Page View
Hogarth, William, 1697-1764 / The analysis of beauty : written with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste
(1753)
Chap. XII: of light and shade, and the manner in which objects are explained to the eye by them, pp. 93-106
Page 105
ANALYSIS of BEAUTY.: not only adds more beauty by another pleafmg tender gradation, but alfo ferves to diftinguifh the roundnefs of the cheeks, &c. from fuch parts as fink and fall in : becaufe concavities do not admit of refledions, as con- vex forms do 2. I have now only to add, that as before obferved, chap. 4, page 23, that the oval hath a noble fimplicity in it, more equal to its variety than any other object in nature; and of which the general form of a face is compofed; therefore, from what has been now thewn, the general gradation-hade belonging to it, muff con- fequently be adequate thereto, and which evidently gives a delicate foftnefs to the whole compofition of a face; infomuch that every little dent, crack, or fcratch, the form receives, its fhadows alfo fuffer with it, and help to fhew the blemifh. Even the leafl roughnefs interrupts and damages that foft gradating play of fhades which fall upon it. Mr. Dryden, defcribing the light and thades of a face, in his epifile to Sir Godfrey Kneller the portrait painter, feems, by the penetration of his incomparable genius, to have underftood that language in the works of nature, which the latter, by means of an exa& eye and a ftrid obeying hand, could only faithfully tranfcribe; when he fays, 2 As an inftance that convex and concave would appear the fame, if the former were to have no refiea ion thrown upon, obferve the ovolo and cavetto, or channel, in a cornice, placed near together, and feen by a front light, when they will each of them, by turns, appear either concave, or convex, as fancy fhall diret. W here 101
This material may be protected by copyright law (e.g., Title 17, US Code).| For information on re-use, see http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/Copyright




