To imitate the _Iliad_, says Dr. Young, is not imitating Homer, but
as Sir J. Reynolds adds, the more the artist studies nature "the nearer he
approaches to the true and perfect idea of art."
"Following these rules and using these precautions, when you have clearly
and distinctly learned in what good coloring consists, you cannot do
better than have recourse to Nature herself, who is always at hand, and in
comparison of whose true splendor the best colored pictures are but faint
and feeble." [1]
Art, indeed, must create as well as copy. As Victor Cousin well says, "The
ideal without the real lacks life; but the real without the ideal lacks
pure beauty. Both need to unite; to join hands and enter into alliance. In
this way the best work may be achieved. Thus beauty is an absolute idea,
and not a mere copy of imperfect Nature."
The grouping of the picture is of course of the utmost importance. Sir
Joshua Reynolds gives two remarkable cases to show how much any given
figure in a picture is affected by its surroundings.
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