Excerpt from The History of Our Lord, Vol. 1 of 2: As Exemplified in Works of Art; With That of His Type; St. John the Baptist; And Other Persons of the Old and New Testamant

Art was then, like an alphabet, made use of as a Sign, not as an. Ornament. In this form she was employed to set visibly forth the great rudimental facts of Christian doctrine. But it was far dif ferent when the multiplication of the means of teaching by a direct process superseded the primitive use of the picture. By that time also, in the providential fitness of all things, Art had outgrown her hieroglyphic state, and as She was no longer wanted, SO she was no longer fitted for that phase of teaching. Her vocation had risen with her powers, and the far more intellectual task was opened to her of refreshing the perception of those truths which were already known. Properly speaking, the craft of the printer was the enfranchisement of the artist: it took all the previous mechanical drudgery from him, and set him free for the more congenial occupation of adorning that doctrine which he had before been required to teach. It must be owned that in this sense - the sense of Christian feeling - the Italian masters who flourished after the invention of printing did very inadequate justice to the greatness of the opportunity. We need to steal no glance at the student of history to convince ourselves that the real service of religion was not the aim of the southern artists of the l6th and 17th centuries. It is sufficient to state the mere fact, that the zenith of the powers of Art added scarcely a new subject to the repertory of the artist.

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