CHAP.
II.

Of Imagina

tion.

pretation without examining it; though, as the object, to which the epithet relates, is an Ægyptian temple of plain architecture, of which the geographer merely says that it had εδεν χαριεν, εδε γραφικον, it does not afford much either of illustration or confirmation to his

hypothesis. Had the German antiquary chanced to stumble upon such an expression as youpinov pɛɛlpov, we cannot doubt, from the specimen, which we have already had of his learning and sagacity, but he would have translated it picturesque stream; and this would have exactly suited my friend's purpose. Unfortunately, however, had his usual accuracy of research, or any suspicions of the infallibility of his guide, led him to look at the context, or even to consult his lexicon, he would have found that this sonorous phrase only means ink, more commonly called μελαν γραφικον.

17. According to the idiom of the Italian language, by which the meaning of all adjectives ending in esco is precisely ascertained, pittoresco must mean, after the manner of painters: whence we may reasonably infer that painting had, at that time, appropriated to itself certain descriptions of objects for representation; or had adopted some peculiar mode of representing them different from simple or common imitation; which peculiar mode would naturally give them a peculiar character in the

eyes of persons familiar with, and skilled in that art.

18. At its first revival, as at its first commencement, painting, like sculpture in its first stage, pretended only to exact imitation; the truth and precision of which formed the scale of its merit, as they do still in the estimation of the ignorant. In the human figure it attempted to distinguish the several hairs of the head, and the pores of the skin; and when it aimed at producing any thing like landscape, it was by copying distinctly every blade in the grass, every leaf in the trees, and every stone or brick in the buildings, which it tried to represent.

19. It was soon, however, discovered that this was rather copying what the mind knew. to be, from the concurrent testimony of another sense, than what the eye saw; and that, even had it been practicable to the utmost extent and variety of nature, it would not have been a true representation of the visible appearance of things: for the eye, when at a sufficient distance to comprehend the whole of a human figure, a tree, or a building, within the field of vision, sees parts so comparatively minute as the hair, the leaves, and the stones or bricks, in masses, and not individually.

20. Hence the mode of imitation was changed; and, as this massing gave breadth to the

CHAP.

11.

Of Imagina

tion.

CHAP.

II.

Of Imagination.

lights and shadows, mellowed them into each other, and enabled the artist to break and blend them together; all which add much to the tenderness, lustre, and beauty of the productions of this art, the great painters of the Venetian and Lombard schools; and afterwards those of the Flemish and Dutch, carried this principle of massing to a degree beyond what appears in ordinary nature; and departed from the system of strict imitation in a contrary extreme to that of their predecessors. Instead of making their lines more distinct, and keeping their tints more separate, than the visible appearance of the objects of imitation warranted, they blended and melted them together with a playful and airy kind of lightness, and a sort of loose and sketchy indistinctness not observable in the reality, unless under peculiar circumstances and modifications of the atmosphere; and then only in those objects and combinations of objects, which exhibit blended and broken tints, or irregular masses of light and shadow harmoniously melted into each other.

21. Such are the objects and compositions of objects, which we properly call picturesque; and we find that the style of painting, which distinguished them as such, was invented by Georgione about the beginning, and perfected by Titian about the middle of the sixteenth

century; soon after which the word made its first appearance in the Italian, and, I believe, in any language.

22. Indeed, if we consider the natural and necessary connection between words and ideas; and the progressive order, in which the former arise out of the latter, it will appear impossible that it should have existed sooner: for till painters had adopted some distinct manner of imitating nature, appropriate to their own art, men could never have thought of distinguishing any object or class of objects by an epithet signifying after the manner of painters: since, unless painters had some peculiar manner, such epithet could mark no peculiar discrimination, nor have any distinct meaning.

23. Tints happily broken and blended, and irregular masses of light and shadow harmoniously melted into each other, are, in themselves, as before observed, more grateful to the eye, than any single tints, upon the same principle that harmonious combinations of tones or flavours are more grateful to the ear or the palate, than any single tones or flavours can be. They are therefore more properly beautiful, according to the strictest meaning of the word beauty, when applied to that which is pleasing to the sense only; and not, as it usually is, to that, which is alike pleasing to the senses, the intellect and the imagination;

СНАР.

II.

Of Imagina

tion.

CHAP.
II.

Of Imagina

tion.

according to which comprehensive signification of the word, many objects, that we call picturesque, certainly are not beautiful; since they may be void of symmetry, neatness, cleanness, &c.; all which are necessary to constitute that kind of beauty, which addresses itself to the understanding and the fancy.

24. The sensual pleasure arising from viewing objects and compositions, which we call picturesque, may be felt equally by all mankind in proportion to the correctness and sensibility of their organs of sight; for it is wholly independent of their being picturesque, or after the manner of painters. But this very relation to painting, expressed by the word pic turesque, is that, which affords the whole pleasure derived from association; which can, therefore, only be felt by persons, who have correspondent ideas to associate; that is, by persons in a certain degree conversant with that art. Such persons being in the habit of viewing, and receiving pleasure from fine pictures, will naturally feel pleasure in viewing those objects in nature, which have called forth those powers of imitation and embellishment and those combinations and circumstances of objects, which have guided those powers in their happiest exertions. The objects recall to the mind the imitations, which skill, taste, and genius have produced; and these again