The scientific spirit of the Florentine naturalists was of immense service to art. This logic of sequence is to be attained only by great, although not necessarily more than empiric, knowledge of anatomy, such perhaps as the artist pure would never be inclined
We remember how Giotto contrived to render tactile values. Of all the possible outlines, of all the possible variations of light and shade that a figure isolate
If instead of figure, we say figure in movement, the same statement applies to the way Pollaiuolo rendered movement with this difference that he had to render
The line and light and shade most significant of any given action. This the artist must construct himself out of his dramatic feeling for pressure
Giotto would convey a sense of movement, he must give the line and the light and shade which will best render not tactile values alone, but the sequences of articulations.
It would be difficult to find more effective illustration of all that has just been said about movement than one or two of Pollaiuolo’s own works
Let us look first at his engraving known as the “Battle of the Nudes” What is it that makes us return to this sheet with ever renewed increased pleasure
Surely it is not the hideous faces of most of the figures and their scarcely less hideous bodies. Nor is it the pattern as decorative design
The pleasure we take in these savagely battling forms arises from their power to directly communicate life, to immensely heighten our sense of vitality
Look at the combatant prostrate on the ground and his assailant bending over, each intent on stabbing the other. See how the prostrate man plants his foot on the thigh of his enemy
The significance of all these muscular strains and pressures is so rendered that we cannot help realising
The abler spirits were already inhabiting and enjoying
Mauris. Morbi accumsan ipsum velit. Nam nec tellus a odio
Incidunt auctor a ornare odio. Sed non mauris vitae erat
Equat auctor eu in elit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora
And thus while under the spell of this illusion—this hyperæsthesia not bought with drugs and not paid for with cheques drawn on our vitality
The abler spirits were already inhabiting and enjoying
Mauris. Morbi accumsan ipsum velit. Nam nec tellus a odio
Incidunt auctor a ornare odio. Sed non mauris vitae erat
Equat auctor eu in elit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora
The abler spirits were already inhabiting and enjoying
Mauris. Morbi accumsan ipsum velit. Nam nec tellus a odio
Incidunt auctor a ornare odio. Sed non mauris vitae erat
Equat auctor eu in elit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora
And thus while under the spell of this illusion—this hyperæsthesia not bought with drugs and not paid for with cheques drawn on our vitality
The abler spirits were already inhabiting and enjoying
Mauris. Morbi accumsan ipsum velit. Nam nec tellus a odio
Incidunt auctor a ornare odio. Sed non mauris vitae erat
Equat auctor eu in elit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora
And thus while under the spell of this illusion—this hyperæsthesia not bought with drugs and not paid for with cheques drawn on our vitality
The abler spirits were already inhabiting and enjoying
Mauris. Morbi accumsan ipsum velit. Nam nec tellus a odio
Incidunt auctor a ornare odio. Sed non mauris vitae erat
Equat auctor eu in elit. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora
Painting between Giotto and Masaccio existed in vain—on the contrary, considerable progress was made in the direction of landscape, perspective and facial expression is true that, excepting the works masterpiece produced.
These two, one coming in the middle of the period we have been dwelling upon, and the other just at its close
Orcagna is difficult to speak as only a single fairly intact painting remains the altar-piece in Maria Novella.
He reveals himself as a man of considerable endowment as in Giotto with tactile values material significance
We disappointed in Orcagna’s sculptured tabernacle, material and spiritual significance is much lower
Compared with his figures those in the same chapel by his precursor, Masolino are childish and those by his follower unconvincing without significance
Masaccio like Giotto a century earlier himself the Giotto of an artistically more propitious world was, as an artist, a great master of the significant
In a career of but few years he gave to Florentine painting the direction it pursued to the end. In many ways he reminds us of the young Bellini
