Etching and engraving
19.5 x 12.2 cm
Transcription of text in banderole above flying putto:
AD PHILOZOGRAPHUM.
Si tibi sint nullae Tabulae, nec picta Poësis ;
Docti Pictores hi tibi sufficiant.
Nam pictae Tabulae cedunt Pictoribus. Hi sunt
Qui fingunt, pingunt quodlibet ingenio.
Translation of text in banderole above flying putto:
To the lover of things written and drawn.1
If you own no paintings, nor illustrated poems2, let these learned painters be enough for you. For painted pictures yield to painters. They are the ones who form and paint whatever they please with their genius.
Transcription of text in banderole below the falling putti:
IN MISOGRAPHUM.
Pictorum nullâ ratione Miscographus artem
Improbat, ad vivum hos pingere nil blaterans
Sed probat exemplo vivo Cornicula, pictas
Uvas cum peteret, fallitur Artifice.
Translation of text in banderole below the falling putti:
Against the hater of things written and drawn.3
The hater of painting attacks without reason the art of painters, babbling that they paint nothing lifelike.4 But the little crow proves [the opposite] by a living example: when it tried to get the painted grapes, it was deceived by the artist.
