TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH;
WITH AN ORIGINAL PREFACE, CONTAINING
A PARALLEL BETWEEN PAINTING AND POETRY.
FIRST PRINTED IN QUARTO IN 1695.
ART OF PAINTING, &c.
Charles Alphonse Du Fresnoy, as we learn from his life by Mason, was
born in Paris in the year 1611. He studied the art of painting in Rome
and Venice, and afterwards practised it in France with great reputation.
Meanwhile, he did not neglect the sister pursuit of poetry; and combining
it with the studies of an artist, he composed his poem on the Art of
Painting. It did not appear till after the author’s death, in 1658, when
it was published with the French version, and remarks of De Piles. The
first edition was printed in 1661. This poem, as containing, in elegant
and perspicuous language, the most just rules for artists and amateurs,
has been always held in esteem by the admirers of the art which it
professes to teach.
The version of Dryden first appeared in 4to, in 1695, and was republished
by Richard Graham in 1716, by whom it is inscribed to Lord Burlington.
The editor of 1716, informs us, that Mr Jervas had undertaken to correct
such passages of the translation as Dryden had erred in by following, too
closely, the French version of De Piles. To Graham’s edition is prefixed
the epistle from Pope to Jervas, with Dryden’s version; an honourable
and beautiful testimony from the living to the dead poet, which I have
retained with pleasure, as also the epistle from Mason to Sir Joshua
Reynolds, which contains some remarks on Dryden’s version.
The late Mr Mason, as a juvenile exercise, executed a poetical version of
Fresnoy’s poem, which has had the honour to be admitted into the works of
Sir Joshua Reynolds, vol. iii. and might have superseded the necessity of
here reprinting the prose of Dryden. But there is something so singular
in a great poet undertaking to render into prose the admired poem of a
foreign bard, that, as a specimen of such an uncommon task, as well as on
account of its brevity, I have retained this translation.
Being no judge of the art to which the poem refers, I follow the readings
of Jervas, as published by Graham in 1716.
Mason has retained the Parallel between Painting and Poetry, in his
edition of Fresnoy, with the following note:
“It was thought proper to insert in this place the pleasing preface,
which Mr Dryden printed before his translation of M. Du Fresnoy’s poem.
There is a charm in that great writer’s prose, peculiar to itself; and
though, perhaps, the parallel between the two arts, which he has here
drawn, be too superficial to stand the test of strict criticism, yet it
will always give pleasure to readers of taste, even when it fails to
satisfy their judgment.”