Salvator Rosa was precisely what he Pretended not to be. His Pictures are high Labour’d pretensions to Expeditious Workmanship. He was the Quack Doctor of Painting. His Roughnesses & Smoothnesses are the Production of Labour & Trick. As to Imagination, he was totally without Any.
Savages are Fops & Fribbles more than any other Men.
All Rubens’s Pictures are Painted by Journeymen &, so far from being all of a Piece, are The most wretched Bungles.
To My Eye Rubens’s Colouring is most Contemptible. His Shadows are of a Filthy Brown somewhat of the Colour of Excrement; these are fill’d with tints & messes of yellow & red. His lights are all the Colours of the Rainbow, laid on Indiscriminately & broken one into another. Altogether his Colouring is Contrary to The Colouring of Real Art & Science.
Opposed to Rubens’s Colouring Sr Joshua has placed Poussin, but he ought to put All Men of Genius who ever Painted. Rubens & the Venetians are Opposite in every thing to True Art & they Meant to be so; they were hired for this Purpose.
Why then does he talk in other places of pleasing Every body?
When a Man talks of Acquiring Invention & of learning how to produce Original Conception, he must expect to be call’d a Fool by Men of Understanding; but such a Hired Knave cares not for the Few. His Eye is on the Many, or, rather, the Money.
Bacon’s Philosophy has Destroy’d [word cut away] Art & Science. The Man who says that the Genius is not Born, but Taught—Is a Knave.
O Reader, behold the Philosopher’s Gravel
He was born quite a Fool, but he died quite a Knave.
How ridiculous it would be to see the Sheep Endeavouring to walk like the Dog, or the Ox striving to trot like the Horse; just as Ridiculous it is to see One Man Striving to Imitate Another. Man varies from Man mere than Animal from Animal of different Species.
If Art was Progressive We should have had Mich. Angelos & Rafaels to Succeed & to Improve upon each other. But it is not so. Genius dies with its Possessor & Comes not again till Another is Born with It.
Identities or Things are Neither Cause nor Effect. They are Eternal.
Reynolds Thinks that Man Learns all that he knows. I say on the Contrary that Man Brings All that he has or can have Into the World with him. Man is Born Like a Garden ready Planted & Sown. This World is too poor to produce one Seed.
Reynolds: The mind is but a barren soil; a soil which is soon exhausted, and will produce no crop, . . .
The mind that could have produced this Sentence must have been a Pitiful, a Pitiable Imbecillity. I always thought that the Human Mind was the most Prolific of All Things & Inexhaustible. I certainly do Thank God that I am not like Reynolds.
A Very Clever Sentence; who wrote it, God knows.
No Man who can see Michael Angelo can say that he wants either Colouring or Ornamental parts of Art in the highest degree, for he has Every Thing of Both.
He who Admires Rafael Must admire Rafael’s Execution. He who does not admire Rafael’s Execution Cannot Admire Rafael.
A Polish’d Villain who Robs & Murders!
He who can be bound down is No Genius. Genius cannot be Bound; it may be Render’d Indignant & Outrageous.
“Opression makes the Wise Man Mad.”
SOLOMON.
The Purpose of the following discourse [vn] is to Prove That Taste & Genius are not of Heavenly Origin & that all who have supposed that they Are so, are to be Consider’d as Weak headed Fanatics.
The Obligations Reynolds has laid on Bad Artists of all Classes will at all times make them his Admirers, but most especially for this discourse, in which it is proved that the Stupid are born with Faculties Equal to other Men, Only they have not Cultivated them because they thought it not worth the trouble.
Obscurity is Neither the Source of the Sublime nor of any Thing Else.
The Ancients did not mean to Impose when they affirm’d their belief in Vision & Revelation. Plato was in Earnest: Milton was in Earnest. They believ’d that God did Visit Man Really & Truly & not as Reynolds pretends.
