f the light;
the folds of the draperies are well drawn, but the entire rounding of
them always missed--the general forms appearing flat, and terminated by
equal and severe outlines, while the masses of ungradated color often
seem to divide the figure into fragments. Thus, the Madonna in the small
tempera series of the Academy of Florence, is usually divided exactly in
half by the dark mass of her blue robe, falling in a vertical line. In
consequence of this defect, the grace of Giotto's composition can hardly
be felt until it is put into outline. The colors themselves are of good
quality, never glaring, always gladdening, the reds inclining to orange
more than purple, yellow frequent, the prevalent tone of the color
groups warm; the sky always blue, the whole effect somewhat resembling
that of the Northern painted glass of the same century--and chastened in
the same manner by noble neutral tints or greens; yet all somewhat
unconsidered and unsystematic, painful discords not unfrequent. The
material and ornaments of dress are never particularized, no imitations
of texture or jewelry, yet shot stuffs of two colors frequent. The
drawing often powerful, though of course uninformed; the mastery of
mental expression by bodily motion, and of bodily motion, past and
future, by a single gesture, altogether unrivaled even by Raffaelle;--it
is obtained chiefly by throwing the emphasis always on the right line,
admitting straight lines of great severity, and never dividing the main
drift of the drapery by inferior folds; neither are accidents allowed to
interfere--the garments fall heavily and in marked angles--nor are they
affected by the wind, except under circumstances of very rapid motion.
The ideal of the face is often solemn--seldom beautiful; occasionally
ludicrous failures occur: in the smallest designs the face is very often
a dead letter, or worse: and in all, Giotto's handling is generally to
be distinguished from that of any of his followers by its bluntness. In
the school work we find sweeter types of feature, greater finish,
stricter care, more delicate outline, fewer errors, but on the whole
less life.

69. Finally, and on this we would especially insist, Giotto's genius is
not to be considered as struggling with difficulty and repressed by
ignorance, but as appointed, for the good of men, to come into the world
exactly at the time when its rapidity of invention was not likely to be
hampered by demands for imitative