Viewing page 30 of 75

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

is more worthy your attention. His tints of colour, tho often not equal in value to those of Titian, are however equally true, & necessarily much more varigated, from the greater extent of his subjects. He has shown a most exquisite sensibility in according those almost endless variety of broken tints with the portions of pure vivid colour which accompany them; & the harmony resulting from [[strikethrough]] the [[/strikethrough]] those variegated masses of colour, together with the light, easy, graceful, spiritual manner in wh the whole is conducted, leaves nothing further to be wished for in this part of the art.

"In this school, then, is to be found all that can be desired respecting scientific necessary conduct to be employed in the colouring of a picture. In colouring, the venitians were select & ideal, & have proceeded with a finesse & management quite the reverse of the conduct they adopted in the other parts of the art. Whilst those of the other schools of Italy who had availed themselves of the ideal respect of design & composition, have been equally defective in not pursuing the same selection in the chiaroscuro of their colours."

In comparing Titian with P. Veroness[[Veronese]], the first great difference wh strikes us is the general warmth wh seems diffused over the works of the former. Titians objects are represented under the influence of the evening sky, when the white atmosphere is filled wth the yellow rays of the setting sun, swallowing up all the little differences of colour in one broad universal splendour. The works of Veronese possess the freshness of morn when the dewy moisture spreads a delicate veil over the scene, & every object glitters with pearls; or, when they give out the insufferable brightness of midday in contact with masses of clear blue sky.

This difference in the general look of their picts, pervades the most minute parts of this composition. We seek in

25.

vain, in the works of Titian for those delicate grey tones which we see in the flesh of Veronese; in Titian they are absorbed in one general rich glaze; in Veronese the greys of the architecture, the shadows of the wh drapery, & of the clouds, &c, all partake of freshness & delicacy, having a resemblence to the tender tints in size colour; while in Titian they assume an appearance of the same tints washed over with a glazing of transparent yellow. That they both reach perfection in their works, may be reasonably concluded, from the superiority they still hold above all those who have worked upon the same principles.

The nearest approach to Titian is found in the works of Tintoretto, particularly in his famous pict: of the "Miracle of St. Mark." wh is a splendid combination of the rich tones of Titian with the more fresh colouring of Veronese; & could we suppose it placed between two of their most famous works, viz. the "Peter Martyr" of Titian, & the "Martyrdom of St. George" of Veronese, I am confident the one would appear to hot & the other too cold. If any pic deserves the name of the triumph of paintg, it is this work ; in the presence of wh when in the Louvre, even the "Transfiguration" of Raphael looked cold & academic.

Why Sir Joshua should caution the student against imbibing the manner of this artist, I cannot understand; for Michael Angelo, Tintoretto, S Rosa, & Rubens, seem to have been born for the art of painting.

Fig 16 The colours of this pic commencing with St. Peter, are the following. His dress is composed of strong blue & yellow; the blue is repeated in the upper dress of the virgin, & carried up into the sky; the yellow is spread by means of the embroidery on