252 ATtlADNE FLORENT1NA. 



first to learn the principles of linear design, exemplified by 

 the schools which at the top of page 130 you will find charac- 

 terized as the Schools of Line. 



6. If I had command of as much time as I should like to 

 spend with you on this subject, I would begin with the early 

 forms of art which used the simplest linear elements of design. 

 But, for general service and interest, it will be better that I 

 should sketch what has been accomplished by the greatest 

 masters in that manner ; the rather that their work is more or 

 less accessible to all, and has developed into the vast indus- 

 tries of modern engraving, one of the most powerful existing 

 influences of education and sources of pleasure among civil- 

 ized people. 



And this investigation, so far from interrupting, will facili- 

 tate our examination of the history of the nobler arts. You 

 will see in the preface to my lectures on Greek sculpture that 

 I intend them to be followed by a course on architecture, and 

 that by one on Florentine sculpture. But the art of engraving 

 is so manifestly, at Florence, though not less essentially else 

 where, a basis of style both in architecture and sculpture, that 

 it is absolutely necessary I should explain to you in what the 

 skill of the engraver consists, before I can define with accu- 

 racy that of more admired artists. For engraving, though 

 not altogether in the method of which you see examples in 

 the print-shops of the High Street, is, indeed, a prior art to 

 that either of building or sculpture, and is an inseparable part 

 of both, when they are rightly practised. 



7. And while we thus examine the scope of this first of the 

 arts, it will be necessary that we learn also the scope of mind 

 of the early practisers of it, and accordingly acquaint our- 

 selves with the main events in the biography of the schools of 

 Florence. To understand the temper and meaning of one 

 great master is to lay the best, if not the only, foundation for 

 the understanding of all ; and I shall therefore make it the 

 leading aim of this course of lectures to remind you of what 

 is known, and direct you to what is knowable, of the life and 

 character of the greatest Florentine master of engraving, 

 Sandro Botticelli ; and, incidentally, to give you some idea of 



