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![French academy at Rome first made use of for copying antiques,
was applied by many even to modelled performances.
Over the statue which you want to copy, you fix a well-
proportioned square, dividing it into equally distant degrees, by
plummets: by these the outlines of the figure are more distinctly
marked than they could possibly be by means of the former method:
they moreover afford the artist an exact measure of the more
prominent or lower parts, by the degrees in which these parts are
near them, and in short, allow him to go on with more confidence.
But the undulations of a curve being not determinable by a single
perpendicular, the Contours of the figure are but indifferently
indicated to the artist; and among their many declinations from a
straight surface, his tenour is every moment lost.
The difficulty of discovering the real proportions of the figures,
may also be easily imagined: they seek them by horizontals placed
across the plummets. But the rays reflected from the figure through
the squares, will strike the eye in enlarged angles, and consequently
appear bigger, in proportion as they are high or low to the point of
view.
Nevertheless, as the ancient monuments must be most cautiously
dealt with, plummets are still of use in copying them, as no surer or
easier method has been discovered: but for performances to be
done from models they are unfit for want of precision.
Michael Angelo went alone a way unknown before him, and
(strange to tell!) untrod since the time of that genius of modern
sculpture.
This Phidias of latter times, and next to the Greeks, hath, in all
probability, hit the very mark of his great masters. We know at least
no method so eminently proper for expressing on the block every,
even the minutest, beauty of the model.
Vasari[13] seems to give but a defective description of this
method, viz. Michael Angelo took a vessel filled with water, in which](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-18-2048.jpg)
![his transfiguration, &c. the judgment of such a man, I fancy, must
be allowed to be decisive.
Another of my acquaintance has studied antiquity: he knows it by
the very smell;
Callet & Artificem solo deprendere Odore.
Sectan. Sat.
He can tell you the number of knots on Hercules’s club; has reduced
Nestor’s goblet to the modern measure: nay, is suspected of
meditating solutions to all the questions proposed by Tiberius to the
grammarians.
A third, for several years past, has neglected every thing but
hunting after ancient coins. Many a new discovery we owe to him;
especially some concerning the history of the ancient coiners; and,
as I am told, he is to rouse the attention of the world by a
Prodromus concerning the coiners of Cyzicum.
What a number of reproaches might you have escaped, had you
submitted your Essay to the judgment of these gentlemen! they
were pleased to acquaint me with their objections, and I should be
sorry, for your honour, to see them published.
Among other objections, the first is surprized at your passing by
the two Angels, in your description of the Raphael in the royal
cabinet at Dresden; having been told, that a Bolognese painter, in
mentioning this piece, which he saw at St. Sixtus’s at Piacenza,
breaks into these terms of admiration: O! what Angels of
Paradise[14]! by which he supposes those Angels to be the most
beautiful figures of the picture.
The same person would reproach you for having described that
picture in the manner of Raguenet[15].
The second concludes the beard of Laocoon to be as worthy of
your attention as his contracted belly: for every admirer of Greek](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-29-2048.jpg)
![works, says he, must pay the same respect to the beard of Laocoon,
which father Labat paid to that of the Moses of Michael Angelo.
This learned Dominican,
Qui mores hominum multorum vidit & urbes,
has, after so many centuries, drawn from this very statue an evident
proof of the true fashion in which Moses wore his own individual
beard, and whose imitation must, of course, be the distinguishing
mark of every true Jew[16].
There is not the least spark of learning, says he, in your remarks
on the Peplon of the three vestals: he might perhaps, on the very
inflection of the veil, have discovered to you as many curiosities as
Cuper himself found on the edge of the veil of Tragedy in the
Apotheosis of Homer[17].
We also want proof of the vestals being really Greek
performances: our reason fails us too often in the most obvious
things. If unhappily the marble of these figures should be proved to
be no Lychnites, they are lost, and your treatise too: had you but
slightly told us their marble was large-grained, that would have been
a sufficient proof of their authenticity; for it would be somewhat
difficult to determine the bigness of the grains with such exactness
as to distinguish the Greek marble from the Roman of Luna. But the
worst is, they are even denied the title of vestals.
The third mentioned some heads of Livia and Agrippina, without
that pretended profile of yours. Here he thinks you had the most
lucky occasion to talk of that kind of nose by the ancients called
Quadrata, as an ingredient of beauty. But you no doubt know, that
the noses of some of the most famous Greek statues, viz. the
Medicean Venus, and the Picchinian Meleager, are much too thick for
becoming the model of beauty, in that kind, to our artists.
I shall not, however, gall you with all the doubts and objections
raised against your treatise, and repeated to nauseousness, upon](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-30-2048.jpg)
![the arrival of an Academician, the Margites of our days, who, being
shewed your treatise, gave it a slight glance, then laid it aside,
offended as it were at first sight. But it was easy to perceive that he
wanted his opinion to be asked, which we accordingly all did. “The
author, said he very peremptorily, seems not to have been at much
pains with this treatise: I cannot find above four or five quotations,
and those negligently inserted; no chapter, no page, cited; he
certainly collected his remarks from books which he is ashamed to
produce.”
Yet cannot I help introducing another gentleman, sharp-sighted
enough to pick out something that had escaped all my attention; viz.
that the Greeks were the first inventors of Painting and Sculpture; an
assertion, as he was pleased to express himself, entirely false,
having been told it was the Egyptians, or some people still more
ancient, and unknown to him.
Even the most whimsical humour may be turned to profit:
nevertheless, I think it manifest that you intended to talk only of
good Taste in those arts; and the first Elements of an art have the
same proportion to good Taste in it, as the seed has to the fruit.
That the art was still in its infancy among the Egyptians, when it had
attained the highest degree of perfection among the Greeks, may be
seen by examining one single gem: you need only consider the head
of Ptolomæus Philopator by Aulus, and the two figures adjoining to it
done by an Egyptian[18], in order to be convinced of the little merit
this nation could pretend to in point of art.
The form and taste of their Painting have been ascertained by
Middleton.[19] The pictures of persons as big as life, on two
mummies in the royal cabinet of antiquities at Dresden, are evident
instances of their incapacity. But these relicks being curious, in
several other respects, I shall hereafter subjoin a short account of
them.
I cannot, my friend, help allowing some reason for several of
these objections. Your negligence in your quotations was, no doubt,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-31-2048.jpg)
![somewhat prejudicial to your authenticity: the art of changing blue
eyes to black ones, certainly deserved an authority. You imitate
Democritus; who being asked, “What is man?” every body knows
what was his reply. What reasonable creature will submit to read all
Greek scholiasts!
Ibit eo, quo vis, qui Zonam perdidit—
Hor.
Considering, however, how easily the human mind is biassed, either
by friendship or animosity, I took occasion from these objections to
examine your treatise with more exactness; and shall now, by the
most impartial censure, strive to clear myself from every imputation
of prepossession in your favour.
I will pass by the first and second page, though something might
be said on your comparison of the Diana with the Nausicaa, and the
application: nor would it have been amiss, had you thrown some
more light on the remark concerning the misused pictures of
Corregio (very likely borrowed from Count Tessin’s letters), by giving
an account of the other indignities which the pictures of the best
artists, at the same time, met with at Stockholm.
It is well known that, after the surrender of Prague to Count
Konigsmark, the 15th of July 1648, the most precious pictures of the
Emperor Rodolph II. were carried off to Sweden[20]. Among these
were some pictures of Corregio, which the Emperor had been
presented with by their first possessor, Duke Frederick of Mantua;
two of them being the famous Leda, and a Cupid handling his
bow[21]. Christina, endowed at that time rather with scholastic
learning than taste, treated these treasures as the Emperor Claudius
did an Alexander of Apelles; who ordered the head to be cut off, and
that of Augustus to fill its place[22]. In the same manner heads,
hands, feet were here cut off from the most beautiful pictures; a
carpet was plastered over with them, and the mangled pieces fitted
up with new heads, &c. Those that fortunately escaped the common](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-32-2048.jpg)
![non temere a me
Quivis ferret idem:
Hor.
but let us now begin a formal trial.
The author talks of certain negligences in the Greek works, which
ought to be considered suitably to Lucian’s precepts concerning the
Zeus of Phidias: “Zeus himself, not his footstool;”[23] though perhaps
he could not be charged with any fault in the foot-stool, but with a
very grievous one in the statue.
Is it no fault that Phidias made his Zeus of so enormous a bulk, as
almost to reach the cieling of the temple, which must infallibly have
been thrown down, had the god taken it in his head to rise?[24] To
have left the temple without any cieling at all, like that of the
Olympian Jupiter at Athens, had been an instance of more
judgment[25].
