SIXTEENTH CENTURY. This centuryt is one of the most important in modern history, first as the terminal phase of the Renaissance, and, second, as the beginning of the religious upheaval called the Reformation, or more re cently uThe Religious Revolt in Germany." The still living spirit of the Renaissance made the century a period of great art. Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael died not far apart (1519 20). The great Venetian painters, the Bel linis, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese flourished, and such men as Correggio and Botticelli, not to mention a whole host of lesser lights, lived from the preceding century and did some of their best painting which has always been an inspiration. Architecture decayed to some ex tent, but it was in this century that Michel angelo built the great dome of Saint Peter's at Rome, and some of the finest Italian palaces were planned and constructed. Sculpture under the group of men from Michelangelo and Ben venuto Cellini to John of Bologna, achieved masterpieces that were to be forever famous.
Italy was not alone in this great development of the arts, for such men as Jean Goujon and Germain Pilon were distinguished as sculptors in France, and the chateaux of the Loire are enduring monuments of French architecture and great beginnings of French paintings were made. German painting had Diirer and the Holbeins and sculpture the Visschers and Adam Kraft. In Spain, as well as in the Netherlands, there came a fine initiative for the supreme period of their painting which was to follow in the next century. Only England was not touched by the art spirit of the time, though the response in literature in the mag nificent Elizabethan period must be credited to make up for it. While it is not generally realized, the Renaissance evoked a great litera ture as well as a great art in all the countries of Europe. The development of this was some what delayed, and occurs in the 16th much more than the 15th century. It included Ariosto and Tasso as well as Vasari, Machiavelli, Lorenzo de Medici and Benvenuto Cellini in Italy; Marguerite of Navarre and the Pleiades, Ron sard, Rabelais and Montaigne in France, Cer vantes and Lope de Vega, with Saint Teresa and the great mystical writers in Spain; and Carnoens in Portugal. The culmination of
Renaissance literature came in the Elizabethan period in England. Michelangelo, poet as well as artist, died just two months before Shakes peare was born, and the two men are comple ments of each other at the extremes of cultural Europe. The Teutonic countries presented a great development of scholarship though not of original literature.
The art of the 16th century is, however, its greatest chapter. It contains all the work of Raphael, the greater part of that of Michel angelo, not a little of Leonardo da Vinci, most of Titian and all of Tintoretto and Veronese, not to mention a number of men who in any other period would be looked upon as of the very first rank. Raphael has been called the greatest painter of all time and while modern art criticism has discounted that flattery, scarcely any one would be ranked above him. When he died at the age of 37 he had reached distinction as an architect and archeologist as well as a painter. Narrow specialism was ex tremely rare in the Renaissance and many men did many things well. Titian is one of Raphael's great rivals; some of his Madonnas are among the most beautiful in the world. Delacroix de clared that he came closest to the spirit of an tiquity. Another great painter of the time whose work is growing in appreciation in our time is Correggio. Leigh Hunt declared him the most skilful artist since the ancient Greeks in the art of foreshortening. He was master of every technical device in painting and this was a time of fine technique. Tintoretto has been restored to modern estimation by Ruskin. Paolo Cag hare, known as Veronese, was a master of decoration and no decorative painter has equaled him in the effective use of color. It is easy to trace art decadence in the century but not difficult to understand it, once it is appre ciated that at the beginning Botticelli was doing his famous tondi or rondo, Leonardo-da-Vinci was painting the 'Mona Lisa' and Fra Bartolomeo had just come under the influence of the Venetians and the spell of their rich color. It would have been almost impossible to expect that painting could be maintained on any such high level as all this indicates.