ALTHOUGH both this and the next chapter may
seem more particularly relative to the art of paint-
ing, than any of the foregoing ; yet, as hitherto, I have
endeavour'd to be understood by every reader, so here
also I shall avoid, as much as the subject will permit,
speaking of what would only be well-conceived by
painters.
There is such a subtile variety in the nature of ap-
pearances, that probably we shall not be able to gain
much ground by this enquiry, unless we exert and ap-
ply the full use of every sense, that will convey to us
any information concerning them.
So far as we have already gone, the sense of feeling,
as well as that of seeing, hath been apply'd to ; so that
perhaps a man born blind, may, by his better touch
than is common to those who have their sight, together
with the regular process that has been here given of
lines, so feel out the nature of forms, as to make a to-
lerable judgement of what is beautiful to sight.
Here again our other senses must assist us, notwith-
standing in this chapter we shall be more confined to
what is communicated to the eye by rays of light ; and
tho' things must now be consider'd as appearances only;

pro-

[94]

produced and made out merely by means of lights,
shades and colours.
By the various circumstances of which, every one
knows we have represented on the flat surface of the
looking-glass, pictures equal to the originals reflected by
it. The painter too, by proper dispositions of lights,
shades, and colours on his canvas, will raise the like
ideas. Even prints, by means of lights and shades alone,
will perfectly inform the eye of every shape and distance
whatsoever, in which even lines must be consider'd as
narrow parts of shade, a number of them, drawn or
engrav'd neatly side by side, called hatching, serve as
shades in prints, and when they are artfully managed,
are a kind of pleasing succedanium to the delicacy of
nature's.
Could mezzo-tinto prints be wrought as accurately
as those with the graver, they would come nearest to
nature, because they are done without strokes or lines.
I have often thought that a landskip, in the process
of this way of representing it, doth a little resemble the
first coming one of day. The copper-plate it is done
upon, when the artist first takes it into hand, is wrought
all over with an edg'd-tool, so as to make it print one
even black, like night : and his whole work after this, is
merely introducing the lights into it ; which he does by
scraping off the rough grain according to his design,
artfully smoothing it most where light is most required:
but as he proceeds in burnishing the lights, and clear-

ing

[95]

ing up the shades, he is obliged to take off frequently
impressions to prove the progress of the work, so that
each proof appears like the different times of a foggy
morning, till one becomes so finish'd as to be distinct
and clear enough to imitate a day-light piece. I have
given this description because I think the whole opera-
tion, in the simplest manner, shews what lights and
shades alone will do.
As light must always be supposed, I need only speak
of such privations of it as are called shades or shadows,
wherein I shall endeavour to point out and regularly
describe a certain order and arrangement in their ap-
pearance, in which order we may conceive different
kinds of softnings and modulations of the rays of light
which are said to fall upon the eye from every object it
sees, and to cause those more or less-pleasing vibrations
of the optic nerves, which serve to inform the mind
concerning every different shape or figure that presents
itself.
The best light for seeing the shadows of objects truly,
is, that which comes in at a common sized window,
where the sun doth not shine ; I shall therefore speak
of their order as seen by this kind of light : and shall
take the liberty in the present and following chapter,
to consider colours but as variegated shades, which to-
gether with common shades, will now be divided into
two general parts or branches.

The


[96]

The first we shall call PRIME TINTS, by which is
meant any colour or colours on the surfaces of objects;
and the use we shall make of these different hues will
be to consider them as shades to one another. Thus
gold is a shade to silver, &c. exclusive of those addi-
tional shades which may be made in any degree by the
privation of light.
The second branch may be called RETIRING SHADES,
which gradate or go off by degrees, as fig. *. These
shades, as they vary more or less, produce beauty, whe-
ther they are occasioned by the privation of light, or
made by the pencilings of art or nature.
When I come to treat of colouring, I shall particu-
larly shew in what manner the gradating of prime tints
serve to the making a beautiful complexion ; in this
place we shall only observe how nature hath by these
gradating shades ornamented the surfaces of animals;
fish generally have this kind of shade from their backs
downward ; birds have their feathers enriched with it ;
and many flowers, particularly the rose, shew it by the
gradually-increasing colours of their leaves.
The sky always gradates one way or other, and the
rising or setting sun exhibits it in great perfection, the
imitating of which was Claud. de Lorain's peculiar ex-
cellence, and is now Mr. Lambert's : there is so much
of what is called harmony to the eye to be produced
by this shade, that I believe we may venture to say,

in

* Fig. 34.
T. P. 2.

