DRAWING is the art of representing forms upon a flat surface, by means of any sort of instruments, such as pencils, chalks, and the like. It is also a word used to denote the forms or contours of the figures in compositions, or in sculpture generally. Thus we say that the drawing in a picture, or the drawing of a statue, or any other figure, is of a high or an inferior kind, good or bad.
History. This art is well known to be of the most remote antiquity, and it has been in use amongst the most barbarous and most civilized nations for a variety of purposes. The hieroglyphic figures, whether carved or painted, upon the ancient Egyptian obelisks and temples, the ornaments of the same description upon their buildings and sarcophagi, together with the like productions amongst the Mexicans, prove the ancient origin of the art. Some of the purest and best of the Egyptian sculptures, and particularly the figures of the harpers, described and illustrated by Bruce the traveller, exhibit a knowledge and correctness of taste in the art far surpassing what is usually admitted, and show that the Greek school in this, as well as in their other acquirements, was greatly indebted to the Egyptians for pointing out the road to that excellence of form and dignity of character and expression which their matchless works possess.
Greece and Rome. Although examples of drawings by the Greeks have not come down to us, their magnificent statues assure us that their proficiency in the art must have been of the highest
order; and certain expressions of Pliny, in describing their pictures, evidently indicate that the Greeks must have attained to the utmost excellence in drawing, at the period of their glory as a nation. It is not our intention to load this article with ancient historical information respecting the fine arts, otherwise many curious anecdotes might be introduced; but we cannot pass over the mention of Alexander's emotion on seeing a picture of Palamedes when betrayed by his friends, which forcibly reminded the hero of his own treatment of Aristonicus; nor can we refrain from noticing the picture of Agamemnon and Iphigenia by Timanthes, so highly extolled by Cicero Quintilian, Valerius Maximus, and Pliny, as satisfactory proofs of the excellence of the ancients in drawing and painting, as well as in their sculptures and architecture. From the emotions which the higher excellencies of the pictures by the Greek artists produced in these gifted men, a fair inference may be drawn as to the perfection to which the art must have attained at the period of Grecian glory; and consequently drawing, even in the confined sense of the word, must have also been in a corresponding state of advancement. Their principal schools were at Sicyon, Rhodes, Athens, and Corinth; and when Greece was subdued by the Romans, the conquerors, alive to the benefits to be derived from the sciences and arts, encouraged the cultivation of them in their own capital, to which the
Greek artists resorted, and laid the foundation of the Roman school.
From the conquests of Alaric and Attila in the fifth century, the arts lay prostrate and neglected, until their revival about the year 1450 at Florence, where Domenico Ghirlandaio, the master of Michel Angelo, practised painting with considerable reputation, which his pictures show he well merited.
We have now arrived at the golden age of the arts amongst the moderns, for Michel Angelo must be admitted to have been the first to discover and practise them with the classical discernment and skill which ultimately led him to the highest eminence amongst his contemporaries as a painter, a sculptor, an architect, and engineer, and deservedly placed his reputation on a level with the greatest names of antiquity. Till his time painters were considered as mere mechanics or labourers, and their employment was almost entirely confined to making representations of saints, and other figures used by the superstitious of the age. It was at this period, and surrounded by the wretched examples of such artists as Cimabue, Giotto, and others, that Michel Angelo, upon examining the torso of the Belvedere, instantly abandoned the barbarous taste and style of his master, and bounded into that sublime path which has been the admiration of all. "The poetry of the art," says Sir Joshua Reynolds, "he possessed in the most eminent degree; and the same daring spirit which first urged him to explore the unknown regions of the imagination, impelled him forward in his career beyond those limits which his followers, destitute of the same incentives, had not strength to pass. He was the bright luminary from whom painting has borrowed a new lustre, under whose hands it assumed a new appearance, and became another and superior art."
Raffaello Sanzio, the pupil of Pietro Perugino, was born on Good Friday in the year 1483, and died on Good Friday in the year 1520, so that he only lived thirty-seven years. He must be admitted to have surpassed all the moderns in drawing and painting, though his design does not possess those sublime conceptions to be found in the works of his rival Michel Angelo. Generally speaking, the choice of his subjects is simple and pleasing, for he cared not to grapple with those severe attitudes and expressions to be found in the works of his gifted contemporary; but his compositions are invariably correct and harmonious, and his drawing careful, elegant, and pure. It is to his school that we would recommend the student to look for those examples which will be of the greatest practical benefit to him in drawing; a circumstance which ought to be his first and principal aim.
It is not the proper place here to enter into the history of painting in Italy after its revival by the two great masters whose names and characteristic excellencies we have just mentioned. This we reserve for the article PAINTING; and we now proceed to explain the practical details of the management and manipulation of drawing in its various styles.
Drawing, as we have already stated, is that part of the art which represents the forms of objects upon a flat surface, and may be divided into outlining and shading; and as the chief attributes of almost all objects are embraced in the correctness of their forms, the student of art should labour with the utmost pains and assiduity in order to acquire severe accuracy in his outline, without which the most dexterous shading and finishing will be worse than thrown away.
In whatever department the genius of the student may lead him to practise, habits of correctness will be most successfully cultivated by drawing the human figure, the knowledge of which is the basis of all true excellence.
The study ought to be begun by copying the most simple parts, such as we have exhibited in Plates CXC., CXCI., CXCII., CXCIII.; and the greatest anxiety to attain accuracy in the gentle undulations of form ought to be evinced. We would recommend that perspective should be studied at the earliest stage of the pupil's practice. By means of a knowledge of its rules, which are simple, much time will be spared to the student, and excellence more speedily acquired than when directed only by his eye in the practice of drawing, whatever the object may be.
Although it matters little what the instrument may be Drawing which is used in the practice of drawing, yet, upon the whole, in chalk, we would recommend black and white chalks as the most to be preferred. They are easily procured, and convenient for use. They are usually fixed in an instrument of brass or steel, as represented below, the white chalk being placed at the one end, and the black at the other.
The paper should be slightly tinged with colour, so that the white chalk which is put upon the lights may tell properly. Crayon paper is the best. The outline being carefully made, first with charcoal as slightly as possible, and then corrected and smoothed with the black chalk, the shading may be executed as the taste of the student inclines. It may either be done with careful hatchings at particular angles, or in one solid smooth mass, or by a combination of both, which is probably the most advisable mode of practice. Too much attention to elaborate hatchings may divert the attention of the student from the more essential excellencies of the outline, and proper balance of light and shade; and a too careless manner in using his materials may lead to equal disadvantages, for in art, as in every thing else, carelessness in the beginning can never lead to excellence in the end. Much time in laying in the shadows may be spared by using an instrument called a stump, made of a piece of shamois leather rolled up in a cylindrical form, in a tight manner, tied round with thread, and shaped to a blunt point, as represented below.
A little chalk-powder may be dusted upon the shadow if extensive, and rubbed in with the instrument above described, and afterwards the part finished up with the chalk. The white chalk should not be used until the drawing is completed with the black, otherwise it is apt to get injured by admixture, which in no instance should be the case, for there ought always to be a space between the two chalks occupied by the tint of the paper.
The black chalk will be found to work very well upon white as well as coloured paper; but the process is more tedious, in consequence of all the middle or light tints having to be attended to and executed, which, in the case of the other paper, the tint produces. Errors in outline or shading may be rectified by rubbing out the defect with a piece of bread squeezed into a convenient shape between the finger and thumb.
After the student has acquired some degree of proficiency in using the chalk, and imitating any drawing or print which may be given him, he should next begin to copy from real substances, or what is technically termed drawing from "the round."
Here a wide field is opened up to him in the study of