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Show 158 THE CODE OF TERPSICHORE. become downright nonsense, if the catastrophe which it describes had not already been represented. W e may be allowed to work up a subject that has already been treated on by others. History and fiction are open to all; the difficulty is, to know how to make a proper use of them ; when the attention of genius is drawn to any part of them, it is then alone we may expect to see them successfully employed. j^Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes, Corneille, Racine, Voltaire, Metastasio, Zeno, and Alfieri, have often written on the same subject; but each has made it different by giving it after his own peculiar style and genius. The same observation may be made with respect to the great masters in painting. The tale of Psych4 has been handled by Raphael, Gerard, Errante, and Appiani; that of Galatea by Raphael, An. Carracci, and L. Albano; Aurora was painted by Guido, Guercino, and L e Brun. D. de Volterra, Carracci, Guido, Tintoretto, and Rubens have all employed themselves upon the subject of Goliath; the Slaughter of the Innocents has occupied the talents of Raphael, Poussin, Rossi, Rubens, Gioseppino, and Le Brun. G. Campi, fearless of the rivalry of Titian, painted the Assumption, and in this masterpiece perfectly imitated the Venetian artist. Numerous other subjects were considered by the great masters as common property. Each embellished the same history or fable differently to the other, by introducing some new circumstance, or by adorning it with some beautiful episode; which traits of distinction would have been lost to us without this sort of emulation. Hence it appears that as often as the same subject falls into the hands of genius, it may be adorned by novelty and variety. This is a sort of exercise of emulation very advantageous to young artists, since it gives rise to comparisons between their respective productions; faults are thus almost |