d in
the science of painting.

[Sidenote: Defence of Painting]

4.

With due lamentation Painting complains that it has been expelled from
the liberal arts, because it is the true daughter of nature and is
practised by means of the most worthy of the senses. Whence wrongly, O
writers, you have excluded painting from the liberal arts, since it not
only includes in its range the works of nature, but also infinite
things which nature never created.

5.

Because writers have had no knowledge of the science of painting, they
have not been able to {61} describe its gradations and parts, and since
painting itself does not reveal itself nor its artistic work in words,
it has remained, owing to ignorance, behind the sciences mentioned
above, but it has thereby lost nothing of its divinity. And truly it
is not without reason that men have failed to honour it, because it
does honour to itself without the aid of the speech of others, just as
do the excellent works of nature. And if the painters have not
described the art of painting, and reduced it to a science, the fault
must not be imputed to painting and it is no less noble on that
account, since few painters profess a knowledge of letters, as their
life would not be long enough for them to acquire such knowledge.
Therefore we ask, Is the virtue of herbs, stones and plants
non-existent because men have been ignorant of it? Certainly not; but
we will say that these herbs remained noble in themselves without the
aid of human tongues or letters.

[Sidenote: Painting]

6.

A science is more useful in proportion as its fruits are more widely
understood, and thus, on the other hand, it is less useful in
proportion as it is less widely understood. The fruits of painting can
be apprehended by all the populations of the universe because its
results are subject to the power of sight, and it does not pass by the
ear to the brain, but by the same channel by which {62} sight passes.
Therefore it needs no interpreters of diverse tongues, as letters do,
and it has instantly satisfied the human race in the same manner as the
works of nature have done. And not only the human race, but other
animals; as was shown in a picture representing the father of a family
to whom little children still in the cradle gave caresses, as did the
dog and the cat in the same house; and it was a wonderful thing to see
such a sight.

7.

The arts which admit of exact reproduction are su