Volume 1 / Part 2 — PART II.

OF TRUTH.

SECTION I.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES RESPECTING IDEAS OF TRUTH.

Chapter I.—Of Ideas of Truth in their connection with those of Beauty and Relation.

§ 1. The two great ends of landscape painting are the representation of facts and thoughts. 44

§ 2. They induce a different choice of material subjects. 45

§ 3. The first mode of selection apt to produce sameness and repetition. 45

§ 4. The second necessitating variety. 45

§ 5. Yet the first is delightful to all. 46

§ 6. The second only to a few. 46

§ 7. The first necessary to the second. 47

§ 8. The exceeding importance of truth. 48

§ 9. Coldness or want of beauty no sign of truth. 48

§ 10. How truth may be considered a just criterion of all art. 48

Chapter II.—That the Truth of Nature is not to be discerned by the Uneducated Senses.

§ 1. The common self-deception of men with respect to their power of discerning truth. 50

§ 2. Men usually see little of what is before their eyes. 51

§ 3. But more or less in proportion to their natural sensibility to what is beautiful. 52

§ 4. Connected with a perfect state of moral feeling. 52

§ 5. And of the intellectual powers. 53

§ 6. How sight depends upon previous knowledge. 54

§ 7. The difficulty increased by the variety of truths in nature. 55

§ 8. We recognize objects by their least important attributes. Compare Part I. Sect. I. Chap. 4. 55

Chapter III.—Of the Relative Importance of Truths:—First, that Particular Truths are more important than General Ones.

§ 1. Necessity of determining the relative importance of truths. 58

§ 2. Misapplication of the aphorism: "General truths are more important than particular ones." 58

§ 3. Falseness of this maxim, taken without explanation. 59

§ 4. Generality important in the subject, particularity in the predicate. 59

§ 5. The importance of truths of species is not owing to their generality. 60

§ 6. All truths valuable as they are characteristic. 61

§ 7. Otherwise truths of species are valuable, because beautiful. 61

§ 8. And many truths, valuable if separate, may be objectionable in connection with others. 62

§ 9. Recapitulation. 63

Chapter IV.—Of the Relative Importance of Truths:—Secondly, that Rare Truths are more important than Frequent Ones.

§ 1. No accidental violation of nature's principles should be represented. 64

§ 2. But the cases in which those principles have been strikingly exemplified. 65

§ 3. Which are comparatively rare. 65

§ 4. All repetition is blamable. 65

§ 5. The duty of the painter is the same as that of a preacher. 66

Chapter V.—Of the Relative Importance of Truths:—Thirdly, that Truths of Color are the least important of all Truths.

§ 1. Difference between primary and secondary qualities in bodies. 67

§ 2. The first are fully characteristic, the second imperfectly so. 67

§ 3. Color is a secondary quality, therefore less important than form. 68

§ 4. Color no distinction between objects of the same species. 68

§ 5. And different in association from what it is alone. 69

§ 6. It is not certain whether any two people see the same colors in things. 69

§ 7. Form, considered as an element of landscape, includes light and shade. 69

§ 8. Importance of light and shade in expressing the character of bodies, and unimportance of color. 70

§ 9. Recapitulation. 71

Chapter VI.—Recapitulation.

§ 1. The importance of historical truths. 72

§ 2. Form, as explained by light and shade, the first of all truths. Tone, light, and color, are secondary. 72

§ 3. And deceptive chiaroscuro the lowest of all. 73

Chapter VII.—General Application of the Foregoing Principles.

§ 1. The different selection of facts consequent on the several aims at imitation or at truth. 74

§ 2. The old masters, as a body, aim only at imitation. 74

§ 3. What truths they gave. 75

§ 4. The principles of selection adopted by modern artists. 76

§ 5. General feeling of Claude, Salvator, and G. Poussin, contrasted with the freedom and vastness of nature. 77

§ 6. Inadequacy of the landscape of Titian and Tintoret. 78

§ 7. Causes of its want of influence on subsequent schools. 79

§ 8. The value of inferior works of art, how to be estimated. 80

§ 9. Religious landscape of Italy. The admirableness of its completion. 81

§ 10. Finish, and the want of it, how right—and how wrong. 82

§ 11. The open skies of the religious schools, how valuable. Mountain drawing of Masaccio. Landscape of the Bellinis and Giorgione. 84

