In the process of painting, design may properly be said to fbllow next after corn. position ; lbr although this part of the art is, in a certain degree, requisite, even in making the first rough sketch, it is not until afterwards that the artist exerts his utmost powers to give that exact propor tion, that beauty of contour, and that grace and dignity of action and deport ment to his figures, which constitute the perfection of design : that which was first only hinted at is now to be defined: a few rude and careless lines were sufficient in the sketch to indicate the general atti tude and expression of the figure, now the utmost precision is required, not only in the outline of the naked parts, but even in the delineation of the most complicat ed windings of a lock of hair, or the intri cate folds of a drapery. A very high de-• gree of excellence in design is perhaps justly considered the greatest difficult of painting. Many of the works of Raf faele, and his school, leave nothing to be desired on the score of composition and expression. Colouring was carried to its highest pitch by Giorgione and Titian; chiaroscuro by Coreggio, Rubens, Rem brain, and others of the Dutch school ; but any thing approaching to perfection of design, if we except some of the figures of the great Michael Angelo, is rarely to be witnessed in the productions of modern art. The noble works of Gre cian sculpture still remaining, sufficiently declare the decided superiority of the ancients in this particular ; a superiority indeed which the most enlightenedjudges have never ventured to dispute.
The light clothing of the Grecian youth, which only half concealed the forms it co vered, whilst it allowed full scope to the action and growth of the limbs ; their ce remonies, their athletic games and dances, frequently perfoimed naked the great respect in which the arts of design were held amongst them, insomuch that the most beautiful of both sexes aspired to become the models of the painter or the sculptor : all these advantages, indepen dently perhaps of some others which might be named, the artists of antiquity exclusively enjoyed, and we cannot there fore be surprised that their minds were better stored with the ideas of fine form, and that they were better enabled to dis criminate between the different degrees of beauty, and the varieties of character in the human frame, than is the lot of mo dern artists, unaided as they are by such opportunities of study.
The most perfect knowledge of form, however, only constitutes a part of that branch of painting which we term design: the art of foreshortening, by which a limb, or a figure, although only occupy ing a diminished space on the canvas, is rendered, in appearance, of its full length and magnitude, is an equally indispensable object of the artist's attainment. The sculptor, when he has chisseled or mo deled the form of his figure or group, with its just proportions, has completed his work, which is rather the simple tran script than the 'imitation of the image previously formed in his mind : his art is undisguised, and without illusion : it pre sents as well to our touch as to our sight, the bodies and shapes of things without the colour. The distinguishing preroga tive of painting, on the other hand, and that from which arises its decided advan tage over every other artificial mode of representation, is its power to give upon a limited plane the appearance of bound less space. An insight to the science of per
spective, and the doctrines of lights and shadows, is indispensable, ere the student can hope to acquire the art of fore-short ening his figures with correctness ; an art in which the great Michael Angelo has evinced such consummate skill in his fres coes in the Sestine Chapel at Rome, that they can never be sufficiently contem plated. The works of Coreggio, and in particular his two cupolas at Parma, may likewise be studied with advantage, and sufficiently prove that even the boldest fore-shortenings may on many occasions be resorted to, without detriment to the beauty, the grace, or expression of the fi gures In the execution of these, and most of his chief works, however, he was greatly assisted by his friend Antonio Be garelli, a celebrated Modenese sculptor, who modelled for him in clay all the fi gures, so that Coreggio, by placing and grouping them together as they were to be represented, was enabled to delineate, with the greatest correctness, every fore shortening, and at the same time to ac quire a truth and boldness of light and shade unattainable by other means. And here it may be well to observe, that the trouble of preparing such models in the first instance, is amply repaid by the great facility, or rather certainty, which it gives the artist in the execution of his 'work. Moreover, the painter having his modelled figures before him, and being enabled, by varying the situation of his eye, to view them in every direction, will frequently discover beautiful combina tions which he never dreamed of, at the same time that lie is rendered less liable to the error of too often repeating the same view of a figure, or the same action, and is taught to avoid a common place mode of composition.
We have styled expression one of the component parts of painting, although, as it is wholly the result of the powers which the artist possesses of embodying his feelings by means of lines, lights and shades, and colours, it cannot truly be said to have a separate existence. But be this as it may, a thorough knowledge of the passions, and the power of repre senting justly their various effects on the action and countenances of men, re quires the most consummate skill of the painter. The more violent emotions of the soul, having naturally an instantane ous effect on the action, as well as on the countenance of the person affected, can be, with the greater effectually and unequivocally expressed in painting. To delineate the nicer discriminations of gentle affections, of thought, sentiment and character, is a far more arduous task, and indeed not always crowned with suc cess, even in the attempts of the greatest masters ; this alone would be sufficient to convince us that subjects admitting of ac tion, and strong decided expression, are more especially within the province of our art. The proper expression of the subject is, as we have before stated, the end proposed by the artist, even in the invention and composition of his piece. In the style of design, in the chiaro scuro and colouring of the picture, the same object should be stedfastly kept in view.