I ought not to say
anything that might detract from the grandeur and sanctity of the blessed
edifice, for these attributes are really uninjured by any of the Gothic
oddities which I have hinted at.
We went this morning to the Institute of the Fine Arts, which is
interesting as containing a series of the works of the Sienese painters
from a date earlier than that of Cimabue. There is a dispute, I believe,
between Florence and Siena as to which city may claim the credit of
having originated the modern art of painting. The Florentines put
forward Cimabue as the first artist, but as the Sienese produce a
picture, by Guido da Siena, dated before the birth of Cimabue, the
victory is decidedly with them. As to pictorial merit, to my taste there
is none in either of these old painters, nor in any of their successors
for a long time afterwards. At the Institute there are several rooms
hung with early productions of the Sienese school, painted before the
invention of oil-colors, on wood shaped into Gothic altar-pieces.
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