Essays Of John Dryden Author:John Dryden Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A PARALLEL OF POETRY AND PAINTING PREFIXED TO THE VERSION OF DU FRESNOY DE A RTF GRAPHIC A [1695] It may be reasonably expected that I should say some... more »thing on my own behalf, in respect to my present undertaking. First, then, the reader may be pleased to know, that it was not of my own choice that I undertook this work. Many of our most skilful painters, and 5 other artists, were pleased to recommend this author to me, as one who perfectly understood the rules of painting ; who gave the best and most concise instructions for performance, and the surest to inform the judgment of all who loved this noble art: that they who before 10 were rather fond of it, than knowingly admired it, might defend their inclination by their reason; that they might understand those excellencies which they blindly valued, so as not to be farther imposed on by bad pieces, and to know when nature was well imitated by 15 the most able masters. 'Tis true, indeed, and they acknowledge it, that beside the rules which are given in this treatise, or which can be given in any other, that to make a perfect judgment of good pictures, and to value them more or less, when compared with one 20 another, there is farther required a long conversation with the best pieces, which are not very frequent either in France or England; yet some we have, not only from the hands of Holbein, Rubens, and Vandyck (one of them admirable for history-painting, and the other two for portraits), but of many Flemish masters, and those not inconsiderable, though for design not equal 5 to the Italians. And of these latter also, we are not unfurnished with some pieces of Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Michael Angelo, and others. But to return to my own undertaking of this translation, I freely own that I thoug...« less