Painting to poetry as a body to its shadow
The species reach the common sense; the painter surpasses the poet at a battle
A continuous text page developing the theory of perception and the paragone. The species of objects pass through the eye to the impressiva and then to the common sense, where they are judged, whereas the poet's imagination is born in the dark eye and dies in memory. On this basis painting stands to poetry as a body to its derivative shadow, or even more. The chapter then imagines a bloody battle: the poet's pen would be consumed with thirst and hunger before he described what the painter shows in an instant.
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Species pass through the eye to the common sense
The species of objects reach the impressiva and from it the common sense, where they are judged; the imagination does not leave the common sense except to go to memory, where it stops and dies unless the thing is of great excellence. The imagination of a body does not enter the sense but is born there, in the dark eye, which is far different from seeing light outside the darkness.
Painting to poetry as body to its shadow
In matters of fiction the science of painting stands to poetry as a body stands to its derivative shadow, and by an even greater proportion. For the shadow of a body at least enters the eye and reaches the common sense, but the imagination of a body does not enter that sense at all.
The painter surpasses the poet in depicting a battle
If the poet figures a bloody battle amid dark and smoky air, the smoke of deadly machines, thick dust, and the fearful flight of the wretched, the painter surpasses him, because the poet's pen will be consumed before he can describe fully what the painter immediately represents. His tongue will be impeded by thirst and his body by sleep and hunger before he shows in words what the painter shows in an instant.