florid eloquence, to debauch the young and unexperienced, and have,
without doubt, been the cause of turning off the attention of the
connoisseur and of the patron of art, as well as that of the painter,
from those higher excellences of which the art is capable, and which
ought to be required in every considerable production. By them, and
their imitators, a style merely ornamental has been disseminated
throughout all Europe. Rubens carried it to Flanders, Voet to France,
and Luca Giordano to Spain and Naples.

The Venetian is indeed the most splendid of the schools of elegance; and
it is not without reason that the best performances in this lower school
are valued higher than the second-rate performances of those above them;
for every picture has value when it has a decided character, and is
excellent in its kind. But the student must take care not to be so much
dazzled with this splendour as to be tempted to imitate what must
ultimately lead from perfection. Poussin, whose eye was always steadily
fixed on the sublime, has been often heard to say, "That a particular
attention to colouring was an obstacle to the student in his progress to
the great end and design of the art; and that he who attaches himself to
this principal end will acquire by practice a reasonably good method of
colouring."

Though it be allowed that elaborate harmony of colouring, a brilliancy of
tints, a soft and gradual transition from one to another, present to the
eye what an harmonious concert of music does to the ear, it must be
remembered that painting is not merely a gratification of the sight. Such
excellence, though properly cultivated where nothing higher than elegance
is intended, is weak and unworthy of regard, when the work aspires to
grandeur and sublimity.