THE
ANALYSIS
OF
BEAUTY.
Written with a view of fixing the fluctuating IDEAS of TASTE.
BY WILLIAM HOGARTH.
_So vary'd he, and of his tortuous train
Curl'd many a wanton wreath, in sight of Eve,
To lure her eye_.----Milton.
[Illustration: Variety]
LONDON:
Printed by J. REEVES for the AUTHOR, And Sold by him at his House in
LEICESTER-FIELDS.
MDCCLIII.
PREFACE.
If a preface was ever necessary, it may very likely be thought so to
the following work; the title of which (in the proposals publish'd
some time since) hath much amused, and raised the expectation of the
curious, though not without a mixture of doubt, that its purport
could ever be satisfactorily answered. For though beauty is seen and
confessed by all, yet, from the many fruitless attempts to account for
the cause of its being so, enquiries on this head have almost been
given up; and the subject generally thought to be a matter of too
high and too delicate a nature to admit of any true or intelligible
discussion. Something therefore introductory ought to be said at the
presenting a work with a face so entirely new; especially as it will
naturally encounter with, and perhaps may overthrow, several long
received and thorough establish'd opinions: and since controversies
may arise how far, and after what manner this subject hath hitherto
been consider'd and treated, it will also be proper to lay before the
reader, what may be gathered concerning it, from the works of the
ancient and modern writers and painters.
It is no wonder this subject should have so long been thought
inexplicable, since the nature of many parts of it cannot possibly come
within the reach of mere men of letters; otherwise those ingenious
gentlemen who have lately published treatises upon it (and who have
written much more learnedly than can be expected from one who never
took up the pen before) would not so soon have been bewilder'd in
their accounts of it, and obliged so suddenly to turn into the
broad, and more beaten path of moral beauty; in order to extricate
themselves out of the difficulties they seem to have met with in
this: and withal forced for the same reasons to amuse their readers
with amazing (but often misapplied) encomiums on deceased painters
and their performances; wherein they are continually discoursing of
effects instead of developing causes; and after many prettinesses, in
very pleasing language, do fairly set you down just where they first
took you up; honestly confessing that as to GRACE, the main point in
question, they do not even pretend to know any thing of the matter. And
indeed how should they? when it actually requires a practical knowledge
of the whole art of painting (sculpture alone not being sufficient)
and that too to some degree of eminence, in order to enable any one to
pursue the chain of this enquiry through all its parts: which I hope
will be made to appear in the following work.
It will then naturally be asked, why the best painters within these
two centuries, who by their works appear to have excelled in grace
and beauty, should have been so silent in an affair of such seeming
importance to the imitative arts and their own honour? to which I
answer, that it is probable, they arrived at that excellence in their
works, by the mere dint of imitating with great exactness the beauties
of nature, and by often copying and retaining strong ideas of graceful
antique statues; which might sufficiently serve their purposes as
painters, without their troubling themselves with a farther enquiry
into the particular causes of the effects before them. It is not
indeed a little strange, that the great Leonardo da Vinci (amongst the
many philosophical precepts which he hath at random laid down in his
treatise on painting) should not have given the least hint of any thing
tending to a system of this kind; especially, as he was cotemporary
with Michael Angelo, who is said to have discover'd a certain principle
in the trunk only of an antique statue, (well known from this
circumstance by the name of Michael Angelo's Torso, or Back, fig. 54 p.
I) which principle gave his works a grandeur of gusto equal to the best
antiques. Relative to which tradition, Lomazzo who wrote about painting
at the same time, hath this remarkable passage, vol. I. book I.
