225. Such is the fugitive essence, such the intangible texture of female
genius, that few combinations of circumstances ever seemed to favour its
transmission to posterity.
226. In an age of luxury women have taste, decide and dictate; for in an
age of luxury woman aspires to the functions of man, and man slides into
the offices of woman. The epoch of eunuchs was ever the epoch of
viragoes.
227. Female affection is ever in proportion to the impression of
superiority in the object. Woman fondles, pities, despises and forgets
what is below her; she values, bears and wrangles with her equal; she
adores what is above her.
228. Be not too squeamish in the choice of your materials; you will
disgrace the best, if you cannot give value to the worst: the gold and
azure wasted on Rosselli's[42] draperies cannot give value to their
folds or hide the wants beneath.
229. There are moments when all are men, and only men, and ought to be
no more; but the artist, who when his daily task is over can lock his
meditation up with his tools--ranks with mechanics.
230. Date the death of emulation and of excellence from the moment of
your employer's indifference; and mediocrity of success from the moment
of his meddling with the process of your work.
231. One of the most unexplored regions of art are dreams, and what may
be called the personification of sentiment: the Prophets, Sibyls and
Patriarchs of Michael Angelo are so many branches of one great
sentiment. The dream of Raffaello is a characteristic representation of
a dream; the dream of Michael Angelo is moral inspiration, a sublime
sentiment.
_Coroll._--Of three visionary subjects ascribed to Raffaello and known
from the prints of Marc Antonio, Georgio Mantuano, and Agostino
Veneziano, this alludes to the last, called by the Italians Stregozzo,
by the French "La Carcasse:" an association of ideas big with the very
elements of dreams, and almost a definition. That it be a conception of
Raffaello rests on no other proof than the tablet of Marc Antonio and
its own internal merit; which is so uniform that although one principal
figure is undoubtedly transcribed from another in the cartoon of Pisa,
the whole can never be considered as a pasticcio.
232. A trite subject becomes interesting by the introduction of
appropriate ornaments; a small statue of Moses breaking the tables in
the back-ground of a Salutation; and a number of Baptists in that of a
Madonna with her son and Joseph, expressing the dissolution of the old
and the institution of the new doctrine, both by Michael Angelo,[43]
give unexpected sublimity to subjects for which Raffaelle and Titiano
had ransacked in vain the nursery and heaven.
233. Compilation is the lowest degree in art, but let him who means to
borrow with impunity, follow the statesman's maxim: "strip the mean and
spare the great."
_Coroll._--A composition of which every thing was borrowed from himself,
being shown to Michael Angelo, and his opinion asked, "I commend it,"
said he, "but when on the day of judgement each body shall claim its
original limbs, what will remain in this picture?"
234. He ought to possess some himself, who attempts to make use of
borrowed excellence: a golden goblet on a beggar's table, serves only to
expose its companions of lead.
235. Resemblance, character, costume, are the three requisites of
portrait: the first distinguishes, the second classifies, the third
assigns place and time to an individual.
236. Landscape is either the transcript of a spot, or a picturesque
combination of homogeneous objects, or the scene of a phenomenon. The
first pleases by precision and taste; the second adds variety and
grandeur; the third may be an instrument of sublimity, affect our
passions, or wake a sentiment.