Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	love_n	young_a	youth_n	62	3	7.6992	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36766	De arte graphica The art of painting / by C.A. Du Fresnoy ; with remarks ; translated into English, together with an original preface containing a parallel betwixt painting and poetry, by Mr. Dryden ; as also A short account of the most eminent painters, both ancient and modern, continu'd down to the present times, according to the order of their succession, by another hand.; De arte graphica. English	Dufresnoy, Charles-Alphonse, 1611-1668.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Graham, Richard, fl. 1680-1720. Short account of the most eminent painters.	1695 (1695)	Wing D2458; ESTC R18532	173,861	426

your excellencies sometimes will not pass for such in the opinion of the learned but only as things which have less of Error in them for no man sees his own failings and Life is so short that it is not sufficient for so long an Art Our strength fails us in our old Age when we begin to know somewhat Age oppresses us by the same degrees that it instructs us and permits not that our mortal Members which are frozen with our years should retain the Vigor and Spirits of our Youth * Take courage therefore O ye Noble Youths you legitimate Off-spring of Minerva who are born under the influence of a happy Planet and warm'd with a Celestial Fire which attracts you to the Love of Science exercise while you are young your whole forces and employ them with delight in an Art which requires a whole Painter Exercise them I say while your boyling Youth supplies you with Strength and furnishes you with Quickness and with Vigour while your Mind yet pure and void of Error has not taken any ill habitude to vice while yet your Spirits are inflam'd with the Thirst of Novelties and your Mind is fill'd with the first Species of things which present themselves to a young Imagination which it gives in keeping to your Memory and which your Memory retains for length of time by reason of the moisture wherewith at that Age the Brain abounds * you will do well to begin with Geometry and after having made some progress it it * set your self on designing after the Ancient Greeks * and cease not day or night from labour till by your continual practice you have gain'd an easy habitude of imitating them in their invention and in their manner * And when afterwards your judgment shall grow stronger and come to its maturity with years it will be very necessary to see and examine one after the other and part by part those works which have given so great a Reputation to the Masters of the first form in pursuit of that Method which we have taught you here above and according to the Rules which we have given you such are the Romans the Venetians the Parmesans and the Bologneses Amongst those excellent Persons Raphael had the Talent of Invention for his share by which he made as many Miracles as he made Pictures In which is observ'd * a certain Grace which was wholly natural and peculiar to him and which none since him have been able to appropriate to themselves Michael Angelo possess'd powerfully the part of Design above all others * Iulio Romano educated from his childhood among the Muses has open'd to us the Treasures of Parnassus and in the Poetry of Painting has discover'd to our Eyes the most sacred Mysteries of Apollo and all the rarest Ornaments which that God is capable of commucating to those works that he inspires which we knew not before but only by the Recital that the Poets made of them he seems to have painted those famous Wars which Heroes have wag'd and ended with Victory over crown'd Heads whom they have led in triumph and those other glorious Events which Fortune has caus'd in all ages even with more Magnificence and Nobleness than when they were acted in the World Correggio has made his Memory immortal by the Strength and Vigour he has given to his Figures and by sweetning his Lights and Shadows and melting them into each other so happily that they are even imperceptible He is also almost single in the great manner of his Painting and the Facility he had in the managing of his Colours And Titian understood so well the Union of the Masses and the Bodies of Colours the Harmony of the Tones and the Disposition of the whole together that he has deserv'd those Honours and that wealth which were heap'd upon him together with that attribute of being surnam'd the Divine Painter The laborious and diligent Annibal Carracci has taken from all those great Persons already mention'd whatsoever excellencies he found in them and as it were converted their Nourishment into his own Substance 'T is a great means of profiting your self to copy diligently those excellent Pieces and those beautifull designs But Nature which is present before your Eyes is yet a better Mistress For she augments the Force and Vigour of the Genius and she it is from whom Art derives her ultimate perfection by the means of sure Experience * I pass in silence many things which will be more amply treated in the ensuing Commentary And now considering that all things are subject to the vicissitude of Time and that they are liable to Destruction by several ways I thought I might reasonably take the boldness * to intrust to the Muses those lovely and immortal Sisters of painting these few Precepts which I have here made and collected of that Art I employ'd my time in the study of this work at Rome while the honour of the Bourbon Family and the just Avenger of his injur'd Ancestors the Victorious Lovis was darting his Thunder on the Alpes and causing his Enemies to feel the force of his unconquerable Arms while he like another Gallique Hercules born for the benefit and Honour of his Country was griping the Spanish Geryon by the Throat and at the point of strangling him OBSERVATIONS ON THE Art of Painting OF Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy PAinting and Poesy are two Sisters c. 'T is a receiv'd truth that the Arts have a certain relation to each other There is no Art said Tertullian in his Treatise of Idolatry which is not either the Father or the near Relation of another And Cicero in his Oration for Archias the Poet says That the Arts which have respect to human life have a kind of Alliance amongst themselves and hold each other as we may say by the hand But those Arts which are the nearest related and claim the most ancient Kindred with each other are Painting and Poetry and whosoever shall throughly examine them will find them so much resembling one another that he cannot take them for less than Sisters They both follow the same bent and suffer themselves rather to be carry'd away than led by their secret Inclinations which are so many seeds of the Divinity There is a God within us says Ovid in the beginning of his Sixth Book de Fastis there speaking of the Poets who by his Agitation warms us And Suidas says That the famous Sculptor Phidias and Zeuxis that incomparable Painter were both of them transported by the same Enthusiasm which gave life to all their works They both of them aim at the same end which is Imitation Both of them excite our Passions and we suffer our selves willingly to be deceiv'd both by the one and by the other our Eyes and Souls are so fixt to them that we are ready to persuade our selves that the painted Bodies breath and that the Fictions are Truths Both of them are set on fire by the great Actions

