as is the opinion of many, that it will fashion and consolidate those
ideas of excellence which lay in embryo--feeble, ill-shaped, and
confused--but which are finished and put in order by the authority and
practice of those whose works may be said to have been consecrated by
having stood the test of ages.
The mind, or genius, has been compared to a spark of fire, which is
smothered by a heap of fuel, and prevented from blazing into a flame.
This simile, which is made use of by the younger Pliny, may be easily
mistaken for argument or proof. But there is no danger of the mind
being overburthened with knowledge, or the genius extinguished by any
addition of images; on the contrary, these acquisitions may as well,
perhaps better, be compared, if comparisons signified anything in
reasoning, to the supply of living embers, which will contribute to
strengthen the spark, that without the association of more fuel would
have died away. The truth is, he whose feebleness is such, as to make
other men's thoughts an incumbrance to him, can have no very great
strength of mind or genius of his own to be destroyed; so that not
much harm will be done at worst.
We may oppose to Pliny the greater authority of Cicero, who is
continually enforcing the necessity of this method of study. In his
dialogue on Oratory, he makes Crassus say, that one of the first and
most important precepts is, to choose a proper model for our imitation.
_Hoc sit primum in proeceptis meis, ut demonstremus quem imitemur._
When I speak of the habitual imitation and continued study of masters,
it is not to be understood that I advise any endeavour to copy the
exact peculiar colour and complexion of another man's mind; the
success of such an attempt must always be like his, who imitates
exactly the air, manner, and gestures of him whom he admires. His
model may be excellent, but the copy will be ridiculous; this ridicule
does not arise from his having imitated, but from his not having
chosen the right mode of imitation.
It is a necessary and warrantable pride to disdain to walk servilely
behind any individual, however elevated his rank. The true and liberal
ground of imitation is an open field; where, though he who precedes
has had the advantage of starting before you, you may always propose
to overtake him; it is enough, however, to pursue his course; you need
not tread in his footsteps, and you certainly have a right to outstrip
him if you can.
Nor whilst I recommend studying the art from artists, can I be
supposed to mean that nature is to be neglected; I take this study in
aid, and not in exclusion of the other. Nature is and must be the
fountain which alone is inexhaustible, and from which all excellencies
must originally flow.
The great use of studying our predecessors is, to open the mind, to
shorten our labour, and to give us the result of the selection made by
those great minds of what is grand or beautiful in nature; her rich
stores are all spread out before us; but it is an art, and no easy
art, to know how or what to choose, and how to attain and secure the
object of our choice. Thus, the highest beauty of form must be taken
from nature; but it is an art of long deduction and great experience
to know how to find it. We must not content ourselves with merely
admiring and relishing; we must enter into the principles on which the
work is wrought: these do not swim on the superficies, and
consequently are not open to superficial observers.
Art in its perfection is not ostentatious; it lies hid and works its
effect, itself unseen. It is the proper study and labour of an artist
to uncover and find out the latent cause of conspicuous beauties, and
from thence form principles of his own conduct: such an examination is
a continual exertion of the mind; as great, perhaps, as that of the
artist whose works he is thus studying.
The sagacious imitator does not content himself with merely remarking
what distinguishes the different manner or genius of each master; he
enters into the contrivance in the composition, how the masses of
lights are disposed, the means by which the effect is produced, how
artfully some parts are lost in the ground, others boldly relieved,
and how all these are mutually altered and interchanged according to
the reason and scheme of the work. He admires not the harmony of
colouring alone, but examines by what artifice one colour is a foil to
its neighbour. He looks close into the tints, examines of what colours
they are composed, till he has formed clear and distinct ideas, and
has learnt to see in what harmony and good colouring consists. What is
learnt in this manner from the works of others becomes really our own,
sinks deep, and is never forgotten; nay, it is by seizing on this clue
that we proceed forward, and get further and further in enlarging the
principles and improving the practice of our art.
There can be no doubt but the art is better learnt from the works
themselves, than from the precepts which are formed upon those works;
but if it is difficult to choose proper models for imitation, it
requires no less circumspection to separate and distinguish what in
those models we ought to imitate.
I cannot avoid mentioning here, though it is not my intention at
present to enter into the art and method of study, an error which
students are too apt to fall into. He that is forming himself must
look with great caution and wariness on those peculiarities, or
prominent parts, which at first force themselves upon view; and are
the marks, or what is commonly called the manner, by which that
individual artist is distinguished.
Peculiar marks I hold to be, generally, if not always, defects;
however difficult it may be wholly to escape them.
Peculiarities in the works of art are like those in the human figure;
it is by them that we are cognisable, and distinguished one from
another, but they are always so many blemishes; which, however, both
in real life and in painting, cease to appear deformities to those who
have them continually before their eyes. In the works of art, even
the most enlightened mind, when warmed by beauties of the highest
kind, will by degrees find a repugnance within him to acknowledge any
defects; nay, his enthusiasm will carry him so far, as to transform
them into beauties and objects of imitation.
