re objects of solidity surrounded
by softening obscurity, but the contiguous atmosphere gives indications
of the influence of the light and shade. To these principles the art
is indebted for breadth and fulness of effect, which constitute the
distinct characteristics between the early state and its maturity--and
to Rembrandt we owe the perfection of this fascinating quality.

We must, nevertheless, always look back with wonder at what was
achieved by Coreggio. Even when painting flourished under the guidance
of Leonardo da Vinci and Giorgione, Reynolds, speaking of this quality
in contradistinction to that of relief, says, "This favourite quality
of giving objects relief, and which De Piles and all the critics have
considered as a requisite of the greatest importance, was not one of
those objects which much engaged the attention of Titian. Painters of an
inferior rank have far exceeded him in producing this effect. This was a
great object of attention when art was in its infant state, as it is at
present with the vulgar and ignorant, who feel the highest satisfaction
in seeing a figure which, as they say, looks as if they could walk round
it. But however low I might rate this pleasure of deception, I should
not oppose it, did it not oppose itself to a quality of a much higher
kind, by counteracting entirely that fulness of manner which is so
difficult to express in words, but which is found in perfection in the
best works of Coreggio, and, we may add, of Rembrandt. This effect is
produced by melting and losing the shadows in a ground still darker
than those shadows; whereas that relief is produced by opposing and
separating the ground from the figure, either by light, or shadow,
or colour. This conduct of inlaying, as it may be called, figures on
their ground, in order to produce relief, was the practice of the old
painters, such as Andrea Mantegna, Pietro Perugino, and Albert Durer,
and to these we may add the first manner of Leonardo da Vinci,
Giorgione, and even Coreggio; but these three were among the first
who began to correct themselves in dryness of style, by no longer
considering relief as a principal object. As those two qualities,
relief and fulness of effect, can hardly exist together, it is not
very difficult to determine to which we ought to give the preference.
An artist is obliged for ever to hold a balance in his hand, by which
he must determine the value of different qualities, that when some fault
must