Ut Pictura Poesis

William Guild Howard

doi:10.2307/456823

Ut Pictura Poesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020

William Guild Howard

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The Latin poem De arte graphica by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy was edited with a translation into French prose and with notes by Roger de Piles in 1668; and in 1695 John Dryden, “to satisfy the desires of so many gentlemen who were willing to give the world this useful work,” not only translated de Piles's book into English prose but also supplied his translation with an “original preface containing a parallel between painting and poetry.” Dryden's Parallel is one of the least original, but it is not the least interesting of his literary essays: Saintsbury calls it “the first writing at any length by a very distinguished Englishman of letters on the subject of pictorial art.” Together with his translation of du Fresnoy and de Piles, it forms for us English-speaking people the handiest introduction to that long-lived esthetic theory founded upon the proposition Ut pictura poesis. Lessing seems to have seen in Dryden's preface some suggestion of a deviation of the parallel lines from the common direction; or perhaps the point at which they ought to have parted company; for he wrote, “ Falsche Übertragung des mahlerischen Ideals in die Poesie. Dort ist es ein Ideal der Körper, hier muss es ein Ideal der Handlungen seyn. Dryden in s. Vorrede zum Fresnoy.”

Type: Research Article
Information: PMLA , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , 1909 , pp. 40 - 123

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/456823 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1909

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References

^{page 40 note 1} History of Criticism, Edinburgh, 1900–02, ii, p. 385.

^{page 40 note 2} Laokoon, ed. H. Blümner, Berlin, 1880, Nachlass A, pp. 399 f.

^{page 40 note 3} Vol. ii, p. 128 of W. P. Ker's Essays of John Dryden, Oxford, 1900, to which text I refer throughout when quoting from the Parallel. I quote du Fresnoy's Latin and de Piles's notes (in Dryden's version) from The Art of Painting by C. A. du Fresnoy, with Remarks. Translated into English, etc., by Mr. Dryden, London, 1750.

^{page 41 note 1} Laokoon, ed. Blümner, p. 191.

^{page 41 note 2} P. 18.

^{page 41 note 3} P. 37.

^{page 41 note 4} Pp. 35 f.

^{page 41 note 5} Erstes kritisches Wäldchen, xvi, Werke, ed. Suphan, vol. iii, p. 138.

^{page 42 note 1} Cf. the chapter Die Anschaulichkeit in der Dichtung in Johannes Volkelt's System der Ästhetik, Munich, 1905, vol. i, p. 412. Friedrich Schlegel's aphorism (Athenäum, i (1798), p. 45) remains essentially true and very suggestive: “Die Poesie ist Musik für das innere Ohr, und Malerei für das innere Auge; aber gedämpfte Musik, aber verschwebende Malerei.”

^{page 42 note 2} Lessings Laokoon und das Prinzip der bildenden Künste, in the Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst, xix (1884), p. 290.

^{page 42 note 3} Stuttgart, 1886.

^{page 42 note 4} L'art français au XVII^e siècle dans ses rapports avec la littérature, in L. Petit de Julleville's Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française, Paris, 1898, vol. v, pp. 660 ff.

^{page 43 note 1} De C. A. Dufresnoy pictoris poemate quod “ De Arte graphica” inscribitur, Paris, 1901.

^{page 43 note 2} Works, ed. Edmond Malone, third edition, London, 1801, vol. iii.

^{page 43 note 3} Cf. C. Justi, Winckelmann, Leipzig, 1866, i, 301. Winckelmann refers to de Piles (calling him des Piles) in the Gedanken über die Nachahmung, DLD 20, p. 19.

^{page 43 note 4} L. c., p. 298.

^{page 44 note 1} Cf. these Publications, xxii (1907), pp. 608 ff.

^{page 44 note 2} Hamburgische Dramaturgie, 101–4. Stück.

^{page 44 note 3} Laokoon, xvi, p. 252.

^{page 44 note 4} Poetice, p. 401 of the edition of 1617.—H. von Stein says (op. cil., p. 125): “Scaliger verbindet die Aristotelische mit dem fernerhin unzählige Male zitierten Horazischen Worte ut pictura poesis. Von der Malerei auf die Poesie übertragen, ergibt sich dann aus dem Begriff des Nachahmens eine Forderung. Man ahme so nach, wie der Maler nachahmt; d. h., man halte sich an bestimmte gegebene Gegenstände, man bilde die Natur ab.” This is substantially true, but is, I think, misleading. Scaliger undoubtedly gave to this combination the weight of his great authority. He was not, however, the first to make it; and, so far as I can see, he did not himself misquote Horace in the manner suggested by Stein's formula; but he did write of his hero, Virgil, Ita enim eius poesi euenisse censeo, sicut et picturis. Nam plastae, et ii, qui coloribus utuntur, ex ipsis rebus capessunt notiones quibus lineamenta, lucem, umbram, recessus imitentur. Quod in quibusque praestantissimum inveniunt, e multis in unum opus suum transferunt ita ut non a natura didicisse, sed cum ea certasse, aut potius illi dare leges potuisse videantur. … Itaque non ex ipsius naturae opere uno potuimus exempla capere, quae ex una Virgiliana idea mutuati sumus (p. 259).

