FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Walter Pater declared: "That solemn fifteenth century can hardly be studied too much, not merely for its positive results in the things of the intellect and the imagination, its concrete works of art. its special and prominent personalities with their profound esthetic charm, but for its general spirit and character.) Renaissance)). The first part of the Renaissance undoubtedly contains many of the most significant achieve ments of history and the productive careers of many of the most interesting men who have ever lived. It is the age of Columbus, of Lorenzo de' Medici (the Magnificent), of much of Leonardo da Vinci's best work and Michel angelo's youth, of scores of great painters;— Montagna, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Fra Barto lemmeo, Perugino, Titian, the Bellinis and the Vivarims, Signorelli, Correggio,— and not alone in Italy but in the other countries, for there are Memling, Roger Van der Weyden, Quentin Matsys, Albrecht Diirer's youth; but almost as many sculptors,— Chiberti, Donatello, Veroc chio, Luca della Robbia, Adam Kraft, the Vischers, and the great architects, Alberti and Bruneleschi, with Bramante's early work. In all of these departments of esthetics there are a number of other successful workers besides those named who in any other period would be leaders, though in this environment they are only secondary. More interesting monuments of painting, sculpture and architecture have been the subject of constant admiration ever since than from any other century. It was an era not only of art, and of the arts and crafts, but also of great practical discoveries; casting in bronze and porcelain sculpture and art work were both highly developed. The invention of printing has probably more revolutionized human life than any other. Leonardo da Vinci made a series of inventions from the wheel barrow and the self-dumping derrick to locks for canals and the coffer-dam and a number of experiments with flying toys. He gathered material which practically laid the foundation of a group of sciences. The most beautiful manuscript books were made immediately be fore the invention of printing, and served as models for the printers, so that the century has the finest printing in the history of the art. Bookbinding reached a similar height of excel lence. In a word, in every tine of work in which the century was interested it achieved unsurpassed marvels.
The word Renaissance, °rebirth," applied to the time is often misunderstood. For many, it means that there occurred a rebirth of interest in the intellectual life and in art and education after presumably a prolonged period of neglect in the Middle Ages, the °Dark Ages* as they were called. What really happened was a
renaissance or a rebirth of interest in Greek literature and art, with the stimulus to mental development which intimate contact with Greek sources has always given. Sir Henry Maine's expression, °Whatever lives and moves in the intellectual world is Greek in origin' is far from being absolutely true, but is eminently suggestive of Greek values. The 15th century, conceited by its cultivation of Greek, proceeded to despise the forefather generations that lacked similar advantages. In their interest in the revival of Greek architectural forms, erudites of the Renaissance called the pointed architecture of the Middle Ages Gothic,— as if it were worthy only of the barbarous in vaders, the Goths, who had wiped out the older culture. The literature and art of the preceding time which we have learned to value highly was in similar strain' spoken of as Gothic and was considered almost beneath notice. It has taken centuries to counteract the tradition thus created. Only in our day has due sympathy for the preceding ages developed. This lack of proper critical appreciation of the work of their predecessors is probably the worst fault of the Renaissance. It has led to a reaction which has reacted on the Renaissance itself. In its ad miration for Greek things generally, the Renais sance took up also the Olympian religion and without accepting it, at least allowed interest in it to sap reverence for Christianity. Goethe's corresponding state of mind in the latest renais sance of Greek in Germany illustrates what happened. There was a distinct pagan spirit abroad, and while of course expressions used in the fashionable Latin letters are only conceits of antiquarian elegance, there was undoubt edly a widespread lessening of reverence for Christian forms. This is not so noticeable among the really great minds of the Renais sance, for such men as Michelangelo, Regiomontanus, a Kempis, Nicholas of Cusa, Columbus and Leonardo da Vinci were even devout. Many great Renaissance leaders were members of religious orders. A number of the lesser minds of the time were carried away completely by their admiration for the ancient and lost their firm footing of solid religious principles. This served to make the time ripe for the religious revolt which took up so much of the attention of men in the next century.