THE DECADENCE 



of the Renaissance, to which Mr. Berenson specifically 

 refers, has died down. The loving perception and 

 rendering of the individually beautiful in nature is no 

 longer a motive. Conventional forms and textures 

 take the place of vividly realised living quality of 

 surface and material. "Furniture, utensils, houses, 

 animals, birds, weapons," says Symonds, " are idealised 

 — stripped, that is to say, of what in these things is 

 specific and vital." ^ 



A motive significant of this decadence is seen in the 

 Holy Family, by Baroccio (1526-16 12), in the National 

 Gallery : their amusement at the terror of a bird, the 

 goldfinch again, and the eagerness of a cat. 



Ruskin says : "In representing, nay, in thinking and 

 caring for these beasts, man has to think of them essen- 

 tially with their skins on them and their souls in them. 

 He is to know how they are spotted, wrinkled, furred, 

 and speckled, and what the look of them is in the eyes, 

 and what they grasp or cling or trot or pat in their paws 

 and claws. He is to take every view of them, in fact, 

 except one — the butcher's view." 



Bassano (15 10-1592) can hardly be acquitted of 

 having taken this view. He seems to have cared most 

 for animals that are good to eat ; and in a picture of the 

 Building of the Ark (Rome, Doria Gallery) a regular 



^ The Renaissance in Italy, vol. vii. p. 233. 



113 H 



