The Excellence Of Every Art, Must Consist

The General Ideas Which Are Expressed In Sketches, Correspond Very Well To The Art Often Used In Poetry... Every Reader Making Out The Detail According To His Own Particular Imagination... But A Painter, When He Represents Eve On Canvas, Is Obliged To Give A Determined Form, And His Own Idea Of Beauty Distinctly Expressed.

It Is To Titian We Must Turn Our Eyes To Find Excellence With Regard To Color, And Light And Shade, In The Highest Degree. He Was Both The First And The Greatest Master Of This Art. By A Few Strokes He Knew How To Mark The General Image And Character Of Whatever Object He Attempted.

And He Who Does Not Know Himself Does Not Know Others, So It May Be Said With Equal Truth, That He Who Does Not Know Others Knows Himself But Very Imperfectly.

But Young Men Have Not Only This Frivolous Ambition Of Being Thought Masters Of Execution, Inciting Them On The One Hand, But Also Their Natural Sloth Tempting Them On The Other. They Are Terrified At The Prospect Before Them, Of The Toil Required To Attain Exactness. The Impetuosity Of Youth Is Disgusted At The Slow Approaches Of A Regular Siege, And Desires, From Mere Impatience Of Labour, To Take The Citadel By Storm. They Wish To Find Some Shorter Path To Excellence, And Hope To Obtain The Reward Of Eminence By Other Means, Than Those Which The Indispensable Rules Of Art Have Prescribed.

The True Test Of All The Arts Is Not Solely Whether The Production Is A True Copy Of Nature, But Whether It Answers The End Of Art, Which Is To Produce A Pleasing Effect Upon The Mind.