5 .^FRA . ANGELICO j§ 
 
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ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OF 
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 DA FIESOLE 
 
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 THE EARLY FLORENTINE PAINTERS 
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ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OF 
 THE GREAT ARTISTS. 
 
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FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 From the representation of him in the Fresco of the ^'Last Juagnient,'' by 
 
 Fra Bariolomnieo, in Santa Maria Nttova, Florence. 
 
The whole world without Art would be one great wilderness " 
 
 FRA ANGELICO 
 
 BY CATHERINE MARY PHILLIMORE 
 
 AUTHOR OF VARIOUS ARTICLES ON ITALIAN LITERATURE 
 
 0ATJ]?Oi 
 
 LONDON 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET 
 I881 
 
{Ail rights nserved.) 
 
 LONDON: R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, 
 BREAD STREET HILL, E.G. 
 
 I 
 
 .1 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 THE writer has been guided in tlie difficult task of 
 treating tlie early period of the Italian Renaissance 
 by the criticisms and opinions of some of the most recent 
 Italian authorities ; especially those of the great scholar 
 Signor Milanesi, in his new edition of Yasari, the writings 
 of the Dominican Padre Marchese, and others whose names 
 appear in the Bibliography. 
 
 The work has been further assisted by the careful re- 
 searches, among the documents of the " Libreria Maglia- 
 becchiana," of a correspondent at Florence, who is the 
 author of the work on the second period of the Renaissance, 
 in this series {i.e.j Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del Sarto). 
 
 In the arrangement of a treatise like the present, which 
 must, of necessity, deal with the critical as well as the 
 historical side of the Renaissance, the writer has had the 
 benefit of a course of study in the Art Classes of Mrs. E. M. 
 Ward. Besides the technical instruction admirably imparted 
 in these classes, the writer had also the privilege of appealing 
 in all difficult points of Art criticism to the large experience 
 of this eminent and accomplished Artist. 
 
 C. M. P. 
 
 October, 1880. 
 
 5to % 
 
 Lii> 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PACK 
 INTttODUCTION ix 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 STEFANO FIORENTiXO— PAOLO UCCELLO— MASOLINO DA PANICALE . 1 
 
 CHAPTER IT. 
 
 MASACCIO 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FRA ANGELirO . 25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FRA FILIPPO LIPPI AND HIS IMMEDIATE FOLLOW KRS 5 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BENOZZO GOZZOLI 74 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OIL PAINTING IN FLORENCE. ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO — DOMENIOO 
 
 VENEZIANO — ALESSO BALDOVINBTTI — THE PESELLI .... 81 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE AND VERROCCHIO ... 87 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE FLORENTINE ARTISTS IN ROME .... 106 
 
 APPENDIX : TRANSLATIONS OF ITALIAN QUOTATIONS, AND NOTES ON 
 
 DISTEMPER, FRESCO, AND OIL 117 
 
 INDEX 121 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PoBTBAiT OF Fra Angelico. Bt Fka Anget.tco . . . Frontispiece. 
 
 The DELroE. By Uccello 7 
 
 The Expulsion fbom Paradise. By Masaccio 20 
 
 The Kesuscitation of the King's Son. By Masaccio 21 
 
 An Angel. By Fra Angelico . 30 
 
 The Adoration of the Kings. By Fra Angelico 37 
 
 S. Lawrence giving Alms. By Fra Angelico 49 
 
 The Coronation of the Virgin. By Filippo Lippi ....... 63 
 
 The Martyrdom of S. Peter. By Filippino Lippi 69 
 
 S. Peter and S. Paul before the Proconsul. By Filippino Lippi . 69 
 
 The Vision of S. Bernard. By Filippino Lippi 70 
 
 The Campo Santo, Pisa 76 
 
 Noah and his Family. By Bknozzo Gozzoli .79 
 
 The Coronation of the Virgin. By Botticelli 91 
 
 The Visitation. By Ghirlandajo 98 
 
 Bartolommeo Coleoni. By Andrea del Verrocchio 104 
 
 Part of the Last Judgment. By Signorelli Ill 
 
 Portrait of Signorelli. By Signorelli ....; 112 
 
BIBLIOGEAPHY. 
 
