in the
shadow of sadness which broods over so much of the finest Florentine
work, the more sombre phase of the Etruscan temper still lives on."

In the end, if we try to account for the artistic power and mastery of
one people in Italy, and the lack of that power in another, we are
driven to the conclusion that the source of the artistic gift is hidden
and obscure. One may cite the opposite examples of Venice and of
Genoa,--the one so masterfully artistic; the other so impotent. And yet
the same favouring conditions, _a priori_, might have seemed to exist
for both.

With the intermingling of the peoples, and the rejuvenescence of the
physical life, came the spiritual outburst of Christianity. And the
influence, again, of Christianity upon Italian Art was immense. In place
of joy in the ideals of bodily perfection, "loathing of the body and its
beauty, as of the vehicle of all temptation, a yearning for a life in
which the flesh should be shaken off, a spirit of awe, of pity, and of
love, became the moving forces that shaped its creations."

After great religious periods, we often find that great scientific
periods follow. The ethical impulse that religion gives, is converted
into other forms of energy, by reason of man's awakened consciousness of
the meaning of things, physical and material as well as spiritual.

[Illustration: STUDY OF A HEAD]

In Italy a reaction against the Christian doctrine of the degradation of
the flesh led to a new recognition of the beauty of man and of his
physical environment. Anatomy and perspective were studied, accordingly,
with a new sense of their significance in Art. The spirit of science led
to "such amazing studies of leaf and flower as Lionardo loved to draw.
Thus to Tuscan artists the new movement brought the love of nature, and
the light of science."

We come upon Dante and Petrarch in this Discourse, in tracing the
history of Italian Art during the centuries of transition: "With Dante
we reach the threshold of the Renaissance. He stands on the verge of the
middle ages; in him the old order ends. With Petrarch the new order
begins." It is not so much as a poet, however, that Petrarch counts in
this process from one period to another; but rather as an intellectual
pioneer, leading the way into the great pagan world. Petrarch "was the
first Humanist," in short.

We cannot stay to dwell upon the effect of the Humanists and all they
stood for, good and evil, in Italian Art