Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 4.djvu/77

Rh which he had previously spent: or if on any occasion he felt obliged to execute a painting, he went to his work with such manifest reluctance that he might have been supposed to be rather going to his death. And from this we may perceive how poorly we are conducted by our own wisdom and by human prudence, for how frequently, nay, rather most commonly, do we covet that which we should least seek and do least require: supposing, as the Tuscan proverb goes, that we are about to cross ourselves with the finger, we plunge it into the eye instead. It is the common belief, for example, that by rewards and honours the minds of mortals are. stimulated to increased exertion in the study of those arts which they perceive to be well remunerated, and that, on the contrary, the perception that they who have the power to reward exertion, neglect and disregard those who distinguish themselves thereby, has the effect of causing such men to become discouraged and to abandon their vocation. Thinking thus, both ancients and moderns have ever censured, with all the force of expression which they can find, such princes as have failed to protect talents of all kinds, and have withheld from those who labour conscientiously the honours and rewards which are so justly their due. But although this rule does, for the most part, hold good, we have nevertheless occasion sometimes to remark that the liberality of just and magnanimous princes has, in certain instances, produced a contrary effect, seeing that there are many who are more disposed to contribute to the advantage and utility of the world, while in depressed and moderate condition, than when exalted to greatness and possessing an abundance of all things. And here we have a case in point. The magnificence and liberality of Clement VII., by too largely rewarding Sebastiano, who had previously served him as an excellent painter, was a temptation to that master, from the careful and pains-taking artist that he had been, to become most idle and negligent; and whereas while the struggle between himself and Kaphael da Urbino continued, and Sebastiano lived in a poor condition, he was labouring continually, he had no sooner obtained what sufficed to his wants, than he passed his time in a totally different manner.

But be this as it may, and leaving to the judgment of