§ 8G. IDEAS REMODELLED. 3 1 7 



The other period was that which has been mentioned above, 

 when it revived through the works and tuition of the Byzan- 

 tine artists, after the irruptions of the Barbarians had caused 

 that complete hiatus in art which continued till its restoration 

 in the 1200. For after 800 a.d. to 900 Italy was altogether 

 destitute of it; and Muratori, speaking of the utter degradation 

 of art in the 900, calls it the iron age, full of iniquity and 

 barbarism. Tiraboschi also considers the same period to be 

 one of universal ignorance. 



Thus it is that art, as well as science and literature, goes 

 through certain stages of decay, till it arrives by degrees at a 

 state of regeneration. Men are at first contented to copy, 

 often imperfectly, and merely traditionally, from one another, 

 each deviating more or less from the original models in pro- 

 portion as he is more or less capable of appreciating them, 

 and in proportion as the copies he has received have been well 

 preserved, or modified and corrupted by passing through 

 successive hands ; until at length a new impetus is received 

 through some accidental cause : and then, some great genius 

 arising, the style hitherto imperfectly and almost mechanically 

 copied, is remodelled, and a new one is produced, which is the 

 beginning of another era. As of old in Greece, so it happened 

 in Italy ; and as soon as native talent reappeared there, she 

 worked out for herself the perfect restoration of art. 



Early in the 1200, Giunta da Pisa (1202-1258) and Guido 

 da Siena (1221) began to combine an Italian with the Greek 

 style; andafter them the independent talents of Duccio (1282), 

 Simone Memmi (1285-1344), and others of the Siennese 

 school, produced works free from any Byzantine influence; 

 and if this was still traceable in most of the works of Cimabue 

 (1249-1302), and some other Florentine masters of that early 

 period, the wonderful talents of Giotto (1276-1336), who 

 excelled in painting, sculpture, and architecture, the happy 

 appreciation of antique sculpture by Niccolo Pisano (1205- 



