And in many other castles and cities of Italy, such as Orvieto, Esi,(190)
Ascoli, and Como, there are pictures nobly painted, and all of great
price, for I only speak of such; and if we were to speak of the private
paintings and pictures that every one holds dearer than life, it would be
to speak of the innumerable, and there are to be found in Italy some
cities which are nearly all painted with tolerable painting, inside and
out."
It seemed that Michael was coming to a conclusion, when the Lady
Marchioness, looking at me, said:
"Do you not remark, M. Francisco, that M. Michael abstained from speaking
of Rome, the mother of painting, so as not to talk of his own works? Now
what he would not do, let us not fail to do for the purpose of ensnaring
him the more, for when one deals with famous paintings, no other has such
value as the fount from which they are derived and proceed. And this work
is in the head and fount of the Church, I mean in St. Peter's in Rome; a
great vault, in fresco, with its circuit and curvatures of arches, and a
facade, in which M. Angelo divinely made us understand and divided into
histories how God first created the world, with many images of Sibyls and
figures of exceedingly great artistic beauty and artifice. And what is
singular is, that doing nothing more than this work, which as yet he has
not completed, and having commenced it when a youth, there is therein
comprised the work of twenty painters united in that vault alone.
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