During the third stage the results of prolonged and almost exclusive attention to the classics, on the part of the Italians as a people, make themselves manifest.

Collections of antiquities and libraries had been formed in the fifteenth century; the literary energies of the nation were devoted to the interpretation of Greek and Latin texts, and the manners of society affected paganism.

At the same time a worldly Church and a corrupt hierarchy had done their utmost to enfeeble the spirit of Christianity.

That art should prove itself sensitive to this phase of intellectual and social life was natural.

Religious subjects were now treated by the sculptors with superficial formalism and cynical indifference, while all their ingenuity was bestowed upon providing pagan myths with new forms.