of which the illusion was most complete. The
greater artist "could by no means be persuaded that they were simply
painted, and remained in astonishment, when, on changing his point of
view, he perceived that they were so." Dying in 1536, Baldassare was
buried in the Rotondo, near the tomb of Raffaelo da Urbino, all the
painters, sculptors, and architects of Rome attending the interment.
That he was an artist of the first rank was agreed on all hands. And
he is further entitled to be remembered as one of the very earliest of
great scene-painters.

In England, some six-and-thirty years later, there was born an artist
and architect of even greater fame than Peruzzi: Inigo Jones, who,
like Peruzzi, rendered important aid to the adornment of the stage. In
his youth Inigo had studied landscape-painting in Italy. At Rome he
became an architect; as Walpole expresses it, "he dropped the pencil
and conceived Whitehall."

Meanwhile a taste, even a sort of passion, had arisen at the English
court for masques and pageants of extraordinary magnificence. Poetry,
painting, music, and architecture were combined in their production.
Ben Jonson was the laureate; Inigo Jones the inventor and designer of
the scenic decorations; Laniere, Lawes, and Ferabosco contributed the
musical embellishments; the king, the queen, and the young nobility
danced in the interludes. On these entertainments L3000 to L5000 were
often expended, and on more public occasions L10,000 and even L20,000.
"It seems," says Isaac Disraeli, "that as no masque writer equalled
Jonson, so no 'machinist' rivalled Inigo Jones." For the great
architect was wont to busy himself in devising mechanical changes of
scenery, such as distinguishes modern pantomime. Jonson, describing
his "Masque of Blackness," performed before the court at Whitehall, on
Twelfth Night, 1605, says: "For the scene was drawn a landscape,
consisting of small woods, and here and there a void place, filled
with hangings; which falling, an artificial sea was seen to shoot
forth, as if it flowed to the land, raised with waves, which seemed to
move, and in some places the billows to break, as imitating that
orderly disorder which is common in nature." Then follows a long
account of the appearance, attire, and "sprightly movements of the
masquers:" Oceanus, Oceaniae, Niger and his daughters, with Tritons,
mermaids, mermen, and sea-horses, "as big as the life." "These thus
presented," he continues, "the scene