. The drawing gives
the form, the colour its visible quality, and the light
and shade its solidity.
Excellence in any one of these parts of art will
never be acquired by an artist, unless he has the
habit of looking upon objects at large, and observing
the effect which they have on the eye when it is
dilated, and employed upon the whole, without seeing
any of the parts distinctly. It is by this that we
obtain' the ruling characteristic, and that we learn to
imitate it by short and dexterous methods. I do not
mean by dexterity a trick or mechanical habit, formed
by guess, and established by custom ; but that science,
which, by a profound knowledge of ends and means,
discovers the shortest and surest way to its own
purpose. 295

Sir Joshua Reynolds
If we examine with a critical view the manner of
those painters whom we consider as patterns, we shall
find that their great fame does not proceed from their
works being more highly finished than those of other
artists, or from a more minute attention to details,
but from that enlarged comprehension which sees
the whole object at once, and that energy of art
which gives it characteristic effect by adequate ex
pression. Raffaelle and Titian are two names which stand the
highest in our art; one for Drawing, the other for
Painting. The most considerable and the most es
teemed works of Raffaelle are the Cartoons, and his
Fresco works in the Vatican ; those, as we all know,
are far from being minutely finished : his principal
care and attention seems to have been fixed upon the
adjustment of the whole, whether it was the general
composition, or the composition of each individual
figure ; for every figure may be said to be a lesser
whole, though, in regard to the general work to which
it belongs, it is but a part; the same may be said of
the head, of the hands, and feet. Though he pos
sessed this art of seeing and comprehending the whole,
as far as form is concerned, he did not exert the
same faculty in regard to the general effect, which is
presented to the eye by colour, and light and shade.
Of this the deficiency of his oil pictures, where this
excellence is more expected than in Fresco, is a
sufficient proof.
It is to Titian we must turn our eyes to find excel
lence with regard to colour, and light and shade, in
296

The Eleventh Discourse
the highest degree. He was both the first and the
greatest master of this art. By a few strokes he
knew how to mark the general image and character
of whatever object he attempted; and produced, by
this alone, a truer representation than his master
Giovanni Bellino, or any of his predecessors, who
finished every hair. His great care was to express
the general colour, to preserve the masses of light
and shade, and to give by opposition the idea of that
solidity which is inseparable from natural objects.
When those are preserved, though the work should
possess no other merit, it will have in a proper place
its complete effect ; but where any of these are want
ing, however minutely laboured the picture may be in
the detail, the whole will have a false, and even an
unfinished appearance, at whatever distance, or in what
ever light it can be shown.
It is in vain to attend to the variation of tints, if,
in that attention, the general hue of flesh is lost; or
to finish ever so minutely the parts, if the masses are
not observed, or the whole not well put together.
Vasari seems to have had no great disposition to
favour the Venetian Painters, yet he everywhere justly
commends /'/ modo di fare, la maniera, la bella practica ;
that is, the admirable manner and practice of that
school. On Titian, in particular, he bestows the
epithets of giudicioso, bello, e stupendo.
This manner was then new to the world, but that
unshaken truth on which it is founded, has fixed it
as a model to all succeeding painters : and those who
will examine into the artifice, will find it to consist
297 '

Sir Joshua Reynolds
in the power of generalising, and in the shortness
and simplicity of the means employed.
Many artists, as Vasari likewise observes, have
ignorantly imagined they are imitating the manner of
Titian when they leave their colours rough and
neglect the detail ; but, not possessing the principles
on which he wrought, they have produced what he
calls goffe pitture, absurd foolish pictures ; for such
will always be the consequence of affecting dexterity
without science, without selection, and without fixed
principles. Raffaelle and Titian seem to have looked at nature
for different purposes ; they both had the power of
extending their view to the whole; but one looked
only for the general effect as produced by form, the
other as produced by colour.
We cannot entirely refuse to Titian the merit of
attending to the general form of his obj ect, as well as
colour; but his deficiency lay, a deficiency at least,
when he is compared with Raffaelle, in not possessing
the power, like him, of correcting the form of his model
by any general idea of beauty in his own mind. Of
this, his St Sebastian is a particular instance. This
figure appears to be a most exact representation both
of the form and the colour of the model, which he
then happened to have before him : it has all the force
of nature, and the colouring is flesh itself; but, un
luckily, the model was of a bad form, especially the
legs. Titian has with as much care preserved these
defects, as he has imitated the beauty and brilliancy
of the colouring. In his colouring he was large and
298

TITIAN
St Sebastian
right wing of the altarpiece s.s. nazaro e celso
at brescia

That this was exceptional among Titian's works did not escape
Reynolds' keen perception, and he cites it as an occasional lapse into
a too literal realism. The fact is that Titian was here trying to do
a new and, especially for a Venetian, a difficult thing. He was trying
to extend his powers of expression by learning to render the figure
under complex conditions of torsion and stress. His study of the
antique and of Michelangelo spurred him on to acquire this power,
and in the effort something of ease is lost, though he has succeeded
in a. remarkable way in giving the disturbance in the forms due to
the position and state of the figure. Titian, conscious only of the
effort he had put forth, and of the technical success, pronounced it
the finest thing he had done, and it created such a sensation among
his contemporaries that the Duke of Ferrara actually tried to Ret
it from Titian, although it was done as a commission for Averoldo,
the Papal Legate in Venice.

XXIV. From a photograph by Alinari.

The Eleventh Discourse
general, as in his design he was minute and partial :
in the one he was a genius, in the other not much
above a copier. I do not, however, speak now of all
his pictures ; instances enough may be produced in
his works, where those observations on his defects
could not with any propriety be applied : but it is in
the manner or language, as it may be called, in which
Titian and others of that school express themselves,
that their chief excellence lies. This manner is in
reality in painting, what language is in poetry ; we
are all sensible how differently the imagination is
affected by the same sentiment expressed in different
words, and how mean or how grand the same object
appears when presented to us by different painters.
Whether it is the human figure, an animal, or even in
animate objects, there is nothing, however unpromis
ing in appearance, but may be raised into dignity,
convey sentiment and produce emotion, in the hands
of a painter of genius. What was said of Virgil,
that he threw even the dung about the ground with
an air of dignity, may be applied to Titian : whatever
he touched, however naturally mean, and habitually
familiar, by a kind of magic he invested it with grandeur
and importance.
I must here observe, that I am not recommending a
neglect of the detail ; indeed it would be difficult, if
not impossible, to prescribe certain bounds, and tell
how far, or when, it is to be observed or neglected ;
much must, at last, be left to the taste and judgment
of the artist. I am well aware that a judicious detail
will sometimes give the force of truth to the work, and
301

Sir Joshua Reynolds
consequently interest the spectator. I only wish to
impress on your minds the true distinction between
essential and subordinate powers; and to show what
qualities in the art claim your chief attention, and
what may, with the least injury to your reputation,
be neglected. Something, perhaps, always must be
neglected ; the lesser ought then to give way to the
greater; and since every work can have but a limited
time allotted to it, for even supposing a whole life to
be employed about one picture, it is still limited, it ap
pears more reasonable to employ that time to the best
advantage, in contriving various methods of composing
the work — an trying different effects of light and
shadow — and employing the labour of correction in
heightening, by a judicious adjustment of the parts,
the effect of the whole — than that the time should be
taken up in minutely finishing those parts.
But there is another kind of high finishing, which
may safely be condemned, as it seems to counteract its
own purpose ; that is, when the artist, to avoid that
hardness which proceeds from the outline cutting
against the ground, softens and blends the colours to
excess : this is what the ignorant call high finishing,
but which tends to destroy the brilliancy of colour,
and the true effect of representation ; which consists
very much in preserving the same proportion of sharp
ness and bluntness that is found in natural objects.
This extreme softening, instead of producing the effect
of softness, gives the appearance of ivory, or some other
hard substance, highly polished.
The portraits of Cornelius Jansen appear to have
302

The Eleventh Discourse
this defect, and consequently want that suppleness
which is the characteristic of flesh ; whereas, in the
works of Vandyck we find that true mixture of softness
and hardness perfectly observed. The same defect
may be found in the manner of Vanderwerf, in opposi
tion to that of Teniers ; and such also, we may add,
is the manner of Raffaelle in his oil pictures, in com
parison with that of Titian.
The name which Raffaelle has so justly maintained
as the first of painters, we may venture to say, was
not acquired by this laborious attention. His apology
may be made by saying that it was the manner of
his country ; but if he had expressed his ideas with
the facility and eloquence, as it may be called, of
Titian, his works would certainly not have been less
excellent ; and that praise, which ages and nations have
poured out upon him, for possessing genius in the
higher attainments of art, would have been extended to
them all.
Those who are not conversant in works of art, are
often surprised at the high value set by connoisseurs
on drawings which appear careless, and in every
respect unfinished ; but they are truly valuable ; and
their value arises from this, that they give the idea
of a whole ; and this whole is often expressed by
a dexterous facility which indicates the true power
of a painter, even though roughly exerted : whether
it consists in the general composition, or the general
form of each figure, or the turn of the attitude which
bestows grace and elegance. All this we may see
fully exemplified in the very skilful drawings of
303

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Parmegiano and Correggio. On whatever account
we value these drawings, it is certainly not for high
finishing, or a minute attention to particulars.
Excellence in every part, and in every province of
our art, from the highest style of history down to the
resemblances of still-life, will depend on this power
of extending the attention at once to the whole,
without which the greatest diligence is vain.
I wish you to bear in mind, that when I speak of a
whole, I do not mean simply a whole as belonging
to composition, but a whole with respect to the
general style of colouring ; a whole with regard to
the light and shade ; a whole of every thing which
may separately become the main object of a painter.
I remember a landscape painter in Rome, who was
known by the name of Studio, from his patience in
high finishing, in which he thought the whole excel
lence of art consisted ; so that he once endeavoured,
as he said, to represent every individual leaf on a tree.
This picture I never saw ; but I am very sure that
an artist, who looked only at the general character of
the species, the order of the branches, and the masses
of the foliage, would in a few minutes produce a more
true resemblance of trees, than this painter in as many
months. A landscape painter certainly ought to study ana
tomically (if I may use the expression) all the objects
which he paints ; but when he is to turn his studies
to use, his skill, as a man of genius, will be displayed
in showing the general effect, preserving the same
degree of hardness and softness which the objects
304

TITIAN
Detail from the Bacchus and Ariadane
national gallery

The Bacchus and Ariadane was done by Titian partly to console the
Duke of Ferrara for not getting the St Sebastian (p. 300), and it
is remarkable that two of the figures in the Brescian altarpiece — the
Risen Christ and the St Sebastian — furnished motives for figures in
the later work ; the Bacchus answering to the former, while one
of the attendant satyrs shows the same study of the twisted torso
which had absorbed Titian in designing his St Sebastian.
The portion of the Bacchus and Ariadane here selected for reproduc
tion was chosen to show how even Reynolds, to some extent, only
saw in pictures what he was prepared for. His correction of Algarotti
shows that he was so absorbed in his study of the broad effects of
Titian's design and handling that he really failed to notice how
much detail Titian, and only Titian, was able to combine with such
breadth. Certainly here the drawing of the white flower with the
pistil and all the stamens minutely defined, and of the jessamine
in the young satyr's hair, might well "excite the admiration of a
botanist." In fact, Titian's detail is scarcely less precise than
Bellini's, but he had, more than anyone else, the power of so fusing
it with the larger divisions of his design that it is only apparent
if one takes the trouble to look for it. There is in this the most
striking difference between the Italians of the early sixteenth and
the English of the eighteenth century.
Many of Reynolds' pictures have something of the air of Titian's ;
but in the former there is nothing beneath the general forms, whereas
in the latter the general masses absorb a wealth of detailed observa
tion which is surprising, and which, when it can be thus completely
taken up in the general design, undoubtedly adds to the lively
completeness of the image.

From a photograph by Mansell &¦ Co.

The Eleventh Discourse
have in nature ; for he applies himself to the imagina
tion, not to the curiosity, and works not for the
virtuoso or the naturalist, but for the common observer
of life and nature. When he knows his subject, he
will know not only what to describe, but what to omit :
and this skill in leaving out, is, in all things, a great
part of knowledge and wisdom.
The same excellence of manner which Titian dis
played in history or portrait painting, is equally con
spicuous in his landscapes, whether they are professedly
such, or serve only as backgrounds. One of the most
eminent of this latter kind is to be found in the picture
of St Pietro Martire. The large trees, which are here
introduced, are plainly distinguished from each other
by the different manner with which the branches
shoot from their trunks, as well as by their different
foliage ; and the weeds in the foreground are varied
in the same manner, just as much as variety requires,
and no more. When Algarotti, speaking of this
picture, praises it for the minute discriminations of
the leaves and plants, even, as he says, to excite the
admiration of a botanist, his intention was undoubtedly
to give praise, even at the expense of truth ; for he
must have known, that this is not the character of
the picture ; but connoisseurs will always find in
pictures what they think they ought to find : he was
not aware that he was giving a description injurious to
the reputation of Titian.
Such accounts may be very hurtful to young artists,
who never have had an opportunity of seeing the work
described ; and they may possibly conclude, that this
307

Sir Joshua Reynolds
great artist acquired the name of the Divine Titian
from his eminent attention to such trifling circum
stances, which in reality would not raise him above the
level of the most ordinary painter.
We may extend these observations even to what
seems to have but a single, and that an individual
object. The excellence of portrait painting, and we
may add, even the likeness, the character, and coun
tenance, as I have observed in another place, depend
more upon the general effect produced by the painter,
than on the exact expression of the peculiarities, or
minute discrimination of the parts. The chief atten
tion of the artist is therefore employed in planting the
features in their proper places, which so much con
tributes to giving the effect and true impression of the
whole. The very peculiarities may be reduced to
classes and general descriptions ; and there are there
fore large ideas to be found even in this contracted
subject. He may afterwards labour single features
to what degree he thinks proper, but let him not
forget continually to examine, whether in finishing the
parts he is not destroying the general effect.
It is certainly a thing to be wished, that all excel
lence were applied to illustrate subjects that are in
teresting and worthy of being commemorated ; whereas,
of half the pictures that are in the world, the sub
ject can be valued only as an occasion which set
the artist to work : and yet, our high estimation of
such pictures, without considering, or perhaps without
knowing the subject, shows how much our attention
is engaged by the art alone. 308

CORREGGIO
Drawing for La Notte
british museum

This study for the celebrated picture of the Nativity at Dresden, called
La Notte, is an admirable illustration of Reynolds' words (see pp. 299
and 300). The hastily-indicated forms, altered and scored over, and
finally brought into some shape with the touches of body colour, give
one a sense of the artist's creative effort such as is impossible in a
finished work.

- 5 «>2*»

The Eleventh Discourse
Perhaps nothing that we can say will so clearly
show the advantage and excellence of this faculty, as
that it confers the character of genius on works that
pretend to no other merit ; in which is neither expres
sion, character, nor dignity, and where none are inter
ested in the subject. We cannot refuse the character
of genius to the Marriage of Paolo Veronese, with
out opposing the general sense of mankind ; great
authorities have called it the triumph of painting; or
to the Altar of St Augustine at Antwerp, by Rubens,
which equally deserves that title, and for the same
reason. Neither of those pictures have any interest
ing story to support them. That of Paolo Veronese is
only a representation of a great concourse of people
at a dinner; and the subject of Rubens, if it may be
called a subject where nothing is doing, is an assembly
of various Saints that lived in different ages. The
whole excellence of those pictures consists in mechan
ical dexterity, working however under the influence
of that comprehensive faculty which I have so often
mentioned. It is by this, and this alone, that the mechanical
power is ennobled, and raised much above its natural
rank. And it appears to me, that with propriety it
acquires this character, as an instance of that superi
ority with which mind predominates over matter, by
contracting into one whole what nature has made
multifarious. The great advantage of this idea of a whole is, that
a greater quantity of truth may be said to be con
tained and expressed in a few lines or touches, than
3"

Sir Joshua Reynolds
in the most laborious finishing of the parts where this
is not regarded. It is upon this foundation that it
stands; and the justness of the observation would be
confirmed by the ignorant in art, if it were possible to
take their opinions unseduced by some false notion of
what they imagine they ought to see in a picture. As
it is an art, they think they ought to be pleased in pro
portion as they see that art ostentatiously displayed;
they will, from this supposition, prefer neatness, high-
finishing, and gaudy colouring, to the truth, simpli
city, and unity of nature. Perhaps, too, the totally
ignorant beholder, like the ignorant artist, cannot
comprehend a whole, nor even what it means. But
if false notions do not anticipate their perceptions,
they who are capable of observation, and who, pre
tending to no skill, look only straight forward, will
praise and condemn in proportion as the painter has
succeeded in the effect of the whole. Here, general
satisfaction, or general dislike, though perhaps despised
by the painter, as proceeding from the ignorance of
the principles of art, may yet help to regulate his
conduct, and bring back his attention to that which
ought to be his principal object, and from which he has
deviated for the sake of minuter beauties.
An instance of this right judgment I once saw in
a child, in going through a gallery where there were
many portraits of the last ages, which, though neatly
put out of hand, were very ill put together. The child
paid no attention to the neat finishing or naturalness
of any bit of drapery, but appeared to observe only
the ungracefulness of the persons represented, and put
312

RUBENS
Church of St Augustine
ANTWERP

The Eleventh Discourse was delivered in 1782 ; a year before, Reynolds
had travelled in Flanders and had there become fascinated by Rubens
to a degree with which these sentences hardly correspond. Whenever
Reynolds came face to face with a fine Veronese, Tintoretto, or Rubens,
one fancies that all his theories about the grand style of the Bolognese
evaporated in the heat of his enthusiasm for such evidences as he saw
ofthe special power of pictorial expression. Of this particular picture
he says: "I confess I was so overpowered with the brilliancy of this
picture of Rubens, whilst I was before it and under its fascinating
influence, that I thought I had never before seen so great powers
exerted in the art. It was not until I was removed from its influence
that I could acknowledge any inferiority in Rubens to any other painter
whatever." And yet, when he came to reflect on the extravagant
invention of this, and to compare it in his mind with Titian's Madonna
de' Frari, he drew from the comparison one of those subtle and sug
gestive distinctions which mark his best critical work. He said
of the donors in Titian's picture : ' ' Nothing can exceed the simplicity
and dignity of these figures. They are drawn in profile, looking
straight forward, in the most natural manner, without any contrast
or affectation of attitude whatever, which, while it gives an air of
formality to the picture, adds also to its grandeur and simplicity.
This must be acknowledged to be above Rubens — that is, I fear
he would have renounced it had it occurred. Titian knew very well
that so much formality or regularity as to give the appearance of being
' above all the tricks of art, which we call picturesque, is of itself
1 grandeur."

From a photograph by Mans,

The Eleventh Discourse
herself in the posture of every figure which she saw
in a forced and awkward attitude. The censure of
nature, uninformed, fastened upon the greatest fault
that could be in a picture, because it related to the
character and management of the whole.
I should be sorry, if what has been said should be
understood to have any tendency to encourage that
carelessness which leaves work in an unfinished state.
I commend nothing for the want of exactness ; I mean
to point out that kind of exactness which is the best,
and which is alone truly to be so esteemed.
So far is my disquisition from giving countenance to
idleness, that there is nothing in our art which en
forces such continual exertion and circumspection, as
an attention to the general effect of the whole. It
requires much study and much practice ; it requires
the painter's entire mind; whereas the parts may be
finishing by nice touches, while his mind is engaged
on other matters ; he may even hear a play or a novel
read without much disturbance. The artist who flatters
his own indolence, will continually find himself evading
this active exertion, and applying his thoughts to the
ease and laziness of highly finishing the parts; producing
at last what Cowley calls " laborious effects of idleness."
No work can be too much finished, provided the
diligence employed be directed to its proper object;
but I have observed that an excessive labour in the
detail has, nine times in ten, been pernicious to the
general effect, even when it has been the labour of
great masters. It indicates a bad choice, which is
an ill setting out in any undertaking.
315

Sir Joshua Reynolds
To give a right direction to your industry has been
my principal purpose in this discourse. It is this
which I am confident often makes the difference be
tween two students of equal capacities, and of equal
industry. While the one is employing his labour on
minute objects of little consequence, the other is
acquiring the art, and perfecting the habit, of seeing
nature in an extensive view, in its proper proportions,
and its due subordination of parts.
Before I conclude, I must make one observation
sufficiently connected with the present subject.
The same extension of mind which gives the ex
cellence of genius to the theory and mechanical
practice of the art, will direct him likewise in the
method of study, and give him the superiority over
those who narrowly follow a more confined track of
partial imitation. Whoever, in order to finish his
education, should travel to Italy, and spend his whole
time there only in copying pictures, and measuring
statues or buildings (though these things are not to
be neglected), would return with little improvement.
| He that imitates the Iliad, says Dr Young, is not
- imitating Homer. It is not by laying up in the
memory the particular details of any of the great
works of art, that any man becomes a great artist,
if he stops without making himself master of the
general principles on which these works are conducted.
If he even hopes to rival those whom he admires, he
must consider their works as the means of teaching
him the true art of seeing nature. When this is
acquired, he then may be said to have appropriated
316

The Eleventh Discourse
their powers, or at least the foundation of their
powers, to himself; the rest must depend upon his
own industry and application. The great business of
study is, to form a mind, adapted and adequate to
all times and all occasions ; to which all nature is
then laid open, and which may be said to possess
the key of her inexhaustible riches.

