23 
The main building was but a shell upon which was placed 
apparel of gold and precious stones, of marbles and mosaics of 
divers colours, of lovely forms in figures and ornamentation, all 
tending to dignity, harmony, beauty, and completeness. Inside, 
were glorious frescoes upon the walls and ceilings, oil paintings 
over altars and in lunettes, while thrown about, in artistic 
abandon, were countless altars, pulpits, and tombs, with sculp- 
tured beasts, canopies, and floral garland in attendance. The 
very organ, galleries, and ciboria are enriched with representa- 
tions of singing boys and adoring angels, and an indescribable 
wealth of scrolls, triezes, screens, balustrades, candelabra, reading 
desks, carved stalls, flag staffs, and other adjuncts of the stately 
ceremonies of the Church, all treated by each respective craftsman 
as if upon his individual art alone depended the success of the 
whole. Sculptures of prophets, of angels, of those who were 
canonised, were planted wherever an empty and suitable site 
could be found. The Church went in for and supported the Arts, 
embellished the Church, and the Governors and Nobles were not 
far behind. In their palaces the greatest artists were ever at 
work, making perpetual study and effort to outvie what had gone 
before. In the Palazzo Vecchio and in the Ricardi at Florence, 
to give an example or two, Benozzo Gozzoli, Ghirlandajo, 
M. Angelo, and other Princes of the Craft, metaphorically trans- 
ferred the Angelic Choir to the chapel walls, and showed the 
Saints walking about as gods in the golden streets, and by those 
celestial waters which through delightful meads and pleasaunces 
lead to the summit of blissful fame. The Popes themselves vied 
with all the world and raised monuments of Art that the genius 
of Raphael, Bramante, and others have placed outside the 
possibility of their being ever surpassed. 
Tapestry workers wove from the designs of the greatest 
draughtsman, tapestries of the most magnificent kind and teeming 
with Art and Craft, as the drawings of some of them in South 
Kensington Museum testify. Arabesques in fresco and stucco 
decoration mixed with gilding and glass were created by the 
devoted and willing craftsmen. Every art was laid under 
contribution, and the wit of the man and the manipulation of the 
eraftsman produced results bordering on the miraculous. The 
Decorative Arts formed an integral part in the main esthetical 
purpose of the first period of the revival. Speaking of the early 
part of the Renaissance and Giotto’s great influence on the 
movement, Symonds says, ‘‘ Those were noble days, when the 
Painter had literally acres of walls given him tocover, Here for 
the first time in art he set forth the faith that was in him, 
speaking to those who had no printed pages, but whose heart 
received his teaching through the eye. Painting became a potent 
and efficient agent in the education of the human race.” The 