 LANZI, Luiar. Storia Pittorica della Italia dal Eisorgimento delle Belle 
 Arti fin presso al fine del xviii, Secolo. Firenze, 1825. 
 
 MAKCHESE, Vincenzo. Memorie del piii insigni Pittori, Scultori, e 
 Architetti Domenicani, con aggiunta di alcuni scritti intomo le Belle 
 Arti. 2 vols. Firenze, 1845—46. 
 
 CROWE, J, A., and G. B. CAYALCASELLE. A new History of Painting in 
 Italy, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century. Drawn up from Fresh 
 Materials and Recent Researches in the Archives of Italy ; as well as from 
 Personal Inspection of the Works of Art scattered throughout Europe. 
 3 vt)ls. London, 1864r— 66. 
 
 CARTIER, E. Life of Beato Angelico da Fiesole, of the Order of Friar- 
 Preachers. Translated by a Member of the same Order, from the French 
 of E. Cartier. London, 1865. 
 
 KUGLER. Handbook of Painting. The Italian Schools. Based on the 
 Handbook of Kugler. Originally edited by the late Sir Charles L. East- 
 lake, P.R.A. Fourth edition, revised and remodelled from the latest 
 researches by Lady Eastlake. London, 1874. 
 
 RUSKIN, John. Mornings in Florence. Being simple Studies of Christian 
 Art, for English Travellers. 1875. 
 
 KUNST und KUNSTLER des Mittlelalters und der Neuzeit. Fea Giovanni 
 Angfxico da Fiesole, by Eduard Dobbert ; Masaccio, Sanded Botti- 
 celli, FiLiPPiNO LiPPi, DoMENico Ghirlandajo, by Dr. Karl Woer- 
 mann ; and LuCA Signoeelli, by Dr. Robert Vischer. Leipzig, 1875—8. 
 
 MILANESI, Gaetano. Le Opere di Giorgio Vasari ; con nuove Annotazioni 
 e Commenti di Milanesi. Firenze, 1878 — 79. 
 
 BURCKHARDT, De. Jacob. The Cicerone. An Art Guide to Painting in 
 Italy. For the use of Travellers and Students. Translated from the 
 German of Dr. Jacob Burckhardt by Mrs. A. H. Clough. A new edition, 
 revised and corrected by J. A. Crowe. London, 1879. 
 
 OWEN, A. C. Art Schools of Mediaeval Christendom. Edited by J. Ruskin. 
 London, 1879. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 AS the fourteenth century will always remain an epoch 
 in the history of Art, on account of the decoration of 
 the Campo Santo, by Giotto and his pupils ; so, the dawn of 
 the fifteenth century marks yet another step in its 
 progress. 
 
 Hitherto, Pisa had been the cradle of the early genius of 
 Italy. Her extensive commerce had first introduced the 
 taste for Art into the country, and her Campo Santo, the first 
 public work of art, became the scene of competition between 
 the great painters of the age. But in the year 1406 Pisa fell 
 into the hands of the Florentines. Deprived not only of her 
 artificers, but of nearly all her citizens, it was vain to hope 
 that the arts would any longer find a home in the shattered 
 and destroyed city. They were, however, gladly welcomed in 
 Florence, whose citizens in the first flush of pride at their new 
 conquest, were eager to adorn their capital, and to make it 
 worthy of their increased dignity and power. 
 
 Cosimo de' Medici — called the father of his country — was 
 then at the head of the state ; to be succeeded by the great 
 patron of Literature and Art, Lorenzo the Magnificent. 
 The hereditary taste for the fine arts in the Medici family 
 has been the theme of all the historical annals which record 
 their reigns. 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Their palace became the Lyceum of philosophers, the Arcadia 
 of poets, and the academy of painters. The talents of Paolo 
 Uccello, Masaccio, Filippo Lippi, Benozzo Gozzoli, Sandro 
 Botticelli, and the Ghirlandaij, were developed under these 
 princely auspices ; and the painters in their turn showed a 
 grateful sense of this favour by immortalising their 
 protectors. 
 
 With the course of centuries it would almost seem as if the 
 two changed places, the patron owing his existence in the 
 memory of mankind to the painter, who, according to the 
 beautiful conception of a modern Italian poet, becomes a king. 
 
