t)lsseriaiion on the Paintings 6f the middle Age. 177 



the efforts of the celebrated men of the sixteenth century. 

 Here we ought to enforce a principle which is very pal- 

 pable, and easy ot being retained, viz. that the art of 

 painting is the purer, the nearer it approaches ancient times ; 

 that all which it has acquired in practical perfection, in sub- 

 secpjeni a^es, has onlv improved it in .so far as artists have 

 preserved a respect f(.)r ancient doctrines ; and lastlv, that 

 if the manners and society of posterior times have restored 

 its credit and activity, it is nevertheless true, that the best 

 productions of the epoch called improperly enough the 

 eera of the revival of letters, are those in which the new 

 styles and imitations were not substituted for the ancient 

 documents. The art therefore never perished ; and whea 

 we compare tiie evils which it experienced at the periods 

 of the conquests of the barbarians, with those Vv-hich were 

 brought upon it by the theories of the new students, we 

 shall not hesitate to affirm, that it has suffered much more 

 from the latter than from the former, and that their true 

 dcst rovers have exerted their ravages much more directly 

 and much more slowly than has been imagined. 



Besides, in order to have a clear idea of these influences, 

 and of the progress of the art, we must necessarily have 

 seen and attentively considered the various productions oa 

 \vhich these influences were exercised. But how much, 

 have these inquiries been despised I In fact, that person 

 who, after having expressed his disgust at the sight of 

 some of the vigneites of a manuscript of the sixteenth 

 century, or of some badly stained glass much more mo- 

 dern, will inform us that the Gothic is a pitiful style; such 

 a person, I sav, who has seen those insufficient objects and 

 some scraps of portraits, has never visited Tuscany, Venice, 

 vr Rome, has no knowledge of the fragments deposited 

 in the voluminous colKctions of Bosio, Aringhi, Ciampini, 

 Uattari, and others: he passes i)y with disdain some valu- 

 able painlinos which are frequently found in the cabinets 

 ot the curious, and he despises them because they are not 

 decorated with the livery of our schools. In a word, the 

 belief i-« too prevalent, thai with the sixteenth century 

 painting revived; and on the contrary the term revival is 

 applied very improperly to the sera at which, perhaps, the 

 an heean to receive the last touches of degradalion : and 

 if eniiueiil men and bold and original artists have adorned 

 this memorable aeia, if the too famous Michael Angelo 

 by his jiompous works has attracted the notice of all men; 

 it is notwithstanding tr.ie, that he has stripped the ancient 

 >irt of Its nu'ivele, and the liest pictures even of the present 



Vol.4i.No. J/i). iW'<H7MSi3. M day 



