Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 3.djvu/87

Rh

Many are the men of genius by whom rare and excellent works would undoubtedly be produced, if, at their entrance into life, they had been thrown into contact with such as were both able and willing to direct their activity towards the mode of exertion best suited to their powers and endowments. But it too frequently happens, that those great or rich men who have the ability to do this, have neither the knowledge nor the requisite will. Many of these persons, for example, desiring to erect some great and important edifice, will not give themseh'es the trouble to seek an architect of adequate endoTvments and of highly elevated mind, but on the contrary, place their glory and reputation in the hands of ignoble and dishonest persons, by whom their name is discredited and their memory disgraced in the very works which should have contributed to their lasting honour. Nay, not unfrequently, for the mere sake of bringing forward those who are willing to depend wholly on their patronage, (such is the force of an ill-understood ambition,) men will often reject the meritorious designs which may be presented to them, while they cause the most worthless to be put in execution; whence it follows, that their own fame is diminished by the poverty and insufficiency of the work; for all who have judgment in such matters, consider the artist and his employer to be of one mind, since they are conjoined in one and the same work. But, on the other hand, how many have been the princes, who, however little they know themselves, have yet, from the circumstance of having met with masters of judgment and excellence, obtained no less glory after their death for the buildings erected by them, than they enjoyed during their lives, from the dominion which they exercised over the nations.

Now in this respect Cronaca Avas in his time most fortunate, seeing that he possessed much knowledge, and also found those who gave him opportunities for showing what he