ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING 



left a mark upon the imagination of the succeeding 

 ones, cannot be doubted. This was bound to have 

 its effect upon art as the expression of man's spirit, 

 even apart from the natural impulse to record his 

 teaching and miracles, and its depth and extent in this 

 case must certainly be allowed for. 



" It seems at the first glance," wrote Renan, " that 

 the dream of Francis of Assisi ought to have put an 

 end to all art and all noble life. But, strange as it is, 

 ce sordide jnendiant was the father of Italian Art." ^ 



It is to be observed, however, that as the Order 

 came under direction and its essential spirit decayed, 

 the love of animals came to be considered dangerous, 

 and to be discouraged or forbidden. - 



*' I have seen," says Salimbene, "in mine own Order 

 certain lectors of excellent learning and great sanctity 

 who had yet some foul blemish {nierditatem) which 

 caused others to judge lightly of them. For they love 

 to play with a cat or a whelp or with some small fowl, 

 but not as the blessed Francis was wont to play with 

 a pheasant and a cicada, rejoicing the while in the 



^ Ernest Renan, Nouvelles etudes d'hisioire Religieuse, Paris, 1884, p. 337. 



' In the visitation notes of Archbishop Eudes of Rouen for 1250, it is 

 recorded that the nuns of the Benedictine Convent of St. Sauveur at 

 Evreux " kept httle dogs, squirrels, and birds : we ordered that all such 

 things be removed." — Regis trum visitatiofium Archiepiscopi Rothojuagensis, 

 ed. Bonnin, Rouen, 1852, p. 'jy Quoted in H. O. Taylor, The Mediaval 

 Mind, 191 1, p. 479. 



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