 " But not of those 
 Before whose face the trembling subjects bow. 
 
 # * * * 
 ' For in the mind's vast continent a realm 
 
 Called Painting lies — one of the favoured spots 
 Where Beauty loves to dwell. 
 
 There, hand in hand, 
 See Grace with Nature lead her ceaseless dance ; 
 There gorgeous Fantasy with Pomp displays 
 Her retinue of thought, — ideas arrayed 
 In colours bi'illiant as the rainbow's arch, 
 But more perpetual. " 
 
 And over this kingdom he rules with undisputed sway. 
 
 " The Crown which glitters on his head 
 
 The Universe unanimous bestows, 
 His sceptre's sway all living nations own ; 
 Ay, and those yet to come — 
 
 * * * # 
 Lord of the future." ^ 
 
 " Lord," indeed, "of the future," when we perceive that 
 the lapse of more than four centuries has not diminished the 
 
 ^ Canto di ^hardo Alcardi, pp. 180 — 183. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 interest in their paintings, nor dimmed the freshness of colours 
 which have been thus poetically and aptly described. 
 
 Many a long- forgotten member of the House of Medici still 
 lives on the canvas of his protege in the portraits of the 
 Eastern Kings offering gifts before the Shrine at Bethlehem. 
 Perhaps the painter may have caught the idea from the stately 
 mien of his patron in the rich garments of some newly- 
 acquired Florentine dignity ; perhaps, even it may have been 
 suggested to him that it would be well to accustom the people 
 to the sight of the regal sceptre and robes which were after- 
 wards to be associated with that proudly ambitious house. 
 
 Whatever the source, the art of painting may be said to 
 have profited by this introduction of portraiture which neces- 
 sitated a strict imitation of nature. There is no need to point 
 out how great this advantage was in cases where the acci- 
 dental beauty of the subject inspired the artist's treatment : — 
 witness, the beautiful figure of " Ginevra de' Benci," who 
 appears so often in the paintings of Ghirlandajo in the 
 choir of the Church of Santa Maria Novella. 
 
 The patronage of the Medici stimulated the good taste 
 of the citizens, not only of Florence, but also of the 
 neighbouring communities, who vied with one another in 
 adorning their cities and churches, at a time when religious 
 feeling was prominent in art. 
 
 To this spirit the cathedral in Florence was in itself a 
 striking witness : and many other churches — their walls 
 covered with pious paintings by the devout pupils of Giotto's 
 school — soon reared their heads in the city. 
 
 We might take for one example the painting formerly 
 ascribed to Simone di Martino, in the Spanish chapel of Sta. 
 Maria Novella. So "noble a piece of pictorial philosophy 
 
Xll INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and divinity," Mr. Ruskin tells us, that it took him five 
 weeks to fully appreciate one quarter of it.^ 
 
 This spirit, which in the fourteenth century more especially 
 revealed itself in paintings, found a 'still wider scope in the 
 fifteenth century in sculpture, statuary, bronze, gold, and 
 silver work. 
 
 There was a great demand for statues and bas-reliefs to 
 adorn the new Cathedral, the Baptistery, the Church of Or' 
 San' Michele, and others ; and soon Donatello, Brunelleschi, 
 Ghiberti, Filarete, Rosselli, I Pollaiuoli, and Yerrocchio pro- 
 duced their wonderful works. 
 
 From such masters as these the youth of Florence learnt the 
 first principles of their profession— principles at once broad 
 and universal, applicable to all the branches of Art. 
 
 Thus it would frequently occur that the same artificer would 
 be a sculptor, painter, a bronze-founder, a goldsmith, an 
 enamel-worker, and even an architect besides. Such was the 
 dawn of the Renaissance in Florence, the first among the 
 cities of Italy to bask in the sunshine of the golden age 
 of Art. 
 
 ^ Mornings in Florence. IV. The Vaulted Book, p. 108. 
 
PRECURSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 STEFANO FIOEENTINO, UCCELLO, AND MASOLINO. 
 
 STEFAJt^O FIOEENTINO. Born 1301. Died 1350. 
 
