V

PREFACE.

Iwer, that it is probable, they arrived at that excellencein their works, by the mere dint of imitating with greatexactness the beauties of nature, and by often copyingand retaining strong ideas of graceful antique statues;which might sufficiently serve their purposes as painters,without their troubling themselves with a farther en-' quiry into the particular causes of the eftects beforethem. It is not indeed a little strange, that the greatLeonardo da Vinci (amongst the . many philosophicalprecepts which he hath at random laid down in histreatise on painting) should not have given the least hintof any thing tending to a system of this kind; especially,as he was cotemporary with Michael Angelo, who issaid to have difcover’d a certain principle in the trunkonly of an antique statue, (well known from this cir-cumstance by the name of Michael Angelo’s Torso, orBack, fig. *) which principle gave his works a grandeur * F *g- 64.of gusto equal to the best antiques. Relative to whichtradition, Lamozzo who wrote about painting at thefame time, hath this remarkable pasiage, vol. 1. book 1.

" And because in this place there falleth out a cer-" taine precept of Michael Angelo much for our pur-" pose, I wil not conceale it, leaving the farther inter-" pretation and vnderstanding thereof to the iudicious" reader. It is reported then that Michael Angelo vp-" on a time gaue this observation to the Painter Mar -" ens de Selena his fcholler; that he fijould alwaies make" a figure Pyramidally Ser pent like > a?id multiplied by one