317

INTRODUCTION TO
THE TWELFTH DISCOURSE
Reynolds here touches once more on the ground of his
Second Discourse. He displays the same humorous good
sense, the same indulgent and playful recognition of human
weakness and folly, and gives us once more the measure
of his own kindly and genial nature. His attitude to
education in art is, as always, mildly sceptical — and one can
understand that he was not a good teacher in practice. His
view is that the pupil first of all learns what he calls the
grammar of art — namely, to draw correctly whatever object
is placed before him. He is then to receive a set of
general principles — principles of choice and selection, which
it must be left to him to apply in practice. He is to deduce
his art from these general ideas, and he is continually to re
fer to the great works of art in which those ideas and prin
ciples are embodied, while he is always to go to Nature for
filling out the content of these schematic designs derived from
the study of art. The scheme is, perhaps, as good a one as
can be devised for training an artist born at a time when
there is no great and vital tradition of design — and that has
been the fate of artists ever since the Academy replaced the
Guild. But it is well to remember that this programme is very
different from that which the great masters whom Reynolds
exhibits for imitation passed through.
The artist of the Renaissance never learned the grammar
that Reynolds presupposes. For by this correct drawing of
any object is meant an indifferent exactitude, a passionless and
disinterested precis of facts — in short, an unartistic drawing.
Now, the artist of the Renaissance learned first an artistic
formula, the formula of his time as understood by his master,
and this became so much of a second nature to him that when
319

Sir Joshua Reynolds
he looked at Nature he saw it in terms of this formula. If he
was an inferior artist he repeated this more or less exactly to
the end ; if he had original power he gradually modified this
formula until it expressed his own temperament. But he
never passed through a stage of indifferent and coldly exact
representation. He passed from one biassed and interested
vision to another equally biassed and interested, but one which
suited him more exactly. At such a time and under such cir
cumstances eclecticism was scarcely a necessity, though it might
and did frequently occur, but the formula of a second and
third artist was always taken up as an amplification of one
already thoroughly possessed. The result was that the
eclecticism of a Botticelli or even of a Raphael, to take the
most extreme case of which we know, did not produce that
hesitation and uncertainty of manner which is so frequently
urged as the danger of such a method of study.
In this connection it may be well to recapitulate the distinc
tion already suggested by Reynolds (p. 1 60) between different
kinds of borrowing from works of art. There is the taking
over of the actual mode of vision and manner of an artist, as
Raphael took over that of his master Perugino ; and there is
the borrowing of particular inventions of another artist, and
the accommodation of them to the artist's own personal style,
as Raphael later on borrowed from Filippino and Masaccio.
The former more intimate imitation of a master is what all
great artists began with, but what few artists can safely do
after their apprenticeship. The taking over of another man's
formula in youth is a proper confession of inexperience, and
a way towards self-perfection ; the adoption of such a formula
in maturity is the confession of want of independence, and
almost invariably a sign of incapacity. Of the second kind of
borrowing no artist need ever feel ashamed at any time if, as
Reynolds says, he conceals his theft — that is, if the incident or
motive is so thoroughly transmuted into the borrower's own
mode of conception that it becomes an integral part of his creation.
320

THE TWELFTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution
ofthe Prizes, December 10, 1 784
Particular methods of study of little consequence — Little of the art
can be taught — Love of method often a love of idleness — Pittori
improvvisatori apt to be careless and incorrect ; seldom original
and striking — This proceeds from their not studying the works of
other masters.
Gentlemen,
In consequence of the situation in which I have the
honour to be placed in this Academy, it has often
happened, that I have been consulted by the young
students who intend to spend some years in Italy,
concerning the method of regulating their studies.
I am, as I ought to be, solicitously desirous to com
municate the entire result of my experience and
observation; and though my openness and facility in
giving my opinions might make some amends for
whatever was defective in them, yet I fear my answers
have not often given satisfaction. Indeed I have
never been sure, that I understood perfectly what
they meant, and was not without some suspicion that
they had not themselves very distinct ideas of the
object of their inquiry.
If the information required was, by what means
the path that leads to excellence could be discovered ;
if they wished to know whom they were to take
x 321

Sir Joshua Reynolds
for their guides; what to adhere to, and what to
avoid; where they were to bait, and where they
were to take up their rest; what was to be tasted
only, and what should be their diet; such general
directions are certainly proper for a student to ask,
and for me, to the best of my capacity, to give: but
these rules have been already given: they have, in
reality, been the subject of almost all my Discourses
from this place. But I am rather inclined to think,
that, by method of study, it was meant (as several do
mean), that the times and the seasons should be
prescribed, and the order settled, in which every thing
was to be done : that it might be useful to point
out to what degree of excellence one part of the
Art was to be carried, before the student proceeded
to the next; how long he was to continue to draw
from the ancient statues, when to begin to compose,
and when to apply to the study of colouring.
Such a detail of instruction might be extended
with a great deal of plausible and ostentatious ampli
fication. But it would at best be useless. Our
studies will be for ever, in a very great degree, under
the direction of chance ; like travellers, we must
take what we can get, and when we can get it;
whether it is or is not administered to us in the
most commodious manner, in the most proper place,
or at the exact minute when we would wish to have
it. Treatises on education, and method of study, have
always appeared to me to have one general fault.
They proceed upon a false supposition of life; as if
322

The Twelfth Discourse
we possessed not only a power over events and cir
cumstances, but had a greater power over ourselves
than I believe any of us will be found to possess.
Instead of supposing ourselves to be perfect patterns
of wisdom and virtue, it seems to me more reasonable
to treat ourselves (as I am sure we must now and
then treat others) like humoursome children, whose
fancies are often to be indulged, in order to keep
them in good humour with themselves and their
pursuits. It is necessary to use some artifice of
this kind in all processes which by their very nature
are long, tedious, and complex, in order to prevent
our taking that aversion to our studies, which the
continual shackles of methodical restraint are sure
to produce.
I would rather wish a student, as soon as he goes
abroad, to employ himself upon whatever he has been
incited to by any immediate impulse, than to go slug
gishly about a prescribed task : whatever he does in
such a state of mind, little advantage accrues from it,
as nothing sinks deep enough to leave any lasting
impression ; and it is impossible that any thing should
be well understood, or well done, that is taken into
a reluctant understanding, and executed with a servile
hand. It is desirable, and indeed is necessary to intellectual
health, that the mind should be recreated and refreshed
with a variety in our studies; that in the irksomeness
of uniform pursuit we should be relieved, and, if I may
[so say, deceived, as much as possible. Besides, the
minds of men are so very differently constituted, that
323

Sir Joshua Reynolds
it is impossible to find one method which shall be suit
able to all. It is of no use to prescribe to those who
have no talents; and those who have talents will find
methods for themselves — methods dictated to them by
their own particular dispositions, and by the experience
of their own particular necessities.
However, I would not be understood to extend this
doctrine to the younger students. The first part of the
life of a student, like that of other school-boys, must
necessarily be a life of restraint. The grammar, the
rudiments, however unpalatable, must at all events
be mastered. After a habit is acquired of drawing
correctly from the model (whatever it may be, which
he has before him), the rest, I think, may be safely
left to chance; always supposing that the student is
employed, and that his studies are directed to the
proper object.
A passion for his art, and an eager desire to excel, .
will more than supply the place of method. By leaving .
a student to himself, he may possibly indeed be led to ,
undertake matters above his strength : but the trial .
will at least have this advantage, it will discover to.
himself his own deficiencies ; and this discovery alone .
is a very considerable acquisition. One inconvenience,-
I acknowledge, may attend bold and arduous attempts;.,
frequent failure may discourage. This evil, however, v
is not more pernicious than the slow proficiency which is,
the natural consequence of too easy tasks.
Whatever advantages method may have in dispatch,,
of business, and there it certainly has many, I have but,,
little confidence of its efficacy in acquiring excellence, in "
324

The Twelfth Discourse
any art whatever. Indeed, I have always strongly sus
pected, that this love of method, on which some persons
appear to place so great dependence, is, in reality, at the
bottom, a love of idleness, a want of sufficient energy to
put themselves into immediate action : it is a sort of an
apology to themselves for doing nothing. I have known
artists who may truly be said to have spent their whole
lives, or at least the most precious part of their lives,
in planning methods of study, without ever beginning ;
resolving, however, to put it all in practice at some time
or other, when a certain period arrives, when proper
conveniences are procured — or when they remove to
a certain place better calculated for study. It is not
uncommon for such persons to go abroad with the most
honest and sincere resolution of studying hard, when
they shall arrive at the end of their journey. The
same want of exertion, arising from the same cause
which made them at home put off the day of labour
until they had found a proper scheme for it, still con
tinues in Italy, and they consequently return home with
little, if any, improvement.
In the practice of art, as well as in morals, it is neces
sary to keep a watchful and jealous eye over ourselves;
idleness, assuming the specious disguise of industry,
will lull to sleep all suspicion of our want of an active
exertion of strength. A provision of endless apparatus,
a bustle of infinite inquiry and research, or even the
mere mechanical labour of copying, may be employed,
to evade and shuffle off real labour, the real labour
of thinking.
I have declined for these reasons to point out any
325

Sir Joshua Reynolds
particular method and course of study to young artists
on their arrival in Italy. I have left it to their own
prudence, a prudence which will grow and improve
upon them in the course of unremitted, ardent industry,
directed by a real love of their profession, and an un
feigned admiration of those who have been universally
admitted as patterns of excellence in the art.
In the exercise of that general prudence, I shall here
submit to their consideration such miscellaneous obser
vations as have occurred to me on considering the
mistaken notions or evil habits which have prevented
that progress towards excellence, which the natural
abilities of several artists might otherwise have enabled
them to make.
False opinions and vicious habits have done far more
mischief to students, and to professors too, than any
wrong methods of study.
Under the influence of sloth, or of some mistaken
notion, is that disposition which always wants to lean
on other men. Such students are always talking of
the prodigious progress they should make, if they could
but have the advantage of being taught by some par
ticular eminent master. To him they would wish to
transfer that care, which they ought and must take
of themselves. Such are to be told, that after the
rudiments are past, very little of our art can be taught
by others. The most skilful master can do little more
than put the end of the clue into the hands of his
scholar, by which he must conduct himself.
It is true, the beauties and defects of the works of
our predecessors may be pointed out ; the principles on
326

The Twelfth Discourse
which their works are conducted may be explained;
the great examples of ancient art may be spread out
before them ; but the most sumptuous entertainment is
prepared in vain, if the guests will not take the trouble
of helping themselves.
Even the Academy itself, where every convenience
for study is procured and laid before them, may,
from that very circumstance, from leaving no difficul
ties to be encountered in the pursuit, cause a remis
sion of their industry. It is not uncommon to see
young artists, whilst they are struggling with every
obstacle in their way, exert themselves with such
success as to outstrip competitors possessed of every
means of improvement. The promising expectation
which was formed, on so much being done with so
little means, has recommended them to a patron, who
has supplied them with every convenience of study;
from that time their industry and eagerness of pursuit
have forsaken them; they stand still, and see others
rush on before them.
Such men are like certain animals, who will feed
only when there is but little provender, and that got
at with difficulty through the bars of a rack, but
refuse to touch it when there is an abundance before
them. Perhaps, such a falling off may proceed from the
faculties being overpowered by the immensity of the
materials; as the traveller despairs ever to arrive at
the end of his journey, when the whole extent of the
road which he is to pass is at once displayed to his
view, 327

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Among the first moral qualities, therefore, which a
student ought to cultivate, is a just and manly con
fidence in himself, or rather in the effects of that
persevering industry which he is resolved to possess.
When Raffaelle, by means of his connection with
Bramante, the Pope's architect, was fixed upon to
adorn the Vatican with his works, he had done nothing
that marked in him any great superiority over his con
temporaries : though he was then but young, he had
under his direction the most considerable artists of his
age ; and we know what kind of men those were ; a
lesser mind would have sunk under such a weight;
and if we should judge from the meek and gentle
disposition which we are told was the character of
Raffaelle, we might expect this would have happened
to him; but his strength appeared to increase in pro
portion as exertion was required ; and it is not im
probable that we are indebted to the good fortune
which first placed him in that conspicuous situation,
for those great examples of excellence which he has
left us.
The observations to which I formerly wished, and
now desire, to point your attention, relate not to errors
which are committed by those who have no claim to
merit, but to those inadvertencies into which men of
parts only can fall by the over-rating or the abuse
of some real, though perhaps subordinate, excellence.
The errors last alluded to are those of backward,
timid characters ; what I shall now speak of belong
to another class ; to those artists who are distinguished
for the readiness and facility of their invention. It
328

The Twelfth Discourse
is undoubtedly a splendid and desirable accomplishment
to be able to design instantaneously any given subject.
It is an excellence that I believe every artist would
wish to possess; but, unluckily, the manner in which
this dexterity is acquired, habituates the mind to be
contented with first thoughts without choice or selec
tion. The judgment, after it has been long passive,
by degrees loses its power of becoming active when
exertion is necessary.
Whoever, therefore, has this talent, must in some
measure undo what he has had the habit of doing, or
at least give a new turn to his mind : great works,
which are to live and stand the criticism of posterity,
are not performed at a heat. A proportionable time
is required for deliberation and circumspection. I re
member when I was at Rome looking at the Fighting
Gladiator, in company with an eminent sculptor, and
I expressed my admiration of the skill with which the
whole is composed, and the minute attention of the
artist to the change of every muscle in that momentary
exertion of strength; he was of opinion that a work
so perfect required nearly the whole life of man to
perform. I believe, if we look around us, we shall find that,
in the sister art of poetry, what has been soon done,
has been as soon forgotten. The judgment and prac
tice of a great poet on this occasion is worthy attention.
Metastasio, who has so much and justly distinguished
himself throughout Europe, at his outset was an Im-
provvisatore, or extempore poet, a description of men
not uncommon in Italy: it is not long since he was
329

Sir Joshua Reynolds
asked by a friend, if he did not think the custom of
inventing and reciting extempore, which he practised
when a boy in his character of an Improvvisatore,
might not be considered as a happy beginning of his
education; he thought it, on the contrary, a disad
vantage to him : he said that he had acquired by that
habit a carelessness and incorrectness which it cost
him much trouble to overcome, and to substitute in
the place of it a totally different habit, that of think
ing with selection, and of expressing himself with cor
rectness and precision.
However extraordinary it may appear, it is certainly
true, that the inventions of the Pittori improvvisatori,
as they may be called, have — notwithstanding the
common boast of their authors, that all is spun from
their own brain — very rarely any thing that has in
the least the air of originality : their compositions are
generally common-place, uninteresting, without char
acter or expression; like those flowery speeches that
we sometimes hear, which impress no new ideas on
the mind.
I would not be thought, however, by what has been
said, to oppose the use, the advantage, the necessity
there is of a painter's being readily able to express his
ideas by sketching. The further he can carry such
designs, the better. The evil to be apprehended is, his
resting there, and not correcting them afterwards from
nature, or taking the trouble to look about him for
whatever assistance the works of others will afford
him. We are not to suppose that, when a painter sits
33°

The Twelfth Discourse
down to deliberate on any work, he has all his know
ledge to seek ; he must not only be able to draw
extempore the human figure in every variety of action,
but he must be acquainted likewise with the general
principles of composition, and possess a habit of fore
seeing, while he is composing, the effect of the masses
of light and shadow that will attend such a disposition.
His mind is entirely occupied by his attention to the
whole. It is a subsequent consideration to determine
the attitude and expression of individual figures. It
is in this period of his work that I would recommend
to every artist to look over his portfolio, or pocket-
book, in which he has treasured up all the happy in
ventions, all the extraordinary and expressive attitudes,
that he has met with in the course of his studies ; not
only for the sake of borrowing from those studies
whatever may be applicable to his own work, but
likewise on account of the great advantage he will
receive by bringing the ideas of great artists more
distinctly before his mind, which will teach him to
invent other figures in a similar style.
Sir Francis Bacon speaks with approbation of the
provisionary methods Demosthenes and Cicero em
ployed to assist their invention: and illustrates their
use by a quaint comparison after his manner. These
particular Studios being not immediately connected with
our art, I need not cite the passage I allude to, and
shall only observe, that such preparation totally opposes
the general received opinions that are floating in the
world concerning genius and inspiration. The same
great man in another place, speaking of his own essays,
33i

Sir Joshua Reynolds
remarks, that they treat of "those things, wherein
both men's lives and persons are most conversant,
whereof a man shall find much in experience, but
little in books": they are then what an artist would
naturally call invention; and yet we may suspect that
even the genius of Bacon, great as it was, would never
have been enabled to have made those observations, if
his mind had not been trained and disciplined by read
ing the observations of others. Nor could he, without
such reading, have known that those opinions were not
to be found in other books.
I know there are many artists of great fame who ap
pear never to have looked out of themselves, and who
probably would think it derogatory to their character,
to be supposed to borrow from any other painter. But
when we recollect, and compare the works of such men
with those who took to their assistance the inventions
of others, we shall be convinced of the great advantage
of this latter practice.
The two men most eminent for readiness of inven
tion, that occur to me, are Luca Giordano and La Fage ;
one in painting, and the other in drawing.
To such extraordinary powers as were possessed by
both of those artists, we cannot refuse the character of
genius; at the same time it must be acknowledged,
that it was that kind of mechanic genius which oper
ates without much assistance of the head. In all their
works, which are (as might be expected) very numerous,
we may look in vain for any thing that can be said to
be original and striking; and yet, according to the
ordinary ideas of originality, they have as good pre-
332

i. FILIPPINO LIPPI
St Paul Visiting St Peter in Prison
church of the carmine, florence
2. RAPHAEL
Part of the Cartoon of St Paul
Preaching at Athens
victoria and albert museum

The reader may be glad to have for reference one of the interesting
points of comparison in this passage — a passage which proves the wide
range of Reynolds' sympathy and the closeness of his observation of the
older masters.

v***\ ~"5f«l

The Twelfth Discourse
tensions as most painters ; for they borrowed very
little from others, and still less will any artist, that can
distinguish between excellence and insipidity, ever
borrow from them.
To those men, and all such, let us oppose the prac
tice of the first of painters. I suppose we shall all
agree, that no man ever possessed a greater power of
invention, and stood less in need of foreign assistance,
than Raffaelle ; and yet, when he was designing one
of his greatest as well as latest works, the Cartoons, it
is very apparent that he had the studies which he had
made from Masaccio before him. Two noble figures
of St Paul, which he found there, he adopted in his
own work : one of them he took for St Paul preaching
at Athens; and the other for the same Saint, when
chastising the sorcerer Elymas. Another figure in the
same work, whose head is sunk in his breast, with his
eyes shut, appearing deeply wrapt up in thought, was
introduced amongst the listeners to the preaching of
St Paul. The most material alteration that is made in
those two figures of St Paul, is the addition of the
left hands, which are not seen in the original. It is a
rule that Raffaelle observed, and, indeed, ought never
to be dispensed with, in a principal figure, to show
both hands ; that it should never be a question, what
is become of the other hand. For the sacrifice at
Lystra, he took the whole ceremony much as it stands
in an ancient basso-relievo, since published in the
Admiranda. I have given examples from those pictures only of
Raffaelle which we have among us, though many other
335

Sir Joshua Reynolds
instances might be produced of this great painter's
not disdaining assistance : indeed his known wealth
was so great, that he might borrow where he pleased
without loss of credit.
It may be remarked, that this work of Masaccio,
from which he has borrowed so freely, was a public
work, and at no further distance from Rome than
Florence ; so that, if he had considered it a disgraceful
theft, he was sure to be detected; but he was well
satisfied that his character for Invention would be
little affected by such a discovery ; nor is it, except in
the opinion of those who are ignorant of the manner
in which great works are built.
Those who steal from mere poverty; who, having
nothing of their own, cannot exist a minute without
making such depredations ; who are so poor that they
have no place in which they can even deposit what
they have taken ; to men of this description nothing
can be said : but such artists as those to whom I sup
pose myself now speaking, men whom I consider as
competently provided with all the necessaries and con
veniences of art, and who do not desire to steal baubles
and common trash, but wish only to possess peculiar
rarities, which they select to ornament their cabinets,
and take care to enrich the general store with materials
of equal or of greater value than what they have
taken ; such men surely need not be ashamed of that
friendly intercourse which ought to exist among artists,
of receiving from the dead and giving to the living,
and perhaps to those who are yet unborn.
The daily food and nourishment of the mind of an
336

The Twelfth Discourse
artist is found in the great works of his predecessors.
There is no other way for him to become great himself.
Serpens, nisi serpentem comederit, non fit draco, is a
remark of a whimsical Natural History, which I have
read, though I do not recollect its title ; however false
as to dragons, it is applicable enough to artists.
Raffaelle, as appears from what has been said, had
carefully studied the works of Masaccio; and indeed
there was no other, if we except Michel Angelo (whom
he likewise imitated), so worthy of his attention ; and,
though his manner was dry and hard, his compositions
formal, and not enough diversified, according to the
custom of painters in that early period, yet his works
possess that grandeur and simplicity which accompany,
and even sometimes proceed from, regularity and hard
ness of manner. We must consider the barbarous
state of the arts before his time, when skill in draw
ing was so little understood, that the best of painters
could not even foreshorten the foot, but every figure
appeared to stand upon his toes ; and what served for
drapery, had, from the hardness and smallness of the
folds, too much the appearance of cords clinging round
the body. He first introduced large drapery, flowing
in an easy and natural manner : indeed he appears to
be the first who discovered the path that leads to every
excellence to which the art afterwards arrived, and may
therefore be justly considered as one of the great
fathers of modern art.
Though I have been led on to a longer digression
respecting this great painter than I intended, yet I
cannot avoid mentioning another excellence which he
Y 337

Sir Joshua - Reynolds
possessed in a very eminent degree ; he was as much
distinguished among his contemporaries for his dili
gence and industry, as he was for the natural faculties
of his mind. We are told, that his whole attention
was absorbed in the pursuit of his art, and that he ac
quired the name of Masaccio,1 from his total disregard
to his dress, his person and all the common concerns
of life. He is, indeed, a signal instance of what well-
directed diligence will do in a short time ; he lived but
twenty-seven years ; yet in that short space he carried
the art so far beyond what it had before reached, that
he appears to stand alone as a model for his successors.
Vasari gives a long catalogue of painters and sculptors,
who formed their taste and learned their art by study
ing his works ; among those, he names Michel Angelo,
Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, Raffaelle, Bartolomeo,
Andrea del Sarto, II Rosso, and Pierino del Vaga.
The habit of contemplating and brooding over the
ideas of great geniuses, till you find yourself warmed
by the contact, is the true method of forming an artist
like mind ; it is impossible, in the presence of those
great men, to think or invent in a mean manner; a
state of mind is acquired that receives those ideas only
which relish of grandeur and simplicity.
Beside the general advantage of forming the taste
by such an intercourse, there is another of a particular
kind, which was suggested to me by the practice of
Raffaelle, when imitating the work of which I have
been speaking. The figure of the Proconsul, Sergius
1 The addition of accio denotes some deformity or imperfection
attending that person to whom it is applied  R.
338

The Twelfth Discourse
Paulus, is taken from the Felix of Masaccio, though
one is a front figure, and the other seen in profile ; the
action is likewise somewhat changed ; but it is plain
Raffaelle had that figure in his mind. There is a
circumstance indeed, which I mention by the by, which
marks it very particularly ; Sergius Paulus wears a
crown of laurel ; this is hardly reconcilable to strict
propriety, and the costume, of which Raffaelle was
in general a good observer ; but he found it so in
Masaccio, and he did not bestow so much pains in
disguise as to change it. It appears to me to be an
excellent practice, thus to suppose the figures which
you wish to adopt in the works of those great painters
to be statues ; and to give, as Raffaelle has here given,
another view, taking care to preserve all the spirit and
grace you find in the original.
I should hope, from what has been lately said, that
it is not necessary to guard myself against any sup
position of recommending an entire dependence upon
former masters. I do not desire that you shall get
other people to do your business, or to think for you ;
1 only wish you to consult with, to call in as counsellors,
men the most distinguished for their knowledge and
experience, the result of which counsel must ultimately
depend upon yourself. Such conduct in the commerce
of life has never been considered as disgraceful, or in
any respect to imply intellectual imbecility ; it is a sign
rather of that true wisdom, which feels individual im
perfection, and is conscious to itself how much collective
observation is necessary to fill the immense extent, and
to comprehend the infinite variety of nature. I recom-
339

Sir Joshua Reynolds
mend neither self-dependence nor plagiarism. I advise
you only to take that assistance which every human
being wants, and which, as appears from the examples
that have been given, the greatest painters have not
disdained to accept. Let me add, that the diligence
required in the search, and the exertion subsequent in
accommodating those ideas to your own purpose, is a
business which idleness will not, and ignorance cannot,
perform. But in order more distinctly to explain what
kind of borrowing I mean, when I recommend so
anxiously the study of the works of great masters, let
us for a minute return again to Raffaelle, consider his
method of practice, and endeavour to imitate him, in his
manner of imitating others.
The two figures of St Paul which I lately mentioned,
are so nobly conceived by Masaccio, that perhaps it was
not in the power even of Raffaelle himself to raise and
improve them, nor has he attempted it ; but he has had
the address to change in some measure without diminish
ing the grandeur of their character ; he has substituted,
in the place of a serene composed dignity, that animated
expression which was necessary to the more active
employment he has assigned them.
In the same manner he has given more animation to
the figure of Sergius Paulus, and to that which is intro
duced in the picture of St Paul preaching, of which
little more than hints are given by Masaccio, which
Raffaelle has finished. The closing the eyes of this
figure, which in Masaccio might be easily mistaken for
sleeping, is not in the least ambiguous in the Cartoon:
his eyes indeed are closed, but they are closed with
340