’Tis but justice to claim an explication of what the author means
by “negligences”. He perhaps might be pleased to get a passport,
even for the faults of the ancients, by sheltering them under the
authority of such titles; nay, to change them into beauties, as
Alcæus did the spot on the finger of his beloved boy. We too often
view the blemishes of the ancients, as a parent does those of his
children:
Strabonem
Appellat pætum pater, & pullum, male parvus
Si cui filius est.
Hor.
If these negligences were like those wished for in the Jalysus of
Protogenes, where the chief figure was out-shone by a partridge,
they might be considered as the agreeable negligée of a fine lady;
but this is the question. Besides, had the author consulted his](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-34-2048.jpg)
![interest, he never would have ventured citing the Diomedes of
Dioscorides: but being too well acquainted with that gem, one of the
most valued, most finished monuments of Greek art; and being
apprehensive of the prejudice that might arise against the meaner
productions of the ancients, on discovering many faults in one so
eminent as Diomedes; he endeavoured to keep matters from being
too nearly examined, and to soften every fault into negligence.
How! if by argument I shall attempt to shew that Dioscorides
understood neither perspective, nor the most trivial rules of the
motion of a human body; nay, that he offended even against
possibility? I’ll venture to do it, though
incedo per ignes
Suppositos cineri doloso.
Hor.
And perhaps I am not the first discoverer of his faults: yet I do not
remember to have seen any thing relative to them.
The Diomedes of Dioscorides is either a sitting, or a rising figure;
for the attitude is ambiguous. It is plain he is not sitting; and rising
is inconsistent with his action.
Our body endeavouring to raise itself from a seat, moves always
mechanically towards its sought-for centre of gravity, drawing back
the legs, which were advanced in sitting[26]; instead of which the
figure stretches out his right leg. Every erection begins with elevated
heels, and in that moment all the weight of the body is supported
only by the toes, which was observed by Felix[27], in his Diomedes:
but here all rests on the sole.
Nor can Diomedes, (if we suppose him to be a sitting figure, as he
touches with his left leg the bottom of his thigh) find, in raising
himself, the centre of his gravity, only by a retraction of his legs, and
of course cannot rise in that posture. His left hand resting upon the
bended leg, holds the palladion, whilst his right touches negligently](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-35-2048.jpg)
![the pedestal with the point of a short sword; consequently he cannot
rise, neither moving his legs in the natural and easy manner required
in any erection, nor making use of his arms to deliver himself from
that uneasy situation.
There is at the same time a fault committed against the rules of
perspective.
The foot of the left bended leg, touching the cornice of the
pedestal, shews it over-reaching that part of the floor, on which the
pedestal and the right foot are situated, consequently the line
described by the hinder-foot is the fore on the gem, and vice versa.
But allowing even a possibility to that situation, it is contrary to
the Greek character, which is always distinguished by the natural and
easy. Attributes neither to be met with in the contortions of
Diomedes, nor in an attitude, the impossibility of which every one
must be sensible of, in endeavouring to put himself in it, without the
help of former sitting.
Felix, supposed to have lived after Dioscorides, though preserving
the same attitude, has endeavoured to make its violence more
natural, by opposing to him the figure of Ulysses, who, as we are
told, in order to bereave him of the honour of having seized the
Palladion, offered to rob him of it, but being discovered, was
repulsed by Diomedes; which being his supposed action on the gem,
allows violence of attitude[28].
Diomedes cannot be a sitting figure, for the Contour of his buttock
and thigh is free, and not in the least compressed: the foot of the
bent leg is visible, and the leg itself not bent enough.
The Diomedes represented by Mariette is absurd; the left leg
resembling a clasped pocket-knife, and the foot being drawn up so
high as to make it impossible in nature that it should reach the
pedestal[29].
Faults of this kind cannot be called negligences, and would not be
forgiven in any modern artist.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-36-2048.jpg)
![Dioscorides, ’tis true, in this renowned performance did but copy
Polycletus, whose Doryphorus (as is commonly agreed) was the best
rule of human proportions[30]. But, though a copyist, Dioscorides
escaped a fault which his master fell into. For the pedestal, over
which the Diomedes of Polycletus leans, is contrary to the most
common rules of perspective; its cornices, which should be parallel,
forming two different lines.
I wonder at Perrault’s omitting to make objections against the
ancient gems.
I mean not to do any thing derogatory to the author, when I trace
some of his particular observations to their source.
The food prescribed to the young wrestlers, in the remoter times
of Greece, is mentioned by Pausanias[31]. But if the author alluded
to the passage which I have in view, why does he talk in general of
milk-food, when Pausanias particularly mentions soft cheese?
Dromeus of Stymphilos, we learn there, first introduced flesh meat.
My researches, concerning their mysterious art of changing blue
eyes to black ones, have not succeeded to my wish. I find it
mentioned but once, and that only by the bye by Dioscorides[32].
The author, by clearing up this art, might perhaps have thrown a
greater lustre over his treatise, than by producing his new method of
statuary. He had it in his power to fix the eyes of the Newtons and
Algarotti’s, on a problem worth their attention, and to engage the
fair sex, by a discovery so advantageous to their charms, especially
in Germany, where, contrary to Greece, large, fine, blue eyes are
more frequently met with than black ones.
There was a time when the fashion required to be green eyed:
Et si bel oeil vert & riant & clair:
Le Sire de Coucy, chans.
But I do not know whether art had any share in their colouring. And
as to the small-pox, Hippocrates might be quoted, if grammatical](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-37-2048.jpg)
![disquisitions suited my purpose.
However, I think, no effects of the small-pox on a face can be so
much the reverse of beauty, as that defect which the Athenians were
reproachfully charged with, viz. a buttock as pitiful as their face was
perfect[33]. Indeed Nature, in so scantily supplying those parts,
seemed to derogate as much from the Athenian beauty, as, by her
lavishness, from that of the Indian Enotocets, whose ears, we are
told, were large enough to serve them for pillows.
As for opportunities to study the nudities, our times, I think, afford
as advantageous ones as the Gymnasies of the ancients. ’Tis the
fault of our artists to make no use of that[34] proposed to the
Parisian artists, viz. to walk, during the summer season, along the
Seine, in order to have a full view of the naked parts, from the sixth
to the fiftieth year.
’Tis perhaps to Michael Angelo’s frequenting such opportunities
that we owe his celebrated Carton of the Pisan war[35], where the
soldiers bathing in a river, at the sound of a trumpet leap out of the
water, and make haste to huddle on their cloaths.
One of the most offensive passages of the treatise is, no doubt,
the unjust debasement of the modern sculptors beneath the
ancients. These latter times are possessed of several Glycons in
muscular heroic figures, and, in tender youthful female bodies, of
more than one Praxiteles. Michael Angelo, Algardi, and Sluter, whose
genius embellished Berlin, produced muscular bodies,
——Invicti membra Glyconis,
Hor.
in a style rivalling that of Glycon himself; and in delicacy the Greeks
are perhaps even outdone by Bernini, Fiammingo, Le Gros,
Rauchmüller, Donner.
The unskilfulness of the ancients, in shaping children, is agreed
upon by our artists, who, I suppose, would for imitation choose a](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/4531-250704120108-1dbb0625/75/Auditing-and-Assurance-Services-7th-Edition-Louwers-Solutions-Manual-38-2048.jpg)
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- 5. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-2 © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-2 Solutions Manual SOLUTIONS FOR REVIEW CHECKPOINTS 2.1 Generally accepted auditing standards are auditing standards that identify necessary qualifications and characteristics of auditors and guide the conduct of the audit examination. The purpose of generally accepted auditing standards is to meet the following objectives of an audit examination: • To obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. • To issue a report on the financial statements 2.2 Currently, the PCAOB is responsible for developing standards for the audits of public entities, while the AICPA is responsible for developing standards for the audits of nonpublic entities. 2.3 The AICPA (through the Auditing Standards Board) has responsibility for setting standards for the audits of nonpublic entities. This is done through the issuance of Statements on Auditing Standards. The PCAOB has responsibility for setting standards for the audits of public entities. This is done through the PCAOB’s issuance of Auditing Standards. While the SEC does not have responsibility for setting auditing standards per se, all PCAOB standards must be approved by the SEC. 2.4 The three fundamental principles are: 1. Responsibilities, which involves having appropriate competence and capabilities, complying with relevant ethical requirements, maintaining professional skepticism and exercising professional judgment. 2. Performance, which requires auditors to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free of material misstatement by: (1) planning the work and properly supervising assistants; (2) determining and applying appropriate material levels; (3) identifying and assessing the risk of material misstatement; and, (4) obtaining sufficient appropriate audit evidence. 3. Reporting, which requires the auditor to express an opinion (or state that an opinion cannot be expressed) as to whether the financial statements are presented fairly in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework. 2.5 Independence in fact represents auditors’ mental attitudes (do auditors truly act in an unbiased and impartial fashion with respect to the client and fairness of its financial statements?). Independence in appearance relates to financial statement users’ perceptions of auditors’ independence. Auditors can be independent in fact but not perceived to be independent. For example, ownership of a small interest in a public client would probably not influence auditors’ behavior with respect to the client. However, it is likely that third-party users would not perceive auditors to be independent. 2.6 Due care reflects a level of performance that would be exercised by reasonable auditors in similar circumstances. Auditors are expected to have the skills and knowledge of others in their profession (known as that of a prudent auditor) and are not expected to be infallible.
- 6. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-3 © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-3 Solutions Manual 2.7 Professional skepticism is a state of mind that is characterized by appropriate questioning and a critical assessment of audit evidence. Professional judgment is the auditors’ application of relevant training, knowledge, and experience in making informed decisions about appropriate courses of action during the audit engagement. Auditors are required to demonstrate professional skepticism and professional judgment throughout the entire audit process. 2.8 Reasonable assurance recognizes that a GAAS audit may not detect all material misstatements and auditors are not “insurers” or “guarantors” regarding the fairness of the entity’s financial statements. The audit team provides reasonable assurance by considering various risks relating to the likelihood of material misstatements and performing audit procedures to control this risk to an acceptably low level. 2.9 An audit plan is a list of audit procedures that are performed to gather sufficient appropriate evidence on which auditors base their opinion on the financial statements. Audit plans are prepared during the planning stages of the audit. 2.10 The timing of the auditors’ appointment is important because auditors need time to properly plan the audit and perform the necessary work without undue pressure from tight deadlines. 2.11 Materiality is the dollar amount that would influence the lending or investing decisions of users; this concept recognizes that auditors should focus on matters that are important to financial statement users. Materiality should be considered in planning the audit, performing the audit, and evaluating the effect of misstatements on the entity’s financial statements. 2.12 Auditors obtain an understanding of a client, including its internal control, as a part of the control risk assessment process primarily in order to plan the nature, timing and extent of further audit procedures. A secondary purpose is because of auditors’ responsibilities for reporting on client’s internal controls. 2.13 As the client’s internal control is more effective (a lower level of control risk), auditors may use less effective substantive procedures (a higher level of detection risk). Conversely, when the client’s internal control is less effective (a higher level of control risk), auditors must use more effective substantive procedures (a lower level of detection risk). 2.14 Audit evidence is defined as the information used by auditors in arriving at the conclusion on which the audit opinion is based. 2.15 External documentary evidence is audit evidence obtained from another party to an arm’s-length transaction or from outside independent agencies. External evidence is received directly by auditors and is not processed through the client’s information processing system. External-internal documentary evidence is documentary material that originates outside the bounds of the client’s information processing system but which has been received and processed by the client. Internal documentary evidence consists of documentary material that is produced, circulates, and is finally stored within the client’s information processing system. Such evidence is either not circulated to outside parties at all or is several steps removed from third-party attention.
- 7. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-4 © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-4 Solutions Manual 2.16 Relevance refers to the nature of information provided by the audit evidence; that is, what assertion(s) related to the account balance or class of transactions does the evidence support? Reliability refers to the extent of trust that auditors can place in evidence and is primarily influenced by the source of the evidence. The appropriateness of audit evidence is related to both relevance and reliability; that is, as evidence is more relevant and reliable, it is considered to have a higher level of appropriateness. 2.17 The source of evidence affects its reliability as follows (from most to least reliable): (1) evidence directly obtained by auditors, (2) evidence obtained from external sources, and (3) evidence obtained from internal sources. 2.18 As auditors need to achieve lower levels of detection risk, more appropriate evidence needs to be obtained. Thus, auditors should gather higher quality evidence (more reliable evidence). For example, auditors may choose to obtain evidence from external sources rather than internal sources. In addition, for lower levels of detection risk, auditors need to gather more sufficient evidence. Because sufficiency relates to the quantity of evidence, more transactions or components of an account balance should be examined. 2.19 A financial reporting framework is a set of criteria used to determine the measurement, recognition, presentation, and disclosure of material items in the financial statements. The financial reporting framework is related to auditors’ reporting responsibilities because this framework serves as the basis against which the financial statements are evaluated and the auditors’ opinion on the financial statements is expressed. 2.20 Four types of opinions and their conclusions: Type Conclusion Unmodified opinion Financial statements are presented in conformity with GAAP. Adverse opinion Financial statements are not presented in conformity with GAAP. Qualified opinion Financial statements are presented in conformity with GAAP, except for one or more departures or issues of concern. Disclaimer of opinion An opinion cannot be issued on the financial statements. 2.21 A system of quality control provides firms with reasonable assurance that the firm and its personnel (1) comply with professional standards and applicable regulatory and legal requirements and (2) issue reports that are appropriate in the circumstances. The six elements of a system of quality control are: 1. Leadership responsibilities for quality within the firm (“tone at the top”) 2. Relevant ethical requirements 3. Acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements 4. Human resources 5. Engagement performance 6. Monitoring
- 8. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-5 © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-5 Solutions Manual 2.26 a. Correct Gathering audit evidence is a component of the performance principle. qualifications of auditors. a. Incorrect Due care is related to the ethical requirements of auditors. related to the ethical requirements of auditors. 2.22 In deciding whether to accept or continue an engagement with a client, firms should consider: • The integrity of the client and the identity and business reputation of its owners, key management, related parties, and those charged with governance. • Whether the firm possesses the competency, capability, and resources to perform the engagement. • Whether the firm can comply with the necessary legal and ethical requirements. If firms decide to withdraw from an engagement, the firm should document significant issues, consultations, conclusions, and the basis for any conclusions related to the decision to withdraw. 2.23 Procedures used by firms to monitor their quality control standards include: • Reviews of selected administrative and personnel records. • Reviews of engagement documentation, reports, and the client’s financial statements. • Discussions with firm personnel • Assessments of the (1) appropriateness of the firm’s guidance materials and professional aids, (2) compliance with policies and procedures on independence, (3) effectiveness of continuing professional education, and (4) decisions regarding the acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements. 2.24 The PCAOB’s monitoring role for firms providing auditing services to public entities includes registering public accounting firms and conducting inspections of registered public accounting firms. 2.25 The frequency of PCAOB inspections depends upon the number of audits conducted by member firms. For firms performing audits for more than 100 public entities, inspections are required on an annual basis. For those performing audits for 100 or fewer public entities, inspections are conducted every three years. SOLUTIONS FOR MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS b. Incorrect While reasonable assurance is related to gathering audit evidence, this is not one of the categories of principles c. Incorrect The reporting principle relates to the contents of the auditors’ report d. Incorrect The responsibilities principle relates to the personal integrity and professional 2.27 NOTE TO INSTRUCTOR: Since this question asks students to identify the concept that is not related to the ethical requirements of auditors, the response labeled “correct” is not related to the ethical requirement of auditors and those labeled “incorrect” are related to the ethical requirements of auditors. b. Incorrect Both independence in fact and independence in appearance are related to the ethical requirements of auditors. c. Incorrect Both independence in fact and independence in appearance are related to the ethical requirements of auditors. d. Correct While professional judgment is part of the responsibilities principle, it is not
- 9. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-6 © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-6 Solutions Manual 2.28 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Correct Incorrect Incorrect GAAS relates to the conduct of audit engagements and not overall professional services. Standards within a system of quality control are firm- (rather than auditor-) related. Generally accepted accounting principles are not an element related to professional services. International auditing standards govern the conduct of audits conducted across international borders. 2.29 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Correct Incorrect Relying more extensively on external evidence is related to the appropriateness (or quality) of evidence. Focusing on items with more significant financial effects on the financial statements is related to materiality. Professional skepticism is characterized by appropriate questioning and a critical assessment of audit evidence. Financial interests are most closely related to auditors’ independence. 2.30 a. b. Correct Incorrect Auditors study internal control to determine the nature, timing, and extent of further audit procedures. Consulting suggestions are secondary objectives in an audit. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Information about the entity’s internal control is, at best, indirect evidence about assertions in the financial statements. Information about the entity’s internal control provides auditors with little opportunity to learn about changes in accounting principles. 2.31 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Correct Incorrect Incorrect External evidence is considered to be more reliable than the inquiry of management in choice (b). Inquiry of management is a form of internal evidence, which is the least reliable form of evidence. Auditor-prepared evidence is considered to be the most reliable form of evidence. Because the entity’s legal counsel is an external party, this form of evidence is more reliable than the inquiry of management in choice (b). 2.32 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect Correct Inquiry of management is the least reliable form of evidence. Although external evidence is considered to be highly reliable, auditors’ personal knowledge (choice d) provides the most reliable form of evidence While auditor evaluation of client procedures is a reliable form of evidence, this would not be relevant to verifying the existence of newly-acquired equipment. Auditors’ personal knowledge through physical observation provides the most reliable form of evidence; in addition, unlike evaluation of client procedures (choice c), this relates directly to verifying the existence of newly-acquired equipment. 2.33 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect Correct Inquiry of client personnel is internal evidence, which is the least reliable form of evidence. Prenumbered client purchase orders are an internal form of evidence, which is the least reliable form of evidence While sales invoices are documents created by external parties, the fact that these documents were received from client personnel reduces their reliability. Because the statements were received directly from outside parties, this is a more reliable form of evidence than internal forms of evidence (choices a and b) or external evidence received indirectly by the auditor (choice c).
