The art of portraiture revived under the creative genius of Giotto and Orcagna, and of the great men of the Renaissance—Domenico Ghirlandaio and Giovanni Bellini—until it reached the highest dignity and beauty in the superb works of the mightiest of the mighty Italians—Michael Angelo, Raffaelle, and Titian. The most remarkable portraits of this period are paintings, and are therefore not to be found in large numbers in the Crystal Palace. In the beautiful gallery, however, of copies from the old masters, will be found several fine examples. In the Renaissance and Mediæval Courts, will be seen some of the statues from the tombs of Maximilian and Albert of Saxony—the finest portrait-statues of their kind. In the Italian Court, too, there are the immortal monumental statues of the Medici, and a superb bust of Cosmo de’ Medici by the inimitable Cellini.
The antique statues and busts described in the following pages are from
The Vatican, at Rome,
The Capitoline Museum,
The Naples Museum,
The Florence Gallery,
The Louvre,
The Berlin Museum,
The British Museum.
ΗΡΟΔΟΤΟΣ.