be distributed, each to its appropriate portion, with a more perfect grace.[1]
LIFE OF THE FLORENTINE ARCHITECT, LEON BATISTA ALBERTI.
[born 1404—died 1472.]
The knowledge of letters and the study of the sciences are, without doubt, of the utmost value to all, and offer the most important advantages to every artist who takes pleasure therein; but most of all are they serviceable to sculptors, painters, and architects, for whom they prepare the path to various inventions in all the works executed by them; and be the natural qualities of a man what they may, his judgment can never be brought to perfection if he be deprived of the advantages resulting from the accompaniment of learning. For who does not admit, that in selecting the site of buildings it is necessary to proceed with enlightened consideration, in order to their being sheltered from dangerous winds, and so placed as to avoid insalubrious air, injurious vapours, and the effects of impure and unhealthy waters? who does not allow, that for whatever work is to be executed, the artist must know for himself, both how to avoid impediments and how to secure all needful results,
- ↑ Of this passage, Morelli, in his Notizie d'Opere di Disegno, p. 171, speaks in the following terras:—“All is good in this description, the name of the author excepted, for this was not Attavante, as Bartoli, himself in error, has led Vasari to believe. The work illuminated by Attavante is a codex of Martianus Capella. The seven liberal arts, and the council of the gods, are depicted therein, with many exquisite ornaments, but the work does not display the mastery evinced in the Silius Italicus. On its commencement, it bears the inscription, “Atavantes Florentinus pinxit.” Puccini declares that the principal merit of these miniatures is in the care with which they have been executed; but Lanzi, History of Painting, vol. i. p. 93, pronounces a high eulogium on this work, and affirms it to merit more praise than it has hitherto received. Tirabosohi also lauds this master for the miniatures executed by him for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary. A splendid missal, painted by Attavante for that monarch, is now in the Royal Library of Brussels, and bears the following inscription:— Actavantes de Actavantibus de Florentia hoc opus illuminavit, a.d. mcccolxxxv.” On another part of the book ai’e the words, “Actum Florentia, a.d. mcccclxxxvii. ”
