[a] _Modern Painters_, vols i. and ii., and the preface to the second edition of the work. [b] _Cosmos_, vol. ii. NOTE 61. PAGE 194 It is doubtful whether an artist can invent a form of tree which does not exist in nature, without producing something of the character of a monstrosity. From the point of view of dimensions, the two extreme forms of trees used in painting, are represented in Raphael's Madonna with the Goldfinch[a] as to the slender forms, and as to the giant trunks, in two or three of Claude's pictures. The very beautiful trees of Raphael have been often regarded as pure inventions, and Ruskin was actually surprised that the artist did not delineate the "true form of the trees and the true thickness of the boughs";[b] but as a matter of fact precisely similar trees (a variety of ash) are to be found in the valleys of the Apennines to this day. All the change that Raphael made was to transport the trees from a sheltered spot to an open position. Very similar trees are introduced in the same master's Apollo and Marsyas.[c] Perugino was the first painter to use them, and in some of his earlier works he made them of great height,[d] but he gradually modified the form till he approached the perfect symmetry and delicacy of Raphael's examples.[e] Marco Basaiti introduced them into at least three of his pictures, and they are also to be found in works by Timoteo della Viti and Francia.[f] Higher and equally slender trees have been appropriately used by Antonio della Ceraiuolo,[g] and even by so late a painter as Nicholas Poussin.[h] [a] Uffizi Gallery, Florence. [b] _Modern Painters_, vol. iv. [c] The Louvre. [d] Baptism of Christ, Perugia; and The Crucifixion, Florence. [e] The Deposition, Pitti Palace. [f] Madonna and Child in a Rose Garden, Munich. [g] The Crucifixion, Florence Academy. [h] Diana sleeps in the Forest, Prado, Madrid. NOTE 62. PAGE 194 In noting the fact that the great landscape artist invents his designs, Byron observes that nature does not furnish him with the scenes that he requires, and adds[a]: Nature is not lavish of her beauties; they are widely scattered, and occasionally displayed, to be selected with care, and gathered with difficulty. Had Byron been a painter, he would have known that the trouble of the artist is due to the over, and not the under, supply of beauty by nature. The artist sees the beauty, but cannot identify it with particular signs, and so has to invent a scene himself, using nature only for sketches or ideas. [a] _Art and Nature._ NOTE 63. PAGE 200 "The force of natural signs," says Lessing, "consists in their resemblance to the things they represent."[a] In a criticism upon the second part of _Faust_, G. H. Lewes writes[b]: