That her first experiments were made in the popular madrigal form was to be expected.
The "Orfeo" of Poliziano and his unknown musical associates set the model for a century.

In the course of that century the irresistible drift of Italian art feeling, retarded as it was by the supreme vogue of musicians trained in the northern schools, moved steadily toward its destination, the solo melody, yet the end was not reached till the madrigal had worked itself to its logical conclusion, to wit, a demonstration of its own inherent weakness.

We must not be blind to the fact that while the Netherland art at first powerfully affected that of Italy, the latter in the end reacted on the former, and these two influences crossed and recrossed in ways that demand the closest scrutiny of the analytical historian.

But at this particular period that which immediately concerns us is the manner in which Italian musical art defined itself.

The secret of the differentiation already mentioned must be sought in the powerful feeling of Gothic art for organization.