Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/268

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It would appear, as we have before remarked, that Nature, the benign mother of all things, does sometimes endow certain places with the gift of some rare genius, of which, until that moment, the place thus favoured had never formed the conception; and that she will sometimes, for example, cause to be born in such a country, men who are so powerfully inclined to the study of painting and the arts of design generally, that without the aid of any masters, but merely by the imitation of living and natural objects, they become admirable artists; nay, attain to the very summit of distinction. It will also occasionally happen, that when one has thus commenced, many set themselves to emulate his labours, and these will not unfrequently labour to such purpose, that without having visited Rome, Florence, or any other city where remarkable paintings are to be found, but merely by labouring in emulation of each other, they are seen to produce works of the most admirable excellence. Examples of this kind may be adduced more particularly as presented by Friuli, where there have, in our own times, flourished many excellent painters (a state of things which had not happened in those localities for several centuries), all arising from such a commencement as we have described above.

At the time when Giovanni Bellini was labouring in Venice, as we have already related, and was teaching his art to many young aspirants, there were two of his disciples who were rivals of each other; Pellegrino of Udine namely, who was afterwards called Da San Daniello, as will be remarked hereafter, and Giovanni Martino of Udine. We will first speak of the latter, who always imitated the manner of Giovanni Bellini, which was hard and dry, nor could he ever succeed in imparting more softness to his own manner, notwithstanding all the care and exactitude with which he laboured. This may very possibly have happened from his having