[Illustration: Fig. 54]
"And because in this place there falleth out a certaine precept of
_Michael Angelo_ much for our purpose, I wil not conceale it, leaving
the farther interpretation and vnderstanding thereof to the iudicious
reader. It is reported then that _Michael Angelo_ vpon a time gaue this
observation to the Painter _Marcus de Sciena_ his scholler; _that he
should alwaies make a figure Pyramidall, Serpentlike, and multiplied
by one two and three_. In which precept (in mine opinion) the whole
mysterie of the arte consisteth. For the greatest grace and life that
a picture can haue, is, that it expresse _Motion_: which the Painters
call the _spirite_ of a picture: Nowe there is no forme so fitte to
expresse this _motion_, as that of the flame of fire, which according
to _Aristotle_ and the other Philosophers, is an elemente most actiue
of all others: because the forme of the flame thereof is most apt for
motion: for it hath a _Conus_ or sharpe pointe wherewith it seemeth to
divide the aire, that so it may ascende to his proper sphere. So that a
picture having this forme will bee most beautifull."[1]
[1] See Haydock's translation printed at Oxford, 1598.
Many writers since Lomazzo have in the same words recommended the
observing this rule also; without comprehending the meaning of it: for
unless it were known systematically, the whole business of grace could
not be understood.
Du Fresnoy, in his art of painting, says "large flowing, gliding
outlines which are in waves, give not only a grace to the part, but
to the whole body; as we see in the Antinous, and in many other of
the antique figures: a fine figure and its parts ought always to have
a serpent-like and flaming form: naturally those sort of lines have
I know not what of life and seeming motion in them, which very much
resembles the activity of the flame and of the serpent." Now if he had
understood what he had said, he could not, speaking of grace, have
expressed himself in the following contradictory manner.--"But to say
the truth, this is a difficult undertaking, and a rare present, which
the artist rather receives from the hand of heaven than from his own
industry and studies[2]." But De Piles, in his lives of the painters,
is still more contradictory, where he says, "that a painter can only
have it (meaning grace) from nature, and doth not know that he hath it,
nor in what degree, nor how he communicates it to his works: and that
grace and beauty are two different things; beauty pleases by the rules,
and grace without them."
[2] See Dryden's translation of his latin poem on Painting, verse
28, and the remarks on these very lines, page 155, which run thus,
"It is difficult to say what this grace of painting is, it is to be
conceiv'd, and understood much more easy than to be expressed by words;
it proceeds from the illuminations of an excellent mind, (but not to be
acquired) by which we give a certain turn to things, which makes them
pleasing."
All the English writers on this subject have echo'd these passages;
hence _Je ne sçai quoi_, is become a fashionable phrase for grace.
By this it is plain, that this precept which Michael Angelo deliver'd
so long ago in an oracle-like manner, hath remain'd mysterious down to
this time, for ought that has appear'd to the contrary. The wonder that
it should do so will in some measure lessen when we come to consider
that it must all along have appeared as full of contradiction as the
most obscure quibble ever deliver'd at Delphos, because, _winding lines
are as often the cause of deformity as of grace_, the solution of
which, in this place, would be an anticipation of what the reader will
find at large in the body of the work.
[Illustration: Fig. between Figs. 22 and 105]
There are also strong prejudices in favour of straight lines, as
constituting true beauty in the human form, where they never should
appear. A middling connoisseur thinks no profile has beauty without a
very straight nose, and if the forehead be continued straight with it,
he thinks it is still more sublime. I have seen miserable scratches
with the pen, sell at a considerable rate for only having in them a
side face or two, like that between fig. 22, and fig. 105, plate I,
which was made, and any one might do the same, with the eyes shut.
The common notion that a person should be straight as an arrow, and
perfectly erect is of this kind. If a dancing-master were to see his
scholar in the easy and gracefully-turned attitude of the Antinous
(fig. 6, plate I,) he would cry shame on him, and tell him he looked
as crooked as a ram's horn, and bid him hold up his head as he himself
did. See fig. 7, plate I.
[Illustration: Figs. 6 and 7]
The painters, in like manner, by their works, seem to be no less
divided upon the subject than the authors. The French, except such
as have imitated the antique, or the Italian school, seem to have
studiously avoided the serpentine line in all their pictures,
especially Anthony Coypel, history painter, and Rigaud, principal
portrait painter to Lewis the 14th.
Rubens, whose manner of designing was quite original, made use of a
large flowing line as a principle, which runs through all his works,
and gives a noble spirit to them; but he did not seem to be acquainted
with what we call the _precise line_; which hereafter we shall be
very particular upon, and which gives the delicacy we see in the best
Italian masters; but he rather charged his contours in general with too
bold and S-like swellings.
