“L’Art de peindre” (The Art of Painting) - 1760
by French writer and artist Claude-Henri-Watelet.
The poem is composed in four chants devoted in turn to Design, Colour, Picturesque Invention and Poetic Invention. It is followed by precepts in prose on Proportions, Ensemble, Balance or Weight and Movement of the figures, Beauty, Grace, Harmony of Light and Colours, Effects, and the Expression of the Passions. The second half of the work was decorated with his illustrative engravings and vignettes, for was a talented etcher: Denis Diderot said that if he had a copy of Watelet’s poem L’Art de peindre he would cut out the illustrations and frame them under glass, and throw the rest in the fire.
(Source: onlyartists)