- 10. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-7 © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-7 Solutions Manual 2.34 a. Incorrect Documentation of this nature would not be related to independence. choice (c) is more closely related to planning and supervision b. Incorrect While the quality of the documentation and the conclusions included in the documentation might provide information about competence and capabilities, choice (c) is more closely related to planning and supervision. c. Correct Initials of the preparer and reviewer provide evidence that the documentation was reviewed, which relates to planning and supervision. d. Incorrect While the quality of the documentation and the conclusions included in the documentation might provide information about sufficient appropriate evidence, 2.35 NOTE TO INSTRUCTOR: Since this question asks students to identify the concept that is least related to due care, the response labeled “correct” is least related to due care and those labeled “incorrect” are more related to due care. a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect Correct Due care requires the level of skills and knowledge of others in the auditors’ profession, which would include independence in fact. Due care requires the skills and knowledge of others in the auditors’ profession, which would include professional skepticism. Due care refers to the performance of a “prudent” auditor. Reasonable assurance is related to the auditors’ responsibility for detecting misstatements and procedures performed during the examination, not the concept of due care. 2.36 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect Correct Internal documents are a relatively low quality of evidence. Because these representations were received from an internal source (the president of the entity), they are a relatively low quality of evidence. While external evidence is of reasonable quality, it is of lower quality than direct personal knowledge of the auditor (choice d). Direct, personal knowledge of auditors is the most appropriate form of evidence. 2.37 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect Correct While it may increase auditors’ knowledge about the client, obtaining an understanding of a client’s internal control does not directly influence auditors’ competence and capabilities. Obtaining an understanding of a client’s internal control does not directly influence auditors’ independence. Obtaining an understanding of a client’s internal control does not directly help satisfy the quality control standard about audit staff professional development. The primary purpose of obtaining an understanding of a client’s internal control is to plan the nature, timing, and extent of further audit procedures on an engagement. 2.38 a. b. c. Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect While receiving independence confirmations with respect to clients would be important in deciding to accept or continue clients, this element is more closely related to relevant ethical requirements (choice d). Receiving independence confirmations is not related to engagement performance. Receiving independence confirmations is not related to monitoring. d. Correct Independence confirmations would ensure that all firm personnel are independent with respect to that firm’s clients, which is related to the “Relevant Ethical Requirements” element of a system of quality control. It would not relate to acceptance and continuance of client relationships and specific engagements (a), engagement performance (b), or monitoring (c).
- 11. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-8 © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-8 Solutions Manual 2.39 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Correct Incorrect The responsibility to issue a report is related to the reporting principle. The requirement to gather sufficient, appropriate evidence is related to the performance principle. The auditors’ compliance with independence and due care is related to the responsibilities principle. The responsibility to plan an audit and properly supervise assistants is related to the performance principle. 2.40 a. b. c. d. Correct Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect Consultation with an appraiser demonstrates due care if auditors do not have expertise in the area in question. Auditors are experts in financial matters, not areas of art (and other collectibles) valuation. GAAS applies to all audit engagements, including audit engagements for not- for-profit organizations. Because consulting an appraiser is consistent with exercising due care (choice a), this cannot be correct. 2.41 NOTE TO INSTRUCTOR: Since this question asks students to identify the topic that is not been addressed in the auditors’ report, the response labeled “correct” is not addressed in the auditors’ report and those labeled “incorrect” are addressed in the auditors’ report. a. b. c. d. Incorrect Correct Incorrect Incorrect The responsibilities of the auditor and management are provided in the introductory paragraph. Auditors provide reasonable (but not absolute) assurance in an audit engagement (this is noted in the scope paragraph of the auditors’ report). A description of the audit engagement is provided in the scope paragraph of the auditors’ report. The auditors’ opinion on internal control over financial reporting is provided in the internal control paragraph of the auditors’ report. 2.42 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect Correct The concept of absolute assurance requires auditors to identify and detect all material misstatements. Professional judgment relates to the application of training, knowledge, and experience in making informed decisions. It does not specifically relate to detecting material misstatements. The reliability of audit evidence relates to the sufficiency and appropriateness of evidence. While more reliable evidence will reduce the likelihood that material misstatements will not be detected, it does not, in itself, ensure that a GAAS audit will detect all material misstatements. Reasonable assurance recognizes that an audit conducted under GAAS may fail to detect all material misstatements. 2.43 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Correct Incorrect The fact that the source of the evidence is internal would result in evidence being less reliable than external evidence (choice c). The fact that the source of the evidence is internal and evidence is developed under less effective internal control would result in evidence being less reliable than external evidence and environments with more effective internal control (choice c). Evidence is most reliable when the source of the evidence is external and when the evidence is developed under more effective internal control. The fact that the evidence is developed under less effective internal control would result in evidence being less reliable than when developed under more effective internal controls (choice c).
- 12. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-9 © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-9 Solutions Manual 2.44 a. Incorrect The decision to physically inspect investment securities rather than obtain an relevance and reliability). external confirmation relates to the source of evidence, which affects the reliability of evidence. b. Correct The aging of accounts receivable will evaluate valuation, which is not directly evaluated through confirmation. Therefore, aging provides relevant evidence with respect to the valuation assertion. c. Incorrect The number of accounts confirmed by the auditor is related to the sufficiency of evidence, not the appropriateness of evidence (or relevance and reliability). d. Incorrect The decision to confirm a larger number of accounts following year-end relates to the timing of audit procedures, not the appropriateness of evidence (or 2.45 NOTE TO INSTRUCTOR: Since this question asks students to identify the statement that is not true with respect to the performance principle, the response labeled “correct” is not true and those labeled “incorrect” are true. a. b. c. d. Correct Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect Written audit plans are required in both initial and continuing audits. Materiality should be considered in planning the audit, performing the audit, and evaluating the effects of misstatements on the entity’s financial statements. The effectiveness of the entity’s internal control is an important consideration in the audit team’s assessment of the risk of material misstatement. In order to be appropriate, evidence must be both relevant and reliable. 2.46 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Correct Incorrect Incorrect Annual inspections are only required for audit firms that audit more than 100 public entities. In a PCAOB inspection, a sample of audits as well as the firm’s system of quality control are reviewed by the inspection team. While the deficiencies noted in sampled audit engagements are publicly disclosed, information regarding deficiencies in the firm’s quality control are not publicly disclosed unless the firm fails to address those deficiencies within one year. All firms auditing public entities must have a PCAOB inspection. If a firm audits 100 or fewer public entities, it has an inspection every three years rather than every year. 2.47 a. b. c. d. Correct Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect Audit procedures are particular and specialized actions that auditors take to obtain evidence during a specific engagement. Auditing standards do not apply to specific engagements, but are quality guides that apply to all audits. Interpretive publications provide guidance to auditors on the application of generally accepted auditing standards in specific situation. Statements on Auditing Standards are pronouncements issued by the Auditing Standards Board that apply to all audits of nonpublic entities. 2.48 a. b. Incorrect Correct The PCAOB does develop Auditing Standards, but these relate to the audit of public entities. The PCAOB develops Auditing Standards for the audit of public entities. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect The Auditing Standards Board develops Statements on Auditing Standards. The Auditing Standards Board develops Statements on Auditing Standards.
