mits which it is not right to pass in art, he ought rather to paint more
slowly and studiously; for an excellent and skilful man is not entitled to
allow his taste to err through his haste when thereby some part is
forgotten or neglected of the great object perfection, which is what must
be always sought; hence it is not a vice to work a little slowly or even
to be very slow, nor to spend much time and care on works, if this be done
for more perfection; only the want of knowledge is a defect.

"And I wish to tell you, Francisco d'Ollanda, of an exceedingly great
beauty in this science of ours, of which perhaps you are aware, and which
I think you consider the highest, namely, that what one has most to work
and struggle for in painting is to do the work with a great amount of
labour and study in such a way that it may afterwards appear, however much
it was laboured, to have been done almost quickly and almost without any
labour, and very easily, although it was not. And this is a very excellent
beauty, at times some things are done with little work in the way I have
said, but very seldom: most are done by dint of hard work and appear to
have been done very quickly.

"But Plutarch says in his book _De Liberis educandis_, that a poor painter
showed Apelles what he was doing, telling him: 'This painting has just
this moment been done by my hand,' Apelles answered: 'Even if you had not
said so I should have known that it was by your hand and that it was done
quickly, and I am surprised that you do not do many of them every day.'

"However I should prefer (if one had either to err or be correct) to err
or be correct quickly rather than slowly, and that my painter should
rather paint diligently and a little less well than one who is very slow,
painting better, but not much better.

"But now I wish to know this of you, M. Francisco, to see whether you
agree with my opinion, namely, that you should tell me if there are many
different ways of painting almost of equal goodness; which of them will
you consider the worst, or which of them are bad?"

"That is still a greater question," I replied, "Senhor Michael, than the
one I put to you; but just as Mother Nature has produced in one place men
and animals, and in another place men and animals, all made according to
one art and proportion, and yet very different to each other, so it is,
almost miraculously, with the hands of painters, as you will find many
great men each of whom p