picture, so sought after by amateurs, is nothing but the faithful imitation of the tone assumed by nature in countries where the rays of the sun are not too perpendicular, every time that the air is in that state of transparency required to temper to the necessary degree the too brilliant blue of a pure sky, and itself to receive and transmit this desirable silvery tone, which delights the spectator. The painter, however, must guard against extending it to the figures, or to the rest of the foreground, where it would cause all to become grey and cold, that part not being able to appear argentine for want of a sufficient body of air between it and the supposed position of the spectator.

The grey and cold tone which is so displeasing, appears in nature when a cloud, reposing on the earth, envelopes us in mist, and conceals the sky from us; or when all the azure of the sky disappears behind clouds more elevated than mist, but massy and continuous.

If pictures offend against nature, and become cold by the employment of cold colours upon them, such as black, white, blue, and green, either pure or bluish, and by the omission of the glazings which the tone of the light requires, or if they become so from the natural coldness of night and of snow, not remedied by art, the painter ought to correct the fault in the manner I have previously hinted at. But nothing can correct the cold of a sky concealed by the kind of clouds last-mentioned, or rendered totally invisible by mist.

SECT. XII. Of the Clear-obscure.

The parts depending on colour, of which I have still to speak, are the clear-obscure, the transparency, the harmony, and the effect.

There is no term of art in regard to the meaning of which opinions are more various, than the clearobscure. It is derived from a compound Italian word chiaro-scuro. In the literal sense this word means nothing but the obscure, which is, at the same time, clear. In this sense it may be held to mean the shadows and half lights, treated with the intelligence requisite to prevent the former from becoming opaque, and the latter syrupy or heavy, and to cause both to remain transparent, so as to allow the colours and forms which they cover to be perceived. This is agreeable to nature, where no part of an object within reach of the rays of any light ever disappears entirely under a shadow, even the most thick, but remains always more or less visible, according to the greater or less force of the rays of light, whether reflected or striking laterally on it. I do not know that the term has ever been used in this sense; but I think that this signification would have been useful, by recalling to the artist the duty of observing transparency in his shadows and half lights.

Be that as it will, general use has now appropriated the term to express in one word the light and shadow. Leonardo da Vinci first used it successfully. No part of the art contributes more to

the illusion necessary to "good representation" in a picture. The magic of it, when it is employed upon a single object, such as a head for example, consists in this, that the skilful artist leaves in the light the parts which he wishes to make advance, by graduating the light in such a manner as that they receive more of it in proportion as they ought to be more prominent. On the other hand, he throws into the shade the parts which he wishes to retire. This he takes care to execute with the same proportional graduation, and without neglecting any of the necessary reflections, and he adds, if the effect require, some gleam of accidental light. By this proceeding, managed with all the requisite skill, the head will appear to stand out of the picture, the surfaces will take a just roundness, all the parts will be in their places, and the whole will detach itself from the ground. This then is the combination of light and shadow which I call the clear-obscure of that head, and upon which the magical effect of it altogether depends.

In compositions, the clear-obscure will be that of the object the most prominent and most bright. From that the light, carried in natural gradations to the other objects in succession, and modified by the interposition of the air in the remote planes, will produce in them so many lights and shadows, that is to say, so much subordinate clear-obscure. The union of these with that of the first object makes the general clear-obscure of the picture as a whole.

Of all the parts of colour no one contributes so much to the "well represented," and to the magic truth of a work, none has more direct influence upon its effect, or attracts more powerfully the eye of the spectator, none is more decisive in producing the illusion of fore-shortening, than the clear-obscure, if the different parts be executed, disposed, and united, with the art and the agreement necessary. It is especially this magical part of colour which renders the pictures of so many of the Dutch masters so generally sought for. It is this that contributes very much to the glory of the Flemish school. It is this, in fine, against which so many renowned Italian masters have sinned, but in which the immortal Corregio is so eminently distinguished, and which proves how they err that have named Titian the Prince of Colourists! for how much soever he may possess in a supreme degree very many other parts of colouring, he has so misunderstood this one in his general harmony, that his grounds are rarely in agreement with the rest of his picture, and are very often all black. His Venus in the Dresden Gallery, and his Ecce Homo in that of Vienna, two of his most renowned pictures, but especially the latter, present striking proofs, among very many others, of the correctness of my opinion on this great colourist.

It is not without reason that true connoisseurs set such a value on TRANSPARENCY in pictures, for

it augments the "good representation" of them by an inexpressible charm, which seduces even the most ignorant. All the art of it consists in the glazings being always sufficiently transparent to allow the forms and colours beneath to appear, more or less, according to need, without which there cannot be perfect conformity with nature. Transparency is not confined to the shadows and demi-tints which cannot do without it. The skilful artist will take advantage of it equally for the draperies, the trees, and most objects that enter into his composition; correcting thus the rawness of his colours, and giving warmth to those which are too cold.

The great Rubens and his followers have excelled in this quality, as well as Teniers, Peter Neefs the elder, and many other Flemings. other Flemings. The greater part of the Dutch school have equally distinguished themselves in it. Among the Italians, the Venetian school, after the example of Titian, have made a very happy use of it. But I am of opinion that Paul Veronese, although a little too raw in his lights, has distinguished himself by the art, as magical as peculiar, with which he has treated his shadows, an art of which the most eminent proof will be found in his astonishing picture of the Marriage of Cana, which is in the Musée at Paris, and makes one of its principal ornaments, whatever the partizans of the ideal and of costume, in their singularity, may say of it.