Page:Women in the Fine Arts From the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentiet.djvu/38

Rh his pupils; but no detailed accounts of the works of these artists is available—if any such exist—and their pictures are in private collections. The above outline of the general conditions of Art in the seventeenth century will suggest the reasons for there being a larger number of women artists in Italy than elsewhere—especially as they were pupils in the studios of the best masters as well as in the schools of the Carracci and other centres of art study.

Italian artists of the eighteenth century have been called scene painters, and, in truth, many of their works impress one as hurried attempts to cover large spaces. Originality was wanting and a wearisome mediocrity prevailed. At the same time certain national artistic qualities were apparent; good arrangement of figures and admirable effects of color still characterized Italian painting, but the result was, on the whole, academic and uninteresting.

The ideals cherished by older artists were lost, and nothing worthy to replace them inspired their followers. The sincerity, earnestness, and devotion of the men who served church and state in the decoration of splendid monuments would have been out of place in the service of amateurs and in the decoration of the salons and boudoirs of the rich, and the painting of this period had little permanent value, in comparison with that of preceding centuries.

Italian women, especially in the second half of the cen-