efforts of
the rowers. Why say more? I, for my part, do not remember to have ever
seen a more terrible painting than this, which is executed in such a
manner, and with such care in the invention, the drawing, and the
colouring, that the picture seems to quiver, as if all that is painted
therein were real. For this work Jacopo Palma deserves the greatest
praise, and the honour of being numbered among those who are masters of
art and who are able to express with facility in their pictures their
most sublime conceptions. For many painters, in difficult subjects of
that kind, achieve in the first sketch of their work, as though
guided by a sort of fire of inspiration, something of the good and a
certain measure of boldness; but afterwards, in finishing it, the
boldness vanishes, and nothing is left of the good that the first fire
produced. And this happens because very often, in finishing, they
consider the parts and not the whole of what they are executing, and
thus, growing cold in spirit, they come to lose their vein of boldness;
whereas Jacopo stood ever firm in the same intention and brought to
perfection his first conception, for which he received vast praise at
that time, as he always will.

[Illustration: S. SEBASTIAN

(_After the panel by =Jacopo Palma [Palma Vecchio]=. Venice: S. Maria
Formosa_)

_Anderson_]

But without a doubt, although the works of this master were many, and
all much esteemed, that one is better than all the others and truly
extraordinary in which he made his own portrait from life by looking at
himself in a mirror, with some camel-skins about him, and certain tufts
of hair, and all so lifelike that nothing better could be imagined. For
so much did the genius of Palma effect in this particular work, that he
made it quite miraculous and beautiful beyond belief, as all men
declare, the picture being seen almost every year at the Festival of the
Ascension. And, in truth, it well deserves to be celebrated, in point of
draughtsmanship, colouring, and mastery of art--in a word, on account of
its absolute perfection--beyond any other work whatsoever that had been
executed by any Venetian painter up to that time, since, besides other
things, there may be seen in the eyes a roundness so perfect, that
Leonardo da Vinci and Michelagnolo Buonarroti would not have done it in
any other way. But it is better to say nothing of the grace, the
dignity, and the other qualities that are to be seen in this por