316 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Pakt II. 



independently of their instructors ; and during the 1200, 

 Andrea Tafi, Fra Griacopo da Turrita, Gfaddo Gfaddi, and 

 others, established the reputation of native Italian talent, in 

 the mosaics then executed at Florence, Kome, and Pisa. A 

 similar advance was made on the Byzantine style by the 

 painters of Italy ; who speedily surpassed their masters ; and 

 in contemplating the productions of Griotto "people began 

 to form a better judgment of art." Well might Dante say, 

 " Ed ora ha Giotto il grido : " the Byzantine manner was 

 entirely extinguished by the aid of his great genius ; and 

 there arose a new one, " which Vasari would fain call the 

 manner of Griotto ;" though it must be allowed that Duccio, 

 Simone Memmi, and some others, had their share in liberating 

 art from Byzantine influences. Fresco now (once more) took 

 the place of mosaic ; and this was again " destined to perish 

 by the hands of those who had carried it to perfection,"* 

 and to give place to its "too powerful rival," painting. 



Thus, then, it must be admitted that the obligations of early 

 Italian to Byzantine art are sufficiently established ; they are 

 readily traced in the works of the oldest Italian masters, as in 

 those of Griunta, Gruido da Siena, Cimabue, and others ; who, 

 if they improved upon Gfreek models, did not wholly abandon 

 them ; and with the evidence of this impress on the works of 

 the well-known fathers of painting at Pisa, Siena, and Flo- 

 rence, no one can, with any fairness, doubt the cause of the 

 revival of art in Italy. 



There were two periods of Christian art in that country, 

 separated from each other by an interval of complete dark- 

 ness. The first was of an inferior character, the result of the 

 decadence of an older Pagan style ; and it simply followed the 

 condition in which painting happened to be when the subjects 

 in the Catacombs of Eome, and in other places, were executed. 



* Labarte, p. 94. 



