During the early modern period, style became a predominantly normative or qualitative concept like Vasari’s distinction between disegno and colour, or like the later distinction between antique or modern, or between the beautiful or the sublime. This qualitative and normative concept of style was also the reason why the practice of copying became paramount in any artistic training. The concept of imitatio was not so much related to the motive, as to the normative style of the fine arts.