320 IDPJNTIFICATION OF THE ARTISAN AND ARTIST. 



very well. lie worked the whole of the day at his chiseling, and sat up all 

 the night drawing. He was poor ; he was hungry and cold ; and the 

 only means he had of warming himself at night was to put his feet in a 

 basket of shavings, while he sat there drawing, and would not be driven 

 from it. Now, there was an education for him, beginning first with small 

 work, and exercising his patience and skill in that way. Sigismund 

 Malatesta, the great patron of art at Kimini, was then building a splen- 

 did church, and he sent to Florence to find workmen to do the carving; 

 and Luca della Eobbia was engaged for this purpose. He had at that 

 time been a silversmith's apprentice, had executed works in marble and 

 bronze, and was set to undertake that noble work at Eimini ; and how old 

 was he when Sigismund engaged him ? He was fifteen ! And what pains 

 and study must have been gone through in that time by the poor boy to 

 makehimself really an artist ! He succeeded admirably at Eimini, and came 

 back and received a commission to work with Donatello, to make a screen 

 for an organ, and a bronze door. After all this, he suddenly discovered a 

 totally new branch of art — modeling in pottery. He first contrived to 

 manufacture his own clay ; he then discovered a mode of glazing it to 

 such perfection that centuries of weather do not in the least affect it. 

 He then contrived to color it in the most beautiful manner; and all 

 Florence, and every part of Italy, may be said to be filled with works of 

 art equal to anything produced in marble, and valued as high. He went 

 on improving his art; he began, then, tesselated pavements, and outsides 

 of churches, which are most beautiful ; and then, taking to himself, not 

 a number of workmen to mold under him, but two near relatives of his, 

 who were also artists and sculptors in marble, and who had left marble 

 to come to work in clay, this family carried on the same work to the 

 third generation, when the secret of the art expired with the family. 

 But in those throe generations, till Pope Leo gave the commission of 

 making the pavement of the Loggie Eaffaelle, this family made an infi- 

 nite number of original works of art, executed by hand, colored and 

 baked by themselves. Now, there is a whole family of artists, in whom 

 the productive and artistic skill were united. In our estimation we 

 should say what a descent that was for a sculptor in bronze and marble 

 to come to a mere potter! But I will read to you Vasari's sentiments 

 on that subject, who, as the great biographer of artists, and who lived 

 among artists, and was himself an artist, may be allowed to have a right 

 sentiment upon it. He says: "Luke therefore, passing from one sort of 

 work to another, from marble to bronze, and from bronze to clay, did 

 so, not from any idleness, nor from being, like many others, capricious, 

 unstable, and discontented with his art, but because he felt himself 

 drawn to new pursuits, and to an art requiring less labor and time, and 

 rendering him more gain ; hence the world and the arts of design became 

 enriched with an art, new, useful, and most beautiful; and he, with glory 

 and praise, immortal and unfailing." 



We are told by Pliny that it was in the time of Augustus the prac- 



