But if the Impressionists, with their scientific equipment, their astonishing technique, and their intellectualism, mark the end of one era, do they not rumour the coming of another?  Certainly to-day there is stress in the cryptic laboratory of Time.  A great thing is dead; but, as that sagacious Roman noted: 

     “haud igitur penitus pereunt quaecumque videntur, quando alid ex
     alio reficit natura nec ullam rem gigni patitur nisi morte adiuta
     aliena.”

And do not the Impressionists, with their power of creating works of art that stand on their own feet, bear in their arms a new age?  For if the venial sin of Impressionism is a grotesque theory and its justification a glorious practice, its historical importance consists in its having taught people to seek the significance of art in the work itself, instead of hunting for it in the emotions and interests of the outer world.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 10:  I am not being so stupid as to suggest that in the sixth century the Hellenistic influence died.  It persisted for another 300 years at least.  In sculpture and ivory carving it was only ousted by the Romanesque movement of the eleventh century.  Inevitably a great deal of Hellenistic stuff continued to be produced after the rise of Byzantine art.  For how many years after the maturity of Cezanne will painters continue to produce chromophotographs?  Hundreds perhaps.  For all that, Cezanne marks a change—­the birth of a movement if not of a slope.]

[Footnote 11:  It will be found instructive to study cases 10-14 of enamels and metal-work at South Kensington.  The tyro will have no difficulty in “spotting” the German and Rheinish productions.  Alas! the only possible mistake would be a confusion between German and English.  Certainly the famous Gloucester candlestick (1100) is as common as anything in the place, unless it be the even more famous Cologne Reliquary (1170).]

[Footnote 12:  Patriots can take pleasure in the study of Saxon sculpture.]

[Footnote 13:  Several schools of painting and drawing flourished during these centuries in Italy and north of the Alps.  In S. Clemente alone it is easy to discover the work of two distinct periods between 600 and 900.  The extant examples of both are superb.]

[Footnote 14:  The Making of Western Europe:  C.L.R.  Fletcher.]

[Footnote 15:  Throughout the whole primitive and middle period, however, two tendencies are distinguishable—­one vital, derived from Constantinople, the other, dead and swollen, from imperial Rome.  Up to the thirteenth century the Byzantine influence is easily predominant.  I have often thought that an amusing book might be compiled in which the two tendencies would be well distinguished and illustrated.  In Pisa and its neighbourhood the author will find a surfeit of Romanised primitives.]

[Footnote 16:  Pietro is, of course, nearer to Giotto.]