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admitted of being executed with any degree of boldness, or minutia of finish, previous to their execution on the walls. His mind thus filled by numerous studies from Nature, the Artist was often prepared in his execution on the wall even to make improvements. The Act of transferring the whole Composition, and all its details, to the wall, so situated that no use could then be made of any living or other models, required the utmost accuracy & care, at first by the cool mechanical or rather scientific modes of tracing, and afterwards by the best skill & most rapid execution, in the Act of Copying. To acquire a free execution in making these transfers, or Copies, on the walls it was necessary to acquire, by frequent practice & study, the ability thus to transfer by the Act of Copying, with a ready understanding how to produce the effects which were necessary in the imitation of Nature & the delineation of expression. It is therefore evident that an essential part in the education of an Artist, at the period when the Arts were best cultivated, was the ability to Copy. How little those Fresco paintings possess to charm us, if the Authors of them had been taught to undervalue the Art of Copying? [[image - dot in a circle]]

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Copying

Nothing is more common than to hear Young Artists say that they "cannot Copy." This apparently modest confession of inability is always tinctured with the vanity of wishing it to be supposed that their genius only permits them the production of Original Creations, which, on the vulgar mind, is calculated to enhance the dignity of their station; but the uninstructed admirer of genius is not aware that what are called Original Master-pieces of Art are seldom original efforts, but the result of many deliberate Original, & even borrowed studies, copied by the Master Spirit into final excellence by reference to Nature & the great principles of Art.

No one can speak correctly that cannot copy the manner of Speech from one who does; No one can write well that cannot copy from a good Writing; no one can be sure to make a good original that cannot copy a good Picture; nor can he methodize his practice, if he cannot repeat or copy his own work.