Dii Romæ indigetes, Trojæ tuque auctor, Apollo,
Unde genus nostrum coeli se tollit ad astra,
Hanc saltem auferri laudem prohibete Latinis:
Artibus emineat semper, studiisque Minervæ,
Italia, et gentes doceat pulcherrima Roma;
Quandoquidem armorum penitus fortuna recessit,
Tanta Italos inter crevit discordia reges;
Ipsi nos inter sævos distringimus enses,
Nec patriam pudet externis aperire tyrannis
VIDA, Poetica, lib. ii.
LONDON
SMITH, ELDER & CO
1899
This third volume of my book on the "Renaissance in Italy" does notpretend to retrace the history of the Italian arts, but rather to definetheir relation to the main movement of Renaissance culture. Keeping this,the chief object of my whole work, steadily in view, I have tried toexplain the dependence of the arts on mediæval Christianity at theircommencement, their gradual emancipation from ecclesiastical control, andtheir final attainment of freedom at the moment when the classical revivalculminated.
Not to notice the mediæval period in this evolution would be impossible;since the revival of Sculpture and Painting at the end of the thirteenthcentury was among the earliest signs of that new intellectual birth towhich we give the title of Renaissance. I have, therefore, had to deal atsome length with stages in the development of Architecture, Sculpture,and Painting, which form a prelude to the proper age of my own history.
In studying the architectural branch of the subject, I have had recourseto Fergusson's "Illustrated Handbook of Architecture," to Burckhardt's"Cicerone," to Grüner's "Terra-Cotta Buildings of North Italy," toMilizia's "Memorie degli Architetti," and to many illustrated works onsingle buildings in Rome, Tuscany, Lombardy, and Venice. For the historyof Sculpture I have used Burckhardt's "Cicerone," and the two importantworks of Charles C. Perkins, entitled "Tuscan Sculptors," and "ItalianSculptors." Such books as "Le Tre Porte del Battistero di Firenze,"Grüner's "Cathedral of Orvieto," and Lasinio's "Tabernacolo della Madonnad'Orsammichele" have been helpful by their illustrations. For the historyof Painting I have made use principally of Vasari's "Vite de' piùeccellenti Pittori," &c.c., in Le Monnier's edition of Crowe andCavalcaselle's "History of Painting," of Burckhardt's "Cicerone," ofRosini's illustrated "Storia della Pittura Italiana," of Rio's "L'ArtChrétien," and of Henri Beyle's "Histoire de la Peinture en Italie." Ishould, however, far exceed the limits of a preface were I to make a listof all the books I have consulted with profit on the history of the artsin Italy.
In this part of my work I feel that I owe less to reading than toobservation. I am not aware of having mentioned any important building,statue, or picture which I have not had the opportunity of studying. WhatI have written in this volume about the monuments of Italian art hasalways been first noted face to face with the originals, and afterwardscorrected, modified, or confirmed in the course of subsequent journeys toItaly. I know that this method of composition, if it has the merit offreshness, entails some inequality of sty