How very Anxious Reynolds is to Disprove & Contemn Spiritual Perception!
He states Absurdities in Company with Truths & calls both Absurd.
The Artifice of the Epicurean Philosophers is to Call all other Opinions Unsolid & Unsubstantial than those which are derived from Earth.
It is not in Terms that Reynolds & I disagree. Two Contrary Opinions can never by any Language be made alike. I say, Taste & Genius are Not Teachable or Acquirable, but are born with us. Reynolds says the Contrary.
Demonstration, Similitude & Harmony are Objects of Reasoning. Invention, Identity & Melody are Objects of Intuition.
God forbid that Truth should be Confined to Mathematical Demonstration!
He who does not Know Truth at Sight is unworthy of Her Notice.
Here is a great deal to do to Prove that All Truth is Prejudice, for All that is Valuable in Knowledge is Superior to Demonstrative Science, such as is Weighed or Measured.
He thinks he has proved that Genius & Inspiration are All a Hum.
He may as well say that if Man does not lay down settled Principles, The Sun will not rise in a Morning.
Here is a Plain Confession that he Thinks Mind & Imagination not to be above the Mortal & Perishing Nature. Such is the End of Epicurean or Newtonian Philosophy; it is Atheism.
Reynolds’s Eye could not bear Characteristic Colouring or Light & Shade.
Reynolds: A picture should please at first sight, and appear to invite the spectator’s attention; ...
Please Whom? Some Men cannot see a Picture except in a Dark Corner.
Violent Passions Emit the Real, Good & Perfect Tones.
A Fool’s Balance is no Criterion because, tho’ it goes down on the heaviest side, we ought to look what he puts into it.
Reynolds: In the midst of the highest flights of fancy or imagination, reason ought to preside from first to last, ...
If this is True, it is a devilish Foolish Thing to be an Artist.
Burke’s Treatise on the Sublime & Beautiful is founded on the Opinions of Newton & Locke; on this Treatise Reynolds has grounded many of his assertions in all his Discourses. I read Burke’s Treatise when very Young; at the same time I read Locke on Human Understanding & Bacon’s Advancement of Learning; on Every one of these Books I wrote my Opinions, & on looking them over find that my Notes on Reynolds in this Book are exactly Similar. I felt the Same Contempt & Abhorrence then that I do now. They mock Inspiration & Vision. Inspiration & Vision was then, & now is, & I hope will always Remain, my Element, my Eternal Dwelling place; how can I then hear it Contemned without returning Scorn for Scorn?
Rembrandt was a Generalizer. Poussin was a Particularizer.
Poussin knew better than to make all his Pictures have the same light & shadows. Any fool may concentrate a light in the Middle.
If you Endeavour to Please the Worst, you will never Please the Best. To please All Is Impossible.
Bad Pictures are always Sr Joshua’s Friends.
EPIGRAMS AND VERSES CONCERNING SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
(1808-1811)
Can there be any thing more mean,
More Malice in disguise,
Than Praise a Man for doing what
That Man does most despise?
Reynolds Lectures Exactly so
When he praises Michael Angelo.
Sir Joshua Praises Michael Angelo:
‘Tis Christian Mildness when Knaves Praise a Foe;
But ’Twould be Madness all the World would say
Should Michael Angelo praise Sir Joshua—
Christ us’d the Pharisees in a rougher way.
FLORENTINE INGRATITUDE
Sir Joshua sent his own Portrait to
The birth Place of Michael Angelo,
And in the hand of the simpering fool
He put a dirty paper scroll,
And on the paper, to be polite,
Did “Sketches by Michael Angelo” write.
The Florentines said, “ ’Tis a Dutch English bore,
Michael Angelo’s Name writ on Rembrandt’s door.”
The Florentines call it an English Fetch,
For Michael Angelo did never sketch.
Every line of his has Meaning
And needs neither Suckling nor Weaning.
