BUT as soon as colour came to the fore again the Renascence was said to be in decline, and indeed if the Renascence means the corpse of old Rome stuck up on end, and not the schools which grew out of pseudo-classicism, the orange had already been squeezed very dry.

Now the literal copies of injured antiques began to give way to the genius which adapted classical principles and ideas to modern needs, and many sixteenth-century works are undoubtedly as fine in their way as classic gems themselves - cabinets, tables, buffets, and plenty of minor ornaments.

Tired of architectural models, the public cried for the double effect of stone or wood with colour, and panels of carved marble, agate, precious stones of all kinds and goldsmith's work were once more applied to grounds of different materials. Woods not pronounced enough in natural tone were stained by drugs. The elaborate ornament outside the coffer or cabinet was carried inside, as though the over-indulged eye was impatient of even a drawer's bottom undecorated.

To the Renascence we owe at least one curse, stucco, which perhaps hailed from old Greece, where the brick houses were plastered with it inside and outside: and it came to be applied to innumerable purposes when the delighted workman saw how great could be the effect with how very little labour. Gleefully he moulded in relief every frame, console, casket he could get hold of, and painted and gilded the delicate patterns which arose in a few hours where carved oak would have challenged his brawny wrists for months. Most of the large pieces in this material have naturally perished, but small coffers and frames, a few consoles and tables, still exist as monuments to his delight.

Even while we condemn the school we must own that many of the surviving works in stucco that looks like wood, as well as wood that looks like stucco, are beautiful in their way. The 'consoles' (what a name for a table beneath a mirror, ye victims of a crumpled roseleaf!) were multiform, full of fancy. The table, such as that on p. 290, is certainly handsome, even elegant, however we may quarrel with the little gasping supports too like slaves distressed by a senseless burden, and women's busts which vanish into wreaths and scrolls in no pleasing fashion. We like and hate these things at once - the school is faulty, but the performance is superb.