During the next thirty years his pupils continued to paint in Bologna, and maintained in some measure the honour of his name, but before the end of the century a new school, utterly different in aim and style, sprang up, and—in the sudden blaze of fame which encircled the names of the Carracci, Domenichino, and Guido—the works of the older masters were forgotten. Travellers who visited Bologna in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were attracted solely by the creations of the Eclectic school, and returned home without being even aware of Francia’s existence. M. Rio points out a striking proof of the neglect into which his works had fallen, in the curious fact that among all the pictures which the French invaders carried back to Paris not a single piece was by Francia. With the revival of a better taste the great master of the old school of Bologna soon received just recognition, and his purity and gentleness will always appeal to a large class of sympathetic natures who are attracted by the charm of an art which is apparent to all. If we consider the place which he holds in contemporary art we shall see how little he had in common with the spirit of his age, and how much of his aspirations and sympathies belonged to the old world of the earlier religious painters. Living as he did in the days of Raphael, at a moment when the Renaissance was fast hastening to its culminating point, Francia took no share in the great movement that was swaying forward at every point, but stood apart in a sphere of his own. In an age when revived Paganism had penetrated into every part of society, and the love of the antique was the ruling impulse of intellectual thought, he scarcely shows a trace of this influence, and derives his inspiration exclusively from Christian sources. He paints Lucrezia dying with the ecstatic smile of a martyred saint on her lips, and designs classical figures only to give them the yearning expression of religious emotion. But in this realm of mystic art it must be owned that he takes the highest place. That fine saying of Raphael, when he declared that no other Madonnas were as beautiful or as religious as those which Francia painted, was no empty compliment. Since those days many have felt the truth of his words, and have confirmed his judgment. For to the earnestness and purity of Fra Angelico’s conceptions Francia brought a mastery of resources which had been lacking to those older painters. His creations are animated with a warmer humanity and a more vigorous life, they have all the charm of glowing colours and strongly contrasted light and shadow, while secular influences are allowed a larger part in the rich ornament and noble architecture which surround them.