Excerpt from Museum of Fine Arts Boston: Manual of Italian Renaissance Sculpture<br><br>One'of the wider problems of the history of fine art is that of its intermittent development. Why has no sculptor of the foremost rank appeared in Italy since Michel Angelo, and why, when Michel Angelo lived, was Raphael also living? May genius be a matter of the heredity of a whole people, or is it occasion only that is lacking in times of artistic depression Why should not art flourish with a measurable continuity Why should it always blossom and decay?<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.