Raphael, from a straight and stiff manner, on a sudden changed his
taste of lines at sight of Michael Angelo's works, and the antique
statues; and so fond was he of the serpentine line, that he carried it
into a ridiculous excess, particularly in his draperies: though his
great observance of nature suffer'd him not long to continue in this
mistake.
Peter de Cortone form'd a fine manner in his draperies of this line.
We see this principle no where better understood than in some pictures
of Corregio, particularly his Juno and Ixion: yet the proportions of
his figures are sometimes such as might be corrected by a common sign
painter.
Whilst Albert Durer, who drew mathematically, never so much as
deviated into grace, which he must sometimes have done in copying the
life, if he had not been fetter'd with his own impracticable rules of
proportion.
But that which may have puzzled this matter most, may be, that Vandyke,
one of the best portrait painters in most respects ever known, plainly
appears not to have had a thought of this kind. For there seems not to
be the least grace in his pictures more than what the life chanced to
bring before him. There is a print of the Dutchess of Wharton (fig. 52,
plate II,) engraved by Van Gunst, from a true picture by him, which is
thoroughly divested of every elegance. Now, had he known this line as
a principle, he could no more have drawn all the parts of this picture
so contrary to it, than Mr. Addison could have wrote a whole spectator
in false grammar; unless it were done on purpose. However, on account
of his other great excellencies, painters chuse to stile this want of
grace in his attitudes, &c. _simplicity_, and indeed they do often very
justly merit that epithet.
[Illustration: Fig. 52]
Nor have the painters of the present times been less uncertain and
contradictory to each other, than the masters already mentioned,
whatever they may pretend to the contrary: of this I had a mind to be
certain, and therefore, in the year 1745, published a frontispiece
to my engraved works, in which I drew a serpentine line lying on a
painter's pallet, with these words under it, THE LINE OF BEAUTY. The
bait soon took; and no Egyptian hierogliphic ever amused more than it
did for a time, painters and sculptors came to me to know the meaning
of it, being as much puzzled with it as other people, till it came to
have some explanation; then indeed, but not till then, some found it
out to be an old acquaintance of theirs, tho' the account they could
give of its properties was very near as satisfactory as that which a
day-labourer who constantly uses the leaver, could give of that machine
as a mechanical power.
Others, as common face painters and copiers of pictures, denied that
there could be such a rule either in art or nature, and asserted it
was all stuff and madness; but no wonder that these gentlemen should
not be ready in comprehending a thing they have little or no business
with. For though the _picture copier_ may sometimes to a common eye
seem to vye with the original he copies, the artist himself requires no
more ability, genius, or knowledge of nature, than a journeyman-weaver
at the goblins, who in working after a piece of painting, bit by
bit, scarcely knows what he is about, whether he is weaving a man or
a horse, yet at last almost insensibly turns out of his loom a fine
piece of tapestry, representing, it may be, one of Alexander's battles
painted by Le Brun.
As the above-mention'd print thus involved me in frequent disputes
by explaining the qualities of the line, I was extremely glad to
find it (which I had conceiv'd as only part of a system in my mind)
so well supported by the above precept of Michael Angelo: which was
first pointed out to me by Dr. Kennedy, a learned antiquarian and
connoisseur, of whom I afterwards purchased the translation, from which
I have taken several passages to my purpose.
Let us now endeavour to discover what light antiquity throws upon the
subject in question.
Egypt first, and afterward Greece, have manifested by their works
their great skill in arts and sciences, and among the rest painting,
and sculpture, all which are thought to have issued from their great
schools of philosophy. Pythagoras, Socrates, and Aristotle, seem to
have pointed out the right road in nature for the study of the painters
and sculptors of those times (which they in all probability afterwards
followed through those nicer paths that their particular professions
required them to pursue) as may be reasonably collected from the
answers given by Socrates to Aristippus his disciple, and Parrhasius
the painter, concerning FITNESS, the first fundamental law in nature
with regard to beauty.
