In a word, he humanized the altar-pieces and the cloister-frescoes upon which he worked.

In this way the painters rose above the ancient symbols, and brought heaven down to earth.

By drawing Madonna and her son like living human beings, by dramatizing the Christian history, they silently substituted the love of beauty and the interests of actual life for the principles of the Church.

The saint or angel became an occasion for the display of physical perfection, and to introduce 'un bel corpo ignudo' into the composition was of more moment to them than to represent the macerations of the Magdalen.

Men thus learned to look beyond the relique and the host, and to forget the dogma in the lovely forms which gave it expression.