The Evolution of Painting. 375 



Mary, and of all the saints of the Court of Heaven, and 

 especially of the blessed Luke, the evangelist, chief and 

 guide of all painters, who painted and drew the image of 

 the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Son of God." 



The ascetic movement among the early Christians had a 

 very unhealthful influence upon art. They regarded the 

 body as a temptation to evil and sought on all occasions to 

 mortify and subdue its passions and desires. To this end 

 they submitted to starvation and all kinds of torture. Christ 

 was believed to have been deformed and one of the ugliest 

 of men. Instead of the healthy, well-rounded, beautiful 

 figures of the Greeks, the early Christian painters produced 

 " melancholy Christs, with large, ill-shaped eyes, looking 

 forth into space and seeing nothing; Madonnas with a 

 deep olive-green complexion, suggesting a bilious tempera- 

 ment; infant Saviours whose attenuated limbs and old- 

 looking faces would seem to speak of the most direful 

 effects of starvation ; saints with distorted arms and legs and 

 emaciated to a degree that even St. Simon Stylites might 

 envy." 



About the close of the eighth century the Pope issued a 

 bull decreeing that Christ must be represented with all the 

 attributes of the divine that art could lend him ; but it was 

 not until the Italian artists commenced the study of classic 

 Greek sculpture that they were able to counteract the in- 

 fluence of an ascetic religion. The Italian art of the middle 

 ages was almost wholly religious. In fact, it was not until 

 the time of Titian and Michel Angelo that it was partially 

 secularized. 



In Spain the growth of art was retarded at first by the 

 Mohammedan religion, and in later times by the deep super- 

 stition of the people. As late as the sixteenth century many 

 of the artists rivaled the Eastern hermits in their asceticism. 

 One painter, we are told, was in the habit of lying in a 

 coffin several hours a day, contemplating death. Paintings 

 divinely inspired and which were able to work miracles 

 were very common. 



The Spanish Inquisition was not content with providing 

 the people with knowledge regarding geography and astron- 

 omy, but turned its attention to art as well. Kigid rules 

 were made for painters, and inspectors were appointed to 

 see that the rules were enforced. The sublime assurance of 

 some of these inspectors was only equaled by their zeal. 

 They did not hesitate to criticise Michel Angelo and 