The Twelfth Discourse
such vehemence, that the agitation of a mind perplexed
in the extreme is seen at the first glance; but what
is most extraordinary, and I think particularly to be
admired, is, that the same idea is continued through
the whole figure, even to the drapery, which is so
closely muffled about him, that even his hands are not
seen; by this happy correspondence between the ex
pression of the countenance, and the disposition of the
parts, the figure appears to think from head to foot.
Men of superior talents alone are capable of thus using
and adapting other men's minds to their own purposes,
or are able to make out and finish what was only in the
original a hint or imperfect conception. A readiness
in taking such hints, which escape the dull and ignorant,
makes, in my opinion, no inconsiderable part of that
faculty of the mind which is called genius.
It often happens that hints may be taken and em
ployed in a situation totally different from that in which
they were originally employed. There is a figure of
a Bacchante leaning backward, her head thrown quite
behind her, which seems to be a favourite invention,
as it is so frequently repeated in basso-relievos, cameos,
and intaglios ; it is intended to express an enthusiastic,
frantic kind of joy. This figure Baccio Bandinelli, in
a drawing that I have of that master, of the Descent
from the Cross, has adopted) and he knew very well
what was worth borrowing), for one of the Marys, to
express frantic agony of grief. It is curious to observe,
and it is certainly true, that the extremes of contrary
passions are with very little variation expressed by the
same action. 34i

Sir Joshua Reynolds
If I were to recommend method in any part of the
study of a painter, it would be in regard to invention;
that young students should not presume to think them
selves qualified to invent, till they were acquainted with
those stores of invention the world already possesses,
and had by that means accumulated sufficient materials
for the mind to work with. It would certainly be no
improper method of forming the mind of a young
artist, to begin with such exercises as the Italians call
a Pasticcio composition of the different excellences
which are dispersed in all other works of the same
kind. It is not supposed that he is to stop here, but
that he is to acquire by this means the art of select
ing, first what is truly excellent in Art, and then
what is still more excellent in Nature; a task which,
without this previous study, he will be but ill qualified
to perform.
The doctrine which is here advanced, is acknow
ledged to be new, and to many may appear strange.
But I only demand for it the reception of a stranger;
a favourable and attentive consideration, without that
entire confidence which might be claimed under authori
tative recommendation.
After you have taken a figure, or any idea of a
figure, from any of those great painters, there is
another operation still remaining, which I hold to be
indispensably necessary; that is, never to neglect
finishing from nature every part of the work. What
is taken from a model, though the first idea may have
been suggested by another, you have a just right to
consider as your own property. And here I cannot
342

The Twelfth Discourse
avoid mentioning a circumstance in placing the model,
though to some it may appear trifling. It is better to
possess the model with the attitude you require, than
to place him with your own hands : by this means it
happens often that the model puts himself in an action
superior to your own imagination. It is a great
matter to be in the way of accident, and to be watch
ful and ready to take advantage of it : besides, when
you fix the position of a model, there is danger of
putting him in an attitude into which no man would
naturally fall. This extends even to drapery. We
must be cautious in touching and altering a fold of the
stuff, which serves as a model, for fear of giving it in
advertently a forced form ; and it is perhaps better to
take the chance of another casual throw, than to alter
the position at which it was at first accidentally cast.
Rembrandt, in order to take the advantage of
accident, appears often to have used the pallet-knife
to lay his colours on the canvas instead of the pencil.
Whether it is the knife or any other instrument, it
suffices, if it is something that does not follow exactly
the will. Accident in the hands of an artist who
knows how to take the advantage of its hints, will
often produce bold and capricious beauties of handling
and facility, such as he would not have thought of, or
ventured, with his pencil, under the regular restraint
of his hand. However, this is fit only on occasions
where no correctness of form is required, such as
clouds, stumps of trees, rocks, or broken ground.
Works produced in an accidental manner will have
the same free unrestrained air as the works of nature,
343

Sir Joshua Reynolds
whose particular combinations seem to depend upon
accident. I again repeat, you are never to lose sight of nature ;
the instant you do, you are all abroad, at the mercy of
every gust of fashion, without knowing or seeing the
point to which you ought to steer. Whatever trips
you make you must still have nature in your eye.
Such deviations as art necessarily requires, I hope in
a future Discourse to be able to explain. In the mean
time let me recommend to you, not to have too great
dependance on your practice or memory, however
strong those impressions may have been which are
there deposited. They are for ever wearing out, and
will be at last obliterated, unless they are continually
refreshed and repaired.
It is not uncommon to meet with artists who, from
a long neglect of cultivating this necessary intimacy
with Nature, do not even know her when they see
her; she appearing a stranger to them, from their
being so long habituated to their own representation
of her. I have heard painters acknowledge, though
in that acknowledgment no degradation of themselves
was intended, that they could do better without Nature
than with her ; or, as they expressed it themselves, that
it only put them out. A painter, with such ideas and
such habits, is indeed in a most hopeless state. The
art of seeing Nature, or, in other words, the art of
using models, is in reality the great object, the point
to which all our studies are directed. As for the
power of being able to do tolerably well, from practice
alone, let it be valued according to its worth. But I
344

The Twelfth Discourse
do not see in what manner it can be sufficient for the
production of correct, excellent, and finished pictures.
Works deserving this character never were produced,
nor ever will arise, from memory alone ; and I will
venture to say, that an artist who brings to his work
a mind tolerably furnished with the general principles
of art, and a taste formed upon the works of good
artists, in short, who knows in what excellence consists,
will, with the assistance of models, which we will like
wise suppose he has learnt the art of using, be an over
match for the greatest painter that ever lived who should
be debarred such advantages.
Our neighbours, the French, are much in this practice
of extempore invention, and their dexterity is such as
even to excite admiration, if not envy ; but how rarely
can this praise be given to their finished pictures !
The late Director of their Academy, Boucher, was
eminent in this way. When I visited him some years
since in France, I found him at work on a very large
picture, without drawings or models of any kind. On
my remarking this particular circumstance, he said,
when he was young, studying his art, he found it
necessary to use models; but he had left them off for
many years.
Such pictures as this was, and such as I fear always
will be produced by those who work solely from
practice or memory, may be a convincing proof of the
necessity of the conduct which I have recommended.
However, in justice I cannot quit this painter without
adding, that in the former part of his life, when he was
in the habit of having recourse to nature, he was not
345

Sir Joshua Reynolds
without a considerable degree of merit — enough to
make half the painters of his country his imitators ;
he had often grace and beauty, and good skill in com
position ; but, I think, all under the influence of a bad
taste : his imitators are indeed abominable.
Those artists who have quitted the service of Nature
(whose service, when well understood, is perfect freedom),
and have put themselves under the direction of I know
not what capricious fantastical mistress, who fascinates
and overpowers their whole mind, and from whose
dominion there are no hopes of their being ever
reclaimed (since they appear perfectly satisfied, and
not at all conscious of their forlorn situation), like the
transformed followers of Comus :
Not once perceive their foul disfigurement ;
But boast themselves more comely than before.
Methinks, such men, who have found out so short a
path, have no reason to complain of the shortness of
life, and the extent of art ; since life is so much longer
than is wanted for their improvement, or indeed is
necessary for the accomplishment of their idea of
perfection. On the contrary, he who recurs to nature,
at every recurrence renews his strength. The rules
of art he is never likely to forget ; they are few and
simple ; but nature is refined, subtle, and infinitely
various, beyond the power and retention of memory;
it is necessary, therefore, to have continual recourse
to her. In this intercourse, there is no end of his
improvement; the longer he lives the nearer he ap
proaches to the true and perfect idea of art.
346

INTRODUCTION TO
THE THIRTEENTH DISCOURSE

The Thirteenth Discourse is perhaps the most masterly as it
is the most subtly reasoned of all Reynolds' works. We
may notice that as he proceeds Reynolds relies more and
more on the conformity of a work of art to the demands of
the cultivated intelligence, and less on any principles derived
from external nature. He bases beauty, that is, on the
uniformity of human nature, and judges that whatever is most
universal in its appeal approaches most to absolute artistic
truth ; while he finds for temporary and partial predilections of
the human mind a proportionate degree of relative artistic truth.
In effect, the Thirteenth Discourse is an eloquent and noble!
protest against the demands made on art by the untrained t
appetites of the public. It is also more applicable to-day than
when Reynolds delivered it. With the social and intellectual
emancipation of the lower middle classes the demand for crude
sensational effects, for vivid appeals to a lazy curiosity, and
love of novelty, has become imperious. It would no longer
be possible to-day, as it was in 1786, to appeal from art to
the practice of the stage, as showing how by deviation from
mere imitation the higher ranges of emotion may be con
veyed to the imagination and feelings, because the stage too
has suffered from precisely those evils which Reynolds de
plores in art ; and the power to die with a perfect imitation
of every physiological circumstance has become the test of
greatness in an actress, while the introduction of a real
hansom cab, a real waterfall, or what not, is the proof of
scenic completeness. 347

Sir Joshua Reynolds
The end of art — Reynolds is never weary of pressing the
point — the end of art is to appeal to the cultivated imagina
tion ; and as the cultivation of the imagination is not only rare,
but is looked upon as something extravagant and subversive
of the comfortable routine of existence, serious art is likely
always to remain, as indeed it always has been in this country,
a sporadic and isolated phenomenon. It must be practised almost
in secret like a proscribed religion, while a safe and palatable
substitute is solemnly paraded for the acclamations of the
populace. For this Discourse alone Reynolds deserves to
be held in reverence by all those who think that art is
more than a relaxation from the serious cares of the money
market.

34«

THE THIRTEENTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution
ofthe Prizes, December ii, 1786
Art not merely imitation, but under the direction of the imagination —
In what manner poetry, painting, acting, gardening, and archi
tecture, depart from nature.
Gentlemen,
To discover beauties, or to point out faults, in the
works of celebrated masters, and to compare the
conduct of one artist with another, is certainly no
mean or inconsiderable part of the criticism; but
this is still no more than to know the art through
the artist. This test of investigation must have two
capital defects ; it must be narrow, and it must be
uncertain. To enlarge the boundaries of the Art of
Painting, as well as to fix its principles, it will be
necessary that that art, and those principles, should
be considered in their correspondence with the prin
ciples of the other arts, which, like this, address
themselves primarily and principally to the imagination.
When those connected and kindred principles are
brought together to be compared, another comparison
will grow out of this ; that is, the comparison of them
all with those of human nature, from whence arts
derive the materials upon which they are to produce
their effects. 349

Sir Joshua Reynolds
When this comparison of art with art, and of all
arts with the nature of man, is once made with success,
our guiding lines are as well ascertained and established
as they can be in matters of this description.
This, as it is the highest style of criticism, is at
the same time the soundest ; for it refers to the
eternal and immutable nature of things.
You are not to imagine that I mean to open to
you at large, or to recommend to your research, the
whole of this vast field of science. It is certainly
much above my faculties to reach it; and though it
may not be above yours to comprehend it fully, if
it were fully and properly brought before you, yet
perhaps the most perfect criticism requires habits of
speculation and abstraction, not very consistent with
the employment which ought to occupy, and the
habits of mind which ought to prevail in a practical
artist. I only point out to you these things, that
when you do criticise (as all who work on a plan will
criticise more or less), your criticism may be built on
the foundation of true principles; and that though
you may not always travel a great way, the way
that you do travel may be the right road.
I observe, as a fundamental ground, common to
all the arts with which we have any concern in this
discourse, that they address themselves only to two
faculties of the mind, its imagination and its sensi-^

All theories which attempt to direct or to control
the art, upon any principles falsely called rational,
which we form to ourselves upon a supposition of
350

The Twelfth/Discourse
what ought in reasea-tcr^Be the end or means of art,
independent of the known first effect produced by
objects on the imagination, must be false and delusive.
For though it may appear bold to say it, the imagina
tion is here the residence of truth. If the imagination
be affected, the conclusion is fairly drawn; if it be
not affected, the reasoning is erroneous, because the
end is not obtained ; the effect itself being the test,
and the only test, of the truth and efficacy of the
means. There is in the commerce of life, as in art, a saga
city which is far from being contradictory to right
reason, and is superior to any occasional exercise of
that faculty; which supersedes it; and does not wait
for the slow progress of deduction, but goes at once,
by what appears a kind of intuition, to the conclusion.
A man endowed with this faculty, feels and acknow
ledges the truth, though it is not always in his power,
perhaps, to give a reason for it ; because he cannot
recollect and bring before him all the materials that
gave birth to his opinion; for very many and very
intricate considerations may unite to form the principle,
even of small and minute parts, involved in, or de
pendent on a great system of things : though these
in process of time are forgotten, the right impression
still remains fixed in his mind.
This impression is the result of the accumulated ex
perience of our whole life, and has been collected, we
do not always know how, or when. But this mass
of collective observation, however acquired, ought to
prevail over that reason, which however powerfully
35i

Sir Joshua Reynolds
exerted on any particular occasion, will probably
comprehend but a partial view of the subject; and
our conduct in life, as well as in the arts, is, or ought
to be, generally governed by this habitual reason: it
is our happiness that we are enabled to draw on such
funds. If we were obliged to enter into a theoretical
deliberation on every occasion, before we act, life
would be at a stand, and art would be impracticable.
It appears to me therefore, that our first thoughts,
that is, the effect which any thing produces on our
minds, on its first appearance, is never to be forgotten;
and it demands for that reason, because it is the
first, to be laid up with care. If this be not done,
the artist may happen to impose on himself by partial
reasoning; by a cold consideration of those animated
thoughts which proceed, not perhaps from caprice or
rashness (as he may afterwards conceit), but from the
fulness of his mind, enriched with the copious stores
of all the various inventions which he had ever seen,
or had ever passed in his mind. These ideas are in
fused into his design without any conscious effort;
but if he be not on his guard, he may re-consider and
correct them, till the whole matter is reduced to a
common-place invention.
This is sometimes the effect of what I mean to
caution you against; that is to say, an unfounded
distrust of the imagination and feeling, in favour of
narrow, partial, confined, argumentative theories; and
of principles that seem to apply to the design in hand ;
without considering those general impressions on the
fancy in which real principles of sound reason, and of
352

The Thirteenth Discourse
much more weight and importance, are involved, and,
as it were, lie hid, under the appearance of a sort
of vulgar sentiment.
Reason, without doubt, must ultimately determine
everything ; at this minute it is required to inform
us when that very reason is to give way to feeling.
Though I have often spoken of that mean conception
of our art which confines it to mere imitation, I must
add, that it may be narrowed to such a mere matter
of experiment, as to exclude from it the application
of science, which alone gives dignity and compass to
any art. But to find proper foundations for science
is neither to narrow or to vulgarise it; and this is
sufficiently exemplified in the success of experimental
philosophy. It is the false system of reasoning,
grounded on a partial view of things, against which I
would most earnestly guard you. And I do it the
rather, because those narrow theories, so coincident
with the poorest and most miserable practice, and
which are adopted to give it countenance, have not
had their origin in the poorest minds, but in the
mistakes, or possibly in the mistaken interpretations,
of great and commanding authorities. We are not,
therefore, in this case misled by feeling, but by false
speculation. When such a man as Plato speaks of painting as only
an imitative art, and that our pleasure proceeds from
observing and acknowledging the truth of the imitation,
I think he misleads us by a partial theory. It is in this
poor, partial, and, so far, false view of the art, that
Cardinal Bembo has chosen to distinguish even Raffaelle
z 353

Sir Joshua Reynolds
himself, whom our enthusiasm honours with the name of
Divine. The same sentiment is adopted by Pope, in his
epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller ; and he turns the pane
gyric solely on imitation, as it is a sort of deception.
I shall not think my time misemployed, if by any
means I may contribute to confirm your opinion of what
ought to be the object of your pursuit ; because, though
the best critics must always have exploded this strange
idea, yet I know that there is a disposition towards a
perpetual recurrence to it, on account of its simplicity
and superficial plausibility. For this reason I shall beg
leave to lay before you a few thoughts on this subject;
to throw out some hints that may lead your minds to an
opinion (which I take to be the truth), that Painting is
not only; to be considered as an imitation, operating by
deception, but that it is, and ought to be, in many
points of view, and strictly speaking, no imitation at all
of external nature. Perhaps it ought to be as far
removed from the vulgar idea of imitation, as the
refined civilized state in which we live is removed
from a gross state of nature ; and those who have
not cultivated their imaginations, which the majority
of mankind certainly have not, may be said, in regard
to arts, to continue in this state of nature. Such men
will always prefer imitation to that excellence which is
addressed to another faculty that they do not possess;
but these are not the persons to whom a painter is to
look, any more than a judge of morals and manners
ought to refer controverted points upon those subjects
to the opinions of people taken from the banks of the
Ohio, or from New Holland. 354

The Thirteenth Discourse
It is the lowest style only of arts, whether of paint
ing, poetry, or music, that may be said, in the vulgar
sense, to be naturally pleasing. The higher efforts
of those arts, we know by experience, do not affect
minds wholly uncultivated. This refined taste is the
consequence of education and habit ; we are born
only with a capacity of entertaining this refinement,
as we are born with a disposition to receive and obey
all the rules and regulations of society; and so far it
may be said to be natural to us, and no further.
What has been said, may show the artist how neces
sary it is, when he looks about him for the advice and
criticism of his friends, to make some distinction of the
character, taste, experience, and observation in this art,
of those from whom it is received. An ignorant, un
educated man may, like Apelles' critic, be a competent
judge of the truth of the representation of a sandal;
or, to go somewhat higher, like Moliere's old woman,
may decide upon what is nature, in regard to comic
humour; but a critic in the higher style of art ought
to possess the same refined taste which directed the
artist in his work.
To illustrate this principle by a comparison with
other arts, I shall now produce some instances to show,
that they, as well as our own art, renounce the narrow
idea of nature, and the narrow theories derived from
that mistaken principle, and apply to that reason only
which informs us not what imitation is, — a natural
representation of a given object, — but what it is
natural for the imagination to be delighted with. And
perhaps there is no better way of acquiring this know-
355

Sir Joshua Reynolds
ledge than by this kind of analogy: each art will
corroborate and mutually reflect the truth on the other.
Such a kind of juxtaposition may likewise have this use,
that, whilst the artist is amusing himself in the contem
plation of other arts, he may habitually transfer the
principles of those arts to that which he professes ;
which ought to be always present to his mind, and to
which every thing is to be referred.
So far is art from being derived from, or having any
immediate intercourse with, particular nature as its
model, that there are many arts that set out with a
professed deviation from it.
This is certainly not so exactly true in regard to
painting and sculpture. Our elements are laid in gross
common nature, — an exact imitation of what is before
us ; but when we advance to the higher state, we
consider this power of imitation, though first in the
order of acquisition, as by no means the highest in
the scale of perfection.
Poetry addresses itself to the same faculties and
the same dispositions as painting, though by different
means. The object of both is to accommodate itself
to all the natural propensities and inclinations of the
mind. The very existence of poetry depends on the
licence it assumes of deviating from actual nature, in
order to gratify natural propensities by other means,
which are found by experience full as capable of
affording such gratification. It sets out with a lan
guage in the highest degree artificial, a construction
of measured words, such as never is nor ever was
used by man. Let this measure be what it may,
356

The Thirteenth Discourse
whether hexameter or any other meter used in Latin
or Greek, — or rhyme, or blank verse varied with pauses
and accents, in modern languages, — they are all equally
removed from nature, and equally a violation of common
speech. When this artificial mode has been established
as the vehicle of sentiment, there is another principle in
the human mind, to which the work must be referred,
which still renders it more artificial, carries it still further
from common nature, and deviates only to render it more
perfect. That principle is the sense of congruity, coher
ence, and consistency, which is a real existing principle
in man; and it must be gratified. Therefore, having
once adopted a style and a measure not found in com
mon discourse, it is required that the sentiments also
should be in the same proportion elevated above common
nature, from the necessity of there being an agreement
of the parts among themselves, that one uniform whole
may be produced.
To correspond, therefore, with this general system
of deviation from nature, the manner in which poetry
is offered to the ear, the tone in which it is recited,
should be as far removed from the tone of conversation
as the words of which that poetry is composed. This
naturally suggests the idea of modulating the voice by
art, which I suppose may be considered as accom
plished to the highest degree of excellence in the
recitative of the Italian Opera; as we may conjecture
it was in the chorus that attended the ancient drama.
And though the most violent passions, the highest dis
tress, even death itself, are expressed in singing or
recitative, I would not admit as sound criticism the
357

Sir Joshua Reynolds
condemnation of such exhibitions on account of their
being unnatural.
If it is natural for our senses and our imaginations
to be delighted with singing, with instrumental music,
with poetry, and with graceful action, taken separately ;
(none of them being in the vulgar sense natural, even
in that separate state ;) it is conformable to experience,
and therefore agreeable to reason as connected with and
referred to experience, that we should also be delighted
with this union of music, poetry, and graceful action
joined to every circumstance of pomp and magnificence
calculated to strike the senses of the spectator. Shall
reason stand in the way, and tell us that we ought not
to like what we know we do like, and prevent us from
feeling the full effect of this complicated exertion of
art? This is what I would understand by poets and
painters being allowed to dare every thing; for what
can be more daring than accomplishing the purpose
and end of art by a complication of means, none of
which have their archetypes in actual nature ?
So far therefore is servile imitation from being
necessary, that whatever is familiar, or in any way
reminds us of what we see and hear every day, perhaps
does not belong to the higher provinces of art, either
in poetry or painting. The mind is to be transported,
as Shakspeare expresses it, beyond the ignorant present,
to ages past. Another and a higher order of beings is
supposed ; and to those beings everything which is
introduced into the work must correspond. Of this
conduct, under these circumstances, the Roman and
Florentine schools afford sufficient examples. Their
358

The Thirteenth Discourse
style by this means is raised and elevated above all
others; and by the same means the compass of art
itself is enlarged.
We often see grave and great subjects attempted by
artists of another school ; who, though excellent in the
lower class of art, proceeding on the principles which
regulate that class, and not recollecting, or not know
ing, that they were to address themselves to another
faculty of the mind, have become perfectly ridiculous.
The picture which I have at present in my thoughts
is a Sacrifice of Iphigenia, painted by Jan Steen, a painter
of whom I have formerly had occasion to speak with the
highest approbation ; and even in this picture, the sub
ject of which is by no means adapted to his genius,
there is nature and expression; but it is such expres
sion, and the countenances are so familiar, and conse
quently so vulgar, and the whole accompanied with
such finery of silks and velvets, that one would be
almost tempted to doubt whether the artist did not
purposely intend to burlesque his subject.
Instances of the same kind we frequently see in
poetry. Parts of Hobbes's translation of Homer are
remembered and repeated merely for the familiarity
and meanness of their phraseology, so ill correspond
ing with the ideas which ought to have been expressed,
and, as I conceive, with the style of the original.
We may proceed in the same manner through the
comparatively inferior branches of art. There are in
works of that class, the same distinction of a higher
and a lower style ; and they take their rank and degree
in proportion as the artist departs more or less from
359

