CHAPTER XXVI

Mediæval art almost exclusively religious 157

The introduction of types and traditionary forms 157

A picture by Botticelli denounced as heretical (note) 158

The choice and treatment of sacred themes 159

Modified by the personal character of artists 160

Instances of this 161

Devotional feeling of early painters 161

Shown in the rules of their guilds at Siena and Florence 162

Case of Giorgio Vasari 163

The gloomy character of Spanish art 163

The subject to be considered apart from sectarian views 164

Christian art modified in the fifteenth century 166

Gradual innovation of naturalism 167

Followed by paganism and classicism 168

Rise of the "new manner" 169

Religious prudery in Spain fatal to art 170

Von Rumohr's definition of Christian art 170

Opinions prevailing in England 171

Hogarth and Savonarola 172

Burnet and Barry 172

Reynolds and Raffaele 172

Obstacles to a due appreciation of this subject among us 173

Mr. Ruskin and Lord Lindsay 174

Sir David Wilkie 175

It does not necessarily lead to popery 175

Nor is it a desirable "groundwork for a new style of art" 176

St. Francis of Assisi, his legends and shrine 177

Their influence renders Umbria the cradle of sacred art 178

Opinions of Rio, Boni, and Herbert Seymour 179