years he may learn fomething; and then it will be easier for him to acquire a precision of fight, as his organs will not have contracted any particular habit.

"Q. And if he began later, could he ever be a good painter?

"A. Undoubtedly; but it would coft him much more trouble: for he must neceffarily have employed the preceding time in fomething, which muft take up fome part of his memory, and prevent him from learning painting with the fame facility.

"Q. Nevertheless, have there not been eminent painters, who have begun their studies at an advanced age?

"A. Yes. But the greatest men have all learned painting from their moft tender infancy. Raphael was fon to a painter, who perhaps made him begin paint ing as foon as reafon appeared in him. Titian began when a child. Michael Angelo handled the marble at twelve. Correggio having lived only forty years, left fo great a number of excellent works that they could not have been done in hafte, and he muft neceffarily have begun to work very early. It is however true, that fome good painters have begun later; but if they fucceeded on account of their extraordinary abilities, how much more would they not have excelled if they had begun at an earlier age!

"Q. What is the first thing a mafter ought to teach his pupil?

"A. As it is not eafy to discover foon the genius and character of children, it is necessary to make them begin by drawing geometrical figures, but without rule or compaffes, that they may accustom their fight to exactnefs, which is the fundamental bafis of defign; fince

there is no object, whofe outlines, and form, are not compofed of figures, and fimple or compound geometrical lines. Therefore, if the child knows how to make these figures by the eye, he will know how to draw accurately any thing, and will eafily conceive all the proportions.

"Q. Will it not be better to make him draw the human figure, which, if compofed of geometrical figures, will teach at once what by the other means is learnt at twice?

"A. This advice is very pernicious; becaufe the beauty of the outlines of the human figure depends on expreffing rightly all the imperceptible lines and broken forms, which form a whole of geometrical figures intermixed and confufed with each other; fo that it is impoffible for a child to conceive them with clearness and precision, and ftill more difficult for the mafter to judge by them of the exactnefs of fight of his pupil; whereas in a fimple triangle, for inftance, it is eafy to know the defects and faults committed by the eye or the hand.

eye?

Q. What is the fault of the

"A. There are people who fee things longer than broad, and others the contrary. Some at a certain diftance judge all objects to be greater than they are, and others lefs; and therefore I think it proper that children fhould draw geometrical figures, because in the plaineft objects errors are moft eafily detected: therefore the mafter may, for inftance, in a triangle, know in a moment, by means of the rule and compaffes, the want of exactnefs in the eye of his pupil.

"Q. The reafon would be good if it were not contradicted by practice; fince neither Raphael, the

Caraccis,

Caraccis, Domenichino, nor, finally, any great painter has ever been known to take this method, in order to perform the excellent works which they have made..

"A. This is partly true, but ftands in need of fome explanation. Leonardo da Vinci, who has left us feveral rules of proportion of the human body, decides, that geoinetry is neceffary to painters. Raphael's mafters taught him to draw with an extraordinary precision; therefore he could not help having at first a very fervile and dry tafte, which he could only quit when he faw the ancient paintings, and the works of Michael Angelo, which he imitated because he had formed to himself the most exact eye that is poffible to be had. A genius fo pure and correct has not appeared in the world for more than two centuries and an half; therefore it would be prefumption to fuppofe that any child what ever, who is brought up to paint ing, fhould be endowed with fo rare a talent fo that it is neceffary to examine the gifts which nature has imparted to him. The Ca raccis followed the rules of proportion, which they found fettled; and I finally admire in them feveral things more than extreme cor.rectness.

"Q How? Was not Hannibal extremely correct?

"A. Correctnefs is taken in different fenfes; and in one of thefe he was correct, and owed it not fo much to the exactness of his eye, as to the practice acquired by drawing much. Domenichino drew fo often the group of Laocoon, that he knew it by heart. Neverthelefs none of the painters, that are mentioned, have equalled the putity and precifion of the antique; and as without being accufed of a 1796.

low fear we ought to undertake what others have done, I therefore propofe to afpire to the most perfect; and if when Raphael learnt correctnefs from his mafters, they had at the fame time taught bim to avoid their dry tafte, and to draw nature by geometrical figures, he would not have been obliged afterwards to change his manner. If Caracci and Domenichino had learnt painting, according to the method which I propofe, we should not have feen in their outlines fo many falfe lines corrected, and in thofe of the latter particularly, that cold and timid tafte which we fee in them.