Sir Joshua Reynolds
common nature, and makes it an object of his attention
to strike the imagination of the spectator by ways be
longing specially to art, — unobserved and untaught out
of the school of its practice.
If our judgments are to be directed by narrow,
vulgar, untaught or rather ill-taught reason, we must
prefer a portrait by Denner, or any other high finisher,
to those of Titian or Vandyck; and a landscape of
Vanderheyden to those of Titian or Rubens ; for they
are certainly more exact representations of nature.
If we suppose a view of nature represented with all
the truth of the camera obscura, and the same scene
represented by a great artist, how little and mean will
the one appear in comparison of the other, where no
superiority is supposed from the choice of the subject.
The scene shall be the same, the difference only will be
in the manner in which it is presented to the eye.
With what additional superiority then will the same
artist appear when he has the power of selecting his
materials, as well as elevating his style ? Like Nicolas
Poussin, he transports us to the environs of ancient
Rome, with all the objects which a literary education
makes so precious and interesting to man: or, like
Sebastian Bourdon, he leads us to the dark antiquity
of the Pyramids of Egypt; or, like Claude Lorrain,
he conducts us to the tranquillity of Arcadian scenes
and fairy land.
Like the history-painter, a painter of landscapes in
this style and with this conduct, sends the imagination
back into antiquity; and, like the poet, he makes the
elements sympathise with his subject : whether the
360

The Thirteenth Discourse
clouds roll in volumes like those of Titian or Salvator
Rosa,— or, like those of Claude, are gilded with the
setting sun; whether the mountains have sudden and
bold projections, or are gently sloped; whether the
branches of his trees shoot out abruptly in right angles
from their trunks, or follow each other with only a
gentle inclination. All these circumstances contribute
to the general character of the work, whether it be
of the elegant, or of the more sublime kind. If we
add to this the powerful materials of lightness and
darkness, over which the artist has complete dominion,
to vary and dispose them as he pleases ; to diminish or
increase them, as will best suit his purpose and corre
spond to the general idea of his work ; a landscape thus
conducted, under the influence of a poetical mind, will
have the same superiority over the more ordinary and
common views, as Milton's Allegro and Penseroso have
over a cold prosaic narration or description ; and such a
picture would make a more forcible impression on the
mind than the real scenes, were they presented be
fore us.
If we look abroad to other arts, we may observe
the same distinction, the same division into two
classes; each of them acting under the influence of
two different principles, in which the one follows
nature, the other varies it, and sometimes departs
from it.
The theatre, which is said to hold the mirror up to
nature, comprehends both those ideas. The lower
kind of comedy, or farce, like the inferior style of
painting, the more naturally it is represented, the
361

Sir Joshua Reynolds
better ; but the higher appears to me to aim no
more at imitation, so far as it belongs to anything
like deception, or to expect that the spectators should
think that the events there represented are really
passing before them, than Raffaelle in his Cartoons,
or Poussin in his Sacraments, expected it to be be
lieved, even for a moment, that what they exhibited
were real figures.
For want of this distinction, the world is filled with
false criticism. Raffaelle is praised for naturalness
and deception, which he certainly has not accomplished,
and as certainly never intended; and our late great
actor, Garrick, has been as ignorantly praised by his
friend Fielding : who doubtless imagined he had hit
upon an ingenious device, by introducing in one of
his novels (otherwise a work of the highest merit),
an ignorant man, mistaking Garrick's representation
of a scene in Hamlet, for reality. A very little reflec
tion will convince us, that there is not one circum
stance in the whole scene that is of the nature of
deception. The merit and excellence of Shakspeare,
and of Garrick, when they were engaged in such
scenes, is of a different and much higher kind. But
what adds to the falsity of this intended compliment,
is, that the best stage representation appears even
more unnatural to a person of such a character, who
is supposed never to have seen a play before, than it
does to those who have had a habit of allowing for
those necessary deviations from nature which the art
requires. In theatric representation, great allowances must
362

The Thirteenth Discourse
always be made for the place in which the exhibition
is represented ; for the surrounding company, the
lighted candles, the scenes visibly shifted in your
sight, and the language of blank verse, so different
from common English ; which merely as English, must
appear surprising in the mouths of Hamlet, and all
the court and natives of Denmark. These allowances
are made; but their being made puts an end to all
manner of deception : and further, we know, that the
more low, illiterate, and vulgar any person is, the less v
he will be disposed to make these allowances, and of
course to be deceived by any imitation ; the things
in which the trespass against nature and common
probability is made in favour of the theatre, being
quite within the sphere of such uninformed men.
Though I have no intention of entering into all the
circumstances of unnaturalness in theatrical represen
tations, I must observe that even the expression of
violent passion is not always the most excellent in
proportion as it is the most natural ; so, great terror
and such disagreeable sensations may be communi
cated to the audience, that the balance may be de
stroyed by which pleasure is preserved, and holds
its predominancy in the mind : violent distortion of
action, harsh screamings of the voice, however great (
the occasion, or however natural on such occasion,
are therefore not admissible in the theatric art. Many
of these allowed deviations from nature arise from the
necessity which there is, that everything should be
raised and enlarged beyond its natural state ; that the
full effect may come home to the spectator, which
363

Sir Joshua Reynolds
otherwise would be lost in the comparatively exten
sive space of the theatre. Hence the deliberate and
stately step, the studied grace of action, which seems
to enlarge the dimensions of the actor, and alone to
fill the stage. All this unnaturalness, though right
and proper in its place, would appear affected and
ridiculous in a private room; quid enim deformius quam
scenam in vitam transferre ?
And here I must observe, and I believe it may be
| considered as a general rule, that no art can be grafted
with success on another art. For though they all
profess the same origin, and to proceed from the same
stock, yet each has its own peculiar modes both of
imitating nature, and of deviating from it, each for
the accomplishment of its own particular purpose.
These deviations, more especially, will not bear trans
plantation to another soil.
If a painter should endeavour to copy the theatrical
pomp and parade of dress and attitude, instead of
that simplicity which is not a greater beauty in life
than it is in painting, we should condemn such pictures,
as painted in the meanest style.
So also gardening, as far as gardening is an art, or
entitled to that appellation, is a deviation from nature ;
for if the true taste consists, as many hold, in banish
ing every appearance of art, or any traces of the foot
steps of man, it would then be no longer a garden.
Even though we define it, " Nature to advantage
dressed," and in some sense it is such, and much more
beautiful and commodious for the recreation of man;
it is however, when so dressed, no longer a subject
364

The Thirteenth Discourse
for the pencil of a landscape-painter, as all landscape-
painters know, who love to have recourse to Nature
herself, and to dress her according to the principles of
their own art; which are far different from those of
gardening, even when conducted according to the
most approved principles ; and such as a landscape
painter himself would adopt in the disposition of his
own grounds, for his own private satisfaction.
I have brought together as many instances as appear
necessary to make out the several points which I
wished to suggest to your consideration in this dis
course; that your own thoughts may lead you further
in the use that may be made of the analogy of the
arts ; and of the restraint which a full understanding
of the diversity of many of their principles ought to
impose on the employment of that analogy.
The great end of all those arts is, to make an im
pression on the imagination and the feeling. The
pnitation of nature frequently does this. Sometimes
it fails, and something else succeeds. I think, there
fore, the true test of all the arts is not solely whether
the production is a true copy of nature, but whether it
answers the end of art, which is to produce a pleasing
effect upon the mind.
It remains only to speak a few words of architecture,
which does not come under the denomination of an
imitative art. It applies itself, like music (and I believe
we may add poetry), directly to the imagination, without
the intervention of any kind of imitation.
There is in architecture, as in painting, an inferior
branch of art, in which the imagination appears to
365

Sir Joshua Reynolds
have no concern. It does not, however, acquire the
name of a polite and liberal art, from its usefulness, or
administering to our wants or necessities, but from
some higher principle: we are sure that in the hands
of a man of genius it is capable of inspiring sentiment,
and of filling the mind with great and sublime ideas.
It may be worth the attention of artists to consider
what materials are in their hands that may contri
bute to this end ; and whether this art has it not
in its power to address itself to the imagination with
effect by more ways than are generally employed by
architects. To pass over the effect produced by that general
symmetry and proportion by which the eye is delighted,
as the ear is with music, architecture certainly possesses
many principles in common with poetry and painting.
Among those which may be reckoned as the first is,
that of affecting the imagination by means of associa
tion of ideas. Thus, for instance, as we have naturally
a veneration for antiquity, whatever building brings to
our remembrance ancient customs and manners, such as
the castles of the Barons of ancient chivalry, is sure to
give this delight. Hence it is that towers and battlements
are so often selected by the painter and the poet, to
make a part of the composition of their ideal Land
scape ; and it is from hence, in a great degree, that in
the buildings of Vanbrugh, who was a poet as well as
an architect, there is a greater display of imagination
than we shall find perhaps in any other ; and this is the
ground of the effect we feel in many of his works, not
withstanding the faults with which many of them are
366

The Thirteenth Discourse
justly charged. For this purpose, Vanbrugh appears to
have had recourse to some of the principles of the
Gothic architecture; which, though not so ancient as
the Grecian, is more so to our imagination, with which
the artist is more concerned than with absolute truth.
The barbaric splendour of those Asiatic buildings,
which are now publishing by a member of this
Academy, may possibly, in the same manner, furnish an
architect, not with models to copy, but with hints of
composition and general effect, which would not other
wise have occurred.
It is, I know, a delicate and hazardous thing (and as
such I have already pointed it out) to carry the prin
ciples of one art to another, or even to reconcile in one
object the various modes of the same art, when they
proceed on different principles. The sound rules of the
Grecian architecture are not to be lightly sacrificed. A
deviation from them, or even an addition to them, is
like a deviation or addition to or from the rules of other
arts, — fit only for a great master, who is thoroughly
conversant in the nature of man, as well as all combina
tions in his own art.
It may not be amiss for the architect to take advan
tage sometimes of that to which I am sure the painter
ought always to have his eyes open, I mean the use of
accidents : to follow when they lead, and to improve
them, rather than always to trust to a regular plan. It
often happens that additions have been made to houses
at various times, for use or pleasure. As such build
ings depart from regularity, they now and then acquire
something of scenery by this accident, which I should
367

Sir Joshua Reynolds
think might not unsuccessfully be adopted by an architect
in an original plan, if it does not too much interfere
with convenience. Variety and intricacy are beauties
' and excellences in every other of the arts which
address the imagination : and why not in architecture ?
The forms and turnings of the streets of London,
and other old towns, are produced by accident, without
any original plan or design : but they are not always
the less pleasant to the walker or spectator on that
account. On the contrary, if the city had been built
on the regular plan of Sir Christopher Wren, the effect
might have been, as we know it is in some new parts of
the town, rather unpleasing ; the uniformity might have
produced weariness, and a slight degree of disgust.
I can pretend to no skill in the detail of architecture.
I judge now of the art merely as a painter. When I
speak of Vanbrugh, I mean to speak of him in the
language of our art. To speak, then, of Vanbrugh
in the language of a painter, he had originality of
invention, he understood light and shadow, and had
great skill in composition. To support his principal
object, he produced his second and third groups or
masses ; he perfectly understood in his art what is
the most difficult in ours, the conduct of the back
ground ; by which the design and invention is set off
to the greatest advantage. What the back-ground
is in painting, in architecture is the real ground on
which the building is erected ; and no architect took
greater care than he that his work should not appear
crude and hard : that is, it did not abruptly start out of
the ground without expectation or preparation.
368

The Thirteenth Discourse
This is a tribute which a painter owes to an architect
who composed like a painter ; and was defrauded of
the due reward of his merit by the wits of his time,
who did not understand the principles of composition in
poetry better than he ; and who knew little or nothing
of what he understood perfectly, the general ruling
principles of architecture and painting. His fate was
that of the great Perrault ; both were the objects of
the petulant sarcasms of factious men of letters ; and
both have left some of the fairest ornaments which
to this day decorate their several countries ; the Facade
of the Louvre, Blenheim, and Castle-Howard.
Upon the whole, it seems to me that the object and
intention of all the arts is to supply the natural imper
fection of things, and often to gratify the mind by
realizing and embodying what never existed but in
the imagination.
It is allowed on all hands, that facts and events, how
ever they may bind the historian, have no dominion
over the poet or the painter. With us, history is made
to bend and conform to this great idea of art. And
why ? Because these arts, in their highest province,
are not addressed to the gross senses ; but to the
desires of the mind, to that spark of divinity which
we have within, impatient of being circumscribed and
pent up by the world which is about us. Just so much
as our art has of this, just so much of dignity, I had
almost said of divinity, it exhibits ; and those of our
artists who possessed this mark of distinction in the
highest degree, acquired from thence the glorious
appellation of Divine.
2 a 369

INTRODUCTION TO
THE FOURTEENTH DISCOURSE
This is described by one of Reynolds' coldest admirers as
"perhaps the most interesting passage in the Discourses."
It is interesting for the light it throws on Reynolds' character
as a man and as a critic, and it is highly favourable to both.
Gainsborough had quarrelled with the Academy in 1783, and
since then had refused to exhibit. In this quarrel he was
possibly in the right, but his conduct was not likely to
please the Academy's President. Nor had Gainsborough
accepted Reynolds' advances very cordially. They were
too much opposed in character both as men and as artists
ever to be intimate. Such are the circumstances that gener
ally produce the bitterest professional jealousy. But Reynolds'
love of art was too sincere to allow of any such personal
feelings, even if he had not dispelled them entirely in that
touching final reconciliation which is here so delicately de
scribed. But it is not only Reynolds' superiority as a man
that is shown by this Discourse, but his admirable critical
sense. It may seem to us now to be cold praise to say that
Gainsborough is greater than Raphael Mengs, or Pompeo
Battoni, but that is only because Reynolds' prophecy has
come so entirely true. It always requires some courage,
some power of conviction, and some force of imagination to
see a contemporary as a really great man. Reynolds had
known him all his life as Mr Gainsborough, and it required
a firm effort of the imagination to divine what a rich sound
the word Gainsborough would one day have to our ears.
Everything was against his forming so just and so exalted
an opinion of his rival, and yet he did not hesitate to place
him, where he still stands, at the very head of the English
school. 371

THE FOURTEENTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution of
the Prizes, December 10, 1788
Character of Gainsborough : — his excellences and defects
Gentlemen,
In the study of our art, as in the study of all arts,
something is the result of our own observation of
Nature ; something, and that not a little, the effect
of the example of those who have studied the same
Nature before us, and who have cultivated before us
the same art, with diligence and success. The less
we confine ourselves in the choice of those examples,
the more advantage we shall derive from them, and
the nearer we shall bring our performances to a corre
spondence with nature and the great general rules of
art. When we draw our examples from remote and
revered antiquity, — with some advantage undoubtedly
in that selection, — we subject ourselves to some incon
veniences. We may suffer ourselves to be too much
led away by great names, and to be too much subdued
by overbearing authority. Our learning, in that case,
is not so much an exercise of our judgment, as a proof
of our docility. We find ourselves, perhaps, too much
overshadowed ; and the character of our pursuits is
rather distinguished by the tameness of the follower,
than animated by the spirit of emulation. It is some-
373

Sir Joshua Reynolds
times of service, that our examples should be near us;
and such as raise a reverence, sufficient to induce us
carefully to observe them, yet not so great as to pre
vent us from engaging with them in something like a
generous contention.
We have lately lost Mr Gainsborough, one of the
greatest ornaments of our Academy. It is not our
business here, to make panegyrics on the living, or
even on the dead, who were of our body. The praise
of the former, might bear appearance of adulation;
and the latter, of untimely justice; perhaps, of envy
to those whom we have still the happiness to enjoy,
by an oblique suggestion of invidious comparisons. In
discoursing, therefore, on the talents of the late Mr
Gainsborough, my object is, not so much to praise or
to blame him, as to draw from his excellences and
defects, matter of instruction to the students in our
academy. If ever this nation should produce genius
sufficient to acquire to us the honourable distinction of
an English School, the name of Gainsborough will be
transmitted to posterity, in the history of the art, among
the very first of that rising name. That our reputation
in the arts is now only- rising, must be acknowledged ;
and we must expect our advances to be attended with
old prejudices, as adversaries, and not as supporters;
standing in this respect, in a very different situation
from the late artists of the Roman School, to whose
reputation ancient prejudices have certainly contributed:
the way was prepared for them, and they may be said
rather to have lived in the reputation of their country,
than to have contributed to it ; whilst whatever celeb-
374

The Fourteenth Discourse
rity is obtained by Enghsh artists, can arise only from
the operation of a fair and true comparison. And
when they communicate to their country a share of
their reputation, it is a portion of fame not borrowed
from others, but solely acquired bv their own labour
and talents. As Italy has, undoubtedly, a prescriptive
right to an administration bordering on prejudice, as
a soil peculiarly adapted, congenial, and, we may add,
destined to the production of men of great genius in
our art, we may not unreasonably suspect that a portion
of the great fame of some of their late artists has been
owing to the general readiness and disposition of man-
kind, to acquiesce in their original prepossessions in
favour of the productions of the Roman School.
On this ground, however unsafe, I will venture to
prophesy, that two of the last distinguished painters
of that country, I mean Pompeio Battoni and Raffaelle
Mengs, however great their names may at present
sound in our ears, will very soon fall into the rank of
hnperiale, Sebastian Concha, Placido Constanza, Ma-
succio, and the rest of their immediate predecessors;
whose names, though equally renowned in their life
time, are now fallen into what is little short of total
oblivion. I do not say that those painters were not
superior to the artist I allude to, and whose loss we
lament, in a certain routine of practice, which, to the
eyes of common observers, has the air of a learned
composition, and bears a sort of superficial resemblance
to the manner of the great men who went before them.
I know this perfectly well, but I know likewise, that a
man, looking for real and lasting reputation, must un-
375

Sir Joshua Reynolds
learn much of the common-place method so observable
in the works of the artists whom I have named. For
my own part, I confess, I take more interest in, and am
more captivated with the powerful impression of nature,
which Gainsborough exhibited in his portraits and in
his landscapes, and the interesting simplicity and ele
gance of his little ordinary beggar-children, than with
any of the works of that school, since the time of
Andrea Sacchi, or perhaps we may say Carlo Maratti;
two painters, who may truly be said to be Ultimi
Romanorum. I am well aware how much I lay myself open to the
censure and ridicule of the academical professors of
other nations, in preferring the humble attempts of
Gainsborough to the works of those regular graduates
in the great historical style. But we have the sanction
of all mankind in preferring genius in a lower rank of
art, to feebleness and insipidity in the highest.
It would not be to the present purpose, even if I had
the means and materials, which I have not, to enter into
the private life of Mr Gainsborough. The history of
his gradual advancement, and the means by which he
acquired such excellence in his art, would come nearer
to our purposes and wishes, if it were by any means
attainable ; but the slow progress of advancement is
in general imperceptible to the man himself who makes
it ; it is the consequence of an accumulation of various
ideas which his mind has received, he does not perhaps
know how or when. Sometimes, indeed, it happens,
that he may be able to mark the time when from the
sight of a picture, a passage in an author, or a hint in
376

The Fourteenth Discourse
conversation, he has received, as it were, some new and
guiding light, something like inspiration, by which his
mind has been expanded; and is morally sure that his
whole life and conduct have been affected by that
accidental circumstance. Such interesting accounts we
may, however, sometimes obtain from a man who has
acquired an uncommon habit of self-examination, and
has attended to the progress of his own improvement.
It may not be improper to make mention of some of
the customs and habits of this extraordinary man ;
points which come more within the reach of an
observer ; I however mean such only as are con
nected with his art, and indeed were, as I apprehend,
the causes of his arriving to that high degree of
excellence, which we see and acknowledge in his
works. Of these causes we must state, as the
fundamental, the love which he had to his art; to
which, indeed, his whole mind appears to have been
devoted, and to which everything was referred ; and
this we may fairly conclude from various circumstances
of his life, which were known to his intimate friends.
Among others he had a habit of continually remarking
to those who happened to be about him whatever
peculiarity of countenance, whatever accidental com
bination of figure, or happy effects of light and shadow,
occurred in prospects, in the sky, in walking the streets,
or in company. If, in his walks, he found a character
that he liked, and whose attendance was to be obtained,
he ordered him to his house: and from the fields he
brought into his painting-room, stumps of trees, weeds,
and animals of various kinds ; and designed them, not
377

Sir Joshua Reynolds
from memory, but immediately from the objects. He
even framed a kind of model of landscapes on his table;
composed of broken stones, dried herbs, and pieces of
looking-glass, which he magnified and improved into
rocks, trees, and water. How far this latter practice
may be useful in giving hints, the professors of land
scape can best determine. Like every other technical
practice, it seems to me wholly to depend on the
general talent of him who uses it. Such methods may
be nothing better than contemptible and mischievous
trifling ; or they may be aids. I think upon the
whole, unless we constantly refer to real nature, that
practice may be more likely to do harm than good.
I mention it only, as it shows the solicitude and
extreme activity which he had about everything that
related to his art ; that he wished to have his objects
embodied, as it were, and distinctly before him ; that
he neglected nothing which could keep his faculties
in exercise, and derived hints from every sort of
combination.
'-' We must not forget, whilst we are on this subject,
to make some remarks on his custom of painting by
night, which confirms what I have already mentioned, —
his great affection to his art ; since he could not amuse
himself in the evening by any other means so agreeable
to himself. I am indeed much inclined to believe that
it is a practice very advantageous and improving to an
artist ; for by this means he will acquire a new and
a higher perception of what is great and beautiful in
nature. By candle-light, not only objects appear more
beautiful, but from their being in a greater breadth of
378

The Fourteenth Discourse
light and shadow, as well as having a greater breadth
and uniformity of colour, nature appears in a higher
style; and even the flesh seems to take a higher and
richer tone of colour. Judgment is to direct us in
the use to be made of this method of study; but the
method itself is, I am very sure, advantageous. I have
often imagined that the two great colourists, Titian and
Correggio, though I do not know that they painted by
night, formed their high ideas of colouring from the
effects of objects by this artificial light: but I am more
assured, that whoever attentively studies the first and
best manner of Guercino, will be convinced that he
either painted by this light, or formed his manner on
this conception.
Another practice Gainsborough had, which is worth
mentioning, as it is certainly worthy of imitation; I
mean his manner of forming all the parts of his picture
together; the whole going on at the same time, in the
same manner as nature creates her works. Though
this method is not uncommon to those who have been
regularly educated, yet probably it was suggested to
him by his own natural sagacity. That this custom is
not universal, appears from the practice of a painter
whom I have just mentioned, Pompeio Battoni, who
finished his historical pictures part after part, and in
his portraits completely finished one feature before
he proceeded to another. The consequence was as
might be expected ; the countenance was never well
expressed ; and, as the painters say, the whole was
not well put together.
The first thing required to excel in our art, or I
379

Sir Joshua Reynolds
believe in any art, is not only a love for it, but even
an enthusiastic ambition to excel in it. This never
fails of success proportioned to the natural abilities
with which the artist has been endowed by Providence.
Of Gainsborough we certainly know, that his passion
was not the acquirement of riches, but excellence in
his art; and to enjoy that honourable fame which is
sure to attend it. That he felt this ruling passion strong
in death, I am myself a witness. A few days before
he died he wrote me a letter, to express his acknow
ledgments for the good opinion I entertained of his
abilities, and the manner in which (he had been in
formed) I always spoke of him ; and desired he might
see me once more before he died. I am aware how
flattering it is to myself to be thus connected with
the dying testimony which this excellent painter bore
to his art. But I cannot prevail on myself to suppress,
that I was not connected with him by any habits of
familiarity : if any little jealousies had subsisted be
tween us, they were forgotten in those moments of
sincerity ; and he turned towards me as one who was
engrossed by the same pursuits, and who deserved his
good opinion, by being sensible of his excellence.
Without entering into a detail of what passed at
this last interview, the impression of it upon my
mind was, that his regret at losing life was princi
pally the regret of leaving his art; and more especi
ally as he now began, he said, to see what his
deficiencies were ; which, he said, he flattered himself
in his last works were in some measure supplied.
When such a man as Gainsborough arrives to great
380

