There Can Be No Doubt But That

While I Recommend Studying The Art From Artists, Nature Is And Must Be The Fountain Which Alone Is Inexhaustible, And From Which All Excellences Must Originally Flow.

A Painter Must Not Only Be Of Necessity An Imitator Of The Works Of Nature... But He Must Be As Necessarily An Imitator Of The Works Of Other Painters. This Appears More Humiliating, But Is Equally True; And No Man Can Be An Artist, Whatever He May Suppose, Upon Any Other Terms.

Raphael And Titian Seem To Have Looked At Nature For Different Purposes; They Both Had The Power Of Extending Their View To The Whole; But One Looked Only For The General Effect As Produced By Form, The Other As Produced By Colour.

However Minutely Labored The Picture May Be In The Detail, The Whole Will Have A False And Even An Unfinished Appearance, At Whatever Distance, Or In Whatever Light It Can Be Shown.

The True Test Of All The Arts Is Not Solely Whether The Production Is A True Copy Of Nature, But Whether It Answers The End Of Art, Which Is To Produce A Pleasing Effect Upon The Mind.