Ye Olde Guffwatch
August 7 2013
Further to my Guffwatch entry below, a reader sends this gem to remind us that such nonsense is nothing new:
The write-up for Pretentious Crap reminded me of what Horace Walpole says ('Houghton: A Capital Collection' in the chapter on HW's Aedes Walpolianae)
"No Science has so much jargon introduc'd into it as Painting. The bombast expression of the Italians, and the prejudice of the French, join'd to the vanity of the Professors, and the interested mysteriousness of Picture-merchants, have altogether compiled a new language. 'Tis almost easier to distinguish the hands of the Masters than the Cant of the Virtuosi."
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