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.