^{page 45 note 1} R. Eitelberger v. Edelberg's Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte, xi, Vienna, 1877, p. 89.

^{page 45 note 2} L. c., p. 89.

^{page 45 note 3} Niuno dubiti, capo et principio di questa arte, et così ogni suo grado a diventare maëstro, doversi prendere dalla natura (p. 149).

^{page 45 note 4} P. 69. The parts of painting recognized by Alberti are conscrittione, compositione et ricevere di lumi (p. 99): the first, also called circumscriptione, is treated on p. 101; the second, on pp. 109 ff.; and the third, on pp. 131 ff.

^{page 46 note 1} Pp. 121, 125.

^{page 46 note 2} Grandissima opera del pictore sarà l'istoria (p. 105); ma poiché la istoria è summa opera del pictore, etc. (p. 157).

^{page 46 note 3} P. 147.

^{page 46 note 4} Questi anno molti ornamenti communi col plctore, et copiosi di notitia di molte cose, molto gioveranno ad bello componere l'istoria (p. 145).

^{page 46 note 5} Lucian's description of the “Calumny” of Apelles is said to be pleasing sola senza pittura (p. 145). Piacerebbe ancora vedere quelle tre sorelle, a quali Hesiodo pose nome Eglie, Heufronesis et Thalia … per quali volea s'intendesse la liberalità, chè una di queste sorelle dà, l'altra riceve, la terza rende il beneficio, quali gradi debbano in ogni perfetta liberalità essere (p. 147).

^{page 46 note 6} P. 147; cf. Strabo, viii, 354.

^{page 46 note 7} P. 115.

^{page 46 note 8} Pictura terrà li occhi et l'animo di chi la miri (p. 143).

^{page 46 note 9} P. 149.

^{page 46 note 10} Fuggie l'ingegni non periti quella idea delle bellezze, quale i bene exercitatissimi appena discernono (p. 151).

^{page 47 note 1} P. 151.

^{page 47 note 2} Pp. 111, 115.

^{page 47 note 3} Ma chi da essa natura s'auserà prendere qualunque facci cosa, costui renderà sua mano si exercitata, che sempre qualunque cosa farà, parrà tratta dal naturale (p. 153).

^{page 47 note 4} Sono certo queste arti cogniate et da uno medesimo ingegnio nutrite la pictura insieme con la scolptura. Ma io sempre preposi l'ingegnio del pictore, perchè s'aopera in cosa più difficile (p. 95).

^{page 47 note 5} P. 155.

^{page 47 note 6} First published in Paris in 1651, without the first part, in which alone we are interested; now accessible in the edition, with a translation into German and a commentary, by Heinrich Ludwig: Nos. xv, xvi, xvii of Eitelberger's Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte, Vienna, 1882.

^{page 48 note 1} Vol. iii, p. 153.

^{page 48 note 2} Vol. i, pp. 36, 44.

^{page 48 note 3} Solo il uero uffitio del poeta è fingere parole di gente, che insieme parlino (vol. i, p. 24).

^{page 48 note 4} P. 18.

^{page 48 note 5} P. 16.

^{page 48 note 6} Pp. 30, 44.

^{page 48 note 7} P. 46.

^{page 48 note 8} P. 20.

^{page 48 note 9} La pittura, la quale è sola imitatrice di tutte l'opere evidenti di natura (p. 16).

^{page 49 note 1} Pp. 8, 38, 40.

^{page 49 note 2} Pp. 20, 32, 50.

^{page 49 note 3} P. 32.

^{page 49 note 4} Pp. 24, 48.

^{page 49 note 5} E potrà dire un poeta: io farò una finzione che significherà cose grande; questo medesimo farà il pittore, come fece Apelle la calunnia (p. 32). Dice il poeta, che descriue una cosa, che ne rappresenta un'altra piena di belle sentenze; il pittore dice aver in arbitrio di far il medesimo, e in questa parte anco egli è poeta (p. 48).

^{page 49 note 6} P. 12.

^{page 49 note 7} Pp. 18, 52, 54.

^{page 49 note 8} Pp. 32, 52, 100.

^{page 49 note 9} P. 30.

^{page 49 note 10} P. 22.

^{page 49 note 11} P. 28.

^{page 49 note 12} P. 30.

^{page 49 note 13} P. 44.

^{page 49 note 14} P. 48.

^{page 49 note 15} P. 28.

^{page 49 note 16} E se tu, poeta, figurerai un' istoria co' la pittura della penna, il pittore col penello la farà di più facile satisfatione e meno tediosa a esser compresa (p. 30).

