Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects/Dedication to Second Edition (1568)
DEDICATION TO COSMO DE’ MEDICI.
TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT SIGNOR COSMO DE’ MEDICI, DUKE OF FLORENCE AND SIENA, HIS MOST HONOURED LORD.
Seventeen years have now elapsed since I presented to your most illustrious Excellency the then but roughly sketched Lives of the most renowned Painters, Sculptors, and Architects; and now they once again return to present themselves before you, not indeed wholly finished, yet so changed from what they first were,—so enriched by the many works of which I had not been able to obtain an earlier knowledge, and so much more complete, that there remains, in my opinion, nothing more that my power can supply, to be desired for them. Again I present these Lives to you, therefore, most illustrious and most truly excellent My Lord Duke, with the addition of other noble and very famous artists, who, between the former period and the present, have passed from the miseries of this life to a better; as well as of some, who, though still in life amongst us, have so nobly laboured in their vocation, that they are most worthy to be had in eternal remembrance. And of a truth it has been of no small advantage to many, that I have been permitted, by the mercy of Him through whom live all things, to survive until I have been able to write this book almost anew; for, as I have expunged many things, which in my absence and without my knowledge, had been printed in the former one, I know not how, so I have also altered and added many things, which, although useful and even necessary, were previously wanting. And if the portraits of the many distinguished men, which I have added to this work, and of which great part have been procured by the favour and aid of your Excellency, are not always true to the life, and have not those characteristic expressions, or that resemblance more commonly given by the vivacity of colour, this is not because the drawings have not been made from the life, or are not the real and natural likeness of the artist, but arises from the fact, that they have been sent to me in great part by the friends that I possess in various places, and have not been taken by a master’s hand. I have also endured no small inconvenience from the distance of those who have engraved the heads; for if the engravers had been near me, we might probably have had the work executed with greater care than has now been done. But however this may be, our artists, and the lovers of art for whose benefit and convenience I have subjected myself to so much labour, are wholly indebted to your most illustrious Excellency, for whatever of good, useful, or agreeable may be found in this work; for, being in your Excellency’s service, I have had facilities, by means of the leisure which you have been pleased to secure to me, and by the use of the many, nay, innumerable objects belonging to your Excellency, to which I have had access: for the collection, arrangement, and final presentation to the world, of all that seemed desirable for the completion of the work. And now, would it not be almost impiety as well as ingratitude, should I dedicate these lives to any other than yourself? or, if artists should attribute, whatever they may find of useful or pleasing in the work, to any one but to your Excellency? For not only was it by your help and favour that the book first received existence, and now returns to the light; but are not you alone, in imitation of our ancestors, sole father, lord, and protector, of these our arts? Most reasonable and righteous is it, therefore, that so many pictures and noble statues, with so many wondrous edifices of every kind, should be erected and executed by those in your service, and to your eternal and ever-during memory. But if we are all indebted to you for these and other causes,—as we all are most deeply,—how much more do not I owe you? I, who have ever received at your hands so many valued occasions (would that my head and hands were but equal to my wish and desire,) for giving proof of my slight abilities, which, whatever they may be, are very far from commensurate to the truly royal magnificence and greatness of your own mind. But what do I seek to accomplish? It were better I should remain silent than attempt that which would be wholly impossible, even to a much higher and nobler intellect,—how much more, then, to my most weak powers. Deign then, your most illustrious Excellency, to accept this my— or rather, indeed, your—book of the Lives of the Artists in Design, and, as doth the Father of all, looking first to the heart of the writer, and the good intentions of the work, be pleased graciously to accept, not what I would, or ought to offer, but what I am able to present.
Your most illustrious Excellency’s
Most obliged servant,
Giorgio Vasari.
Florence, 9th January, 1568.