Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/373

 Painting in Italy. 343 at Pisa, formerly, on the testimony of Vasari, ascribed to Orcagna. Whilst the art of painting was making rapid strides towards perfection in Tuscany, a simultaneous advance was taking place in Umbria, Rome, Venice, and other parts of Italy. The early Florentine and Umbrian Schools were not sufficiently distinct for it to be necessary to particularise the peculiarities of the latter ; and the early masters of the Roman school were greatly influenced by Giotto. Of these, Pietro Cavallini (1259—1344) was the most remarkable ; the Crucifixion in the church of Assisi, formerly considered his best existing work, is now thought to be by Pietro Lorenzetti. Towards the close of the fourteenth century great progress was made in Rome, and many artists rose into fame. Of these, Gentile da Fabriano (ab. 1370 — ab. 1450) was the chief. His picture of the Adoration of the Kings, in the academy of Florence, is one of the finest existing speci- mens of the early schools. He was a good colourist. and excelled Giotto in knowledge of form. In Venice, the struggle between the Byzantine style and the new tendencies in painting lasted long, and it was not until the latter half of the fourteenth century that the yoke of tradition was finally broken. Lorenzo Veneziano, and Paolo and Niccolo Semitecolo, all of the fourteenth century, were the first Venetians to attempt the new method. (b) In France and Germany. Before we enter on the history of Italian painting in the fifteenth century, we must cross the Alps, and trace the development of the new movement in the rest of Europe. Mural painting was practised with great success in