Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses: Edited, with an Introduction, by Helen ZimmernReynolds, Joshua, Sir
General
Sir Joshua Reynolds' Discourses: Edited, with an Introduction, by Helen Zimmern
Reynolds, Joshua, Sir
Art
I shall now make some remarks on the course which I think most proper
to be pursued in such a study. I wish you not to go so much to the
derivative streams, as to the fountain-head; though the copies are not
to be neglected; because they may give you hints in what manner you
may copy; and how the genius of one man may be made to fit the
peculiar manner of another.
To recover this lost taste, I would recommend young Artists to study
the works of Michel Angelo, as he himself did the works of the ancient
Sculptors; he began when a child a copy of a mutilated Satyr's head,
and finished in his model what was wanting in the original. In the
same manner, the first exercise that I would recommend to the young
artist when he first attempts invention is, to select every figure, if
possible, from the inventions of Michel Angelo. If such borrowed
figures will not bend to his purpose, and he is constrained to make a
change to supply a figure himself, that figure will necessarily be in
the same style with the rest; and his taste will by this means be
naturally initiated, and nursed in the lap of grandeur. He will sooner
perceive what constitutes this grand style by one practical trial than
by a thousand speculations, and he will in some sort procure to
himself the advantage which in these later ages has been denied
him--the advantage of having the greatest of Artists for his master
and instructor.
The next lesson should be, to change the purpose of the figures
without changing the attitude, as Tintoret has done with the Samson of
Michel Angelo. Instead of the figure which Samson bestrides, he has
placed an eagle under him: and instead of the jaw-bone, thunder and
lightning in his right hand; and thus it becomes a Jupiter. Titian, in
the same manner, has taken the figure which represents God dividing
the light from the darkness in the vault of the Capella Sestina, and
has introduced it in the famous battle of Cadore, so much celebrated
by Vasari; and extraordinary as it may seem, it is here converted to a
general falling from his horse. A real judge who should look at this
picture would immediately pronounce the attitude of that figure to be
in a greater style than any other figure of the composition. These two
instances may be sufficient, though many more might be given in their
works, as well as in those of other great Artists.
When the Student has been habituated to this grand conception of the
Art, when the relish for this style is established, makes a part of
himself, and is woven into his mind, he will, by this time, have got a
power of selecting from whatever occurs in nature that is grand, and
corresponds with that taste which he has now acquired, and will pass
over whatever is commonplace and insipid. He may then bring to the
mart such works of his own proper invention as may enrich and increase
the general stock of invention in our Art.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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