I am in some measure saved the trouble of collecting an historical
account of these arts among the ancients, by accidentally meeting
with a preface to a tract, call'd the _Beau Ideal_: this treatise[3]
was written by Lambert Hermanson Ten Kate, in French, and translated
into English by James Christopher le Blon; who in that preface
says, speaking of the Author, "His superior knowledge that I am now
publishing, is the product of the Analogy of the ancient Greeks; or the
true key for finding all harmonious proportions in painting, sculpture,
architecture, musick, &c. brought home to Greece by Pythagoras. For
after this great philosopher had travell'd into Phoenicia, Egypt and
Chaldea, where he convers'd with the learned; he return'd into Greece
about Anno Mundi 3484. Before the christian æra 520, and brought with
him many excellent discoveries and improvements for the good of his
countrymen, among which the Analogy was one of the most considerable
and useful.
[3] Publish'd in 1732, and sold by A. Millar.
"After him the Grecians, by the help of this Analogy, began (and not
before) to excel other nations in sciences and arts; for whereas before
this time they represented their _Divinities_ in plain human figures,
the Grecians now began to enter into the Beau Ideal; and Pamphilus,
(who flourish'd A. M. 3641, before the christian æra 363, who taught,
that no man could excel in painting without mathematicks) the scholar
of Pausias and master of Apelles, was the first who artfully apply'd
the said Analogy to the art of painting; as much about the same time
the sculpturers, the architects, &c. began to apply it to their several
arts, without which science, the Grecians had remain'd as ignorant as
their forefathers.
"They carried on their improvements in drawing, painting, architecture,
sculpture, &c. till they became the wonders of the world; especially
after the Asiaticks and Egyptians (who had formerly been the teachers
of the Grecians) had, in process of time and by the havock of war, lost
all the excellency in sciences and arts; for which all other nations
were afterwards obliged to the Grecians, without being able so much as
to imitate them.
"For when the Romans had conquered Greece and Asia, and had brought
to Rome the best paintings and the finest artists, we don't find they
discovered the great key of knowledge, the Analogy I am now speaking
of, but their best performances were conducted by Grecian artists,
who it seems cared not to communicate their secret of the Analogy;
because either they intended to be necessary at Rome, by keeping
the secret among themselves, or else the Romans, who principally
affected universal dominion, were not curious enough to search after
the secret, not knowing the importance of it, nor understanding that,
without it, they could never attain to the excellency of the Grecians:
though nevertheless it must be owned that the Romans used well the
proportions, which the Grecians long before had reduced to certain
fixed rules according to their ancient Analogy; and the Romans could
arrive at the happy use of the proportions, without comprehending the
Analogy itself."
This account agrees with what is constantly observed in Italy,
where the Greek, and Roman work, both in medals and statues, are as
distinguishable as the characters of the two languages.
As the preface had thus been of service to me, I was in hopes from the
title of the book (and the assurance of the translator, that the author
had by his great learning discovered the secret of the ancients) to
have met with something there that might have assisted, or confirmed
the scheme I had in hand; but was much disappointed in finding nothing
of that sort, and no explanation, or even after-mention of what at
first agreeably alarmed me, the word _Analogy_. I have given the reader
a specimen, in his own words, how far the author has discovered this
grand secret of the ancients, or _great key of knowledge_, as the
translator calls it.
"The sublime part that I so much esteem, and of which I have begun to
speak, is a real _Je ne sçai quoi_, or an unaccountable something to
most people, and it is the most important part to all the connoisseurs,
I shall call it an harmonious propriety, which is a touching or moving
unity, or a pathetick agreement or concord, not only of each member to
its body, but also of each part to the member of which it is a part:
_It is also an infinite variety of parts_, however conformable, with
respect to each different subject, so that all the attitude, and all
the adjustment of the draperies of each figure ought to answer or
correspond to the subject chosen. Briefly, it is a true decorum, a
bienseance or a congruent disposition of ideas, as well for the face
and stature, as for the attitudes. A bright genius, in my opinion,
who aspires to excel in the ideal, should propose this to himself, as
what has been the principal study of the most famous artists. 'Tis
in this part that the great masters cannot be imitated or copied but
by themselves, or by those that are advanced in the knowledge of the
ideal, and who are as knowing as those masters in the rules or laws of
the pittoresque and poetical nature, altho' inferior to the masters in
the high spirit of invention."