 ** Facesti come quel che va di notte 
 Che porta il lume dietro, e k se non giova 
 Ma dopo sh fa le persone dotte." ^ 
 
 1 Purg, xxii. 66-69. 
 
 THE servile imitation of the Greek artists was at an 
 end. Giotto and his pupils had released art from 
 the swathing-bands of infancy, yet still the untaught steps 
 tottered along the difficult road, while the hands feebly 
 groped in the dark after the hidden power which was shortly 
 to be held with so firm and enduring a grasp. 
 
 But at present the figures seemed to slide out of the 
 pictures, the buildings were not in perspective, and the art 
 of foreshortening was imperfectly understood. 
 
 Stefano Fiorentino was more alive to these difficulties than 
 capable of remedying them ; yet, in his picture of Lucifer 
 
 ^ For translations see Appendix. 
 
 P F A B 
 
2 THE PRECURSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 cast out of Heaven, he made a bold attempt to grapple with 
 them ; and his treatment of the falling angels was so great 
 an advance in. the art of foreshortening upon anything 
 hitherto attempted, that it obtained for him the nickname of 
 ^'Scimia della natura " (the Ape of Nature).^ 
 
 It was the period when the study of Nature was beginning 
 to exercise its fascinating influence upon Art, A. general 
 feeling prevailed among the artists that this class of study 
 was of more avail than the mere imitation of even a perfect 
 model. But, as might be expected at first, their studies were 
 without discrimination; new difficulties assailed them at 
 every turn which they paused to analyse and examine, and 
 in many cases the end was lost in the eager pursuit of the 
 means by which it was to be attained. 
 
 Many a lifetime was spent in the single effort to master 
 one of the various branches of art under this new and diffi- 
 cult aspect, such as perspective, light and shade, or the 
 chemistry of colours. We could have no better illustration 
 of this than the life of Paolo Uccello. 
 
 PAOLO UCCELLO. Bobn 1397. Died 1475. 
 
 Pa.olo di Dono, commonly called Uccello, was born at a 
 time when the science of perspective was the chief object 
 of research among the great masters in art. Brunelleschi 
 was about to impart its rudiments to Masaccio ; Donatello 
 was finding out its adaptation to sculpture ; and Ghiberti for 
 the first time was applying its principles to bas-relief,^ in the 
 gates of S. Giovanni. 
 
 Paolo Uccello was so fortunate as to be associated with 
 him in this immortal work. He began life as a goldsmith, 
 
 1 Vasari, Milanesi's ed. 1878-9, p. 460. ^ Yasari, note to p. 221. 
 
 i: 
 
PAOLO UCCET.LO. . 3 
 
 and in this capacity was apprentice to Ghiberti, at the time 
 when he was engaged upon the second gate of the Baptistery. 
 Paolo had learnt the rudiments of his art from the mathe- 
 matician Giovanni Manetti, and had specially devoted him- 
 self to the study of perspective with an enthusiasm which 
 led him to sacrifice much in order to obtain proficiency 
 in the coveted science. The great sculptor Donatello, his 
 intimate friend, pointed out to him that he was taking the 
 shadow for the substance. 
 
 " Eh, Paolo," he said to him, on finding him absorbed in 
 some of the most intricate problems ; " this perspective of 
 yours makes you abandon what is certain for that which is 
 uncertain." ^ 
 
 But no persuasion could induce him to give up a study 
 which was the delight of his life. It is said that he would 
 pass whole nights and days consecutively working out his 
 problems, and that to the reiterated entreaties of his wife 
 that he would take some rest, he would only reply — " Oh che 
 dolce cosa h la prospettiva " (" How delightful is perspective "). 
 His whole genius was concentrated upon this study, and we 
 can trace in his works his gradual progress towards the goal 
 which he set before him — the earlier revealing his struggles 
 to represent the foreshortened parts, and perspective lines, 
 the latter the high degree of perfection to which he after- 
 wards attained, either in his buildings and colonnades, in 
 which he conveys the idea of a vast distance in a small 
 space, or in his treatment of figures, which he foreshortens 
 with a success hitherto unknown to the pupils of Giotto. 
 Still the bas-relief treatment which he had learned when 
 an apprentice to Ghiberti always appears in his pictures. 
 He was, in truth, more of a sculptor than a painter ; nor is 
 it known from whom he learned actually to paint, though, as 
 has been already observed, the sister arts were practised at 
 the same time in the various studios of Florence.^ 
 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 205. 2 ggg Introductiou. 
 
