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Article: Loyal Subjects? Exhibiting the Hero of James Northcote's Death of Wat Tyler
- Article from:
- Visual Culture in Britain
- Article date:
- January 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Manchester University Press 2007. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Those who look at exhibited pictures are generally persons who at the time seek amusement, and will not subject themselves to any trouble; if they can comprehend the subject at first sight, well and good; if not, they will pass on to another picture. It is therefore necessary to make the story distinctly, to have a fine effect of light and shade, and everything that facilitates their seeing and comprehending the picture . . . Many persons, doubtless, will fancy that they see in a picture what they are told to see. But the picture and the catalogue will soon get separated; the painting will then have to rest on its own merits, and will soon find its own level.1
At the Royal Academy ...