^{page 49 note 17} Pp. 42, 48.

^{page 49 note 18} P. 50.

^{page 49 note 19} P. 32.

^{page 49 note 20} Pp. 20, 38, 42, 48.

^{page 50 note 1} Suppose that you, a painter, wish to represent a battle. In questo caso il pittore ti supera, perchè la tua penna fia consumata, innanzi che tu descriua appieno quel, che immediato il pittore ti rappresenta co' la sua scientia. E la tua lingua sarà impedita dalla sete, et il corpo dal sonno e fame, prima che tu co' parole dimostri quello, che in un istante il pittore ti dimostra. Nella qual pittura non manca altro, che l'anima delle cose finte, et in ciascun corpo è l'integrità di quella parte, che per un sol aspetto può dimostrarsi, il che lunga e tediosissima cosa sarebbe alla poesia a ridire tutti li mouimenti de li operatori di tal guerra, e le parti delle membra, e lor' ornamenti, delle quali cose la pittura finita con gran breuità e uerità ti pone innanzi (p. 22).

^{page 50 note 2} Pp. 54, 64.

^{page 50 note 3} P. 38.

^{page 50 note 4} Pp. 20, 46, 48, 68 fi.

^{page 50 note 5} P. 54.

^{page 50 note 6} Tal proportione è dall' imaginatione all' effetto, qual' è dall' ombra al corpo ombroso, e la medesima proportione è dalla poesia alla pittura (p. 4).

^{page 50 note 7} P. 30.

^{page 50 note 8} P. 24.

^{page 51 note 1} P. 34.

^{page 51 note 2} P. 44.

^{page 51 note 3} P. ii.

^{page 51 note 4} P. vii.

^{page 52 note 1} Cf. these Publications, vol. xxiii (1908), p. 524.

^{page 52 note 2} Pp. 24 f.

^{page 52 note 3} Rhetoric, ii, i: .

^{page 52 note 4} Orator ad M. Brutum, iii: Quoniam tria videnda sunt oratori, quid dicat, et quo quidque loco, et quomodo.

^{page 52 note 5} Poeticorum libri ires (1527). Cf. Charles Batteux's Quatre Poétiques, Paris, 1771, vol. ii, p. 70.

^{page 52 note 6} P. 26 f.

^{page 53 note 1} Poetics, ix; cf. J. E. Spingarn, A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance,² New York, 1908, pp. 28 f.

^{page 53 note 2} Pp. 41 f.

^{page 53 note 3} Vorrede zu den “ Geschichten der romanischen und germanischen Völker,” 1824.

^{page 53 note 4} P, 42.

^{page 53 note 5} L. c., ii, p. 43.

^{page 53 note 6} Lezzioni, Florence, 1590, pp. 226–230. My attention was called to this “parallel” by Spingarn, op. cit., p. 42.

^{page 55 note 1} These ancient examples are all referred to also by Alberti; l. c., pp. 115, 119, 123.

^{page 56 note 1} Translated into German by Cajetan Cerri in Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte edited by R. Eitelberger v. Edelberg, ii, Vienna, 1871. I quote from an edition with a translation into French published in Florence in 1735. My copy belongs to the Boston Public Library.

^{page 56 note 2} P. 178; cf. Laokoon, xx, pp. 285–290.

^{page 57 note 1} Laokoon, pp. 15–17.

^{page 57 note 2} P. 106.

^{page 57 note 3} P. 110; cf. Lionardo, supra, p. 48.

^{page 57 note 4} P. 110.

^{page 57 note 5} P. 214.

^{page 57 note 6} P. 226.

^{page 57 note 7} P. 116.

^{page 58 note 1} P. 232.

^{page 58 note 2} P. 242. Cf. K. Borinski, Die Rätsel Michelangelos, Munich, 1908.

^{page 58 note 3} P. 244.

^{page 58 note 4} P. 172.

^{page 58 note 5} P. 250.

^{page 58 note 6} Inventione, disegno, colorito; p. 150.

^{page 59 note 1} P. 176.

^{page 59 note 2} P. 190.

^{page 60 note 1} P. 35.

^{page 60 note 2} Argumentum libri tertii.

^{page 60 note 3} P. 150.

^{page 61 note 1} P. 58.

^{page 61 note 2} § 2.

^{page 61 note 3} P. 35.

^{page 61 note 4} Rome, 1844.

^{page 61 note 5} Another of Lomazzo's books, entitled Idea del tempio della pittura, Milan, 1590, mentions (p. 18) among other authorities on drawing and painting, Varchi's and Dolce's treatises considered above. The first chapter in de Piles's Cours de peinture par principes (Paris, 1708), to be discussed later, expounds l'idée de la peinture, and has (pp. 21–24) a description of a palais de la peinture which was perhaps suggested by Lomazzo's “temple.”

^{page 61 note 6} P. 11.

^{page 62 note 1} P. 384.

^{page 62 note 2} P. 385.