The words in this quotation "_It is also an infinite variety of
parts_," seem at first to have some meaning in them, but it is entirely
destroy'd by the rest of the paragraph, and all the other pages are
filled, according to custom, with descriptions of pictures.
Now, as every one has a right to conjecture what this discovery of the
ancients might be, it shall be my business to shew it was a key to the
thorough knowledge of variety both in form, and movement. Shakespear,
who had the deepest penetration into nature, has sum'd up all the
charms of beauty in two words, INFINITE VARIETY; where, speaking of
Cleopatra's power over Anthony, he says,
----Nor custom stale
Her infinite variety:----Act 2. Scene 3.
It has been ever observed, that the ancients made their doctrines
mysterious to the vulgar, and kept them secret from those who were
not of their particular sects, and societies, by means of symbols,
and hieroglyphics. Lomazzo says, chap. 29, book 1. "The Grecians in
imitation of antiquity searched out the truly renowned proportion,
wherein the exact perfection of most exquisite beauty and sweetness
appeareth; dedicating the same in a triangular glass unto Venus the
goddess of divine beauty, from whence all the beauty of inferior things
is derived."
If we suppose this passage to be authentic, may we not also imagine it
probable, that the symbol in the triangular glass, might be similar to
the line Michael Angelo recommended; especially, if it can be proved,
that the triangular form of the glass, and the serpentine line itself,
are the two most expressive figures that can be thought of to signify
not only beauty and grace, but the whole _order of form_.
There is a circumstance in the account Pliny gives of Apelles's
visit to Protogenes, which strengthens this supposition. I hope I may
have leave to repeat the story. Apelles having heard of the fame of
Protogenes, went to Rhodes to pay him a visit, but not finding him at
home asked for a board, on which he drew a _line_, telling the servant
maid, that line would signify to her master who had been to see him;
we are not clearly told what sort of a line it was that could so
particularly signify one of the first of his profession: if it was only
a stroke (tho' as fine as a hair as Pliny seems to think) it could not
possibly, by any means, denote the abilities of a great painter. But if
we suppose it to be a line of some extraordinary quality, such as the
serpentine line will appear to be, Apelles could not have left a more
satisfactory signature of the complement he had paid him. Protogenes
when he came home took the hint, and drew a finer _or rather more
expressive line_ within it, to shew Apelles if he came again, that he
understood his meaning. He, soon returning, was well-pleased with the
answer Protogenes had left for him, by which he was convinced that
fame had done him justice, and so correcting the line again, perhaps
by making it more precisely elegant, he took his leave. The story thus
may be reconcil'd to common sense, which, as it has been generally
receiv'd, could never be understood but as a ridiculous tale.
[Illustration: Fig. over Fig. 4]
Let us add to this, that there is scarce an Egyptian, Greek, or Roman
deity, but hath a twisted serpent, twisted cornucopia, or some symbol
winding in this manner to accompany it. The two small heads (over the
busto of the Hercules, fig. 4, in plate I) of the goddess Isis, one
crowned with a globe between two horns, the other with a lily[4], are
of this kind. Harpocrates, the god of silence, is still more remarkably
so, having a large twisted horn growing out of the side of his head,
one cornucopia in his hand, and another at his feet, with his finger
placed on his lips, indicating secrecy: (see Montfaucon's antiquities)
and it is as remarkable, that the deities of barbarous and gothic
nations never had, nor have to this day, any of these elegant forms
belonging to them. How absolutely void of these turns are the pagods
of China, and what a mean taste runs through most of their attempts in
painting and sculpture, notwithstanding they finish with such excessive
neatness; the whole nation in these matters seem to have but one eye:
this mischief naturally follows from the prejudices they imbibe by
copying one anothers works, which the ancients seem seldom to have done.
