his
way, from earliest childhood. The difference between a bad artist and a
good is, that the bad artist _seems_ to copy a great deal, the good one
_does_ copy a great deal.

_Blake._

LIV

If you deprive an artist of all he has borrowed from the experience of
others the originality left will be but a twentieth part of him.

Originality by itself cannot constitute a remarkable talent.

_Wiertz._

LV

I am convinced that to reach the highest degree of perfection as a
painter, it is necessary, not only to be acquainted with the ancient
statues, but we must be inwardly imbued with a thorough comprehension of
them.

_Rubens._

LVI

First of all copy drawings by a good master made by his art from nature
and not as exercises; then from a relief, keeping by you a drawing done
from the same relief; then from a good model, and of this you ought to
make a practice.

_Leonardo._

LVII

I wish to do something purely Greek; I feed my eyes on the antique
statues, I mean even to imitate some of them. The Greeks never
scrupled to reproduce a composition, a movement, a type already received
and used. They put all their care, all their art, into perfecting an
idea which had been used by others before them. They thought, and
thought rightly, that in the arts the manner of rendering and expressing
an idea matters more than the idea itself.

[Illustration: _Rubens_ THE CASTLE IN THE PARK _Hanfstaengl_]

To give a clothing, a perfect form to one's thought is to be an
artist ... it is the only way.

Well, I have done my best and I hope to attain my object.

_L. David._

LVIII

Who amongst us, if he were to attempt in reality to represent a
celebrated work of Apelles or Timanthus, such as Pliny describes them,
but would produce something absurd, or perfectly foreign to the
exalted greatness of the ancients? Each one, relying on his own powers,
would produce some wretched, crude, unfermented stuff, instead of an
exquisite old wine, uniting strength and mellowness, outraging those
great spirits whom I endeavour reverently to follow, satisfied, however,
to honour the marks of their footsteps, instead of supposing--I
acknowledge it candidly--that I can ever attain to their eminence even
in mere conception.

_Rubens._

LIX

[You have stated that you thought these Marbles had great truth and
imitation of nature; do you consider that that adds to their value?]

It considerably adds to it, because I con