...that painting should strive "to obtain knowledge of an object, not as a particular / Constable wrote in his Discourses: "The whole beauty and grandeur of art consists ... in being able to get above ... particularities of every kind ... [to] ... make out an abstract idea of their forms more perfect...

...historical particularity obnoxious to pleasure: 'the whole beauty of the art consists, in my opinion, in being able to get above all singular forms, local customs, particularities, and details of every kind.'9 William Blake, on the other hand, responded to that thought thus in his...

...acquired only by experience; and the whole beauty and grandeur of the art consists, in my opinion, in being able to get above all singular forms, local customs, particularities, and details of every kind. All the objects which are exhibited to our view by nature, upon close examination...

...the minute details of reality: "[T]he whole beauty and grandeur of the art consists, in my opinion, in being able to get above all singular forms, local customs, particularities, and details of every kind."18 And again: "[T]he usual and most dangerous error is on the side of minuteness;...

...art in a rationalist world is best illustrated for England by Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose belief that "art consists ... in being able to get above all singular forms, local customs, particularities, and details of every kind" put him at antipodes to the true national spirit.39 For France, Read's typical...