We meet with charming
descriptions of the intercourse of the guests, the hunting-parties, and
all the open-air pursuits and amusements. But the noblest achievements
of poetry and thought are sometimes also dated from these scenes of
rural peace.
Festivals
It is by no arbitrary choice that in discussing the social life of this
period, we are led to treat of the processions and shows which formed
part of the popular festivals. The artistic power of which the Italians
of the Renaissance gave proof on such occasions, was attained only by
means of that free intercourse of all classes which formed the basis of
Italian society. In Northern Europe the monasteries, the courts, and
the burghers had their special feasts and shows as in Italy; but in the
one case the form and substance of these displays differed according to
the class which took part in them, in the other an art amid culture
common to the whole nation stamped them with both a higher and a more
popular character. The decorative architecture, which served to aid in
these festivals, deserves a chapter to itself in the history of art,
although our imagination can only form a picture of it from the
descriptions which have been left to us. We are here more especially
concerned with the festival as a higher phase in the life of the
people, in which its religious, moral, and poetical ideas took visible
shape.
Pages:
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458