Nor must the Attention be diverted from what ought to be Principal, by any thing how Excellent soever in it self. Protogenes in the famous Picture of Jalissus had painted a Partridge so exquisitely well, that it seem’d a Living Creature, it was admir’d by all Greece ; but That being most taken notice of, he defaced it entirely. That illustrious Action of Mutius Scævola’s putting his Hand in the Fire, after he had by Mistake kill’d another instead of Porsenna, is sufficient alone to employ his Mind ; Polydore therefore in a Capital Drawing I have of him of that Story, […] has left out the dead Man ; it was sufficiently known that one was kill’d, but that Figure, had it been inserted, would necessarily have diverted the Attention, and destroy’d that noble Simplicity, and Unity which now appears.

in DOLCE, Lodovico, Dialogo della pittura di M. Lodovico Dolce, Intitolato l’Aretino. Nel quale si ragiona della dignità di essa Pittura, e di tutte le parti necessarie, che a perfetto Pittore si acconvengono: con esempi di Pittori antichi, e moderni: e nel fine si fa menzione delle virtù, e delle opere del divin Tiziano / Dialogue sur la peinture de Louis Dolce, intitulé l’Aretin. Dans lequel on traitte de l’excellence de la peinture, de toutes les qualités necessaires au bon Peintre, avec les exemples des Peintres anciens et modernes, à la fin on y parle du merite et des ouvrages du divin Titien, trad. par VLEUGHELS, Nicolas, Firenze, Michel Nestenus et François Moucke, 1735., p. 218