What has been said of poetry, may with equal force be applied to musick, which is poetry, dressed to advantage; and even to painting, many forts of which are poems to the eye, as all poems, merely defcriptive, are pictures to the ear: and this way of confidering them, will fet the refinements of modern artists in their true light; for the paffions, which were given by nature, never spoke in an unnatural form, and no man, truly affected with love or grief, ever expreffed the one in an acroftick, or the other in a fugue: these remains, therefore, of the false taste, which prevailed in the dark ages, fhould be banished from this, which is enlightened with a just one. It is true, that some kinds of painting are strictly imitative, as that which is folely intended to represent the human figure and countenance; but it will be found, that those pictures have always the greatest effect, which reprefent fome paffion, as the martyrdom of St. Agnes by Domenichino, and the various representations of the Crucifixion by the finest masters of Italy; and there can be no doubt, but that the famous facrifice of Iphigenia by Timanthes was affecting to the highest degree; which proves, not that painting cannot be faid to imitate, but that its most powerful influence over the mind, arifes, like that of the other arts, from fympathy. It is afferted also that defcriptive poetry, and descriptive mufick, as they are called, are ftri&t imitations; but, not to infist that mere defcription is the meaneft part of both arts, if indeed it belongs to them at all, it is clear, that words words and founds have no kind of resemblance to visible objects and what is an imitation, but a resemblance of fome other thing? Befides, no unprejudiced hearer will say that he finds the smallest traces of imitation in the numerous fugues, counterfugues, and divifions, which rather difgrace than adorn the modern mufick: even founds themselves are imperfectly imitated by harmony, and, if we fometimes hear the murmuring of a brook, or the chirping of birds in a concert, we are generally apprised beforehand of the paffages, where we may expect them. Some eminent musicians, indeed, have been abfurd enough to think of imitating laughter and other noises, but, if they had fucceeded, they could not have made amends for their want of tafte in attempting it; for fuch ridiculous imitations must neceffarily deftroy the spirit and dignity of the finest pocms, which they ought to illuftrate by a graceful and natural melody. It feems to me, that, as thofe parts of poetry, mufick, and painting, which relate to the paffions, affect by sympathy, fo thofe, which are merely descriptive, act by a kind of substitution, that is, by raising in our minds, affections, or fentiments, analogous to thofe, which arife in us, when the respective objects in nature are prefented to our fenfes. Let us fuppose that a poet, a musician, and a painter, are striving to give their friend or patron, a pleasure fimilar to that, which he feels at the fight of a beautiful profpect. The first will form an agreeable affemblage of lively images, which he will express in smooth and elegant verses of a sprightly measure; he will defcribe the most delightful objects, and will add to the graces of his description a certain delicacy of fentiment, and a fpirit of cheerfulness. The mufician, who who undertakes to fet the words of the poet, will select fome mode, which, on his violin, has the character of mirth and gaiety, as the Eolian, or E flat, which he will change as the fentiment is varied: he will express the words in a fimple and agreeable melody, which will not difguife, but embellish them, without aiming at any fugue, or figured harmony: he will use the bass to mark the modulation more ftrongly, efpecially in the changes, and he will place the tenour generally in union with the bass, to prevent too great a distance between the parts: in the fymphony he will, above all things, avoid a double melody, and will apply his variations only to fome acceffory ideas, which the principal part, that is, the voice, could not easily express: he will not make a number of useless repetitions, because the passions only repeat the fame expreffions, and dwell upon the fame fentiments, while defcription can only represent a single object by a single sentence. The painter will defcribe all vifible objects more exactly than his rivals, but he will fall fhort of the other artists in a very material circumftance; namely, that his pencil, which may, indeed, exprefs a fimple paffion, cannot paint a thought, or draw the fhades of fentiment: he will, however, finish his landscape with grace and elegance; his colours will be rich, and glowing; his perspective ftriking; and his figures will be disposed with an agreeable variety, but not with confufion: above all, he will diffuse over his whole piece fuch a fpirit of liveliness and feftivity, that the beholder fhall be feized with a kind of rapturous delight, and, for a moment, miftake art for nature. Thus Thus will each artist gain his end, not by imitating the works of nature, but by affuming her power, and causing the fame effect upon the imagination, which her charms produce to the senses: this must be the chief object of a poet, a musician, and a painter, who know that great effects are not produced by minute details, but by the general fpirit of the whole piece, and that a gaudy compofition may Strike the mind for a short time, but that the beauties of fimplicity are both more delightful, and more permanent. As the paffions are differently modified in different men, and as even the various objects in nature affect our minds in various degrees, it is obvious, that there must be a great diverfity in the pleasure, which we receive from the fine arts, whether that pleasure arifes from fympathy, or fubftitution; and that it were a wild notion in artifts to think of pleasing every reader, hearer, or beholder; fince every man has a particular fet of objects, and a particular inclination, which direct him in the choice of his pleafures, and induce him to confider the productions, both of nature and of art, as more or less elegant, in proportion as they give him a greater or smaller degree of delight: this does not at all contradict the opinion of many able writers, that there is one uniform standard of taste; fince the paffions, and, confcquently, fympathy, are generally the fame in all men, till they are weakened by age, infirmity, or other causes. If the arguments, used in this essay, have any weight, it will appear, that the finest parts of poetry, mufick, and painting, painting, are expreffive of the passions, and operate on our minds by fympathy; that the inferiour parts of them are defcriptive of natural objects, and affect us chiefly by fubftitution; that the expreffions of love, pity, defire, and the tender paffions, as well as the descriptions of objects, that delight the fenfes, produce in the arts what we call the beautiful; but that hate, anger, fear, and the terrible paffions, as well as objects, which are unpleafing to the fenfes, are productive of the sublime, when they are aptly expressed, or described. These subjects might be pursued to infinity; but, if they were amply difcuffed, it would be neceffary to write a series of differtations, inftead of an essay. |