d straps, as is done
in hunting equipages; or else it may be placed among the ornaments of
architecture, to be more in view." You see he scorns to hide it--has
worked up his imagination to conceive all possible ways of showing it;
depend upon it he longed to paint a wooden leg, to which the face should
be the appendage, the leg the portrait. "Hoc ligno," not "hoc signo
vinces." But here Gerard bounces--giving an instance of a gentleman "who,
being drawn in little, and comparing the smallness of the eyes with his
own, asked the painter whether he had such? However, in complaisance, and
for his pleasure, he desired that one eye at least might be as big as his
own, the other to remain as it was." Fie, Gerard! you have spoiled your
emblem by taking the mirror out of truth's hand.

He is particular about postures and backgrounds. "It will not be improper
to treat also about easiness and sedateness in posture, opposed to stir
and bustle, and the contrary--namely, that the picture of a gentlewoman of
repute, who, in a grave and sedate manner, turns towards that of her
husband, hanging near it, gets a great decorum by _moving and stirring
hind-works_, whether by means of waving trees, or crossing architecture of
stone and wood, or any thing else that the master thinks will best
_contrast_, or oppose, the _sedate posture of his principal figure_." Here
you see Eusebius, how hind-works tend to keep up a _bustle_! "And because
these are things of consequence, and may not be plainly apprehended by
every one," he explains himself by ten figures in one plate--and such
figures! As a sitter, he would place you very much above the eye--that is,
technically speaking, adopt a low horizon; "because--the because is a
because--because it's certain that when we see any painted figure, or
object, in a place where the life can be expected, as standing on the
ground, leaning over a balcony or balustrade, or out at a window, &c., it
deceives the eye, and by being seen unawares, (though expected,) causes
sometimes a pleasing mistake; or it frightens and surprises others, when
they meet with it unexpectedly, at such places as aforesaid, and where
there is _any likelihood_ for it." Your artist will probably put you on an
inverted box, and sitting in a great chair, probably covered with red
morocco leather, in which you will not be at home, and in any manner
comfortable. We see this deal box sometimes converted into a marble step,
as a step to a thron