§ 12. Landscape of Titian and Tintoret. 86

§ 13. Schools of Florence, Milan, and Bologna. 88

§ 14. Claude, Salvator, and the Poussins. 89

§ 15. German and Flemish landscape. 90

§ 16. The lower Dutch schools. 92

§ 17. English school, Wilson and Gainsborough. 93

§ 18. Constable, Callcott. 94

§ 19. Peculiar tendency of recent landscape. 95

§ 20. G. Robson, D. Cox. False use of the term "style." 95

§ 21. Copley Fielding. Phenomena of distant color. 97

§ 22. Beauty of mountain foreground. 99

§ 23. De Wint. 101

§ 24. Influence of Engraving. J. D. Harding. 101

§ 25. Samuel Prout. Early painting of architecture, how deficient. 103

§ 26. Effects of age upon buildings, how far desirable. 104

§ 27. Effects of light, how necessary to the understanding of detail. 106

§ 28. Architectural painting of Gentile Bellini and Vittor Carpaccio. 107

§ 29. And of the Venetians generally. 109

§ 30. Fresco painting of the Venetian exteriors. Canaletto. 110

§ 31. Expression of the effects of age on Architecture by S. Prout. 112

§ 32. His excellent composition and color. 114

§ 33. Modern architectural painting generally. G. Cattermole. 115

§ 34. The evil in an archæological point of view of misapplied invention, in architectural subject. 117

§ 35. Works of David Roberts: their fidelity and grace. 118

§ 36. Clarkson Stanfield. 121

§ 37. J. M. W. Turner. Force of national feeling in all great painters. 123

§ 38. Influence of this feeling on the choice of Landscape subject. 125

§ 39. Its peculiar manifestation in Turner. 125

§ 40. The domestic subjects of the Liber Studiorum. 127

§ 41. Turner's painting of French and Swiss landscape. The latter deficient. 129

§ 42. His rendering of Italian character still less successful. His large compositions how failing. 130

§ 43. His views of Italy destroyed by brilliancy and redundant quantity. 133

§ 44. Changes introduced by him in the received system of art. 133

§ 45. Difficulties of his later manner. Resultant deficiencies. 134

§ 46. Reflection of his very recent works. 137

§ 47. Difficulty of demonstration in such subjects. 139

SECTION II.

OF GENERAL TRUTHS.

Chapter I.—Of Truth of Tone.

§ 1. Meanings of the word "tone:"—First, the right relation of objects in shadow to the principal light. 140

§ 2. Secondly, the quality of color by which it is felt to owe part of its brightness to the hue of light upon it. 140

§ 3. Difference between tone in its first sense and aerial perspective. 141

§ 4. The pictures of the old masters perfect in relation of middle tints to light. 141

§ 5. And consequently totally false in relation of middle tints to darkness. 141

§ 6. General falsehood of such a system. 143

§ 7. The principle of Turner in this respect. 143

§ 8. Comparison of N. Poussin's "Phocion." 144

§ 9. With Turner's "Mercury and Argus." 145

§ 10. And with the "Datur Hora Quieti." 145

§ 11. The second sense of the word "tone." 146

§ 12. Remarkable difference in this respect between the paintings and drawings of Turner. 146

§ 13. Not owing to want of power over the material. 146

§ 14. The two distinct qualities of light to be considered. 147

§ 15. Falsehoods by which Titian attains the appearance of quality in light. 148

§ 16. Turner will not use such means. 148

§ 17. But gains in essential truth by the sacrifice. 148

§ 18. The second quality of light. 148

§ 19. The perfection of Cuyp in this respect interfered with by numerous solecisms. 150

§ 20. Turner is not so perfect in parts—far more so in the whole. 151

§ 21. The power in Turner of uniting a number of tones. 152

§ 22. Recapitulation. 153

Chapter II.—Of Truth of Color.