The Fourteenth Discourse
fame, without the assistance of an academical education,
without travelling to Italy, or any of those preparatory
studies which have been so often recommended, he
is produced as an instance how little such studies are
necessary; since so great excellence may be acquired
without them. This is an inference not warranted
by the success of any individual; and I trust it will
not be thought that I wish to make this use of it.
It must be remembered, that the style and depart
ment of art which Gainsborough chose, and in which
he so much excelled, did not require that he should
go out of his own country for the objects of his study;
they were every where about him; he found them in
the streets and in the fields ; and, from the models thus
accidentally found, he selected with great judgment
such as suited his purpose. As his studies were
directed to the living world principally, he did not
pay a general attention to the works of the various
masters, though they are, in my opinion, always of
great use, even when the character of our subject
requires us to depart from some of their principles.
It cannot be denied, that excellence in the department
of the art which he professed may exist without them ;
that in such subjects, and in the manner that belongs
to them, the want of them is supplied, and more than
supplied, by natural sagacity, and a minute observation
of particular nature. If Gainsborough did not look
at nature with a poet's eye, it must be acknowledged
that he saw her with the eye of a painter; and gave
a faithful, if not a poetical, representation of what he
had before him. 38i

Sir Joshua Reynolds
Though he did not much attend to the works of the
great historical painters of former ages, yet he was well
aware that the language of the art— the art of imitation
— must be learned somewhere; and as he knew that
he could not learn it in an equal degree from his
contemporaries, he very judiciously applied himself to
the Flemish School, who are undoubtedly the greatest
masters of one necessary branch of art ; and he did
not need to go out of his own country for examples
of that school : from that he learnt the harmony of
colouring, the management and disposition of light
and shadow, and every means which the masters of it
practised, to ornament and give splendour to their
works. And to satisfy himself, as well as others, how
well he knew the mechanism and artifice which they
employed to bring out that tone of colour which we
so much admire in their works, he occasionally made
copies from Rubens, Teniers, and Vandyck, which it
would be no disgrace to the most accurate connoisseur
to mistake, at the first sight, for the works of those
masters. What he thus learned he applied to the
originals of nature, which he saw with his own eyes;
and imitated, not in the manner of those masters, but
in his own.
Whether he most excelled in portraits, landscapes,
or fancy-pictures, it is difficult to determine : whether
his portraits were most admirable for exact truth of
resemblance, or his landscapes for a portrait-like repre
sentation of nature, such as we see in the works of
Rubens, Ruysdaal, and others of those schools. In his
fancy-pictures, when he had fixed on his object of
382

The Fourteenth Discourse
imitation, whether it was the mean and vulgar form of
a woodcutter, or a child of an interesting character, as
he did not attempt to raise the one, so neither did he
lose any of the natural grace and elegance of the other ;
such a grace, and such an elegance, as are more fre
quently found in cottages than in courts. This excel
lence was his own, the result of his particular observa
tion and taste ; for this he was certainly not indebted
to the Flemish School, nor indeed to any school; for
his grace was not academical or antique, but selected
by himself from the great school of nature ; and there
are yet a thousand modes of grace, which are neither
theirs nor his, but lie open in the multiplied scenes and
figures of life, to be brought out by skilful and faithful
observers. Upon the whole, we may justly say, that whatever
he attempted he carried to a high degree of excellence.
It is to the credit of his good sense and judgment, that
he never did attempt that style of historical painting for
which his previous studies had made no preparation.
And here it naturally occurs to oppose the sensible
conduct of Gainsborough, in this respect, to that of our
late excellent Hogarth, who, with all his extraordinary
talents, was not blessed with this knowledge of his own
deficiency; or of the bounds which were set to the
extent of his own powers. After this admirable artist
had spent the greater part of his life in an active, busy,
and, we may add, successful attention to the ridicule of
life; after he had invented a new species of dramatic
painting, in which probably he will never be equalled,
and had stored his mind with infinite materials to explain
383

Sir Joshua Reynolds
and illustrate the domestic and familiar scenes of common
life, which were generally, and ought to have been
always the subject of his pencil; he very imprudently,
or rather presumptuously, attempted the great historical
style, for which his previous habits had by no means
prepared him : he was indeed so entirely unacquainted
with the principles of this style, that he was not even
aware that any artificial preparation was at all necessary.
It is to be regretted, that any part of the life of such a
genius should be fruitlessly employed. Let his failure
teach us not to indulge ourselves in the vain imagina
tion, that by a momentary resolution we can give
either dexterity to the hand, or a new habit to the
mind. I have, however, little doubt, but that the same
sagacity, which enabled those two extraordinary men to
discover their true object, and the peculiar excellence
of that branch of art which they cultivated, would have
been equally effectual in discovering the principles of
the higher style; if they had investigated those prin
ciples with the same eager industry which they exerted
in their own department. As Gainsborough never
attempted the heroic style, so neither did he destroy
the character and uniformity of his own style, by the
idle affectation of introducing mythological learning
in any of his pictures. Of this boyish folly we see
instances enough, even in the works of great painters.
When the Dutch School attempt this poetry of our art
in their landscapes, their performances are beneath
criticism; they become only an object of laughter.
This practice is hardly excusable, even in Claude
384

The Fourteenth Discourse
Lorrain, who had shewn more discretion, if he had
never meddled with such subjects.
Our late ingenious academician, Wilson, has, I fear,
been guilty, like many of his predecessors, of introducing
gods and goddesses, ideal beings, into scenes which
were by no means prepared to receive such personages.
His landscapes were in reality too near common nature
to admit supernatural objects. In consequence of this
mistake, in a very admirable picture of a storm, which
I have seen of his hand, many figures are introduced
in the foreground, some in apparent distress, and some
struck dead, as a spectator would naturally suppose, by
the lightning; had not the painter injudiciously (as I
think) rather chosen that their death should be imputed
to a little Apollo, who appears in the sky, with his bent
bow, and that those figures should be considered as the
children of Niobe.
To manage a subject of this kind, a peculiar style of
art is required; and it can only be done without im
propriety, or even without ridicule, when we adapt the
character of the landscape, and that too, in all its parts,
to the historical or poetical representation. This is a
very difficult adventure, and it requires a mind thrown
back two thousand years, and, as it were, naturalized in
antiquity, like that of Nicolo Poussin, to achieve it. In
the picture alluded to, the first idea that presents itself
is that of wonder, at seeing a figure in so uncommon
a situation as that in which the Apollo is placed ; for
the clouds on which he kneels have not the appearance
of being able to support him; they have neither the
substance nor the form fit for the receptacle of a human
2B 385

Sir Joshua Reynolds
figure; and they do not possess in any respect that
romantic character which is appropriated to such an
object, and which alone can harmonize with poetical
stories. It appears to me, that such conduct is no less absurd,
than if a plain man, giving a relation of a real distress,
occasioned by an inundation accompanied with thunder
and lightning, should, instead of simply relating the
event, take it into his head, in order to give a grace to
his narration, to talk of Jupiter Pluvius, or Jupiter and
his thunderbolts, or any other figurative idea ; an inter
mixture which, though in poetry, with its proper
preparations and accompaniments, it might be managed
with effect, yet in the instance before us would counter
act the purpose of the narrator, and instead of being
interesting, would be only ridiculous.
The Dutch and Flemish style of landscape, not even
excepting that of Rubens, is unfit for poetical subjects;
but to explain in what this inaptitude consists, or to
point out all the circumstances that give nobleness,
grandeur, and the poetic character, to style, in land
scape, would require a long discourse of itself; and
the end would be then, perhaps, but imperfectly
attained. The painter who is ambitious of this perilous
excellence, must catch his inspiration from those who
have cultivated with success the poetry, as it may be
called, of the art ; and they are few indeed.
I cannot quit this subject without mentioning two
examples which occur to me at present, in which the
poetical style of landscape may be seen happily exe
cuted : the one is Jacob's Dream, by Salvator Rosa,
386

SALVATOR ROSA
Landscape

Salvator's landscapes, like his figure pieces and portraits, deserve
to come out of the eclipse which they have long suffered — if not into
the same glory which they once enjoyed at least into some considerable
and distinguished position. He was, indeed, the first romanticist in
landscape, the first to emphasise the emotions of wonder aid dread
in the face of nature. One of the first, too, to choose the picturesque-
ness of ruin and decay rather than the beauty of what is perfect and
complete. In this he is strongly opposed to Claude and Poussin,
and more akin to the modern attitude.

The Fourteenth Discourse
and the other the Return of the Ark from captivity, by
Sebastian Bourdon. With whatever dignity those his
tories are presented to us in the language of Scripture,
this style of painting possesses the same power of in
spiring sentiments of grandeur and sublimity, and is
able to communicate them to subjects which appear by
no means adapted to receive them. A ladder against
the sky has no very promising appearance of possessing
a capacity to excite any heroic ideas ; and the Ark, in
the hands of a second-rate master, would have little
more effect than a common waggon on the highway;
yet those subjects are so poetically treated throughout,
the parts have such a correspondence with each other,
and the whole and every part of the scene is so vision
ary, that it is impossible to look at them, without feeling,
in some measure, the enthusiasm which seems to have
inspired the painters.
By continual contemplation of such works, a sense of
the higher excellences of art will by degrees dawn on
the imagination ; at every review that sense will become
more and more assured, until we come to enjoy a sober
certainty of the real existence (if I may so express
myself) of those almost ideal beauties; and the artist
will then find no difficulty in fixing in his mind the
principles by which the impression is produced ; which
he will feel and practise, though they are perhaps too
delicate and refined, and too peculiar to the imitative
art, to be conveyed to the mind by any other means.
To return to Gainsborough: the peculiarity of his
manner, or style, or we may call it — the language in
which he expressed his ideas, has been considered by
389

Sir Joshua Reynolds
many as his greatest defect. But without altogether
wishing to enter into the discussion — whether this
peculiarity was a defect or not, intermixed as it was
with great beauties, of some of which it was probably
the cause, it becomes a proper subject of criticism and
enquiry to a painter.
A novelty and peculiarity of manner, as it is often a
cause of our approbation, so likewise it is often a
ground of censure, as being contrary to the practice
of other painters, in whose manner we have been
initiated, and in whose favour we have perhaps been
prepossessed from our infancy; for, fond as we are of
novelty, we are upon the whole creatures of habit.
However, it is certain, that all those odd scratches and
marks which, on a close examination, are so observable
in Gainsborough's pictures, and which even to experi
enced painters appear rather the effect of accident than
design; this chaos, this uncouth and shapeless appear
ance, by a kind of magic, at a certain distance assumes
form, and all the parts seem to drop into their proper
places, so that we can hardly refuse acknowledging the
full effect of diligence, under the appearance of chance
and hasty negligence. That Gainsborough himself
considered this peculiarity in his manner, and the power
it possesses of exciting surprise, as a beauty in his
works, I think may be inferred from the eager desire
which we know he always expressed, that his pictures,
at the Exhibition, should be seen near, as well as at
a distance. The slightness which we see in his best works can
not always be imputed to negligence. However they
390

SEBASTIAN BOURDON
Return of the Ark
national gallery

The picture here mentioned was actually in Reynolds' possession.
It has, I believe, never been reproduced before, except in engraving.
It attracts but little attention in its present position in the Gallery.
Bourdon was, it is true, an entirely derivative artist, and painted at
different times in the most various and inconsistent styles, but in this
picture he has interpreted Poussin in a new way, with a stronger
chiaroscuro, and a more romantic and obviously dramatic intention.

The Fourteenth Discourse
may appear to superficial observers, painters know very
well that a steady attention to the general effect takes
up more time, and is much more laborious to the mind,
than any mode of high finishing or smoothness without
such attention. His handling, the manner of leaving the'
colours, or, in other words, the methods he used for
producing the effect, had very much the appearance of
the work of an artist who had never learned from
others the usual and regular practice belonging to the
art; but still, like a man of strong intuitive perception
of what was required, he found out a way of his own
to accomplish his purpose.
It is no disgrace to the genius of Gainsborough to
compare him to such men as we sometimes meet with,
whose natural eloquence appears even in speaking a
language which they can scarce be said to understand ;
and who, without knowing the appropriate expression
of almost any one idea, contrive to communicate the
lively and forcible impressions of an energetic mind.
I think some apology may reasonably be made for his
manner without violating truth, or running any risk of
poisoning the minds of the younger students, by pro
pagating false criticism, for the sake of raising the
character of a favourite artist. It must be allowed,
that this hatching manner of Gainsborough did very
much contribute to the lightness of effect which is so
eminent a beauty in his pictures ; as, on the contrary,
much smoothness, and uniting the colours, is apt to
produce heaviness. Every artist must have remarked,
how often that lightness of hand which was in his dead
colour, or first painting, escaped in the finishing, when
393

Sir Joshua Reynolds
he had determined the parts with more precision; and
another loss he often experiences, which is of greater
consequence ; whilst he is employed in the detail, the
effect of the whole together is either forgotten or
neglected. The likeness of a portrait, as I have
formerly observed, consists more in preserving the
general effect of the countenance, than in the most
minute finishing of the features, or any of the particular
parts. Now Gainsborough's portraits were often little
more, in regard to finishing, or determining the form of
the features, than what generally attends a dead colour ;
but as he was always attentive to the general effect,
or whole together, I have often imagined that this
unfinished manner contributed even to that striking
resemblance for which his portraits are so remarkable.
Though this opinion may be considered as fanciful, yet
I think a plausible reason may be given why such a
mode of painting should have such an effect. It is
presupposed, that in this undetermined manner there
is the general effect; enough to remind the spectator
of the original; the imagination supplies the rest, and
perhaps more satisfactory to himself, if not more
exactly, than the artist, with all his care, could possibly
have done. At the same time it must be acknowledged
there is one evil attending this mode; that if the
portrait were seen, previous to any knowledge of the
original, different persons would form different ideas,
and all would be disappointed at not finding the original
correspond with their own conceptions ; under the great
latitude which indistinctness gives to the imagination to
assume almost what character or form it pleases.
394

The Fourteenth Discourse
Every artist has some favourite part, on which he
fixes his attention, and which he pursues with such
eagerness, that it absorbs every other consideration;
and he often falls into the opposite error of that which
he would avoid, which is always ready to receive him.
Now Gainsborough, having truly a painter's eye for
colouring, cultivated those effects of the art which
proceed from colours ; and sometimes appears to be
indifferent to or to neglect other excellences. What
ever defects are acknowledged, let him still experience
from us the same candour that we so freely give upon
similar occasions to the ancient masters ; let us not
encourage that fastidious disposition which is discon
tented with every thing short of perfection, and un
reasonably require, as we sometimes do, a union of
excellences, not perhaps quite compatible with each
other. — We may, on this ground, say even of the
divine Raffaelle, that he might have finished his pic
ture as highly and as correctly as was his custom
without heaviness of manner; and that Poussin might
have preserved all his precision without hardness or
dryness. To show the difficulty of uniting solidity with
lightness of manner, we may produce a picture of
Rubens in the church of St Judule, at Brussels, as an
example; the subject is, Chrisfs Charge to Peter;
which, as it is the highest and smoothest finished
picture I remember to have seen of that master, so it is
by far the heaviest; and if I had found it in any .other
place, I should have suspected it to be a copy; for
painters know very well, that it is principally by this
395

Sir Joshua Reynolds
air of facility, or the want of it, that originals are
distinguished from copies. A lightness of effect pro
duced by colour, and reproduced by facility of handling,
are generally united ; a copy may preserve something of
the one, it is true, but hardly ever of the other; a
connoisseur, therefore, finds it often necessary to look
into the picture carefully before he determines on its
originality. Gainsborough possessed this quality of
lightness of manner and effect, I think, to an unexampled
degree of excellence ; but it must be acknowledged, at
the same time, that the sacrifice which he made to this
ornament of our art was too great ; it was, in reality,
preferring the lesser excellences to the greater.
To conclude. However we may apologize for the
deficiencies of Gainsborough, (I mean particularly his
want of precision and finishing,) who so ingeniously
contrived to cover his defects by his beauties ; and who
cultivated that department of art where such defects
are more easily excused ; you are to remember, that no
apology can be made for this deficiency in that style
which this Academy teaches, and which ought to be
the object of your pursuit. It will be necessary for
you, in the first place, never to lose sight of the great
rules and principles of the art, as they are collected
from the full body of the best general practice, and
the most constant and uniform experience ; this must
be the groundwork of all your studies : afterwards you
may profit, as in this case I wish you to profit, by the
peculiar experience and personal talents of artists living
and dead ; you may derive lights, and catch hints, from
their practice; but the moment you turn them into
396

The Fourteenth Discourse
models, you fall infinitely below them; you may be
corrupted by excellences, not so much belonging to
the art, as personal and appropriated to the artist;
and become bad copies of good painters, instead of
excellent imitators of the great universal truth of
things.

397

INTRODUCTION TO
THE FIFTEENTH DISCOURSE
It is characteristic of the rounded completeness, the delibera
tion, and method of all Reynolds' works, that he was able to
bring his Discourses to so fitting and apt a close. He seems
almost to have set about dying with the same calm deliberation
that had characterised the actions of his life. A little more
than a year before the delivery of this Discourse, "while
finishing a portrait of the Marchioness of Hertford, he felt
a sudden decay of sight in his left eye. He laid down the
pencil, sat a little while in mute consideration, and never
lifted it more." x The apparent ease with which he resigned
himself to the inevitable loss of his one supreme interest
in life, the tranquillity and cheerfulness with which he en
deavoured to amuse himself in these last darkened days,
embittered as they were by quarrels and jealousies within
the Academy itself, give one the idea that beneath the "com
plying" blandness of his manners there was something of
stoical fortitude. He, at least, knew when to resign, when
to disappear gracefully from public life ; and the last Discourse
is ennobled by the dignity of this attitude. In it he touches
on nothing that was not worthy of the occasion, and touches
the greatest things worthily. In this apologia for his work
as an educator of taste he shows neither false humility nor
undue pride, and his opinion of his own work is as just as
his judgment of others'. He had no illusions about his own
genius, he knew himself incapable of the highest ranges
of imaginative creation, but no tinge of envy mars his cele-
1 Cunningham, " British Painters."
399

Sir Joshua Reynolds
bration of the triumphs he could not share. If one realises
all the circumstances under which it was delivered, the con
cluding paragraph of this Discourse must count as itself
attaining to that grandeur of style which he so consistently
and so disinterestedly admired.
The very delivery of the Discourse came near to being
even more intensely dramatic than it actually was, for the
crowd of distinguished people who came to witness the
distribution of medals was so great that, while Reynolds was
speaking, a beam in the floor gave way, with a loud crash.
The audience rushed to the doors in a panic ; but the
damage proved insignificant, and the President, who had
sat silent and unmoved in his chair, resumed his Discourse
with perfect composure.

400

THE FIFTEENTH DISCOURSE
Delivered to the Students of the Royal Academy, on the Distribution
ofthe Prizes, December 10, 1 790
The President takes leave ofthe Academy — A review ofthe Discourses
— The study of the works of Michael Angelo recommended.
Gentlemen,
The intimate connection which I have had with the
Royal Academy ever since its establishment, the social
duties in which we have all mutually engaged for so
many years, make any profession of attachment to this
Institution, on my part, altogether superfluous ; the in
fluence of habit alone in such a connection would natur
ally have produced it.
Among men united in the same body, and engaged
in the same pursuit, along with permanent friendship
occasional differences will arise. In these disputes men
are naturally too favourable to themselves, and think
perhaps too hardly of their antagonists. But, composed
and constituted as we are, those little contentions will
be lost to others, and they ought certainly to be lost
amongst ourselves, in mutual esteem for talents and
acquirements : every controversy ought to be, and I am
persuaded will be, sunk in our zeal for the perfection
of our common art.
In parting with the Academy, I shall remember with
pride, affection, and gratitude, the support with which
2C 4QI

Sir Joshua Reynolds
I have almost uniformly been honoured from the com
mencement of our intercourse. I shall leave you,
Gentlemen, with unaffected cordial wishes for your
future concord, and with a well-founded hope, that in
that concord the auspicious and not obscure origin of
our Academy may be forgotten in the splendour of
your succeeding prospects.
] My age, and my infirmities still more than my age,
j make it probable that this will be the last time I shall
have the honour of addressing you from this place.
Excluded as I am, spatiis iniquis, from indulging my
imagination with a distant and forward perspective of
life, I may be excused if I turn my eyes back on the
way which I have passed.
We may assume to ourselves, I should hope, the
credit of having endeavoured, at least, to fill with pro
priety that middle station which we Jiold in the general
.connection of things. Our predecessors have laboured
for our advantage, we labour for our successors; and
though we have done no more in this mutual inter
course and reciprocation of benefits than has been
effected by other societies formed in this nation for
the advancement of useful and ornamental knowledge,
yet there is one circumstance which appears to give
us a higher claim than the credit of merely doing our
duty. What I at present allude to is, the honour of
having been, some of us, the first contrivers, and all
of us the promoters and supporters, of the annual
Exhibition. This scheme could only have originated
from artists already in possession of the favour of the
public ; as it would not have been so much in the
402

The Fifteenth Discourse
power of others to have excited curiosity. It must be
remembered, that, for the sake of bringing forward
into notice concealed merit, they incurred the risk of
producing rivals to themselves ; they voluntarily entered
the lists, and ran the race a second time for the prize
which they had already won.
When we take a review of the several departments
of the Institution, I think we may safely congratulate
ourselves on our good fortune in having hitherto seen
the chairs of our Professors filled with men of dis
tinguished abilities, and who have so well acquitted
themselves of their duty in their several departments.
I look upon it to be of importance, and none of them
should be ever left unfilled: a neglect to provide for
qualified persons is to produce a neglect of qualifications.
In this honourable rank of Professors I have not
presumed to class myself; though in the Discourses
which I have had the honour of delivering from this
place, while in one respect I may be considered as a
volunteer, in another view it seems as if I was in
voluntarily pressed into this service. If prizes were
to be given, it appeared not only proper, but almost
indispensably necessary, that something should be said
by the President on the delivery of those prizes : and
the President, for his own credit, would wish to say
something more than mere words of compliment,
which, by being frequently repeated, would soon be
come flat and uninteresting, and, by being uttered to
many, would at last become a distinction to none : I
thought, therefore, if I were to preface this compliment
with some instructive observations on the art, when we
403

Sir Joshua Reynolds
crowned merit infthe artist whom we rewarded, I might
do something to animate and guide them in their future
attempts. I am truly sensible how unequal I have been to the
expression of my own ideas. To develope the latent
excellences, and draw out the interior principles of our
art, requires more skill and practice in writing, than is
likely to be possessed by a man perpetually occupied
in the use of the pencil and the pallet. It is for that
reason, perhaps, that the sister art has had the advan
tage of better criticism. Poets are naturally writers of
prose. They may be said to be practising only an
inferior department of their own art, when they are
explaining and expatiating upon its most refined prin
ciples. But still, such difficulties ought not to deter
artists who are not prevented by other engagements,
from putting their thoughts in order as well as they
can, and from giving to the public the result of their
experience. The knowledge which an artist has of
his subject will more than compensate for any want
of elegance in the manner of treating it, or even of
perspicuity, which is still more essential; and I am
convinced, that one short essay written by a painter,
will contribute more to advance the theory of our art,
than a thousand volumes such as we sometimes see;
the purpose of which appears to be, rather to display
the refinement of the author's own conceptions of im
possible practice, than to convey useful knowledge or
instruction of any kind whatever. An artist knows
what is and what is not within the province of his art
to perform, and is not likely to be for ever teazing the
404

