It is not to be supposed that these two celebrated Artists were at all times successful.  Like other men, they had their moments of weakness, when they fell into manner, and gave us diagrams, instead of life.  Perhaps no one, however, had fewer lapses of this nature than Raffaelle; and yet they are to be found in some of his best works.  We shall notice now only one instance,—­the figure of St. Catherine in the admirable picture of the Madonna di Sisto; in which we see an evident rescript from the Antique, with all the received lines of beauty, as laid down by the analyst,—­apparently faultless, yet without a single inflection which the mind can recognize as allied to our sympathies; and we turn from it coldly, as from the work of an artificer, not of an Artist.  But not so can we turn from the intense life, that seems almost to breathe upon us from the celestial group of the Virgin and her Child, and from the Angels below:  in these we have the evidence of the divine afflatus,—­of inspired Art.

In the works of Michael Angelo it were easy to point out numerous examples of a similar failure, though from a different cause; not from mechanically following the Antique, but rather from erecting into a model the exaggerated shadow of his own practice; from repeating lines and masses that might have impressed us with grandeur but for the utter absence of the informing soul.  And that such is the character—­or rather want of character—­of many of the figures in his Last Judgment cannot be gainsaid by his warmest admirers,—­among whom there is no one more sincere than the present writer.  But the failures of great men are our most profitable lessons,—­provided only, that we have hearts and heads to respond to their success.

In conclusion.  We have now arrived at what appears to us the turning-point, that, by a natural reflux, must carry us back to our original Position; in other words, it seems to us clear, that the result of the argument is that which was anticipated in our main Proposition; namely, that no given number of Standard Forms can with certainty apply to the Human Being; that all Rules therefore, thence derived, can only be considered as Expedient Fictions, and consequently subject to be overruled by the Artist,—­in whose mind alone is the ultimate Rule; and, finally, that without an intimate acquaintance with Nature, in all its varieties of the moral, intellectual, and physical, the highest powers are wanting in their necessary condition of action, and are therefore incapable of supplying the Rule.

Composition.

The term Composition, in its general sense, signifies the union of things that were originally separate:  in the art of Painting it implies, in addition to this, such an arrangement and reciprocal relation of these materials, as shall constitute them so many essential parts of a whole.

In a true Composition of Art will be found the following characteristics:—­First, Unity of Purpose, as expressing the general sentiment or intention of the Artist.  Secondly, Variety of Parts, as expressed in the diversity of shape, quantity, and line.  Thirdly, Continuity, as expressed by the connection of parts with each other, and their relation to the whole.  Fourthly, Harmony of Parts.