be committed, he may choose the least. Those painters who have
best understood the art of producing a good effect have adopted one
principle that seems perfectly conformable to reason--that a part may be
sacrificed for the good of the whole. Thus, whether the masses consist
of light or shadow, it is necessary that they should be compact and
of a pleasing shape; to this end, some parts may be made darker and
some lighter, and reflections stronger than nature would warrant. Paul
Veronese took great liberties of this kind. It is said, that being once
asked why certain figures were painted in shade, as no cause was seen in
the picture itself, he turned off the inquiry by answering, 'Una nuevola
che passa,'--a cloud is passing, which has overshadowed them."

Before entering more minutely into an investigation of the principles
of Rembrandt with regard to chiaro-scuro, I must again revert to those
of Coreggio. Opie, speaking of the method of this great artist, says,
"To describe his practice will be in a great degree to repeat my
observations on chiaro-scuro in its enlarged sense. By classing his
colours, and judiciously dividing them into few and large masses of
bright and obscure, gently rounding off his light, and passing, by
almost imperceptible degrees, through pellucid demi-tints and warm
reflections into broad, deep, and transparent shade, he artfully
connected the finest extremes of light and shadow, harmonized the most
intense opposition of colours, and combined the greatest possible effect
with the sweetest and softest repose imaginable." Further on, he
remarks--"The turn of his thoughts, also, in regard to particular
subjects, was often in the highest degree poetical and uncommon, of
which it will be sufficient to give as an instance his celebrated
_Notte_, or painting of the 'Nativity of Christ,' in which his making
all the light of the picture emanate from the child, striking upwards
on the beautiful face of the mother, and in all directions on the
surrounding objects, may challenge comparison with any invention in the
whole circle of art, both for the splendour and sweetness of effect,
which nothing can exceed, and for its happy appropriation to the person
of Him who was born to dispel the clouds of ignorance, and diffuse the
light of truth over a darkened world!" Now, this work Rembrandt must
have seen, or at least a copy from it, as his treatment of the same
subject, in the National Gallery, indicates; but the