§ 108 Dependence on Design of the Decorative Arts
All these lines of work and ingenious arts, as one sees, are derived from design, which is the necessary fount of all, for if they are lacking in design they have nothing.302 Therefore although all processes and styles are good, that is best by which every lost thing is recovered and every difficult thing becomes easy: as we shall see in reading the Lives of the artists, who, aided by nature and by study have done superhuman things solely by means of design. And thus, making an end of the Introduction to the three Arts, treated perhaps at too great length, which in the beginning I did not intend, I pass on to write the Lives.