The text discusses the value of relief drawing and modeling in the artistic development of young painters, suggesting this practice aids the imagination. It notes that many accomplished painters were also skilled in both drawing and sculpting, enhancing their understanding of form and shade. Furthermore, it explains how light and shadow affect the perception of color and form in nature and painting, emphasizing the natural blending of colors and tones without artificial reinforcement.
METHOD FOR LEARNING
Bernard du Puy du Grez shares the same sentiment. It is not without reason, he says, that many advise young painters to make a few relief drawings and clay models, as clay or wax or some other material, as there is nothing that aids the imagination as much as this exercise, which seems necessarily common to both painters and sculptors. It is a way of drawing with a modeling tool: the Greeks called this manner 'plastica,' just as they referred to 'graphike' that which is done with a stylus or pencil. It has also been observed that most skilled painters have been equally good at both methods in their youth, and that some have been great painters and sculptors altogether. Additionally, or to put it better, the rays of this light are modified by the medium. This medium is the air which takes on different shades, depending on its amount and the vapors it carries; thereby it produces a light and subtle color, yet somewhat breaks all the local colors of objects in their illuminated parts. Thus sometimes the light appears a bit golden; sometimes it is silver, other times a little violet, and this aspect should enter into all lights and slightly break the local colors; by this means, the lights partake of each other, and the painting seems illuminated by the same light. However, in the shadows, known as half-tones in certain landscapes, the local colors remain whole or are broken so gently they appear unaltered, except by degrees of distance. Thus, one can assume as a principle that lights have a general tone they share, which doesn't destroy their true color, but mixes with it; half-tones reflect the object's true color, and colors gray and fade as they darken, and when they receive some reflected light, they mingle with their color that this light brings out again, and with the object's color sending the reflection. In nature, one can remark that a shadow appears darker next to strong light; this effect happens naturally in the painting, without the need to exaggerate the shadow because, in painting, a shadow seems more intense compared to the bright area it opposes.
(a) It is worth noting, however, that one of the two talents has always dominated.
Translation Notes
- "plastica" refers to modeling as done in sculpture, particularly in the creation of models and maquettes.
- "graphike" pertains to drawing or illustration using lines, typically with a stylus or pencil.