And this is proved by
the example of the most powerful old and modern emperors and kings, and of
the philosophers and wise persons who attained everything, and who so
greatly esteemed and appreciated the knowledge of painting, and spoke of
it with such high praises and examples, and in making use of it and paying
for it so liberally and magnificently and, finally, by the great honour
that the Mother Church does it, with the holy Pontiffs, cardinals, and
great princes and prelates. And so you will find in all the past
centuries, all the past valorous peoples and nations held this art in so
much honour, that they admired nothing more nor considered anything as a
greater wonder. And then we see Alexander the Great, Demetrius, and
Ptolomy, famous kings, together with many other princes, who readily boast
of understanding it; and amongst the Caesars, Augustus the divine Caesar,
Octavian Augustus, M. Agrippa, Claudius, and Caligula and Nero, in this
alone virtuous, likewise Vespasian and Titus, as was shown in the famous
retable of the Temple of Peace, which he built after having vanquished the
Jews and their Jerusalem. What shall I say of the great Emperor Trajan?
What of Helius Adrianus, who with his own hand painted singularly well, as
the Greek Dion writes in his life, and Spartianus? Then the divine Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus, Julius Capitolinus, says how he learned to paint,
Diognetus being his teacher; and even AElius Lampridius relates that the
Emperor Severus Alexander, who was an exceedingly powerful prince, himself
painted his genealogy to show that he descended from the lineage of the
Metelos.
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