80 LANDSCAPE PAINTING 



death of Peter Martyr ("), attacked in a forest by an Albi- 

 gense in the presence of another Dominican monk. The 

 form of the forest trees, their foliage, the blue mountainous 

 distance, the management of the light and the subdued 

 tone of colouring, produce an impression of grandeur, 

 solemnity, and depth of feeling, pervading the whole 

 composition of the landscape, which is of exceeding sim- 

 plicity. Titian's feeling of nature was so lively, that not 

 only in paintings of beautiful women, as in the background 

 of the A T enus in the Dresden Gallery, but also in those of a 

 severer class, as in the portrait of the poet Pietro Aretino, 

 he gives to the landscape or to the sky a character corre- 

 sponding to that of the subject of the picture. In the 

 IBolognese school, Annibal Caracci and Domenichino re- 

 mained faithful to this elevation of style and character. If, 

 however, the sixteenth century was the greatest epoch of 

 historic painting, the seventeenth is that of landscape. As 

 the riches of nature became better known and more care- 

 fully studied, artistic feeling could extend itself over a wider 

 and more varied range of subjects; and, at the same time, 

 the technical means of representation had also attained a 

 higher degree of perfection. Meanwhile, the landscape 

 painter's art becoming more often and more intimately con- 

 nected and associated with inward tone and feeling, the 

 tender and mild expression of the beautiful in nature was 

 enhanced thereby, as well as the belief in the power of the 

 emotions which the external world can awaken within us. 

 When, conformably to the elevated aim of all art, tin's awaken- 

 ing power transforms the actual into the ideal, the enjoyment 

 produced is accompanied by emotion; theheartistouchedwhen- 

 eveiwelookintothe depths either of nature or of humanity ( 12 ), 



