the Florentine painter as a mere link between two points in a necessary
evolution. The history of the art of Florence never can be, as that of
Venice, the study of a placid development. Each man of genius brought to
bear upon his art a great intellect, which, never condescending merely
to please, was tirelessly striving to reincarnate what it comprehended
of life in forms that would fitly convey it to others; and in this
endeavour each man of genius was necessarily compelled to create forms
essentially his own. But because Florentine painting was pre-eminently
an art formed by great personalities, it grappled with problems of the
highest interest, and offered solutions that can never lose their
value. What they aimed at, and what they attained, is the subject of the
following essay.


II.

The first of the great personalities in Florentine painting was Giotto.
Although he affords no exception to the rule that the great Florentines
exploited all the arts in the endeavour to express themselves, he,
Giotto, renowned as architect and sculptor, reputed as wit and
versifier, differed from most of his Tuscan successors in having
peculiar aptitude for the essential in painting _as an art_.

But before we can appreciate his real value, we must come to an
agreement as to what in the art of figure-painting--the craft has its
own altogether diverse laws--_is_ the essential; for figure-painting, we
may say at once, was not only the one pre-occupation of Giotto, but the
dominant interest of the entire Florentine school.

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