4S8 THE FINE ARTS. 



St Sophia, employed Greeks to build them cathedrals, 

 and to paint frescoes on their convent walls, and to 

 make them statues for their streets. These Greek 

 strangers established academies of art ; and soon the 

 masters were surpassed by their pupils. The Italians 

 disdained to reproduce the figures of the Greek school, 

 with their meagre hands, and sharp pointed feet, and 

 staring eyes. Free institutions made their influence 

 felt even in the arts ; the empire of authority was 

 shaken off. The fine arts spread beyond the Alps ; 

 they were first adopted and nurtured by the Church, 

 afterwards by the Town. Oil-painting was invented in 

 the North. Masterpieces of the ancients were -dis- 

 covered in the South. Then the artists ceased to paint 

 Madonnas, and children, and saints, and crucifixions. 

 They were touched with the breath of antiquity ; 

 they widened their field ; their hands were inspired 

 by poetical ideas. It is a significant fact, that a 

 Pope should himself conceive the project of pulling 

 down the ancient Basilica of St Peter, every stone of 

 which was consecrated by a memory, and of erecting 

 in its stead a church on the model of a pagan temple. 

 The Pope was also urged to set on foot a crusade ; 

 not to rescue the sepulchre from the hands of the 

 infidels, but in the hope that the lost writings of the 

 Greeks aud Romans might be discovered in the 

 East. For now had arrived the Book-hunting age. 

 In the depth of the dark ages there had always 

 been ecclesiastics, who drew the fire of their genius 

 from the immortal works of the pagan writers. 

 There were also monks who had a passion for trans- 

 lating the writings of the Greeks into Latin ; who 

 went to Constantinople and returned with chests full 

 of books, and who, if Greek manuscripts could not 



