ix. sculptuee in the seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. As we have seen, Italian sculpture rapidly declined from the time of Michelangelo. At the beginning of the seven- teenth century a new school arose, founded by Bernini (1598 — 1680), who has been proudly called the second Michelangelo. The faults to which we alluded in speaking of the Italian artists of the decadence were shared by this master, whose works have been too much vaunted. In the works of Bernini, and in those of his followers, every- thing is sacrificed to effect ; and, as in the graceful produc- tions of the successors of Pheidias, difficulties were courted for the sake of displaying skill in overcoming them. Bernini's famous group of Apollo and Daphne, in the Villa Borghese, executed when he was only eighteen years old, is a marvel of dexterous execution, — but that is all. In his Rape of Proserpine, a much later work in the same gallery, we see all the faults of his style exaggerated : truth is sacrificed to theatrical passion ; whilst the great- est ignorance of anatomy and of the true limits of sculp- ture is manifested. His Pieta, in the basilica of San Giovanni Laterano, at Home,* is one of the best examples of his style. Italian sculpture did not again attain to the position of a great art until the time of Antonio Canova (1757 — 1822), the contemporary of the great Englishman Flax- man, — whose works stand out in striking contrast to those of his predecessors.
- A cast is in the Crystal Palace.
