ABSTRACT
Art only began to be generally employed in the decoration of the home in the fifteenth century, and, for long, masterpieces were only to be found in churches and public buildings; and bare spaces on the walls were sometimes covered with neatly written quotations and mottoes. By the end of the fifteenth century the castle would have been modernized or rebuilt; part of the year was always spent in the city, and the country castle was only used in villegiatura, except in Piedmont, where the nobility despised town-life. Still a citadel without, the home of the wealthy noble or merchant was becoming a palace of art within. In the fifteenth century we find L. B. Alberti complaining that the furnishing of one room cost as much as that of a whole house aforetime, and that artisans take their meals at home and not at the workshop.
