It was in the time of Giotto that the first discovery was made of the Etruscan vases. The superior excellence of the drawings with which many of them were ornamented seems to have excited very great astonishment, so much so, that they doubted the possibility of their being the productions of human genius. They despaired of ever being able to approach such elegance and perfection of drawing; for they do not seem for some time to have been aware in what the great merit of these performances con sisted, though conscious of their superiority over what they were accustomed to see ; nor how they were to set about attaining such grace and truth of design. Giotto, whose name properly was Ambro Giotto Bandone, possess ed greater discernment, and seems at last to have suc ceeded in rousing the genius of painting from its stupor, as, towards the close of the fourteenth century, the art began to be assiduously cultivated in various cities of Italy. Though somewhat misdirected, a taste for its productions became, notwithstanding, very general, so much so, that we find it employed to every purpose of embellishment, however incongruous it might be with the real object of painting. It was liberally bestowed on the different arti cles of domestic furniture ; beds, tables, chairs, every thing was painted, altars uniformly, and, in short, painting be came a necessary appendage to works in wood.
This fashion gave rise to the barbarous mixture of sculpture and painting, which still ornament the altar pieces of some of the more ancient churches of the Con tinent, by introducing painting into the minute compart ments of the laborious gothic carved works which cover the interior walls. Following the same idea; where the sculptured wood was wanting, the pictures were still sub divided in an architectural manner, either by wooden pil lars and pilasters, or by substituting the representation of them in painting. Many of these tall fabrics of mixed work, surmounting and surrounding the altars, have a very grotesque appearance ; being divided into various com partments by a confusion of arched and pillared architec ture represented in perspective, with doors and windows so glaringly unsuitable to the size of the figures that repre sent the inmates of the building. A palace or a temple is generally the subject, and often of so exceedingly accom modating a disposition, as to display the outside as well as the inside at the same time. Friezes and pediments are represented, surmounted on the outside by statues, while the narrow compartments of the interior are crowded with groupes of cramped figures ; both of so equivocal a nature, that, were it not for the unconcern of the statues above, and the exceedingly unhappy and morose countenances of the holy men painted below, who seem to fret under their constraint, it would be difficult to discover that they were meant to be of a different nature. We have, however, seen some Virgin's heads in these antique pictures far from deficient in beauty. The gilding was as profusely bestow ed on the figures as on the architecture ; but the figures possessed this advantage over the architecture, that a scroll issuing from their mouths, disclosed the often very doubtful circumstances of their apparition, while the pro fusion of arches, pediments, and little pillars, had the ex ceedingly difficult task of explaining their own purpose and use. The gothic character of the letters renders the
conversation of these holy men somewhat troublesome to follow, otherwise there is frequently a sort of burlesque incongruity betwixt the composure and resignation of the sentiments expressed, and the dissatisfied uncomfortable appearance of the persons themselves ; accompanied with a quaintness of language that is exceedingly diverting.
By degrees the tiny columns were omitted, so as to leave the figures a little more at liberty, and what till then seemed a mere appendage of the wood work, now assumed the importance of an altar-piece. But still, so difficult is it to shake loose the trammels of custom, that, when the division of compartments was abandoned. they did not at the same time see the propriety of confining the subject to one scene. We find different scenes going on in the same picture, saints brought together who ha? e no con nection in their history, and who, moreover, perform their various parts with perfect unconcern, as if it were possible, placed as they arc, not to see each other. The subject is communicated as in a law paper, item by item, with mi nute accuracy, but devoid of all feeling and elegance. There is no sympathy excited betwixt the spectators and the personages of the picture ; even the subordinate figures themselves seem to witness with abundant com posure the deeds transacting under their eyes, which in nature would call up the strongest emotions. They seem to stand as if placed there merely to fill up the pageant. Sometimes we have the preposterous idea of the same person represented as carrying on the actions of different periods of life at the same time; and sometimes the whole history of their lives is depicted, from the cradle to the grave, on the same canvas, like the shield of Achilles.
In fact, the painters of the fourteenth century thought that they never could load their subject too much, adding every thing which they conceived could in any way tend to the elucidation of the history represented. Deficiency in the power of painting expression was often supplied, as we have mentioned above, by the figures themselves narrating in written words what the art despaired of con veying by the pencil Gilding was substituted for bril liancy of colour, and as a glory of light was almost always required to encircle the heads of the saints, recourse was had to burnished metal, so that their heads appear as if placed on a brazen trencher. Even the ground of the picture was often wholly gilt when great magnificence was desired ; so natural is it for ignorance to confound the rich with the beautiful, or rather to suppose that no thing can be beautiful which is not at the same time rich. Hence, the effigies of their saints all shine with gold and with fictitious jewels and baubles of every kind, which the painters of that day thought it necessary for the dig nity of their art to transfer to their pictures. It is sin gular how reluctant the taste of that age was to abandon this false view of daubing their pictures with gilding, which necessarily destroyed any effect the colours might be able to produce. It was not entirely banished until the beginning of the sixteenth century, for we find even Raphael, in his picture of the Fornalina, did not hesitate to introduce a little gilding in her drapery.