'Italian painting interests many of us more than the painting of any other school not because of its essential superiority, but because it expressed the Renaissance; and Venetian painting is interesting above all because it was at Venice alone that this expression attained perfection.' This statement of Berenson's¹ is perhaps a little extravagant.

Nevertheless, it exemplifies a state of affairs that is virtually incontestabe - that the Renaissance is still of major importance to us, and that Venice played a major part in bringing about the changes in thought and feeling that accompanied it.

It is also incontestabe that Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese stand in the front rank of the painters who acquired for Venice her pre-eminent position, since all four of them played their part in revealing the lyrical powers of colour to the western world.

¹ Berenson, Les peintres italiens de la Renaissance, Gallimard.