Excerpt from A Survey of the Evolution of Painting With Reference to the Important Pictures of the Louvre<br><br>In early pictures the introduction of architecture and landscape is merely to furnish symbols that aid the understanding. Giotto was hampered by a faulty knowledge of perspective, for its laws had not yet been developed; but he doubtless could have treated the subject better than he has done here had he so desired. His aim was merely to tell the story truthfully. Observe the Madonna and Child in the lunette over the door of the church. After the Sharp controversy in the fifth century between those who believed in the Divinity of Christ and those who held Him to be merely a spiritual teacher, the Madonna was adopted as the symbol of the orthodox Catholic Christian faith. And just as a cross was used to identify a Christian edifice, so the figure of the Madonna was placed on or in a church to indicate the creed. Out of this symbolical use grew up the importance of the Madonna in art. She was first painted alone, then with the Child, and later with saints and donors.<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.