The Literary Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds,: ... To which is Prefixed, a Memoir of the Author; with Remarks on His Professional Character, Illustrative of His Principles and Practice, 2. köide

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Henry G. Bohn, 1846 - 495 pages

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Page 131 - The Italian, attends only to the invariable, the great and general ; ideas which are fixed and inherent in universal nature; the Dutch, on the contrary, to literal truth and a minute exactness in the detail, as I may say, of nature modified by accident. The attention to these petty peculiarities is the very cause of this naturalness so much admired in the Dutch pictures, which, if we suppose it to be a beauty, is certainly...
Page 134 - Among the various reasons why we prefer one part of her works to another, the most general, I believe, is habit and custom : custom makes, in a certain sense, white black, and black white ; it is custom alone determines our preference of the colour of the Europeans to the .(Ethiopians, and they, for the same reason, prefer their own colour to ours.
Page 123 - Idler, and love to give my judgment, such as it is, from my immediate perceptions, without much fatigue of thinking; and I am of opinion, that if a man has not those perceptions right, it will be vain for him to endeavour to supply their place by rules, which may enable him to talk more learnedly, but not to distinguish more acutely.
Page 423 - Helen thy Bridgewater vie, And these be sung till Granville's Myra die: Alas ! how little from the grave we claim ! Thou but preserv'st a face, and I a name.
Page 410 - Preserved; but I must bear this testimony to his memory, that the passions are truly touched in it, though, perhaps there is somewhat to be desired both in the grounds of them, and in the height and elegance of expression ; but nature is there, which is the greatest beauty.
Page 132 - As we are then more accustomed to beauty than deformity, we may conclude that to be the reason why we approve and admire it, as we approve and admire customs and fashions of dress for no other reason than that we are used to them...
Page 423 - Oh lasting as those colours may they shine, Free as thy stroke, yet faultless as thy line ; New graces yearly like thy works display, Soft without weakness, without glaring gay ; Led by some rule, that guides, but not constrains ; And finish'd more through happiness than pains The kindred arts shall in their praise conspire, One dip the pencil, and one string the lyre.
Page 88 - Upon the whole, we may justly say, that whatever he attempted, he carried to a high degree of excellence. It is to the credit of his good sense and judgment, that he never did attempt that style of historical painting, for which his previous studies had made no preparation.
Page 129 - Such faults may be said to be the ebullitions of genius ; but at least he had this merit, that he never was insipid, and whatever passion his works may excite, they will always escape contempt. What I have had under consideration is the sublimest style, particularly that of Michael Angelo, the Homer of painting.
Page 67 - Therefore, having once adopted a style and a measure not found in common discourse, it is required that the sentiments also should be in the same proportion elevated above common nature, from the necessity of there being an agreement of the parts among themselves, that one uniform whole may be produced. To correspond, therefore, with this general system of deviation from nature, the manner in which poetry is offered to the ear, the tone in which it is recited, should be as far removed from the tone...

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