§ 1. Observations on the color of G. Poussin's La Riccia. 155

§ 2. As compared with the actual scene. 155

§ 3. Turner himself is inferior in brilliancy to nature. 157

§ 4. Impossible colors of Salvator, Titian. 157

§ 5. Poussin, and Claude. 158

§ 6. Turner's translation of colors. 160

§ 7. Notice of effects in which no brilliancy of art can even approach that of reality. 161

§ 8. Reasons for the usual incredulity of the observer with respect to their representation. 162

§ 9. Color of the Napoleon. 163

§ 10. Necessary discrepancy between the attainable brilliancy of color and light. 164

§ 11. This discrepancy less in Turner than in other colorists. 165

§ 12. Its great extent in a landscape attributed to Rubens. 165

§ 13. Turner scarcely ever uses pure or vivid color. 166

§ 14. The basis of gray, under all his vivid hues. 167

§ 15. The variety and fulness even of his most simple tones. 168

§ 16. Following the infinite and unapproachable variety of nature. 168

§ 17. His dislike of purple, and fondness for the opposition of yellow and black. The principles of nature in this respect. 169

§ 18. His early works are false in color. 170

§ 19. His drawings invariably perfect. 171

§ 20. The subjection of his system of color to that of chiaroscuro. 171

Chapter III.—Of Truth of Chiaroscuro.

§ 1. We are not at present to examine particular effects of light. 174

§ 2. And therefore the distinctness of shadows is the chief means of expressing vividness of light. 175

§ 3. Total absence of such distinctness in the works of the Italian school. 175

§ 4. And partial absence in the Dutch. 176

§ 5. The perfection of Turner's works in this respect. 177

§ 6. The effect of his shadows upon the light. 178

§ 7. The distinction holds good between almost all the works of the ancient and modern schools. 179

§ 8. Second great principle of chiaroscuro. Both high light and deep shadow are used in equal quantity, and only in points. 180

§ 9. Neglect or contradiction of this principle by writers on art. 180

§ 10. And consequent misguiding of the student. 181

§ 11. The great value of a simple chiaroscuro. 182

§ 12. The sharp separation of nature's lights from her middle tint. 182

§ 13. The truth of Turner. 183

Chapter IV.—Of Truth of Space:—First, as Dependent on the Focus of the Eye.

§ 1. Space is more clearly indicated by the drawing of objects than by their hue. 185

§ 2. It is impossible to see objects at unequal distances distinctly at one moment. 186

§ 3. Especially such as are both comparatively near. 186

§ 4. In painting, therefore, either the foreground or distance must be partially sacrificed. 187

§ 5. Which not being done by the old masters, they could not express space. 187

§ 6. But modern artists have succeeded in fully carrying out this principle. 188

§ 7. Especially of Turner. 189

§ 8. Justification of the want of drawing in Turner's figures. 189

Chapter V.—Of Truth of Space:—Secondly, as its Appearance is dependent on the Power of the Eye.

§ 1. The peculiar indistinctness dependent on the retirement of objects from the eye. 191

§ 2. Causes confusion, but not annihilation of details. 191

§ 3. Instances in various objects. 192

§ 4. Two great resultant truths; that nature is never distinct, and never vacant. 193

§ 5. Complete violation of both these principles by the old masters. They are either distinct or vacant. 193

§ 6. Instances from Nicholas Poussin. 194

§ 7. From Claude. 194

§ 8. And G. Poussin. 195

§ 9. The imperative necessity, in landscape painting, of fulness and finish. 196

§ 10. Breadth is not vacancy. 197

§ 11. The fulness and mystery of Turner's distances. 198

§ 12. Farther illustrations in architectural drawing. 199

§ 13. In near objects as well as distances. 199

§ 14. Vacancy and falsehood of Canaletto. 200

§ 15. Still greater fulness and finish in landscape foregrounds. 200

§ 16. Space and size are destroyed alike by distinctness and by vacancy. 202

§ 17. Swift execution best secures perfection of details. 202

§ 18. Finish is far more necessary in landscape than in historical subjects. 202

§ 19. Recapitulation of the section. 203

SECTION III.

OF TRUTH OF SKIES.

Chapter I.—Of the Open Sky.

§ 1. The peculiar adaptation of the sky to the pleasing and teaching of man. 204

§ 2. The carelessness with which its lessons are received. 205

§ 3. The most essential of these lessons are the gentlest. 205

§ 4. Many of our ideas of sky altogether conventional. 205

§ 5. Nature, and essential qualities of the open blue. 206

§ 6. Its connection with clouds. 207

§ 7. Its exceeding depth. 207

§ 8. These qualities are especially given by modern masters. 207

§ 9. And by Claude. 208

§ 10. Total absence of them in Poussin. Physical errors in his general treatment of open sky. 208

§ 11. Errors of Cuyp in graduation of color. 209

§ 12. The exceeding value of the skies of the early Italian and Dutch schools. Their qualities are unattainable in modern times. 210

