"When all the delicate delights of distance were only half perceived; when the treatment of light and shadow was barely dreamed of; when aerial perspective was just breaking on the mind in all its wonder and power; when it was still regarded as a marvellous boldness to draw from the natural form in a natural fashion;—in those early days only fancy the delights of a painter!
"Something fresh to be won at each step; something new to be penetrated at each moment; something beautiful and rash to be ventured on with each touch of colour,—the painter in those days had all the breathless pleasure of an explorer; without leaving his birthplace he knew the joys of Columbus.
"And then the reverence that waited on him.
"He was a man who glorified God amongst a people that believed in God.
"What he did was a reality to himself and those around him. Spinello fainted before the Satanas he portrayed, and Angelico deemed it blasphemy to alter a feature of the angels who visited him that they might live visibly for men in his colours in the cloister.
"Of all men the artist was nearest to heaven, therefore of all men was he held most blessed.
"When Francis Valois stooped for the brush he only represented the spirit of the age he lived in. It is what all wise kings do. It is their only form of genius.
"Now-a-days what can men do in the Arts! Nothing.
"All has been painted—all sung—all said.
"All is twice told—in verse, in stone, in colour. There is no untraversed ocean to tempt the Columbus of any Art.