Art did not reach its perfection in Venice until later than in Florence,
and its special contribution, its glorious color, imparted to it an
attraction unequalled on the sensuous plane. This color surrounded the
artists of that sumptuous city of luxurious life and wondrous pageants,
and was so emphasized by the marvellous mingling of the semi-mist and the
brilliancy of its atmosphere that no man who merited the name of artist
could be insensible to its inspiration.

The old Venetian realism was followed, in the time of the Renaissance, by
startling developments. In the works of Tintoretto and Veronese there is
a combination of gorgeous draperies, splendid and often licentious
costumes, brilliant metal accessories, and every possible device for
enhancing and contrasting colors, until one is bewildered and must adjust
himself to these dazzling spectacles--religious subjects though they may
be--before any serious thought or judgment can be brought to bear upon
their artistic merit; these two great contemporaries lived and worked in
the final decades of the sixteenth century.

We know that many women painted pictures in Venice before the seventeenth
century, although we have accurate knowledge of but few, and of these an
account is given later in this book.

We who go from Paris to London in a few hours, and cross the St. Gothard
in a day, can scarcely realize the distance that separated these capitals
from the centres of Italian art in the time of the Renaissance. We have,
however, abundant proof that the sacred fire of the love of Art and
Letters was smouldering in France, Germany, and England--and when the
inspiring breath of the Renaissance was wafted beyond the Alps a flame
burst forth which has burned clearer and brighter with succeeding