er the whole drapery, both
ornaments and plain portions.'

"These operations, together with the gilt field round the figures, the
stucco decorations, and the carved framework, tabernacle, or _ornamento_
itself of the picture, were completed first; the faces and hands, which
in Italian pictures of the fourteenth century were always in tempera,
were added afterwards, or at all events after the draperies and
background were finished. Cennini teaches the practice of all but the
carving. In later times the work was divided, and the decorator or
gilder was sometimes a more important person than the painter. Thus some
works of an inferior Florentine artist were ornamented with stuccoes,
carving, and gilding, by the celebrated Donatello, who, in his youth,
practiced this art in connection with sculpture. Vasari observed the
following inscription under a picture:--'Simone Cini, a Florentine,
wrought the carved work; Gabriello Saracini executed the gilding; and
Spinello di Luca, of Arezzo, painted the picture, in the year
1385.'"--_Ib._ pp. 71, 72, and 80.

* * *

114. We may pause to consider for a moment what effect upon the mental
habits of these earlier schools might result from this separate and
previous completion of minor details. It is to be remembered that the
painter's object in the backgrounds of works of this period
(universally, or nearly so, of religious subject) was not the deceptive
representation of a natural scene, but the adornment and setting forth
of the central figures with precious work--the conversion of the
picture, as far as might be, into a gem, flushed with color and alive
with light. The processes necessary for this purpose were altogether
mechanical; and those of stamping and burnishing the gold, and of
enameling, were necessarily performed before any delicate tempera-work
could be executed. Absolute decision of design was therefore necessary
throughout; hard linear separations were unavoidable between the
oil-color and the tempera, or between each and the gold or enamel.
General harmony of effect, aerial perspective, or deceptive chiaroscuro,
became totally impossible; and the dignity of the picture depended
exclusively on the lines of its design, the purity of its ornaments, and
the beauty of expression which could be attained in those portions (the
faces and hands) which, set off and framed by this splendor of
decoration, became the cynosure of eyes. The painter's entire ener