ck and white for the colours of plumes.
Also, every great artist looks for, and expresses, that character of his
subject which is best to be rendered by the instrument in his hand, and
the material he works on. Give Velasquez or Veronese a leopard to paint,
the first thing they think of will be its spots; give it to Duerer to
engrave, and he will set himself at the fur and whiskers; give it a
Greek to carve, and he will only think of its jaws and limbs; each doing
what is absolutely best with the means at his disposal.

172. The details of practice in these various methods I will endeavour
to explain to you by distinct examples in your Educational series, as we
proceed in our work; for the present, let me, in closing, recommend to
you once more with great earnestness the patient endeavour to render the
chiaroscuro of landscape in the manner of the Liber Studiorum; and this
the rather, because you might easily suppose that the facility of
obtaining photographs which render such effects, as it seems, with
absolute truth and with unapproachable subtilty, superseded the
necessity of study, and the use of sketching. Let me assure you, once
for all, that photographs supersede no single quality nor use of fine
art, and have so much in common with Nature, that they even share her
temper of parsimony, and will themselves give you nothing valuable that
you do not work for. They supersede no good art, for the definition of
art is "human labour regulated by human design," and this design, or
evidence of active intellect in choice and arrangement, is the
essential part of the work; which so long as you cannot perceive, you
perceive no art whatsoever; which when once you do perceive, you will
perceive also to be replaceable by no mechanism. But, farther,
photographs will give you nothing you do not work for. They are
invaluable for record of some kinds of facts, and for giving transcripts
of drawings by great masters; but neither in the photographed scene, nor
photographed drawing, will you see any true good, more than in the
things themselves, until you have given the appointed price in your own
attention and toil. And when once you have paid this price, you will not
care for photographs of landscape. They are not true, though they seem
so. They are merely spoiled nature. If it is not human design you are
looking for, there is more beauty in the next wayside bank than in all
the sun-blackened paper you could collect in a lifetime.