Note 73 — BOOK VI.

Tom. iv. p. 257. One truth prepares the way for another. I have read in Sig. Conca, tom. iii. p. 164, that the style of Arbasia partakes of that of Federigo Zuccaro; an opinion I believe of Sig. Ponz, the principal guide of Conca. If Federigo about the same time was chief, and Arbasia master in the academy of Rome, the style of the first might be caught by the other. When we reflect that the style of Da Vinci is highly finished, correct, and strong, diametrically opposed to the facility and popular style of Federigo, we cannot accord to Palomino that authority and veneration which Conca bestows on him. What should we think of a critic who should endeavour to palm on us, as the production of the time of Horace, an ode written in the style of Prudentius?