The children's book of art (1909) (14780034594)

Identifier: childrensbookofa00conw (find matches)
Title: The children's book of art
Year: 1909 (1900s)
Authors: Conway, Agnes Ethel Conway, Martin, Sir
Subjects: Art
Publisher: London : Adam and Charles Black
Contributing Library: University of British Columbia Library
Digitizing Sponsor: University of British Columbia Library



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designs of the necks ofdresses in his pictures, you will find them delightfulto copy and far superior to the ordinary designsfor such things made to-day. In his love ofbeauty and his keen appreciation of the newpossibilities of painting he was a true child of theRenaissance, though he had not the joyous natureso characteristic of the time. Moreover, as I havesaid, he retained the old sweet religious spirit, andclothed it with new forms of beauty in his sacredpaintings. There is something pathetic aboutmany of these—the Virgin, while she nurses theInfant Christ, seems to foresee all the sorrow instore for her, and but little of the joy. The girlangels who nestle around her in so many of hispictures, have faces of exquisite beauty, but inmost of them, notwithstanding the fact that theyare evidently painted from Florentine girls of thetime, Botticelli has infused his own personal noteof sadness. At the end of the fifteenth century, whenBotticelli was beginning to grow old, great events
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The Nativity.From the picture by Sandro Botticelli, in the National Gallery, London. THE RENAISSANCE 73 took place in Florence. Despite the revival oflearning, we are told by historians that the Churchwas becoming corrupt and the people morepleasure-loving and less interested in the religiouslife. Then it was that Savonarola, a friar in oneof the convents of Florence, all on fire withenthusiasm for purity and goodness, began toawaken the hearts of the people with his burningeloquence, and his denunciations of their worldli-ness and the deadness of the Church. He pro-phesied a great outpouring of the wrath of God,and in particular that the Church would be purifiedand renewed after a quick and terrible punishment.The passion, the conviction, the eloquence of Savo-narola for a time carried the people of Florenceaway, and Botticelli with them, so that he becameone of the ■ mourners as the preachers followerswere called. At this time many persons burnt in great bon-fires of vanities all