Excerpt from Venice and Its Art The present work is in a sense the continuation of an undertaking which began with the publication of the Art Of Florence in 1912. It was intended from the be ginning to cover briefly the art Of the Italian Renaissance in two volumes, a plan now tardily realized after many and prolonged interruptions. The present volume differs from its predecessor in that more attention is given to the city itself, to its history as a key to the understand ing Of its art and to its own growth and physical trans formation as a work Of art in itself. This is in line with the growing feeling Of the writer that art is an expression of the spiritual and cultural life of a people and that their history is the key to its interpretation. The purpose of the book will be Clear to those who are familiar with the earlier volume or with the author's work in the galleries Of Europe. The book is not a record Of personal research. N O archives have been ransacked, no records discovered, no manuscripts edited or read. Information regarding the works here dis cussed is to be found in any good library. Nor has any attempt been made to make the list Of works inclusive or to give all known facts regarding them. The works considered have been chosen as being representative of the artists in question and illustrative of the characteristics discussed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.