ng of gold for
damascening; the painting of glazed figures, and the making on
earthenware vessels of scenes and figures to resist the action of water;
weaving brocades with figures and flowers, and that most beautiful
invention, woven tapestries, that are both convenient and magnificent,
being able to carry painting into every place, whether savage or
civilized; not to mention that in every department of art that has to be
practised, design, which is our design, is used by all; so that the
members of painting are more numerous and more useful than those of
sculpture. They do not deny the eternity, for so the others call it, of
sculpture, but they say that this is no privilege that should make the
art more noble than it is by nature, seeing that it comes simply from
the material, and that if length of life were to give nobility to souls,
the pine, among the plants, and the stag, among the animals, would have
a soul more noble beyond compare than that of men; although they could
claim a similar immortality and nobility in their mosaics, seeing that
there may be seen some as ancient as the most ancient sculptures that
are in Rome, and that they used to be made of jewels and fine stones.
And as for their small or smaller number, they declare that this is not
because the art calls for a better habit of body and greater judgment,
but that it depends wholly on the poverty of their resources and on the
little favour, or avarice, as we would rather call it, of rich men, who
give them no supply of marble and no opportunity to work; in contrast
with what may be believed, nay, seen to have happened in ancient times,
when sculpture rose to its greatest height. Indeed, it is manifest that
he who cannot use and waste a small quantity of marble and hard stone,
which are very costly, cannot have that practice in the art that is
essential; he who does not practise does not learn it; and he who does
not learn it can do no good. Wherefore they should rather excuse with
these arguments the imperfection and the small number of their masters,
than seek to deduce nobility from them under false colours. As for the
higher prices of sculptures, they answer that, although theirs might be
much less, they have not to share them, being content with a boy who
grinds their colours and hands them their brushes or their cheap stools,
whereas the sculptors, besides the great cost of their material, require
many aids and spend more time on one single figure