’Tis the trading English Venetian cant
To speak Michael Angelo & Act Rembrandt.
It will set his Dutch friends all in a roar
To write “Mich. Ang.” on Rembrandt’s Door.
But You must not bring in your hand a Lie
If you mean the Florentines should buy.
Ghiotto’s Circle or Apelles’ Line
Were not the Work of Sketchers drunk with Wine,
Nor of the City Clark’s warm hearted Fashion,
Nor of Sir Isaac Newton’s Calculation,
Nor of the City Clark’s Idle Facilities
Which sprang from Sir Isaac Newton’s great Abilities.
These Verses were written by a very Envious Man,
Who, whatever likeness he may have to Michael Angelo,
Never can have any to Sir Jehoshuan.
A PITIFUL CASE
The Villain at the Gallows tree
When he is doom’d to die,
To assuage his misery
In Virtue’s praise does cry.
So Reynolds when he came to die,
To assuage his bitter woe
Thus aloud does howl & cry:
“Michael Angelo! Michael Angelol”
The Cripple every Step Drudges & labours,
And says: “Come, learn to walk of me, Good Neighbours.”
Sir Joshua in astonishment cries out:
“See, what Great Labour! Pain in Modest Doubtl”
Newton & Bacon cry, being badly Nurst:
“He is all Experiments from last to first.
He walks & stumbles as if he crep,
And how high labour’d is every step!”
TO VENETIAN ARTISTS
That God is Colouring Newton does shew,
And the devil is a Black outline, all of us know.
Perhaps this little Fable may make us merry:
A dog went over the water without a wherry:
A bone which he had stolen he had in his mouth;
He cared not whether the wind was north or south.
As he swam he saw the reflection of the bone.
“This is quite Perfection, one Generalizing Tone!
Outline! There’s no outline! There’s no such thing!
All is Chiaro Scuro, Poco Pen, it’s all colouring.”
Snap, Snap! he has lost shadow & substance too.
He had them both before: now how do ye do?
“A great deal better than I was before.
Those who taste colouring love it more & more.”
“O dear Mother outline, of knowledge most sage,
What’s the First Part of Painting?” she said: “Patronage.”
“And what is the second?” to please & Engage,
She frown’d like a Fury & said: “Patronage.”
“And what is the Third?” she put off Old Age,
And smil’d like a Syren & said: “Patronage.”
MARGINALIA, II
From NOTES ON SPURZHEIM’S “OBSERVATIONS ON THE DERANGED MANIFESTATIONS OF THE MIND, OR INSANITY” LONDON 1817
(1819)
Cowper came to me and said: “0 that I were insane always. I will never rest. Can you not make me truly insane? I will never rest till I am so. O that in the bosom of God I was hid. You retain health and yet are as mad as any of us all—over us all—mad as a refuge from unbelief—from Baoon, Newton and Locke.”
From ANNOTATIONS TO “POEMS” BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH VOL. I, LONDON 1815
(1826)
I see in Wordsworth the Natural Man rising up against the Spiritual Man Continually, & then he is No Poet but a Heathen Philosopher at Enmity against all true Poetry or Inspiration.
There is no such Thing as Natural Piety Because The Natural Man is at Enmity with God.
I cannot think that Real Poets have any competition. None are greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven; it is so in Poetry.
Natural Objects always did & now do weaken, deaden & obliterate Imagination in Me. Wordsworth must know that what he Writes Valuable is Not to be found in Nature.
I Believe both Macpherson & Chatterton, that what they say is Ancient Is so.
I own myself an admirer of Ossian equally with any other Poet whatever, Rowley & Chatterton also.
Imagination has nothing to do with Memory.
