Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/223

Rh placing capitals to serve as bases, and doing many other things so completely without measure or order, that we may safely affirm the Teutonic manner to have received new life in Tuscany by means of this man; to say nothing of all the work that he made in the Palace, where he constructed staircases and rooms, which the Duke has been compelled to have demolished, since they had neither order nor measure, nor proportion of any kind; nay, rather, they were ill-contrived, out of square, destitute of all grace, and exceedingly incommodious.

But all these things were not done without blame to Tribolo, since he, having judgment enough, ought not, as it seemed, to have suffered that his Prince should throw away his money, and at the same time have a disgrace and shame erected before his eyes; nay, it was even still worse that he should permit Tasso, who was his friend, to do such things. Very clearly do men of discretion and judgment perceive the presumption and folly of any one who pretends to exercise an art of which he knows nothing, nor do such men fail to remark the dissimulation of those who pretend to like and approve of attempts which they certainly know to be without merit, all which may be exemplified by the works which Giorgio Vasari has had to demolish in the Palace, to the great loss of the Duke, as well as the disgrace of those by whom they were permitted and executed.

But much the same thing happened to Tribolo as to Tasso, for as the latter deserted his wood-carving, in which vocation he had no equal, yet never became a good architect, because he had left an art of which he knew much, and wherein he was very able, to devote himself to one in which he had no ability whatever, and wherefrom he derived little honour; so Tribolo, abandoning sculpture, in which it may be truly said that he was an artist of high excellence, and surprised all who beheld his works, for the vain attempt to restrain the course of rivers, in which he met with no success, did not continue to pursue the one vocation, so as to secure his fame, and derived censure and injury instead of honour and