They both are born artificers, not made. Nature is more
powerful in them than study.
De pictura.--Whosoever loves not picture is injurious to truth and
all the wisdom of poetry. Picture is the invention of heaven, the
most ancient and most akin to Nature. It is itself a silent work,
and always of one and the same habit; yet it doth so enter and
penetrate the inmost affection (being done by an excellent
artificer) as sometimes it overcomes the power of speech and
oratory. There are divers graces in it, so are there in the
artificers. One excels in care, another in reason, a third in
easiness, a fourth in nature and grace. Some have diligence and
comeliness, but they want majesty. They can express a human form in
all the graces, sweetness, and elegancy, but, they miss the
authority. They can hit nothing but smooth cheeks; they cannot
express roughness or gravity. Others aspire to truth so much as
they are rather lovers of likeness than beauty. Zeuxis and
Parrhasius are said to be contemporaries; the first found out the
reason of lights and shadows in picture, the other more subtlely
examined the line.
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