The Fifteenth Discourse
poor student with the beauties of mixed passions, or to
perplex him with an imaginary union of excellences
incompatible with each other.
To this work, however, I could not be said to come
totally unprovided with materials. I had seen much, and
I had thought much upon what I had seen ; I had some
thing of a habit of investigation, and a disposition to
reduce all that I observed and felt in my own mind,
to method and system ; but never having seen what I
myself knew, distinctly placed before me on paper, I
knew nothing correctly. To put those ideas into some
thing like order, was, to my inexperience, no easy task.
The composition, the ponere totum, even of a single
discourse, as well as of a single statue, was the most
difficult part, as perhaps it is of every other art, and
most requires the hand of a master.
For the manner, whatever deficiency there was, I
might reasonably expect indulgence ; but I thought it
indispensably necessary well to consider the opinions
which were to be given out from this place, and under
the sanction of a Royal Academy; I, therefore, ex
amined not only my own opinions, but likewise the
opinions of others. I found, in the course of this
research, many precepts and rules established in our
art, which did not seem to me altogether reconcileable
with each other, yet each seemed in itself to have the
same claim of being supported by truth and nature ;
and this claim, irreconcileable as they may be thought,
they do in reality alike possess.
To clear away those difficulties, and reconcile those
contrary opinions, it became necessary to distinguish
405

Sir Joshua Reynolds
the greater truth, as it may be called, from the lesser
truth ; the larger and more liberal idea of nature from
the more narrow and confined; that which addresses
itself to the imagination, from that which is solely
addressed to the eye. In consequence of this dis
crimination, the different branches of our art, to which
those different truths were referred, were perceived to
make so wide a separation, and put on so new an ap
pearance, that they seemed scarcely to have proceeded
from the same general stock. The different rules and
regulations which presided over each department of
art, followed of course : every mode of excellence,
from the grand style of the Roman and Florentine
Schools down to the lowest rank of still life, had its
due weight and value — fitted some class or other; and
nothing was thrown away. By this disposition of our
art into classes, that perplexity and confusion which I
apprehend every artist has at some time experienced
from the variety of styles, and the variety of excellence
with which he is surrounded, is, I should hope, in some
measure removed, and the student better enabled to
judge for himself what peculiarly belongs to his own
particular pursuit.
In reviewing my Discourses, it is no small satisfaction
to be assured that I have, in no part of them, lent my
assistance to foster newly-hatched, unfledged opinions,
or endeavoured to support paradoxes, however tempt
ing may have been their novelty, or however ingenious
I might, for the minute, fancy them to be ; nor shall I,
I hope, anywhere be found to have imposed on the
minds of young students declamation for argument, a
406

The Fifteenth Discourse
smooth period for a sound precept. I have pursued a T
plain and honest method; I have taken up the art simply
as I found it exemplified in the practice of the most
approved painters. That approbation which the world ';
has uniformly given, I have endeavoured to justify by/"
such proofs as questions of this kind will admit ; by the
analogy which painting holds with the sister arts, and,
consequently, by the common congeniality which they
all bear to our nature. And though in what has been
done no new discovery is pretended, I may still flatter
myself, that, from the discoveries which others have
made by their own intuitive good sense and native
rectitude of judgment, I have succeeded in establishing
the rules and principles of our art on a more firm and
lasting foundation than that on which they had formerly
been placed.
Without wishing to divert the student from the
practice of his art to speculative theory, to make him
a mere connoisseur, instead of a painter, I cannot but
remark, that he will certainly find an account in con
sidering once for all on what ground the fabric of our
art is built. Uncertain, confused, or erroneous opinions,
are not only detrimental to an artist in their immediate
operation, but may possibly have very serious conse
quences; affect his conduct, and give a peculiar char
acter (as it may be called) to his taste and to his
pursuits, through his whole life.
I was acquainted at Rome, in the early part of my
life, with a student of the French Academy, who ap
peared to me to possess all the qualities requisite to
make a great artist, if he had suffered his taste and
407

Sir Joshua Reynolds
feelings, and I may add, even his prejudices, to have
fair play. He saw and felt the excellences of the
great works of art with which we were surrounded,
but lamented that there was not to be found that
nature which is so admirable in the inferior schools;
and he supposed, with Felibien, Du Piles, and other
theorists, that such an union of different excellences
would be the perfection of art. He was not aware,
that the narrow idea of nature, of which he lamented
the absence in the works of those great artists, would
have destroyed the grandeur of the general ideas which
he admired, and which was indeed the cause of his
admiration. My opinions being then confused and un
settled, I was in danger of being borne down by this
kind of plausible reasoning, though I remember I then
had a dawning of suspicion that it was not sound doc
trine ; and, at the same time, I was unwilling obstinately
to refuse assent to what I was unable to confute.
That the young artist may not be seduced from the
right path, by following what, at first view, he may
think the light of reason, and which is indeed reason
in part, but not in the whole, has been much the ob
ject of these Discourses.
I have taken every opportunity of recommending a
rational method of study, as of the last importance.
The great, I may say the sole use of an Academy is,
to put, and for some time to keep, students in that
course, that too much indulgence may not be given to
peculiarity, and that a young man may not be taught
to believe, that what is generally good for others is
not good for him. 408

The Fifteenth Discourse
I have strongly inculcated in my former Discourses,
as I do in this my last, the wisdom and necessity of
previously obtaining the appropriated instruments of
the art, in a first correct design, and a plain manly
colouring, before any thing more is attempted. But
by this I would not wish to cramp and fetter the mind,
or discourage those who follow (as most of us may at
one time have followed) the suggestion of a strong
inclination: something must be conceded to great and
irresistible impulses : perhaps every student must not ,
be strictly bound to general methods, if they strongly
thwart the peculiar turn of his own mind. I must
confess, that it is not absolutely of much consequence,
whether he proceeds in the general method of seeking
first to acquire mechanical accuracy, before he attempts
poetical flights, provided he diligently studies to attain
the full perfection of the style he pursues; whether,
like Parmegiano, he endeavours at grace and grandeur
of manner before he has learned correctness of drawing,
if, like him, he feels his own wants, and will labour, as ^
that eminent artist did, to supply those wants ; whether
he starts from the East or from the West, if he relaxes
in no exertion to arrive ultimately at the same goal.
The first public work of Parmegiano is the St.
Eustachius, in the church of St. Petronius, in Bologna,
and was done when he was a boy ; and one of the
last of his works is the Moses Breaking the Tables,
in Parma. In the former there is certainly something
of grandeur in the outline, or in the conception of the
figure, which discovers the dawnings of future great
ness ; of a young mind impregnated with the sublimity
409

Sir Joshua Reynolds
of Michael Angelo, whose style he here attempts to
imitate, though he could not then draw the human
figure with any common degree of correctness. But
this same Parmegiano, when in his more mature age
he painted the Moses, had so completely supplied his
first defects, that we are here at a loss which to admire
most, the correctness of drawing, or the grandeur of
the conception. As a confirmation of its great excel
lence, and of the impression which it leaves on the
minds of elegant spectators, I may observe, that our
great lyric poet, when he conceived his sublime idea
of the indignant Welsh Bard, acknowledged, that
though many years had intervened, he had warmed
his imagination with the remembrance of this noble
figure of Parmegiano.
When we consider that Michael Angelo was the
great archetype to whom Parmegiano was indebted
for that grandeur which we find in his works, and
from whom all his contemporaries and successors have
derived whatever they have possessed of the dignified
and the majestic; that he was the bright luminary
from whom Painting has borrowed a new lustre ;
that under his hands it assumed a new appearance,
and is become another and superior art; I may be
excused if I take this opportunity, as I have hitherto
taken every occasion, to turn your attention to this
exalted founder and father of modern Art, of which
he was not only the inventor, but which, by the
divine energy of his own mind, he carried at once to
its highest point of possible perfection.
The sudden maturity to which Michael Angelo
410

The Fifteenth Discourse
brought our art, and the comparative feebleness of his
followers and imitators, might perhaps be reasonably, at
least plausibly explained, if we had time for such an
examination. At present I shall only observe, that the
subordinate parts of our art, and perhaps of other arts,
expand themselves by a slow and progressive growth;
but those which depend on a native vigour of imagina
tion generally burst forth at once in fulness of beauty.
Of this Homer probably, and Shakspeare more assur
edly, are signal examples. Michael Angelo possessed
the poetical part of our art in a most eminent degree :
and the same daring spirit, which urged him first to
explore the unknown regions of the imagination, de
lighted with the novelty, and animated by the success
of his discoveries, could not have failed to stimulate
and impel him forward in his career beyond those limits
which his followers, destitute of the same incentives,
had not strength to pass.
To distinguish between correctness of drawing and
that part which respects the imagination, we may say
the one approaches to the mechanical (which in its way
too may make just pretensions to genius), and the other
to the poetical. To encourage a solid and vigorous'"
course of study, it may not be amiss to suggest, that
perhaps a confidence in the mechanic produces a bold
ness in the poetic. He that is sure of the goodness of
his ship and tackle puts out fearlessly from the shore;
and he who knows that his hand can execute whatever
his fancy can suggest, sports with more freedom in
embodying the visionary forms of his own creation. I
will not say Michael Angelo was eminently poetical
411

Sir Joshua Reynolds
only because he was greatly mechanical ; but I am sure
that mechanic excellence invigorated and emboldened
his mind to carry painting into the regions of poetry,
and to emulate that art in its most adventurous flights.
Michael Angelo equally possessed both qualifications.
Yet of mechanic excellence there were certainly great
examples to be found in ancient sculpture, and particu
larly in the fragment known by the name of the Torso
of Michael Angelo ; but of that grandeur of character,
air, and attitude, which he threw into all his figures,
and which so well corresponds with the grandeur of
his outline, there was no example ; it could, therefore,
proceed only from the most poetical and sublime
imagination. It is impossible not to express some surprise, that the
race of painters who preceded Michael Angelo, men of
acknowledged great abilities, should never have thought
of transferring a little of that grandeur of outline which
they could not but see and admire in ancient sculpture,
into their own works ; but they appear to have con
sidered sculpture as the later schools of artists look at
the inventions of Michael Angelo — as something to be
admired, but with which they have nothing to do:
quod super nos, nihil ad nos. The artists of that age,
even Raffaelle himself, seemed to be going on very
contentedly in the dry manner of Pietro Perugino;
and if Michael Angelo had never appeared, the art
might still have continued in the same style.
Beside Rome and Florence, where the grandeur of
this style was first displayed, it was on this foundation
that the Caracci built the truly great Academical
412

PELLEGRINO TIBALDI
LIECHTENSTEIN GALLERY, VIENNA

The reader may be glad to be able to refer to this example of the
now almost forgotten painter Tibaldi, the "reformed Michelangelo."
He formed the actual link between the great period of the early
sixteenth century and the revival under the Caracci. He belongs
to the Mannerists ; but he is less extravagant than most of them, and
slightly less empty and insincere. But it is difficult, even from so
good an example as this, to understand how Reynolds ever came to
place him so high. Tibaldi was born in 1527, and died in 1591.

From a photograph by Hanfstaengl.

The Fifteenth Discourse
Bolognian school, of which the first stone was laid
by Pellegrino Tibaldi. He first introduced this style
amongst them; and many instances might be given
in which he appears to have possessed as by inheri
tance, the true, genuine, noble and elevated mind of
Michael Angelo. Though we cannot venture to speak
of him with the same fondness as his countrymen, and
call him, as the Caracci did, Nostro Michael Angelo rifor-
mato, yet he has a right to be considered amongst the
first and greatest of his followers : there are certainly
many drawings and inventions of his, of which Michael
Angelo himself might not disdain to be supposed the
author, or that they should be, as in fact they often
are, mistaken for his. I will mention one particular
instance, because it is found in a book which is in every
young artist's hand — Bishop's Ancient Statues. He
there has introduced a print, representing Polyphemus,
from a drawing of Tibaldi, and has inscribed it with the
name of Michael Angelo, to whom he has also in the
same book attributed a Sybil of Raffaelle. Both these
figures, it is true, are professedly in Michael Angelo's
style and spirit, and even worthy of his hand. But we
know that the former is painted in the Institute a Bologna
by Tibaldi, and the other in the Pace by Raffaelle.
The Caracci, it is acknowledged, adopted the mechan
ical part with sufficient success. But the divine part
which addresses itself to the imagination, as possessed
by Michael Angelo or Tibaldi, was beyond their grasp :
they formed however, a most respectable school, a style
more on the level, and calculated to please a greater
number; and if excellence of this kind is to be valued
4*5

Sir Joshua Reynolds
according to the number, rather than the weight and
quality of admirers, it would assume even a higher rank
in art. The same, in some sort, may be said of
Tintoret, Paolo Veronese, and others of the Venetian
painters. They certainly much advanced the dignity
of their style by adding to their fascinating powers
of colouring, something of the strength of Michael
Angelo; at the same time it may still be a doubt,
how far their ornamental elegance would be an advan
tageous addition to his grandeur. But if there is any
manner of painting which may be said to unite kindly
with his style, it is that of Titian. His handling, the
manner in which his colours are left on the canvas,
appears to proceed (as far as that goes) from a con
genial mind, equally disdainful of vulgar criticism.
Michael Angelo's strength thus qualified, and made
more palatable to the general taste, reminds me of an
observation which I heard a learned critic make, when
it was incidentally remarked, that our translation of
Homer, however excellent, did not convey the character,
nor had the grand air of the original. He replied, that
if Pope had not clothed the naked majesty of Homer
with the graces and elegancies of modern fashions —
though the real dignity of Homer was degraded by
such a dress, his translation would not have met with
such a favourable reception, and he must have been
contented with fewer readers.
Many of the Flemish painters, who studied at Rome
in that great era of our art, such as Francis Floris,
Hemskerk, Michael Coxis, Jerom Cock, and others,
returned to their own country with as much of this
416

The Fifteenth Discourse
grandeur as they could carry. But like seeds falling
on a soil not prepared or adapted to their nature, the
manner of Michael Angelo thrived but little with
them; perhaps, however, they contributed to prepare
the way for that free, unconstrained, and liberal out
line, which was afterwards introduced by Rubens,
through the medium of the Venetian painters.
The grandeur of style has been in different degrees
disseminated over all Europe. Some caught it by
living at the time, and coming into contact with the
original author, whilst others received it at second
hand ; and being every where adopted, it has totally
changed the whole taste and style of design, if there
could be said to be any style before his time. Our
art, in consequence, now assumes a rank to which it
could never have dared to aspire, if Michael Angelo
had not discovered to the world the hidden powers
which it possessed. Without his assistance we never
could have been convinced, that painting was capable
of producing an adequate representation of the persons
and actions of the heroes of the Iliad.
I would ask any man qualified to judge of such
works, whether he can look with indifference at the
personification of the Supreme Being in the centre of
the Capella Sestina, or the figures of the Sybils which
surround that chapel, to which we may add the Statue
of Moses; and whether the same sensations are not
excited by those works, as what we may remember
to have felt from the most sublime passages of Homer ?
I mention those figures more particularly, as they come
nearer to a comparison with his Jupiter, his demi-gods,
2D 417

Sir Joshua Reynolds
and heroes; those sybils and prophets being a kind of
intermediate beings between men and angels. Though
instances may be produced in the works of other
painters, which may justly stand in competition with
those I have mentioned, such as the Isaiah, and the
Vision of Ezekiel, by Raffaelle, the St. Mark of Frate
Bartolomeo, and many others; yet these, it must be
allowed, are inventions so much in Michael Angelo's
manner of thinking, that they may be truly considered
as so many rays, which discover manifestly the centre
from whence they emanated.
The sublime in painting, as in poetry, so overpowers,
and takes such a possession of the whole mind, that no
room is left for attention to minute criticism. The
little elegancies of art in the presence of these great
ideas thus greatly expressed, lose all their value, and
are, for the instant at least, felt to be unworthy of
our notice. The correct judgment, the purity of
taste, which characterise Raffaelle, the exquisite grace
of Correggio and Parmegiano, all disappear before
them. That Michael Angelo was capricious in his inven
tions, cannot be denied ; and this may make some
circumspection necessary in studying his works ; for
though they appear to become him, an imitation of
them is always dangerous, and will prove sometimes
ridiculous. " Within that circle none durst walk but
he." To me, I ' confess, his caprice does not lower
the estimation of his genius, even though it is some
times, I acknowledge, carried to the extreme : and
however those eccentric excursions are considered, we
418

The Fifteenth Discourse
must at the same time recollect that those faults, if
they are faults, are such as never could occur to a
mean and vulgar mind; that they flowed from the
same source which produced his greatest beauties,
and were, therefore, such as none but himself was
capable of committing: they were the powerful im
pulses of a mind unused to subjection of any kind,
and too high to be controlled by cold criticism.
Many see his daring extravagance who can see
nothing else. A young artist finds the works of
Michael Angelo so totally different from those of his
own master, or of those with whom he is surrounded,
that he may be easily persuaded to abandon and neglect
studying a style which appears to him wild, mysterious,
and above his comprehension, and which he therefore
feels no disposition to admire ; a good disposition,
which he concludes that he should naturally have,
if the style deserved it. It is necessary, therefore,
that students should be prepared for the disappointment
which they may experience at their first setting out;
and they must be cautioned, that probably they will
not, at first sight, approve.
It must be remembered, that this great style itself
is artificial in the highest degree ; it presupposes in
the spectator a cultivated and prepared artificial state
of mind. It is an absurdity, therefore, to suppose that
we are born with this taste, though we are with the
seeds of it, which, by the heat and kindly influence
of his genius, may be ripened in us.
A late philosopher and critic has observed, speaking
of taste, that we are on no account to expect that fine
419

Sir Joshua Reynolds
things should descend to us — our taste, if possible, must
be made to ascend to them. The same learned writer
recommends to us even to feign a relish, till we find a
relish come ; and feel, that, what began in fiction, ter
minates in reality. If there be in our art any thing
of that agreement or compact, such as I apprehend
there is in music, with which the critic is necessarily
required previously to be acquainted, in order to form
a correct judgment: the comparison with this art will
illustrate what I have said on these points, and tend
to show the probability, we may say the certainty, that
men are not born with a relish for those arts in their
most refined state, which, as they cannot understand,
they cannot be impressed with their effects. This
great style of Michael Angelo is as far removed from
the simple representation of the common objects of
nature, as the most refined Italian music is from the
inartificial notes of nature, from whence they both
profess to originate. But without such a supposed
compact, we may be very confident that the highest
state of refinement in either of those arts will not be
relished without a long and industrious attention.
In pursuing this great art, it must be acknowledged
that we labour under greater difficulties than those
who were born in the age of its discovery, and whose
minds from their infancy were habituated to this style ;
who learned it as language, as their mother tongue.
They had no mean taste to unlearn; they needed no
persuasive discourse to allure them to a favourable
reception of it, no abstruse investigation of its princi
ples to convince them of the great latent truths on
420

The Fifteenth Discourse
which it is founded. We are constrained, in these
later days, to have recourse to a sort of grammar and
dictionary, as the only means of recovering a dead
language. It was by them learned by rote, and per
haps better learned that way than by precept.
The style of Michael Angelo, which I have com
pared to language, and which may, poetically speaking,
be called the language of the gods, now no longer
exists, as it did in the fifteenth century; yet, with
the aid of diligence, we may in a great measure
supply the deficiency which I mentioned — of not
having his works so perpetually before our eyes — by
having recourse to casts from his models and designs
in sculpture ; to drawings, or even copies of those
drawings; to prints, which, however ill executed, still
convey something by which this taste may be formed,
and a relish may be fixed and established in our minds
for this grand style of invention. Some examples of
this kind we have in the Academy ; and I sincerely
wish there were more, that the younger students
might in their first nourishment imbibe this taste ;
whilst others, though settled in the practice of the
common-place style of painters, might infuse, by this
means, a grandeur into their works.
I shall now make some remarks on the course which
I think most proper to be pursued in such a study. I
wish you not to go so much to the derivative streams,
as to the fountain-head; though the copies are not to
be neglected, because they may give you hints in what
manner you may copy, and how the genius of one man
may be made to fit the peculiar manner of another.
421

Sir Joshua Reynolds
To recover this lost taste, I would recommend young
artists to study the works of Michael Angelo as he
himself did the works of the ancient sculptors; he
began, when a child, a copy of a mutilated Satyr's
head, and finished in his model what was wanting in
the original. In the same manner, the first exercise
that I would recommend to the young artist when he
first attempts invention, is, to select every figure, if
possible, from the inventions of Michael Angelo. If
such borrowed figures will not bend to his purpose, and
he is constrained to make a change to supply a figure
himself, that figure will necessarily be in the same style
with the rest ; and his taste will by this means be natur
ally initiated, and nursed in the lap of grandeur. He
will sooner perceive what constitutes this grand style
by one practical trial than by a thousand speculations,
and he will in some sort procure to himself that advan
tage which in these later ages has been denied him;
the advantage of having the greatest of artists for his
master and instructor.
The next lesson should be, to change the purpose
of the figures without changing the attitude, as Tintoret
has done with the Sampson of Michael Angelo. Instead
of the figure which Sampson bestrides, he has placed
an eagle under him; and instead of the jaw-bone,
thunder and lightning in his right hand; and thus it
becomes a Jupiter. Titian, in the same manner, has
taken the figure which represents God dividing the
light from the darkness, in the vault of the Capella
Sestina, and has introduced it in the famous Battle of
Cadore, so much celebrated by Vasari ; and, extra-
422

The Fifteenth Discourse
ordinary as it may seem, it is here converted to a
general falling from his horse. A real judge who
should look at this picture, would immediately pro
nounce the attitude of that figure to be in a greater
style than any other figure of the composition. These
two instances may be sufficient, though many more
might be given in their works, as well as in those of
other great artists.
When the student has been habituated to this grand /
conception of the art, when the relish for this style isj
established, makes a part of himself, and is woven into
his mind, he will, by this time, have got a power of
selecting from whatever occurs in nature that is grand,'
and corresponds with that taste which he has now
acquired ; and will pass over whatever is common-place,
and insipid. He may. then bring to the mart such
works of his own proper invention as may enrich and
increase the general stock of invention in our art.
I am confident of the truth and propriety of the
advice which I have recommended ; at the same time jl
am aware, how much by this advice I have laid myself;
open to the sarcasms of those critics who imagine our,
art to be a matter of inspiration. But I should be;
sorry it should appear even to myself that I wanted j
that courage which I have recommended to the!
students in another way : equal courage, perhaps, is \
required in the adviser and the advised ; they both ;
must equally dare and bid defiance to narrow criticism
and vulgar opinion.
That the art has been in a gradual state of decline,
from the age of Michael Angelo to the present, must
423

Sir Joshua Reynolds
be acknowledged ; and we may reasonably impute this
declension to the same cause to which the ancient
critics and philosophers have imputed the corruption
of eloquence. Indeed the same causes are likely at
all times and in all ages to produce the same effects:
indolence — not taking the same pains as our great
predecessors took — desiring to find a shorter way —
are the general imputed causes. The words of
Petronius are very remarkable. After opposing the
natural chaste beauty of the eloquence of former
ages to the strained inflated style then in fashion —
"Neither," says he, "has the art in painting had a
better fate, after the boldness of the Egyptians had
found out a compendious way to execute so great
an art."
By compendious, I understand him to mean a mode
of painting, such as has infected the style of the later
painters of Italy and France ; common-place, without
thought, and with as little trouble, working as by a
receipt ; in contradistinction to that style for which
even a relish cannot be acquired without care and
long attention, and most certainly the power of
executing cannot be obtained without the most
laborious application.
I have endeavoured to stimulate the ambition of
artists to tread in this great path of glory, and, as
well as I can, have pointed out the track which leads
to it, and have at the same time told them the price
at which it may be obtained. It is an ancient saying,
that labour is the price which the gods have set upon
every thing valuable. 424

MICHELANGELO Pen Drawing
british museum

No artist illustrates more fully than Michelangelo Reynolds' ideas
of the importance of intellectual as opposed to mechanical labour.
Gifted with supreme certainty of hand and the most fertile invention,
he might have been as facile and as exuberant as Rubens but for
his intense desire to find always the final and exact expression for
his idea. Unfortunately, those drawings which best illustrate this point
(those in which he tries again and again by the subtlest variations ol
contour and movement to arrive at the utmost possible expressiveness)
are, by the very nature of the work, incapable of reproduction on a
small scale, but this pen drawing will give a fair indication of the
scrupulosity and the unfailing intellectual energy of Michelangelo.

