A Concise History of Painting

tury in Florentine art, and to a new period in its development. The painters mentioned in this chapter are sometimes called the Trecentisti, or masters of the fourteenth century. The next chapter will be devoted to the Quattrocentisti, or masters of the fifteenth century, who prepared the way for the great masters of the sixteenth century, the Cinquocentisti. chapter{Section 4 Chapter II. THE DEVELOPMENT. Masaccio -- Fra Angelico -- Mantegna -- Luca Signorelli -- Perugino -- Francia. HE fifteenth century was an age of rapid intellectual growth. Everywhere the germs that had been planted in the two preceding centuries started into vigorous life, and sent forth shoots in new directions. With this age, indeed, the history of the modem world may fairly be said to begin, for with the knowledge of the true solar system, the discovery of America, and the invention of printing, the mind of man first attained its enfranchisement from ignorance and superstition. Yet in all paths of knowledge the works of the fifteenth century can only be regarded as the preparation for those of the sixteenth. In art especially this was the case. The great artists of this age were the forerunners of the still greater artists ofthe next. Masaccio and Mantegna prepared the way for Michael Angelo; Fra Angelico and Perugino for Raphael, and Bellini for Titian. At the beginning of the century Florence, so soon to fall under the golden yoke of the Medici, was still a free rep...