[97]

In art it is the painter's gamut, which nature has
sweetly pointed out to us in what we call the eyes of a
peacock's tail: and the nicest needle-works are taught
to weave it into every flower and leaf, right or wrong,
as if it was as constantly to be observed as it is seen in
flames of fire ; because it is always found to entertain
the eye. There is a sort of needle-work called Irish-
stitch, done in these shades only ; which pleases still,
tho' it has long been out of fashion.
There is so strict an analogy between shade and sound,
that they may well serve to illustrate each other's qua-
lities : for as sounds gradually decreasing and increasing
give the idea of progression from, or to the ear, just so
do retiring shades shew progression, by figuring it to the
eye. Thus, as by objects growing still fainter, we
judge of distances in prospects, so by the decreasing
noise of thunder, we form the idea of its moving further
from us. And, with regard to their similitude in beauty,
like as the gradating shade pleases the eye, so the in-
creasing, or swelling note, delights the ear.
I have call'd it the retiring shade, because by the
successive, or continual change in its appearance, it is
equally instrumental with converging lines I, in shewing
how much objects, or any parts of them, retire or re-
ceded from the eye ; without which, a floor, or hori-
zontal-plane, would often seem to stand upright like

I See p. 7. The two converging lines from the ship, to the point C, under fig. 47, plate I.

O a


[98]

a wall. And notwithstanding all the other ways by
which we learn to know at what distances things
are from us, frequent deceptions happen to the eye
on account of deficiencies in this shade : for if the
light chances to be so disposed on objects as not to give
this shade its true gradating appearance, not only spaces
are confounded, but round things appear flat, and flat
ones round.
But although the retiring shade hath this property,
when seen with converging lines, yet if it describes no
particular form, as none of those do in fig. 94, on top of
plate 2, it can only appear as a flat-pencil'd shade; but
being inclosed within some known boundary or out-line,
such as may signify a wall, a road, a globe, or any other
form in perspective where the parts retire, it will then
shew its retiring quality : as for example, the retiring
shade on the floor, in plate 2, which gradates from the
dog's feet to those of the dancer's, shews, that by this
means a level appearance is given to the ground : so when
a cube is put into true perspective lines on paper, with lines
only, which do but barely hint the directions every face
of it is meant to take, these shades make them seem to
retire just as the perspective lines direct; thus mutually
compleating the idea of those recessions which neither
of them alone could do.
Moreover, the out-line of a globe is but a circle on
the paper; yet, according to the manner of filling up
the space within it, with this shade, it may be made

to


[99]

to appear either flat, globular, or concave, in any of its
positions with the eye; and as each manner of filling
up the circle for those purposes must be very different,
it evidently shews the necessity of distinguishing this
shade into as many species or kinds, as there are classes
or species of lines, with which they may have a cor-
respondence.
In doing which, it will be found, that, by their
correspondency with, and conformity to objects, either
composed of straight, curved, waving, or serpentine
lines, they of course take such appearances of variety as
are adequate to the variety made by those lines ; and
by this conformity of shades we have the same ideas
of any of the objects composed of the above lines in their
front aspects, as we have of them by their profiles;
which otherwise could not be without feeling them.
Now instead of giving engraved examples of each
species of shade, as I have done of lines, I have found
that they may be more satisfactorily pointed out and
described by having recourse to the life.
But in order to the better and more precisely fixing
upon what may be there seen, as the distinct species, of
which all the shades of the retiring kind in nature par-
take, in some degree or other, the following scheme is
offered, and intended as an additional means of making
such simple impressions in the mind, as may be thought
adequate to the four species of lines described in chapter
27. Wherein we are to suppose imperceptible degrees of

