(FLORENCE)
]
Later than Bordone, and not so late as Tiburio de’ Titi, is Baroccio,
one of the many painters born at Urbino, but too modern a man to be
affiliated to any local school, even when the metropolitan _locus_ of
Raphael is in question. By the time that Baroccio had gained courage to
place a child quite erect, quite full-face, in the charm of its own
ways, and in the simplicity of childish action, art had lost much. The
loss ought not to cause us to despise the gain, which is a gain of
dignity and not of trivial charm. It makes for the dignity of art and of
the little son of man that his likeness should be designed honestly, and
without fictitious graces. Yet the noblest time of art used these
fictitious graces, and the less noble time respected the noble nature.
History shows us many such paradoxes; for example, music underwent
irrevocable losses when she made her profoundest discoveries. Some
genius of the single note vanished when harmonies were found.