r 1759 the Italian painters were, in our
author's opinion, sunk in the very bathos of insipidity. The second,
that the Venetian painters, _i.e._ Titian, Tintoret, and Veronese,
are, in our author's opinion, to be classed with the Dutch; that is to
say, are painters in a style "in which the slowest intellect is always
sure to succeed best." Thirdly, that painting naturally is not a
difficult thing, nor one on which a painter should pride himself. And,
finally, that connoisseurs, seeing a cat or a fiddle successfully
painted, ought not therefore immediately to compare the painter to
Raphael or Michael Angelo.

Yet Raphael painted fiddles very carefully in the foreground of his
St. Cecilia,--so carefully, that they quite look as if they might be
taken up. So carefully, that I never yet looked at the picture without
wishing that somebody _would_ take them up, and out of the way. And I
am under a very strong persuasion that Raphael did not think painting
"naturally" an easy thing. It will be well to examine into this point
a little; and for the present, with the reader's permission, we will
pass over the first two statements in this passage (touching the
character of Italian art in 1759, and of Venetian art in general), and
immediately examine some of the evidence existing as to the real
dignity of "natural" painting--that is to say, of painting carried to
the point at which it reaches a deceptive appearance of reality.

[35] The full title of this chapter is "Of the Received Opinions
touching the 'Grand Style.'"

[36] I have put this sentence in a parenthesis, because it is
inconsistent with the rest of the statement, and with the general
teaching of the paper; since that which "attends only to the
invariable" cannot certainly adopt "every ornament that will warm
the imagination." [Ruskin.]

[37] Stanza 6 of Byron's _Prisoner of Chillon_, quoted with a slight
inaccuracy.

[38] "Messrs. Mallet and Pictet, being on the lake, in front of the
Castle of Chillon, on August 6, 1774, sunk a thermometer to the
depth of 312 feet." ... --SAUSSURE, _Voyages dans les Alpes_, chap.
ii, Sec. 33. It appears from the next paragraph, that the thermometer
was at the bottom of the lake. [Ruskin, altered.]

[39] Ruskin later wrote: "It leaves out rhythm, which I now consider
a defect in said definition; otherwise good."

[40] Take, for instance, the beautiful stanza in the _Affliction of
Margaret_: