[22] “For that Apelles,” &c.—Painting attained so great a perfection amongst the Greeks, under Zeuxis, that Apelles found nothing wanting but grace, which in those times he bestowed upon the art, as Corregio did after Raphael.
[23] “Here Jove in,” &c.—The Greeks excelled in the delineation of their deities, to whom they attributed all the human passions: their Jupiter they elevated to the highest degree of majesty, their Venus to the utmost pitch of human beauty.
[24] “E’en such as graceful Sculpture,” &c.—From Cimabue to Raphael, the painters were employed by the church; and they gave a character to the Prophets, Apostles, and our Saviour, which was never known to the ancient sculptors. The power which the former possessed of uniting dignity to humility is without a parallel.
[25] “Behold, in fulsome allegory,” &c.—As long as the French school adhered to the principles of the Italian school, it produced many great masters; however, the art certainly degenerated after Raphael, by being employed in adulatory allegory, in honour of Princes, as is to be seen in the works of Rubens and Le Brun at Paris, artists of great talents, which they were led to misapply, through the supreme vanity of Louis the Fourteenth.
[26] “And Europe’s plunder,” &c.—Those who have visited the Napoleon Gallery at Paris can attest the truth of this observation, as those who are acquainted with the modern state of painting in France well know, and, knowing, cannot but be surprised at, the small number of French painters of any tolerable celebrity.