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THE GREAT DIDACTIC
with the models that he has already used, and by copying a model that is like one previously used to produce work that resembles the original. After this, the finished works of other artists (who must be well known) may be examined and analysed in accordance with the models and rules that are already familiar. In this way the student will learn to employ the rules with greater ease, and will acquire the art of concealing his art. Only after a course of exercises of this kind will he be in the position to criticise artistic productions, whether his own or those of others.
17. (xi) These exercises must be continued until artistic production becomes second nature.
For it is practice, and nothing else, that produces an artist.
