He lived splendidly and enjoyed dressing well. Because of these good qualities, he was always greatly revered in his native town and abroad. Thus, with the end of this man's life, which came in 1521,* we bring to an end the second part of these lives, concluding with Luca as the man who, by means of the fundamentals of design, especially those of his nudes, and by means of his graceful invention and the composition of his scenes, opened the way to the ultimate perfection of art for the majority of the artisans whom we shall discuss from here on, and who, in following, were able to give it the finishing touches.* THE END OF THE LIFE OF LUCA SIGNORELLI, PAINTER THE END OF THE SECOND PART OF THE WORK This page

But to clarify the quality of the improvements that these artists made, it will not be out of place to explain briefly the five qualities I mentioned above and to discuss succinctly the origins of that true goodness which has surpassed that of the ancient world and rendered the modern age so glorious. In architecture, rule is, then, the method of m

Order is the distinction between one type and another, so that each body has the appropriate parts and there is no confusion between Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Tuscan orders. Proportion in architecture as well as sculpture is universally considered to be the making of bodies with straight, properly aligned figures, and similarly arranged parts, and the same is true in painting. Design is the imitation of the most beautiful things in Nature in all forms, both in sculpture and in painting, and this quality depends upon having the hand and the skill to transfer with great accuracy and precision everything the eye sees to a plan or drawing or to a sheet of paper, a panel, or another flat surface, and the same is true for relief in sculpture. And then the most beautiful style comes from constantly copying the most beautiful things, combining the most beautiful hands, heads, bodies, or legs toget

s works; and on account of this, it is said to be beautiful style. Neither Giotto nor those early artisans did this, even though they had discovered the principles underlying all such difficulties and had resolved them superficially, as in the case of drawing, which became more lifelike than it had been before and more true to Nature, and in the blending of colours and the composition of the figures in scenes, and in many other things, about which enough has already been said. And although the artists of the second period made extraordinary efforts in these crafts in all the areas mentioned above, they were not, however, sufficient to achieve complete perfection. They still lacked, within the boundaries of the rules, a freedom whichnot being part of the ruleswas nevertheless ordained by the rules and which could coexist