§ 13. Phenomena of visible sunbeams. Their nature and cause. 211

§ 14. They are only illuminated mist, and cannot appear when the sky is free from vapor, nor when it is without clouds. 211

§ 15. Erroneous tendency in the representation of such phenomena by the old masters. 212

§ 16. The ray which appears in the dazzled eye should not be represented. 213

§ 17. The practice of Turner. His keen perception of the more delicate phenomena of rays. 213

§ 18. The total absence of any evidence of such perception in the works of the old masters. 213

§ 19. Truth of the skies of modern drawings. 214

§ 20. Recapitulation. The best skies of the ancients are, in quality, inimitable, but in rendering of various truth, childish. 215

Chapter II.—Of Truth of Clouds:—First, of the Region of the Cirrus.

§ 1. Difficulty of ascertaining wherein the truth of clouds consists. 216

§ 2. Variation of their character at different elevations. The three regions to which they may conveniently be considered as belonging. 216

§ 3. Extent of the upper region. 217

§ 4. The symmetrical arrangement of its clouds. 217

§ 5. Their exceeding delicacy. 218

§ 6. Their number. 218

§ 7. Causes of their peculiarly delicate coloring. 219

§ 8. Their variety of form. 219

§ 9. Total absence of even the slightest effort at their representation, in ancient landscape. 220

§ 10. The intense and constant study of them by Turner. 221

§ 11. His vignette, Sunrise on the Sea. 222

§ 12. His use of the cirrus in expressing mist. 223

§ 13. His consistency in every minor feature. 224

§ 14. The color of the upper clouds. 224

§ 15. Recapitulation. 225

Chapter III.—Of Truth of Clouds:—Secondly, of the Central Cloud Region.

§ 1. Extent and typical character of the central cloud region. 226

§ 2. Its characteristic clouds, requiring no attention nor thought for their representation, are therefore favorite subjects with the old masters. 226

§ 3. The clouds of Salvator and Poussin. 227

§ 4. Their essential characters. 227

§ 5. Their angular forms and general decision of outline. 228

§ 6. The composition of their minor curves. 229

§ 7. Their characters, as given by S. Rosa. 230

§ 8. Monotony and falsehood of the clouds of the Italian school generally. 230

§ 9. Vast size of congregated masses of cloud. 231

§ 10. Demonstrable by comparison with mountain ranges. 231

§ 11. And consequent divisions and varieties of feature. 232

§ 12. Not lightly to be omitted. 232

§ 13. Imperfect conceptions of this size and extent in ancient landscape. 233

§ 14. Total want of transparency and evanescence in the clouds of ancient landscape. 234

§ 15. Farther proof of their deficiency in space. 235

§ 16. Instance of perfect truth in the sky of Turner's Babylon. 236

§ 17. And in his Pools of Solomon. 237

§ 18. Truths of outline and character in his Como. 237

§ 19. Association of the cirrostratus with the cumulus. 238

§ 20. The deep-based knowledge of the Alps in Turner's Lake of Geneva. 238

§ 21. Farther principles of cloud form exemplified in his Amalfi. 239

§ 22. Reasons for insisting on the infinity of Turner's works. Infinity is almost an unerring test of all truth 239

§ 23. Instances of the total want of it in the works of Salvator. 240

§ 24. And of the universal presence of it in those of Turner. The conclusions which may be arrived at from it. 240

§ 25. The multiplication of objects, or increase of their size, will not give the impression of infinity, but is the resource of novices. 241

§ 26. Farther instances of infinity in the gray skies of Turner. 242

§ 27. The excellence of the cloud-drawing of Stanfield. 242

§ 28. The average standing of the English school. 243

Chapter IV.—Of Truth of Clouds:—Thirdly, of the Region of the Rain-Cloud.

