UM SUIS PICTURIS, IN
QUIBUS SINGULARE ARTIFICIUM ET VENUSTAS FUIT, SED ET QUOD
COLORIBUS OLEO MISCENDIS SPLENDOREM ET PERPETUITATEM
PRIMUS ITALICAE PICTURAE CONTULIT, SUMMO SEMPER ARTIFICIUM
STUDIO CELEBRATUS.

The death of Antonello was a great grief to his many friends, and
particularly to the sculptor Andrea Riccio, who wrought the nude marble
statues of Adam and Eve, held to be very beautiful, which are seen in
the courtyard of the Palace of the Signoria in Venice. Such was the end
of Antonello, to whom our craftsmen should certainly feel no less
indebted for having brought the method of colouring in oil into Italy
than they should to Johann of Bruges for having discovered it in
Flanders. Both of them benefited and enriched the art; for it is by
means of this invention that craftsmen have since become so excellent,
that they have been able to make their figures all but alive. Their
services should be all the more valued, inasmuch as there is no writer
to be found who attributes this manner of colouring to the ancients; and
if it could be known for certain that it did not exist among them, this
age would surpass all the excellence of the ancients by virtue of this
perfection. Since, however, even as nothing is said that has not been
said before, so perchance nothing is done that has not been done before,
I will let this pass without saying more; and praising consummately
those who, in addition to draughtsmanship, are ever adding something to
art, I will proceed to write of others.

[Illustration: ANTONELLO DA MESSINA: THE CRUCIFIXION

(_London: National Gallery, 1166. Panel_)]

FOOTNOTES:

[10] Jan van Eyck.

[11] It is reasonable to suppose that this stands for Hans (Memling).

ALESSO BALDOVINETTI

[Illustration: THE ANNUNCIATION

(_After the panel by =Alesso Baldovinetti=. Florence: Uffizi, 56_)

_Anderson_]

LIFE OF ALESSO BALDOVINETTI

PAINTER OF FLORENCE

So great an attraction has the noble art of painting, that many eminent
men have deserted the callings in which they might have become very
rich, and, drawn by their inclination against the wishes of their
parents, have followed the promptings of their nature and devoted
themselves to painting, to sculpture, or to some similar pursuit. And,
to tell the truth, if a man estimates riches at their true worth and no
higher, and regards excellence as the end of all his actions, he
acquires treasures very different from silv