Excerpt from Manual of the Early Collection of Early Italian Pictures: Deposited in the Yale School or Fin School Arts, Bring a Catalogue<br><br>Masaccio, if the Italians had asked for cabinet pic tures, or for transportable paintings of even large size, instead of mosaics, frescoes, and huge altar-pieces. But there was nothing then of the too common modern feeling toward a picture, as toward an ex pensive piece of furniture or wall-hanging. Even the minor works of the time partook of the general cha racter of the larger, and had something of their Im movableness. Thus an altar-piece, like no. 16 of this catalogue, or even a smaller one, like no. 37, was as permanently fixed above its altar as Bucero's great work at Siena; a tabernacle-picture, of which class of works our collection has many specimens, though more apt to be moved, had its definitely fixed place in the private oratory, or where, in a retired place, a room corner was reserved for the reading-desk and for prayer. Art could not become nor continue trivial when, in addition to the solemnity of its usual sub jects, and to the character of the people strongly dis posed toward it, the works to which the artists, gave their best strength were of general, almost national concern. 'and not only this, design also was neces sarily more free and c'olor.composition more noble and solemn, where men worked on a large scale, than could be the case,'even if other things were equal, where minute work is the universal rule.<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.