NOTE S TO THE FIRST EPISTLE. AS there may poffibly be fome Readers of the foregoing Performance, who may wish to look into the fources from whence the Author has borrowed fome of his ideas, he has thrown together the subsequent Notes, and disjoined them from the body of the Work, as they are intended only for the perufal of those who have leifure and difpofition for fuch kind of reading. NOTE I. VERSE 77. MAKE hiftory to life new value lend.] One of the most elegant writers of the present age has made an ingenious effort to introduce History into the dull province of Portrait-painting, "by reprefent E 3 representing a whole family in a fingle picture, under fome interesting historical subject suitable to their rank and character." See Fitzofborne's Letters, p. 6. But as the beauties and advantages of this plan ftruck forcibly on the imagination of this amiable Author, the infinite difficulties attending its execution were likewife fully open to his difcernment. The fuccefs muft depend on the choice of fubject: where that is not very happily adapted, the picture will probably contain some moft ridiculous abfurdities -Perhaps the Reader may recollect an unfortunate inftance or two of this kind. NOTE II. VERSE 100. Not lefs abfurd to flatter Nero's eyes.] Pliny furnishes us with this fingular anecdote, as an instance of the extravagant abuse of Portrait-painting in his days, which, as he informs us, had arrived to a degree of madness. "Nero had ordered himself to be painted under the figure of a Coloffus, upon cloth or canvass, a hundred and twenty feet in height." The same author informs us, that this prepofterous picture, when it was finished, met with its fate from lightning, which consumed it, and involved likewise the most beautiful part of the gardens where it was placed in the conflagration. The reader may find some ingenious remarks upon this fubject, in the Notes fur l'Hiftoire de la Peinture Peinture Ancienne, extraite de l'Hiftoire Naturelle de Pline. Fol. London, 1725. ΝΟΤΕ III. VERSE 108. Bleft be the pencil! which from death can fave.] The sweet illufion of this enchanting art is prettily exprefled in a Letter of Raphael's to his friend Francefco Raifolini, a Bolognefe painter. The two artifts had agreed to exchange their own portraits, and Raphael, on receiving his friend's picture, addresses him in the following words: "Meffer Francefco mio caro ricevo in quefto punto il voftro ritratto - egli è belliffimo, e tanto vivo, che m'inganno talora, credendomi di effere con effo voi, e fentire le voftre parole." Raccolta di Lettere fulla Pittura, &c. Tom. i. pag. 82. The charm of Portrait-painting is ftill more beautifully defcribed in verfe by a friend of Raphael's, the amiable and accomplished Count Balthafor Caftiglione. Sola tuos Vultus referens Raphaelis imago Affenfu, nutuque mihi fæpe illa videtur These elegant lines are part of an epistle, written in the name of his Countess, Hyppolyte, to her husband. See Pope's edition of the Poemata Italorum, Vol. ii. page 248. NOTE, IV. VERSE 126. Infpir'd by thee, the foft Corinthian Maid.] Pliny has tranfmitted to us the Hiftory of the Maid of Corinth and her father. "Dibutades, a potter of Sicyon, first formed likeneffes in clay at Corinth, but was indebted to his daughter for the invention; the girl being in love with a young man who was foon going from her into fome remote country, traced out the lines of his face from his fhadow upon the wall by candle-light. Her father, filling up the lines with clay, formed a buft, and hardened it in the fire with the rest of his earthen ware." Plin. Lib. 35. Athenagoras, the Athenian philosopher, gives a fimilar account of this curious and entertaining anecdote, adding the circumftance that the youth was fleeping when the likeness was taken from his fadow. Περιεγραψεν αὐτε κοιμωμενα εν τοιχῳ την σκιαν. The fame writer, who lived in the fecond cen tury tury of the Christian æra, informs us that this monument of ancient art was extant at Corinth in his time, though Pliny feems to intimate that it did not furvive the taking of that city by Mummius. In the Poefies de Fontenelle there is an epiftle from the Maid of Corinth, whom the author calls Dibutadis, to her imaginary lòver Polemon. She defcribes her own work in the following ftanzas: Une lampe pretoit une lumiere fombre Je voyois fur un mur fe depeindre ton ombre, Car tout plait, Polemon, pour peu qu'il reprefente L'objet de notre attachement, C'eft affez pour flater les langueurs d'une amante Que l'ombre feule d'un amant. Mais je pouffai plus loin cette douce chimere, Alors en la fuivant du bout d'une baguette Je trace une image de toi ; Une image, il eft vrai, peu distincte, imparfaite, Mais enfin charmante pour moi. NOTE |