Order a great master, who is not an Italian, even though
it be Alberto,(188) a man delicate in his manner, in order to deceive me,
or Francisco d'Ollanda there, to counterfeit a work which shall be like an
Italian work, and if it cannot be a very good one let it be an ordinary or
a bad painting, and I assure you that it will be immediately recognised
that the work was not done in Italy, nor by the hand of an Italian. I
likewise affirm that no nation or people (I except one or two Spaniards)
can perfectly satisfy or imitate the Italian manner of painting (which is
the old Greek manner) without his being immediately recognised as a
foreigner, whatever efforts he may make, and however hard he may work to
do so. And if by some great miracle such a foreigner should succeed in
painting well, then, although he may not have done it in order to imitate
Italian work, it will be said that he painted like an Italian. Thus it is
that all painting done in Italy is not called Italian painting, but all
that is good and direct is, for in this country works of illustrious
painting are done in a more masterly and more serious manner than in any
other place. We call good painting _Italian_, which painting, even though
it be done in Flanders or in Spain (which approaches us most) if it be
good, will be Italian painting, for this most noble science does not
belong to any country, _as it came from heaven_; but even from ancient
times it remained in our Italy more than in any other kingdom in the
world, and I think that it will end in it.
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