^{page 62 note 3} P. 391.

^{page 62 note 4} P. 392.

^{page 62 note 5} P. 460. Lomazzo's “idea” is hardly more than a well considered plan.

^{page 62 note 6} P. 468.

^{page 62 note 7} P. 469; cf. Lionardo, supra, p. 50. Du Fresnoy does not seem to have made much use of Lomazzo. De Piles, however, added as a note to Du Fresnoy's line 114 “the measures of a human body” given in Lomazzo's first book, Della proporzione naturale ed artificiale delle cose. This first book was translated into French and printed (Toulouse, 1649) under the title Traité de la proportion naturelle et artificielle des choses by Hilaire Pader, the author of two poems, La peinture parlante (1653), and Le songe énigmatique de la peinture universelle (1658), neither of which is accessible to me. Cf. Vitry, p. 33. The Harvard University Library has a copy of Pader's Traité, and also a copy of Richard Haydocke's translation of Lomazzo's first five books under the title A Tracte containing the Artes of curious Paintinge, Caruinge and Buildinge, Oxford, 1598.

^{page 63 note 1} P. 25.

^{page 63 note 2} Cf. Varchi, supra, p. 55.

^{page 64 note 1} Preface to Le Vite de' pittori, scultatori et architetti moderni, Rome, 1672.

^{page 64 note 2} Ker, ii, p. 123.

^{page 64 note 3} Per dipingere una bella mi bisognerebbe vedere più belle, ma per essere carestia di belle donne, io mi seruo di una certa idea, che mi viene in mente. Letter to Castiglione. Quoted, e. g., by Winckelmann, Gedanken, DLD 20, p. 14.

^{page 64 note 4} Herzensergiessungen eines kunslliebenden Klosterbruders, ed. K. D. Jessen, Leipzig, 1904, pp. 7, 10 f.

^{page 65 note 1} P. 20.

^{page 65 note 2} P. 182. Bellori attributes this precept to both Alberti and Lionardo; cf. p. 6; Dryden, p. 120.

^{page 65 note 3} Vite, Florence, 1846, vol. i, p. 149. Painting and sculpture are said (p. 91) to be twin sisters. It remained for Lomazzo to make poetry and painting quasi nate ad un parto (vol. ii, p. 468), supra, p. 62.

^{page 65 note 4} P. 149.

^{page 66 note 1} P. 137.

^{page 67 note 1} P. 4.

^{page 67 note 2} P. 118.

^{page 67 note 3} Ma Zeusi … insegna … a contemplare Videa delle migliori forme naturali, con farne scelta da vari corpi, eleggendo le più eleganti (p. 4).

^{page 67 note 4} As Guido Reni said; cf. Dryden, p. 120, and Lionardo on the painting of gods, supra, p. 49.

^{page 67 note 5} P. 9.

^{page 67 note 6} Cf. Dryden, p. 122.

^{page 67 note 7} P. 11.

^{page 68 note 1} This work was translated into English by J. Evelyn and published under the title An Idea of the perfection of painting, etc., London, 1668. My references are to this translation.

^{page 68 note 2} P. 8.

^{page 68 note 3} Supra, p. 47, note 6. Besides the Italian text there was a translation into French by Chambray himself.

^{page 68 note 4} P. 10.

^{page 68 note 5} P. 4.

^{page 68 note 6} Viz., perspective and geometry.

^{page 69 note 1} P. 9.

^{page 69 note 2} P. 8.

^{page 69 note 3} P. 11.

^{page 69 note 4} P. 11.

^{page 69 note 5} P. 14.

^{page 69 note 6} P. 66.

^{page 69 note 7} Supra, p. 62. Chambray allows himself a very graceless diatribe on Vasari on pp. 97 ff. We may note that in objecting to some of the nudities in Michelangelo's Last Judgment (pp. 15, 72) he echoes sentiments of Dolce, Aretino, p. 244.

^{page 70 note 1} In a copy of the second edition (1690) belonging to the Boston Athenæum.

^{page 70 note 2} A few passages of more general purport may be quoted here. “En effet, si les paroles sont comme autant de coups de pinceau, qui forment dans l'esprit les images des choses” (preface, p. x). “Mais aussitôt il s‘éleva [en Grèce] quantité d'excellents hommes qui mirent la sculpture au plus haut point, où elle ait été” (p. 305). “Les excellents hommes qui ont fait le Laocoön … [sont] dignes tous les trois d'une louange immortelle pour un si beau travail ” (p. 305). “Le raisonnement est comme le père de la peinture et l'exécution comme la mère” (p. 399). “Dans la peinture, ce qu’ on nomme ordinairement dessein est une expression apparente ou une image visible des pensées de l'esprit, et de ce qu'on s'est premièrement formé dans l'imagination ” (p. 402).

^{page 71 note 1} Cf. Henry Jouin, Conférences de l'Académie royale de Peinture et de Sculpture recueillies, annotées et précédées d'une étude sur les artistes écrivains, Paris. 1883.

