For Italy see Pietro Cavallini; in Florence, Cimabue, by W. M. Rossetti, author of Fine Art, Chiefly Contemporary; Giotto, by Sir Sidney Colvin, late keeper prints and drawings, British Museum; Gaddi, by W. M. Rossetti; Orcagna, by the late John Henry Middleton, Slade professor of fine arts, Cambridge, art director South Kensington Museum; Spinello Aretino (Vol. 25, p. 685), and Angelico, by W. M. Rossetti; in Siena, Simone Martini; and for Flanders, the van Eycks (Vol. 10, p. 90), by Sir Joseph Archer Crowe, author with G. B. Cavalcaselle, of Early Flemish Painters, etc.
15th Century: Florence
With the 15th century, and particularly at Florence, begins the third of the four periods in the evolution of painting. “The father of modern painting is the Florentine Masaccio”: see the article on him (Vol. 17, p. 833), by W. M. Rossetti, who says “he led the way in representing the objects of nature correctly, with action, liveliness and relief.... All the greatest artists of Italy, through studying the Brancacci chapel, became his champions and disciples.” For the other great Florentine names of the century see the articles: Masolino da Panicale, by Rossetti; Brunelleschi, architect, student of perspective, and, with Masolino, master of Masaccio; the two earlier Lippi, by Rossetti; Botticelli, by Sir Sidney Colvin; Gozzoli, by Rossetti; Rosselli; Piero di Cosimo (Vol. 21, p. 950); Castagno; Baldovinetti, by Sir Sidney Colvin; Pollaiuolo; Ghirlandajo, father and son, by W. M. Rossetti; and, marking the perfection of art on the formal side, Bartolommeo, and Rossetti’s article, Andrea del Sarto (Vol. 1, p. 969).
15th Century: Other Parts of Italy
As for the remainder of Italy, Sienese art declines in this century, but there is an advance in Northern Italy and in Umbria. See the articles: Franceschi, by Rossetti, Melozzo, “the first who practised foreshortening with much success,” and Signorelli; Raphael’s master, Perugino, by Rossetti; Mantegna, by the same author; Lorenzo Costa; Francia, by Rossetti; and at Venice, Gentile, the Vivarini, Antonello da Messina, Carpaccio, the Bellini (Vol. 3, p. 700), by Sir Sidney Colvin.
15th and 16th Centuries: Northern Europe
In Germany and the Low Countries the art of the 15th and 16th centuries may be traced in the articles: for Germany—Schongauer; Dürer, by Sir Sidney Colvin; Grün; the Holbeins and Cranach, by Sir Joseph Archer Crowe; Burgkmair; Grünewald; and for the Low Countries—Roger van der Weyden; his greater pupil Memlinc, by Sir J. A. Crowe and P. G. Konody, art critic of the Observer and Daily Mail; Goes; Gerard David, by P. G. Konody; Lucas van Leyden (Vol. 17, p. 93); Heemskerk; Matsys; Breughel; Mabuse, by Sir J. A. Crowe; Floris; Moro; and Bril.
16th Century: Italian Masters
Roughly contemporary with Dürer and Holbein the younger were the even greater masters of Italian painting. See the articles: for Florence—Leonardo da Vinci (Vol. 16, p. 444, equivalent to 35 pages of this Guide), and Michelangelo (Vol. 18, p. 362), both by Sir Sidney Colvin, and Vasari, painter and biographer of painters; for Rome—Raphael Sanzio (Vol. 22, p. 900, with 7 cuts), by the late Prof. John Henry Middleton, and Giulio Romano, by W. M. Rossetti; for North Italy—Luini, Correggio, Parmigiano, and Moroni, all by Rossetti, and Moretto; and for Venice—Giorgione, by Sir Sidney Colvin; Lotto and Palma, Titian, Tintoretto, and Paul Veronese (Vol. 20, p. 965), all by W. M. Rossetti.
We have now come to modern times so far as painting is concerned. The article Painting says: