Rough let it swell and boldly meet the sight, Mark'd with peculiar strength of shade and light; There blend each earthly tint of heaviest sort, 415 At once to give consistence and support,

While the bright wave, soft cloud, or azure sky,
Light and pellucid from that substance fly.

* Permit not two conspicuous lights to shine
With rival radiance in the same design;
But yield to one alone the power to blaze,
And spread the extensive vigour of its rays,

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In translucendi spatio ut super aëra, nubes, Limpida stagna undarum, et inania cætera debent

Asperiora illis prope circumstantibus esse;

Ut distincta magis firmo cum lumine et umbra,
Et gravioribus ut sustenta coloribus, inter
Aërias species subsistant semper opaca :

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Sed contra, procul abscedant prelucida densis, 310 Corporibus leviora ; uti nubes, aër, et undæ.

+ Non poterunt diversa locis duo lumina eâdem In tabula paria admitti, aut æqualia pingi :

* XXXIV. There must not be two equal Lights in the Picture.

+ XXXIV. Non duo ex cœlo Lumina in tabulam æqualia.

There, where the noblest figures are display'd,' Thence gild the distant parts, and lessening fade; As fade the beams which Phoebus from the East

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Flings vivid forth to light the distant West,
Gradual those vivid beams forget to shine,
So gradual let thy pictur'd lights decline.
The sculptur'd forms which some proud Circus

grace,

In Parian marble or Corinthian brass,
Illumin'd thus, give to the gazing eye
Th' expressive head in radiant Majesty,
While to each lower limb the fainter ray
Lends only light to mark, but not display:

430

315

Majus at in mediam lumen cadet usque tabellam
Latius infusum, primis qua summa figuris
Res agitur, circumque oras minuetur eundo:
Utque in progressu jubar attenuatur ab ortu
Solis, ad occasum paulatim, et cessat eundo;
Sic tabulis lumen, tota in compage colorum,
Primo à fonte, minùs sensim declinat eundo. 320
Majus ut in statuis, per compita stantibus urbis,
Lumen habent partes superæ, minus inferioris ;
Idem erit in tabulis ; majorque nec umbra, vel ater
Membra figurarum intrabit color, atque secabit :

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So let thy pencil fling its beams around,
Nor e'er with darker shades their force confound.
For shades too dark, dissever'd shapes will give,
And sink the parts their softness would relieve:
Then only well reliev'd, when like a veil

Round the full lights the wand'ring shadows steal;

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Then only justly spread, when to the sight
A breadth of shade pursues a breadth of light.
This charm to give, great Titian wisely made
The cluster'd grapes his rule of light and shade.
* White, when it shines with unstain'd lustre

clear

May bear an object back, or bring it near;

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Corpora sed circum umbra cavis latitabit ober

rans;

325

Atque ita quæretur lux opportuna figuris,
Ut latè infusum lumen lata umbra sequatur.
Unde, nec immeritò, fertur Titianus ubique
Lucis et umbrarum normam appellâsse racemum.
+ Purum album esse potest propiusque magisque

remotum:

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* XXXV. Of White and + XXXV. Album et Nigrum Black,

Aided by black it to the front aspires,

That aid withdrawn it distantly retires;
But black unmix'd, of darkest midnight hue,
Still calls each object nearer to the view.

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* Whate'er we spy through colour'd light or air, A stain congenial on their surface bear, While neighb'ring forms by joint reflection give, And mutual take the dyes that they receive. + But where on both alike one equal light Diffusive spreads, the blending tints unite. For breaking colours thus (the ancient phrase By Artists used) fair Venice claims our praise:

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Cum nigro antevenit propiùs; fugit absq. remotum; Purum autem nigrum antrorsum venit usque propinquum.

Lux fucata suo tingit miscetque colore Corpora, sicque suo, per quem lux funditur, aër. Corpora juncta simul, circumfusosque colores 335 Excipiunt, propriumque aliis radiosa reflectunt. § Pluribus in solidis liquidâ sub luce propinquis, Participes, mixtosque simul decet esse colores. Hanc norman Veneti pictores ritè sequuti,

* XXXVI. The Reflection

of Colours.

+ XXXVII. The Union of Colours.

+ XXXVI. Colorum Reflectio.

§ XXXVII. Unio Colorum.

She, cautious to transgress so sage a rule,

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Confin'd to soberest tints her learned school; 460
For though she lov'd by varied mode to join
Tumultuous crowds in one immense design,
Yet there we ne'er condemn such hostile hues
As cut the parts or glaringly confuse;
In tinsel trim no foppish form is drest,
Still flows in graceful unity the vest;
And o'er that vest a kindred mantle spreads,
Unvaried but by power of lights and shades,
Which mildly mixing, every social dye,
Unites the whole in loveliest harmony.

470

(Quæ fuit antiquis corruptio dicta colorum)
Cùm plures opere in magno posuêre figuras,
Nè conjuncta simul variorum inimica colorum
Congeries formam implicitam, et concisa minutis
Membra daret pannis, totam unamquamque figuram
Affini, aut uno tantùm vestire colore,
Sunt soliti; variando tonis tunicamque, togamque,
Carbaseosque sinus, vel amicum in lumine et umbra
Contiguis circum rebus sociando colorem.

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