Gian Bologna, born at Douai, but a Florentine by education, devoted himself almost exclusively to mythological sculpture.  That he was a greater sculptor than his immediate predecessors will be affirmed by all who have studied his bronze “Mercury,” the “Venus of Petraja,” and the “Neptune” on the fountain of Bologna.  Something of the genuine classic feeling had passed into his nature.  The “Mercury” is not a reminiscence of any antique statue.  It gives in bronze a faithful and spirited reading of Virgil’s lines, and is conceived with artistic purity not unworthy of a good Greek period.  The “Neptune” is something more than a muscular old man; and, in its place, it forms one of the most striking ornaments of Italy.  It is worthy of remark that sculpture, in this stage, continued to be decorative.  Fountains are among the most successful monuments of the late Renaissance.  Even Montorsoli’s fountain at Messina is in a high sense picturesquely beautiful.

Casting a glance backward over the foregoing sketch of Italian sculpture, it will be seen that three distinct stages were traversed in the evolution of this art.  The first may be called architectural, the second pictorial, the third neo-pagan.  Defined by their artistic purposes, the first idealises Christian motives; the second is naturalistic; the third attempts an idealisation inspired by revived paganism.  As far as the Renaissance is concerned, all three are moments in its history; though it was only during the third that the influences of the classical revival made themselves overwhelmingly felt.  Niccola Pisano in the first stage marked a fresh point of departure for his art by a return to Graeco-Roman standards of the purest type then attainable, in combination with the study of nature.  Giovanni Pisano effected a fusion between his father’s manner and the Gothic style.  The Pisan sculpture was wholly Christian; nor did it attempt to free itself from the service of architecture.  Giotto opened the second stage by introducing new motives, employed by him with paramount mastery in painting.  Under his influence the sculptors inclined to picturesque effects, and the direction thus given to sculpture lasted through the fifteenth century.  For the rest, the style of these masters was distinguished by a fresh and charming naturalism and by rapid growth in technical processes.  While assimilating much of the classical spirit, they remained on the whole Christian; and herein they were confirmed by the subjects they were chiefly called upon to treat, in the decoration of altars, pulpits, church facades, and tombs.  The revived interest in antique literature widened their sympathies and supplied their fancy with new material; but there is no imitative formalism in their work.  Its beauty consists in a certain immature blending of motives chosen almost indiscriminately from Christian and pagan mythology, vitalised by the imagination of the artist, and presented with the originality of true creative instinct.  During the third stage