TREES IN PAINTING 209 



was quite content with gold backgrounds for 

 its figures, or such rude representations of 

 buildings and landscape as would suggest the 

 place where the event to be meditated upon 

 took place. 



We need not look, therefore, for any sym- 

 pathetic representation of trees. Occasionally, 

 however, we find, as we have already done in 

 pre-Christian art, that interest in the things of 

 nature for their own sake does exist, and must 

 sooner or later be quickened into vigorous life. 

 For example, in an eleventh-century English 

 hymnal, there is a calendar, and the months of 

 the year are pictorially represented. In two 

 of the scenes oak-trees appear, and the massive 

 bole of the tree, its tortuous branches and the 

 form of the leaf, are all clearly recorded, 

 as well as the acorns. But in ''September," 

 where swine are seen feeding on the acorns, 

 they are half the height of the trees! 



It is in Italy, where the great modern 

 development of painting originated and for 

 centuries was in advance of the art of any 

 other country, that we find, as one incident of 

 its growth, an increased interest in the life and 

 beauty of nature. An interest in nature for 

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