. The art of the Italian renaissance; a handbook for students and travellers. o began with dark grounds,which were intended to set off the figures, a very diffeient matter from theplain black which had been previously employed as a foil. He intensifiedthe depth of the shadow and expressly insisted on the point that in apicture deep shadows should appear by the side of high lights. (Trattatodella Pittura.) Even an artist so essentially a draughtsman as Michel-angelo underwent this phase of the development, and an increasingaccentuation of the shadows can be clearly traced in the course of his w
. The art of the Italian renaissance; a handbook for students and travellers. o began with dark grounds,which were intended to set off the figures, a very diffeient matter from theplain black which had been previously employed as a foil. He intensifiedthe depth of the shadow and expressly insisted on the point that in apicture deep shadows should appear by the side of high lights. (Trattatodella Pittura.) Even an artist so essentially a draughtsman as Michel-angelo underwent this phase of the development, and an increasingaccentuation of the shadows can be clearly traced in the course of his workon the Sistine ceiling, while one after another of those who were more espe-cially painters may be seen trying their hands at dark grounds and boldlysalient lights. Raphael in his Heliodorus furnished an example, in com-parison with which not merely his own Disputa, but also the frescoes ofthe earlier Florentines must have all seemed flat; and what Quattrocentistaltar-piece would not have suffered by being hung near to a picture of 274 THE ART OP THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE. Wudonna with the two SS. John, l.»y Botticelli. Fra BartoloinniooV, with its niiirhtv plastic life ? i1ie tactile (|ualitv of hisfigures, and the convincing dignity of his niches «ith their great shadowyrecesses, must have made an impression at that time which we can withdifficulty realise at the present day. The general heightening of the relief naturally involved a change in thefVaine of the picture. The flat Quattrocentist frame of pilasters with alight entablature is discarded, and in its place we get a kind of shrine withhalf or three-quarter pillars, and a massive roof. The fanciful decorativetreatment of such objects is set aside in favour of a solemn impressive archi-tecture to which a special chapter might be devoted.^ I ilo not know to what nioilols the gablfil fiaincs are to lie lefenoil, which were madesome years ago for two well-known pictures in the Municli Iinacolhek (Ienigino andFilippino),
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