Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/101

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Il Cronaca had a brother called Matteo, who gave his attention to sculpture, and was a disciple of Antonio Rossellino; but although he possessed much talent and ability, drew well, and had great practice in working in marble, he yet left no completed work, death having taken him from the world in his nineteenth year; wherefore he had no opportunity for the fulfilment of those hopes which had been conceived of his further progress by all who knew him.

It is a remarkable, nay, it is a wonderful thing, that many practice the art of painting and handle the colours, either by an impulse of nature or by the adoption and pursuit of a good manner, who are yet without any knowledge of design, and are wholly destitute of any fixed principle in art. Nay, they sometimes attain the power of producing works of such merit, that even though the artists themselves be nothing extraordinary, yet their productions compel men to bestow on them the highest praise, and to hold them in the utmost respect. That the most animated and most perfect works have been produced by such of our artists as have been naturally endowed with a fine manner, and are perpetually engaged in studious labour, is a truth exemplified by numerous pictures, and is to be observed in many masters; for that gift of nature has so powerful an effect, that even when those who possess it neglect or abandon the studies of art, follow no other master, and do no more than merely pursue the practice of painting, and handle their colours with that grace which has been imparted to them by nature, yet at the first glance at their works every part is seen to be excellent and admirable, as on minute examination we find to be such, as are produced by those masters whom we hold to be of the best. That what I here say is true has been clearly demonstrated in our own times by the works of the Florentine painter Domenico Puligo, seeing that in them, whoever has acquaintance with art will find all that I have remarked above to be fully exemplified.