very one will find who examines the testimony of the ages; the
highest development of every art is invariably circumscribed by a very
short space of time. Just why a number of similarly endowed, capable men
make their appearance within a certain cycle of years and devote
themselves to the same art and its advancement, is a matter upon which I
have often reflected, without discovering any cause that I might present
as true. Among the most probable causes the following seem to me the
most important: Rivalry nourishes the talents; here envy, and there
admiration, incite to imitation, and the art promoted with so much
diligence quickly reaches its culmination. It is difficult to remain in
a state of perfection, and what does not advance retrogrades. And so in
the beginning we endeavor to attain our models, but when we despair of
surpassing or even approaching them, diligence and hope grow old, and
what we fail to attain, is no longer pursued. We cease to strive after
the possession already obtained by another, and search for something
new. Relinquishing that in which we cannot shine, we seek another goal
for our efforts. From this inconstancy, it seems to me, arises the
greatest obstacle to the production of perfect works of art."

A passage of Quintilian, containing a concise outline of the history of
ancient art, also deserves to be pointed out as an important document in
this domain. In his conversations with Roman art lovers, Quintilian
must also have noticed a striking resemblance between the character of
Greek artists and Roman orators, and then have sought to gain more exact
information from connoisseurs and art-lovers. In his comparative
presentation, in which the character of the art is each time associated
with that of the age, he is compelled, without knowing or wishing it, to
present a history of art.

They say that the first celebrated painters whose works are visited not
by reason of their antiquity alone, were Polygnotus and Aglaophon. Their
simple color still finds eager admirers, who prefer such crude
productions and the beginnings of an art just evolving, to the greatest
masters of the following epoch--as it seems to me in accordance with a
point of view peculiar to themselves. Afterward Zeuxis and Parrhasius,
who lived at about the same period--at the time of the Peloponnesian
war--greatly promoted art. The former is said to have discovered the
laws of light and shadow, the latter to have devoted himself