It must be acknowledged that a peculiarity of style, either from its
novelty or by seeming to proceed from a peculiar turn of mind, often
escapes blame; on the contrary, it is sometimes striking and pleasing;
but this it is a vain labour to endeavour to imitate, because novelty
and peculiarity being its only merit, when it ceases to be new it
ceases to have value.
A manner, therefore, being a defect, and every painter, however
excellent, having a manner, it seems to follow that all kinds of faults,
as well as beauties, may be learned under the sanction of the greatest
authorities. Even the great name of Michel Angelo may be used, to keep
in countenance a deficiency, or rather neglect, of colouring, and every
other ornamental part of the art. If the young student is dry and hard,
Poussin is the same. If his work has a careless and unfinished air, he
has most of the Venetian school to support him. If he makes no selection
of objects, but takes individual nature just as he finds it, he is like
Rembrandt. If he is incorrect in the proportions of his figures,
Correggio was likewise incorrect. If his colours are not blended and
united, Rubens was equally crude. In short, there is no defect that may
not be excused, if it is a sufficient excuse that it can be imputed to
considerable artists; but it must be remembered, that it was not by
these defects they acquired their reputation; they have a right to our
pardon, but not to our admiration.
However, to imitate peculiarities, or mistake defects for beauties,
that man will be most liable who confines his imitation to one
favourite master; and even though he chooses the best, and is capable
of distinguishing the real excellencies of his model, it is not by
such narrow practice that a genius or mastery in the art is acquired.
A man is as little likely to form a true idea of the perfection of the
art by studying a single artist, as he would be to produce a perfectly
beautiful figure, by an exact imitation of any individual living
model. And as the painter, by bringing together in one piece those
beauties which are dispersed among a great variety of individuals,
produces a figure more beautiful than can be found in nature, so that
artist who can unite in himself the excellencies of the various great
painters, will approach nearer to perfection than any one of his
masters. He who confines himself to the imitation of an individual, as
he never proposes to surpass, so he is not likely to equal, the object
of his imitation. He professes only to follow; and he that follows
must necessarily be behind.
We should imitate the conduct of the great artists in the course of
their studies, as well as the works which they produced, when they
were perfectly formed. Raffaelle began by imitating implicitly the
manner of Pietro Perugino, under whom he studied: hence his first
works are scarce to be distinguished from his master's; but soon
forming higher and more extensive views, he imitated the grand outline
of Michel Angelo: he learned the manner of using colours from the
works of Leonardo da Vinci, and Fratre Bartolomeo: to all this he
added the contemplation of all the remains of antiquity that were
within his reach, and employed others to draw for him what was in
Greece and distant places. And it is from his having taken so many
models, that he became himself a model for all succeeding painters;
always imitating, and always original.
If your ambition, therefore, be to equal Raffaelle, you must do as
Raffaelle did, take many models, and not even _him_ for your guide
alone, to the exclusion of others.[4] And yet the number is infinite
of those who seem, if one may judge by their style, to have seen no
other works but those of their master, or of some favourite, whose
_manner_ is their first wish, and their last.
I will mention a few that occur to me of this narrow, confined,
illiberal, unscientific, and servile kind of imitators. Guido was thus
meanly copied by Elizabetta, Sirani, and Simone Cantarini; Poussin, by
Verdier and Cheron; Parmeggiano by Jeronimo Mazzuoli. Paolo Veronese,
and Iacomo Bassan, had for their imitators their brothers and sons.
Pietro da Cortona was followed by Ciro Ferri, and Romanelli; Rubens,
by Jacques Jordaens and Diepenbeke; Guercino, by his own family, the
Gennari. Carlo Maratti was imitated by Giuseppe Chiari, and Pietro de
Pietri; and Rembrandt, by Bramer, Eeckhout, and Flink. All these, to
whom may be added a much longer list of painters, whose works among
the ignorant pass for those of their masters, are justly to be
censured for barrenness and servility.
To oppose to this list a few that have adopted a more liberal style of
imitation;--Pellegrino Tibaldi Rosso and Primaticcio did not coldly
imitate, but caught something of the fire that animates the works of
Michel Angelo. The Caraccis formed their style from Pellegrino
Tibaldi, Correggio, and the Venetian school. Domenichino, Guido,
Lanfranco, Albano, Guercino, Cavidone, Schidone, Tiarini, though it is
sufficiently apparent that they came from the school of the Caraccis,
have yet the appearance of men who extended their views beyond the
model that lay before them, and have shown that they had opinions of
their own, and thought for themselves, after they had made themselves
masters of the general principles of their schools.
