ABSTRACT
'I know that our art consists primarily in the imitation of nature but then, since it cannot by itself reach so high, in the imitation of those judged to be more accomplished artists.' Thus wrote Giorgio Vasari in the Preface to his Lives of the Artists, 1 What then is this imitation? In seeking to respond to this question, the focus in this paper will be on the imitation by artists of other more accomplished masters, rather than on the problem of the imitation of nature, which is not within the essay's scope.
