Treatise on the Art of Painting

By Bernardino Baldini, on the book of Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, the blind painter.

Who painted the parts of the world so learnedly? Was it Argus? In Greek mythology, Argus Panoptes was a giant with a hundred eyes, symbolizing total vision.
No; this man lacks eyes; Argus saw with a hundred lights. original: "centeno lumine". Poets often used "lights" as a metaphor for eyes.
Was it Tiresias the seer, who, though void of light,
Observed things that no man understood? Nay,
He is another distinguished Tiresias, named Paul. Lomazzo's first name was Giovanni Paolo; the poet plays on the name Paul.
For who besides Tiresias has peered so sharply
Into the things that Paul has brought forth so skillfully in his golden book?

Sigismondo Fogliano on the book of Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo.

How a blind man can carry a light before those who see,
And render the celestial dwellings with his brush;
This history-filled book of the painter Lomazzo demonstrates,
Who, though deprived of light, saw the gods original: "superos", referring to the inhabitants of heaven or the divine realm. in his mind.
Just as Paul The Apostle Paul, who was famously blinded by divine light on the road to Damascus before his spiritual eyes were opened. could not learn the mysteries
Unless his eyes were darkened when he was snatched up to heaven;
So that this second Paul might see the seats of the gods with his mind alone,
Light was given to his mind, once it was taken from his eyes.