[Footnote *206: Too strong. Michelangelo was always master of the weapons he used, however destructive they may have been to his disciples.] [Footnote *207: Nothing is dangerous to genius, not even mediocrity.] [Footnote *208: This term applies to the science of medicine, not to æsthetic.] [Footnote *209: Titian can be seen to advantage only in Madrid, Paris, Vienna, or London. In Venice he is almost absent.] [Illustration: _Anderson_ MARTYRDOM OF S. AGATA _After a picture by Seb. dal Piombo, once in the Ducal Collection at Urbino, now in the Pitti Gallery, Florence_] In a preceding portion of this work we have alluded to the innovations of naturalism in painting, by men who introduced perspective, created chiaroscuro, cultivated design, and mastered nude action. Through their example, it not only extended a predominating influence over pictorial treatment, but quickly obtained that place as a canon of artistic criticism which it has since continued commonly to hold. It may seem rash to impugn a principle so universally adopted; and if perfection in art really depends upon an accurate imitation of nature, it would be folly to gainsay it. But the principle may be carried too far; and if we are to allow to art a nobler mission,--if we recognise in painting and sculpture a language wherein gifted men can embody, develop, and elaborately adorn the conceptions of beauty and sublimity, or it may be the sallies of humour and the scintillations of wit that flit across the fancy--a key whereby they can impart to their fellows, and transmit to all ages and nations, their emanations of genius, their poetic flashes, their benevolent sympathies, their devotional aspirations,--then surely a higher standard should be applied to what are often ranked as merely imitative arts, and are tested by their supposed fidelity as transcripts of external objects.[*210] [Footnote *210: After all, Dennistoun is on the side of the angels--though a little unctuously.]