not that kind of harmony which is produced by a variety of broken and
transparent colours, have that effect of grandeur that was intended.
Perhaps these distinct colours strike the mind more forcibly, from there
not being any great union between them; as martial music, which is
intended to rouse the noble passions, has its effect from the sudden and
strongly marked transitions from one note to another, which that style of
music requires; whilst in that which is intended to move the softer
passions the notes imperceptibly melt into one another.

In the same manner as the historical painter never enters into the detail
of colours, so neither does he debase his conceptions with minute
attention to the discriminations of drapery. It is the inferior style
that marks the variety of stuffs. With him, the clothing is neither
woollen, nor linen, nor silk, satin, or velvet: it is drapery; it is
nothing more. The art of disposing the foldings of the drapery make a
very considerable part of the painter's study. To make it merely natural
is a mechanical operation, to which neither genius or taste are required;
whereas, it requires the nicest judgment to dispose the drapery, so that
the folds have an easy communication, and gracefully follow each other,
with such natural negligence as to look like the effect of chance, and at
the same time show the figure under it to the utmost advantage.

Carlo Maratti was of opinion that the disposition of drapery was a more
difficult art than even that of drawing the human figure; that a student
might be more easily taught the latter than the former; as the rules of
drapery, he said, could not be so well ascertained as those for
delineating a correct form, This, perhaps, is a proof how willingly we
favour our own peculiar excellence. Carlo Maratti is said to have valued
himself particularly upon his skill in this part of the art yet in him
the disposition appears so artificial, that he is inferior to Raffaelle,