368 The Evolution of Painting. 



In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries we meet with 

 Leonardo da Vinci, Michel Angelo, Eaphael, Titian, and 

 other great masters. 



In summing up the work of the Italian painters of this 

 period, N. d'Anvers says : " We find a simultaneous fulfill- 

 ment of all the great principles of painting ; form, design, 

 and expression had been perfected in the Roman and Flor- 

 entine schools by Michel Angelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and 

 Raphael; and coloring and chiaroscuro in the schools of 

 Venice ; Parma by Correggio and Titian and Paolo Veronese ; 

 spiritual beauty had found its noblest exponent in Raphael, 

 and corporeal in Titian ; the art of portraiture had attained 

 its highest development; landscape painting, properly so 

 called, though not much practiced, had been greatly im- 

 proved, and genre painting had been introduced. The 

 religious subjects almost exclusively favored in the thir- 

 teenth century had given place to some extent to those of 

 antique mythology and history, and a general love of art 

 pervaded all classes." 



Raphael died in 1520, and soon after this a rapid decline 

 in painting took place in all parts of Italy except Venice. 

 A large portion of the country was devastated by war. In 

 1527 Rome was sacked by Charles V. The city never re- 

 gained its former splendor. The art schools were dispersed 

 and ruined, and the artists found no other center of en- 

 couragement and support. Florence was captured in 1530. 

 The desolation of war was supplemented by the horrors of 

 the plague, and the ruin of art in Italy was for a time 

 nearly complete. The Italian civic states were supplanted 

 by petty despotic governments of foreign extraction, which 

 ruled in the interest of the trading class, and the public 

 patronage of art wholly ceased. 



The decline of art in Italy was nearly contemporary with 

 its spread over northern and western Europe. Gothic 

 architecture, which had been adopted in northern Europe, 

 was unfavorable to the development of painting. The large 

 colored glass windows in the churches left little room for 

 pictures on the walls. Furthermore, the influence of classic 

 Greek art was felt sooner in Italy than in Germany. For 

 these reasons painting had a slower growth in northern 

 Europe than in Italy. 



Flanders emerged from the barbarism of the middle ages 

 sooner than most other countries. The great commercial 

 and manufacturing cities established there attained a high 



