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Thus one, much delighted with the pure and vivid tints of Titian, fhall with difficulty acknowledge beauty in the grofs complexions of Raphael, however elegant the proportions, or happy the character. A fecond, to whom harmony of features fills his conception of beauty, fhall admire Carlo-Maratte; to the furprise of those, who feel no effect from an union of features unenlivened by expreffion. Oppofed to this perfon fhall be one, with whom character alone ftands for beauty; thus, when a Madonna of Correggio gazes on her child, with a fondness truly maternal; or fmiles delighted with his playful action; he calls that beauty, which a more correct eye (obferving that the proportions are not perfectly just, and the caft of features, perhaps, even vulgar) fhall admit to be nothing more than a pleafing expreffion. But, exclufive of these particular acceptations, we use this word in a fenfe ftill more vague and gene

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ral; for, as it is the nature of beauty, to excite in the beholders certain pleafing fenfations, we apply indifcriminately the fame title, to every thing which produces a like effect; and this is evidently the case, when we are flattered by the union of colours, or the charms of the Clear obfcure. Thus, an ancient writer obferves, "[/] That "the most oppofite colours co-operate in "the formation of beauty:" A teftimony, which not only ferves my prefent purpose, but likewife, brings the paintings of the ancients into the fame point of view with thofe of Correggio; fhewing, that this last fpecies of beauty was equally known and cultivated by both.

B. THOUGH, what you have offered, be applied only to painting, may we not extend it to common life; and account, from hence,

[4] Τα εναλιλαία των χρωμαίων ες την του κάλλους συνθηκην ομολογεί.

for the difference of our opinions, concerning the beauty of women; each man efteeming her most beautiful, who moft readily excites in him thofe fenfations, which are the end of beauty?

A. OUR British Lucretius, it should seem, thought fo, when he tells us, that virtue

Affumes a various feature, to attract
With charms refponfive to each gazers eyę
The hearts of men.

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A.

DIALOGUE VII.

4.H

Of COMPOSITION.

ISTORY Painting is the representation of a momentary drama: We may therefore, in treating of compofition, borrow our ideas from the ftage; and divide it into two parts, the fcenery, and the drama. The excellence of the firft, confifts in a pleafing difpofition of the figures which compofe the action: However trifling the pleasure we recieve from this may appear to fome, it is certain, that it is founded on nature, and of course must merit our attention : If we look in a clear night on a starry sky, our eyes presently fix on those parts, where the stars are (if I may fo

term

term it) grouped into conftellations. The mind, indifferent to a loose unideal difperfion, feeks for fomething of fystem and œconomy; and catches at every image of contrivance and defign. Perhaps too, there may be fomething of harmony in a particular arrangement of objects; fimilar to that, which ftrikes us, in the correspondence of founds, or flatters us, in the union of colours.

B. WHATEVER the principal may be, we cannot doubt of the effect. The eye charmed with the elegant diftribution of a Lanfranc, or Pietro di Cortona, looks with coldnefs on the scattered compofitions of a Domenichino; and often wishes for fomething more flattering in thofe of the great Raphael.

A. YOUR obfervation, fo far as it touches Raphael, fhews the neceffity of a distinction

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