Fra Bartolommeo

In the following lives of Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del Sarto, I have endeavoured as much as possible to keep before me the object of the series, which is to bring the Great Masters in an appreciable form before the minds of those who are interested in art; and to give a human interest to the men whose works have become built in to the very walls of that great fabric, the Renaissance. Continental travel is, in these days, rendered so easy, that it is very desirable the study of art should no longer be an enigma; nor the walk through the galleries a weariness to the unlearned tourist. It helps us greatly, in comprehending a work, to have a clear idea of the kind of man who produced it; what were his characteristic and leading trains of thought, and, chiefly, what were the times in which he lived. M. Taine Lectures on Art, chap. i. p. 33), truly says: "Just as there is a physical temperature (zone) which by its variations determines the appearance of this or that species of plant, so is there a moral temperature, which by its variations determines the appearance of this or that species of art."