Biographical Dictionary of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, and Architects: From the Earliest Ages to the Present Time : Interspersed with Original Anecdotes : to which is Added an Introduction, Containing a Brief Account of Various Schools of Art and an Explanation of the Technical Terms Used by Painters, Volum 1

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G. and A. Greenland, 1838

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Side 121 - May it please your majesty, I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me...
Side xxxviii - ... nearest to perfection. His unaffected breadth of light and shadow, the simplicity of colouring, which, holding its proper rank, does not draw aside the least part of the attention from the subject, and the solemn effect of that twilight which seems diffused over his pictures, appear to me to correspond with grave and dignified subjects, better than the more artificial brilliancy of sunshine which enlightens the pictures of Titian...
Side xxiii - ... that he was the bright luminary, from whom Painting has borrowed a new lustre ; that under his hands it assumed a new appearance, and is become another and superior art ; I may be excused if I take this opportunity, as I have hitherto taken...
Side xxvi - I feel a self-congratulation in knowing myself capable of such sensations as he intended to excite. I reflect, not without vanity, that these Discourses bear testimony of my admiration of that truly divine man; and I should desire that the last words which I should pronounce in this Academy, and from this place, might be the name of — MICHAEL ANGELO*.
Side xxiv - Angelo possessed the poetical part of our art in a most eminent degree ; and the same daring spirit, which urged him first to explore the unknown regions of the imagination, delighted with the novelty, and animated by the success of his discoverics, could not have failed to stimulate and impel him forward in his career beyond those limits, which his followers, destitute of the same incentives, had not strength to pass.
Side xiv - There is one precept, however, in which I shall only be opposed by the vain, the ignorant, and the idle. I am not afraid that I shall repeat it too often. You must have no dependence on your own genius. If you have great talents, industry will improve them : if you have but moderate abilities, industry will supply their deficiency. Nothing is denied to well-directed labour : nothing is to be obtained without it.
Side 224 - Villainy, fear, and conscience are mixed in yellow and livid on his countenance. His lips are contracted by tremor, his face advances as eager to lie, his legs step back as thinking to make his escape. One hand is thrust precipitately into his bosom, the fingers of the other are catching uncertainly at his button-holes. If this was a portrait, it is the most striking that ever was drawn ; if it was not, it is still finer.
Side xiv - I cannot help imagining that I see a promising young painter, equally vigilant, whether at home, or abroad, in the streets, or in the fields. Every object that presents itself is to him a lesson. He regards all nature with a view to his profession; and combines her beauties, or corrects her defects. He examines the...
Side 223 - ... pleasantry he observes the true end of comedy, reformation ; there is always a moral to his pictures. Sometimes he rose to tragedy, not in the catastrophe of kings and heroes, but in marking how vice conducts insensibly and incidentally to misery and shame. He warns against encouraging cruelty and idleness in young minds, and discerns how the different vices of the great and the vulgar lead by various paths to the same unhappiness. The fine lady in Marriage A-la-mode, and Tom Nero in the Four...
Side 249 - I have no doubt but the celebrated festivals of Louis XIV. were copied from the shows exhibited at Whitehall, in its time the most polite court in Europe. Ben Jonson was the laureate, Inigo Jones the inventor of the decorations, Laniere and Ferabosco composed the symphonies, the king, the queen, and the young nobility danced in the interludes.

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