It is quite true that we have not such buildings
and pictures as you have, but they are already being made, and little by
little they are losing that barbarian superfluity that the Goths and Moors
sowed throughout Spain. I also hope that, on arriving in Portugal after
leaving here, I may assist either in the elegance of building or in the
nobility of painting, so that we may be able to compete with you. Our
science is almost entirely lost, and without honour or renown in those
kingdoms, and not through the fault of others, but through the fault of
the place and disusage, to such extent that very few esteem it or
understand it unless it be our most serene king, by supporting all virtue
and patronising it; and likewise the most serene infante D. Luiz, his
brother, a very valorous and wise prince, who has a very nice knowledge
and discretion in every liberal art. All the others neither understand nor
esteem painting."
"They do well," said M. Angelo.
But Master Lactancio Tolomei, who had not spoken for some time, proceeded
in this manner:
"We Italians have this very great advantage over all other nations in this
great world, in the knowledge and honour of all the illustrious and most
worthy arts and sciences. But I would have you to know, M. Francisco
d'Ollanda, that whoever does not understand and esteem the most noble art
of painting does so because of his own defects and not because of the art,
which is very noble and clear; and because he is a barbarian and without
judgment, and has no honourable part in being a man.
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