[147] Luigi Lanzi; "Storia Pittorica d'Italia, Bassano, 1795-96," Vol. I, p. 167.
[148] Tintoretto himself, under the influence of Michelangelo, says: "The most beautiful colours are black and white because they give relief to figures by light and shade," and at the end of his life, abandoning the principles of the Venetian School, he gives the preference to drawing, "Draw, draw now and always."
[149] Daniele da Volterra was also more a sculptor than a painter, and ended by giving himself up to sculpture. He made casts of the statues of the Medici and also some statues of his own. Some of his pictures, like the David and Goliath in the Louvre, which is painted on both sides, are only two faces of one of his statues. Rosso and Salviati were also sculptors.
[150] The verses of Giovanni Strozzi (1545) are well known:
La Notte, che tu vedi in si dolci atti Dormir, fu da un Angelo scolpita In questo sasso, e perche dorme, ha vita. Destala, se nol credi, e parleratti.
The night which you see sleeping so peacefully was carved by an angel in this rock. Since she sleeps, she lives. If you do not believe it awake her and she will speak to you.
[151] The same thing is true of Girolamo Muziano of Brescia. Even the School of Milan was affected. Lomazzo makes of Michelangelo the ruler of all painting. The imitation of Michelangelo spread especially in sculpture, and there the decadence was dizzying.
[152] "Journal du Voyage du Cavalier Bernin en France," par M. de Chantelou. ("Gazette des Beaux Arts," Vol. XXIX, p. 453.)
Michelangelo said one day to Ammanati, "Nelle mie opere caco sangue."
Varchi said to him one day, "Signor Buonarroti, avete il cervello di Giove." Michelangelo answered, "Si vuole il martello di Vulcano per farne uscire qualche cosa." (Quoted by E. Delacroix in his Journal, Vol. II, p. 429.)
[155] Michelangelo said to Cardinal Salviati, who was ministering to him on his death-bed, that he only regretted two things: not to have done all he should have for his salvation, and to be dying just as he was learning the alphabet of his profession. (Journal de Bernin, Vol. XXI, p. 388.)
[156] Vasari, "Vite," Preamble to the Third Part.
Lionardo spent six years in painting some hair, but Corregio only an hour, and with four strokes of his brush gained just the same effect. (Journal de Bernin, Vol. XX, p. 453.)