From ANNOTATIONS TO DR. THORNTON’S “NEW TRANSLATION OF THE LORD’S PRAYER” LONDON 1827
(1827)
I look upon this as a Most Malignant & Artful attack upon the Kingdom of Jesus By the Classical Learned, thro’ the Instrumentality of Dr. Thornton. The Greek & Roman Classics is the Anthichrist. I say Is & Not Are as most expressive & correct too. [on the title-page]
Christ & his Apostles were Illiterate Men; Caiaphas, Pilate & Herod were Learned.
If Morality was Christianity, Socrates was The Savior.
The Beauty of the Bible is that the most Ignorant & Simple Minds Understand it Best—Was Johnson hired to Pretend to Religious Terrors while he was an Infidel, or how was it?
The only thing for Newtonian & Baconian Philosophers to Consider is this: Whether Jesus did not suffer himself to be Mock’d by Caesar’s Soldiers Willingly, & to Consider this to all Eternity will be Comment Enough.
It is the learned that Mouth, & not the Vulgar.
Lawful Bread, Bought with Lawful Money, & a Lawful Heaven, seen thro’ a Lawful Telescope, by means of Lawful Window Light! The Holy Ghost, & whatever cannot be Taxed, is Unlawful & Witchcraft.
Spirits are Lawful, but not Ghosts; especially Royal Gin is Lawful Spirit. No Smuggling real British Spirit & Truth!
Give us the Bread that is our due & Right, by taking away Money, or a Price, or Tax upon what is Common to all in thy Kingdom.
Jesus, our Father, who art in thy heaven call’d by thy Name the Holy Ghost, Thy Kingdom on Earth is Not, nor thy Will done, but Satan’s, who is God of this World, the Accuser. Let his Judgment be Forgiveness that he may be cursed on his own throne.
Give us This Eternal Day our own right Bread by taking away Money or debtor Tax & Value or Price, as [words illegible] have all the Common [several words illegible] among us. Every thing has as much right to Eternal Life as God, who is the Servant of Man. His Judgment shall be Forgiveness that he may be consum’d on his own Throne.
Leave us not in Parsimony, Satan’s Kingdom; liberate us from the Natural Man & [words illegible] Kingdom.
For thine is the Kingdom & the Power & the Glory & not Ceasar’s or Satan’s. Amen.
Doctor Thornton’s Tory Translation, Translated out of its disguise in the Classical & Scotch languages into the vulgar English.
Our Father Augustus Ceasar, who art in these thy Substantial Astronomical Telescopic Heavens, Holiness to thy Name or Title, & reverence to thy Shadow. Thy Kingship come upon Earth first & then in Heaven. Give us day by day our Real Taxed Substantial Money bought Bread; deliver from the Holy Ghost whatever cannot be Taxed; for all is debts & Taxes between Caesar & us & one another; lead us not to read the Bible, but let our Bible be Virgil & Shakespeare; & deliver us from Poverty in Jesus, that Evil One. For thine is the Kingship, [or] Allegoric Godship, & the Power, or War, & the Glory, or Law, Ages after Ages in thy descendants; for God is only an Allegory of Kings & nothing Else. AMEN.
MIRTH AND HER COMPANIONS
(1820)
[Engraved beneath a print of the first subject illustrating Milton’s L’Allegro.]
Solomon says, “Vanity of Vanities, all is Vanity,” & What can be Foolisher than this?
NOTE IN CENNINI’S “TRATTATO DELLA PITTURA” ROMA. MDCCCXXI
(1822)
The Pope supposes Nature & the Virgin Mary to be the same alle
gorical personages, but the Protestant considers Nature as incapable of bearing a Child.
NOTES ON THE ILLUSTRATIONS TO DANTE
(1825-1827)
[On design no. 7, a map of the classical conception of the Universe, written in the circles surrounding the central figure of Homer.]
Every thing in Dante’s Comedia shews That for Tyrannical Purposes he has made This World the Foundation of All, & the Goddess Nature Mistress; Nature is his Inspirer & not ... the Holy Ghost. As Poor Shakspeare said: “Nature, thou art my “Goddess.”
The Portable William Blake Page 44