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 super, added
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 him (perhaps equal to him)
Parmegiano has dignified the genteelness of modern effeminacy by uniting
it with the simplicity of the ancients and the grandeur and severity of
Michael Angelo. It must be confessed, however, that these two
extraordinary men, by endeavouring to give the utmost degree of grace,
have sometimes, perhaps, exceeded 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
Ae 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 venerable 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 presiding principle
which regulates and gives stability to every art. The works, whether of
poets, painters, moralists, or histor