I do not wish to
revenge myself for that except by asking you, since you have shown the
worth of painting in war, to now say what it can do in peace, because it
appears to me that you have said so many profitable things of it in the
time of arms that I doubt whether you will find as many in the time of the
toga."
He laughed and answered:
"Your Excellency will please not to count me as an Orsino. You will
remember how I at once became one of those columns that the crab was going
to seek;" and afterwards he added:
"If it was a trouble for me to show the advantage of this our art in time
of war, I hope it will not be so to show its worth in the time of the toga
and of peace; then princes are in the habit of availing themselves with
pleasure and cost of things of very little importance and almost of no
value at all; and we see that some men are so clever in idle things that
by works of no nobility or profit, and without any learning or substance,
they are able to acquire a name, honour, profit and substance for
themselves and loss to whomsoever may give them their profit. We see that
in the domains and states which are governed by a senate and republic they
make much use of painting in public places, in the cathedrals, in the
temples, in halls of justice, in courts, porticos, basilicas and palaces,
in libraries, and generally for public ornament; and every noble citizen
has privately in his palaces or chapels, country seats or 'vignas,' a good
portion of painting.
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