On the distinction between Florentine and Venetian Schools, see Works, 16.270 and Works, 16.271. Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo are taken as the greatest masters of the Florentine school, and 'disegno', or form, and the 'perfect expression of human emotion' are seen as their aim. The Venetian school was concerned with 'colore' according to Vasari, though a more common use in Venice was the active verbal form 'colorire' or the participle 'colorito'. For Vasari and for Reynolds the greatest painter of the Venetian school was Titian. For Ruskin at Works, 16.270 the 'representation of the effect of colour and shade on all things; chiefly on the human form' is the foundation of the greatness of Venetian painting. At Works, 16.272 Veronese 's Marriage in Cana represents the Venetian school. At Works, 10.161 Tintoretto, the Venetian, and Michelangelo, the Florentine, are the two men 'in whom the art of Italy consummated itself and expired'.
The third great school was defined by Ruskin at Works, 16.270 as the Greek, and its greatest exponent was said to be Phidias.
For Reynolds, the painters of the Venetian school are in an inferior class.