-' I*

The Fifteenth Discourse
The great artist who has been so much the subject
of the present discourse, was distinguished even from
his infancy for his indefatigable diligence; and this
was continued through his whole life, till prevented by
extreme old age. The poorest of men, as he observed
himself, did not labour from necessity, more than he
did from choice. Indeed, from all the circumstances
related of his life, he appears not to have had the
least conception that his art was to be acquired by
any other means than great labour; and yet he, of
all men that ever lived, might make the greatest
pretensions to the efficacy of native genius and in
spiration. I have no doubt that he would have
thought it no disgrace, that it should be said of him,
as he himself said of Raffaelle, that he did not possess
his art from nature, but by long study. He was con
scious that the great excellence to which he arrived
was gained by dint of labour, and was unwilling to
have it thought that any transcendent skill, however
natural its effects might seem, could be purchased at
a cheaper price than he had paid for it. This seems
to have been the true drift of his observation. We
cannot suppose it made with any intention of deprecia
ting the genius of Raffaelle, of whom he always spoke,
as Condivi says, with the greatest respect. Though
they were rivals, no such illiberality existed between
them ; and Raffaelle, on his part, entertained the
greatest veneration for Michael Angelo, as appears
from the speech which is recorded of him, that he
congratulated himself, and thanked God, that he was
born in the same age with that painter.
427

Sir Joshua Reynolds
If the high esteem and veneration in which Michael
Angelo has been held by all nations and in all ages,
should be put to the account of prejudice, it must still
be granted that those prejudices could not have been
entertained without a cause : the ground of our pre
judice then becomes the source of our admiration.
But from whatever it proceeds, or whatever it is called,
it will not, I hope, be thought presumptuous in me to
appear in the train, I cannot say of his imitators, but
of his admirers. I have taken another course, one
more suited to my abilities, and to the taste of the
times in which I live. Yet, however unequal I feel
myself to that attempt, were I now to begin the world
again, I would tread in the steps of that great master:
to kiss the hem of his garment, to catch the slightest
of his perfections, would be glory and distinction enough
for an ambitious man.
I feel a self-congratulation in knowing myself capable
of such sensations as he intended to excite. I reflect,
not without vanity, that these Discourses bear testi
mony of my admiration of that truly divine man ; and I
should desire that the last words which I should pro
nounce in this Academy, and from this place, might
be the name of — Michael Angelo.

428

NOTES
P. 5. But if the higher Arts of Design flourish, these inferior
ends will be answered of course. Our own experience and our in
creased knowledge of Medixval and early Renaissance Art show the
pathetic fallaciousness of this idea. Within a hundred years from the
foundation of the Royal Academy it was necessary to found the Victoria
and Albert Museum to arrest the total decay of the minor arts. The
"higher Arts of Design" have their roots in the "taste formed in
manufacture " — they may go on flourishing for a time when the stem
has been severed, but they are incapable of healthy growth.
P. 7. A repository for the great examples of Art. Reynolds al
ways cherished this fine ideal of the Academy as the repository at
once of noble tradition and inspiring examples of Art. But the
Academy as a whole has always understood its functions in a different
sense. When Reynolds, in pursuance of his idea, offered his splendid
collection of pictures to the Academy at a low price, the offer was
refused, though the Academy was already a wealthy body.
P. 7. On the sight of the Capella Sistina. This puts the change
from the "dry, Gothic, and even insipid manner" too late. The
first great change took place on his visit to Florence in 1 504. There
he saw and studied Michelangelo's Cartoon of the Bathers, and
drew from Michelangelo's David (the study is now in the British
Museum.) Leonardo da Vinci's, and still more Fra Bartolommeo's,
influences were also of great importance. The first part of the Sistine
Chapel roof was not exposed till November 1509, when Raphael
had already been at work on the Stanza della Segnatura for two
years. The change between this and the Stanza d'Eliodoro, however,
may be partly due to the impression made on Raphael by the Sistine
paintings. P. 8. Nothing to unlearn. A rather double-edged compliment.
The idea presumably is that no very marked style had been developed
at this time in England ; certainly in portraiture there was little just
before Reynolds and Gainsborough but a rather dry and literal rendering
of likeness. Reynolds probably had in his mind the accomplished,
but as he thought meretricious, style of contemporary French art.
P. 13. A drawing of Raffaelle, The Dispute of the Sacrament.
Count Cailus (1692-1765) was the leading antiquary and art historian
429

Sir Joshua Reynolds
of his day. He published collections of the remains of Roman painting,
a Life of Watteau, and executed many engravings from drawings by
Old Masters. The print alluded to is from a drawing in Chantilly.
The appearance of caps upon the heads is due to Count Cailus' sum
mary method, and is not found in the drawing ; nor is the drawing by
Raphael, but by a feeble imitator. A good instance of an actual
drawing from the model is Raphael's study, now at Lille, for the
Apollo of the Parnassus.
P. 23. Just arrived in Italy. Such an artist might in this
year (1769) have met the following : — Canaletto, Belotti, Marieschi,
Guard i, Zuccharelli, Raphael Mengs, Pompeo Batoni, Ant. Cavalucci ;
Tiepolo, even, he might just have seen. Longhi and Pannini were
recently dead. The dangerous people were, no doubt, Mengs and
Batoni. P. 25. Learning to colour. Colouring with Reynolds implies the
whole technique of painting.
P. 29. Ludovico Caracci, born in Bologna 1555, died there 1619.
Pupil of Prospero Fontana ; then of Tintoretto, who discouraged
him from continuing in the profession of art ; then of Passignano at
Florence. He really formed himself by studying the works of Andrea
del Sarto and Correggio. He was the leader of a new movement
in favour of sober design, a reaction against the extravagances of the
Mannerists. He founded the Eclectic school of Bologna, which
influenced the whole art of the seventeenth century.
P. 33. Draw the figure by memory. This was the practice enforced
by Lecoqde Boisbaudran, the master of Legros, Rodin, Fantin Latour,
and others.
P. 34. Their sketches on paper are as rude. Reynolds some
what overstates the case. Venetian drawings are rare ; but Titian's
pen work and Veronese's wash drawings are sometimes very complete.
Rubens and Vandyke left a great number of important drawings.
Reynolds himself is singular among great artists for the paucity of
his drawings.
P. 51. Cicero. Oratore, ii. 9.
P. 54. By this Phidias acquired his fame. Nothing but his fame
was known to Reynolds' generation.
P. 55. Bacon. In the essay " Of Beautie."
P. 59. In aternitatem pingo. This must be quoted from recollec
tion of some Latin translation of the story given by Plutarch de
Amicorum Multitudine. Sxnrep ovv 6 Ze{!£is,aiTUi)/ieva>j' avrov rtvwv
on faiypacpei /3paSecos, o/joAoyto, itwtv, iv n-oAA.cp XP°V(P ypo.<j>^v, /cat
yap eis 7ro\v.
P. 60. Have recourse to the Ancients as instructors. " [[My] second
430

Notes
consideration refers ... to the arts of the Greeks, and endeavours
to ascertain how those inimitable artists proceeded in their successful
attempts to evolve from the human form their system of divine Types,
which is so perfect and complete, that neither any leading character
nor any intermediate shade or transition is wanting. For my part, I
cannot withhold the conjecture that they proceeded according to the
same laws that Nature works by. . . . Only there is in them some
thing more besides which it is impossible to express " (Goethe, Travels
in Italy).
P. 62. Albert Durer. "And in truth, if this man, so singular,
so diligent, and so many-sided, had had for fatherland Tuscany instead
of Flanders [w], and had been able to study the things in Rome
as we have, he would have been the best painter of our countries, as
he was indeed the most singular and the most celebrated that the
Flemings ever had" (Vasari, Life of Marcantonio Bolognese). Durer
did, of course, go to Italy; but he stayed in Venice (1506-7), and,
even there, seems to have been able to assimilate only the ideas of the
quattro-centists, notably of Giovanni Bellini.
P. 63. Botirgognone. Reynolds means Jacques Courtois, le
Bourguignon, born 1621 at St Hippolyte (Doubs), died 1676 at
Rome. Vandervelde. Willem van de Welde the younger, born 1633 in
Amsterdam, died Greenwich 1707.
P. 64. Nor does a man always practise that which he esteems
the best, is particularly true of Reynolds himself, who recognised
that his natural limitations prevented him from succeeding in the
highest form of creative art, though he did manage to inform por
traiture with something of its dignity.
P. 72. Invention. The term is but rarely used now, and the
ideas implied by it are too much neglected. The early art critics
of the sixteenth century, Dolce and Borghini, discoursed at great
length upon Invention, dilating with scholastic casuistry upon such
questions as, whether in a painting of the Last Judgment the elect
should be represented nude or clothed, and deciding on the latter, on
the ground that so only could differences of rank be made apparent.
Borghini divides painting into Invention, Disposition, Attitude,
Members, and Colour. Reynolds groups Attitude and Members
together under Expression. The distinction between the two kinds
of Invention is also found in Borghini, though Reynolds expresses it
more clearly and more logically.
P. 79. One is by reducing the colours . . . the other. Reynolds
in a few early works occasionally employed the former of these
methods, but he never attempted the latter. In nearly all cases
431

Sir Joshua Reynolds
he adopted the Venetian conception of a harmony of broken and
transparent colours. Whether this is inimical to the expression of
the grandest ideas or not, he is quite right that the greatest masters
of pure design have used positive unbroken local colours. Ingres'
apotheosis of Homer is an extreme and unfortunate instance of this
principle. P. 80. It is drapery ; it is nothing more. Giotto, Masaccio,
Raphael, and Michelangelo all bear witness to the truth of this view.
Carlo Maratti (1 625-1713). Pupil of Andrea Sacchi, and one
of the last and most affected of the descendants of the Caracci.
P. 83. The French school. Simon Vouet (1590- 1 649) was
the founder of the seventeenth-century French school. He studied
the Venetians, and combined with their style some of the principles
of the " Naturalists " ; but his followers all tended rather in the direc
tion of academic restraint and perfection, and assimilated to the
Bolognese eclectics. Poussin (1 594-1665) arrived by independent
study of classical remains at his singular style. Le Brun ( 1619-1690)
became the autocrat of French art under Louis XIV. He was the
greatest French master of the Baroque both in architectural decoration
(the Salle d'Apollon of the Louvre is his masterpiece) and in applied
design, upon which, as director of the Gobelin's factory, he exercised
a great influence. As a painter he shows to least advantage. Le
Sueur (161 5- 1655) also departed completely from Vouet's naturalistic
and vivid style, and became classic rather by the study of Raphael
than the antique.
P. 84. Perseus and Andromeda. This picture was then in
the King's Cabinet. It is now in the museum at Rennes. Repro
duced in Gonse (Les Chefs d'oeuvres des Musees de France, p. 274),
who says : " Une composition originale, un lumineux paysage de mer,
avec une vue de Venise, dans le fond, un monstre pittoresque, de
beaux mouvements de figures en raccourci, une couleur diamantee, en
voila plus qu'il ne faut pour faire de cette toile decorative un Veronese
capital " ; but he refrains from saying whether it is such or no.
Judging from the reproduction, it has rather the air of an atelier piece.
P. 91. Told Vasari. See Life of Titian. Vasari Ed. Milanesi.
Vol. vii. p. 447.
P. 92. Of all the extraordinary geniuses. Reynolds has freely
paraphrased the passage, which occurs in the life of Battista Franco.
Vasari Ed. Milanesi. Vol. vi. p. 587.
P. 93. Vouet. See note to p. 53. Luca Giordano, nicknamed
Fa Presto, born 1632 at Naples, died at Naples 1755. Pupil of
Caravaggio ; studied at Rome the works of Raphael and Michelangelo,
but in colouring approaches the Venetians. He worked in Naples,
432

Notes
and for Charles II. in Spain. He was a genuine colourist, and had
real talent, which was obscured by his excessive facility.
P. 99. A flower painter whose boast it was. This must be
Cooper, of whom Walpole ("Anecdotes of Painting") says he
" imitated Michael Angelo di Caravaggio in painting fruit and flowers.
He died towards the end of 1743."
P. 103. If a portrait painter. Reynolds here describes his own
practice pretty exactly.
P. 104. Strange graces, etc. Pope, Epistle to a Lady, v. 49 et seq.
P. 116. Pliny, " Euphranoris Alexander Paris est: in quo
laudatur, quod omnia simul intelligantur, judex Dearum, amator
Helense, et tamen Achillis interfector" (Pliny, Lib. xxxiv. c. 8).
P. 119. He never acquired. This is true, though in his latter
paintings, the upper part of the Transfiguration, and the Madonna
di San Sisto, the endeavour to acquire this quality is already apparent.
His earlier oil-paintings have a quality which is perfect in its own way,
though that was not of a kind to rouse Reynolds' enthusiasm. The
whole of this passage, in which Raphael is somewhat disparaged,
may have been inspired by opposition to Dolce's Dialogue on Painting,
a translation of which, by W. Brown, had been dedicated to the King
a year or two previously. In that dialogue the inevitable comparison
between Raphael and Michelangelo was set agoing, and decided very
positively to the disadvantage of the latter. Reynolds clearly inclined,
even more decidedly than he allowed himself to say, in the opposite
direction. P. 121. To him Raffaelle owes. See note to p. 8.
Bouchardon. Edme, Roccoco sculptor and architect, 1698-1763.
His Life, by Count Cailus, 1762.
P. 123. Longinus. A writer of the third century a.d., to
whom was ascribed the well-known treatise on the Sublime. Since
its edition by Boileau in 1674 this treatise had considerable influence
on aesthetic speculation. Reynolds owes to it something of his
manner of critical exposition.
P. 131. Marriage in the Aldobrandini Palace. Now in the
Vatican. It was found in 1606 near the arch of Gallienus, and
still remains one of the best works of Grseco-Roman painting.
Polidoro. Polidoro Caldara of Caravaggio, born 1495, died 1543
Pupil of Raphael, and employed by him in carrying out his decorative
designs. Some excellent examples of his classical friezes in monochrome
are at Hampton Court.
Seven Sacraments, now in the Bridgwater Gallery, are, nevertheless,
among the most original, and perhaps the most masterly, of all Poussin's
works.
2E 433

Sir Joshua Reynolds
P. 132. If he personifies. The Comte de Brienne, an en
thusiastic collector of Louis XIV.'s reign, did not think thus. He
owned Poussin's " Moses exposed in the Nile," and says of it :
" Je n'aime pas les figures des Fleuves dans les tableaux. C'est
un ecriteau que le peintre y met afin de se faire mieux entendre. . . .
Ces Fleuves n'ajoutent rien au sujet. Je vois un fleuve de mes yeux
et on me dit : c'est un fleuve. A quoi bon cela \ " Vide Gaz. des
Beaux Arts, March 1905.
P. 134. Euripides. The story occurs in Valerius Maximus, iii. 7.
P. 151. This simile made use of by the younger Pliny. I have
failed to find the simile in Pliny. It is curious that, on the contrary,
in his letter to Fuscus, Lib. vii. 9, Pliny gives advice so nearly like
Reynolds with regard to practising in the style of great masters that
Reynolds might seem to have had the passage in mind.
Hoc sit primum. Cicero de Oratore, ii. 22, 90.
P. 156. Raffaelle began. Even this does not exhaust the
list of Raphael's debts to others. He began by imitating Timoteo
Viti, then to some extent Pinturicchio, as well as Perugino.
P. 159. Jordaens. It is hardly fair to class Jordaens thus as
a servile imitator. His manner was near, but his aims different to,
Rubens'. P. 160. Want of strength of parts. Reynolds here makes an
admission which invalidates his theory of genius if literally held.
Hazlitt was not slow to point out the admission.
P. 165. Lucas van Leyden, born Leyden 1494, died there 1533.
Pupil of Cornelis Engelbrechtsen, painter and engraver.
Tobias Stimmer, born Schaffhausen 1539* died 1582. Painted
frescoes on houses, and drew for woodcutters and glass painters.
Jost Amman, born Zurich 1539, died Niirnberg 1591. One ofthe
most prolific designers for woodcuts, of which a thousand bear his
name. P. 166. Coypel. Reynolds probably means the younger Coypel,
Antoine (1661-1722), whose character he has given well enough.
Bosch. This is clearly not the great artist of that name, Hierony-
mus ; probably Baldassare van der Bosch (born Antwerp 1675, died
17 1 5), whose portraits were much sought for, after he had painted,
with the help of van Bloemen, an equestrian portrait of the Duke
of Marlborough. He became director of the Antwerp Academy.
Bamboccio. Pieter van Laar, born 1582 in Haarlem, died 1642.
Worked for long in Rome, where his scenes of low life gave rise to the
name of Bambocciades for such a genre.
Jan Miel, born Antwerp 1599, died Turin 1664. Pupil of Seghers,
and then of Andrea Sacchi. 434

Notes
P. 166. " An additional grace." A curiously wrong idea, and
contradicted already by his just remarks on the unity of Poussin's
style. Poussin's bluntness of form and evenness of touch were both
deliberately chosen methods of expression, and his whole idea would
have been distorted by such a suggested improvement.
P. 167. Frank Hals. Reynolds' admiration of Hals is of great
interest as an example of his catholicity of taste and his anticipation
of the verdict of to-day.
P. 172. An artist of great fame. According to the opinion
of Mr F. G. Stephens, quoted by Mr Edmund Gosse, this was
Raphael Mengs (1728-1779), himself the author of a once celebrated
work on aesthetics, " Ueber Schonheit und Geschmack in der Malerei."
P. 190. It is the very same taste. "Mathematics rightly
viewed possesses not only truth but supreme beauty — a beauty cold
and austere like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our
weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of painting or music,
yet sublimely pure, and capable of a stern perfection such as only
the greatest art can show" (Bertrand Russell, The Study of
Mathematics). P. 195. The Sacrifice of Silenus. Probably the revel in honour
of Pan, now in the National Gallery.
Bacchus and Ariadne. This picture is described in Smith's Cata
logue, but its whereabouts were unknown to him.
Perseus and Medusa's Head. Rather " Perseus overcoming Phineas
and his Coadjutors," and so described in Smith's Catalogue. Given
by General Thornton to the National Gallery, and since 1862 on
loan to the National Gallery of Ireland.
P. 200. A late Poet. Oliver Goldsmith (died 1774). He was
Professor of Ancient History to the Royal Academy.
P. 206. By a habit of examining what passes in our own
bosoms. " The Poet has only to study himself, and the art of
expressing his own ideals, to find that he has expressed those of other
people. He may know nothing of men, he may have almost no
experience, but his creations will pass for models of naturalness and
for types of humanity " (G. Santayana, The Sense of Beauty).
P. 210. The good and virtuous man. Confucius says: "Virtue
is the strong stem of man's nature, and music the blossoming of
virtue." P. 216. Vandyke. Reynolds himself occasionally, and Gains
borough more often, adopted a Vandyke costume for sitters.
P. 218. He takes care that his work, etc. Reynolds is
describing his own practice. He really invented a style of costume
which admirably suited this purpose. We are so accustomed now
435

Sir Joshua Reynolds
to seeing the ladies of the eighteenth century in Reynolds' por
traits that we scarcely realise how boldly he deviated from contem
porary fashion.
P. 219. Statue of Voltaire. This is the naked Voltaire by
Pigalle (171 4- 1785), a very powerful and realistic work, full of
character, and not without a certain austere dignity in spite of the
extreme emaciation of the form. It stands in a corner of the
Library of the Institute, where its base serves as a hat-stand for the
Members. Battista Franco, born Udine 15 10, died Venice 1580. Studied
in Rome, and became one of the decorative designers of that school,
though inferior to Giovanni da Udine and Pierino del Vaga.
Reynolds exaggerates here the superiority of the Roman designers.
P. 231. Both being equally distant. It would be truer to
say that both correspond to different aspects of nature and both
answer different purposes of art. There is too much of the " gaiety
of rhetoric " about this passage, and the judgment must be corrected by
previous statements about the unity of character as a source of beauty
(Discourse V.), which go much more to the root ofthe matter.
P. 234. Rigaud. Hyacinthe Rigaud, born Perpignan 1649,
died Paris 1743. The greatest portrait painter of Louis XlV's
court. The criticism is not always true, as his splendid Bossuet in
the Louvre shows.
P. 239. Joining^ light to light, etc. Reynolds produced his
finest effects in this /way. In the Lord Ligonier, for instance, the
head is in full light against a light sky, but by the most skilful use
of accents it tells as a single mass upon its background. Reynolds'
note-books contain memoranda of how to effect this.
P. 242. Tent of Darius. Now in the Louvre.
Felibien, Andre, born 1 61 7. Connoisseur and writer. When
Secretary of Legation at Rome he became the friend of Poussin.
P. 244. The blue, the grey, etc. A passage that has
led to much misunderstanding. It was supposed that Gains
borough's " Blue Boy " was painted to controvert it. Reynolds
made the mistake of using the names of local colours which incline
to warm and cold instead of merely saying warm and cold. For
a blue may be made to tell as warm by glazing, and a red as cold
by the use of semi-opaque colour on a dark ground. The main
idea is probably right. Certainly a recent portrait, that of Sir
Frank Swettenham, by Mr Sargent, which was really painted in
defiance of this rule, tends to justify Reynolds' principle.
P. 246. The illuminated parts, etc. This is only true if
the light be warm, as that of the afternoon sun. Nothing is 60
436

Notes
cold as the high lights of flesh in an ordinary room on a grey day,
and the literal imitation of this is responsible for much bad colour in
modern portraits.
P. 248. Was the practice of the old painters. Deceptive relief
can hardly be urged against these painters ; the quality of pictures as
pure decoration was rather the cause of the quality so justly noted
here. P. 255. Timanthes. See Pliny, xxv. 73 ; Cicero, Orat. xxii. 74.
P. 257. Falconet the sculptor (1715-1791). Scholar of
Lemoyne, Professor in the French Academy.
P. 261. The Architect's. Sir William Chambers (1729-1795).
Built Somerset House. He was a favourite at court, and had
more than anyone else to do with the foundation of the Royal
Academy. Vide Sir W. Armstrong's Life of Reynolds.
P. 271. The Torso. Belvedere, Vatican. An Attic work
of the first century B.C. Its discovery had a great influence upon
Michelangelo and Raphael.
P. 275. Discobolus. Modern research has succeeded in turning
the head of the Discobolus round the other way, so that he
looks back at the disc. As a result of this, the comparison loses
its point.
P. 278. The Rape ofthe Sabines. The passage occurs in Book I.
§ 72"73- Borghini himself gave the title. A similar story is told of
Rodin's l'Age d'Airain.
P. 279. Different plans . . . perspective. Ghiberti too would
come under this censure.
P. 282. Ruscono (1658-1728); Monnot, Pierre (1663-1733) ;
Le Gros, Pierre (1656-1719).
P. 283. Not adequate to the end. With Donatello's reliefs
in St Antonio at Padua and in St Lorenzo at Florence in mind,
it is impossible to accept this limitation.
P. 284. Only the elevation. This is not quite true. There
are several examples in Augustan reliefs in which two sides of a building
are shown.
In what manner statues are to be dressed. Rodin, in executing his
celebrated statue of Balzac, was guided, as he has declared, by principles
similar to those here inculcated, but also desiring not to suggest
anything belonging definitely to a different epoch, he reduced the
drapery to the vague columnar mass which we see. It was only to be
attempted by a great master, but in this case eminently succeeded.
Vide Auguste Rodin, by Camille Mauclair, p. 47.
P. 285. An equestrian statue. Chew's statue of the Duke of
Cumberland in Cavendish Square. 437

