Lady Jane Grey and the daughters of Sir Anthony Cooke are familiar examples of learned women, and many English titled and gentlewomen were well versed in Greek and Latin, as well as in Spanish, Italian, and French.  Macaulay reminded his readers that if an Englishwoman of that day did not read the classics she could read little, since the then existing books—­outside the Italian—­would fill a shelf but scantily.  Thus English girls read Plato, and doubtless English women excelled Englishmen in their proficiency in foreign languages, as they do at present.

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In Germany the relative position of Art and Letters was the opposite to that in France and England.  The School of Cologne was a genuinely native school of art in the fourteenth century.  Although the Niebelungen Lied and Gudrun, the Songs of Love and Volkslieder, as well as Mysteries and Passion Plays, existed from an early date, we can scarcely speak of a German Literature before the sixteenth century, when Albert Duerer and the younger Holbein painted their great pictures, while Luther, Melanchthon and their sympathizers disseminated the doctrines of advancing Protestantism.

At this period, in the countries we may speak of collectively as German, women artists were numerous.  Many were miniaturists, some of whom were invited to the English Court and received with honor.

In 1521 Albert Duerer was astonished at the number of women artists in different parts of what, for conciseness, we may call Germany.  This was also noticeable in Holland, and Duerer wrote in his diary, in the above-named year:  “Master Gerard, of Antwerp, illuminist, has a daughter, eighteen years of age, named Susannah, who illuminated a little book which I purchased for a few guilders.  It is wonderful that a woman could do so much!”

Antwerp became famous for its women artists, some of whom visited France, Italy, and Spain, and were honorably recognized for their talent and attainments, wherever they went.

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In the later years of the sixteenth century a difference of opinion and purpose arose among the artists of Italy, the effects of which were shown in the art of the seventeenth century.  Two distinct schools were formed, one of which included the conservatives who desired to preserve and follow the manner of the masters of the Cinquecento, at the same time making a deeper study of Nature—­thus the devotional feeling and many of the older traditions would be retained while each master could indulge his individuality more freely than heretofore.  They aimed to unite such a style as Correggio’s—­who belonged to no school—­with that of the severely mannered artists of the preceding centuries.  These artists were called Eclectics, and the Bolognese school of the Carracci was the most important centre of the movement, while Domenichino, a native of Bologna—­1581-1631—­was the most distinguished painter of the school.