and takes a greater delight in being
worshipped in that rather than in any other semblance of itself, and by
reason of this it bestows grace and gifts of salvation according to the
belief of those who meet together in such a place.

[Sidenote: Painting excels all the Works of Man]

8.

The eye, which is called the window of the soul, is the principal means
by which the brain can most abundantly and splendidly contemplate the
infinite works of nature; and the ear is the next in order, which is
ennobled by hearing the recital of the things seen by the eye. If you,
historians and poets, or mathematicians, had not seen things with the
eyes, you could not report of them in writing. If thou, O poet, dost
tell a story with thy painting pen, the painter will more easily give
satisfaction in telling it with his brush and in a manner less tedious
and more easily understood. And if thou callest painting mute poetry,
the painter can call poetry blind painting. Now consider which is the
greater loss, to be blind or dumb? Though the poet is as free as the
painter in his creations and compositions, they are not so satisfactory
to men as paintings, because if poetry is able to describe forms,
actions and places in words, the painter deals with the very {65}
semblance of forms in order to represent them. Now consider which is
nearer to man, the name of man or the image of man? The name of man
varies in diverse countries, but death alone changes his form. If thou
wast to say that painting is more lasting, I answer that the works of a
coppersmith, which time preserves longer than thine or ours, are more
eternal still. Nevertheless there is but little invention in it, and
painting on copper with colours of enamel is far more lasting.

We by our art can be called the grandsons of God. If poetry deals with
moral philosophy, painting deals with natural philosophy; if poetry
describes the action of the contemplative mind, painting represents the
effect in motion of the action of the mind; if poetry terrifies people
with the pictures of Hell, painting does the same by depicting the same
things in action. If a poet challenges the painter to represent
beauty, fierceness, or an evil, an ugly or a monstrous thing, whatever
variety of forms he may produce in his way, the painter will cause
greater satisfaction. Are there not pictures to be seen so like
reality that they deceive men and animals?

[Sidenote: Painting creates Real