ou will find, if you understand it well, that the drawing of that
apprentice, as regards art, has more substance than that of the other
master, and what he attempted to do is worth more than everything that the
other ever did. Order a great master, who is not an Italian, even though
it be Alberto,(188) a man delicate in his manner, in order to deceive me,
or Francisco d'Ollanda there, to counterfeit a work which shall be like an
Italian work, and if it cannot be a very good one let it be an ordinary or
a bad painting, and I assure you that it will be immediately recognised
that the work was not done in Italy, nor by the hand of an Italian. I
likewise affirm that no nation or people (I except one or two Spaniards)
can perfectly satisfy or imitate the Italian manner of painting (which is
the old Greek manner) without his being immediately recognised as a
foreigner, whatever efforts he may make, and however hard he may work to
do so. And if by some great miracle such a foreigner should succeed in
painting well, then, although he may not have done it in order to imitate
Italian work, it will be said that he painted like an Italian. Thus it is
that all painting done in Italy is not called Italian painting, but all
that is good and direct is, for in this country works of illustrious
painting are done in a more masterly and more serious manner than in any
other place. We call good painting _Italian_, which painting, even though
it be done in Flanders or in Spain (which approaches us most) if it be
good, will be Italian painting, for this most noble science does not
belong to any country, _as it came from heaven_; but even from ancient
times it remained in our Italy more than in any other kingdom in the
world, and I think that it will end in it."

So he spoke. Seeing that Michael was now silent, I urged him on in this
manner. "So, Master Michael Angelo, you assert that out of all the nations
of the world it is only Italians who can paint? (Ollanda continues.)

"But what wonder in that? You must know that in Italy painting is done
well for many reasons, and outside Italy painting is done badly for many
reasons. Firstly, the nature of the Italians is studious in the extreme,
and the talented already bring with them, when they are born, power of
work, taste and love of that to which they are inclined, and of that which
demands their genius; and if any one determines to make a profession, and
to pursue some art or liberal science, h