[4] The leaves of this flower as they grow, twist themselves various
ways in a pleasing manner, as may be better seen by figure 43, in plate
I, but there is a curious little flower called the Autumn Syclamen,
fig. 47, the leaves of which elegantly twist one way only.
[Illustration: Figs. 43 and 47]
Upon the whole, it is evident, that the ancients studied these arts
very differently from the moderns: Lomazzo seems to be partly aware of
this, by what he says in the division of his work, page 9, "There is
a two-folde proceeding in all artes and sciences: the one is called
the order of nature, and the other of teaching. Nature proceedeth
ordinarily, beginning with the unperfect, as the particulars, and
ending with the perfect, as the universals. Now if in searching out the
nature of things, our understanding shall proceede after that order,
by which they are brought forth by nature, doubtlesse it will be the
most absolute and ready method that can bee imagined. For we beginne to
know things by their first and immediate principles, &c. and this is
not only mine opinion but Aristotles also," yet, mistaking Aristotle's
meaning, and absolutely deviating from his advice, he afterwards says,
"all which if we could comprehend within our understanding, we should
be most wise; but it is _impossible_," and after having given some dark
reasons why he thinks so, he tells you "he resolves to follow the order
of teaching," which all the writers on painting have in like manner
since done.
Had I observed the foregoing passage, before I undertook this
essay, it probably would have put me to a stand, and deterred me from
venturing upon what Lomazzo calls an impossible task: but observing
in the foremention'd controversies that the torrent generally ran
against me; and that several of my opponents had turn'd my arguments
into ridicule, yet were daily availing themselves of their use,
and venting them even to my face as their own; I began to wish the
publication of something on this subject; and accordingly applied
myself to several of my friends, whom I thought capable of taking up
the pen for me, offering to furnish them with materials by word of
mouth: but finding this method not practicable, from the difficulty
of one man's expressing the ideas of another, especially on a subject
which he was either unacquainted with, or was new in its kind, I was
therefore reduced to an attempt of finding such words as would best
answer my own ideas, being now too far engaged to drop the design.
Hereupon, having digested the matter as well as I could, and thrown
it into the form of a book, I submitted it to the judgment of such
friends whose sincerity and abilities I could best rely on, determining
on their approbation or dislike to publish or destroy it: but their
favourable opinion of the manuscript being publicly known, it gave such
a credit to the undertaking, as soon changed the countenances of those,
who had a better opinion of my pencil, than my pen, and turn'd their
sneers into expectation: especially when the same friends had kindly
made me an offer of conducting the work through the press. And here
I must acknowledge myself particularly indebted to one gentleman for
his corrections and amendment of at least a third part of the wording.
Through his absence and avocations, several sheets went to the press
without any assistance, and the rest had the occasional inspection
of one or two other friends. If any inaccuracies shall be found in
the writing, I shall readily acknowledge them all my own, and am, I
confess, under no great concern about them, provided the matter in
general may be found useful and answerable in the application of it to
truth and nature; in which material points, if the reader shall think
fit to rectify any mistakes, it will give me a sensible pleasure, and
be doing great honour to the work.
ADVERTISEMENT.
_For the more easy finding the figures referred to in the two prints
belonging to this work, the references are for the most part placed in
the margin. Fig._ T p. I _signifies the top of plate_ I. L p. I _the
left side_. R p. I _the right side_. B. p. I. _the bottom. And where a
figure is referred to in the middle of either print, it is only mark'd
thus, fig._ p. I _or fig._ p. II.
[Transcriber's note: In this digital edition, these marginal references
have been incorporated into the text within square brackets, e.g. [fig.
1 T p. I]. The two prints were not originally bound into the book; they
are reproduced in their entirety below. Reproductions of the individual
figures have also been incorporated into the text at the appropriate
points.]
[Illustration: PLATE I]
[Illustration: PLATE II]
CONTENTS.
page
PREFACE. iii
ADVERTISEMENT.
_The plates and figures_. xxii
INTRODUCTION.
_The use and advantage of considering
solid objects as only thin shells composed
of lines, like the outer-coat of an onion_. 1
CHAPTER I.
_Of FITNESS_, 13