FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112  
113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   >>   >|  
t or it may be wrong, according to the purpose the painter may have; I only mean to assert, that nature will bear the changes and not offend any sense. The absolute naturalness, then, of the colour of nature, in its strictest and most limited sense, local and aerial, is not so necessary as that the eye cannot be gratified without it. And it follows, that agreeability of colour does not depend upon this strict naturalness. I said, that it is of the first importance that the colouring be agreeable _per se_; that, without any regard to a subject, the eye should be gratified by the general tone, the harmony of the parts, and the quality--namely, whether it be opaque or transparent, and to what degree. There are certain things that we greatly admire on this very account--such as all precious gems, polished and lustrous stones and marbles, especially those into which we can look as into a transparent depth. A picture, therefore, cannot be said to be well coloured unless this peculiar quality of agreeability be in it. To attain this, much exactness may be sacrificed with safety. It should be considered indispensable. And this perfect liberty of altering to a certain degree the naturalness of colouring, leads properly to that second essential--its adaptation to a subject, or its _expressing the sentiment_. For it is manifest, that if we can, without offending, alter the whole aspect of nature in most common scenes, we can still more surely do so when the scenes are at all ideal or out of the common character. And we can do it likewise without a sacrifice of truth, in the higher sense of _truth_, as a term of art or of poetry. For the mind also _gives its own colouring_, or is unobservant of some colours which the eye presents, and makes from all presented to it its own selections and combinations, and suits them to its own conception and creation. It has always been admitted that the painter's mind does this with objects of form, omitting much, generalizing or selecting few particulars. Now if this power be admitted with regard to objects themselves, as to their forms and actual presence, why should it not, with equal propriety, be extended to the colours of those objects, even though they have a sensible effect upon the scenes which are before us? But, as was said, _the mind colours_; it is not the slave to the organ of sight, and in the painter, as in the poet, asserts its privilege of _making_, delighting even to "e
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112  
113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

scenes

 

colours

 

colouring

 

objects

 

painter

 

nature

 
naturalness
 

colour

 
degree
 
subject

quality

 
transparent
 
common
 

regard

 
admitted
 

agreeability

 
gratified
 

delighting

 
poetry
 

making


unobservant

 
effect
 

extended

 

privilege

 

higher

 

aspect

 

surely

 

character

 

sacrifice

 

presents


likewise

 

presented

 

particulars

 
selecting
 
omitting
 

generalizing

 

actual

 

presence

 

conception

 

combinations


selections

 

creation

 
propriety
 

asserts

 
agreeable
 
importance
 

depend

 
strict
 
general
 

things