306 The Evolution of Art. 



scribed by his environment, and it is the evolution of this 

 environment with which we are chiefly interested. Four 

 great controlling influences will be seen to be effective in 

 shaping it religion, government, locality, and the prevail- 

 ing judgment of the time. 



Let us consider these separately. 



Taking, in the first instance, religion, it will be found 

 that it has furnished at times the only opportunity for art 

 to live. Letters, architecture, poetry, sculpture, and music, 

 like the hunted criminal of the early centuries, all found 

 sanctuary at her shrine. True, she has imposed in many in- 

 stances the most morbid conditions on the sons of genius. 

 Michael Angelo, ordered by Leo X to quarry with his own 

 hands the Pope's monument, comes down to posterity him- 

 self immortalized, the Pope forgotten. So out of joint was 

 he with the times in which he lived that it is no wonder 

 that he wrote upon the pedestal of his sleeping statue 



" Sleep is sweet, and yet more sweet it is to be of stone 

 while shame and misery last." 



And Eaphael, compelled by the same pope to interpolate 

 the burly pontifical figure into his matchless fresco in the 

 Vatican, is heir to all the greatness of his deed. And while 

 we may not believe that Dalmasio, an early painter of Bo- 

 logna, gained art efficacy by fasting every day while paint- 

 ing the Holy Virgin, yet the Church as a conservator of art 

 must be given credit for offering the opportunities which 

 she undoubtedly has to the earnest art creator. 



To the Church, indeed, we are almost exclusively indebted 

 for the evolution of the Gothic type of architecture, from 

 the simple pediment of the Grecian temples to the great 

 cathedrals of Europe. And while religion protected the 

 artist by its strong and effective patronage, it also furnished 

 the opportunity for widening the scope of his genius. The 

 mysterious ruins at Stonehenge are supposed to have been 

 the meeting places of a rude people for religious rites. Nor 

 was it only in the art of building that religion has been pre- ' 

 servative, not to say productive, of the works of genius. The 

 wonderful frescos that glorify the roofs of her Florentine 

 chapels ; the statues that dignify her great cathedrals ; the 

 majestic poetry of Job ; the sweet songs of David, and the 

 glowing fervor of many a Hebrew scripture, have all been 

 preserved to us by various religious sects. The curiously 

 carved wooden temples of India ; the imposing monolithic 

 structures of Egypt ; the quiet, simple beauty of the Grecian 



