Among the republics of Italy, Venice earliest'suc ceeded in fully establishing liberty; Pisa, however, took the lead in founding a school of native art. Ear ly in the eleventh century, (1016), her cathedral was begun, the ornaments of which were composed chiefly of fragments of Greek sculpture, relievos, capitals, and even whole columns, which the eastern commerce of the Pisans enabled them to procure, and which proved most valuable in the renovation of taste, as both exciting emulation and supplying models. This great building was conducted by Boschetto, the first architect and sculptor of eminence in Italy; but the incorrect reading, from a fracture in the tablet, of an inscription at Pisa has deprived her of the honour of having given birth to this founder of modern art, who has thence unjustly been recorded as a native of Dulichium.
Of the numerous schools thus established at Pisa, the most distinguished members afterwards became celebrated by their works in various of the surround ing cities. But the reputation of these has been for gotten in the superior merits of Nicolo Pisano, the glory of the twelfth century, and under whom sculp ture first assumes dignity and importance. He early attached himself to the study of antiquity, having re marked the striking difference between the l-tbours of Boschetto and fragments which had been brought from Greece. It was from the latter he formed his style; and in his works we often trace a very marked resemblance to the character and manner of some re mains still preserved in the cathedral or in the Cam po Santo. His principal works are the pulpits of Siena and Pisa, the beautiful bas relief on the facade of the cathedrals of Orvietto and Lucca, &c. But it is a species of injustice to particularize; the influence of the genius of Nicolo is to be traced in every building in Italy of this era; as also the authors of minor works of art, as chapels, altars, tombs, fountains, relievos, must be ranked as pupils either immediately or re motely of this school. Of the former class the most eminent were Giovanni. the son of Nicolo. and two strangers, brothers, of Siena, Augustine and Angelo, With these the science of their master did not lan guish, as may still be seen in the cathedral of Siena, one of the finest in Italy, of which the three were the joint architects. In this erection we first read of sculpture being admitted as a separate profession; and there are still preserved the original rules and regulations of a confraternity of sixty-four sculptors, then first incorporated. The style of Giovanni how ever, was considerably diversified from that of his father, his outline being more flowing, his drapery broader and less determined in the folds, and his whole composition more soft and delicate. This ar
tist exerted a degree of influence over the arts not only of his native country, but of the whole of Europe where art was known. Even in England in the sculp tures prior to Henry VII., as in the monuments of Queen Eleanor, it has been thought that the style, if not the very designs, of Giovanni have been discovered.
Before the end of the thirteenth century the cities of Etruria, the ancient seats of the arts, had already made progress in the study of sculpture. Florence, destined afterwards to become so conspicuous, had not yet from domestic feuds been able to distinguish herself in the arts of peace. When the attention of her citizens was at length directed to the study of ele gance, painting at first obtained the preference.
Ci mabue, born in 1211, received the rudiments of a barbarous art from some Greek painters who were employed at Florence; he quickly surpassed his in structors, and was himself excelled by his own pupil Giotto. whom he had taken up a shepherd boy in the vale of Arno. Andrea da Pisa, the grandson of Ni coll:), was, about the commencement of the fourteenth century, invited to Florence, and thus became the fa ther of Tuscan sculpture. The works of this artist, the relievos of the Campanile, and the bronze folding doors of the Baptistry, still proclaim his merits; while his sons, Tomasso and Nino, sustained the reputation of their instructor, and by their pupils widely disseminated the art over Lombardy, Ve nice, and the south of Italy. The primitive school of Pisa is thus the true source of modern art, for Ve nice was at first occasionally assisted by artists from the cast, and subsequently from Tuscany. The grand political and moral causes which operated so power fully in other states, were there comparatively feeble in their effects. Her proud and exclusive aristocracy rather converted the arts to the purposes of private magnificence than employed them in the service of national greatness. It was this union of the arts with national feeling, while the freshness of newly acquir ed liberty gave to that sentiment energy and vigour, which 1-,o eminently conduced to their progress in Italy. Her free cities had thus advanced in the ac quisition of elegant taste, for in 1350 was established the first academy of design in Florence, at least two centuries before the rest of Europe had started in the career.