I am very ready to allow that some circumstances of minuteness and
particularity frequently tend to give an air of truth to a piece, and to
interest the spectator in an extraordinary manner. Such circumstances,
therefore, cannot wholly be rejected; but if there be anything in the art
which requires peculiar nicety of discernment, it is the disposition of
these minute circumstantial parts which, according to the judgment
employed in the choice, become so useful to truth or so injurious to
grandeur.

However, the usual and most dangerous error is on the side of minuteness,
and, therefore, I think caution most necessary where most have failed.
The general idea constitutes real excellence. All smaller things,
however perfect in their way, are to be sacrificed without mercy to the
greater. The painter will not inquire what things may be admitted
without much censure. He will not think it enough to show that they may
be there; he will show that they must be there, that their absence would
render his picture maimed and defective.

Thus, though to the principal group a second or third be added, and a
second and third mass of light, care must be yet taken that these
subordinate actions and lights, neither each in particular, nor all
together, come into any degree of competition with the principal; they
should make a part of that whole which would be imperfect without them.
To every part of painting this rule may be applied. Even in portraits,
the grace and, we may add, the likeness, consists more in taking the
general air than in observing the effect similitude of every feature.

Thus figures must have a ground whereon to stand; they must be clothed,
there must be a background, there must be light and shadow; but none of