Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/368

 338 Painting unnatural in art, effected a reformation in painting the value of which it is impossible to over-estimate. In know- ledge of form, of chiaroscuro and of perspective, he is generally allowed to have been deficient ; but his force of conception, his power of preserving right balance in com- plicated groups, of expressing natural character, and his Fi£. 123.— Obedience. By Giotto. In the Church of S. Francesco at Jssisi. feeling for grace of action and harmony of colour, justly entitle him to the high position assigned to him as the founder of the true ideal style of Christian art, and the restorer of portraiture. The cotemporary and friend of Dante, he stands at the head of the school of allegoric painting, as the latter of that of poetry.