those pleasures, let him not attempt the study of any art or science whatsoever, seeing that such delights can never be made to accord with the requirements of study. And therefore it is indeed that so few attain the summit of excellence, for many are the pains that he must endure, and heavy the burthens that he must bear, who would arrive at perfection in these our noble arts; wherefore the number of those who start with impetuous eagerness from the post, is much greater than that of those who, by sustained efforts in the race, have merited and obtained the prize.
In the Florentine sculptor, Torrigiano, there was more pride than true artistic excellence, although he was, without doubt, a very able artist. In his youth he was taken by Lorenzo de’ Medici the elder,[1] into the garden which the latter possessed on the Piazza of San Marco in Florence, and Avhich that magnificent citizen had decorated in the richest manner with figures from the antique, and examples of the best sculptures. In the loggie, the walks, and all the buildings there were the noblest statues in marble, admirable works of the ancients, with pictures, and other productions of art by the most eminent masters, whether of Italv or of other countries. All these treasures, to say nothing of the noble ornament they formed to the garden, were as a school or academy for the young painters and sculptors, as well as for all others devoted to the arts of design, but more particularly for the young nobles, seeing that the magnificent Lorenzo held the firm conviction, that those who are born of noble race are, in all things, capable of attaining perfection more easily than, for the most part, are men of lower extraction; in whom we do not commonly find that quickness of perception, nor that elevation of genius, so often perceptible in those of noble blood.[2] We know besides, that the less highly born have almost always to defend themselves from poverty,
- ↑ Lorenzo the Magnificent, whom Vasari and some other writers call the elder, to distinguish him from his nephew, Lorenzo, Duke of Urbino.— Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ “Not as an effect of blood,” protests our justly-dealing acquaintance, Masselli, “but because of the education received by the nobles, and the leisure they have for the cultivation of their minds.” But Vasari will be seen to have himself guarded his previous expression from all danger of misconception.
