The noblest relievo in painting is that which is resultant from the
treatment of the masses, not from the vulgar swelling and rounding of
the bodies; and the noble Venetian massing is excellent in this quality.
Those parts in which there is necessity for salient quality of relief
must be expressed with a certain quadrature, a certain varied grace of
accent like that which the bony ridge develops in beautiful wrists and
ankles, also in some of the tunic-folds that fall behind the arm of the
recumbent Fate over the middle of the figure of the Newlands Titian; and
again in some of the happiest passages in the graceful women of Lodovico
Caracci, and in their vesture folds, _e.g._ the bosom and waist of the
St. Catherine.
Doubtless there is a choice, or design were vain. There must be courage
to _reject_ no less than to _gather_. A man is at liberty to neglect
things that are repugnant to his disposition. He may, if he please, have
nothing to do with thistle or thorn, with bramble or brier....
Nevertheless sharp and severe things are yet dear to some souls. Nor
should I understand the taste that would reject the wildness of the
thorn and holly, or the child-loving labyrinths of the bramble, or
wholesome ranges of the downs and warrens fragrant with gorse.
No one requires of the painter that he even attempt to render the
multitude and infinitude of Nature; but that he _represent_ it through
the chastened elements of his proper instrument, with a performance
rendered distinctive and facile by study and genial impulse.
_Edward Calvert._