Good Verse Recess and Solitude requires And Ease from Cares and undisturb'd Desires We may properly say the same of Painting by reason of its conformity with Poetry as I have shown in the first Remark Let not the covetous design of growing rich c. We read in Pliny that Nicias refus'd Sixty Talents from King Attalus and rather chose to make a free Gift of his Picture to his Country I enquir'd of a prudent man says a grave Author in what times those noble Pictures were made which now we see and desir'd him to explain to me some of their Subjects which I did not well understand I ask'd him likewise the reason of that great negligence which is now visible amongst Painters And from whence it proceeded that the most beautifull Arts were now bury'd in Oblivion and principally Painting a faint Shadow of which is at present remaining to us To which he thus reply'd That the immoderate desire of Riches had produc'd this change For of old when naked Vertue had her Charms the noble Arts then flourish'd in their Vigour and if there was any contest amongst men it was onely who should be the first Discoverer of what might be of advantage to posterity Lysippus and Myron those renown'd Sculptors who could give a Soul to Brass left no Heirs no Inheritance behind them because they were more carefull of acquiring Fame than Riches But as for us of this present Age it seems by the manner of our Conduct that we upbraid Antiquity for being as covetous of Vertue as we are of Vice wonder not so much therefore if Painting has lost its Strength and Vigour because many are now of opinion that a heap of Gold is much more beautifull than all the Pictures and Statues of Apelles and Phidias and all the noble Performances of Greece I would not exact so great an act of Abstinence from our modern Painters for I am not ignorant that the hope of gain is a wonderfull sharp spur in Arts and that it gives industry to the Artist from whence it was that Iuvenal said even of the Greeks themselves who were the Inventors of Painting and who first understood all the Graces of it and its whole perfection Graeculus esuriens in Coelum jusseris ibit A hungry Greek if bidden scales the Skies But I could heartily wish that the same hope which flatters them did not also corrupt them and did not snatch out of their hands a lame imperfect Piece rudely daub'd over with too little Reflection and too much haste The qualities requisite to form an excellent Painter c. 'T is to be confess'd that very few Painters have those qualities which are requir'd by our Author because there are very few who are able Painters There was a time when onely they who were of noble Blood were permitted to exercise this Art because it is to be presum'd that all these Ingredients of a good Painter are not ordinarily found in men of vulgar Birth And in all appearance we may hope that though there be no Edict in France which takes away the Liberty of Painting from those to whom Nature has refus'd the Honour of being born Gentlemen yet at least that the Royal Academy will admit hence-forward onely such who being endu'd with all the good Qualities and the Talents which are requir'd for Painting those endowments may be to them instead of an honourable Birth 'T is certain that which debases Painting and makes it descend to the vilest and most despicable kind of Trade is the great multitude of Painters who have neither noble Souls nor any Talent for the Art nor even so much as common Sence The Origin of this great Evil is that there have always been admitted into the Schools of Painting all sorts of Children promiscuously without Examination of them and without observing for some convenient space of time if they were conducted to this Art by their inward Disposition and all necessary Talents rather than by a foolish Inclination of their own or by the Avarice of their Relations who put them to Painting as a Trade which they believe to be somewhat more gainfull than another The qualities properly requir'd are these following A good Iudgment That they made do nothing against Reason and Verisimility A docible Mind That they may profit by instructions and receive without Arrogance the opinion of every one and principally of knowing Men. A noble Heart That they may propose Glory to themselves and Reputation rather than Riches A Sublimity and Reach of Thought To conceive radily to produce beautifull Ideas and to work on their Subjects nobly and after a lofty manner wherein we may observe somewhat that is delicate ingenious and uncommon A warm and vigorous Fancy To arrive a least to some degree of Perfection without being tir'd with the Pains and Study which are requir'd in Painting Health To resist the dissipation of Spirits which are apt to be consum'd by Pains-taking Youth Because Painting requires a great Experience and a long Practice Beauty or Handsomeness Because a Painter paints himself in all his Pictures and Nature loves to produce her own Likeness A convenient Fortune That he may give his whole time to study and may work chearfully without being haunted with the dreadfull Image of Poverty ever present to his Mind Labour Because the Speculation is nothing without the Practice A Love for his Art We suffer nothing in the Labour which is pleasing to us or if it happen that we suffer we are pleas'd with the Pain And to be under the Discipline of a knowing Master c. Because all depends on the Beginnings and because commonly they take the manner of their Master and are form'd according to his Gusto See Verse 422 and the Remark upon it All these good qualities are insignificant and unprofitable to the Painter if some outward dispositions are wanting to him By which I mean favourable times such as are times of Peace which is the Nurse of all noble Arts there must also some fair occasion offer to make their Skill manifest by the performance of some considerable Work within their power and a Protector who must be a Person of Authority one who takes upon himself their care of the Fortune at least in some measure and knows how to speak well of them in time and place convenient 'T is of much importance says the Younger Pliny in what times Vertue appears And there is no Wit howsoever excellent it may be which can make it self immediately known Time and Opportunity are necessary to it and a person who can assist us with his favour and be a Moecenas to us And Life is so short that it is not sufficient for so long an Art c. Not onely Painting but all other Arts consider'd in themselves require almost an infinite time to possess them perfectly 'T is in this Sense that Hippocrates begins his Aphorisms with this saying That Art is long and Life is short But