§ 1. The apparent difference in character between the lower and central clouds is dependent chiefly on proximity. 244

§ 2. Their marked differences in color. 244

§ 3. And in definiteness of form. 245

§ 4. They are subject to precisely the same great laws. 245

§ 5. Value, to the painter, of the rain-cloud. 246

§ 6. The old masters have not left a single instance of the painting of the rain-cloud, and very few efforts at it. Gaspar Poussin's storms. 247

§ 7. The great power of the moderns in this respect. 248

§ 8. Works of Copley Fielding. 248

§ 9. His peculiar truth. 248

§ 10. His weakness, and its probable cause. 249

§ 11. Impossibility of reasoning on the rain-clouds of Turner from engravings. 250

§ 12. His rendering of Fielding's particular moment in the Jumieges. 250

§ 13. Illustration of the nature of clouds in the opposed forms of smoke and steam. 250

§ 14. Moment of retiring rain in the Llanthony. 251

§ 15. And of commencing, chosen with peculiar meaning for Loch Coriskin. 252

§ 16. The drawing of transparent vapor in the Land's End. 253

§ 17. The individual character of its parts. 253

§ 18. Deep-studied form of swift rain-cloud in the Coventry. 254

§ 19. Compared with forms given by Salvator. 254

§ 20. Entire expression of tempest by minute touches and circumstances in the Coventry. 255

§ 21. Especially by contrast with a passage of extreme repose. 255

§ 22. The truth of this particular passage. Perfectly pure blue sky only seen after rain, and how seen. 256

§ 23. Absence of this effect in the works of the old masters. 256

§ 24. Success of our water-color artists in its rendering. Use of it by Turner. 257

§ 25. Expression of near rain-cloud in the Gosport, and other works. 257

§ 26. Contrasted with Gaspar Poussin's rain-cloud in the Dido and Æneas. 258

§ 27. Turner's power of rendering mist. 258

§ 28. His effects of mist so perfect, that if not at once understood, they can no more be explained or reasoned on than nature herself. 259

§ 29. Various instances. 259

§ 30. Turner's more violent effects of tempest are never rendered by engravers. 260

§ 31. General system of landscape engraving. 260

§ 32. The storm in the Stonehenge. 260

§ 33. General character of such effects as given by Turner. His expression of falling rain. 261

§ 34. Recapitulation of the section. 261

§ 35. Sketch of a few of the skies of nature, taken as a whole, compared with the works of Turner and of the old masters. Morning on the plains. 262

§ 36. Noon with gathering storms. 263

§ 37. Sunset in tempest. Serene midnight. 264

§ 38. And sunrise on the Alps. 264

Chapter V.—Effects of Light rendered by Modern Art.

§ 1. Reasons for merely, at present, naming, without examining the particular effects of light rendered by Turner. 266

§ 2. Hopes of the author for assistance in the future investigation of them. 266

SECTION IV.

OF TRUTH OF EARTH.

Chapter I.—Of General Structure.

§ 1. First laws of the organization of the earth, and their importance in art. 270

§ 2. The slight attention ordinarily paid to them. Their careful study by modern artists. 271

§ 3. General structure of the earth. The hills are its action, the plains its rest. 271

§ 4. Mountains come out from underneath the plains, and are their support. 272

§ 5. Structure of the plains themselves. Their perfect level, when deposited by quiet water. 273

§ 6. Illustrated by Turner's Marengo. 273

§ 7. General divisions of formation resulting from this arrangement. Plan of investigation. 274

Chapter II.—Of the Central Mountains.

§ 1. Similar character of the central peaks in all parts of the world. 275

§ 2. Their arrangements in pyramids or wedges, divided by vertical fissures. 275

§ 3. Causing groups of rock resembling an artichoke or rose. 276

§ 4. The faithful statement of these facts by Turner in his Alps at Daybreak. 276

§ 5. Vignette of the Andes and others. 277

§ 6. Necessary distance, and consequent aerial effect on all such mountains. 277

§ 7. Total want of any rendering of their phenomena in ancient art. 278

§ 8. Character of the representations of Alps in the distances of Claude. 278

§ 9. Their total want of magnitude and aerial distance. 279

§ 10. And violation of specific form. 280

§ 11. Even in his best works. 280

§ 12. Farther illustration of the distant character of mountain chains. 281

§ 13. Their excessive appearance of transparency. 281

§ 14. Illustrated from the works of Turner and Stanfield. The Borromean Islands of the latter. 282

§ 15. Turner's Arona. 283

§ 16. Extreme distance of large objects always characterized by very sharp outline. 283

§ 17. Want of this decision in Claude. 284

§ 18. The perpetual rendering of it by Turner. 285

§ 19. Effects of snow, how imperfectly studied. 285

§ 20. General principles of its forms on the Alps. 287

§ 21. Average paintings of Switzerland. Its real spirit has scarcely yet been caught. 289

Chapter III.—Of the Inferior Mountains.