O2 shade

[100]

shade gradating from one figure to another. The first
species to be represented by, I, 2, 3,4, 5.
the second by, 5,4,3,2,I,2,3,4,5.
and the third by, 5,4,3,2, I, 2,3,'4, 5,4,3,2, 1, 2,3,4,5.
gradating from the dots underneath, repeated either
way.
As the first species varies or gradates but one way, it
is therefore least ornamental, and equal only to straight
lines.
The second gradating contrary ways, doubling the
others variety, is consequently twice as pleasing, and
thereby equal to curved lines.
The third species gradating doubly contrary ways, is
thereby sill more pleasing in proportion to that qua-
druple variety which makes it become capable of con-
veying to the mind an equivalent in shade, which ex-
presses the beauty of the waving line, when it cannot be
seen as a line.
The retiring shade, adequate to the serpentine line,
now should follow; but as the line itself could not be
expressed on paper, without the figure of a cone †,
so neither can this shade be described without the assis-
tance of a proper form, and therefore must be deferred
a little longer.
When only the ornamental quality of shades is spoken
of, for the sake of distinguishing them from retiring
shades, let them be considered as pencilings only;
whence another advantage will arise, which is, that then

then

† See Fig.
26. p. I.

[101]

all the intervening mixtures, with their degrees of beauty
between each species, may be as easily conceived, as
those have been between each class of lines.
And now let us have recourse to the experiments
in life, for such examples as may explain the retiring
power of each species; since, as has been before ob-
served, they mull be considered together with their
proper forms, or else their properties cannot be well
distinguished.
All the degrees of obliquity that planes, or flat sur-
faces are capable of moving into, have their appearances
of recession perfected by the first species of retiring
shades, which may evidently be seen by setting opposite
a door, as it is opening outwards from the eye, and
fronting one light.
But it will be proper to premise, that when it is quite
shut, and flat or parallel to the eye and window, it will
only have a penciling shade gradating upon it, and
spreading all around from the middle, but which will
not have the power of giving the idea of recession any
way, as when it opens, and the lines run in perspective
to a point; because the square figure or parallel lines of
the door, do not correspond with such shade; but let a
door be circular in the same situation, and all without
side, or round about it, painted of any other colour, to
make its figure more distinctly seen, and it will immedi-
ately appear concave like a bason, the shade continually
retiring; because this circular species of shade would

then


[102]

But to return; we observ'd that all the degrees of
obliquity in the moving of planes or flat surfaces, have
the appearances of their recession perfected to the eye
by the first species of retiring shade. For example, then;
when the door opens, and goes from its parallel situa-
tion with the eye, the shade last spoken of, may be ob-
served to alter and change its round gradating appear-
ance, into that of gradating one way only; as when a
standing water takes a current upon the least power
given it to descend.
Note, if the light should come in at the door-way, in-
stead of the window, the gradation then would be re-
versed, but still the effect of recession would be just the
same, as this shade ever complies with the perspctive
lines.
In the next place, let us observe the ovolo, or quarter-
round in a cornice, fronting the eye in like manner, by
which may be seen an example of the second species;
where, on its most projecting part, a line of light is
seen, from whence these shades retire contrary ways,
by which the curvature is understood.
And, perhaps, in the very same cornice may be seen an
example of the third species, in that ornamental member called

1 Note, if the light were to come in at a very little hole not far
from the door, so as to make the gradation sudden and strong, like
what may be made with a small candle held near a wall or a wainscot,
the bason would appear the deeper for it.