- 13. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2- 10 © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2- 10 Solutions Manual 2.49 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Correct Incorrect This statement is related to the scope paragraph. This statement is related to the opinion paragraph. The responsibility of auditors and management in the financial reporting process is described in the introductory paragraph. This statement is related to the internal control paragraph.
- 14. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-10 Solutions Manual © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-10 2.50 a. b. c. d. Correct Incorrect Incorrect Incorrect An adverse opinion is issued for material and pervasive departures from GAAP. A disclaimer of opinion would be issued only when auditors felt they were unable to reach a conclusion with respect to the fairness of the entity’s financial statements. A qualified opinion concludes that, with the exception of a specific matter, the entity’s financial statements are presented according to GAAP. An unmodified opinion concludes that the entity’s financial statements are presented according to GAAP. 2.51 a. b. c. d. Incorrect Incorrect Correct Incorrect The communication principle is not one of the fundamental principles. The performance principle relates to the conduct of the audit examination. The reporting principle is related to the contents of the auditors’ report, which expresses an opinion on the entity’s financial statements (or indicates that an opinion cannot be expressed). The responsibilities principle relates to the characteristics and qualifications of the auditors.
- 15. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-11 Solutions Manual © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-11 SOLUTIONS FOR EXERCISES AND PROBLEMS 2.52 AICPA and PCAOB Responsibilities a. The AICPA (through the Auditing Standards Board) has responsibility for setting standards for the audits of nonpublic entities. This is done through the issuance of Statements on Auditing Standards. The PCAOB has responsibility for setting standards for the audits of public entities. This is done through the PCAOB’s issuance of Auditing Standards. While the SEC does not have responsibility for setting auditing standards per se, all PCAOB standards must be approved by the SEC. b. The audits of public entities are governed by Auditing Standards issued by the PCAOB that have been approved by the SEC. The audits of nonpublic entities are governed by Statements on Auditing Standards issued by the AICPA. c. The AICPA (for nonpublic entities) and PCAOB (for public entities) examine documentation related to previous audit engagements and evaluate the audit firms’ systems of quality control. These evaluations are referred to as peer reviews (AICPA) and inspections (PCAOB) 2.53 Professional Guidance Statements on Auditing Standards are issued by the Auditing Standards Board and apply to the audits of nonpublic entities. Auditing Standards are issued by the PCAOB and apply to the audits of public entities.
- 16. © 2018 byMcGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. 2-12 Solutions Manual © 2018 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education. Auditing and Assurance Services, Louwers et al., 7/e 2-12 2.54 Independence a. Auditors should not follow clients’ suggestions about the conduct of an audit unless the suggestions clearly do not conflict with their professional competence, judgment, honesty, independence, or ethical standards. Where there is no disagreement about the results to be accomplished and the client’s suggestions represent good ideas, auditors can consider these suggestions. Within professional bounds, mutual agreement with the client is acceptable. Auditors must never agree to any arrangement that violates generally accepted auditing standards or the AICPA’s Code of Professional Conduct. b. The reasons that would not support dividing the assignment of audit work solely according to assets, liabilities and income and expenses include the following: 1. Work should be assigned to staff members by considering the degree of difficulty in relation to the technical competence and experience of individual staff members. 2. Sequence of work performed on an examination should be in accordance with an overall audit plan. 3. It is impossible to segregate work areas by major captions because often a close relationship exists among a number of accounts in more than one category. For example, interest and dividend income are normally based on an asset (investments) and interest expense is normally based on a liability (long-term debt). 4. Often a single form of audit documentation is desirable to provide evidence with respect to balances in accounts of various types, such as an insurance analysis supporting premium disbursements, the insurance expense portion, and the prepaid insurance balance. 5. Duplication of staff effort would be more likely to occur if assignments were made on such a basis. 6. Frequently, the scope of work regarding a single account requires simultaneous participation by the staff, such as in the observation of inventories. Many audit operations are not susceptible to division by category, as for example studying and evaluating internal control, testing transactions, and preparing the report. c. The audit staff member whose uncle owns the advertising agency should not be assigned to examine the client’s advertising account. The firm is responsible for avoiding relationships which might suggest a conflict of interest. Regardless of whether this staff member could be independent and unbiased in such a situation (independence in fact), external parties will likely be influenced in their thinking by the fact that the uncle is the owner of the advertising agency (the staff member would not have independence in appearance). Even if a problem of ethics were not involved, it would be unwise for the firm to assign this staff member because the client’s attitude could change significantly and the firm’s position would be jeopardized if difficulties later arose in connection with the contract. Any situation in which bias exists or might arise should be avoided.
- 17. Other documents randomlyhave different content
- 18. French academy atRome first made use of for copying antiques, was applied by many even to modelled performances. Over the statue which you want to copy, you fix a well- proportioned square, dividing it into equally distant degrees, by plummets: by these the outlines of the figure are more distinctly marked than they could possibly be by means of the former method: they moreover afford the artist an exact measure of the more prominent or lower parts, by the degrees in which these parts are near them, and in short, allow him to go on with more confidence. But the undulations of a curve being not determinable by a single perpendicular, the Contours of the figure are but indifferently indicated to the artist; and among their many declinations from a straight surface, his tenour is every moment lost. The difficulty of discovering the real proportions of the figures, may also be easily imagined: they seek them by horizontals placed across the plummets. But the rays reflected from the figure through the squares, will strike the eye in enlarged angles, and consequently appear bigger, in proportion as they are high or low to the point of view. Nevertheless, as the ancient monuments must be most cautiously dealt with, plummets are still of use in copying them, as no surer or easier method has been discovered: but for performances to be done from models they are unfit for want of precision. Michael Angelo went alone a way unknown before him, and (strange to tell!) untrod since the time of that genius of modern sculpture. This Phidias of latter times, and next to the Greeks, hath, in all probability, hit the very mark of his great masters. We know at least no method so eminently proper for expressing on the block every, even the minutest, beauty of the model. Vasari[13] seems to give but a defective description of this method, viz. Michael Angelo took a vessel filled with water, in which
- 19. he placed hismodel of wax, or some such indissoluble matter: then, by degrees, raised it to the surface of the water. In this manner the prominent parts were unwet, the lower covered, ’till the whole at length appeared. Thus says Vasari, he cut his marble, proceeding from the more prominent parts to the lower ones. Vasari, it seems, either mistook something in the management of his friend, or by the negligence of his account gives us room to imagine it somewhat different from what he relates. The form of the vessel is not determined; to raise the figure from below would prove too troublesome, and presupposes much more than this historian had a mind to inform us of. Michael Angelo, no doubt, thoroughly examined his invention, its conveniencies and inconveniencies, and in all probability observed the following method. He took a vessel proportioned to his model; for instance, an oblong square: he marked the surface of its sides with certain dimensions, and these he transferred afterwards, with regular gradations, on the marble. The inside of the vessel he marked to the bottom with degrees. Then he laid, or, if of wax, fastened his model in it; he drew, perhaps, a bar over the vessel suitable to its dimensions, according to whose number he drew, first, lines on his marble, and immediately after, the figure; he poured water on the model till it reached its outmost points, and after having fixed upon a prominent part, he drew off as much water as hindered him from seeing it, and then went to work with his chissel, the degrees shewing him how to go on; if, at the same time, some other part of the model appeared, it was copied too, as far as seen. Water was again carried off, in order to let the lower parts appear; by the degrees he saw to what pitch it was reduced, and by its smoothness he discovered the exact surfaces of the lower parts; nor could he go wrong, having the same number of degrees to guide him, upon his marble.
- 20. The water notonly pointed him out the heights or depths, but also the Contour of his model; and the space left free on the insides to the surface of the water, whose largeness was determined by the degrees of the two other sides, was the exact measure of what might safely be cut down from the block. His work had now got the first form, and a correct one: the levelness of the water had drawn a line, of which every prominence of the mass was a point; according to the diminution of the water the line sunk in a horizontal direction, and was followed by the artist ’till he discovered the declinations of the prominences, and their mingling with the lower parts. Proceeding thus with every degree, as it appeared, he finished the Contour, and took his model out of the water. His figure wanted beauty: he again poured water to a proper height over his model, and then numbering the degrees to the line described by the water, he descried the exact height of the protuberant parts; on these he levelled his rule, and took the measure of the distance, from its verge to the bottom; and then comparing all he had done with his marble, and finding the same number of degrees, he was geometrically sure of success. Repeating his task, he attempted to express the motion and re- action of nerves and muscles, the soft undulations of the smaller parts, and every imitable beauty of his model. The water insinuating itself, even into the most inaccessible parts, traced their Contour with the correctest sharpness and precision. This method admits of every possible posture. In profile especially, it discovers every inadvertency; shews the Contour of the prominent and lower parts, and the whole diameter. All this, and the hope of success, presupposes a model formed by skilful hands, in the true taste of antiquity. This is the way by which Michael Angelo arrived at immortality. Fame and rewards conspired to procure him what leisure he wanted, for performances which required so much care.
