Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/143

Rh as are seen to have been produced with care and difficulty, and as his labours are distinguished for these two qualities, he deserves and has obtained fame and honour, as an illustrious example from which modern sculptors may learn how those statues should be executed which are calculated, by the difficulties they present, to secure the greatest amount of praise and renown. For after Donatello, it is Antonio, who has effected the most towards adding a certain delicacy and refinement to works in sculpture, seeking to perforate in some parts, and in others to round his figures in such a manner, that they appear in full relief and well finished in every part, a point which until that time had not been seen to be so perfectly attended to in sculpture, but the method, having been first introduced by him, has since, in the times more immediately following, and in our own, been over adopted and acknowledged to be admirable.

Very great is the amount of gratitude which is due to Heaven and to Nature, from those who are able to produce their works without effort and with a certain grace which others cannot impart to their productions, whether by study or imitation. For this is in truth a gift of Heaven, showered, so to speak, over certain works in such a manner that they bear about them a loveliness and attraction wliich draw towards them not only those who are well versed in art, but even many who are not connected with it. And this proceeds from the idea of ease and facility which the truly good presents, never offering to the eyes that hard and crude aspect so frequently given to works produced painfully and with laboured efforts; by such grace and simplicity, which pleases universally and is understood by all, are distinguished the works performed by Desiderio.

Many affirm, that this artist belonged to Settignano, a place two miles distant from Florence, while others consider him