Le Suer's first manner resembles very much that of his master Voüet;
but as he soon excelled him, so he differed from him in every part of
the art. Carlo Maratti succeeded better than those I have first named,
and, I think, owes his superiority to the extension of his views;
beside his master Andrea Sacchi, he imitated Raffaelle, Guido, and the
Caraccis. It is true, there is nothing very captivating in Carlo
Maratti; but this proceeded from a want which cannot be completely
supplied; that is, want of strength of parts. In this certainly men
are not equal; and a man can bring home wares only in proportion to
the capital with which he goes to market. Carlo, by diligence, made
the most of what he had; but there was undoubtedly a heaviness about
him, which extended itself, uniformly, to his invention, expression,
his drawing, colouring, and the general effect of his pictures. The
truth is, he never equalled any of his patterns in any one thing, and
he added little of his own.
But we must not rest contented even in this general study of the
moderns; we must trace back the art to its fountain-head; to that
source from whence they drew their principal excellencies, the
monuments of pure antiquity. All the inventions and thoughts of the
ancients, whether conveyed to us in statues, bas-reliefs, intaglios,
cameos, or coins, are to be sought after and carefully studied; the
genius that hovers over these venerable relics may be called the
father of modern art.
From the remains of the works of the ancients the modern arts were
revived, and it is by their means that they must be restored a second
time. However it may mortify our vanity, we must be forced to allow
them our masters: and we may venture to prophesy, that when they shall
cease to be studied, arts will no longer flourish, and we shall again
relapse into barbarism.
The fire of the artist's own genius operating upon these materials
which have been thus diligently collected, will enable him to make new
combinations, perhaps superior to what had ever before been in the
possession of the art; as in the mixture of the variety of metals,
which are said to have been melted and run together at the burning of
Corinth, a new and till then unknown metal was produced, equal in
value to any of those that had contributed to its composition. And
though a curious refiner should come with his crucibles, analyse and
separate its various component parts, yet Corinthian brass would still
hold its rank amongst the most beautiful and valuable of metals.
We have hitherto considered the advantages of imitation as it tends to
form the taste, and as a practice by which a spark of that genius may
be caught which illumines those noble works that ought always to be
present to our thoughts.
We come now to speak of another kind of imitation; the borrowing a
particular thought, an action, attitude, or figure, and transplanting
it into your own work, this will either come under the charge of
plagiarism, or be warrantable, and deserve commendation, according to
the address with which it is performed. There is some difference,
likewise, whether it is upon the ancient or moderns that these
depredations are made. It is generally allowed, that no man need be
ashamed of copying the ancients; their works are considered as a
magazine of common property, always open to the public, whence every
man has a right to take what materials he pleases; and if he has the
art of using them, they are supposed to become to all intents and
purposes his own property. The collection of the thoughts of the
ancients which Raffaelle made with so much trouble, is a proof of his
opinion on this subject. Such collections may be made with much more
ease, by means of an art scarce known in this time; I mean that of
engraving; by which, at an easy rate, every man may now avail himself
of the inventions of antiquity.
It must be acknowledged that the works of the moderns are more the
property of their authors. He who borrows an idea from an ancient, or
even from a modern artist not his contemporary, and so accommodates it
to his own work, that it makes a part of it, with no seam or joining
appearing, can hardly be charged with plagiarism; poets practise this
kind of borrowing, without reserve. But an artist should not be
contented with this only; he should enter into a competition with his
original, and endeavour to improve what he is appropriating to his own
work. Such imitation is so far from having anything in it of the
servility of plagiarism, that it is a perpetual exercise of the mind, a
continual invention. Borrowing or stealing with such art and caution,
will have a right to the same lenity as was used by the Lacedæmonians;
who did not punish theft, but the want of artifice to conceal.
In order to encourage you to imitation, to the utmost extent, let me
add, that very finished artists in the inferior branches of the art
will contribute to furnish the mind and give hints, of which a skilful
painter, who is sensible of what he wants, and is in no danger of
being infected by the contact of vicious models, will know how to
avail himself. He will pick up from dunghills what, by a nice
chemistry, passing through his own mind, shall be converted into pure
gold; and under the rudeness of Gothic essays, he will find original,
rational, and even sublime inventions.
The works of Albert Durer, Lucas Van Leyden, the numerous inventions
of Tobias Stimmer, and Jost Ammon, afford a rich mass of genuine
materials, which, wrought up, and polished to elegance, will add
copiousness to what, perhaps, without such aid, could have aspired
only to justness and propriety.
In the luxuriant style of Paul Veronese, in the capricious
compositions of Tintoret, he will find something that will assist his
invention, and give points, from which his own imagination shall rise
and take flight, when the subject which he treats will with propriety
admit of splendid effects.
