The First Discourse 18
before him, not only acquires a habit of
exactness and precision, but is continually
advancing in his knowledge of the human
figure ; and though he seems to superficial
observers to make a slower progress, he will
be found at last capable of adding (without
running into capricious wildness) that grace
and beauty, which is necessary to be given
to his more finished works, and which can-
not be got by the moderns, as it was not
acquired by the ancients, but by an atten-
tive and well compared study of the human
form.
What I think ought to enforce this me-
thod is, that it has been the practice (as
may be seen by their drawings) of the great
Masters in the Art. I will mention a draw-
ing of Raffaelle, The Dispute of the Sacra-
ment, the print of which, by Count Cailus,
is in every hand. It appears, that he made
his sketch from one model ; and the habit
he had of drawing exactly from the form
before him appears by his making all the
figures with the same cap, such as his mo-
del then happened to wear ; so servile a