 B 2 
 
 
4 THE PEECURSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 His first pictures were in fresco, in the Hospital of Lelmo ; ^ 
 these, with several others of his paintings, have perished. 
 The most important which remain to us are — 
 
 (1.) His battle pieces. 
 
 These were originally in the garden of the Bartolini at 
 Gualfonda, near Florence, and they contained portraits of 
 Paolo Orsini, Ottobuono da Parma, Luca da Canale, Carlo 
 Malatesta da Kimini, all famous captains of the day. One of 
 these paintings only remains in the Uffizi, another is in the 
 Louvre, the third is in the National Gallery. ^ This last one 
 is said to be the best of the set. It represents the Battle of 
 Sant' EgidiOy July 7, 1416, "in which Carlo Malatesta, Lord 
 of Rimini, and his nephew, Galeazzo, were taken prisoners 
 by Braccio di Montone. From the fragments of arms, etc., 
 strewed upon the ground, the battle has been already fought ; 
 and the incident represented appears to be an attempt at 
 rescue; which supposition is strengthened by the fact that 
 Malatesta is marching under a strange standard. Of the 
 many armed knights on horseback represented, only four 
 are engaged, but all except Malatesta and his nephew have 
 their faces concealed by their visors. The young Galeazzo, 
 not yet a knight, carries his bassinet in his hand. The figure 
 lying on the ground to the left is an illustration of the 
 painter's love of foreshortening. In the background is a 
 hedge of roses mixed with pomegranate and orange trees, 
 and some hilly ground behind." The picture is in tempera 
 on wood, 6 ft. high by 10 ft. 5 in. in width. 
 
 The details of each and all of these paintings show that 
 Uccello was already reaping the harvest of his careful studies 
 in perspective, but the labour bestowed upon them was too 
 ^ Lelmo or Lemmo, afterwards San Matteo, and, since 1784, the **Ac- 
 cademia delle Belle Arti." It was so called from its founder, Lemmo 
 Balducci, whose bust is still there, and whose coat of arms can he seen 
 outside the building in the corner between the Via della Sapienza and the 
 Via Ricasoli.— Va&ari, ed. 1878-9, note to p. 206. 
 2 No. 583. 
 
PAOLO UCCELLO. O 
 
 evident — and the perspective appears as the end and object 
 of the picture instead of a means of assisting the illusion. 
 The secret of 
 
 " L'arte che tutto fa nulla si scopre," 
 
 Paolo Uccello and many others had yet to learn. We do not 
 know the exact date of these pictures, but as the battle which 
 forms the subject of the last was fought in 1416, they must 
 have been painted subsequent to that date. 
 
 (2.) His portrait of the Englishman, Condottiere Hawk- 
 wood, in S. Maria del Fiore at Florence. 
 
 This was executed in 1436, and shows what great progress 
 Uccello had made in the interval in the art of foreshortening. 
 It was painted in terra verde — an imitation of a stone 
 sepulchre having a bracket high up on the wall drawn as if 
 seen from below — a pedestal resting on the sepulchre, on this 
 the profile of a horse carrying the " Condottiere." Both 
 horse and man were of colossal size, but for some reason or 
 other the work was not approved of by the Florentines, and 
 the archives of the Duomo record an order " to take down 
 the equestrian figure which is not properly painted by Paolo 
 Uccello, and to repaint it in terra verde.'* ^ 
 
 It is not positively known whether the Portrait of Hawk- 
 wood, still to be seen in the Cathedral at Florence, is the first 
 or second of Paolo's productions. The hostile criticism may 
 be in part ascribed to the action given by the artist to the 
 horse. He makes it rest only on one fore, and one hind leg ; 
 for a long time this made it the subject of much discussion. 
 It has since been pronounced correct and true to nature, 
 Fossombroni, in his memorandum as to the motion of animals, 
 declaring that : 
 
 " Paolo Uccello, who has been the object of such fierce 
 attack on account of his painting of the horse in the Duomo 
 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 212. 
 