§ 1. The inferior mountains are distinguished from the central, by being divided into beds. 290

§ 2. Farther division of these beds by joints. 290

§ 3. And by lines of lamination. 291

§ 4. Variety and seeming uncertainty under which these laws are manifested. 291

§ 5. The perfect expression of them in Turner's Loch Coriskin. 292

§ 6. Glencoe and other works. 293

§ 7. Especially the Mount Lebanon. 293

§ 8. Compared with the work of Salvator. 294

§ 9. And of Poussin. 295

§ 10. Effects of external influence on mountain form. 296

§ 11. The gentle convexity caused by aqueous erosion. 297

§ 12. And the effect of the action of torrents. 297

§ 13. The exceeding simplicity of contour caused by these influences. 298

§ 14. And multiplicity of feature. 299

§ 15. Both utterly neglected in ancient art. 299

§ 16. The fidelity of treatment in Turner's Daphne and Leucippus. 300

§ 17. And in the Avalanche and Inundation. 300

§ 18. The rarity among secondary hills of steep slopes or high precipices. 301

§ 19. And consequent expression of horizontal distance in their ascent. 302

§ 20. Full statement of all these facts in various works of Turner.—Caudebec, etc. 302

§ 21. The use of considering geological truths. 303

§ 22. Expression of retiring surface by Turner contrasted with the work of Claude. 304

§ 23. The same moderation of slope in the contours of his higher hills. 304

§ 24. The peculiar difficulty of investigating the more essential truths of hill outline. 305

§ 25. Works of other modern artists.—Clarkson Stanfield. 305

§ 26. Importance of particular and individual truth in hill drawing. 306

§ 27. Works of Copley Fielding. His high feeling. 307

§ 28. Works of J. D. Harding and others. 308

Chapter IV.—Of the Foreground.

§ 1. What rocks were the chief components of ancient landscape foreground. 309

§ 2. Salvator's limestones. The real characters of the rock. Its fractures, and obtuseness of angles. 309

§ 3. Salvator's acute angles caused by the meeting of concave curves. 310

§ 4. Peculiar distinctness of light and shade in the rocks of nature. 311

§ 5. Peculiar confusion of both in the rocks of Salvator. 311

§ 6. And total want of any expression of hardness or brittleness. 311

§ 7. Instances in particular pictures. 312

§ 8. Compared with the works of Stanfield. 312

§ 9. Their absolute opposition in every particular. 313

§ 10. The rocks of J. D. Harding. 313

§ 11. Characters of loose earth and soil. 314

§ 12. Its exceeding grace and fulness of feature. 315

§ 13. The ground of Teniers. 315

§ 14. Importance of these minor parts and points. 316

§ 15. The observance of them is the real distinction between the master and the novice. 316

§ 16. Ground of Cuyp. 317

§ 17. And of Claude. 317

§ 18. The entire weakness and childishness of the latter. 318

§ 19. Compared with the work of Turner. 318

§ 20. General features of Turner's foreground. 319

§ 21. Geological structure of his rocks in the Fall of the Tees. 319

§ 22. Their convex surfaces and fractured edges. 319

§ 23. And perfect unity. 320

§ 24. Various parts whose history is told us by the details of the drawing. 321

§ 25. Beautiful instance of an exception to general rules in the Llanthony. 321

§ 26. Turner's drawing of detached blocks of weathered stone. 322

§ 27. And of complicated foreground. 323

§ 28. And of loose soil. 323

§ 29. The unison of all in the ideal foregrounds of the Academy pictures. 324

§ 30. And the great lesson to be received from all. 324

SECTION V.

OF TRUTH OF WATER.

Chapter I.—Of Water, as Painted by the Ancients.

§ 1. Sketch of the functions and infinite agency of water. 325

§ 2. The ease with which a common representation of it may be given. The impossibility of a faithful one. 325

§ 3. Difficulty of properly dividing the subject. 326

§ 4. Inaccuracy of study of water-effect among all painters. 326

§ 5. Difficulty of treating this part of the subject. 328

§ 6. General laws which regulate the phenomena of water. First, The imperfection of its reflective surface. 329

§ 7. The inherent hue of water modifies dark reflections, and does not affect right ones. 330

