SECTION III.

OF TRUTH OF SKIES.

Chapter I.—Of the Open Sky.

[§ 1.]The peculiar adaptation of the sky to the pleasing and teaching of man.[204]
[§ 2.]The carelessness with which its lessons are received.[205]
[§ 3.]The most essential of these lessons are the gentlest.[205]
[§ 4.]Many of our ideas of sky altogether conventional.[205]
[§ 5.]Nature, and essential qualities of the open blue.[206]
[§ 6.]Its connection with clouds.[207]
[§ 7.]Its exceeding depth.[207]
[§ 8.]These qualities are especially given by modern masters.[207]
[§ 9.]And by Claude.[208]
[§ 10.]Total absence of them in Poussin. Physical errors in his general treatment of open sky.[208]
[§ 11.]Errors of Cuyp in graduation of color.[209]
[§ 12.]The exceeding value of the skies of the early Italian and Dutch schools. Their qualities are unattainable in modern times.[210]
[§ 13.]Phenomena of visible sunbeams. Their nature and cause.[211]
[§ 14.]They are only illuminated mist, and cannot appear when the sky is free from vapor, nor when it is without clouds.[211]
[§ 15.]Erroneous tendency in the representation of such phenomena by the old masters.[212]
[§ 16.]The ray which appears in the dazzled eye should not be represented.[213]
[§ 17.]The practice of Turner. His keen perception of the more delicate phenomena of rays.[213]
[§ 18.]The total absence of any evidence of such perception in the works of the old masters.[213]
[§ 19.]Truth of the skies of modern drawings.[214]
[§ 20.]Recapitulation. The best skies of the ancients are, in quality, inimitable, but in rendering of various truth, childish.[215]

Chapter II.—Of Truth of Clouds:—First, of the Region of the Cirrus.

[§ 1.]Difficulty of ascertaining wherein the truth of clouds consists.[216]
[§ 2.]Variation of their character at different elevations. The three regions to which they may conveniently be considered as belonging.[216]
[§ 3.]Extent of the upper region.[217]
[§ 4.]The symmetrical arrangement of its clouds.[217]
[§ 5.]Their exceeding delicacy.[218]
[§ 6.]Their number.[218]
[§ 7.]Causes of their peculiarly delicate coloring.[219]
[§ 8.]Their variety of form.[219]
[§ 9.]Total absence of even the slightest effort at their representation, in ancient landscape.[220]
[§ 10.]The intense and constant study of them by Turner.[221]
[§ 11.]His vignette, Sunrise on the Sea.[222]
[§ 12.]His use of the cirrus in expressing mist.[223]
[§ 13.]His consistency in every minor feature.[224]
[§ 14.]The color of the upper clouds.[224]
[§ 15.]Recapitulation.[225]

Chapter III.—Of Truth of Clouds:—Secondly, of the Central Cloud Region.

[§ 1.]Extent and typical character of the central cloud region.[226]
[§ 2.]Its characteristic clouds, requiring no attention nor thought for their representation, are therefore favorite subjects with the old masters.[226]
[§ 3.]The clouds of Salvator and Poussin.[227]
[§ 4.]Their essential characters.[227]
[§ 5.]Their angular forms and general decision of outline.[228]
[§ 6.]The composition of their minor curves.[229]
[§ 7.]Their characters, as given by S. Rosa.[230]
[§ 8.]Monotony and falsehood of the clouds of the Italian school generally.[230]
[§ 9.]Vast size of congregated masses of cloud.[231]
[§ 10.]Demonstrable by comparison with mountain ranges.[231]
[§ 11.]And consequent divisions and varieties of feature.[232]
[§ 12.]Not lightly to be omitted.[232]
[§ 13.]Imperfect conceptions of this size and extent in ancient landscape.[233]
[§ 14.]Total want of transparency and evanescence in the clouds of ancient landscape.[234]
[§ 15.]Farther proof of their deficiency in space.[235]
[§ 16.]Instance of perfect truth in the sky of Turner's Babylon.[236]
[§ 17.]And in his Pools of Solomon.[237]
[§ 18.]Truths of outline and character in his Como.[237]
[§ 19.]Association of the cirrostratus with the cumulus.[238]
[§ 20.]The deep-based knowledge of the Alps in Turner's Lake of Geneva.[238]
[§ 21.]Farther principles of cloud form exemplified in his Amalfi.[239]
[§ 22.]Reasons for insisting on the infinity of Turner's works. Infinity is almost an unerring test of all truth[239]
[§ 23.]Instances of the total want of it in the works of Salvator.[240]
[§ 24.]And of the universal presence of it in those of Turner. The conclusions which may be arrived at from it.[240]
[§ 25.]The multiplication of objects, or increase of their size, will not give the impression of infinity, but is the resource of novices.[241]
[§ 26.]Farther instances of infinity in the gray skies of Turner.[242]
[§ 27.]The excellence of the cloud-drawing of Stanfield.[242]
[§ 28.]The average standing of the English school.[243]

