Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/23

1302] Byzantine tradition. The true leader of that movement, the real founder of the Italian Renaissance, was St. Francis of Assisi. He it was who by boldly proclaiming the brotherhood of the human race, and the equal rights of each individual soul in the sight of God, gave life a new glory and filled the old truths with new and diviner meaning. He it was who first set forth the love of God and the tender human relations of the Virgin Mother and her Child, and whose glowing eloquence and passionate devotion inspired artists with a new conception, which lived on through the next three centuries to reach its highest expression in the perfect art of Raphael. He it was, again, who, seeing the face of God in the beauty of the natural world, praising Him for the radiant splendour of his good brother Messer Sole, and calling the birds his little sisters, first opened the eyes of men to the wonder and loveliness about them, and made them see that this earth was very good. The enthusiasm of his new Gospel stirred the hearts of all Italy, and bore fruit in a thousand different forms. Instead of seeking desert solitudes and retreats hidden from the world, the friars of the new order settled in the most populous quarters of the cities. The crowds who flocked to hear them preach, the wealth with which they were endowed by rich citizens, led to the foundation of churches and convents in every town and village. These in their turn created a new and sudden demand for pictorial decoration, and thus the relations between the Mendicant friars and the burgher class produced the art of the Renaissance.

The natural artistic capacity of the Tuscan race and