^{page 71 note 2} L. c., p. 686.

^{page 72 note 1} Cf. the admirable exposition of la méthode classique de Nicolas Poussin given by Paul Desjardins, La Méthode des Classiques français, Paris, 1904, pp. 165–211.

^{page 72 note 2} P. 32.

^{page 72 note 3} P. 33.

^{page 73 note 1} P. 36.

^{page 73 note 2} P. 60.

^{page 73 note 3} L. c., p. 698.

^{page 73 note 4} Saintsbury humorously remarks (vol. ii, p. 31) that Vida's rule appears to be “ When in doubt always invoke.”

^{page 75 note 1} L. c., ii, 3. Vida's Art of Poetry with the translation of Pitt is conveniently accessible in The Art of Poetry edited by A. S. Cook, Boston, 1892, pp. 39 ff.

^{page 75 note 2} Poet., lib. vi, p. 740, ed. 1617.

^{page 75 note 3} “Expression, and all that belongs to words, is that in a poem which coloring is in a picture” (Dryden, Parallel, Ker, ii, p. 147). “ Operum colores is the very word which Horace uses to signify words and elegant expressions” (ibid., p. 148).

^{page 78 note 1} Du Fresnoy has the line (469): “Nulla dies abeat, quin linea ducta supersit.” Pliny, Nat. Hist, xxxv, § 84, records this precept as a rule of Apelles, and adds, quod ab eo in proverbium venit.

^{page 78 note 2} Op. cit., pp. 131, 135.

^{page 79 note 1} E. g., 11, 31, 464, 494.

^{page 79 note 2} Emilia Galotti, i, 4.

^{page 82 note 1} In view of the general resemblance of De arte graphica to Vida's poem, and its difference from Horace's and from such other poetics as, e. g., Minturno's (1559, 1563), and that of Vauquelin de la Fresnaye (1605), the fact that most of the points here enumerated were made by Horace, and might have been derived by du Fresnoy, as they were by Vida, from Horace, does not seem to make the enumeration and comparison otiose.

^{page 82 note 2} Cf. 11. 30 ff., supra, p. 80; 1. 39, supra, p. 77; 11. 50 ff., supra, p. 77.

^{page 83 note 1} Spingarn remarks (pp. 131 ff.), that Vida's “imitation” hardly looks beyond spoliation and translation of the ancients.

^{page 85 note 1} Schriften, ed. Stern, Leipzig, 1891, vol. vi, p. 215: Mein Verfahren beim poetischen Schaffen.

^{page 85 note 2} Pp. 280 ff.

^{page 85 note 3} Cf. supra, p. 58.

^{page 86 note 1} P. 160.

^{page 86 note 2} P. 174.

^{page 86 note 3} Du Fresnoy wrote (ll. 152 ff.):

“Pluribus implicitum personis drama supremo

In genere ut rarum est; multis ita densa figuris

Rarior est tabula excellens.“

De Piles annotates (Dryden, p. 137): “Annibal Caracci did not believe that a picture could be good, in which there were above twelve figures. It was Albano who told our author this; and from his mouth I had it.”

^{page 86 note 4} P. 262.

^{page 86 note 5} P. 86.

^{page 86 note 6} P. 274.

^{page 87 note 1} P. 280.

^{page 87 note 2} P. 71.

^{page 87 note 3} Jouin, pp. 19–26. Text as reported by Félibien.

^{page 88 note 1} P. 21.

^{page 88 note 2} Jouin, pp. 137–140.

^{page 88 note 3} Jouin, pp. 87–98.

^{page 89 note 1} Pp. 91 f. The agreement of these observations with the reasons given by Winckelmann (Gedanken über die Nachahmung, DLD 20, pp. 9–14) why the Greeks were a beautiful race, and why, therefore, beauty is more easily discoverable in their statues than in nature, is certainly striking. This text, however, was not published until 1854 (Jouin, p. 99).

^{page 90 note 1} P. 94.

^{page 90 note 2} Jouin, pp. 153–167. Published in 1680 in the author's Sentiments des plus habiles peintres sur la pratique de la peinture et sculpture.

^{page 90 note 3} P. 153.

^{page 91 note 1} P. 154.

^{page 91 note 2} P. 157.

^{page 91 note 3} P. 158.

^{page 92 note 1} P. 158.

^{page 93 note 1} Pp. 82 f. of Dryden's translation (edition of 1750) from which I quote in modernized orthography.

^{page 93 note 2} P. 91.

^{page 93 note 3} P. 92. Winckelmann also emphasizes the health of the Greeks as a prime element in their beauty. Gedanken, DLD 20, p. 12.

^{page 93 note 4} P. 17.

