ms
are often sheltered under one private roof!

Oak chests figured prominently among the furnishings of a Gothic home,
because the possessions of those feudal lords, who were constantly at
war with one another, often had to be moved in haste. As men's lives
became more settled, their possessions gradually multiplied; but even
at the end of the eleventh century bedsteads were provided only for
the nobility, probably on account of expense, as they were very grand
affairs, carved and draped. To that time and later belong the
wonderfully carved presses or wardrobes.

Carved wood panelling was an important addition to interior decoration
during the reign of Henry III (1216-72).

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries England with Flanders led
in the production of mediaeval art.

Hallmarks of the Gothic period are animals and reptiles carved to
ornament the structural parts of furniture and to ornament panels.
Favourite subjects with the wood carvers of that time were scenes from
the lives of the saints (the Church dominated the State) and from the
romances, chanted by the minstrels.

CHAPTER XVII

THE RENAISSANCE

Following the Gothic Period came the Renaissance of Greek art which
began in Italy under the leadership of Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael,
who, rejecting the existing types of degraded decorative art, in Italy
a combination of the Byzantine and Gothic--turned to the antique, the
purest Greek styles of Pericles' time. The result was another period
of perfect line and proportion, called the Italian Renaissance, a
great wave of art which swept over all Europe, gaining impetus from
the wise patronage of the ruling Medicis. One of them (Pope Leo X with
the co-operation of Italy's reigning dukes and princes) employed and
so developed the extraordinary powers of Michael Angelo, Titian,
Raphael, Andrea del Sarto and Correggio.

By the end of the fifteenth century, Classic Greek art was engrossing
the mind of Western Europe, classical literature was becoming the
fashion and there was even an attempt to make Latin the popular
language.

It was during the Renaissance that Palladio rebuilt the palaces of
Italy,--beautiful beyond words, and that Benvenuto Cellini designed in
gold, silver and bronze in a manner never since equalled. From that
same period dates the world-famous Majolica of Urbino, Pesaro and
Gubbio, shown in our museums. So far as house-furnishing went, aside
from palaces, there was but li