Gents Mag 1843 part 2 p.453
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Gentleman's Magazine 1843 part 2 p.453
He then lays down the principles on which all right judgment of art must be founded, in order that the terms and language in which his critical judgments and comparisons are expressed, may be thoroughly understood. He distinguishes between the painter's intellectual power and his technical knowledge; that mere technical painting or colouring is to the artist what the power of versifying is to the poet; but yet the thought, whether in painting or poetry, is intimately connected with the language in which it is conveyed: he then distinguishes between language that is expressive, and that which is merely decorative or ornamental. As, for instance, most pictures of the Dutch school, excepting those of Rubens, Vandyck, and Rembrandt, are ostentatious exhibitions of the artist's power of speech, the clear and vigourous elocution of useless and senseless words; while the early efforts of Cimabue and Giotto are the warning messages of prophecy declared by the stammering lips of infants. We must therefore carefully distinguish what is language and what is thought, considering the former as an inferior excellence. "The picture which has the nobler and more numerous ideas, however awkwardly expressed, is a greater and better picture than that which has the less noble and less numerous ideas, however beautifully expressed. No weight, nor mass, nor beauty of execution can outweigh one grain or fragment of thought. Three pen-strokes of Raffaelle are a greater and better picture than the most finished work that ever Carlo Dolci polished into inanity. A pencil scratch of Wilkie's on the back of a letter is a greater and better picture - and I use the term picture in its full sense - than the most laboured and luminous canvass that ever left the easel of Gerard Dow. A finished work of a great artist is only better than its sketch if the source of pleasure belonging to colour and charioscuro, vauable in themselves, are so employed as to increase the impressiveness of the thought. But, if one atom of thought has vanished, all colour, all finish, all execution, all ornament, are too dearly bought. Nothing but thought can pay for thought, and the instant that increasing refinement or finish of the picture begins to be paid for by the loss of the faintest shadow of an idea, that instant all refinement or finish is an excressence and a deformity."The author then gives his definition of what he calls "the greatest art," that which conveys to the mind of the spectator, by any means whatsoever, the greatest number of the greatest ideas; and consequently he is the greatest artist who has embodied such ideas in his works. He then considers that all the sources of pleasure or good to be derived from works of art may be referred to five distinct heads - ideas of power, of imitation, of truth, of beauty, of relation, - the nature of each of which he distinguishes. After having briefly considered the principles respecting ideas of power, he commences the second part of his work with the idea of truth, which he continues through the remainder of the volume, leaving, we presume, the consideration of beauty and relation for the portions of the work that are to follow. In this discussion there are many sound principles laid down, many accurate distinctions drawn, many judicious rules enforced, and many elegant illustrations brought to the subject. In the application of his principles he divides all painters into two great and distinct classes, - those who aim at the development of truth, and those who look no higher than mere imitation. The old masters he ranks in the latter category. "They had neither love of nature nor feeling for her beauty; they looked for her coldest and most commonplace effects because they were easiest to imitate, and for her most vulgar forms because they were most easily to be recognised." He then observes that the principles of selection by modern artists is different, seeking not what is easiest to imitate, but for what is most important to tell, and that there is |
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