^{page 93 note 5} “Dans la plupart de ses tableaux le nud de ses figures tient beaucoup de la pierre peinte, et porte avec lui plutôt la dureté des marbres que la délicatesse d'une chair pleine de sang et de vie” (Vie des peintres, p. 466). Referred to by Vitry, l. c.

^{page 94 note 1} By “accomodating the nature” de Piles means expressing an ideal. On a later page (p. 98) he says we must learn “ to understand what is perfect and beautiful in nature; to the end that, having found it, we may be able to imitate it, and by this instruction we may be capacitated to observe those errors which she herself has made and to avoid them.”

^{page 94 note 2} P. 96.

^{page 94 note 3} Pp. 142 ff.

^{page 95 note 1} P. 99 f.

^{page 95 note 2} P. 106.

^{page 96 note 1} P. 157.

^{page 96 note 2} P. 133; cf. du Fresnoy, 1. 128.

^{page 96 note 3} P. 139.

^{page 96 note 4} P. 139 f.

^{page 96 note 5} P. 140.

^{page 96 note 6} P. 3.

^{page 96 note 7} P. 4.

^{page 96 note 8} P. 7 f.

^{page 96 note 9} P. 21. De Piles carries his requirement of verisimilitude so far as to narrate with evident relish how Rembrandt deceived the passers-by into imagining a picture of his servant displayed in a window was the maiden herself (p. 10), and to affirm (p. 17) that the essence of painting is “de surprendre les yeux et de les tromper, s'il est possible.”

^{page 97 note 1} P. 29.

^{page 97 note 2} P. 30.

^{page 97 note 3} “Ce second vrai, à parler dans la rigueur, est presque aussi réel que le premier; car il n'invente rien, mais il choisit partout” (p. 46).

^{page 97 note 4} P. 32.

^{page 98 note 1} Pp. 33 f.

^{page 99 note 1} Pp. 34 f.

^{page 99 note 2} Blümner gives it none.

^{page 99 note 3} Paris, 1747.

^{page 99 note 4} 1751. Cf. these Publications, vol. xxii, p. 630.

^{page 99 note 5} Épîre IX, au marquis de Seignelay, 1. 43. Quoted as a motto by Batteux on the frontispiece of Les quatres poétiques, Paris, 1771.

^{page 99 note 6} Cf. supra, p. 53.

^{page 99 note 7} Pp. 35 f.

^{page 100 note 1} P. 37.

^{page 100 note 2} P. 39 f.

^{page 101 note 1} Erläuterungen und Kommentar zu Lessings Laokoon, Leipzig, 1907, p. 79.

^{page 101 note 2} Cf. Karl Lange, Die ästhetische Illusion im 18. Jahrhundert in the Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft, i (1906), pp. 30–43.

^{page 101 note 3} P. 41.

^{page 101 note 4} Supra, p. 96, note 9.

^{page 101 note 5} P. 433.

^{page 102 note 1} Laokoon, iii, p. 164.

^{page 102 note 2} Ibid., ii, p. 155; cf. Nachlass A (Blümner, p. 370): “Da Körper der eigentliche Vorwurf der Mahlerey sind, und der mahierische Werth der Körper in ihrer Schönheit bestehet, so ist es offenbar, dass die Mahlerey ihre Körper nicht schön genug wählen kann.” Mendelssohn protested in vain against this conclusion, saying (ibid.), “Dieser Schritt ist mir zu kühn. Die Schönheit der Formen macht vielleicht nicht den ganzen malerischen Werth der Körper aus, denn, wie es scheint, gehört die Rührung mit dazu.” Chr. Schrempf has in his book Lessing als Philosoph, Stuttgart, 1906, some judicious pages (97–105) of the same tenor.

^{page 102 note 3} Winckelmann, i, p. 298.

^{page 102 note 4} “ Le peintre qui a du génie trouve dans toutes les parties de son art une ample matière de le faire paraître; mais celle qui lui fournit plus d'occasions de faire voir ce qu'il a d'esprit, d'imagination, et de prudence, est sans doute l'invention. C'est par elle que la peinture marche à pas égal avec la poésie, et c'est elle principalement qui attire l'estime des personnes les plus estimables, je veux dire des gens d'esprit, qui non contents de la seule imitation des objets, veulent que le choix en soit juste pour l'expression du sujet” (p. 61). De Piles uses the word “expression” in its subjective and objective senses; i. e., (1) “ce que j'entends par le mot d'expression n'est pas le caractère de chaque objet mais la pensée du cœur humain” (p. 491); and (2) “le mot d'expression se confond ordinairement en parlant de peinture avec celui de passion. Ils diffèrent néanmoins en ce que, expression est terme général qui signifie la représentation d'un objet selon le caractère de sa nature et selon le tour que le peintre a dessein de lui donner pour la convenance de son ouvrage. Et la passion en peinture est un mouvement du corps accompagné de certains, traits sur le visage qui marquent une agitation de l'âme. Ainsi toute passion est une expression, mais toute expression n'est pas une passion. D'où l'on doit conclure qu'il n'y a point d'objet dans un tableau qui n'ait son expression ” (p. 162).

