That movement of impatience, so discernable in many parts of Italy towards the close of the thirteenth century, first gained vent in Tuscany, and speedily caught, like wildfire, wherever the public mind was excited by the longings for liberty and improvement. In matters of art, the productions of their own time soon fell into disrepute ; they began to improve the basso-relievos destined to orna ment the monuments of the wealthy. The manufacturers of Madonnas, finding the sale of their commodities flag, the old patterns despised as stale articles, saw the necessity of changing their style. Artists set about new efforts. In the mean time, the furious struggles of the Guelphs and Gibelins had thrown every thing into confusion, and so much the better, as it prepared the mass to ferment and and change its nature.
'We shall accompany the first steps of the revival of painting, with reference to Italy in general, as the art was considerably advanced before there was so marked a dif ference in the style and objects of the pursuit as to point out the distinction of individual schools. Similar features marked the early productions of Italian artists, wherever the art began to show itself; they are the works of the same class, pursuing the same route, and reaching, gene rally, the same state, which was far from excellent They are all equally cold, dry, stiff, and awkward, improving as they advanced in experience, some more and some less, but still in the same predominating style of wooden rigidity. If we consider Cimabue as the father of painting in Flo rence, we find him anticipated by many years in Siena, and, but a few years after, Van Eyck opened a schonl in Flanders, and changed the whole system of painting, by the introduction of oil as the medium of applying the co lours. Gio. Bellini flourished at the same period in Venice, and Andi ea Mantegna in Lombardy.
There is a picture in Siena of the Virgin, bearing the date of 1221, which is nineteen years before the birth of Cimabue It is painted by Guido of Siena. Its principal merit is the date and name, as it is the earliest instance of that practice among painters ; otherwise, the merit of the execution was little advanced beyond the barbarism of its predecessors. An Italian writer observes, that it was only fit to frighten children. There is another picture, at tributed to the same Guido, and one at Assisa, by Giunta Pisano, dated 1236. Guido of Siena had a pupil, Ducio de Boninsegna, who excelled his master very far in the art ; as he painted pictures of great size, both in fresco and mosaic, which are considered very interesting in the history of the art. The P. della Valle, in his Legere Sane.il,
gives a detailed account of all these ancient artists of Siena.
They show pictures at Bologna of a similar antiquity, painted by natives of that town. Some of them are singular, from being painted on gilt canvas. Statues and sculpture of ancient workmanship still existed in Italy, but the artists were as yet blind to their merits. The first to burst the bonds, and grasp at something better, was Nicolas Pisano, who, in the year 1230, was attracted by the beauty of an ancient sarcophagus at Pisa, containing the body- of Beatrice, mother of Countess Matilda. The subject was the story of Hypolitus, which he studied as the model by which to improve his style. The merit of the attempt began to show itself, and obtained for Nicolas extensive employment in various parts of Italy, in orna menting with basso relievos the monuments of the great. The admiration and celebrity of his works drew, as usual, many imitators, from a desire to share in the profits. An cient works were sought for, and the advantage of studying them generally acknowledged. Nicolas fell far short of what he aspired to ; but still, though his approach to an cient excellence was distant, he trod the same path with these great artists, and struck the first blow at the foun dation of barbarism ; for the reformation or advance of every art depends upon striking out some new maxim, which, adopted and worked upon by others, produces a general change of ideas, and a new theatre for the efforts of genius. This was the great merit of Nicolas, joined to the talent of being a good architect and able designer. He was fol lowed by a few others, who made some slight progress in the art, though still adhering to a very barbarous style, as appears by the subject painted by one of them, of Christ upon the cross. He embellished his subject by represent ing the Virgin as placed at the extremity of one of the arms of the cross, and two other figures issuing from the other arm. There are several works of this description to be seen at Assisa, painted in fresco, of a wretched dry wooden style, but still with some attempts at expression, and a better disposition of the draperies than what was at tained by their predecessors.