§ 8. Water takes no shadow. 331

§ 9. Modification of dark reflections by shadow. 332

§ 10. Examples on the waters of the Rhone. 333

§ 11. Effect of ripple on distant water. 335

§ 12. Elongation of reflections by moving water. 335

§ 13. Effect of rippled water on horizontal and inclined images. 336

§ 14. To what extent reflection is visible from above. 336

§ 15. Deflection of images on agitated water. 337

§ 16. Necessity of watchfulness as well as of science. Licenses, how taken by great men. 337

§ 17. Various licenses or errors in water painting of Claude, Cuyp, Vandevelde. 339

§ 18. And Canaletto. 341

§ 19. Why unpardonable. 342

§ 20. The Dutch painters of sea. 343

§ 21. Ruysdael, Claude, and Salvator. 344

§ 22. Nicolo Poussin. 345

§ 23. Venetians and Florentines. Conclusion. 346

chapter II.—Of Water, as Painted by the Moderns.

§ 1. General power of the moderns in painting quiet water. The lakes of Fielding. 348

§ 2. The calm rivers of De Wint, J. Holland, &c. 348

§ 3. The character of bright and violent falling water. 349

§ 4. As given by Nesfield. 349

§ 5. The admirable water-drawing of J. D. Harding. 350

§ 6. His color; and painting of sea. 350

§ 7. The sea of Copley Fielding. Its exceeding grace and rapidity. 351

§ 8. Its high aim at character. 351

§ 9. But deficiency in the requisite quality of grays. 352

§ 10. Variety of the grays of nature. 352

§ 11. Works of Stanfield. His perfect knowledge and power. 353

§ 12. But want of feeling. General sum of truth presented by modern art. 353

Chapter III.—Of Water, as Painted by Turner.

§ 1. The difficulty of giving surface to smooth water. 355

§ 2. Is dependent on the structure of the eye, and the focus by which the reflected rays are perceived. 355

§ 3. Morbid clearness occasioned in painting of water by distinctness of reflections. 356

§ 4. How avoided by Turner. 357

§ 5. All reflections on distant water are distinct. 357

§ 6. The error of Vandevelde. 358

§ 7. Difference in arrangement of parts between the reflected object and its image. 359

§ 8. Illustrated from the works of Turner. 359

§ 9. The boldness and judgment shown in the observance of it. 360

§ 10. The texture of surface in Turner's painting of calm water. 361

§ 11. Its united qualities. 361

§ 12. Relation of various circumstances of past agitation, &c., by the most trifling incidents, as in the Cowes. 363

§ 13. In scenes on the Loire and Seine. 363

§ 14. Expression of contrary waves caused by recoil from shore. 364

§ 15. Various other instances. 364

§ 16. Turner's painting of distant expanses of water.—Calm, interrupted by ripple. 365

§ 17. And rippled, crossed by sunshine. 365

§ 18. His drawing of distant rivers. 366

§ 19. And of surface associated with mist. 367

§ 20. His drawing of falling water, with peculiar expression of weight. 367

§ 21. The abandonment and plunge of great cataracts. How given by him. 368

§ 22. Difference in the action of water, when continuous and when interrupted. The interrupted stream fills the hollows of its bed. 369

§ 23. But the continuous stream takes the shape of its bed. 370

§ 24. Its exquisite curved lines. 370

§ 25. Turner's careful choice of the historical truth. 370

§ 26. His exquisite drawing of the continuous torrent in the Llanthony Abbey. 371

§ 27. And of the interrupted torrent in the Mercury and Argus. 372

§ 28. Various cases. 372

§ 29. Sea painting. Impossibility of truly representing foam. 373

§ 30. Character of shore-breakers, also inexpressible. 374

§ 31. Their effect how injured when seen from the shore. 375

§ 32. Turner's expression of heavy rolling sea. 376

§ 33. With peculiar expression of weight. 376

§ 34. Peculiar action of recoiling waves. 377

§ 35. And of the stroke of a breaker on the shore. 377

§ 36. General character of sea on a rocky coast given by Turner in the Land's End. 378

§ 37. Open seas of Turner's earlier time. 379

§ 38. Effect of sea after prolonged storm. 380

§ 39. Turner's noblest work, the painting of the deep open sea in the Slave Ship. 382

§ 40. Its united excellences and perfection as a whole. 383

SECTION VI.

OF TRUTH OF VEGETATION.—CONCLUSION.

Chapter I.—Of Truth of Vegetation.

