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KEEPER, AND PROFESSOR OF PAINTING TO THE ROYAL ACADEMY IN LONDON; MEMBER OF THE FIRST CLASS OF THE ACADEMY OF ST. LUKE AT ROME.
THE FORMER WRITTEN, AND THE LATTER EDITED BY
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY AT ROTTERDAM,
"Animo vidit, ingenio complexus est, eloquentiâ illuminavit." _Velleius Paterculus in Ciceronem._
LONDON: HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. MDCCCXXXI.
LONDON: PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY, Dorset Street, Fleet Street.
XI. On the prevailing Method of treating the History of Painting, with Observations on the Picture of Lionardo da Vinci of "The Last Supper" Page 1
XII. On the Present State of the Art, and the Causes which check its Progress 39
APHORISMS, Chiefly relative to the Fine Arts 61
A HISTORY OF ART IN THE SCHOOLS OF ITALY.
ON THE PREVAILING METHOD OF TREATING THE HISTORY OF PAINTING, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE PICTURE OF LIONARDO DA VINCI OF "THE LAST SUPPER."
In this Lecture I shall submit to your consideration some criticisms on the prevailing method of treating the History of our Art; attended by a series of observations on the magnificent picture of the Last Supper, by Lionardo da Vinci, now before you.
History, mindless of its real object, sinking to Biography, has been swelled into a diffuse catalogue of individuals, who, tutored by different schools, or picking something from the real establishers of Art, have done little more than repeat, or imitate through the medium of either, what those had found in Nature, discriminated, selected, and applied to Art, according to her dictates. Without wishing to depreciate the merit of that multitude who felt, proved themselves strong enough, and strenuously employed life to follow, it must be pronounced below the historian's dignity to allow them more than a transitory glance. Neither originality, nor selection and combination of materials scattered over the various classes of Art by others, have much right to attention from him who only investigates the real progress of Art, if the first proves to have added nothing essential to the system by novelty, and the second to have only diluted energy, and by a popular amalgama to have pleased the vulgar. Novelty, without enlarging the circle of knowledge, may delight or strike, but is nearer allied to whim than to invention; and an eclectic system, without equality of parts, as it originated in want of comprehension, totters on the brink of mediocrity.