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Rh 474) did much toward creating among the Italians a common pride in race and country; and thus this great literary and artistic enthusiasm was the first step in a course of national development which was to lead the Italian people to a common political life.

Upon the literary phase of the Italian Renaissance we have said something in the chapter on the Revival of Learning (see p. 474); we shall here say just a word respecting the artistic side of the movement.

The most splendid period of the art revival covered the latter part of the fifteenth century and the first half of the sixteenth. The characteristic art of the Renaissance in Italy was painting, although the aesthetic genius of the Italians also expressed itself both in architecture and sculpture. The mediæval artists devoted themselves to painting instead of sculpture, for the reason that it best expresses the ideas and sentiments of Christianity. The art that would be the handmaid of the Church needed to be able to represent faith and hope, ecstasy and suffering,—none of which things can well be expressed by sculpture, which is essentially the art of repose.

Savonarola (1452–1498).—A word must here be said respecting the Florentine monk and reformer Girolamo Savonarola, who stands as the most noteworthy personage in Italy during the closing years of the mediæval period.

Savonarola was at once Roman censor and Hebrew prophet. Such a preacher of righteousness the world had not seen since the days of Elijah. His powerful preaching alarmed the conscience of the Florentines. At his suggestion the women brought their