Note 6 — PORTRAITS
Reading edition
Vasari’s condescending estimate of Tintoret may remind some readers of Voltaire’s patronizing estimate of Shakespeare: “It seems as though nature had mingled in the brain of Shakespeare the greatest conceivable strength and grandeur with whatever witless vulgarity can devise that is lowest and most detestable;” and much more of the same kind about the “intoxicated barbarian,” which will seem pitiful or amusing according to the humor of the reader.