on bright colours smoothly, of burnishing golden ornaments, or tracing, leaf by leaf, the outlines of flowers, were not so difficult as that they should materially occupy the thoughts of the artist, or furnish foundation for his conceit; he learned these rudiments of his work without pain, and employed them without pride, his spirit being left free to express, so far as it was capable of them, the reaches of higher thought. But when accurate shade, and subtle colour, and perfect anatomy, and complicated perspective, became necessary to the work, the artist's whole energy was employed in learning the laws of these, and his whole pleasure consisted in exhibiting them. His life was devoted, not to the objects of art, but to the cunning of it; and the sciences of composition and light and shade were pursued as if there were abstract good in them;--as if, like astronomy or mathematics, they were ends in themselves, irrespective of anything to be effected by them. And without perception, on the part of any one, of the abyss to which all were hastening, a fatal change of aim took place throughout the whole world of art. In early times _art was employed for the display of religious facts_; now, _religious facts were employed for the display of art_. The transition, though imperceptible, was consummate; it involved the entire destiny of painting. It was passing from the paths of life to the paths of death" (_Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret_, pp. 8, 9, and _Modern Painters_, vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. iv. § 11. See also under No. 744). [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [16] It should be noted that the Italian terms _quattro-cento_ and _cinque-cento_ correspond with our _fifteenth_ (1400-1500) and _sixteenth_ (1500-1600) centuries respectively. [17] _Italian Masters in German Galleries_, p. 124. My references to this work are to Mrs. Richter's translation, 1883; in the case of Morelli's _Borghese and Doria-Pamfili Galleries in Rome_, they are to Miss Ffoulkes's translation, 1892. [18] _Well said: but it remains to be asked, whether the "grace" sought is modest, or wanton: affectionate, or licentious_ (J. R.). [19] _Not by its own natural course or decay; but by the political and moral ruin of the cities by whose virtue it had been taught, and in whose glory it had flourished. The analysis of the decline of religious faith quoted below does not enough regard the social and material mischief which accompanied that decline_ (J. R.) THE SIENESE SCHOOL