Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 1.djvu/322

308 son, we see important ameliorations of the practice in design, as well as in the general treatment and harmony of colouring. By these masters the study of perspective, also, was promoted, to the great benefit of art. They displayed some fertility of invention, with softness and harmony of colouring, but adhered closely to the manner of Giotto. Not inferior to these in ability or practice were Spinello Aretino, Parri, his son, Jacopo di Casentino, Antonio Yeneziano, Lippo, Gherardo Stamina, and the other masters who succeeded Giotto, and imitated his manner, outline, expression, and colour; these they perhaps improved, in some degree, but not to such an extent as to give the impression that they proposed to originate a new direction. He, therefore, who shall carefully consider this my discourse, will perceive that these three arts—Sculpture, Painting, and Architecture—have, up to the times here alluded to, been, so to speak, but roughly sketched out, and have wanted very much of their due perfection; insomuch, that if they had not made further progress, the slight improvements here enumerated would have availed but little, neither would they have merited to be held of much account. Nor would I have any to suppose me so dull of perception, or endowed with so little judgment, as not to perceive that the works of Giotto, of Andrea Pisano, of Nino, and all the rest, whom, because of their similitude of manner, I have placed together in the first part, could claim but a small amount of praise, if compared with those of their successors, or that I did not perceive this when I commended them. But, whoever will consider the character of the times in which these masters laboured, the dearth of artists, with the difficulty of obtaining any assistance of value, will admit— not only that they are beautiful, as I have said—but even that they are wonderful; and will doubtless take infinite pleasure in the examination of those first beginnings, those gleams of light and good which then began to be rekindled in the paintings and sculptures of the day. The victory of Lucius Marcius, in Spain, was assuredly not so great, but that the Romans had won much more important triumphs, yet, as they had regard to the period, to the place, to the peculiarities of the occasion, to those engaged, and the number of the combatants, it was admitted to be stupendous, and is even yet held to be worthy of the praises which have been