the way to Florence.
And when they had arrived there, Perino took the greatest pleasure in
seeing once again the old works painted by the masters of the past,
which had been as a school to him in the days of his boyhood, and
likewise those of the masters then living who were the most celebrated
and held to be the best in that city, in which, through the interest of
friends, a work was allotted to him, as will be related below. It
happened one day that many craftsmen having assembled in his presence to
do him honour, painters, sculptors, architects, goldsmiths, and carvers
in wood and marble, who had gathered together according to the ancient
custom, some to see Perino, to keep him company, and to hear what he had
to say, many to learn what difference in practice there might be between
the craftsmen of Rome and those of Florence, but most of them to hear
the praise and censure that craftsmen are wont often to give to one
another; it happened, I say, that thus discoursing together of one thing
and another, and examining the works, both ancient and modern, in the
various churches, they came to that of the Carmine, in order to see the
chapel of Masaccio. There everyone gazed attentively at the paintings,
and many various opinions were uttered in praise of that master, all
declaring that they marvelled that he should have possessed so much
judgment as to be able in those days, without seeing anything but the
work of Giotto, to work with so much of the modern manner in the design,
in the colouring, and in the imitation of Nature, and that he should
have solved the difficulties of his art in a manner so facile; not to
mention that among all those who had worked at painting, there had not
as yet been one who had equalled him in strength of relief, in
resoluteness, and in mastery of execution.

This kind of discourse much pleased Perino, and to all those craftsmen
who spoke thus he answered in these words: "I do not deny that what you
say, and even more, may be true; but that there is no one among us who
can equal this manner, that I will deny with my last breath. Nay, I will
declare, if I may say it with the permission of the company, not in
contempt, but from a desire for the truth, that I know many both more
resolute and richer in grace, whose works are no less lifelike in the
painting than these, and even much more beautiful. And I, by your leave,
I who am not the first in this art, am grieved that there is no space
near th