 ... virtue, nor excite it. Genius is chiefly exerted in historical pictures ; and the art of the painter of portraits is often lost in the obscurity of his subject. But it is in painting as in life ; what is greatest is not always best. I should grieve...  The London Quarterly Review - Page 3781828Full view - About this book
 | Sir Joshua Reynolds - Art - 1909 - 518 pages
...obscurity of his subject. But it is in painting as in life ; what is greatest is not always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to goddesses, to empty splendour and to airy fictiou, that art which is now employed in diffusmg friendship, m renewing tenderness, in quickening... | |
 | Samuel Johnson - 1909 - 562 pages
...splendor and to airy fiction, that art which is now employed in diffusing friendship, in re- 10 viving tenderness, in quickening the affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead. Yet in a nation great and opulent there is room, and ought to be patronage, for an art like that of... | |
 | Samuel Johnson - English literature - 1909 - 562 pages
...obscurity of his subject. But it is in painting as in life, what is greatest is not always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and to goddesses, to empty splendor and to airy fiction, that art which is now employed in diffusing friendship, in re- 10 viving... | |
 | Joshua James Foster - Art - 1926 - 362 pages
...Johnson, makes ' Miniature Art so valuable in diffusing friendship, in reviving tenderness, in awakening the affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead.' JJ FOSTER. • ALDWICK,' SUTTOH, SUBBET. Christmas, 1922. ABBREVIATIONS The following are the principal... | |
 | Oliver Elton - English literature - 1928 - 444 pages
...the art of portraiture, which Johnson touches on its human side ; the work of Reynolds, he says, is ' quickening the affections of the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead ' ; and he would grieve to see bim ' transfer ' his skill to ' heroes and goddesses, to empty splendour... | |
 | Bruce Haley - Literary Criticism - 2003 - 322 pages
...them, Dr. Johnson had insisted to Reynolds, for "diffusing friendship . . . renewing tenderness . . . quickening the affections of the absent and continuing the presence of the dead." 12 These remarks point up a central paradox about the painted likeness: it depicts a living figure,... | |
 | Martin Myrone - Health & Fitness - 2005 - 408 pages
...obscurity of his subject. But it is in painting as in life; what is greatest is not always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and...the absent, and continuing the presence of the dead. Yet in a nation great and opulent there is room, and ought to be patronage, for an art like that of... | |
 | Christopher Kent Rovee - Literary Criticism - 2006 - 284 pages
...generate an affective intensity that is diff1cult to transcend. Samuel Johnson defends their usefulness in "quickening the affections of the absent and continuing the presence of the dead," and yet, for this very reason, portraits can prove vexing to the romantic subject by challenging the... | |
 | 1841 - 520 pages
...he has left us. " It is in painting," he eays, " as in life, what is greatest is not always best. I should grieve to see Reynolds transfer to heroes and...which is now employed in diffusing friendship, in renewing tenderness, in quickening the aflcctions of the absent, and continuing the presence of the... | |
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