Sir Joshua Reynolds
P. 302. Cornelius Jansen (1594-1644 ?). Painted portraits in
England from 1618-1648.
P. 307. St Pietro Martire. The picture was burned in 1867, so
that it is impossible to settle whether Reynolds or Algarotti was right.
Algarotti. Francesco, Count Algarotti, born 1712, died 1764.
Author of "Saggi sopra le belle Arti."
P. 315. No work can be too much finished. "A picture is
finished when all trace of the means used to bring about the end
has disappeared. The completed task of perseverance only, has never
been begun, and will remain unfinished to eternity — a monument of
good will and foolishness" (Whistler, Gentle Art of Making
Enemies) .
P. 332. La Fage, Raymond (1640 (?)-i684). Celebrated for
his pen drawings, published by Van der Bruggen.
P. 335. Masaccio. All the figures here described as Masaccio's
occur in that part of the work which was done by Filippino Lippi,
who, however, adapted his style to that of the earlier master. The
figure of St Paul visiting St Peter in prison is indeed so Masacciesque
that one wonders whether some suggestion of it was not left by
Masaccio on the wall. Raphael's borrowings are thoroughly investi
gated in Dr Gronau's "Aus Raphael's Florentiner Tagen." He
took also from Donatello, very largely from Pollajuolo, from Signor-
elli, and in the school of Athens from Masaccio himself.
Admiranda. Plates of Roman sculpture by Giovanni Pietro Bel-
lori. Published at Rome 1693.
P. 353. Plato. Laws, Book II. p. 668 ; also Republic, p. 598.
But Plato admits beauty as well as truth of imitation.
Cardinal Bembo in a letter to Cardinal di S. Maria in Portico,
writes : " Rafaello ... ha ritratto il nostro Tebaldeo tanto naturale,
che egli non e tanto simile a se stesso, quanto gli e quella pittura,"
and proceeds to find fault with Raphael's portrait of Baldassre
Castiglione for want of this striking likeness.
P. 354. Pope. " Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie
Her works ; and dying, fears herself may die."
P. 355. Apelles' critic. Vide Pliny, xxxv. 84.
P. 360. Denner. The German portrait painter ( 1 68 5- 17 49).
Vanderheyden (1 637-1712).
P. 366. Vanbrugh (1666-1726). Reynolds' defence of Van
brugh shows a discriminating appreciation of his merits. He was the
only great Baroque architect England produced, and his work has the
peculiar merits of the Baroque in a high degree. He never actually
438

Notes
used Gothic forms, but Reynolds means, no doubt, the strangeness of
effect he got by his free and unconventional use of classic forms.
P. 367. By a member of the Academy. W. Hodges (1744-1797).
Reynolds refers to his charming views of the East in coloured ac-
quatint. Published 1788.
P. 368. Why not in Architecture ? Reynolds' hint has been taken
with avidity. We know only too well by now " Why not."
P. 369. Perrault, Claude (1613-1688). Designed the eastern
facade of the Louvre, and the Observatory.
P. 374. We have lately lost Mr Gainsborough. Gainsborough
died 2nd August 1788.
P. 375. Masuccio. Agostino Masucci (1 691-17 58) was the
last pupil of Maratta.
Sebastian Concha (1676 - 1764). Neapolitan school; pupil of
Solimena. Placido Costanza (1688-1759^. Roman school.
P. 376. Andrea Sacchi (1600-1661) was certainly one of the
most genuine artists of the seventeenth century in Italy. His picture
of St Romuald among his monks, in the Vatican, is a masterpiece.
P. 385. Wilson, Richard (171 4- 1782). The one contemporary
to whom Reynolds was conspicuously unfair. To us certainly his
landscapes do not seem so much more like ordinary nature than
Poussin's as to justify this discrimination. The most remarkable and
successful treatment of such a theme by Poussin is in his Orion, in
Lord Methuen's Collection. The picture by Wilson here discussed is
either the Niobe in the National Gallery, or the other version, at
Bridgwater House, exhibited in 1760, by which Wilson first attracted
attention. P. 395. Christ's Charge to Peter. Two pictures of this subject
exist, both done about the same time — one is in private hands in New
York, the other in the Wallace Collection. It is probably to this
that Reynolds refers. It justifies his dislike.
P. 396. Who so ingeniously contrived to cover his defects by his
beauties. There was, perhaps, only one other artist who showed a
greater ingenuity in this respect, and that was Reynolds himself.
P. 408. Du Piles. A friend of du Fresnoy, and the first trans
lator and annotator of his Art of Painting.
P. 409. St Eustachius. A celebrated picture by Parmegianino
of St Roch was for long in St Petronio at Bologna, and Reynolds
probably refers to this. It is no longer mentioned in recent guide
books. Moses breaking the Tables. A fresco in Sta Maria della Steccata
at Parma. 439

Sir Joshua Reynolds
P. 410. Our great lyric poet is, of course, Gray.
P. 412. With which they had nothing to do. The study and imita
tion of ancient sculpture had been assiduous for more than fifty years,
and Donatello is at times more classic than Michelangelo ever was.
Raffaelle himself. This too is an exaggeration. Leonardo had
already changed everything.
P. 415. Bishop's " Ancient Statues." The English edition of Para-
digmata Graphica, by Jan van Bischop (1640- 1 686) : a miscellaneous
collection of etchings from works of art.
P. 418. Vision of Ezeiiel, in the Pitti, is no longer regarded
as by Raphael's own hand, though certainly one of his finest designs.
Isaiah. The fresco in St Agostino, Rome. One of Raphael's
most Michelangelesque figures.
St Mark. In the Pitti.
P. 419. A late Philosopher and Critic. James Harris died 1780.
Author of Hermes, and a Treatise concerning Art.
P. 422. The Sampson of Michael Angelo. No such work is known
by him. He began to alter Bandinelli's statue of Hercules and Cacus
to a Samson overcoming the Philistines ; but Bandinelli finally com
pleted the statue, adhering to his subject. Vide Vasari, Life of Baccio
Bandinelli. According to Duppa, Life of Michaelangelo, old prints
of Bandinelli's statue exist with the ascription to Michaelangelo. It
may well have been from one of these that Reynolds got his idea.
As for Tintoretto's Jupiter, the only representation of the subject
which I can find is that in the Origin of the Milky Way in the
National Gallery, and this scarcely agrees with Reynolds' description.

440

INDEX

Albano, 160
Algarotti, 306, 307, 438
Ammon, Jost, 165, 434
Apelles, 55, 355, 438
Aristotle, 41, 44, 221
Armstrong, Sir Walter, vii, 1

B
Bacon, 331, 332
Bamboccio, 166, 434
Bandinelli, Baccio, 341, 440
Barroccio, 34, 174
Barry, viii
Bartolomeo, 156, 338, 418
Bassano, J., 97, 159, 201, 202, 208
Battoni, 174, 371, 375, 379
Bellini, Giovanni, 297, 306
Bellori, 44, 438
Bembo, Cardinal, 353, 438
Bernini, 76, 78, 279, 280
Binyon, L., xii
Bishop, Jan van, 415, 440
Boileau, 221
Bologna, J. de, 278
Bolognese School, 4, 32, 67, 68, 79,
83. 87, 107, 114, 126, 130, 162,
200, 212, 415
Bonifazio, 68
Bordone, 68
Borghini, Raffaelle, 437

Borromini, 78
Bosch, 166, 434
Botticelli, xiii, 108, 320
Bouchardon, Edm£, 121, 433
Boucher, 345
Bourdon, 84, 360, 389, 392
Bourgognone, 63
Bramante, 328
Bramer, 159
Brienne, Comte de, 434
Brouwer, 63, 167
Breughel, xi, xii
Burke, 223

Cailtjs, Count, 13, 429, 433
Cantarini, 159
Caracci, Annibale, 14, 16, 88, 228
Caracci, Lodovico, ix, 29, 30, 32,
118, 120, 162
Caracci, The, ix, 82, 114, 127, 160,
162, 412, 414, 415
Caravaggio, Polidoro Caldara da,
131. 433
Caravaggio, Michel Angelo
Amerighi, 170
Cavedone, 160
Chavannes, P. de, 130
Chambers, Sir William, 437
Charon, 159
Chew, 437

441

Sir Joshua Reynolds

Chiari, 159
Cicero, 51, 151,221,255,331
Claude, 63, 96, 98, 201, 228, 360,
361,384,388
Claudian, 232
Cock, Jerom, 416
Concha, 375, 439
Condivi, 427
Constanza, 375, 439
Cook, Sir Frederick, ix
Cooper, 433
Corneille, 221
Correggio, 16, 32, 34, 69, 102, 103,
118, 119, 155, 160, 166, 174, 247,
248, 272, 304, 379, 418
Cortona, P. da, 78, 159
Cosimo, P. di, 108
Courteney, viii
Cowley, 315
Coxis, 416
Coypel, 166, 234, 434
Cunningham, vii, viii, 399
D
Delaroche, 114
Demosthenes, 331
Denner, 360, 438
Desiderio, 265
Diepenbeke, 159
Domenichino, 160
Donatello, 437, 438
Donne, xi
Dryden, 44, 185, 221
Du Fresnoy, 44, 47, 213, 241, 242
Dughet, Gaspar, 228
Du Piles, 233, 234, 235, 237, 408
Diirer, A., xii, 55, 62, 108, 165, 248,
288
Dutch School, 67, 83, 90, 94, 97, 98,
166, 193, 200, 208, 246, 384, 386

Eeckhout, 159
El Greco, 108
English Schools, 306, 374
Euphranor, 116
Euripides, 131, 257
Eyck, J. van, xi
Eyck, H. van, xi, xiii, xiv, xvi, xvii,
xviii

Falconet, 257, 258, 437
Felibien, 242, 408, 437
Ferri, 159
Fielding, 362
Fiesole, Mino da, 265
Filippino, 320
Flemish School, 34, 83, 94, 98, 168,
200, 246, 268, 382, 386, 416
Flink, Govaert, 159
Florentine School, 67, 79, 80, 83,
245, 268, 358, 406
Floris, 416
Franco, Battista, 219, 220, 436
French School, 2, 67, 68, 83, 107,
166, 167, 174

Gainsborough, 96, 138, 371, 374,
376, 379, 380, 381, 383, 384, 389,
39°, 393. 394, 395. 396
Garrick, 362
Gennari, The, 159
Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 284, 437
Giordano, Luca, 93, 201, 332
Giorgione, 248
Giotto, 39, 108
Goethe, xiii, xxi

442

Index

Goldschmidt Collection, xii
Goldsmith, 435
Gronau, Dr G., 438
Guercino, ix, 159, 160, 162, 379
Guido, see Reni
Guild of St Luke, 1

H
Hals, Frans, 167
Handel, 188
Harris, James, 440
Hemskerk, 416
Hobbes, 359
Hogarth, 383
Holbein, xii
Homer, 51, 121, 150, 185, 232, 3:
359,411,416,417
Horace, 221
Hudson, x

1
Imperials, 375
Ingres, 82
Italian Schools, 91, 208, 306
J
Jansen, Cornelius, 302, 438
Jordaens, 159, 434

K

Knkli.eu, 354

La Fage, 332, 438
Lancret, 266

Lanfranco, 160
Le Brun, 83, 84, 242, 245
Le Gros, 282, 283
Leoni, 265
Le Sueur, 82, 83, 130, 160, 235
Leyden, L. van, xii
Livy, 34
Lombard School, 268
Longinus, 433
Lorrain, Claude {see Claude)
Lucan, 232

M

Manet, 170
6, Mantegna, xii, xiii, 108, 248
Martini, Simone, 180
Maratti, C, 80, 82, 127, 159, 160,
245, 281, 282, 376
Masaccio, 39, 320, 335, 336, 337,
338, 339, 34o, 438
Masuccio, 375
Matsys, Quentin, xi, xii
Mazzoni, Guido, 265
Mazzuoli, 159
Mengs, Raphael, 174, 371, 375
Metastasio, 329
Metsu, 69
Michel Angelo, xi, xiii, 7, 16, 27,
3°, 39, 69, 78, 86, 87, 91, 92, 104,
108, 118, 120, 121, 122, 123, 133,
•5°, J 55, 156, 160, 167, 266, 270,
272, 300,337, 338, 410,411,412,
414,416,417, 418, 419,420,421,
422, 423, 426, 427, 428
Milton, 256, 361
Miel, Jan, 166, 434
Millais, 287
Monot, 282
Murillo, 32, 17Q
443

Sir Joshua Reynolds

o

Ostade, 63

Palma, 265
Parmegiano, 103, 159, 166, 272,
274, 3°4, 4°9, 4io, 418
Pater, 265
Perrault, 369
Perugino, Pietro, 156, 158, 248, 320,
338, 412
Phidias, 50, 51, 54
Pietri, P. de, 159
Plato, 44, 221, 353, 438
Pliny, 116, 151,255,257,433
Plutarch, 34
Polidoro, 131
Pollajuolo, 108
Ponte, Jacopo da, 208
Pope, 221, 354, 416, 438
Pordenone, 68
Poussin, N., 83, 94, 127, 128, 130,
131, 132, 155, 159, 166, 194, 195,
230, 231, 235, 245, 360, 362, 385,
388, 392, 395, 435
Primaticcio, 159
Proclus, 51

QuiNTILIAN, 59, 255

R

Raffaelle, xi, xiii, 7, 13, 16, 27,
39, 45, 75, 82, 83, 87, 88, 108,
115, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123,
127, 150, 156, 158, 158, 160, 164,

Raffaelle — continued
167, 172, 193, 241, 296, 303, 320,
328, 335. 337, 338, 339, 340, 353,
362,395,412,415,418,427
Rembrandt, ix, 86, 155, 159, 170,
193, 230, 231, 247, 252, 254, 343
Renaissance, The, xii, 16, 319
Reni, Guido, ix, 4, 16, 114, 115,
127, 159, 160, 188
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, vii, viii, ix, x,
xi, xii, xiii, xiv, xvi, xvii, xviii, xix,
xxi, 1, 2, 4, 16, 17, 18, 32, 39, 40,
4i, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 67, 68, 69,
78, 82, 86, 90, 96, 102, 107, 108,
114, 130, 137, 138, 139, 158, 162,
170, 174, 178, 179, 180, 204, 208,
223, 250, 254, 259, 265, 266, 274,
287, 288, 300, 306, 310, 314, 319,
320, 334, 347, 348, 37i, 392, 399,
400, 414, 426
Ribera, 170
Richardson, x
Rigaud, 234, 6
Rodin, 437
Romanelli, 159
Romano, Giulio, 118, 194
Roman School, 67, 71, 79, 80, 83,
200, 212, 219, 245, 268, 358, 374,
375, 406
Rosa, Salvator, 108, 124, 126, 133,
361, 386, 388
Rosellino, 265
Rossetti, D. G., 287
Rosso, 159, 338
Rubens, ix, xiv, xv, xvi, 4, 34, 32,
93, 94, 98, 108, 127, 131, 133,
155, 159, 198, 199, 245, 248, 251,
252, 265, 311, 314, 360, 382, 386,
395, 417, 426
Ruscono, 282
Russell, B., 435
Ruysdael, 382

444

Index

Sacchi, Andrea, 160, 376
Santayana, G., 435
Sargent, J. S., 288, 436
Sarto, Andrea del, 86, 338
Scheffer, Ary, 114
Schidone, 160
Shakespeare, xii, xviii, 232, 358,
411
Signorelli, 108
Sirani, Elizabetta, 159
Spencer, Herbert, 40
Statius, 232
Steen, Jan, xiii, 86, 167, 358
Stephens, F. G., 435
Stimmer, 165, 434
Studio, 304

T

Teniers, 63, 69, 167, 303, 382
Terborgh, 69
Thornton, General, 439
Tibaldi, Pellegrino, 159, 160, 414,
415
Tiarini, 160
Tintoretto, ix, xvii, 4, 29, 34, 68,
69, 84, 86, 88, 92, 93, 126, 166,
202, 204, 208, 219, 314, 416, 422
440
Titian, ix, 4, 29, 30, 34, 6g, gi, g3,
108, 126, 130, 201, 2ig, 228, 234,
245, 246, 296, 297, 298, 300, 301,
3°3, 3°6, 307, 308, 314, 360, 361,
416, 422

Valerius Maximus, 255
Vanbrugh, 366, 367, 368
Vanderheyden, 360
Vandervelde, 63
Vanderwerf, 203
Vandyck, 3, 4, 167, 216, 217, 246,
3°3, 360, 382
Van Goyen, 167
Van Leyden, Lucas, 165, 434
Vasari, 62, 91, 92, 120, 219, 298,
422
Venetian School, 34, 67, 68, 71, 83,
87, 88, 91, 92, 93, 94, g7, 103, 118,
155, 160, 166, 167, 200, 208, 212,
219, 243, 244, 268, 297, 300, 416,
417
Veronese, Paolo, 34, 68, 84, 88, go,
92, 93, 97, 108, 159, 166, 174,
202, 208, 2ig, 243, 244, 248, 265,
311, 3H,4i6
Vinci, Leonardo da, 37, 39, 69, 86,
156,239,248,338
Virgil, 301
Velasquez, 108, 170
Verdier, 159
Voltaire, 215, 436
Vouet, Simon, 93, 130, 160
W
Walpole, Horace, 433
Watteau, 63, 69, 133, 166
Whistler, xxi
Winkelmann, xiii
Wilson, R., 96, 385
Wren, Sir Christopher, 368

U

Utamaro, 180

Young, Dr, 316

V
Vago, Pierino del, 338

Zurbaran, 170

445

THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH.

THE PORTFOLIO MONOGRAPHS, No. 46
• With 4 Illuminations in Colours and Gold, and 3 3 other Illustrations. Price 5/.
net/, or in cloth, js. net/
THE CATHEDRAL
BUILDERS IN ENGLAND
By EDWARD S. PRIOR, M.A., F.S.A.
Author of "A History of Gothic Art in England," fjff.
In this volume Mr Prior treats of the Great English Mediaeval
Cathedrals, with special reference to the men by whom they were
designed,_ and the craftsmen by whom they were erected. He thus
characterizes the successive periods of Cathedral building in England : —
1. Norman, Benedictine, "Romanesque."
2. Angevin, Neomonastic, "Transitional to Gothic.''
3. Insular, Episcopal, "Early English."
4. Continental, Regal, "The Summit of Gothic."
5. English, Aristocratic, "Decorated."
6. After the Black Death : Official, "Perpendicular."
7. Fifteenth Century : Parochial and Trading, "Perpendicular."
8. Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries : the Craftsman and the Architect.
9. Nineteenth Century : the Restorer and Revivalist.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Miniatures, from Illuminated MSS. in the British Museum, printed in Colours.
Christ in Glory. From a Missal ofthe Fourteenth Century.
The Angels with the Seven Vials. From an Apocalypse of the 14th Century.
Bishop carrying the Sacrament. From a Lectionary of the Fifteenth Century.
Group of Bishops. From a Psalter of the Fifteenth Century.
Other Illustrations
Westminster Abbey. Confessor's Chapel. Lincoln Cathedral, from the East. Hollar.
Boyce. Salisbury Cathedral, the Chapter House.
Westminster Abbey. N. Ambulatory. Nash. F. Mackenzie.
Canterbury Cathedral, from the S. Hollar. Salisbury Cathedral, from Cloisters. Turner.
Durham Cathedral, from the River. Daviell. Exeter Cathedral, from the S.E. S. Rayner.
Durham Cathedral, fiom the West. Cotman. Ely Cathedral, the Octagon. Garland.
Winchester Cathedral, N. Transept. Blore. Gloucester Cathedral, Presbytery. J. Harold
Norwich Cathedra), Nave. F. Mackenzie. Gibuons.
Canterbury Cathedral. N. Aisle of Choir. Gloucester Cathedral, Cloisters. Garland.
G. Cattermole. York Minster, East End. F.Mackenzie.
Wells Cathedral, Arches under the Central Winchester Cathedral, West Front. Garland.
Tower. Garland. York Minster, Choir. F. Mackenzie.
Wells Cathedral, N.W. Tower. J. H. Gibbons. Sherborne Minster. Constable.
Chichester Cathedral, S.E. View. Garland. St George's Chapel, Windsor, from S. Hollar.
Southwark Cathedral, Nave. Dibden. St George's Chapel, Windsor, Interior of
Salisbury Cathedral, Small Transept. F. Choir. Hollar.
Mackenzie. St Paul's Cathedral, West Front. T. Malton.
York Minster, from the North. Ed. Blore. St Paul's Cathedral, Interior of Choir. R.
York Minster, North Transept. Garland. Trevitt.
Lincoln Cathedral, from the West. De Wint. Truro Cathedral, from the South-East.
Lincoln Cathedral, the Chancel. Garland.
London : SEELEY & COMPANY Limited, 38 Great Russell Street

THE PORTFOLIO MONOGRAPHS, No. 45

With Tour Photographic Plates, and many other Illustrations
Price 5/. nett, or in cloth, js. nett
THE PEEL COLLECTION
AND THE
DUTCH SCHOOL OF PAINTING
By SIR WALTER ARMSTRONG
The Peel Collection in the National Gallery is chiefly famous for its
fine group of works by the Dutch painters of the Seventeenth Century
(excluding Rembrandt and his followers). It is with these artists that
Sir Walter Armstrong's monograph deals.
" Vastly interesting to read . . . charmingly illustrated." — Academy.
"A model of what such a study should be." — Standard.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Guitar
Terborch
The Court of a House,
Hooch

PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES
Lesson. By Gerard The Avenue. By Hobbema
By Pieter de Chapeau de Poil. By Rubens

Other Illustrations

A Family Portrait. By Gonzales
COQUES
On the Maas. By Cuyp
A Ruined Castle. By Cuyp
A Dutch Interior. By Pieter de
Hooch
The Duet. By G. Metsu
The Music Lesson. By G. Metsu
The Alchemist. By A. van Ostade
A Village Scene. By I. van Ostade
Landscape and Cattle. By Paul
Potter
The Triumph of Silenus. By Rubens
The Waterfall. By Jakob van Ruisdael
The Music Master. By Jan Steen
The Surprise. By D. Teniers (the
Younger)

Stable. By P.

The Interior of
WOUWERMAN
On the Sea Shore. By P. Wouwerman
Blowing Bubbles. By Netscher
The Farm Cottage. By A. van de
Velde
Frost Scene. By A. van de Velde
A Gale. By W. van de Velde
A Lady Feeding a Parrot. By
van Mdjris
Landscape with Figures. By
Wynants
The Poulterer's Shop.
Figures and Animals
By Karel du Jardin
A Street in Cologne.
Heyden

F.

Jan

By Gerard Dou
in a Meadow.
By J. VAN DER

London : SEELEY & COMPANY Limited, 38 Great Russell Street

3 9002 00458 1063