Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/318

304 they could be justly called beautiful. In the third degree, there followed Policletus, with the other masters so highly celebrated, and by whom, as is affirmed—and we are bound to believe—the art was carried to its entire perfection. A similar progress must have been perceived in painting also. Writers declare, and it is reasonable to suppose that they do so on just grounds, that the works of those artists who painted with one colour only, and from that circumstance were called Monochromatists, did not display a very high degree of perfection. In respect to the works of Zeuxis, Polygnotus, Timanthes, and others, who used only four colours, the outlines, contours, and lineaments of their figures were inva riably commended; yet there doubtless remained something still to be desired. But in the works of Erion, Nicomacus, Protogenes, and Apelles, everything was seen to be perfect, and most beautiful; nothing better could be even imagined, these masters having not only depicted the forms, attitudes, and movements of their figures most admirably, but also attained the power of eloquently expressing the affections and passions of the soul.

But, to leave these masters, respecting whom we are compelled to confide in the opinions of others, who do not always agree among themselves; nay, what is worse, whose testimony, even as to the periods, is frequently at variance;—let us come to our own times, wherein we have the guidance of our eyes—a much safer and better conductor and judge than hearsay. Do we not clearly see to what extent architecture had been ameliorated, from the Greek Buschetto—to begin with one of the most distinguished masters—to the German Arnolfo, and to Giotto? For our perfect conviction of this truth, we need only to glance at the fabrics of the earlier period: the pilasters, the columns, the bases, the capitals, and the cornices, with their ill-formed members, as we see them, for example, in Santa Maria del Fiore, in Florence; in the exterior incrustations of San Giovanni; at San Miniato al Monte; in the cathedral of Fiesole; the Duomo of