e
entire result of the picture that is so wonderful. I peered into the
whites to see how they were made, and it is astonishing how little white
there would be in a white dress--none at all, in fact--and yet it looks
white. I went again and looked at the Van Eyck, and saw how clearly the
like of it is not to be done by me. But he had many advantages. For one
thing, he had all his objects in front of him to paint from. A nice,
clean, neat floor of fair boards well scoured, pretty little dogs and
everything. Nothing to bother about but making good portraits--dresses
and all else of exactly the right colour and shade of colour. But the
tone of it is simply marvellous, and the beautiful colour each little
object has, and the skill of it all. He permits himself extreme darkness
though. It's all very well to say it's a purple dress--very dark brown
is more the colour of it. And the black, no words can describe the
blackness of it. But the like of it is not for me to do--can't be--not
to be thought of.

As I walked about there I thought if I had my life all over again, what
would I best like to do in the way of making a new start once more; it
would be to try and paint more like the Italian painters. And that's
rather happy for a man to feel in his last days--to find that he is
still true to his first impulse, and doesn't think he has wasted his
life in wrong directions.

_Burne-Jones._

CLVI

All painting consists of sacrifices and _parti-pris_.

_Goya._

CLVII

In nature, colour exists no more than line,--there is only light and
shade. Give me a piece of charcoal, and I will paint your portrait for
you.

_Goya._

CLVIII

It requires much more observation and study to arrive at perfection in
the shadowing of a picture than in merely drawing the lines of it. The
proof of this is, that the lines may be traced upon a veil or a flat
glass placed between the eye and the object to be imitated. But that
cannot be of any use in shadowing, on account of the infinite gradation
of shades, and the blending of them which does not allow of any precise
termination; and most frequently they are confused, as will be
demonstrated in another place.

_Leonardo._

LIGHT AND SHADE

CLIX

Forget not therefore that the principal part of Painting or Drawing
after the life consisteth in the truth of the line, as one sayeth in a
place that he hath seen the picture of her Majesty in four lines very
like, meaning by fo