And not only these things does this noble art, but it
places before our eyes the image of any great man who should be seen and
known because of his deeds, and likewise the beauty of a woman who is
separated from us by many leagues, a thing on which Pliny reflects much.
To one who dies it gives many years of life, his own face remaining behind
painted, and his wife is consoled, seeing daily before her the image of
her deceased husband, and the sons who were left little children rejoice
when men to know the presence and the aspect of their dear father, and
fear to shame him."
As the Marchioness, almost weeping, made a pause here, M. Lactancio, in
order to draw her out of her sorrowful imagination and memories, said:
"Besides all these things, which are great, what is there that more
ennobles or makes other things more beautiful than painting, whether on
arms, in temples, in palaces, or fortresses, or anywhere else where beauty
and order may have a place? And so great minds assert that there is
nothing a man can find to fight against his mortality or against the
flight of time but painting only. Nor did Pithagoras depart from this view
when he said that only in three things were men similar to the immortal
God: in science, in painting, and in music."
Here Master Michael said:
"I am sure that if in your Portugal, M. Francisco, they were to see the
beauty of the painting that is in some houses in Italy, they could not be
so uncultured as not to esteem it greatly, and wish to attain to it; but
it is not surprising that they do not know or appreciate what they have
never seen and what they do not possess.
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