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    sii ^ jtt frrie , th& fingers must be inr regular order and spread pu ^^ with the greatest

    importsiticfe ; 'The febdy even is sometime disposed of by a single finey tyliile the eyes will be slia # h by circle within circle , duly fringed with eyebrow . The reason is obvious : the

    fingers or the eyes are to a boy ' s apprehension of much rtibre service than the trunk that connects his feet ( which are useful ) with his head ; and bieingof more service , ought to b ^ treated with more consideration in describing the whole .

    The &ame is remarkable in the earliest painters . There is a p icture in the first room ( which is filled by Cimabue , Ghirlandajo , Lucas Van Leyden , &c . ) representing a Monk as he knfe&s ' at prayers , receiving a Vi&it from Christ . Beside him .

    rir rather more in foreground , stands his church , and this dbjbct being of secondary impbrtance , is given so small that his hqad might scarcely receive admission . The natural

    toifi [ & are here violated in an absurd degree , importance is givfefr to bne object over anoper in a respect in which it is infinitely inferior . But what ate th [ e latvs of tiature ? the

    lMs bf thfe ltaind ate their sup&i 6 ti , % iM ] fi gh art , as the dteek' ktai ^ s ; Jri many of ^ HteH ; is tlte tl ^ stor atid ^ p lli ^; lli !^ ikviie ni ^ thbd"bre-IpWfe m Be . jtidged bV ^ the \ kt 0 i Tfe f& » 'ih'thesfc iM % h ^ t ^^ m ^^ s that in i ^^ M ^ Wi | rih onfe m&h i requited frotii % Kigh $ ta ! fe of

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    reaison , and in the t ) ther W&s instinctive . ' The xshapfel wa ^ s merely an appendage to the monk , therefore wa ^ only worthy of filling an inferior place on the canvass . The

    perfecting of the rules of design necessarily annulled this mannerism , ( for such it might be called in the case of this picture , though not in that of the Greeks , from whose reliefs it

    never would have been banished , ) but the principle as necessarily continued . Other means were used to arrive at the same object ; and the different means used either

    in design or in effect , are important distinctions of the different periods of art . The disposal of masses of the same colours to give value to a figure ,

    or the concentrating of the lines of the composition , are sophistications which the primitive fathers knew not , and could not have understood .

    Ihere is no law in nature to bring about such combinations ; the perspective will n 6 t bend towards a prince atiy more than the Waves stayed to

    Canute ;—there is a possibility of the principal actor , —printe or other—happening to stand in such a relation to the

    colours and perspective around , but it is merely a f > ossibtlitSr . It is not possible that a chapel can be smaller than the tbfeLb ; and so bur method is of course

    riiove tlaturail ; but it is to be dpubted whether \ ssiya . ge , 6 r oti 6 utterly unkiid ^ in ^ ^ h ih tli ^ kn 6 w ledg 6 tWt ! art ^ wafc imifeti ^ ( it ! W not otily ihii-

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    266 Hint * towards a right Appreciation of Picfuf'es

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 1, 1837, page 268, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1836/page/43/