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32 examination of the effects in nature or in art, he will find the sources from which they arise, few & simple. Opie says, "By studying the works of the great masters of chiaroscura, he will by degrees become acquainted with all the artifices of contrasting light to shade, colour to colour, to produce relievo, of joining light objects together & dark objects together, in masses in order to give splendour & breadth of effect; of gradually sinking some objects wholly or partly in shadow, & losing their outlines in the ground, to produce softness & harmony; & of making, in other places, abrupt breaks & sharp transitions, to produce vivacity & spirit. He will also learn their rules of shaping their masses, & of adapting them in regard to force or softness to the nature of the subject whether grave or gay, sublime or terrible. By this he must be directed when to give his light the form of a globe, or when to send it in a stream across his canvass; when to make a dark mass on a light ground, or a light mass on a dark ground; when he may let his light die away by imperceptible gradations, when diffuse it in a greater breadth & abundence, & when it may more properly be concentrated into one vivid flash.- The student, without having accustomed himself to this mode of arranging his observations, will spend his life in an endless search after that which is continually before his eyes. Light & shade, considered as a deception, by making parts of a pict: advance, & other parts retire, so that every thing may keep its relative situation, as regards, the distance from the spectator, is a necessary attendant upon perspective. It is however, often violated in the best works, for the purpose of giving a general breadth, or of preserving the light in a good shape; but when compatible with both these, it is of the utmost consequence; & the painter can enter into competition with nature only by a perfect knowledge of the best modes of adapting it to such purpose. Richness of effect, wither by a mixture of light & shade, so as to give an appearance of doubling to the outline or by relieving the outline by a ground possessed of a variety of strengths; and distinctness of form surrounded by flatness, when we with any part to attract notice, or to preserve the expression undisturbed, are both under the dominion of chiaroscuro to whose control the whole array of colours yields implicit obedience. The application of light & shade in a practical point of view, is capable of [[strikethrough]] producing [[/strikethrough]] creating an association of ideas, without which the imagination of the spectator wont experience nothing, but disappointment. For example if we represent a scene remarkable for disasters or shipwrecks the mind is excited & the expectation raised, which none but an artist imbued with the poetry of the art can gratify, by cloathing the scene in all the ominous effects of elemental strife, whether the shadow Strangles the traveling lamps: That darkness shouts the face of earth entomb, When living light should kiss it? - or "The sky seems to pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea mounting to the welkin cheek, Dashes the fire out"
