Excerpt from A Treatise on Painting: In Four Parts; Consisting of an Essay on the Education of the Eye, With Reference to Painting, and Practical Hints on Composition, Chiaroscuro, and Colour IN prefacing a work Of this brief description, where so many branches Of the Art Of Painting are introduced with little more than an enumeration Of their component parts, I ought to apologise, in the first instance, for thus attempting to convey any information which can be carried into practical usefulness in so small a compass: my motive for so doing was to give, if possible, an insight into the intricacies Of the Art, without distracting the attention of the reader by a multitude Of examples, whose union Often destroys the strong impression Of a single illustration. Though the varieties Of painting are endless, yet the properties Of which these varieties are composed are, as in music, few in number; I have endeavoured, therefore, to notice only the leading principles which must be known, and which by reflection and Observation can be extended to an infinite series Of ramifications. The same simple rules which Should regulate the instruction Of beginners, I have endeavoured to point out as existing in the highest departments Of the Art, communicating by their presence that value which a vein Of gold imparts to a mass Of inferior matter. TO some it may appear that the subject is too. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.