§ 1. Frequent occurrence of foliage in the works of the old masters. 384

§ 2. Laws common to all forest trees. Their branches do not taper, but only divide. 385

§ 3. Appearance of tapering caused by frequent buds. 385

§ 4. And care of nature to conceal the parallelism. 386

§ 5. The degree of tapering which may be represented as continuous. 386

§ 6. The trees of Gaspar Poussin. 386

§ 7. And of the Italian school generally, defy this law. 387

§ 8. The truth, as it is given by J. D. Harding. 387

§ 9. Boughs, in consequence of this law, must diminish where they divide. Those of the old masters often do not. 388

§ 10. Boughs must multiply as they diminish. Those of the old masters do not. 389

§ 11. Bough-drawing of Salvator. 390

§ 12. All these errors especially shown in Claude's sketches, and concentrated in a work of G. Poussin's. 391

§ 13. Impossibility of the angles of boughs being taken out of them by wind. 392

§ 14. Bough-drawing of Titian. 392

§ 15. Bough-drawing of Turner. 394

§ 16. Leafage. Its variety and symmetry. 394

§ 17. Perfect regularity of Poussin. 395

§ 18. Exceeding intricacy of nature's foliage. 396

§ 19. How contradicted by the tree-patterns of G. Poussin. 396

§ 20. How followed by Creswick. 397

§ 21. Perfect unity in nature's foliage. 398

§ 22. Total want of it in Both and Hobbima. 398

§ 23. How rendered by Turner. 399

§ 24. The near leafage of Claude. His middle distances are good. 399

§ 25. Universal termination of trees in symmetrical curves. 400

§ 26. Altogether unobserved by the old masters. Always given by Turner. 401

§ 27. Foliage painting on the Continent. 401

§ 28. Foliage of J. D. Harding. Its deficiencies. 402

§ 29. His brilliancy of execution too manifest. 403

§ 30. His bough-drawing, and choice of form. 404

§ 31. Local color, how far expressible in black and white, and with what advantage. 404

§ 32. Opposition between great manner and great knowledge. 406

§ 33. Foliage of Cox, Fielding, and Cattermole. 406

§ 34. Hunt and Creswick. Green, how to be rendered expressive of light, and offensive if otherwise. 407

§ 35. Conclusion. Works of J. Linnel and S. Palmer. 407

Chapter II.—General remarks respecting the Truth of Turner.

§ 1. No necessity of entering into discussion of architectural truth. 409

§ 2. Extreme difficulty of illustrating or explaining the highest truth. 410

§ 3. The positive rank of Turner is in no degree shown in the foregoing pages, but only his relative rank. 410

§ 4. The exceeding refinement of his truth. 411

§ 5. There is nothing in his works which can be enjoyed without knowledge. 411

§ 6. And nothing which knowledge will not enable us to enjoy. 412

§ 7. His former rank and progress. 412

§ 8. Standing of his present works. Their mystery is the consequence of their fulness. 413

Chapter III.—Conclusion.—Modern Art and Modern Criticism.

§ 1. The entire prominence hitherto given to the works of one artist caused only by our not being able to take cognizance of character. 414

§ 2. The feelings of different artists are incapable of full comparison. 415

§ 3. But the fidelity and truth of each are capable of real comparison. 415

§ 4. Especially because they are equally manifested in the treatment of all subjects. 415

§ 5. No man draws one thing well, if he can draw nothing else. 416

§ 6. General conclusions to be derived from our past investigation. 417

§ 7. Truth, a standard of all excellence. 417

§ 8. Modern criticism. Changefulness of public taste. 418

§ 9. Yet associated with a certain degree of judgment. 418

§ 10. Duty of the press. 418

§ 11. Qualifications necessary for discharging it. 418

§ 12. General incapability of modern critics. 419

§ 13. And inconsistency with themselves. 419

§ 14. How the press may really advance the cause of art. 420

§ 15. Morbid fondness at the present day for unfinished works. 420

§ 16. By which the public defraud themselves. 421

§ 17. And in pandering to which, artists ruin themselves. 421

§ 18. Necessity of finishing works of art perfectly. 421

§ 19. Sketches not sufficiently encouraged. 422

§ 20. Brilliancy of execution or efforts at invention not to be tolerated in young artists. 422

§ 21. The duty and after privileges of all students. 423

§ 22. Necessity among our greater artists of more singleness of aim. 423

§ 23. What should be their general aim. 425

§ 24. Duty of the press with respect to the works of Turner. 427