K8 1869 V.2. UNIFORM WITH THE PRESENT WORK. THE GERMAN, FLEMISH AND DUTCH SCHOOLS OF PAINTING. Edited, with Notes, by Dr. WAAGEN. With Illustrations. 2 vols. Post 8vo. 24s. RECENT WORKS. THE TERRA-COTTA ARCHITECTURE OF NORTH ITALY. From Careful Drawings; with Descriptive Text. Edited by LEWIS GRUNER. With 48 Chromo-Lithographic Illustrations, printed in Colours, and Woodcut Sections, Mouldings, &c. Folio. 57. 6s. HISTORY OF PAINTING IN ITALY, from the 2nd to 16th Century, founded on recent researches in the Archives, as well as from personal inspection of the Works of Art in that country. By J. A. CROWE and G. B. CAVALCASELLE. With 100 Illustrations. 3 Vols. 8vo. 63s. HISTORY OF THE SCHOOLS OF PAINTING IN NORTH ITALY. Including Venice, Lombardy, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Parma, Friuli, Ferrara, and Bologna. From the Second to the Sixteenth Century. By J. A. CROWE and G. B. CAVALCASELLE. With Illustrations. 2 Vols. 8vo. MEMOIRS OF THE EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS, and the By Mrs. With LIVES OF THE EARLY FLEMISH PAINTERS. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, DUKE STREET, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS. BOOK V. UNIVERSITY Of California PERIOD OF HIGHEST DEVELOPMENT AND DECLINE. MASTERS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. INTRODUCTION. ALL the elements which had existed apart from each other and had composed distinct styles in the periods hitherto considered, all the qualities which had been successively developed, each to the exclusion of the rest, but which in the aggregate fulfilled the conditions of a consummate practice of Art, were united about the beginning of the sixteenth century. This union constituted a most rare and exalted state of human culture-an era when the diviner energies of human nature were manifested in all their purity. In the master-works of this new period we find the most elevated subjects, represented in the noblest form, with a depth of feeling never since equalled. It was only for a short period that Art maintained this high degree of perfection-scarcely more than one quarter of a century! But the great works then produced are eternal, imperishable. They bear, indeed, the stamp of their own age, but are created for all ages; and as they were the pride and admiration of the time when they were produced, so they will awaken the enthusiasm of the latest posterity. For the truly beautiful depends not on external or local circumstances; the Madonna di S. Sisto of Raphael, the Heroes of Phidias, Leonardo's Last Supper, and Scopas's group of the Niobe and her Children, belong not exclusively to Catholic Italy, nor to heathen Greece. In all places, in all times, their power must be felt, and must produce its impression on the heart of the spectator. At the first glance it seems surprising that in this most flourishing period of modern Art there should appear no single |