Seven Discourses on Art | Page 5

other reason why an Empire like that of
Britain should so long have wanted an ornament so suitable to its
greatness than that slow progression of things which naturally makes
elegance and refinement the last effect of opulence and power.
An institution like this has often been recommended upon
considerations merely mercantile. But an academy founded upon such
principles can never effect even its own narrow purposes. If it has an
origin no higher, no taste can ever be formed in it which can be useful
even in manufactures; but if the higher arts of design flourish, these
inferior ends will be answered of course.
We are happy in having a prince who has conceived the design of such
an institution, according to its true dignity, and promotes the arts, as the
head of a great, a learned, a polite, and a commercial nation; and I can
now congratulate you, gentlemen, on the accomplishment of your long
and ardent wishes.
The numberless and ineffectual consultations that I have had with many
in this assembly, to form plans and concert schemes for an academy,
afford a sufficient proof of the impossibility of succeeding but by the
influence of Majesty. But there have, perhaps, been times when even
the influence of Majesty would have been ineffectual, and it is pleasing
to reflect that we are thus embodied, when every circumstance seems to
concur from which honour and prosperity can probably arise.
There are at this time a greater number of excellent artists than were
ever known before at one period in this nation; there is a general desire

among our nobility to be distinguished as lovers and judges of the arts;
there is a greater superfluity of wealth among the people to reward the
professors; and, above all, we are patronised by a monarch, who,
knowing the value of science and of elegance, thinks every art worthy
of his notice that tends to soften and humanise the mind.
After so much has been done by his Majesty, it will be wholly our fault
if our progress is not in some degree correspondent to the wisdom and,
generosity of the institution; let us show our gratitude in our diligence,
that, though our merit may not answer his expectations, yet, at least,
our industry may deserve his protection.
But whatever may be our proportion of success, of this we may be sure,
that the present institution will at least contribute to advance our
knowledge of the arts, and bring us nearer to that ideal excellence
which it is the lot of genius always to contemplate and never to attain.
The principal advantage of an academy is, that, besides furnishing able
men to direct the student, it will be a repository for the great examples
of the art. These are the materials on which genius is to work, and
without which the strongest intellect may be fruitlessly or deviously
employed. By studying these authentic models, that idea of excellence
which is the result of the accumulated experience of past ages may be
at once acquired, and the tardy and obstructed progress of our
predecessors may teach us a shorter and easier way. The student
receives at one glance the principles which many artists have spent
their whole lives in ascertaining; and, satisfied with their effect, is
spared the painful investigation by which they come to be known and
fixed. How many men of great natural abilities have been lost to this
nation for want of these advantages? They never had an opportunity of
seeing those masterly efforts of genius which at once kindle the whole
soul, and force it into sudden and irresistible approbation.
Raffaelle, it is true, had not the advantage of studying in an academy;
but all Rome, and the works of Michael Angelo in particular, were to
him an academy. On the site of the Capel la Sistina he immediately
from a dry, Gothic, and even insipid manner, which attends to the
minute accidental discriminations of particular and individual objects,

assumed that grand style of painting, which improves partial
representation by the general and invariable ideas of nature.
Every seminary of learning may be said to be surrounded with an
atmosphere of floating knowledge, where every mind may imbibe
somewhat congenial to its own original conceptions. Knowledge, thus
obtained, has always something more popular and useful than that
which is forced upon the mind by private precepts or solitary
meditation. Besides, it is generally found that a youth more easily
receives instruction from the companions of his studies, whose minds
are nearly on a level with his own, than from those who are much his
superiors; and it is from his equals only that he catches the fire of
emulation.
One advantage, I will venture to affirm, we shall have in our academy,
which