And we read that Alexander the Great put a heavy
penalty upon any painter other than Apelles who should paint him, for he
considered that man alone able to paint his appearance with that severity
and liberal mind which could not be seen without being praised by the
Greeks and feared and adored by the barbarians. And therefore if a poor
man of this earth so commanded by edict concerning his image, how much
more reason have the ecclesiastical or secular princes to take care to
order that no one shall paint the benignity and meekness of our Redeemer
or the purity of Our Lady and the Saints but the most illustrious painters
to be found in their domains and provinces? And this would be a very
famous and much praised work in any lord. And even in the Old Testament
God the Father wished that those who only had to ornament and paint the
_arca foederis_ should be masters not merely excellent and great, but also
touched by His grace and wisdom, God saying to Moses that He would imbue
them with the knowledge and intelligence of His Spirit so that they might
invent and do everything that He could invent and do. And therefore if God
the Father willed that the ark of His Covenant should be well ornamented
and painted, how much more study and consideration must He wish applied to
the imitation of His Serene Face and that of His Son our Lord, and of the
composure, chastity and beauty of the glorious Virgin Mary, who was
painted by St. Luke the Evangelist, the work is in the Sancto Sanctorum,
and the head of our Saviour which is in San Giovanni in Laterano, as we
all know, and especially Messer Francisco.
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