"Q, But this geometrical study might fometimes be prejudicial to elegance and ease.

"A. Quite the contrary. Elegance confifts in the great variety of curved lines aud angles, and it is geometry alone that can give the facility of performing thefe things with a fure hand, and with the qualities required. But I do not pretend that this ftudy alone of geometrical figures can form great painters. I fay that correctnefs being the most difficult part to be found in them, and that depending on exactness of fight, it can be acquired in no manner fo eafy as by the ftudy of geometry. To this is added, that a child by drawing for a month geometrical figures with accuracy, will learn more exactnefs than another who has been drawing in an academy for a year; and the firft in fix months time will know how to lay a figure well, and will have a good foundation for proceeding in the other parts of the art.

Q. What must be done after having drawn the fa geometrical figures?

"A. Outlines from good drawings

and

and pictures must be drawn, and the proportions of the human body must be studied, in order to learn a good tafte of drawing, which the mafter muft teach from the proportions of antique ftatues; and then the attention must be redoubled, and the leaft want of correctnefs must not be excufed when this is done, and a certain practice of drawing outlines with Freedom has been acquired, then they must begin clare obfcure.

"Q Muft the beginner be kept long in drawing outlines?

A. Till he has acquired a competent facility.

"Q. When this is done, what tuft he study?

"A. He must begin to fhade, minding to make his drawings with the utmost purity; for if he acquires then this important qualification, it lafts alfo afterwards all his lifetime in painting. I fhall likewife obferve, that when he draws in clare obfcure he must

ftudy anatomy and perfpective, in order to prepare to draw afterwards from life.

"Q. If on drawing geometrical figures it has been faid that fix months after one can draw well an academical figure, why must one fpend one's time in drawing defigns and pictures, fince it feems that it would be more expeditious to begin immediately to draw fta

"Q. How muft perspective be ftudied?

"A. One must begin by study. ing a little elementary geometry, and one fall then immediately learn to put all one's figures in perspective.

"Q A little geometry feems to me infufficient, fince we fee that those who wish to teach perfpective fundamentally, caufe not only the whole geometry, but alfo architecture, at least the rules of the five orders, to be learnt, as they affert that one cannot lay a thing in due perfpective if one is not perfectly acquainted with geometry.

A. Those who are of that opinion are not deceived. But I think that to form a painter, the prudent mafter muft endeavour to make him know all the requifites of his art in equal proportions, and not let him lofe his early time, which is the most precious, in things that are not of the firft utility.

"Q. Will the painter lose his time then, if he ftudies peripective fundamentally?

"A. No: but as this is a much eafier thing than others which conftitute the art of painting, it is not proper that the ftudent should employ too much time in it, before learning those which are most neceffary:-the more fo, fince the articles of perspective which are most neceffary for a painter, are only the plan, the fquare in all its afpects, the triangle, the round, the oval, and, above all, to conceive rightly the difference of the point of view, and the variety which the point of diftance produces when taken far or near.

"Q. How is anatomy to be studied? Many fay that it is not neceflary, and that thofe painters who have applied themfelves to it, have alt fallen into a dry and gracelefs tafte. "A. Thofe

A. Those who say that anatomy is not neceffary, are grofsly miftaken; for, without it, it is not poffible to reafon upon the parts of a naked figure. But in all, mode ration and judgment muft prevail, there being great difference between giving all to a part, and knowing how to employ it well; and rules muft ferve a painter only to uniform himself to nature, and make him understand it well.

"Q. But anatomy is fo long a study?

"A. It is certainly not fo long when rightly taught, that is to fay, when the painter is taught no more than what is neceflary to him; for a phyfician and the furgeon must study it very differently, as they are to know all the interior play of the parts of man, and the painter wants only to know the effects they have on the furface.

PHILO