"_This_ Giotto!
why it's a cheap rechauffe of Titian!" No, my friend. The boy who tried
so hard to draw those steps in perspective had been carried down
others, to his grave, two hundred years before Titian ran alone at
Cadore. But, as surely as Venice looks on the sea, Titian looked upon
this, and caught the reflected light of it forever.
What kind of boy is this, think you, who can make Titian his copyist,
--Dante his friend? What new power is here which is to change the heart
of Italy?--can you see it, feel it, writing before you these words on
the faded wall?
"You shall see things--as they Are."
"And the least with the greatest, because God made them."
"And the greatest with the least, because God made _you_, and gave
you eyes and a heart."
I. You shall see things--as they are. So easy a matter that, you think?
So much more difficult and sublime to paint grand processions and
golden thrones, than St. Anne faint on her pillow, and her servant at
pause?
Easy or not, it is all the sight that is required of you in this
world,--to see things, and men, and yourself,--as they are.
II. And the least with the greatest, because God made them,--shepherd,
and flock, and grass of the field, no less than the Golden Gate.
III. But also the golden gate of Heaven itself, open, and the angels of
God coming down from it.
These three things Giotto taught, and men believed, in his day. Of
which Faith you shall next see brighter work; only before we leave the
cloister, I want to sum for you one or two of the instant and evident
technical changes produced in the school of Florence by this teaching.
Pages:
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44