PART III PREFACE

THOSE masters whose Lives we have written in the second part made substantial additions to the arts of architecture, painting and sculpture, improving on those of the first part in rule, order, proportion, design and style. If they were not altogether perfect, they came so near the truth, that the third category, of whom we are now to speak, profited by the light they shed, and attained the summit of perfection, producing the more valuable and renowned modern works. But in order that the nature of these improvements may be better appreciated, I will describe in a few words the five points already enumerated, and relate succinctly the source of that excellence which, by surpassing the achievements of the ancients, has rendered the modern age so glorious.

Rule in architecture is the measurement of antiques, following the plans of ancient buildings in making modern ones. Order is the differentiation of one kind from another so that every body shall have its characteristic parts, and that the Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Tuscan shall no longer be mingled indiscriminately. Proportion in sculpture, as in architecture, is the making of the bodies of figures upright, the membe,'s being properly arranged, and the same in painting. Design is the imitation of the most beautiful things of nature in all figures whether painted or chiselled, and this requires a hand and genius to transfer everything which the eye sees, exactly and correctly, whether it be in drawings, on paper panel, or other surface, both in relief and sculpture. Style is improved by frequently copying the most beautiful things, and by combining the finest members, whether hands, heads, bodies or legs, to produce a perfect figure, which, being introduced in every work and in every figure, form what is known as a fine style. Giotto and the early artists did not do this, although they had discovered the principles of every difficulty and superficially treated them, as, for example, in

drawing more correctly than had been done before, and in approaching nature more nearly in blending colours, in the composition of figures in scenes, and many other things, of which enough has been said.

But although the artists of the second period made great additions to the arts in all these particulars, yet they did not attain to the final stages of perfection, for they lacked a freedom which, while outside the rules, was guided by them, and which was not incompatible with order and correctness. This demanded a prolific invention and the beauty of the smallest details. In proportion they lacked good judgment which, without measuring the figures, invests them with a grace beyond measure in the dimensions chosen. They did not attain to the zenith of design, because, although they made their arms round and their legs straight, they were not skilled in the muscles, and lacked that graceful and sweet ease which is partly seen and partly felt in matters of flesh and living things, but they were crude and stunted, their eyes being difficult and their style hard. Moreover, they did not possess that lightness of touch in making all their figures slender and graceful, especially the women and infants, who should be rendered as truthfully as the men, while avoiding coarseness so that they may not be clumsy, as in nature, but refined by design and good judgment. Their draperies lacked beauty, their fancies variety, their colouring charm, their buildings diversity and their landscapes distance and variety. Although many of them, like Andrea Verrocchio, Antonio del Pollajuolo and others of more recent date endeavoured to improve the design of their figures by more study while approaching nature more closely, yet they were not quite sure of their ground. However, their work would bear comparison with the antique, as we see by Verrocchio's restoration of the marble legs and arms of the Marsyas of the Casa Medici at Florence. They also lacked finish and perfection in feet, hands, hair, beards, and did not make all the members correspond to the antique with the proper proportions. If they had possessed this finish, which is the perfection and flower of the arts, they would have also possessed a resolute boldness in their work, and would have obtained a lightness, polish and grace to which they did not attain, despite all their efforts which give the supreme results of art to fine figures, whether in relief or painted. That finish and assurance which they lacked they could not readily attain by study, which has a tendency to render the style dry when it becomes an end in itself. The others were able to attain to it after they had seen some of the finest works mentioned by Pliny dug out of the earth: the Laocoon, the Hercules, the great torso of Belvedere, the Venus, the Cleopatra, the Apollo, and endless others, which are copied in their softness and in their hardness from the best living examples, with actions which do not distort them, but give them motion and display the utmost grace. This removed a certain dryness and crudeness caused by overmuch study, observable in Piero della Francesca, Lazzaro Vasari, Alesso Baldovinetti, Andrea del Castagno, Pesello, Ercole Ferrarese, Giovan. Bellini, Cosimo Rosselli, the abbot of S. Clemente, Domenico del Ghirlandajo, Sandro Botticello, Andrea Mantegna, Filippo' and Luca Signorelli. All these endeavoured to attain the impossible by their labours, especially in foreshortening and unpleasant objects, but the effort of producing them was too apparent in the result. Thus, although most were well designed and flawless, vigour was invariably absent from them, and they lacked a soft blending of colour, first observable in Francia of Bologna and Pietro Perugino. The people, when they beheld the new and living beauty, ran madly to see it, thinking that it would never be possible to improve upon it. But the works of Lionardo da Vinci clearly proved how much they erred, for he began the third style, which I will call the modern, notable for boldness of design, the subtlest imitation of Nature in trifling details, good rule, better order, correct proportion, perfect design and divine grace, prolific and diving to the depths of art, endowing his figures with motion and breath. Somewhat later followed Giorgione da Castel Franco, who gave tone to his pictures and endowed his things with tremendous life by means of the well-managed depth of the shadows. No less skilful in imparting to his works force, relief, sweetness and grace was Frh Bartolommeo of S. Marco; but the most graceful of all was Raphael of Urbino, who, studying the labours of both the ancient and the modern masters, selected the best from each, and out of his garner enriched the art of painting with that absolute perfection which the figures of Apelles and Zeuxis anciently possessed, and even more, if I may say so. Nature herself was vanquished by his colours, and his invention was facile and appropriate, as anyone may judge who has seen his works, which are like writings, showing us the sites and the buildings, and the ways and habits of native and foreign peoples just as he desired. Besides the grace of his heads, whether young or old, men or women, he represented the modest

