Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/16

8 da Montepulciano, a disciple of Filarete, and Bernardo Ciuffagni, who constructed a marble monument for Gismondo Malatesti in the church of San Francesco at Rimini, and placed on it the likeness of Malatesti, taken from nature. Ciuffagni is moreover said to have produced other works in Lucca and Mantua.

No unimportant error is that committed by fathers of families who refuse to permit the genius of their children to take its free course in their childhood, and will not suffer them to pursue the calling which is most in harmony with their inclinations. To compel the attention of the young towards a study for which they have no inclination, is manifestly to prevent them from ever attaining perfection in any thing; since we almost always find that those who do not take pleasure in their occupation, rarely make great progress in whatever may be the work they undertake. On the other hand, those who follow the bent of their nature, most commonly become excellent in their vocation, and render themselves eminent in the arts to which they devote themselves: a truth which was made clearly manifest in Giuliano Maiano. His father lived for a long time on that part of the heights of Fiesole, which is called Maiano, and there worked at the trade of a stone-cutter; but proceeded eventually to Florence, where he established a shop for the sale of hewn stones, keeping it furnished with such articles as are most frequently liable to be called for suddenly by those who are employed in the fabrication of buildings. While thus dwelling in Florence, there was born to him a son Giuliano namely; and as in the course of time it appeared to the father that he gave evidence of good ability, the former resolved that he should be made a notary, his own trade of stonecutting being, as he thought, too laborious and not sufficiently profitable.