Practical Essays on Various Branches of the Fine Arts: To which is Added, a Critical Inquiry Into the Principles and Practice of the Late Sir David Wilkie |
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Academy action advantage appearance artists attention beauty become better branch carried character colour combined compared complete composition consequence considered dark drawing effect enable England English engraving example excellence exhibition existence expression figures finish Gallery genius give given greater greatest hands head higher historical painting House illustrated importance influence instance interest Italy late Lawrence less light living look manner marked masters means mind mode nature necessary never notice object observed opinion original painter perceive period portions portraits possess present principles prints produced purchased qualities Raffaelle received remarks rendered Reynolds rich Royal says seems shade shadows Sir Joshua style taste things tints tion Titian tone touch truth Vandyke variety various Venetian school volume whole Wilkie
Popular passages
Page 23 - In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species.
Page 55 - ... hung it on each side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces that cannot be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light.
Page 56 - Genius is chiefly exerted in historical pictures ; and the art of the painter of portraits is often lost in the obscurity of his subject. But it is in painting as in life, what is greatest is not always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to goddesses, to empty splendour and to airy fiction, that art which is now employed in diffusing friendship, in reviving tenderness, in quickening the affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead.
Page 24 - Shakespeare, whether life or nature be his subject, shows plainly that he has seen with his own eyes ; he gives the image which he receives, not weakened or distorted by the intervention of any other mind; the ignorant feel his representations to be just, and the learned see that they are complete.
Page 23 - Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world; by the peculiarities of studies or professions, which can operate but upon small numbers; or by the accidents of transient fashions or temporary opinions: they are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will...
Page 7 - West has conquered ; he has treated his subject as it ought to be treated ; I retract my objections. I foresee that this picture will not only become one of the most popular, but will occasion a revolution in art.
Page 8 - Artist, and prevent his exhibiting his abilities to their greatest advantage, will certainly not desire a modern dress. The desire of transmitting to posterity the shape of modern dress must be acknowledged to be purchased at a prodigious price, even the price of every thing that is valuable in art. Working in stone is a very serious business ; and it seems to be scarce worth while to employ such durable materials in conveying to posterity a fashion of which the longest existence scarce exceeds a...
Page 23 - His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world ; by the peculiarities of studies or professions, which can operate but upon small numbers ; or by the accidents of transient fashions or temporary opinions : they are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. His persons act and speak by the influence of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated,...
Page 54 - I would desire the fair sex to consider how impossible it is for them to add any thing that can be ornamental to what is already the masterpiece of nature. The head has the most beautiful appearance, as well as the highest station, in a human figure. Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying...
Bibliographic information
| Title | Practical Essays on Various Branches of the Fine Arts: To which is Added, a Critical Inquiry Into the Principles and Practice of the Late Sir David Wilkie |
| Author | John Burnet |
| Publisher | D. Bogue, 1848 |
| Original from | Oxford University |
| Digitized | 9 Oct 2006 |
| Length | 200 pages |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |