The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors Architects, Volume 1 | Page 3

of foreign artists than by those made by natives.
It is known that in the little island city of Rhodes there were more than
30,000 statues, in bronze and marble, nor did the Athenians possess
less, while those of Olympus and Delphi were more numerous still, and
those of Corinth were without number, all being most beautiful and of

great price. Does not every one know how Nicomedes, king of Lycia,
expended almost all the wealth of his people owing to his passion for a
Venus by the hand of Praxiteles? Did not Attalus do the same? who
without an afterthought expended more than 6000 sesterces to have a
picture of Bacchus painted by Aristides. This picture was placed by
Lucius Mummius, with great pomp to adorn Rome, in the temple of
Ceres. But although the nobility of this art was so highly valued, it is
uncertain to whom it owes its origin. As I have already said, it is found
in very ancient times among the Chaldeans, some attribute the honour
to the Ethiopians, while the Greeks claim it for themselves. Besides this
there is good reason for supposing that the Tuscans may have had it
earlier, as our own Leon Batista Alberti asserts, and weighty evidence
in favour of this view is supplied by the marvellous tomb of Porsena at
Chiusi, where not long ago some tiles of terracotta were found under
the ground, between the walls of the Labyrinth, containing some
figures in half-relief, so excellent and so delicately fashioned that it is
easy to see that art was not in its infancy at that time, for to judge by
the perfection of these specimens it was nearer its zenith than its origin.
Evidence to the same purport is supplied every day by the quantity of
pieces of red and black Aretine vases, made about the same time, to
judge by the style, with light carvings and small figures and scenes in
bas-relief, and a quantity of small round masks, cleverly made by the
masters of that age, and which prove the men of the time to have been
most skilful and accomplished in that art. Further evidence is afforded
by the statues found at Viterbo at the beginning of the pontificate of
Alexander VI., showing that sculpture was valued and had advanced to
no small state of perfection in Tuscany. Although the time when they
were made is not exactly known, yet from the style of the figures and
from the manner of the tombs and of the buildings, no less than by the
inscriptions in Tuscan letters, it may be conjectured with great reason
that they are of great antiquity, and that they were made at a time when
such things were highly valued. But what clearer evidence can be
desired than the discovery made in our own day in the year 1554 of a
bronze figure representing the Chimæra of Bellerophon, during the
excavation of the fortifications and walls of Arezzo. This figure
exhibits the perfection of the art attained by the Tuscans. Some small
letters carved on a paw are presumed, in the absence of a knowledge of

the Etruscan language, to give the master's name, and perhaps the date.
This figure, on account of its beauty and antiquity, has been placed by
Duke Cosimo in a chamber in his palace in the new suite of rooms
which contains my paintings of the deeds of Pope Leo X. The Duke
also possesses a number of small bronze figures which were found in
the same place. But as the antiquity of the works of the Greeks,
Ethiopians, Chaldeans, and Tuscans is enveloped in darkness, and
because it is necessary in such matters to base one's opinions on
conjectures, although these are not so ill founded that one is in danger
of going very far astray, yet I think that anyone who will take the
trouble to consider the matter carefully will arrive at the same
conclusion as I have, that art owes its origin to Nature herself, that this
beautiful creation the world supplied the first model, while the original
teacher was that divine intelligence which has not only made us
superior to the other animals, but like God Himself, if I may venture to
say it. In our own time it has been seen, as I hope to show quite shortly,
that simple children, roughly brought up in the woods, have begun to
draw by themselves aided by the vivacity of their intellect, instructed
solely by the example of these beautiful paintings and sculptures of
Nature. Much more then is it probable that the first men, being less
removed from their divine origin, were more perfect, possessing a
brighter intelligence, and that with Nature as a guide, a pure intellect
for master, and the lovely