g is the grandchild of nature and related to God.

33.

Were a master to boast that he could remember all the forms and effects
of nature, he would certainly appear to me to be graced with great
ignorance, inasmuch as these effects are infinite and our memory is not
sufficiently capacious to retain them. Therefore, O painter, beware
lest in thee the lust of gain should overcome the honour of thy art,
for the acquisition of honour is a much {93} greater thing than the
glory of wealth. Thus, for this and for other reasons which could be
given, first strive in drawing to express to the eye in a manifest
shape the idea and the fancy originally devised by thy imagination;
then go on adding or removing until thou art satisfied; then arrange
men as models, clothed or nude, according to the intention of thy work,
and see that, as regards dimension and size, in accordance with
perspective there is no portion of the work which is not in harmony
with reason and natural effects, and this will be the way to win honour
in thy art.

[Sidenote: Painting & Sculpture]

34.

I have myself practised the art of sculpture as well as that of
painting, and I have practised both arts in the same degree. I think,
therefore, that I can give an impartial opinion as to which of the two
is the most difficult: the most perfect requires the greater talent,
and is to be preferred.

In the first place sculpture requires a certain light, that is to say,
a light from above, and painting carries everywhere with it its light
and shade; sculpture owes its importance to light and shade. The
sculptor is aided in this by the relief which is inherent in sculpture,
and the painter places the light and shade, by the accidental quality
of his art, in the places where nature would naturally produce it. The
sculptor cannot diversify his work by the various colours of objects;
painting {94} is complete in every respect. The perspective of the
sculptor appears to be altogether untrue; that of the painter can give
the idea of a distance of a hundred miles beyond the picture. The
sculptors have no aerial perspective; they can neither represent
transparent bodies nor reflections, nor bodies as lustrous as mirrors,
and other translucent objects, neither mists nor dark skies, nor an
infinity of objects which it would be tedious to enumerate. The
advantage [of sculpture] is that it is provided with a better defence
against the ravages of time, although a