Note

[103]

called by the architects cyma recta, or talon, which
indeed is no more than a larger sort of waving or ogee
moulding; wherein, by the convex parts gently gliding
into the concave, you may see four contrasted grada-
ting shades, shewing so many varied recessions from the
eye; by which we are made as sensible of its waving
form as if we saw the profile out-line of some corner of
it, where it is miter'd, as the joiners term it. Note,
when these objects have a little gloss on them these ap-
pearances are most distinct.
Lastly, the serpentine shade may be seen (light and
situation as before) by the help of the following figure,
as thus; imagine the horn, figure 57, plate 2, to be of
so soft a nature, that with the fingers only, it might be
pressed into any shape; then beginning gently from the
middle of the dotted line, but pressing harder and harder
all the way up the lesser end, by such pressure there
would be as much concave above, as would remain
convex below, which would bring it equal in variety or
beauty to the ogee moulding; but after this, by giving
the whole a twist, like figure 58, these shades must un-
avoidably change their appearances, and in some mea-
sure, twist about as the concave and convex parts
are twisted, and consequently thereby add that variety,

1Note also, that when planes are seen parallel to the eye in open day
- light, they have scarce any round gradating or penciling shade at all,
but appear merely as uniform prime tints, because the rays of light are
equally diffused upon them. Nevertheless, give them but obliquity,
they will more or less exhibit the retiring shade.

which


[104]

which of course will give this species of shade, as much
the preference to the foregoing, as forms composed of
scrpentine lines have, to those composed only of the
waving. See chap. 9. and chap. 10.
I should not have given my reader the trouble of
compleating, by the help of his imagination, the fore-
going figure, but as it may contribute to the more ready
and particular conception of that intricate variety which
twisted figures give to this species of shade, and to faci-
litate his understanding the cause of its beauty, wherever
it may be seen on surfaces of ornament, when it will be
found no where more conspicuous than in a fine face,
as will be seen upon further enquiry.
The dotted line †, which begins from the concave
part, under the arch of the brow, near the nose, and from
thence winding down by the corner of the eye, and there
turning obliquely with the round of the cheek, shews
the course of that twist of shades in a face, which was
before described by the horn ; and which may be most
perfectly seen in the life, or in a marble busto, together
with the following additional circumstances still remain-
ing to be described.
As a face is for the most part round, it is therefore
apt to receive reflected light on its shadowy side I,which

I Note, though I have advised the observing objects by a front light,
for the sake of the better distinguishing our four fundamental species of
shades, yet objects in general are more advantagiously, and agreeably seen
by light coming side-ways upon them, and therefore generally chose
in paintings ; as it gives an additional reflected softness, not unlike the
gentle tone of an echo in music.

not

† Fig. 97.
B. P. I.


[105]

not only adds more beauty by another pleasing tender
gradation, but also serves to distinguish the roundness
of the cheeks, &c. from such parts as sink and fall in:
because concavities do not admit of reflections, as con-
vex forms do 2.
I have now only to add, that as before observed,
chap. 4, page 23, that the oval hath a noble simplicity
in it, more equal to its variety than any other object
in nature; and of which the general form of a face is
composed; therefore, from what has been now shewn,
the general gradation-shade belonging to it, must con-
sequently be adequate thereto, and which evidently
gives a delicate softness to the whole composition of a
face; insomuch that every little dent, crack, or scratch,
the form receives, its shadows also suffer with it, and
help to shew the blemish. Even the least roughness
interrupts and damages that soft gradating play of
shades which fall upon it. Mr. Dryden, describing the
light and shades of a face, in his epistle to Sir Godfrey
Kneller the portrait painter, seems, by the penetration
of his incomparable genius, to have understood that
language in the works of nature, which the latter, by
means of an exact eye and a strict obeying hand, could
only faithfully transcribe; when he says,

2 As an instance that convex and concave would appear the same, if
the former were to have no reflection thrown upon, observe the ovolo and
cavetto, or channel, in a cornice, placed near together, and seen by a
front light, when they will each of them, by turns, appear either concave,
or convex, as fancy shall direct.

P Where


[106]

Where light to shades descending, plays, not strives,
Dies by degrees, and by degrees revives.