The works of this master are too extreme in the realistic element to be taken as a fair example of the Italian sculpture of this time, but NICCOLO OF ARREZZO, the MASSEGNE, and the BON or BUONI family, and many others in different portions of the country contributed to put aside the stiff, formal manner of the past, and to bring in the more sympathetic and natural one of the fifteenth century. In truth, the last decades of the fourteenth century were a transition period, when art was bursting its bonds, and was preparing for the glorious works of the golden days of sculpture in Italy. CHAPTER V. ITALIAN SCULPTURE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. There was no one great influence or circumstance which led up to the revival of art and letters which took place in the fifteenth century, and which is known under the general name of the Renaissance. Its causes were many, and may be traced in every department of the life of the Middle Ages--in religion, politics, learning, and the habits of the people. This is far too great a topic for us to enter on here, and we must keep to the one matter which we have in hand. In Italy, heretofore, as we have shown, sculpture had been almost entirely separated from other arts, and stood by itself. Its works had been the smaller objects of which we have spoken; and though these were oftentimes splendid in their design and execution, they did not afford the sculptor the same broad field for his work as he has when his productions are combined with architecture. Now all this was changed. The French and German artists had brought out a style of architecture of their own, the Italians pursued another course, and went back to classic art for their teaching, and now every opportunity was given for sculpture to assume its utmost importance; and the art of ancient Greece was studied with all the enthusiasm of the Italian nature. The masters of Florence, or, rather, of Tuscany, were of great importance in the beginning of the new movement, and I shall speak first of them. FRANCESCO SQUARCIONE, who lived from 1396 to 1474, was a painter, and travelled into Greece to collect antique objects, and made many drawings from the monuments which he saw. He established a school in Padua, and his museum was of advantage to sculptors as well as to painters. Other Tuscan artists who were in love with classic art wandered among its remains in Rome and other parts of Italy, and brought back to their homes a greater knowledge of sculpture, as well as the drawings which they had made; and in this part of Italy the Renaissance early made itself a living, active power.