Modern Painters Volume I Part 4

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 ma.s.ses 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 s.p.a.ce. 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. a.s.sociation of the cirrostratus with the c.u.mulus. 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. Ill.u.s.tration 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 circ.u.mstances in the Coventry. 255 -- 21. Especially by contrast with a pa.s.sage of extreme repose. 255 -- 22. The truth of this particular pa.s.sage. 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 aeneas. 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 a.s.sistance 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. Ill.u.s.trated 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 ill.u.s.tration of the distant character of mountain chains. 281 -- 13. Their excessive appearance of transparency. 281 -- 14. Ill.u.s.trated 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 Ca.n.a.letto. 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. Ill.u.s.trated 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 circ.u.mstances 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 sh.o.r.e. 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 suns.h.i.+ne. 365 -- 18. His drawing of distant rivers. 366 -- 19. And of surface a.s.sociated 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 sh.o.r.e-breakers, also inexpressible. 374 -- 31. Their effect how injured when seen from the sh.o.r.e. 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 sh.o.r.e. 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 n.o.blest work, the painting of the deep open sea in the Slave s.h.i.+p. 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 t.i.tian. 392 -- 15. Bough-drawing of Turner. 394 -- 16. Leaf.a.ge. 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 leaf.a.ge of Claude. His middle distances are good. 399 -- 25. Universal termination of trees in symmetrical curves. 400 -- 26. Altogether un.o.bserved 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 c.o.x, 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 ill.u.s.trating 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.