Truth in every particular
ought to be the aim of the artist. Admit no untruth: let the priest's
garment be clean.
Let us now return to the Early Italian Painters. A complete
refutation of any charge that the character of their school was
neccessarily gloomy will be found in the works of Benozzo Gozzoli, as
in his 'Vineyard' where there are some grape-gatherers the most
elegant and graceful imaginable; this painter's children are the most
natural ever painted. In Ghiberti,--in Fra Angilico, (well
named),--in Masaccio,--in Ghirlandajo, and in Baccio della Porta, in
fact in nearly all the works of the painters of this school, will be
found a character of gentleness, grace, and freedom, which cannot be
surpassed by any other school, be that which it may; and it is
evident that this result must have been obtained by their peculiar
attachment to simple nature alone, their casting aside all ornament,
or rather their perfect ignorance of such,--a happy fortune none have
shared with them. To show that with all these qualifications they
have been pre-eminent in energy and dignity, let us instance the 'Air
Demons' of Orcagna, where there is a woman borne through the air by
an Evil Spirit. Her expression is the most terrible imaginable; she
grasps her bearer with desperation, looking out around her into
space, agonized with terror.
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