In every school, whether Venetian, French, or Dutch, he will find
either ingenious compositions, extraordinary effects, some peculiar
expressions, or some mechanical excellence, well worthy of his
attention, and, in some measure, of his imitation. Even in the lower
class of the French painters, great beauties are often found, united
with great defects. Though Coypel wanted a simplicity of taste, and
mistook a presumptuous and assuming air for what is grand and
majestic; yet he frequently has good sense and judgment in his manner
of telling his stories, great skill in his compositions, and is not
without a considerable power of expressing the passions. The modern
affectation of grace in his works, as well as in those of Bosch and
Watteau, may be said to be separated by a very thin partition from the
more simple and pure grace of Correggio and Parmegiano.
Among the Dutch painters, the correct, firm, and determined pencil,
which was employed by Bamboccio and Jean Miel, on vulgar and mean
subjects, might, without any change, be employed on the highest; to
which, indeed, it seems more properly to belong. The greatest style,
if that style is confined to small figures, such as Poussin generally
painted, would receive an additional grace by the elegance and
precision of pencil so admirable in the works of Teniers; and though
the school to which he belonged more particularly excelled in the
mechanism of painting; yet it produced many, who have shown great
abilities in expressing what must be ranked above mechanical
excellencies. In the works of Frank Hals, the portrait-painter may
observe the composition of a face, the features well put together, as
the painters express it; from whence proceeds that strong-marked
character of individual nature, which is so remarkable in his
portraits, and is not found in an equal degree in any other painter.
If he had joined to this most difficult part of the art a patience in
finishing what he had so correctly planned, he might justly have
claimed the place which Vandyke, all things considered, so justly
holds as the first of portrait-painters.
Others of the same school have shown great power in expressing the
character and passions of those vulgar people which were the subjects
of their study and attention. Among those, Jan Steen seems to be one
of the most diligent and accurate observers of what passed in those
scenes which he frequented, and which were to him an academy. I can
easily imagine, that if this extraordinary man had had the good
fortune to have been born in Italy, instead of Holland; had he lived
in Rome, instead of Leyden; and been blessed with Michel Angelo and
Raffaelle for his masters, instead of Brouwer and Van Goyen; the same
sagacity and penetration which distinguished so accurately the
different characters and expression in his vulgar figures, would,
when exerted in the selection and imitation of what was great and
elevated in nature, have been equally successful; and he now would
have ranged with the great pillars and supporters of our Art.
Men who, although thus bound down by the almost invincible powers of
early habits, have still exerted extraordinary abilities within their
narrow and confined circle; and have, from the natural vigour of their
mind, given a very interesting expression, and great force and energy
to their works; though they cannot be recommended to be exactly
imitated, may yet invite an artist to endeavour to transfer, by a kind
of parody, their excellencies to his own performances. Whoever has
acquired the power of making this use of the Flemish, Venetian, and
French schools, is a real genius, and has sources of knowledge open to
him which were wanting to the great artists who lived in the great age
of painting.
To find excellencies, however dispersed; to discover beauties, however
concealed by the multitude of defects with which they are surrounded,
can be the work only of him, who, having a mind always alive to his
art, has extended his views to all ages and to all schools, and has
acquired from that comprehensive mass which he has thus gathered to
himself--a well-digested and perfect idea of his art, to which
everything is referred. Like a sovereign judge and arbiter of art, he
is possessed of that presiding power which separates and attracts
every excellence from every school; selects both from what is great,
and what is little; brings home knowledge from the East and from the
West; making the universe tributary towards furnishing his mind, and
enriching his works with originality and variety of inventions.
Thus I have ventured to give my opinion of what appears to me the true
and only method by which an artist makes himself master of his
profession; which I hold ought to be one continued course of
imitation, that is not to cease but with his life.
Those, who either from their own engagements and hurry of business, or
from indolence, or from conceit and vanity, have neglected looking out
of themselves, as far as my experience and observation reaches, have
from that time, not only ceased to advance, and improve in their
performances, but have gone backward. They may be compared to men who
have lived upon their principal till they are reduced to beggary, and
left without resources.
I can recommend nothing better, therefore, than that you endeavour to
infuse into your works what you learn from the contemplation of the
works of others. To recommend this has the appearance of needless and
superfluous advice; but it has fallen within my own knowledge, that
artists, though they were not wanting in a sincere love for their art,
though they had great pleasure in seeing good pictures, and were well
skilled to distinguish what was excellent or defective in them, yet
have gone on in their own manner, without any endeavour to give a
little of those beauties, which they admired in others, to their own
works. It is difficult to conceive how the present Italian painters,
who live in the midst of the treasures of art, should be contented
with their own style. They proceed in their commonplace inventions,
and never think it worth while to visit the works of those great
artists with which they are surrounded.