Viewing page 26 of 146

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

the advantages he must derive from modern discoveries.  It was seldom that a Student could purchase or procure the means of learning what was then called the "Art and Mystery of Painting;" for, much of it, in all ages, has been kept as a Myster; and in so doing those Artists were not greatly to be blamed, considering the difficulties they had to surmount, the task of writing, and the little compensation they generally received; for it was seldom 'till after death that their works have risen into such reputation as to command great prices; and then solely for the benefit of Picture Dealers - a class of men who are disposed to undervalue all living merit.

Whilst we have to lament that no Painters of celebrity have left any records of their methods, it is some satisfaction that a little insight into their mysteries is afforded by the Writings of their friends; for instance, Apelles is celebrated for the perfection of his colouring, which Pliny ascribes chiefly to his use of a glazing material which he calls Atramentum, which appears to have been of various hues, we well as brown or black.  Among the writings of Davinci none have been preserved that can be of use to the colourist.  A few maxims by Rubens, in a short paragraph, are repeated, without any certain information of his Vehicles or process of colouring. Vandycke has written nothing, but from his friend Mayerne, a Physician, we learn his process for purifying Linseed oil; and Eastlake, in his history of oil painting, quotes some notes by Reynolds, recently discovered, which obscurely indicate some of his experiments, evidently written only for his own use and to be kept secret from others; and his pupil and Biographer Northcole, although his favorite Pupil, professes to know but little of the ultimate conclusions to which his experiments led him.

In communicating to other Artists my own experience it must be remembered that it is the experience of a long life, in England, France, and Italy, as well as America.  If something is communicated which the young artist does not know - this is an easy acquisition to him; and if he already knows some things among the Mass which is offered, at least he has the satisfaction to receive an assurance of their efficacy, founded on successive & reiterated experience, which he has not lived long enough himself to realize.