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and appear to be demi-shadows, even when really of no darker than the parts lighted by the Sun. It is this opposition of Colour in the retiring and projecting surfaces that gives relief to objects; And as both Titian & Veronese carefully attended to this effect, they were enabled to make their figures appear round & tangible, without having recourse to strong shadows or violent contrasts of light + shade. Frequently do their figures seem quire surrounded with luminous brilliancy, and yet they are detached from the canvas."
quandt.
Finish in Portrait Painting.
"Portrait Painting is a prominent &important branch of Fine Art, susceptible of the highest excellencies of style, & of the most refined intellectual feeling. The greatest Painters have painted the finest Portraits. xx As it is generally exercised it is little more than painting still life, except that Portraits are not so well painted as Pots + Pans. xx If minuteness & accuracy of delineation & truth of resemblance be necessary to the picture of an interior, or of animals, fruits, or flowers; how much more so is portraying the "human face divine!" We must not be understood as being the advocates of minutely finished Pictures, merely as such; but we do not contend that a due degree-a high degree of finish is necessary to produce an excellent Portrait. These may be spirited "sketches" and "Studies," and masterly pictures without finish; but a really fine & true resemblance not only deserves, but requires to be as near perfection as art can render it. The perfection of Art consists in giving general appearances with individual details, not in giving general appearances without details. The most exact copy of the face approaches nearest to the truth of nature, and finish & detail assist the corporeal resemblance, as well as the mental expression. The subtilty of Davinci, the intellectuality of Raphael, the grandeur of , the intensity of Titian, the identity of Rembrandt, the individuality of Holbein, the decission of Velazquez, the refinement of Vandyke, the frankness of Rubens, the nature of Reynolds-would not characterize their Portraits so remarkably , had they lots of finish."
Annals of the Fine Arts.