(1) i.e. Filippillo Lippi.

with modesty, the bold as bold, and his infants sometimes with mischievous and sometimes with playful eyes. His draperies are neither too simple nor too involved, but simply natural. Andrea del Sarto followed him in this manner, but with a softer and less bold colouring, and it may be said that he was a rare artist because his works are faultless. It is impossible to describe the delicate vivacity which characterises the works of Antonio da Correggio. He depicted hair in a manner unknown before, for it had previously been made hard and dry, while his was soft and downy, the separate hairs polished so that they seemed of gold and more beautiful than natural ones, which were surpassed by his colouring. Francesco Mazzola Parmigiano did the like, surpassing him in many respects in grace, ornament and fine style, as many of his paintings show, the faces laughing, the eyes speaking, the very pulses seeming to beat, just as his brush pleased. An examination of the wall-paintings of Polidoro and Maturino will show how marvellous are their figures, and the beholder will wonder how they have been able to produce those stupendous works, not by speech, which is easy, but with the brush, as they have done in their skilful representations of the deeds of the Romans.

How many are there among the dead whose colours have endowed their figures with such life as is imparted by Il Rosso, Iira Sebastiano Giulo Romano, Perino del Vaga, not to speak of the many celebrated living men. But the important fact is that art has been brought to such perfection to-day, design, invention and colouring coming easily to those who possess them, that where the first masters took six years to paint one picture our masters to-day would only take one year to paint six, as I am firmly convinced both from observation and experience; and many more are now completed than the masters of former days produced.

But the man who bears the palm of all ages, transcending and eclipsing all the rest, is the divine Michelagnolo Buonarroti, who is supreme not in one art only but in all three at once. He surpasses not only all those who have, as it were, surpassed Nature, but the most famous ancients also, who undoubtedly surpassed her. He has proceeded from conquest to conquest, never finding a difficulty which he cannot easily overcome by the force of his di~rine genius, by his industry, design, art, judgment and grace, and this not only in painting and in colours, comprising all forms and bodies, straight and not straight, palpable and impalpable, visible and invisible, but in the extreme rotundity of his statues. With the point of his chisel and by his fruitful labours he has spread his branches far, and filled the world with more delicious fruit than the three noble arts had produced before, in such marvellous perfection that it may well and safely be said that his statues are in every respect much finer than the ancient ones, as he knew how to select the most perfect members, arms, hands, heads, feet, form them into a perfect whole, with the most complete grace and absolute perfection, the very difficulties appearing easy in his style, so that It is impossible ever to see better. If by chance there were any works of the most renowned Greeks and Romans which might be brought forward for cornparison, his sculptures would only gain in value and renown as their manifest superiority to those of the ancients became more apparent. But if we so greatly admire those who devoted their lives to their work, when induced by extraordinary rewards and great happiness, what must we say of the men who produced such precious fruit not only without reward but in miserable poverty? It is believed that if there were just rewards in our age we should become undoubtedly greater and better than the ancients ever were. But the necessity of fighting against famine rather than for fame crushes men of genius and prevents them from becoming known, which is a shame and disgrace to those who could improve their condition and will not. Let this suffice; it is now time to turn to the Lives and treat separately all those who have produced celebrated works in this third style. The first of these was Lionardo da Vinci, with whom we now begin.