the dispersed
flesh-colour, which the faces and hands occasion, requires a principal
mass, which is best produced by a naked figure. But where the subject
will not allow of this, a drapery, approaching to flesh colour, will
answer the purpose; as in the Transfiguration, where a woman is clothed
in drapery of this colour, which makes a principal to all the heads and
hands of the picture. And for the sake of harmony, the colours, however
distinguished in their light, should be nearly of the _same_ simple
unity in their shadows; and to give the utmost force, strength, and
solidity to the work, some part of the picture should be as _light_, and
some as _dark_ as possible. These two extremes are, then, to be
_harmonized_ and reconciled to each other. Pure black, in these
instances, is opposed to the contrary extreme of brightness.

'If to these different manners we add one more, that in which a _silvery
grey_, or pearly tint, is predominant, I believe every kind of harmony
that can be produced by colours will be comprehended. To see this style
in perfection we must again have recourse to the Dutch school,
particularly to the works of the younger Vandervelde, and the younger
Teniers, whose pictures are valued by connoisseurs in proportion as they
possess this excellence of a silver tint.

'Which of these different styles ought to be preferred, so as to meet
every man's ideas, would be difficult to determine, from the
predilection which every man has to the mode which is practised by the
school in which _he_ has been educated; but, if any pre-eminence is to
be given, it must be to that manner which stands in the highest
estimation with mankind in general, and that is the Venetian style, or
rather the manner of Titian, which simply considered as producing an
effect of colours, will certainly eclipse, with its splendour, whatever
is brought in competition with it.'

In landscape painting, the routine of placing one colour by the side of
another according to any known or understood systems, is not so
imperative as when applied to historical painting, and where the manner
and effect of any particular school is to be produced.

To institute a comparison between all who have excelled in colouring,
would be useless here, differing so entirely. But of _Tone_:--The rich,
and the mellow, and the silvery grey, are cared most for, as regards
this expression. It involves all colours in its meaning, as well as the
depth and power of the