The Italian Renaissance.

Last evening in the Fogg Art Museum, Professor Moore gave the first of his series of illustrated lectures on the Fine Arts of the Renaissance. The one last evening was partly introductory to the whole course, but dealt more particularly with the architecture of the Italian Renaissance.

In opening his lecture, Professor Moore pointed out the difference between the motives that actuated the art of the Middle ages and those actuating the art of the Renaissance. Religious faith was the dominant note and the inspiration of mediaeval art; on the other hand, the art of the Renaissance reflected the freedom of though and the tendency to classicism of the Renaissance itself. Its spirit was essentially mundane and finally became, in imitation of the Greeks, a mere effort to depict physical beauty. The Italian antists, however, took the later Graeco-Roman period for a model rather than the classic Greek and in consequence took eventually a very artificial tone. In the fifteenth century this was less noticeable, but in the sixteenth century art became very artificial and in many cases coarse. The really great work of the Italian Renaissance was in sculpture and painting, which was perhaps the greatest the world has ever seen. The architecture of the period did not show much change but Professor Moore said he would devote the rest of his lecture to illustrating it in order to finish that portion of the subject.

With the aid of lantern slide illustrations, he then sketched the progress of architecture in Italy during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.