respectful admiration that we find the masters of the fourteenth
century dwelling on moments of the most subdued and tender feeling,
and leaving the spectator to trace the under-currents of thought which
link them with future events of mightier interest, and fill with a
prophetic power and mystery scenes in themselves so simple as the
meeting of a master with his herdsmen among the hills, or the return
of a betrothed virgin to her house.

[Illustration]

It is, however, to be remembered that this quietness in character of
subject was much more possible to an early painter, owing to the
connection in which his works were to be seen. A modern picture,
isolated and portable, must rest all its claims to attention on its
own actual subject: but the pictures of the early masters were nearly
always parts of a consecutive and stable series, in which many were
subdued, like the connecting passages of a prolonged poem, in order to
enhance the value or meaning of others. The arrangement of the
subjects in the Arena Chapel is in this respect peculiarly skilful;
and to that arrangement we must now direct our attention.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE ARENA CHAPEL, PADUA, LOOKING EASTWARD.]

It was before noticed that the chapel was built between 1300 and 1306.
The architecture of Italy in the beginning of the fourteenth century
is always pure, and often severe; but this chapel is remarkable, even
among the severest forms, for the absence of decoration. Its plan,
seen in the marginal figure on p. 26, is a pure oblong, with a narrow
advanced tribune, terminating in a trilateral apse. Selvatico quotes
from the German writer Stieglitz some curious observations on the