Section IV. Of Truth of Earth

Chapter I.—Of General Structure.

§ 1. First laws of the organization of the earth, and their importance in art.

§ 2. The slight attention ordinarily paid to them. Their careful study by modern artists.

§ 3. General structure of the earth. The hills are its action, the plains its rest.

§ 4. Mountains come out from underneath the plains, and are their support.

§ 5. Structure of the plains themselves. Their perfect level, when deposited by quiet water.

§ 6. Illustrated by Turner's Marengo.

§ 7. General divisions of formation resulting from this arrangement. Plan of investigation.

Chapter II.—Of the Central Mountains.

§ 1. Similar character of the central peaks in all parts of the world.

§ 2. Their arrangements in pyramids or wedges, divided by vertical fissures.

§ 3. Causing groups of rock resembling an artichoke or rose.

§ 4. The faithful statement of these facts by Turner in his Alps at Daybreak.

§ 5. Vignette of the Andes and others.

§ 6. Necessary distance, and consequent aerial effect on all such mountains.

§ 7. Total want of any rendering of their phenomena in ancient art.

§ 8. Character of the representations of Alps in the distances of Claude.

§ 9. Their total want of magnitude and aerial distance.

§ 10. And violation of specific form.

§ 11. Even in his best works.

§ 12. Farther illustration of the distant character of mountain chains.

§ 13. Their excessive appearance of transparency.

§ 14. Illustrated from the works of Turner and Stanfield. The Borromean Islands of the latter.

§ 15. Turner's Arona.

§ 16. Extreme distance of large objects always characterized by very sharp outline.

§ 17. Want of this decision in Claude.

§ 18. The perpetual rendering of it by Turner.

§ 19. Effects of snow, how imperfectly studied.

§ 20. General principles of its forms on the Alps.

§ 21. Average paintings of Switzerland. Its real spirit has scarcely yet been caught.

Chapter III.—Of the Inferior Mountains.

§ 1. The inferior mountains are distinguished from the central, by being divided into beds.

§ 2. Farther division of these beds by joints.

§ 3. And by lines of lamination.

§ 4. Variety and seeming uncertainty under which these laws are manifested.

§ 5. The perfect expression of them in Turner's Loch Coriskin.

§ 6. Glencoe and other works.

§ 7. Especially the Mount Lebanon.

§ 8. Compared with the work of Salvator.

§ 9. And of Poussin.

§ 10. Effects of external influence on mountain form.

§ 11. The gentle convexity caused by aqueous erosion.

§ 12. And the effect of the action of torrents.

§ 13. The exceeding simplicity of contour caused by these influences.

§ 14. And multiplicity of feature.

§ 15. Both utterly neglected in ancient art.

§ 16. The fidelity of treatment in Turner's Daphne and Leucippus.

§ 17. And in the Avalanche and Inundation.

§ 18. The rarity among secondary hills of steep slopes or high precipices.

§ 19. And consequent expression of horizontal distance in their ascent.

§ 20. Full statement of all these facts in various works of Turner.—Caudebec, etc.

§ 21. The use of considering geological truths.

§ 22. Expression of retiring surface by Turner contrasted with the work of Claude.

§ 23. The same moderation of slope in the contours of his higher hills.

§ 24. The peculiar difficulty of investigating the more essential truths of hill outline.

§ 25. Works of other modern artists.—Clarkson Stanfield.

§ 26. Importance of particular and individual truth in hill drawing.

§ 27. Works of Copley Fielding. His high feeling.

§ 28. Works of J. D. Harding and others.

Chapter IV.—Of the Foreground.

§ 1. What rocks were the chief components of ancient landscape foreground.

§ 2. Salvator's limestones. The real characters of the rock. Its fractures, and obtuseness of angles.

§ 3. Salvator's acute angles caused by the meeting of concave curves.

§ 4. Peculiar distinctness of light and shade in the rocks of nature.

§ 5. Peculiar confusion of both in the rocks of Salvator.

§ 6. And total want of any expression of hardness or brittleness.

§ 7. Instances in particular pictures.

§ 8. Compared with the works of Stanfield.

§ 9. Their absolute opposition in every particular.

§ 10. The rocks of J. D. Harding.

§ 11. Characters of loose earth and soil.

§ 12. Its exceeding grace and fulness of feature.

§ 13. The ground of Teniers.

§ 14. Importance of these minor parts and points.

§ 15. The observance of them is the real distinction between the master and the novice.

§ 16. Ground of Cuyp.

§ 17. And of Claude.

§ 18. The entire weakness and childishness of the latter.

§ 19. Compared with the work of Turner.

§ 20. General features of Turner's foreground.

§ 21. Geological structure of his rocks in the Fall of the Tees.

§ 22. Their convex surfaces and fractured edges.

§ 23. And perfect unity.

§ 24. Various parts whose history is told us by the details of the drawing.

§ 25. Beautiful instance of an exception to general rules in the Llanthony.

§ 26. Turner's drawing of detached blocks of weathered stone.

§ 27. And of complicated foreground.

§ 28. And of loose soil.

§ 29. The unison of all in the ideal foregrounds of the Academy pictures.

§ 30. And the great lesson to be received from all.