The Mannerists were so called because of their
imitation of the style of preceding masters. In the
work of these great artists, in the " terribleness " of
Angelo, the brilliant colouring of Titian, the
radiance and charm of Correggio, the epitome of
excellence seemed to have been reached. Artists
began to look upon their masterpieces with despair
of ever producing anything higher. Finding that
virtue had gone out of them, they sought to retain
the standard of excellence reached by imitating the
excellences of those who had gone before. This
was a fatal mistake, and with such a purpose animat-
ing them no healthy or lasting Art could be produced.
When the artist feels intensely he finds his own form
of expression ; the subject and the form are born
together. Where there is no intense feehng there is
no great[Art. Though the Mannerists imitated ever
so cleverly the great masters who preceded them, they




Page 104.
BAROCcao. The Saviour,



Alinari,



THE DECADENT PERIOD 105

doomed themselves to mediocrity. Nothing can
reach beyond the common levels which has not the
stamp of originality, which is not born from within.
" Poems distilled from other poeraspass away,
The swarm of reflectors and the polite pass, and leave

ashes ;
Admirers, importers, obedient persons make but the soil of

literature."

The consequence was an enormous output of
inferior work, and a consequent corruption of the
public taste. " We paint," says Vasari, "six paintings
in a year, while the earlier masters took six years
for one painting." Nothing could better sum up
the declining spirit than the unconscious egotism in
this assertion of a contemporary historian and artist.
When Art is measured by the bulk and by the rapidity
of its output, its days are numbered.