- 21. G But the artistof our days, however endowed by nature and industry with talents to raise himself, and even though he perceive precision and truth in this method, is forced to exert his abilities for getting bread rather than honour: he of course rests in his usual sphere, and continues to trust in an eye directed by years and practice. Now this eye, by the observations of which he is chiefly ruled, being at last, though by a great deal of uncertain practice, become almost decisive: how refined, how exact might it not have been, if, from early youth, acquainted with never-changing rules! And were young artists, at their first beginning to shape the clay or form the wax, so happy as to be instructed in this sure method of Michael Angelo, which was the fruit of long researches, they might with reason hope to come as near the Greeks as he did. VI. Painting. reek Painting perhaps would share all the praises bestowed on their Sculpture, had time and the barbarity of mankind allowed us to be decisive on that point. All the Greek painters are allowed is Contour and Expression. Perspective, Composition, and Colouring, are denied them; a judgment founded on some bas-reliefs, and the new-discovered ancient (for we dare not say Greek) pictures, at and near Rome, in the subterranean vaults of the palaces of Mæcenas, Titus, Trajan, and the Antonini; of which but about thirty are preserved entire, some being only in Mosaic. Turnbull, to his treatise on ancient painting, has subjoined a collection of the most known ancient pictures, drawn by Camillo Paderni, and engraved by Mynde; and these alone give some value to the magnificent and abused paper of his work. Two of them are copied from originals in the cabinet of the late Dr. Mead.
- 22. That Poussin muchstudied the pretended Aldrovandine Nuptials; that drawings are found done by Annibal Carracci, from the presumed Marcius Coriolanus; and that there is a most striking resemblance between the heads of Guido, and those on the Mosaic representing Jupiter carrying off Europa, are remarks long since made. Indeed, if ancient Painting were to be judged by these, and such like remains of Fresco pictures, Contour and Expression might be wrested from it in the same manner. For the pictures, with figures as big as life, pulled off with the walls of the Herculanean theatre, afford but a very poor idea of the Contour and Expression of the ancient painters. Theseus, the conqueror of the Minotaur, worshipped by the Athenian youths; Flora with Hercules and a Faunus; the pretended judgment of the Decemvir Appius Claudius, are on the testimony of an artist who saw them, of a Contour as mean as faulty; and the heads want not only Expression, but those in the Claudius even Character. But even this is an evident instance of the meanness of the artists: for the science of beautiful Proportions, of Contour, and Expression, could not be the exclusive privilege of Greek sculptors alone. However, though I am for doing justice to the ancients, I have no intention to lessen the merit of the moderns. In Perspective there is no comparison between them and the ancients, whom no earned defence can intitle to any superiority in that science. The laws of Composition and Ordonnance seem to have been but imperfectly known by the ancients: the reliefs of the times when the Greek arts were flourishing at Rome, are instances of this. The accounts of the ancient writers, and the remains of Painting are likewise, in point of Colouring, decisive in favour of the moderns. There are several other objects of Paintings which, in modern times, have attained greater perfection: such are landscapes and
- 23. T cattle pieces. Theancients seem not to have been acquainted with the handsomer varieties of different animals in different climes, if we may conclude from the horse of M. Aurelius; the two horses in Monte Cavallo; the pretended Lysippean horses above the portal of St. Mark’s church at Venice; the Farnesian bull, and other animals of that groupe. I observe, by the bye, that the ancients were careless of giving to their horses the diametrical motion of their legs; as we see in the horses at Venice, and the ancient coins: and in that they have been followed, nay even defended, by some ignorant moderns. ’Tis chiefly to oil-painting that our landscapes, and especially those of the Dutch, owe their beauties: by that their colours acquired more strength and liveliness; and even nature herself seems to have given them a thicker, moister atmosphere, as an advantage to this branch of the art. These, and some other advantages over the ancients, deserve to be set forth with more solid arguments than we have hitherto had. VII. Allegory. here is one other important step left towards the atchievement of the art: but the artist, who, boldly forsaking the common path, dares to attempt it, finds himself at once on the brink of a precipice, and starts back dismayed. The stories of martyrs and saints, fables and metamorphoses, are almost the only objects of modern painters—repeated a thousand times, and varied almost beyond the limits of possibility, every tolerable judge grows sick at them. The judicious artist falls asleep over a Daphne and Apollo, a Proserpine carried off by Pluto, an Europa, &c. he wishes for occasions to shew himself a poet, to produce significant images, to paint Allegory.
- 24. Painting goes beyondthe senses: there is its most elevated pitch, to which the Greeks strove to raise themselves, as their writings evince. Parrhasius, like Aristides, a painter of the soul, was able to express the character even of a whole people: he painted the Athenians as mild as cruel, as fickle as steady, as brave as timid. Such a representation owes its possibility only to the allegorical method, whose images convey general ideas. But here the artist is lost in a desart. Tongues the most savage, which are entirely destitute of abstracted ideas, containing no word whose sense could express memory, space, duration, &c. these tongues, I say, are not more destitute of general signs, than painting in our days. The painter who thinks beyond his palette longs for some learned apparatus, by whose stores he might be enabled to invest abstracted ideas with sensible and meaning images. Nothing has yet been published of this kind, to satisfy a rational being; the essays hitherto made are not considerable, and far beneath this great design. The artist himself knows best in what degree he is satisfied with Ripa’s Iconology, and the emblems of ancient nations, by Van Hooghe. Hence the greatest artists have chosen but vulgar objects. Annibal Caracci, instead of representing in general symbols and sensible images the history of the Farnesian family, as an allegorical poet, wasted all his skill in fables known to the whole world. Go, visit the galleries of monarchs, and the publick repositories of art, and see what difference there is between the number of allegorical, poetical, or even historical performances, and that of fables, saints, or madonnas. Among great artists, Rubens is the most eminent, who first, like a sublime poet, dared to attempt this untrodden path. His most voluminous composition, the gallery of Luxembourg, has been communicated to the world by the hands of the best engravers. After him the sublimest performance undertaken and finished, in that kind, is, no doubt, the cupola of the imperial library at Vienna,
- 25. painted by DanielGran, and engraved by Sedelmayer. The Apotheosis of Hercules at Versailles, done by Le Moine, and alluding to the Cardinal Hercules de Fleury, though deemed in France the most august of compositions, is, in comparison of the learned and ingenious performance of the German artist, but a very mean and short-sighted Allegory, resembling a panegyric, the most striking beauties of which are relative to the almanack. The artist had it in his power to indulge grandeur, and his flipping the occasion is astonishing: but even allowing, that the Apotheosis of a minister was all that he ought to have decked the chief cieling of a royal palace with, we nevertheless see through his fig-leaf. The artist would require a work, containing every image with which any abstracted idea might be poetically inverted; a work collected from all mythology, the best poets of all ages, the mysterious philosophy of different nations, the monuments of the ancients on gems, coins, utensils, &c. This magazine should be distributed into several classes, and, with proper applications to peculiar possible cases, adapted to the instruction of the artist. This would, at the same time, open a vast field for imitating the ancients, and participating of their sublimer taste. The taste in our decorations, which, since the complaints of Vitruvius, hath changed for the worse, partly by the grotesques brought in vogue by Morto da Feltro, partly by our trifling house- painting, might also, from more intimacy with the ancients, reap the advantages of reality and common sense. The Caricatura-carvings, and favourite shells, those chief supports of our ornaments, are full as unnatural as the candle-sticks of Vitruvius, with their little castles and palaces: how easy would it be, by the help of Allegory, to give some learned convenience to the smallest ornament! Reddere personæ scit convenientia cuique. Hor.
- 26. Paintings of ceilings,doors, and chimney-pieces, are commonly but the expletives of these places, because they cannot be gilt all over. Not only they have not the least relation to the rank and circumstances of the proprietor, but often throw some ridicule or reflection upon him. ’Tis an abhorrence of barrenness that fills walls and rooms; and pictures void of thought must supply the vacuum. Hence the artist, abandoned to the dictates of his own fancy, paints, for want of Allegory, perhaps a satire on him to whom he owes his industry; or, to shun this Charybdis, finds himself reduced to paint figures void of any meaning. Nay, he may often find it difficult to meet even with those, ’till at last ——velut ægri Somnia, vanæ Finguntur Species. Hor. Thus Painting is degraded from its most eminent prerogative, the representation of invisible, past and future things. If pictures be sometimes met with, which might be significant in some particular place, they often lose that property by stupid and wrong applications. Perhaps the master of some new building Dives agris, dives positis in fœnore nummis Hor. may, without the least compunction for offending the rules of perspective, place figures of the smallest size above the vast doors of his apartments and salloons. I speak here of those ornaments which make part of the furniture; not of figures which are often, and for good reasons, set up promiscuously in collections.