6 THE PRECUESOES OF FEA ANGELICO. 
 
 at Florence, because the horse has both feet raised on the 
 right side, is as much in the right as Giovan Bologna, who 
 modelled his horse in the same manner." ^ Or we might in- 
 stance Donatello's horse of Gattamellata at Padua, which 
 has precisely the same action. It is curious that the same 
 discussion should have been revived a few years ago by the 
 action of Miss Thompson's horse in her famous picture of 
 the Roll Call, 
 
 (3.) His frescoes in S. Maria Novella. 
 
 These were perhaps the most considerable of his works, and 
 display both the result of his indefatigable studies, and his 
 natural gift for drawing animals. Yasari tells us that had 
 he spent the same labour upon the study of the figure and 
 animals from the life, as upon the problems of perspective, he 
 would have been the Bassano of his age. In the Creation 
 of Animals, the subject of the first fresco, he found ample 
 scope for the exercise of this special gift. Yasari describes 
 with enthusiasm portions of this fresco which have since 
 perished — from the lions painted to the life, as though 
 about to spring upon each other, down to the fishes and 
 birds ; these latter so admirably rendered as to give the 
 artist the nickname of "Uccello" (bird), which has ever 
 since remained by him. 
 
 The Creation of Man, the most perfect of the paintings so 
 far as preservation is concerned, the Temptation, and the 
 Expulsion, form the subjects of the adjoining frescoes. In 
 each of them the landscapes should be noticed, as Paolo was 
 the first to bestow care and attention in rendering them. 
 The Building of the Ark is supposed to be by another hand. 
 But the Deluge bears the unmistakable marks of Paolo's 
 treatment in its motion and force, the masterly drawing of 
 the figures and animals, and the expression of the different 
 affections — terror, anger, and dismay. 
 
 '• As to perspective and anatomy, sufficient is to be found 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, note to p. 212. 
 
8 THE PRECURSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 in this one fresco for tracing the exact picture of Uccello's 
 talent ; and for gaining the conviction, that he had mastered 
 the problem of retreating lines to various vanishing points on 
 a common horizon, or in the definition of circles and curves 
 at different distances, and on numerous planes. His masterly 
 foreshortening in floating corpses must have astonished the 
 men of his time." ^ 
 
 His perspective again stood him in good stead in diminish- 
 ing the distant forms. Two more scenes from the life of 
 Noah complete the set. In one of these, Noah's Sacrifice, 
 Paolo seems to have reached the climax of his ambition. 
 
 Indeed, Uccello's idea of his art, which he wished to convey 
 to posterity, would not have disgraced a later stage of the 
 Renaissance, and was summed up in five portraits which he 
 painted and always kept by him — Giotto, as a painter, the 
 luminary of art ; Filippo di Ser Brunelleschi, for architecture ; 
 Donatello, for sculpture ; Giovanni Manetti, for geometry and 
 mathematics ; and himself for perspective and animal painting. 
 
 Paolo's works out of Florence are confined to Padua and 
 Urbino. At Padua he worked at the same time as Donato, 
 and painted in the entrance of the Casa di' Vitaliani, some 
 giants in terra verde, which were highly esteemed by Andrea 
 Mantegna. At Urbino, late in life when he was about 
 seventy-two years old, he was invited to paint an altar- 
 piece by the brotherhood of Corpus Cristi, but this is no 
 longer in existence ; though it is suggested as a possibility 
 that it may exist under a different name — that of Giusto of 
 Ghent in the church of S. Agatha. 
 
 Another, among many, of the interesting works of Uccello 
 which have been lost to us, was a predella of an altar-piece 
 at S. Maria Maggiore at Florence, of which one panel was 
 painted by Masaccio. The curious paintings in the Loggia 
 de Peruzzi at Florence have also perished. They represented 
 the elements as four animals — the earth as a mole, water as 
 
 ' Crowe and Cavalcaselle's Hist, of Painting in Italy, vol. ii. p. 295. 
 
PAOLO UCCELLO. V 
 
 a fish, fire as a salamander, air as a chameleon, but never 
 having seen a chameleon, and deceived by the likeness of 
 name, he represented this latter as a camel with its mouth 
 open drinking in air.i 
 
 A rather sad anecdote closes the account of Uccello's in- 
 defatigable efforts. He was employed to paint the portrait 
 of S. Thomas, above the door of the church of S. Tommaso 
 in the Mercato Vecchio. 
 
