Rise and Progress of Painting

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Staunton & Son, 1862 - 207 pages
 

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Page 206 - Archangel: but not being able to * mount so high, it was in vain for me to * search his resemblance here below;. so * that I was forced to make an introspection ' into my own mind, and into that Idea of ' Beauty, which I have formed in my own * imagination.
Page 150 - In justice to myself, however, I must add, that though disappointed and mortified at not finding myself enraptured with the works of this great master, I did not for a moment conceive or suppose...
Page 157 - 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 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.
Page 101 - This is, perhaps, the first picture of portraits in the world, comprehending more of those qualities which make a perfect portrait than any other I have ever seen...
Page 151 - It is the florid style which strikes at once, and captivates the eye for a time, without ever satisfying the judgment. Nor does painting in this respect differ from other arts. A just poetical taste, and the acquisition of a nice discriminative musical ear, are equally the work of time.
Page 150 - I remember very well my own disappointment when I first visited the Vatican : but on confessing my feelings to a brother student, of whose ingenuousness I had a high opinion, he acknowledged that the works of Raphael had the same effect on him, or rather that they did not produce the effect which he expected.
Page 150 - I ought to have done, was one of the most humiliating circumstances that ever happened to me. I found myself in the midst of works executed upon principles with which I was unacquainted; I felt my ignorance, and stood abashed. All the indigested notions of painting which I had brought with me from England, where the art was in the lowest state it had ever been in (it could not indeed be lower), were to be totally done away with, and eradicated from my mind.
Page 48 - Angelo, it must be answered, that if it is to be given to him who possessed 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 composition can attain to, abundantly compensates the absence of every other beauty, and atones for all other deficiencies, then Michael Angelo demands the preference.
Page 151 - Having since that period frequently revolved this in my mind, I am now clearly of opinion, that a relish for the higher excellencies of the art is an acquired taste, which no man ever possessed without long cultivation, and great labour and attention.
Page 97 - If we consider the fruitfulness of invention which is discovered in this work, or the skill which is shown in composing such an infinite number of figures, or the art of the distribution of...

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