As in Greece, these vortices were not of one type nor the creation of a single centre. Florence certainly played the part in Italian culture that Athens did in the growth of Hellenism. Of all the cities of Italy, she was most completely in touch with the diverse influences which humanized the arts. But the movement was not a matter of Florentine culture. Just as had been the case in Greece, a hundred centres produced personalities—men and women of every stamp. The theocracy of Rome, the democracy of Florence, the monarchy of Naples, the aristocracy of Venice, and the tyranny of Milan, all did their part. All assisted to mould that grand complexity which we call the Italian Renaissance The leaders of public opinion in all these centres, men and women alike, were continually moving about. Artists were invited now to one court now to another; scholars and poets were welcomed at Siena and Ferrara as they were at Milan and Florence. Hence that all-embracing experience of men and things, which must lie at the foundation of every art which is not only to grow, but to live and bear fruit. But it is one thing to realize the presence of a number of factors favourable to a great art. It is a more difficult thing to estimate the circumstances under which a large measure of this force and experience was diverted into channels which made a Michael Angelo not only possible but certain. The inquiry we are embarking upon is the counterpart of that which we undertook with reference to the evolution of Hellenic sculpture between 480 and 450 B.C. Apart from the longer period occupied, we shall find that the most significant feature is the resemblance between the circumstances which led up to Phidias and those which led up to Michael Angelo. This is not surprising. Indeed, were not many circumstances attending pre-Angelesque sculpture identical with those in the first half of the fifth century B.C., our entire critical method would be endangered. As a matter of fact, the identity of circumstance is remarkable. What is even more important is that where there is a really striking variation we can correlate it with a corresponding one in the result. In other words, we can recognize and account for the characteristics which distinguish the sculpture of the Italian renaissance from that of Greece 1900 years earlier. GHIBERTI AND THE GATES OF THE FLORENTINE BAPTISTERY