picture painted on thick copper
and covered over with white enamel, painted with enamel colours and
then put in the fire again and baked, is equally resistant. Such a
work as far as permanence is concerned exceeds sculpture. They may say
that where an error is made it is not easy to correct it. It is poor
reasoning to try and prove that the irremediability of an oversight
renders the work more honourable. But I say to you that it will prove
more difficult to mend the mind of the master who commits such errors
than to repair the work he has spoilt. We know well that an
experienced and competent artist will not make mistakes of this kind;
on the contrary, acting on sound rules, he will remove so little at a
time that his work will be brought to a successful close. Again, the
sculptor, if he works in clay or wax, can remove and add, and when the
work is finished it can be easily {95} cast in bronze, and this is the
last and most permanent operation of sculpture, inasmuch as that which
is merely of marble is liable to destruction, but this is not the case
with bronze. Therefore the picture painted on copper, which with the
methods of painting can be reduced or added to, is like bronze, which
when it was in the state of a wax model could be reduced or added to.
And if sculpture in bronze is durable, this copper and enamel work is
more imperishable still; and while the bronze remains black and ugly,
this is full of various and delectable colours of infinite variety, as
we have described above. If you wish to confine the discussion to
painting on panel I am content to pronounce between it and sculpture,
saying, that painting is the more beautiful, the more imaginative and
the more copious, and that sculpture is more durable, but has no other
advantage. Sculpture with little labour shows what in painting seems
to be a miraculous thing to do: to make impalpable objects appear
palpable, to give the semblance of relief to flat objects, and distance
to objects that are near. In fact painting is full of infinite
resources of which sculpture cannot dispose.

35.

Sculpture is not a science, but a mechanical art, because it causes the
brow of the artist who practises it to sweat, and wearies his body; and
for {96} such an artist the simple proportions of the limbs, and the
nature of movements and attitudes, are all that is essential, and there
it ends, and shows to the eye what it is, and it does not cause the
spectator