IV
MASOLINO
1383-1447
The art of Giotto lasted a hundred years. His personality overshadows the whole of the fourteenth century, and the study of his followers' works only serves to make us realise the surpassing glory of his genius. After him there was no great advance in Florentine art during several generations. "Giotto still holds the field," wrote Dante's commentator, Benvenuto da Imola, in 1376, "for no greater artist than he has yet arisen, although his works contain many faults." The testimony is striking, coming as it does from a contemporary of Orcagna. The defects in Giotto's art were apparent, but of all the other artists who had followed in his steps during the last fifty years, there was not one who could compare with him. Here and there some slight signs of progress were perceptible. There had been a distinct improvement in details and accessories in landscape and architecture. Giottino had effected some advance in artistic composition, Orcagna in scientific rendering of form; and towards the end of the century a marked tendency towards greater realism, and the more accurate representation of objects, appeared in the works of such men as
