And Augustus Caesar departed not from my saying when,
during the universal peace in all lands, he closed the doors of the Temple
of Janus, because in closing those doors of iron he opened the doors of
gold of the treasures of the Empire, in order to spend more largely in
peace than he had done even in war; and perhaps amongst such ambitious and
magnificent works as those with which he ornamented Mount Palatine and the
Forum, he paid as much for a figure in painting as he would have paid to a
regiment of soldiers in a month. So that the peace of great princes should
be desired in order that they may give their country great works in
painting for the ornamentation of their estate and their glory, and
receive from them spiritual and special contentments and beautiful things
to behold."
"I do not know, Senhor Michael," said I, "how you will prove to me that
Augustus paid as much for a painted figure as he would pay to a regiment
of soldiers for a month; if you were to say that in Spain it would be more
difficult to believe you, than if you said that there were such bad
painters in Italy that they painted the Emperor with the legs of a crab
and with the label, _Plus ultra_!"
Senhor Michael laughed once more, without the Marchioness, and afterwards
said:
"I well know that in Spain people do not pay so well for painting as in
Italy, and therefore you will be surprised at the great sums paid for it,
as you are only accustomed to small sums; and I have been well informed of
this by a Portuguese servant that I had, and therefore painters live and
exist here, and not in the Spains.
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