"I fear we could not appreciate the best things, though," said Barbara.
"We imagined ourselves in old Florence of the fifteenth century, and
tried to recognize the mountains and palaces in the backgrounds, and we
enjoyed the people and admired their fine clothes. I do think, however,
that these last seem often too stiff and as if made of metal rather than
of silk, satin, or cloth. And when Howard told us that Mr. Ruskin says
'they hang from the figures as they would from clothes-pegs,' we could
but laugh, and think he is right with regard to some of them. Ought we
to admire everything in these old pictures, Mr. Sumner?" she earnestly
added.

"Not at all; not by any means. I would not have you think this for a
moment. Ghirlandajo's paintings are famous and worthy because they are
such an advance on what was before him. Compare his men and women with
those by Giotto. You know how much you found of interest and to admire
in Giotto's pictures when you compared them with Cimabue's and with the
old Greek Byzantine paintings. Just so compare those by Masaccio and
Ghirlandajo with what was done before. See the growth,--the steady
evolution,--and realize that Ghirlandajo was honest and earnest, and
gifted too; that his drawing is firm and truer to nature than that of
most contemporary artists; that his portraits possess character; that
they are well-bred and important, as the people they represent were;
that his mountains are like mountains even in some of their subtile
lines; that his rivers wind; that his masses of architecture are in good
perspective and proportion; and then you will excuse his faults, though
it is right to notice and feel them. We must see many in the work of
every artist until we come to the great painters of the High
Renaissance. You must find Ghirlandajo's other pictures, and study them
also."