DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57409#0364
348
LIVES OF THE ARTISTS.
know—by the ancient Romans, rendered it proper, as I
thought, that it should be treated of at some length, which I
have done accordingly. And if, after closing the life of Luca
the elder, I have briefly stated other things relating to his
descendants, who have lived even to our own days—this I
have done that I may not have further occasion to recur to
that matter. Luca moreover, be it observed, though he passed
from one occupation to another—from marble to bronze, and
from bronze to terra-cotta—was not induced to these changes
by an idle levity, or because he was, as too many are found
to be, capricious, unstable, and discontented with his vocation,
but because he was by nature disposed to the search after
new discoveries, and also because his necessities compelled
him to seek a mode of occupation which should be in harmony
with his tastes, while it was less fatiguing and more profitable.
Whence the arts of design and the world generally, were
enriched by the possession of a new, useful, and beautiful
decoration—from which, too, the master himself derived per-
petual fame and undying glory. Luca della Robbia drew
well and gracefully, as may be seen by certain drawings in
our book, the lights of which are in white lead ; and in one
of them is his own portrait, made with great care by his own
hand, looking at himself in a mirror.
THE FLORENTINE PAINTER PAOLO UCCELLO.
[born 1396-7—died 1479?]
Paolo Uccello would have proved himself the most original
and inventive genius ever devoted to the art of painting, from
the time of Giotti downwards, had he bestowed but half the
labour on the delineation of men and animals that he lost and
threw away over the minutim of perspective. For, although
these studies are meritorious and good in their way, yet he who
is addicted to them beyond measure, wastes his time, exhausts
his intellect, and weakens the force of his conceptions, inso-
much that he frequently diminishes the fertility and readiness
LIVES OF THE ARTISTS.
know—by the ancient Romans, rendered it proper, as I
thought, that it should be treated of at some length, which I
have done accordingly. And if, after closing the life of Luca
the elder, I have briefly stated other things relating to his
descendants, who have lived even to our own days—this I
have done that I may not have further occasion to recur to
that matter. Luca moreover, be it observed, though he passed
from one occupation to another—from marble to bronze, and
from bronze to terra-cotta—was not induced to these changes
by an idle levity, or because he was, as too many are found
to be, capricious, unstable, and discontented with his vocation,
but because he was by nature disposed to the search after
new discoveries, and also because his necessities compelled
him to seek a mode of occupation which should be in harmony
with his tastes, while it was less fatiguing and more profitable.
Whence the arts of design and the world generally, were
enriched by the possession of a new, useful, and beautiful
decoration—from which, too, the master himself derived per-
petual fame and undying glory. Luca della Robbia drew
well and gracefully, as may be seen by certain drawings in
our book, the lights of which are in white lead ; and in one
of them is his own portrait, made with great care by his own
hand, looking at himself in a mirror.
THE FLORENTINE PAINTER PAOLO UCCELLO.
[born 1396-7—died 1479?]
Paolo Uccello would have proved himself the most original
and inventive genius ever devoted to the art of painting, from
the time of Giotti downwards, had he bestowed but half the
labour on the delineation of men and animals that he lost and
threw away over the minutim of perspective. For, although
these studies are meritorious and good in their way, yet he who
is addicted to them beyond measure, wastes his time, exhausts
his intellect, and weakens the force of his conceptions, inso-
much that he frequently diminishes the fertility and readiness