. Guide to Italy and Sicily. tic under-standing of human nature, thatGiotto remains supreme even amongthe great masters who inherited thetradition he had established. Painting of tne 14th Florence. With the death of Giotto andDante, the force of the new move-ment in culture and politics alikeseemed spent for a time. The 14thcentury was one of disillusionmentand trouble, and the art of theperiod reflects the general exhaus-tion. Giottos tradition, taught tohis numerous pupils and assistants,and propagated by his long-con-tinued activity over many parts ofItaly (he painted at Naples a
. Guide to Italy and Sicily. tic under-standing of human nature, thatGiotto remains supreme even amongthe great masters who inherited thetradition he had established. Painting of tne 14th Florence. With the death of Giotto andDante, the force of the new move-ment in culture and politics alikeseemed spent for a time. The 14thcentury was one of disillusionmentand trouble, and the art of theperiod reflects the general exhaus-tion. Giottos tradition, taught tohis numerous pupils and assistants,and propagated by his long-con-tinued activity over many parts ofItaly (he painted at Naples as wellas Rome, Padua, and Assisi, thoughhis works there have perished),dominated the art of the his followers works show forthe most part how little of hisspirit they had inherited. Thetypes which he had discoveredbecame stereotyped into a formulawhich threatened to become almostas rigid as the earlier Byzantine onewhich it replaced. In the worksof his chief pupil, Taddeo Gaddi(fl366), at Sta. Croce, Florence, and. § -^ 5 1 1 ilOVV^i Jj\ olffl <^» io 8•C d J-« G hO « js • * (-H rt c ^ .2 3 N/ # >C ■i • x w ^ oJ ITALIAN ART S. Francesco, Pisa, these failings areevident. His compositions are fre-quently crowded, his perspective ismuch less correct than Giottos,his figures are uncertain in propor-tion and often inexpressive in move-ment. But though the art of thetime can show no figures com-parable to that of Giotto or thegreat masters of the succeedingcentury, and although for nearly ahundred years no appreciableadvance was made in the know-ledge of naturalistic representation,the art of the 14th century isnot destitute of great qualities. Ahigh level of technical skill andknowledge was maintained, and theessential principles of large monu-mental design were never lost sightof. The very freedom of theseartists from any curiosity aboutnew discoveries in naturalism, theirplacid acceptance of Giottos for-mula as adequate to the expressionof all their ide
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