- 27. The decorations ofarchitecture are often as ill-chosen. Arms and trophies deck a hunting-house as nonsensically, as Ganymede and the eagle, Jupiter and Leda, figure it among the reliefs of the brazen gates of St. Peter’s church at Rome. Arts have a double aim: to delight and to instruct. Hence the greatest landscape-painters think, they have fulfilled but half their task in drawing their pieces without figures. Let the artist’s pencil, like the pen of Aristotle, be impregnated with reason; that, after having satiated the eye, he may nourish the mind: and this he may obtain by Allegory; investing, not hiding his ideas. Then, whether he chuse some poetical object himself, or follow the dictates of others, he shall be inspired by his art, shall be fired with the flame brought down from heaven by Prometheus, shall entertain the votary of art, and instruct the mere lover of it.
- 28. A A LETTER, CONTAINING OBJECTIONS AGAINST The foregoing Reflexions. SIR, syou have written on the Greek arts and artists, I wish you had made your treatise as much the object of your caution as the Greek artists made their works; which, before dismissing them, they exhibited to publick view, in order to be examined by everybody, and especially by competent judges of the art. The trial was held during the grand, chiefly the Olympian, games; and all Greece was interested on Ætion’s producing his picture of the nuptials of Alexander and Roxana. You, Sir, wanted a Proxenidas to be judged by, as well as that artist; and had it not been for your mysterious concealment, I might have communicated your treatise, before its publication, to some learned men and connoisseurs of my acquaintance, without mentioning the author’s name. One of them visited Italy twice, where he devoted all his time to a most anxious examination of painting, and particularly several months to each eminent picture, at the very place where it was painted; the only method, you know, to form a connoisseur. The judgment of a man able to tell you which of Guido’s altar-pieces is painted on taffeta, or linnen, what sort of wood Raphael chose for
- 29. his transfiguration, &c.the judgment of such a man, I fancy, must be allowed to be decisive. Another of my acquaintance has studied antiquity: he knows it by the very smell; Callet & Artificem solo deprendere Odore. Sectan. Sat. He can tell you the number of knots on Hercules’s club; has reduced Nestor’s goblet to the modern measure: nay, is suspected of meditating solutions to all the questions proposed by Tiberius to the grammarians. A third, for several years past, has neglected every thing but hunting after ancient coins. Many a new discovery we owe to him; especially some concerning the history of the ancient coiners; and, as I am told, he is to rouse the attention of the world by a Prodromus concerning the coiners of Cyzicum. What a number of reproaches might you have escaped, had you submitted your Essay to the judgment of these gentlemen! they were pleased to acquaint me with their objections, and I should be sorry, for your honour, to see them published. Among other objections, the first is surprized at your passing by the two Angels, in your description of the Raphael in the royal cabinet at Dresden; having been told, that a Bolognese painter, in mentioning this piece, which he saw at St. Sixtus’s at Piacenza, breaks into these terms of admiration: O! what Angels of Paradise[14]! by which he supposes those Angels to be the most beautiful figures of the picture. The same person would reproach you for having described that picture in the manner of Raguenet[15]. The second concludes the beard of Laocoon to be as worthy of your attention as his contracted belly: for every admirer of Greek
- 30. works, says he,must pay the same respect to the beard of Laocoon, which father Labat paid to that of the Moses of Michael Angelo. This learned Dominican, Qui mores hominum multorum vidit & urbes, has, after so many centuries, drawn from this very statue an evident proof of the true fashion in which Moses wore his own individual beard, and whose imitation must, of course, be the distinguishing mark of every true Jew[16]. There is not the least spark of learning, says he, in your remarks on the Peplon of the three vestals: he might perhaps, on the very inflection of the veil, have discovered to you as many curiosities as Cuper himself found on the edge of the veil of Tragedy in the Apotheosis of Homer[17]. We also want proof of the vestals being really Greek performances: our reason fails us too often in the most obvious things. If unhappily the marble of these figures should be proved to be no Lychnites, they are lost, and your treatise too: had you but slightly told us their marble was large-grained, that would have been a sufficient proof of their authenticity; for it would be somewhat difficult to determine the bigness of the grains with such exactness as to distinguish the Greek marble from the Roman of Luna. But the worst is, they are even denied the title of vestals. The third mentioned some heads of Livia and Agrippina, without that pretended profile of yours. Here he thinks you had the most lucky occasion to talk of that kind of nose by the ancients called Quadrata, as an ingredient of beauty. But you no doubt know, that the noses of some of the most famous Greek statues, viz. the Medicean Venus, and the Picchinian Meleager, are much too thick for becoming the model of beauty, in that kind, to our artists. I shall not, however, gall you with all the doubts and objections raised against your treatise, and repeated to nauseousness, upon
- 31. the arrival ofan Academician, the Margites of our days, who, being shewed your treatise, gave it a slight glance, then laid it aside, offended as it were at first sight. But it was easy to perceive that he wanted his opinion to be asked, which we accordingly all did. “The author, said he very peremptorily, seems not to have been at much pains with this treatise: I cannot find above four or five quotations, and those negligently inserted; no chapter, no page, cited; he certainly collected his remarks from books which he is ashamed to produce.” Yet cannot I help introducing another gentleman, sharp-sighted enough to pick out something that had escaped all my attention; viz. that the Greeks were the first inventors of Painting and Sculpture; an assertion, as he was pleased to express himself, entirely false, having been told it was the Egyptians, or some people still more ancient, and unknown to him. Even the most whimsical humour may be turned to profit: nevertheless, I think it manifest that you intended to talk only of good Taste in those arts; and the first Elements of an art have the same proportion to good Taste in it, as the seed has to the fruit. That the art was still in its infancy among the Egyptians, when it had attained the highest degree of perfection among the Greeks, may be seen by examining one single gem: you need only consider the head of Ptolomæus Philopator by Aulus, and the two figures adjoining to it done by an Egyptian[18], in order to be convinced of the little merit this nation could pretend to in point of art. The form and taste of their Painting have been ascertained by Middleton.[19] The pictures of persons as big as life, on two mummies in the royal cabinet of antiquities at Dresden, are evident instances of their incapacity. But these relicks being curious, in several other respects, I shall hereafter subjoin a short account of them. I cannot, my friend, help allowing some reason for several of these objections. Your negligence in your quotations was, no doubt,
- 32. somewhat prejudicial toyour authenticity: the art of changing blue eyes to black ones, certainly deserved an authority. You imitate Democritus; who being asked, “What is man?” every body knows what was his reply. What reasonable creature will submit to read all Greek scholiasts! Ibit eo, quo vis, qui Zonam perdidit— Hor. Considering, however, how easily the human mind is biassed, either by friendship or animosity, I took occasion from these objections to examine your treatise with more exactness; and shall now, by the most impartial censure, strive to clear myself from every imputation of prepossession in your favour. I will pass by the first and second page, though something might be said on your comparison of the Diana with the Nausicaa, and the application: nor would it have been amiss, had you thrown some more light on the remark concerning the misused pictures of Corregio (very likely borrowed from Count Tessin’s letters), by giving an account of the other indignities which the pictures of the best artists, at the same time, met with at Stockholm. It is well known that, after the surrender of Prague to Count Konigsmark, the 15th of July 1648, the most precious pictures of the Emperor Rodolph II. were carried off to Sweden[20]. Among these were some pictures of Corregio, which the Emperor had been presented with by their first possessor, Duke Frederick of Mantua; two of them being the famous Leda, and a Cupid handling his bow[21]. Christina, endowed at that time rather with scholastic learning than taste, treated these treasures as the Emperor Claudius did an Alexander of Apelles; who ordered the head to be cut off, and that of Augustus to fill its place[22]. In the same manner heads, hands, feet were here cut off from the most beautiful pictures; a carpet was plastered over with them, and the mangled pieces fitted up with new heads, &c. Those that fortunately escaped the common
