light and shade.
Both these schools have a limited but absolute perfection of their own,
and their peculiar successes can in no wise be imitated, except by the
strictest observance of the same limitations.

138. You have then, Line for the earliest art, branching into--

(1) Greek, Line with Light.
(2) Gothic, Line with Colour.

Now, as art completes itself, each of these schools retain their
separate characters, but they cease to depend on lines, and learn to
represent masses instead, becoming more refined at the same time in all
modes of perception and execution.

And thus there arise the two vast mediaeval schools; one of flat and
infinitely varied colour, with exquisite character and sentiment added,
in the forms represented; but little perception of shadow. The other, of
light and shade, with exquisite drawing of solid form, and little
perception of colour: sometimes as little of sentiment. Of these, the
school of flat colour is the more vital one; it is always natural and
simple, if not great;--and when it is great, it is very great.

The school of light and shade associates itself with that of engraving;
it is essentially an academical school, broadly dividing light from
darkness, and begins by assuming that the light side of all objects
shall be represented by white, and the extreme shadow by black. On this
conventional principle it reaches a limited excellence of its own, in
which the best existing types of engraving are executed, and ultimately,
the most regular expressions of organic form in painting.

Then, lastly,--the schools of colour advance steadily, till they adopt
from those of light and shade whatever is compatible with their own
power,--and then you have perfect art, represented centrally by that of
the great Venetians.

The schools of light and shade, on the other hand, are partly, in their
academical formulas, too haughty, and partly, in their narrowness of
imagination, too weak, to learn much from the schools of colour; and
pass into a state of decadence, consisting partly in proud endeavours to
give painting the qualities of sculpture, and partly in the pursuit of
effects of light and shade, carried at last to extreme sensational
subtlety by the Dutch school. In their fall, they drag the schools of
colour down with them; and the recent history of art is one of confused
effort to find lost roads, and resume allegiance to violated principles.

139. That, briefly, is the map