^{page 103 note 1} Cours de peinture, pp. 420–472.

^{page 103 note 2} P. 18.

^{page 103 note 3} Laokoon, p. 36. As a matter of fact, Blümner ridicules a proposition that de Piles did not make at all; in referring to this passage, Blümner inverts it and translates: “Unsere Sinne und Vernunft sagen uns, heisst es, dass die Poesie jegliches Ereignis deutlich machen könnte, welches die Malerei ihrerseits sehen lassen könnte”—a very different story!

^{page 104 note 1} P. 442.

^{page 104 note 2} P. 429.

^{page 104 note 3} P. 42.

^{page 104 note 4} Laokoon, Nachlass D, p. 460.

^{page 105 note 1} Cf. Schmarsow, op. cit., pp. 60, 69.

^{page 105 note 2} Cf. Fechner, l. c, p. 255.

^{page 105 note 3} I. e., ; Poetics, i, 5; cf. the commentary in S. H. Butcher's edition, London, 1895, p. 116. Cf. also Hermann Baumgart, Handbuch der Poetik, Stuttgart, 1887, and the review by R. M. Werner in the Anzeiger für deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, xv, 3, (4. Jul., 1889).

^{page 106 note 1} The group of Laocoön and his sons is, in a sense, a specimen of high relief; it is designed to be viewed only from the front. Cf. Karl Sittl, Empirische Studien über die Laokoongruppe, Würzburg, 1895, p. 36.

^{page 106 note 2} Cf. Schmarsow, l. e., p. 48.

^{page 106 note 3} “Von den Landschaftsmahlern; ob es ein Ideal in der Schönheit der Landschaften gebe. Wird verneinet. Daher der geringere Werth der Landschaftsmahler” (Laokoon, Nachlass A, p. 394).

^{page 106 note 4} Lessing inordinately restricts the painter's range of invention, saying (Laokoon, xi, p. 232), “Denn da er sahe, dass die Erfindung seine glänzende Seite nie werden könne, dass sein grösstes Lob von der Ausführung abhänge, so ward es ihm gleichviel, ob jene alt oder neu, einmal oder unzähligmal gebraucht sey, ob sie ihm oder einem anderen zugehöre. Er blieb in dem engen Bezirke weniger, ihm und dem Publico geläuffig gewordener Vorwürfe, und liess seine ganze Erfindsamkeit auf die blosse Veränderung in dem Bekannten gehen, auf neue Zusammensetzungen alter Gegenstände. Das ist auch wirklich die Idee, welche die Lehrbücher der Mahlerey mit dem Worte Erfindung verbinden.” Lessing refers to Hagedorn's Betrachtungen über die Mahlerey (1762); cf. Justi, Winckelmann, i, pp. 354 ff. It is manifest that Lessing was far from doing justice to the conception of invention in painting that prevailed among the French theorists. Whether he knew de Piles's Cours de peinture or not, I cannot say. A translation of this work under the title Einleitung in die Malerey aus Grundsätzen was printed at Leipzig in 1760; cf. Antiquariats-Katalog Nr. 86, Die kleinen Klassiker, Nr. 209, Friedrich Meyers Buchhandlung, Leipzig, 1908. Hagedorn had great respect for de Piles.

^{page 106 note 5} Laokoon, xvi, p. 252.

^{page 107 note 1} L. c., p. 255.

^{page 107 note 2} In substantial agreement with Fechner, Schmarsow defines painting as “eigene, über die plastische Gestaltenbildung hinausgreifende Kunst, die eben nicht mehr die Einheit des organischen Körpers sondern die Einheit des Zusammenhangs zwischen den Körpern im Raum als ihre besondere Aufgabe erkennt ” (p. 60).

^{page 108 note 1} Cours de peinture, p. 53; cf. p. 389.

^{page 108 note 2} P. 200.

^{page 108 note 3} P. 201.

^{page 108 note 4} P. 34; cf. supra, p. 98.

^{page 109 note 1} Cf. du Bos, Réflexions critiques sur la poésie et sur la peinture, 3d ed., Paris, 1775, i, p. 203; and Lomazzo, supra, pp. 61 f.

^{page 109 note 2} Lettre sur les sourds et muets.

^{page 109 note 3} Cf. R. Haym, Herder, Berlin, 1877, i, p. 247.

^{page 109 note 4} P. 471; cf. Lionardo, supra, p. 49.

^{page 109 note 5} P. 495.

^{page 109 note 6} P. 55.

^{page 109 note 7} P. 58.

^{page 110 note 1} P. 461; cf. Dolce, p. 242, supra, p. 58.

^{page 110 note 2} P. 4.

^{page 110 note 3} P. 57.

^{page 110 note 4} P. 71.

^{page 110 note 5} “L'autorité la mieux reçue pour les allégories est celle de l'antiquité, parce qu'elle est incontestable” (p. 71).

