CHAP. diately resorted to Florence, to return his thanks to his benefactor. Some time afterwards Lorenzo, at the

VIII.

request of Bentivoglio, solicited the liberation of his daughter, which was also complied with; and he was at length prevailed upon to intercede with the pope, to relieve her from the ecclesiastical censures which she had incurred by her crime. The reason given by Bentivoglio to Lorenzo, for requesting his assistance in this last respect, will perhaps be thought extraordinary-He had an intention of providing her with another husband!

PROGRESS of the arts-State of them in the middle ages-Revival in Italy-Guido da Sienna-CimabueGiotto-Character of his works-The Medici encourage the arts-Masaccio-Paolo Uccello-Fra Filippo-Antonio Pollajuolo-Baldovinetti-Andrea da Castagna— Filippo Lippi-Luca Signorelli-Progress of Sculpture— Niccolo and Andrea Pisani-Ghiberti-Donatello-Imperfect state of the arts-Causes of their improvement— Numerous works of Sculpture collected by the ancient Romans-Researches after the remains of antiquity-Petrarca-Lorenzo de' Medici brother of Cosmo-Niccolo Niccoli-Poggio Bracciolini-Collection of antiques formed by Cosmo-Assiduity of Lorenzo in augmenting it—Lorenzo establishes a school for the study of the antiqueMichelagnolo Buonarroti-Resides with Lorenzo-Forms an intimacy with Politiano-Advantages over his predecessors-His sculptures-Rapid improvement of tasteRaffaelle d'Urbino-Michelagnolo unjustly censuredOther artists favoured by Lorenzo-Gian-Francesco Rustici-Francesco Granacci-Andrea Contucci-Lorenzo encourages the study of Architecture-Giuliano da San Gallo-Attempts to renew the practice of Mosaic-Invention of engraving on copper-Revival of engraving on gems and stones.

CHAP. IX.

the arts.

THOSE periods of time which have been most favourable Progress of to the progress of letters and science, have generally been distinguished by an equal proficiency in the arts. The productions of Roman sculpture, in its best ages, bear nearly the same proportion to those of the Greeks, as the imitative labours of the Roman authors bear to the original works of their great prototypes. During the long ages of ignorance that succeeded the fall of the Western empire, letters and the fine arts underwent an equal degradation; and it would be as difficult to point out a literary work of those times which is entitled to approbation, as it would be to produce a statue or a picture. When these studies began to revive, a Guido da Sienna, a Cimabue, rivalled a Guittone d' Arezzo, or a Piero delle Vigne. The crude

buds

CHAP.

IX.

State of the arts in the middle

ages.

buds that had escaped the severity of so long a winter soon began to swell, and Giotto, Buffalmacco, and Gaddi, were the contemporaries of Dante, of Boccaccio, and of Petrarca (a).

It is not however to be presumed, that, even in the darkest intervals of the middle ages, these arts were en tirely extinguished. Some traces of them are found in the rudest state of society; and the efforts of the Europeans, the South Americans, and the Chinese, without rivalship and without participation, are nearly on an equality with each other. Among the manuscripts of the Laurentian Library are preserved, some specimens of miniature paintings which are unquestionably to be referred to the tenth century, but they bear decisive evidence of the barbarism of the times; and although they certainly aim at picturesque representation, yet they may with justice be considered rather as perverse distortions of nature, than as the commencement of an elegant art (b). ·

Antecedent

(a) Videmus picturas ducentorum annorum nulla prorsus arte politas; scripta illius ætatis rudia sunt, inepta, incompta: post Petrarcham emerserunt literæ ; post Joctum surrexere pictorum manus; utraque ad summam jam videmus artem prevenisse. En. Silvii (Pii ii.) Epist. 119. ap. Baldinuc. Notiz. Dec. 1. Such was the opinion of this pontiff, who had great learning and some taste. He was only mistaken in supposing that he had seen the perfection of the art.

(6) These pieces have lately been engraved and published in the Etruria Pittrice, a work which appears periodically at Florence, and contains specimens of the manner of the Tuscan artists from the earliest times, executed so as to give some idea of the original pictures. To this work, which would have been much more valuable if greater attention had been paid to the engravings, I shall, in sketching the progress of the art, have frequent occasion to refer.