attirbutetd to Jan Asselijn Artist sketching 17th century drawing Morgan Library, New York |
He who cannot draw has no worth:
Where there is no grace, there is no beauty;
Where there is no salt, there is no taste.
But with drawing, he has grace and beauty,
Decorum, grandeur, conceits, and art,
Such that he is the means by which we scale great heights,
Everyone [should] make his drawings on paper,
So that painting succeeds all the better,
And measure now the whole, now each part.
Chi Disegno non hà, non hà valore;
Dove gratia non è, non è bellezza;
E dove non è sal, non è sapore.
Ma col Disegno s'hà gratia, e vaghezza,
Decoro, maestà, concetti, ed arte,
Ch'egli ci è scala ad ogni grand'altezza.
Faccia ciascun gli suoi dissegni in carte,
Che meglio riesce la Pittura,
E misuri hor'il tutto, hora la parte.
– from a poem of 1605 by painter Federico Zuccaro (1541-1609) called The Lament of Painting (Il lamento della Pittura) reprinted in Julian Brooks's book about the Zuccaro brothers in late-Renaissance Rome published by the Getty Museum in 2007
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Francesco Montelatici Man carrying candelabra and frightened by dog 17th century drawing Morgan Library, New York |