- 33. havock, among whichwere the pieces of Corregio, came afterwards, together with several other pictures, bought by the Queen at Rome, into the possession of the Duke of Orleans, who purchased 250 of them, and among those eleven of Corregio, for 9000 Roman crowns. But I am not contented with your charging only the northern countries with barbarism, on account of the little esteem they paid to the arts. If good taste is to be judged in this manner, I am afraid for our French neighbours. For having taken Bonn, the residence of the Elector of Cologne, after the death of Max. Henry, they ordered the largest pictures to be cut out of their frames, without distinction, in order to serve for coverings to the waggons, in which the most valuable furniture of the electoral castle was carried off for France. But, Sir, do not presume on my continuing with mere historical remarks: I shall proceed with my objections; after making the two following general observations. I. You have written in a style too concise for being distinct. Were you afraid of being condemned to the penalty of a Spartan, who could not restrain himself to only three words, perhaps that of reading Picciardin’s Pisan War? Distinctness is required where universal instruction is the end. Meats are to suit the taste of the guests, rather than that of the cooks, ——Cœnæ fercula nostræ Malim convivis quam placuisse coquis. II. There appears, in almost every line of yours, the most passionate attachment to antiquity; which perhaps I shall convince you of, by the following remarks. The first particular objection I have to make is against your third page. Remember, however, that my passing by two pages is very generous dealing:
- 34. non temere ame Quivis ferret idem: Hor. but let us now begin a formal trial. The author talks of certain negligences in the Greek works, which ought to be considered suitably to Lucian’s precepts concerning the Zeus of Phidias: “Zeus himself, not his footstool;”[23] though perhaps he could not be charged with any fault in the foot-stool, but with a very grievous one in the statue. Is it no fault that Phidias made his Zeus of so enormous a bulk, as almost to reach the cieling of the temple, which must infallibly have been thrown down, had the god taken it in his head to rise?[24] To have left the temple without any cieling at all, like that of the Olympian Jupiter at Athens, had been an instance of more judgment[25]. ’Tis but justice to claim an explication of what the author means by “negligences”. He perhaps might be pleased to get a passport, even for the faults of the ancients, by sheltering them under the authority of such titles; nay, to change them into beauties, as Alcæus did the spot on the finger of his beloved boy. We too often view the blemishes of the ancients, as a parent does those of his children: Strabonem Appellat pætum pater, & pullum, male parvus Si cui filius est. Hor. If these negligences were like those wished for in the Jalysus of Protogenes, where the chief figure was out-shone by a partridge, they might be considered as the agreeable negligée of a fine lady; but this is the question. Besides, had the author consulted his
- 35. interest, he neverwould have ventured citing the Diomedes of Dioscorides: but being too well acquainted with that gem, one of the most valued, most finished monuments of Greek art; and being apprehensive of the prejudice that might arise against the meaner productions of the ancients, on discovering many faults in one so eminent as Diomedes; he endeavoured to keep matters from being too nearly examined, and to soften every fault into negligence. How! if by argument I shall attempt to shew that Dioscorides understood neither perspective, nor the most trivial rules of the motion of a human body; nay, that he offended even against possibility? I’ll venture to do it, though incedo per ignes Suppositos cineri doloso. Hor. And perhaps I am not the first discoverer of his faults: yet I do not remember to have seen any thing relative to them. The Diomedes of Dioscorides is either a sitting, or a rising figure; for the attitude is ambiguous. It is plain he is not sitting; and rising is inconsistent with his action. Our body endeavouring to raise itself from a seat, moves always mechanically towards its sought-for centre of gravity, drawing back the legs, which were advanced in sitting[26]; instead of which the figure stretches out his right leg. Every erection begins with elevated heels, and in that moment all the weight of the body is supported only by the toes, which was observed by Felix[27], in his Diomedes: but here all rests on the sole. Nor can Diomedes, (if we suppose him to be a sitting figure, as he touches with his left leg the bottom of his thigh) find, in raising himself, the centre of his gravity, only by a retraction of his legs, and of course cannot rise in that posture. His left hand resting upon the bended leg, holds the palladion, whilst his right touches negligently
- 36. the pedestal withthe point of a short sword; consequently he cannot rise, neither moving his legs in the natural and easy manner required in any erection, nor making use of his arms to deliver himself from that uneasy situation. There is at the same time a fault committed against the rules of perspective. The foot of the left bended leg, touching the cornice of the pedestal, shews it over-reaching that part of the floor, on which the pedestal and the right foot are situated, consequently the line described by the hinder-foot is the fore on the gem, and vice versa. But allowing even a possibility to that situation, it is contrary to the Greek character, which is always distinguished by the natural and easy. Attributes neither to be met with in the contortions of Diomedes, nor in an attitude, the impossibility of which every one must be sensible of, in endeavouring to put himself in it, without the help of former sitting. Felix, supposed to have lived after Dioscorides, though preserving the same attitude, has endeavoured to make its violence more natural, by opposing to him the figure of Ulysses, who, as we are told, in order to bereave him of the honour of having seized the Palladion, offered to rob him of it, but being discovered, was repulsed by Diomedes; which being his supposed action on the gem, allows violence of attitude[28]. Diomedes cannot be a sitting figure, for the Contour of his buttock and thigh is free, and not in the least compressed: the foot of the bent leg is visible, and the leg itself not bent enough. The Diomedes represented by Mariette is absurd; the left leg resembling a clasped pocket-knife, and the foot being drawn up so high as to make it impossible in nature that it should reach the pedestal[29]. Faults of this kind cannot be called negligences, and would not be forgiven in any modern artist.
- 37. Dioscorides, ’tis true,in this renowned performance did but copy Polycletus, whose Doryphorus (as is commonly agreed) was the best rule of human proportions[30]. But, though a copyist, Dioscorides escaped a fault which his master fell into. For the pedestal, over which the Diomedes of Polycletus leans, is contrary to the most common rules of perspective; its cornices, which should be parallel, forming two different lines. I wonder at Perrault’s omitting to make objections against the ancient gems. I mean not to do any thing derogatory to the author, when I trace some of his particular observations to their source. The food prescribed to the young wrestlers, in the remoter times of Greece, is mentioned by Pausanias[31]. But if the author alluded to the passage which I have in view, why does he talk in general of milk-food, when Pausanias particularly mentions soft cheese? Dromeus of Stymphilos, we learn there, first introduced flesh meat. My researches, concerning their mysterious art of changing blue eyes to black ones, have not succeeded to my wish. I find it mentioned but once, and that only by the bye by Dioscorides[32]. The author, by clearing up this art, might perhaps have thrown a greater lustre over his treatise, than by producing his new method of statuary. He had it in his power to fix the eyes of the Newtons and Algarotti’s, on a problem worth their attention, and to engage the fair sex, by a discovery so advantageous to their charms, especially in Germany, where, contrary to Greece, large, fine, blue eyes are more frequently met with than black ones. There was a time when the fashion required to be green eyed: Et si bel oeil vert & riant & clair: Le Sire de Coucy, chans. But I do not know whether art had any share in their colouring. And as to the small-pox, Hippocrates might be quoted, if grammatical
- 38. disquisitions suited mypurpose. However, I think, no effects of the small-pox on a face can be so much the reverse of beauty, as that defect which the Athenians were reproachfully charged with, viz. a buttock as pitiful as their face was perfect[33]. Indeed Nature, in so scantily supplying those parts, seemed to derogate as much from the Athenian beauty, as, by her lavishness, from that of the Indian Enotocets, whose ears, we are told, were large enough to serve them for pillows. As for opportunities to study the nudities, our times, I think, afford as advantageous ones as the Gymnasies of the ancients. ’Tis the fault of our artists to make no use of that[34] proposed to the Parisian artists, viz. to walk, during the summer season, along the Seine, in order to have a full view of the naked parts, from the sixth to the fiftieth year. ’Tis perhaps to Michael Angelo’s frequenting such opportunities that we owe his celebrated Carton of the Pisan war[35], where the soldiers bathing in a river, at the sound of a trumpet leap out of the water, and make haste to huddle on their cloaths. One of the most offensive passages of the treatise is, no doubt, the unjust debasement of the modern sculptors beneath the ancients. These latter times are possessed of several Glycons in muscular heroic figures, and, in tender youthful female bodies, of more than one Praxiteles. Michael Angelo, Algardi, and Sluter, whose genius embellished Berlin, produced muscular bodies, ——Invicti membra Glyconis, Hor. in a style rivalling that of Glycon himself; and in delicacy the Greeks are perhaps even outdone by Bernini, Fiammingo, Le Gros, Rauchmüller, Donner. The unskilfulness of the ancients, in shaping children, is agreed upon by our artists, who, I suppose, would for imitation choose a
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