But as the subject supposed is one never treated in painting; only
instanced, in fact, to exemplify an extreme; let us consider the
merits of a subject really practical, such as 'dead game,' or 'a
basket of fruit;' and the first general idea such a subject will
excite is simply that of _food_, 'something to eat.' For though fruit
on the tree, or a pheasant in the air, is a portion of nature and
properly belongs to the section, 'Landscape,' a division of art
intellectual enough; yet gather the fruit or bring down the pheasant,
and you presently bring down the poetry with it; and although Sterne
could sentimentalize upon a dead ass; and though a dead pheasant in
the larder, or a dead sheep at a butcher's, may excite feelings akin
to anything but good living; and though they may _there_ be the
excitive causes of poetical, nay, or moral reflexion; yet, see them
on the canvass, and the first and uppermost idea will be that of
'_Food_,' and how, in the name of decency, they ever came there. It
will be vain to argue that gathered fruit is only nature under a
certain phase, and that a dead sheep or a dead pheasant is only a
dead animal like a dead ass--it will be pitiably vain and miserable
sophistry, since we know that the dead pheasant in a picture will
always be as _food_, while the same at he poulterer's will be but a
dead pheasant.
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