Leonardo. Yet
Raffaello came very near to him, more than any other painter, and
above all in grace of colouring. But to return to Raffaello himself;
in time he found himself very much hindered and impeded by the
manner that he had adopted from Pietro when he was quite young,
which he acquired with ease, since it was over-precise, dry, and
feeble in draughtsmanship. His being unable to forget it was the
reason that he had great difficulty in learning the beauties of the
nude and the methods of difficult foreshortenings from the cartoon
that Michelagnolo Buonarroti made for the Council Hall in Florence;
and another might have lost heart, believing that he had been
previously wasting his time, and would never have achieved, however
lofty his genius, what Raffaello accomplished. But he, having purged
himself of Pietro's manner, and having thoroughly freed himself of
it, in order to learn the manner of Michelagnolo, so full of
difficulties in every part, was changed, as it were, from a master
once again into a disciple; and he forced himself with incredible
study, when already a man, to do in a few months what might have
called for the tender age at which all things are best acquired, and
for a space of many years. For in truth he who does not learn in
good time right principles and the manner that he wishes to follow,
and does not proceed little by little to solve the difficulties of
the arts by means of experience, seeking to understand every part,
and to put it into practice, can scarcely ever become perfect; and
even if he does, that can only be after a longer space of time and
much greater labour.

When Raffaello resolved to set himself to change and improve his
manner, he had never given his attention to nudes with that zealous
study which is necessary, and had only drawn them from life in the
manner that he had seen practised by his master Pietro, imparting to
them the grace that he had from nature. He then devoted himself to
studying the nude and to comparing the muscles of anatomical subjects
and of flayed human bodies with those of the living, which, being
covered with skin, are not clearly defined, as they are when the skin
has been removed; and going on to observe in what way they acquire the
softness of flesh in the proper places, and how certain graceful
flexures are produced by changing the point of view, and also the
effect of inflating, lowering, or raising either a limb or the whole
person, and likewise