The Qiiattrocento gave utterance to national ideals, without losing fidelity to nature inten sity, passion or soul. It did not sacrifice itself for the sake of effect; it spoke without rhe torical declamation. From forms still crude, from realistic harshness, sprang the most beautiful flowers of sentiment. The True was worshipped with childlike admiration and ten derness. Romanesque art was trampled upon by the Gothic, but not destroyed. Amplified, it came back midst the Gothic resplendently:— it insinuated itself among spires and pin nacles, paused in its experiments, expanded the proportions of structures, rounded off the sharp corners, squared contours and flattened summits. Thus it regained its position and prominence. The antique forms were recast and blossomed again among the Christian. Not forgetful of the glories and motives of its ancient life, Italian art recalled dassic statues; again the nude saw the light of day, even at church portals; for the of the nude figure no longer seemed demoniac, but a gift of God. Art, in its new youthfulness was the forerunner of humanism, of a restored civilization.
Architecture in the Quattrocento received its first impulses from Filippi Brunelleschi, a friend of Toscanelli and Donatello, whose chief cre ation is the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore. Among his followers, Michelozzo and Giuliano de Mariano are the most distinguished. Leon Battista Alberti, more Roman in his architec ture, designed the temple dedicated to the god dess Isotta by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta at Rimini. Bernardo Rosellius built for Pius II at Piacenza, the Piccolomini Palace, the Com mune Palace, the cathedral, the campanile — a whole city, in fact, of rare elegance.
With Florentine grace and witching deli cacy Luciano di Lamana designed the Palace of Pesaro, the newerportion of the Palace of Urbino, and that of Gubbio for the lords of Montefeltro. Benedetto of Milan built the model of the Florentine city palaces, and that of Strozzi in Florence. d'Urbino, first in Milan and then in Rome, put the crown of glory on the architecture of the 15th cen tury. Bramante was also a fine painter.
Painting in the 15th century appeared in as many guises in Italian cities as the colors of their flags. The walls• of noblemen's palaces were adorned with frescoes and the churchei were splendidly decorated. Every public fes tival was a festival of art. If the mysteries, if the comedies of Plautus and Terence were presented; if the crowd proffered homage to their lords, if the princesses were going to church in their bridal carriages, art improvised scenery, arches and triumphal cars. These car ried the maidens to their wedding; and art decorated the nuptial chests (cassoni), painted in those days with pictures from the Boccaccian fable of Griselda, or the triumphs of Petrarch. The anchor, with the Madonna seated holding the Holy Child in Her arms, the illuminated Book of Prayers and the Gentilezze of gold smiths, were other favorite subjects for cassoni decoration. Art in the beautiful Quattroceisto
breathed in all things; in the Majolica vases; in the embroidered robes,, whether velvet or brocade, 'On the leather cover of the merchant's ledger, quite as much as on the binding of 'devotional books. From his beautifully orna mented cradle until he slept under the arches between the chapels, escorted by virtues and liberal arts, man was guided by art. She was in the very air, in the Quattrocento, and per meated social life. It seemed as if on old Olympus the gods must needs clothe them selves in the dress of the Quattrocento and that heroes of antiquity came to life to enlist as soldiers of the republics and the Italian Signoria.
It seemed as if the biblical characters re vived to take their place among the officials and mayors of the corporations; it seemed as though God and the Saints descended from the clouds 'to take human form. Every figure, sacred or profane, allegorical or historical, found, in the society of the artist, his garment, his background. They, were no longer conven tional forms; but imaginary or historical scenes were represented with such simplicity as to make it appear that one had seen them with one's own eyes in the public square, or along the streets of one's city, on the verandas of under the wooden roofs of one's own house. To Masolino da Panicale and to. Masaccio be long the honor of bringing new ideals to Quattrocento art; of starting the school that culminated in Raphael and the founding of Modern Art. They determined how to place their figures in the landscape; in what planes to put them; and knew and applied the laws of perspective. The human form has its bones covered with muscles and skin and it can live and move in a real world;—it has an indi viduality. The work of Gentile da Fabriano looked backward; it was still Gothic. Michel angelo said he had a hand as gentile (delicate) as his name. Pisanello painted birds and ani mals and studied their habits, movements and instincts. The influence of these two last named masters extended to Venice, Lombardy, Emilia, Tuscany, Umbria, the Marches, Rome and Naples. Meanwhile Piero della Francesca was exerting a great influence on art. He taught perspective at Urbino, Senigallia, Rimini, Bologna, Ferrara and Padua and like a comet left behind him a trail of light. Pacioli said of this stern painter that he was umonarca a suoi (monarch of his day). He brought the art of perspective to the same height it reached with da Vinci; his figures stand clearly and luminously in the atmosphere; his shadows are delicate and transparent and the flesh tints are like faint roses or the tender coloration of spring flowers. He used landscape back grounds, experimented in painting in oily and knew aerial perspective.