Pictor in fabula

Deception follows glare; attemps to substitute, by form or colour, the image for the thing, always marks the puerility of taste, though sometimes its decrepitude. The microscropic precision of Denner, and even the fastidious, though broader detail of Gerard Dow, were symptoms of its dotage. The contest of Zeuxis and Parrhasius, if not a frolic, was an effort of puerile dexterity. But deception, though as its ultimate pitch never more than the successful mimicry of absent objects, and for itself below the aim of art, is the mother of imitation. We must penetrate the substances of things, acquaint ourselves with their peculiar hue and texture, and colour them in detail, before we can hope to seize their principle and give their general air.