* Gave to the wond'ring eye: She bade his name,
With thine, Apelles, gild the lists of fame;
With thine to colouring's brightest glories soar,
The gods applaud him, and the world adore.
Alas! how lost those magic mixtures all! 355 No hues of this now animate the wall;
How then shall modern art those hues apply,
How give design its finish'd dignity?
Return, fair COLOURING! all thy lures prepare,
Each safe deception, every honest snare,
Which brings new lovers to thy sister's train,
Skilful at once to charm and to retain ;
+ Nec qui Chromaticês nobis, hoc tempore, partes
Restituat, quales Zeuxis tractaverat olim,
Hujus quando magå velut arte æquavit Apellem
Pictorum archigraphum, meruitque coloribus altam
Nominis æterni famam, toto orbe sonantem. 260
Hæc quidem ut in tabulis fallax, sed grata
venustas,
Et complementum graphidos, mirabile visu,
Pulchra vocabatur, sed subdola, lena sororis:
Non tamen hoc lenocinium, fucusque, dolusque
* XXXI. COLOURING the third Part of Painting.
+ XXXI. CHROMATICES tertia Pars Picturæ.
Come, faithful siren! chaste seducer! say
What laws controul thee, and what powers obey.
Know first, that light displays and shade
destroys
Refulgent Nature's variegated dyes.
Thus bodies near the light distinctly shine With rays direct, and as it fades decline.
Thus to the eye oppos'd with stronger light They meet its orb, for distance dims the sight. * Learn hence to paint the parts that meet the
In spheric forms of bright and equal hue;
Dedecori fuit unquam; illi sed semper honori, 265 Laudibus et meretis; hanc ergo nosse juvabit.
Lux varium, vivumque dabit, nullum umbra, colorem.
Quo magis adversum est corpus, lucique propin
Clarius est lumen ; nam debilitatur eundo.
Quo magis est corpus directum, oculisque propinquum, Conspicitur melius; nam visus hebescit eundo. + Ergo in corporibus, quæ visa adversa, rotundis,
While, from the light receding, or the eye,
The sinking outlines take a fainter dye :
Lost and confus'd progressively they fade,
Not fall precipitate from light to shade.
This Nature dictates, and this taste pursues,
Studious in gradual gloom her lights to lose;
The various whole with soft'ning tints to fill,
As if one single head employ'd her skill.
Thus if bold fancy plan some proud design,
Where many various groups divide or join,
(Tho' sure from more than three confusion springs),
One globe of light and shade o'er all she flings;
Yet skill'd the separate masses to dispose,
Where'er in front the fuller radiance glows,
Behind a calm reposing gloom she spreads,
Relieving shades with light, and light with shades.
Integra sunt, extrema abscedant perdita signis
Confusis, non præcipiti labentur in umbram
Clara gradu, nec adumbrata in clara alta re-
pentè Prorumpant; sed erit sensim hinc atque inde meatus Lucis et umbrarum; capitisque unius ad instar, Totum opus, ex multis quanquam sit partibus, unus Luminis umbrarumque globus tantummodo fiet, Sive duas, vel tres ad summum, ubi grandius
Divisum pegma in partes statione remotas.
And, as the centre of some convex glass,
Draws to a point the congregated mass
Of dazzling rays, that more than nature bright,
Reflect each image in an orb of light,
While from that point the scatter'd beams retire,
Sink to the verge, and there in shade expire;
So strongly near, so softly distant throw
On all thy rounded groups the circling glow.
As is the Sculptor's, such the Painter's aim,
Their labour diff'rent, but their end the same;
What from the marble the rude chisel breaks,
The softer pencil from the canvass takes : 400
Sintque ita discreti inter se, ratione colorum, Luminis, umbrarumque, antrorsum ut corpora clara Obscura umbrarum requies spectanda relinquat ; Claroque exiliant umbrata atque aspera campo. 285 Ac veluti in speculis convexis, eminet ante Asperior reipsâ vigor, et vis aucta colorum Partibus adversis ; magis et fuga rupta retrorsum Illorum est, (ut visa minùs vergentibus oris), Corporibus dabimus formas hoc more rotundas. 290 Mente modoque igitur plastes, et pictor, eodem Dispositum tractabit opus; quæ sculptor in orbem Atterit, hæc rupto procul abscedente colore Assequitur pictor, fugientiaque illa retrorsum
And skill'd remoter distances to keep,
Surrounds the outline pale in shadows deep;
While on the front the sparkling lustre plays,
And meets the eye in full meridian blaze,
True Colouring thus, in plastic power excels, 405
Fair to the visual point her forms she swells,
And lifts them from their flat aërial ground,
Warm as the life, and as the statue round.
* In silver clouds in ether's blue domain,
Or the clear mirror of the wat'ry plain,
If chance some solid substance claim a place,
Firm and opaque amid the lucid space,
Jam signata minùs confusa coloribus aufert: 295
Anteriora quidem directè adversa, colore
Integra vivaci, summo cum lumine et umbra
Antrorsum distincta refert, velut aspera visu;
Sicque super planum inducit leucoma colores,
Hos velut ex ipsâ naturâ immotus eodem
Intuitu circum statuas daret inde rotundas.
+ Densa figurarum solidis quæ corpora formis
Subdita sunt tactu, non translucent, sed opaca
* XXXIII. Dense and opaque bodies with translucent
+ XXXIII. Corpora densa et opaca translucentibus.
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