Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/266

258 find fault with all that had previously been accomplished, promising the Duke to show him something much better than he there beheld. But Genga, who was a man of judgment, perceived by their deportment in what manner the afiair was likely to end; he therefore gave them an apartment which they were to paint entirely without companions. Whereupon they set themselves to their task, and laboured to the utmost extent of their skill and knowledge, in the hope of obtaining distinction; but, whatever may have been the cause, certain it is, that in all the days of their lives they never exhibited a less praiseworthy, or, to tell the plain truth, a more unworthy performance than in that work.

And how often does it not happen, that when there is the most pressing occasion for effort, and when men have awakened the highest expectations, they are themselves so blinded, and their judgment becomes in some manner so bewildered, that they produce works which are absolutely inferior to their usual manner, and acquit themselves less creditably than they have ever before been seen to do? But in the case now in question, this effect may also very possibly have arisen from the malignity of the artists themselves, and from the evil nature which they betrayed by thus blackening and seeking to depreciate the works of others; or it may be, that the having laid too great a restraint upon their genius may have been the cause of their failure. To proceed quietly and as nature permits, but being at the same time careful to neglect no study, and to exercise all diligence, this appears to me to be a better method than is that of labouring to drag out as it were by force from the genius such things as are not there. It is indeed a wellknown fact, that in all arts, but more especially, perhaps, in that of writing, things far-fetched and affected are easily recognized, seeing that the forced effort of too much study, if we may so speak, is readily perceptible in all things.

The work of the Dossi having been given to view, therefore, was found ridiculous to such a degree that they left the service of the Duke in great disgrace, the latter being compelled to have all they had done destroyed, and to cause the whole to be painted by others, which was effected accordingly after designs prepared by Genga.

A very beautiful picture was painted at a later period by