when Christ had come and the people had learned that the
pictured gods were not real, they began to think it wicked to make
beautiful pictures or carve marble statues. The few pictures that were
made were stiff and ugly, the figures were not like real men and women,
the animals and trees were very strange-looking things. And instead of
making the sky blue as it really was, they made it a chequered pattern
of gold. After a time it seemed as if the art of making pictures was
going to die out altogether.

Then came the time which is called 'The Renaissance,' a word which
means being born again, or a new awakening, when men began to draw real
pictures of real things and fill the world with images of beauty.

Now it is the stories of the men of that time, who put new life into
Art, that I am going to tell you--men who learned, step by step, to
paint the most beautiful pictures that the world possesses.

In telling these stories I have been helped by an old book called The
Lives of the Painters, by Giorgio Vasari, who was himself a painter. He
took great delight in gathering together all the stories about these
artists and writing them down with loving care, so that he shows us
real living men, and not merely great names by which the famous
pictures are known.

It did not make much difference to us when we were little children
whether our pictures were good or bad, as long as the colours were
bright and we knew what they meant. But as we grow older and wiser our
eyes grow wiser too, and we learn to know what is good and what is
poor. Only, just as our tongues must be trained to speak, our hands to
work, and our ears to love good music, so our eyes must be taught to
see what is beautiful, or we may perhaps pass it carelessly by, and
lose a great joy which might be ours.

So now if you learn something about these great artists and their
wonderful pictures, it will help your eyes to grow wise. And some day
should you visit sunny Italy, where these men lived and worked, you
will feel that they are quite old friends. Their pictures will not only
be a delight to your eyes, but will teach your heart something deeper
and more wonderful than any words can explain.

AMY STEEDMAN

CONTENTS

GIOTTO, . . . BORN 1276, DIED 1337
FRA ANGELICO, . . " 1387, " 1466
MASACCIO, . . . " 1401, " 1428
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI,. . " 14