ntity and the quality of the members,
without troubling about the quality of colours, as to the knowledge of
which anyone who judges by the eye knows how useful and necessary it is
for the true imitation of nature, whereunto the closer a man approaches
the more perfect he is.

After this they add that whereas sculpture, taking away bit by bit, at
one and the same time gives depth to and acquires relief for those
things that have solidity by their own nature, and makes use of touch
and sight, the painters, in two distinct actions, give relief and depth
to a flat surface with the help of one single sense; and this, when it
has been done by a person intelligent in the art, has caused many great
men, not to speak of animals, to stand fast in the most pleasing
illusion, which has never been seen to be done by sculpture, for the
reason that it does not imitate nature in a manner that may be called
as perfect as their own. And finally, in answer to that complete and
absolute perfection of judgment which is required for sculpture, by
reason of its having no means to add where it takes away; declaring,
first, that such mistakes are irreparable, as the others say, and not to
be remedied save by patches, which, even as in garments they are signs
of poverty of wardrobe, so too both in sculpture and in pictures are
signs of poverty of intellect and judgment; and saying, further, that
patience, at its own leisure, by means of models, protractors, squares,
compasses, and a thousand other devices and instruments for enlarging,
not only preserves them from mistakes but enables them to bring their
whole work to its perfection; they conclude, then, that this difficulty
which they put down as the greater is nothing or little when compared to
those which the painters have when working in fresco, and that the said
perfection of judgment is in no way more necessary for sculptors than
for painters, it being sufficient for the former to execute good models
in wax, clay, or something else, even as the latter make their drawings
on corresponding materials or on cartoons; and that finally, the quality
that little by little transfers their models to the marble is rather
patience than aught else.

But let us consider about judgment, as the sculptors wish, and see
whether it is not more necessary to one who works in fresco than to one
who chisels in marble. For here not only is there no place for patience
or for time, which are most mortal enemies t