The text emphasizes the importance of developing a keen eye and practical skill in pencil drawing to master the art. It describes the plates of drawings by renowned academy masters, urging these to be used by students for practice. It also contrasts drawing from life with copying designs, highlighting the challenge of transitioning from two-dimensional to three-dimensional representation.
Principles
This passage discusses acquiring a keen eye, the habit, and the ease of handling the pencil, referred to as practice, which should be the main focus of one's study and time, if one wishes to make progress in the art of drawing.
In the third series (which includes the twelve plates from No. 25 to No. 36), it offers twelve academy figures defined from nature, mostly engraved by the most skilled Masters of the Academy; namely, Messrs. Bouchardon, Collin de Vermont, Tremolières, Carle Vanloo, Boucher, and Natoire. The fourth series contains twelve other academy plates, from No. 37 to No. 48, defined similarly from nature, and partly engraved by the same Academicians. Other academy figure plates are engraved by Messrs. Cochin senior, Aveline, Perronneau, and Soubeyran, all excellent engravers, who put effort into capturing the spirit that makes the original designs meritorious. These pieces can be given to young students for them to copy, until they are strong enough to fly with their own wings and work independently from the living model.
Of Drawing from Sculptures.
There is such a great difference between copying a design traced on paper, and drawing from nature on a flat surface of objects seen in round relief, that it is hardly possible to transition all at once.
Translation Notes:
"Dessein d'après nature" is translated as "drawing from nature", referring to the practice of sketching live subjects or natural forms as opposed to copying.
"De ronde bosse" means "in the round" or three-dimensional forms, comparing the difference between drawing flat images and three-dimensional objects.