Chapter IV.—Of Truth of Clouds:—Thirdly, of the Region of the Rain-Cloud.

[§ 1.]The apparent difference in character between the lower and central clouds is dependent chiefly on proximity.[244]
[§ 2.]Their marked differences in color.[244]
[§ 3.]And in definiteness of form.[245]
[§ 4.]They are subject to precisely the same great laws.[245]
[§ 5.]Value, to the painter, of the rain-cloud.[246]
[§ 6.]The old masters have not left a single instance of the painting of the rain-cloud, and very few efforts at it. Gaspar Poussin's storms.[247]
[§ 7.]The great power of the moderns in this respect.[248]
[§ 8.]Works of Copley Fielding.[248]
[§ 9.]His peculiar truth.[248]
[§ 10.]His weakness, and its probable cause.[249]
[§ 11.]Impossibility of reasoning on the rain-clouds of Turner from engravings.[250]
[§ 12.]His rendering of Fielding's particular moment in the Jumieges.[250]
[§ 13.]Illustration of the nature of clouds in the opposed forms of smoke and steam.[250]
[§ 14.]Moment of retiring rain in the Llanthony.[251]
[§ 15.]And of commencing, chosen with peculiar meaning for Loch Coriskin.[252]
[§ 16.]The drawing of transparent vapor in the Land's End.[253]
[§ 17.]The individual character of its parts.[253]
[§ 18.]Deep-studied form of swift rain-cloud in the Coventry.[254]
[§ 19.]Compared with forms given by Salvator.[254]
[§ 20.]Entire expression of tempest by minute touches and circumstances in the Coventry.[255]
[§ 21.]Especially by contrast with a passage of extreme repose.[255]
[§ 22.]The truth of this particular passage. Perfectly pure blue sky only seen after rain, and how seen.[256]
[§ 23.]Absence of this effect in the works of the old masters.[256]
[§ 24.]Success of our water-color artists in its rendering. Use of it by Turner.[257]
[§ 25.]Expression of near rain-cloud in the Gosport, and other works.[257]
[§ 26.]Contrasted with Gaspar Poussin's rain-cloud in the Dido and Æneas.[258]
[§ 27.]Turner's power of rendering mist.[258]
[§ 28.]His effects of mist so perfect, that if not at once understood, they can no more be explained or reasoned on than nature herself.[259]
[§ 29.]Various instances.[259]
[§ 30.]Turner's more violent effects of tempest are never rendered by engravers.[260]
[§ 31.]General system of landscape engraving.[260]
[§ 32.]The storm in the Stonehenge.[260]
[§ 33.]General character of such effects as given by Turner. His expression of falling rain.[261]
[§ 34.]Recapitulation of the section.[261]
[§ 35.]Sketch of a few of the skies of nature, taken as a whole, compared with the works of Turner and of the old masters. Morning on the plains.[262]
[§ 36.]Noon with gathering storms.[263]
[§ 37.]Sunset in tempest. Serene midnight.[264]
[§ 38.]And sunrise on the Alps.[264]

Chapter V.—Effects of Light rendered by Modern Art.

[§ 1.]Reasons for merely, at present, naming, without examining the particular effects of light rendered by Turner.[266]
[§ 2.]Hopes of the author for assistance in the future investigation of them.[266]