The art of painting according to the theory and practise of the best Italian, French, and Germane masters. Treating of the antiquity of painting. The reputation it always had. The characters of several masters. Proportion. Action and passion. The effects of light. Perspective. Draught. Colouring. Ordonnance. Far more compleat and compendious then hath yet been publisht by any, antient or modern. The second edition. By M.S. gent.

CAP. XV. (Book 15)

Of Action and Passion.

THe Passions of the Minde are certain Motions, proceed∣ing from the Apprehension of Something: and are either Sensitive, Rationall or Intellectual. Sensitive is, when we con∣sider Good and Evil as Profitable or Unprofitable, Pleasant or Of∣fensive. Rational, when we Confider good and Evil as Virtue or Vice; Prayse or Disprayse; and Intellectual, when we re∣gard them as True or False.

The Inferiour Pow'rs of the Mind, may be consider'd under these two Heads Desire and Anger. The Desiring part consi∣dereth Good and Bad absolutely, and thence causeth Liking or Hatred, or otherwise Respects Good as Absent, whence raiseth Desire. Or Evil as Absent whence is bred Fear, Dread, &c. or both as Present, and thence Procedeth Joy or Grief.

The Angry Faculty considereth Good and Evil as it may with ease be Attain'd or Auoided; and from thence arise, Con∣sidence and Hope; sometimes it moves to Revenge, and some∣times excites Audacity, and sometimes causeth Distrust and then Desperation.

By divers Passions also is the Temperature of the Body alter'd, in Mirth the Spirits are inlarged; in Fear con∣tracted. Love breeds sundry Colours somtimes Red somtimes Pale. Anxiety Causeth Draught and Blackness. Mercifullness. produ∣ceth a certain Heaviness. and sometimes Injures the Person so Affected. Fear brings Coldness, Paleness, Fainting of the Voice, the Panting of the Heart, &c. Heaviness causeth Sweating and Paleness. In Bashfullness the Spirits fly to the Brain; in Joy, the Heart is extended by Degrees; in Displeasure it is drawn in Gradually.

Bodys are likewise affected with Passions according to their several Constitutions and Complections.

Those of a Sanguine Complection are for the most part, Gentle, Merry, Modest, Gracious, Generous, Affable and are given to Love, Pleasure, Desire, Hope, &c. which are the Passions of Delight and a Quiet Minde.

The Flegmatick are addicted to Mercifullness, Simplicity, Humility, Timidity, their Bodys usually induc'd to incline downwards and their Limbs to dilate and of a Heavy motion, and apt to swag; whereas the Sanguine are more Upright and Move more Firm.

The Cholerick, are Usually Bold, Feirce, Boisterous, Violent, Arrogant and Humerous, they are addicted to Anger and Hatred, their Limbs move upwards, apt to turn, start, shake, &c. their Parts inlarg'd with Heat, the Flesh inflam'd with Redness, but more especially their Eyes.

The Melancholly are Slow, Sluggish, Restrain'd in their Acti∣ons, and Unweildie; given to Disquietness, Stubborness, Anxiety, Sadness, Horrour, Despair, &c. their Limbs apt to hang and decline as if benumb'd with Cold.

The Artist is therefore diligently to observe that he is not only to show the Passion by Contraction, Dilation, &c. of Features, but likewise to adapt a Complexion sutable to the Character the Figure is to bare in the Design, whither a Soldier, a Lover, a Pe∣nitent, &c. as for Example.

A Martialist should have a Meager Body with large rays'd and hard Limbs, Great Bones well Knit with Joynts, the Com∣plexion Swarthy with an adust, Red, large Eyes, Yellowish like

a Flame of Fire, wide Nostrels, a wide Mouth, thick and pur∣plelish Lips, small Ears, a square Chin, White Teeth, a darkish Hair but tending to a fiery Red, with stiff and Curl'd Locks, a Violent strong Voice and Shrill, in some Robust Posture or Exercise.

Thus he that can express the Propertys of one Complection may easily conceive of the Rest, since all Natural Things have a Cor∣respondency in Method, Form, Proportion, Nature, aad Motion; which Philosophically understood bring a Certain knowledg of all Passion and Action to be imagin'd in Bodys.

For most Certain it is that those Passions of the Minde, whence these Externall Actions flow, discover themselves more or less as the Bodys have Affinity with any of the four Complections ari∣sing from the four Elements.

Yet Ptolomie, the Hebrews, Aegyptians, Arabians likewise Albertus Magnus, with some late Philosophers affirm, that our Passions & Affections proceed from a Natural Instinct and Inclina∣tion of the Superiour Bodys (the Planets) but Sapiens Dominabi∣ter Astris.