Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/74

62 nothing, small or great, but that which seemed good in the eyes of Giovan-Francesco. Descending from a noble family, the youth had sufficient means wherewith he might have lived at his ease; he attached himself to the studies of art, therefore, more from the desire of honour, and out of love for the same, than from any wish for gain. Nor, to speak the truth of the matter, does it often happen that those artists who have not glory, and honour, but the making of profit, for their ultimate or even principal aim, become truly excellent, even though they may have been endowed with good powers and a fine genius.

The condition of him who must be constantly at his labours, to the end that he may live, as is the case of vast numbers who are bowed down by poverty and the cares of a family—who must work, I say, not only when fully disposed to do so, and when the spirits and power are equally ready to serve them, but at all times, for actual need, and that from morning till night; this is a state of things proper, not to men who place honour and glory before them as their end and aim, but to drudges, as the saying is, and mechanics hired by the day.

Works of merit are indeed not to be accomplished but with long and mature consideration, and, taking this view of the matter, Giovan-Francesco, in his more advanced age, was wont to say, that a man should first think, and then make his sketch; he should afterwards prepare his designs, and having done that, should leave them without casting an eye upon them for weeks and months; then, having selected the best, he may put them in execution. This is a method which cannot be adopted by every one, nor is it one common to those who work only for gain. Fustici would also remark that an artist ought not lightly to permit the examination of his works before they are finished, by all who may come about him; nor should he be ready frequently, or without consideration, to change and alter at the suggestion of others.

Giovan-Francesco acquired much valuable knowledge from Leonardo, and, among other things, the method of delineating horses, in which he delighted so greatly that he copied these animals in clay, in wax, in full relief, and in half relief; at a word, in every manner that one can possibly imagine. We have some drawings of horses by his hand in