Liber Veritatis, or a Collection of Prints, After the Original Designs of Claude Le Lorrain, Vol. 1: In the Collection of His Grace the Duke of Devonshire (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Liber Veritatis, or a Collection of Prints, After the Original Designs of Claude Le Lorrain, Vol. 1: In the Collection of His Grace the Duke of Devonshire

The curiosity, by which we are influenced to inquire into the lives of those who have excelled in the Fine Arts, may perhaps be resolved into two principles.

We acknowledge ourselves indebted to those, who have contributed highly to our amusement; and we are willing to manifest our sense of the obligation, by cherishing their memories. It is a natural object of curiosity also, to wish to learn by what means they arrived at the degree of eminence which they have attained. There is too, sometimes, a close connection between the Life of the Artist and his Performances; and the incidents of the one, however unimportant, may serve to illustrate and explain the other.

It is not, indeed, from the exactness of the imitation alone, but from the nature of the thing imitated also, that the pleasure, which the works of Painting afford us, is derived.

And it seems often to be lamented, therefore, that much art of penciling, and much brilliancy of colouring, have been bestowed on the representation of objects which are familiar to our eyes, and which do not interest our imagination - on the imitation of the most common animals, of domestic utensils, and Still Life.

We are, without doubt, far more obliged to those Artists, who set before us such objects as our imagination cannot readily supply; who place the actions of great men immediately in our view, and imitate even the various passions of the mind; or who transport the scenes of distant countries into our own, and exhibit to us judicious combinations of the most beautiful objects of nature.

Among those whom we stand especially indebted to, in this latter respect, none is more deservedly eminent (since no one ever lived in the midst of -more enchanting scenes, or used more diligence to avail himself of the opportunities he enjoyed) than claude Giants, known more commonly, from the country which gave him birth, by the name of claude LE lorrain.

A long life, spent in continual imitation of the richest scenes of Nature, served to produce those many distinguished works, which have justly placed the name of Claude foremost in the Annals of Painting.

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