Design is a necessary foundation, certainly, but if the aim of the painter is “both to deceive the eyes and to imitate nature”, it is reasonable to conclude that color serves that goal best, because “herein lies the difference that distinguishes painting from all the other arts and which gives painting its own specific end” (AT: 180). This was clearly an attempt to turn to his advantage Poussin’s phrase that the aim of painting is delectation—but insufficient indeed to convince Le Brun.