ANIMAL LIFE IN ITALIAN PAINTING 



tit, a hawfinch, and, well in the front row, a robin. ^ 

 Ruskin says of the robin, "Quite the first thing that 

 strikes me about it, looking at it as a painter, is the 

 small effect it seems to have had on the minds of the 

 northern nations. I trace nothing of it definitely either 

 in the art or the literature of Greece or Italy." ^ 



A small smooth dog meets Joachim Returning to the 

 Sheepfolds (Padua, Arena Chapel), with every sign of 

 pleasure. The sheep here are very small, not coming 

 up to the calf of the leg, of the same type as those 

 of Margaritone, if rather better drawn. It might be 

 thought that Giotto had intentionally subordinated them 

 to the human figures, but the developed sheep to which 

 we are accustomed to-day is a much larger animal than 

 that of the Middle Ages. It has been calculated by 

 Thorold Rogers that the fleece of the English sheep of 

 the fourteenth century averaged i lb. 7f oz. in weight, 

 " but the unimproved sheep of the eighteenth century 

 gave nearly 5 lb. to the fleece. Hence the animal must 

 have been small, and I think I may certainly say that a 



^ In spite of the wholesale slaughter of even the small song-birds, 

 Italy is still in parts rich in bird-life. The forest at La Verna where St. 

 Francis received the stigmata has been preserved, and M. Sabatier says, 

 *' As to the birds, it is enough to pass a day at the monastery to be amazed 

 at their number and variety. M. C. Beni has begun at Stia (in Casentino) 

 an ornithological collection which already includes more than 550 varieties." 

 — Life of St. Francis of Assisi, trans. L. S. Houghton, 1899, p. 289, note. 



- Lovers Meinic, 3rd ed., 1897, lecture i. § 17. 



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