^{page 110 note 6} P. 72.

^{page 110 note 7} Laokoon, p. 37.

^{page 111 note 1} P. 313.

^{page 111 note 2} P. 317.

^{page 111 note 3} Vie des peintres, p. 59.

^{page 111 note 4} Op. cit., pp. 47–59.

^{page 112 note 1} P. 442.

^{page 112 note 2} P. 4.

^{page 112 note 3} P. 6; cf. Chambray, supra, p. 69.

^{page 112 note 4} Pp. 462 f.

^{page 113 note 1} Laokoon, p. 18.

^{page 113 note 2} Réflexions critiques, i, p. 194.

^{page 113 note 3} P. 197.

^{page 114 note 1} P. 212.

^{page 115 note 1} Schmarsow, l. c., p. 73.

^{page 115 note 2} Cf. E. G. Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds's Discourses, Chicago, 1891, p. 187. Reynolds's Discourses, which he delivered as President of the Royal Academy between the years 1769 and 1790 are among the best expositions in English of the art of painting in its more general bearings. Reynolds speaks, like Corneille, in his discourses on the drama, with the authority and modesty of knowledge and successful experience. Towards the literature of the subject that we have discussed his attitude is critical, especially towards that part of it which emphasizes genius, or any other irrational element. He does not belong, therefore, in the category of those whose theories are developments of a tradition based upon subserviency to authority; but is, like his friend Burke, whose treatise on the Sublime he esteemed so highly, an independent, empirical philosopher. He even denies that painting is an art of imitation. Although he did not begin his discourses until three years after the publication of Laokoon (1766), he seems to have had no knowledge of Lessing's work.

^{page 116 note 1} Cf. H. Blümner, Laokoon-Studien, i, Freiburg, 1881; reviewed by Veit Valentin in the Beiblatt zur Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst. Nr. 37, June 8, 1882; V. Valentin, Kunst, Symbolik und Allegorie, in the Zeitschrift aforesaid, xviii (1883), pp. 120 ff., 145 ff.; Schmarsow's books referred to l. c., p. 115; and Volkelt, l. c., p. 405.

^{page 116 note 2} Cours de peinture, pp. 420–472.

^{page 116 note 3} P. 444.

^{page 116 note 4} P. 422 f.

^{page 116 note 5} xi, p. 231.

^{page 116 note 6} P. 449.

^{page 117 note 1} P. 452.

^{page 117 note 2} Pp. 468 f.

^{page 117 note 3} Blümner can hardly have had these sentences in mind when he wrote of de Piles's “parallel” between the arts: “Hier ist freilich von Einsicht in ihr gegenseitiges Verhältnis keine Rede” (Laokoon, p. 36).

^{page 117 note 4} L. c., i, p. liviii.

^{page 118 note 1} “ There is scarce a frailty to be left in the best of them, any more than is to be found in the divine nature” (Ker, ii, p. 271). Dryden was then working on his translation of Virgil.

^{page 118 note 2} P. 125.

^{page 118 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 118 note 4} P. 132.

^{page 118 note 5} P. 128.

^{page 119 note 1} Cf. p. 137.

^{page 119 note 2} Cf. these Publications, vol. xxii, pp. 621–630.

^{page 119 note 3} Laokoon, pp. 39–45.

^{page 119 note 4} Paris, 1721; cf. Jouin, pp. 215–368.

^{page 119 note 5} Laokoon, Nachlass D, p. 469.

^{page 119 note 6} Coypel designed the frontispiece to de Piles's Abrégé de la vie des peintres.

^{page 119 note 7} Jouin, p. 367.

^{page 119 note 8} Charles Antoine, known both as a painter and as a dramatist; cf. Lessing's Theatralische Bibliothek, 4. Stück, 1758.

^{page 120 note 1} Read to the Academy Dec. 7, 1720; Jouin, pp. 215–229.

^{page 120 note 2} “J'étais toujours le confident de ses ouvrages à mesure qu'il les produisait. Cette confiance, autant utile qu'agréable pour moi, m'engagea à quelque retour” (Jouin, p. 367).

^{page 120 note 3} P. 219.

^{page 120 note 4} P. 219.

^{page 120 note 5} P. 220.

^{page 120 note 6} Ll. 89, 90.

^{page 121 note 1} P. 305.

^{page 121 note 2} P. 270.

^{page 121 note 3} P. 303.

^{page 121 note 4} Spingarn; cf. supra, p. 78.

^{page 121 note 5} P. 277.

^{page 121 note 6} P. 239.

^{page 121 note 7} Blümner, pp. 357 f.

^{page 123 note 1} Cf. W. Wundt, Lessing und die kritische Methode, in Essays, ² Leipzig, 1906, pp. 417–440; and W. Dilthey, Das Erlebnis und die Dichtung, Leipzig, 1906, pp. 22–42.

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