If at the close of the sixteenth century the mannerists sought to startle and entrance the world by empty exhibitions of muscular anatomy misunderstood, and by a braggadocio display of meaningless effectscrowding their compositions with studies from the nude, and painting agitated groups without a discernible cause for agitationthe crime surely lay with the patrons who liked such decoration, and with the journeymen who provided it.

War was not constant among them by any means, and occupied only small portions of the island at a time, but, since the bards' best work was war songs and war histories, with much braggadocio doubtless intermixed, a different impression might prevail.