ABSTRACT
Who to the life an exact piece would make, Must not from others’ work a copy take; No, not from Rubens or Vandyke: Much less content himself to make it like Th’ ideas and the images which lie In his own Fancy or his Memory. No: he before his sight must place The natural and living face; The real object must command Each judgement of his eye and motion of his hand.1 The true lesson to be learnt by our students and professors from the Elgin Marbles, is the one which the ingenious and honest Cowley has expressed in the above spirited lines. The great secret is to recur at every step to nature – To learnHer manner, and with rapture taste her style.2
