Scimus et hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim.
This verse does not in any way insult painters, but rather praises and
honours them; for it says that poets and painters have power to dare, I
mean to dare to do whatever they may approve of; and this good insight and
this power they have always had, for whenever a great painter (which very
seldom happens) does a work which appears to be false and lying, that
falsity is very true, and if he were to put more truth into it it would be
a lie, as he will never do a thing which cannot be in itself, nor make a
man's hand with ten fingers, nor paint on a horse the ears of a bull or
the hump of a camel, nor will he paint the foot of an elephant with the
same feeling as for that of a horse, nor in the arm or face of a child
will he put the senses of an old man, nor an ear nor an eye out of its
place by as much as the thickness of a finger, nor is he even permitted to
place a hidden vein in an arm anywhere he likes; for such things as these
are very false. But should he, in order better to retain the decorum of
the place and time, alter some of the limbs (as in grotesque work, which
without that would indeed be without grace and therefore false) or a part
of one thing into another species such as to change a griffin or a deer
from the middle downwards into a dolphin, or from thence upwards into any
figure he may wish, putting wings instead of arms, putting off arms if
wings suit it better, that limb which he changes, whether of a lion, horse
or bird, will be quite perfect of the species to which it belongs; and
this although it may appear false can only be called well imagined and
monstrous.
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