OUTLINE IN PAINTING

A correspondent (J.O.W.H.) at p. 318. of Vol. i. asks a question on the subject of outline in painting; instancing the works of Albert Durer and Raffaelle as examples of defined, and those of Titian, Murillo, &c., of indefined outline. He wishes to know whether there is "a right and a wrong in the matter, apart from anything which men call taste?" The subject generally is a curious one, and has interested me for some time; as experiments exhibit several singular phenomena resulting from the interference and diffraction of rays of light in passing by the outline of a material body. As a matter…