arbiter of art, he is possessed of that presiding power which

separates and attracts every excellence from every school, selects

both from what is great and what is little, brings home knowledge

from the east and from the west, making the universe tributary

towards furnishing his mind and enriching his works with

originality and variety of inventions.

Thus I have ventured to give my opinion of what appears to me the

true and only method by which an artist makes himself master of his

profession, which I hold ought to be one continued course of

imitation, that is not to cease but with our lives.

Those who, either from their own engagements and hurry of business,

or from indolence, or from conceit and vanity, have neglected

looking out of themselves, as far as my experience and observation

reaches, have from that time not only ceased to advance and improve

in their performance, but have gone backward. They may be compared

to men who have lived upon their principal till they are reduced to

beggary and left without resources.

I can recommend nothing better, therefore, than that you endeavour

to infuse into your works what you learn from the contemplation of

the works of others. To recommend this has the appearance of

needless and superfluous advice, but it has fallen within my own

knowledge that artists, though they are not wanting in a sincere

love for their art, though they have great pleasure in seeing good

pictures, and are well skilled to distinguish what is excellent or

defective in them, yet go on in their own manner, without any

endeavour to give a little of those beauties which they admire in

others, to their own works. It is difficult to conceive how the

present Italian painters, who live in the midst of the treasures of

art, should be contented with their own style. They proceed in

their common-place inventions, and never think it worth while to

visit the works of those great artists with which they are