 Paolo intended that this picture should embody the result 
 of his life-long labours, and carefully concealed it from the 
 sight of every one till it should be done. Donato inquired 
 with curiosity what was the work which he so studiously veiled 
 from all eyes. Paolo replied that he should not see it till it 
 was done, but that it would be a sight worth waiting for. 
 
 Donato was content to wait in the expectation of so great 
 a work of art, till, one day passing by chance the Mercato 
 Yecchio at a time when Paolo was at work, the painting 
 was uncovered, and the artist asked him his opinion. 
 
 Donato examined it narrowly, and then said, "Why, 
 Paolo ! now when it is the time to cover it up, you have 
 displayed it ! " 
 
 This opinion of a work which he had intended for a chef 
 d'oeuvre, so disheartened Paolo, that he had no longer nerve to 
 show himself in Florence ; and he shut himself up in his house, 
 plunging once more into his favourite problems of perspective. 
 He died in his eighty -fifth year, 1475, and was buried in the 
 church of the S. Maria Novella in the tomb of his father. ^ A 
 tardy justice was rendered to his talents in many epigrams 
 and couplets, of which the following is one . — 
 
 *' Zeusi et Parrasio ceda et Polignoto, 
 Ch'io fei I'arte una tacita natura 
 Diei affetto et forza a ogni mia figura, 
 Vola agli uccelli, a' pesci il corso e'l noto." 
 
 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 21. = Ibid, p. 217. 
 
10 THE PEECURSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 Paolo TJccello's Works. 
 
 His genuine works are not to be found in the public 
 galleries,^ with the exception of three out of four of the 
 battle-pieces painted originally in the Bartolini Gardens, and 
 
 (1.) In the Fffizi at Florence. (No. 29, 1st Corridor.) 
 (2.) In the Ex-Campana Collection of the Louvre. 
 (3.) In the National Gallery. (No. 583.) 
 
 The Equestrian Portrait of Hawkwood in the Duomo at 
 Florence. 
 
 The Frescoes in the Cloisters of S. Maria Novella. 
 The Giants in the Casa dei Vitaliani at Padua. 
 
 MASOLINO DA PANICALE. Born 1382. Died 1447. 
 
 We select Masolino da Panicale as the next instance 
 among the Florentine artists who mark the transition from 
 the old to the new manner. 
 
 The son of Cristoforo di Fino "an imbiancatore," he, 
 Tommaso, was born at Panicale di Val d'Elsa, whence his 
 nam© is derived. Like so many of the Florentine artists he 
 was, as a child, trained as a goldsmith ; at the age of eighteen 
 he learned painting under Gherardo della Stamina. Yasari 
 tells us that he afterwards studied in Home, and that while 
 there he decorated the hall of the Casa Orsino Yecchia in Monte 
 Giordano, but there seems to be a doubt, which can never now 
 be solved (as the frescoes have long ago perished), whether they 
 are to be ascribe'd to Masolino or to Giottino.^ Altogether 
 
 1 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii. p. 299. 
 
 2 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, vol. iii. p. 264. 
 
MASOLINO DA PANICALE. 11 
 
 the early records of Masolino's works have to be received 
 with caution, owing to the confusion which not unnaturally 
 arose between two painters of nearly the same name and 
 date — " Masolino " and " Masaccio," both being corruptions 
 of the Christian name " Tommaso." 
 
 To make the matter still more complicated, a third painter 
 of less distinction, but still with the same nickname, 
 "Maso" (son of Cristoforo Braccia), existed at the same 
 time, and worked under the great Ghiberti at the gates of 
 S. Giovanni. This is proved by records extant, and as 
 Masolino's style would barely support the theory of his 
 having been the pupil of the great sculptor, it is possible that 
 Yasari may have been misled by the similarity of names in 
 his statement to that effect.^ 
 
 But turning away from these doubts and uncertainties, 
 recent discoveries have revealed to us some of Masolino's 
 undeniable work signed with his name. 
 
 The Frescoes of Castiglione di Olona. 
 
 The Church of Castiglione di Olona, in the province of- 
 Como, between Tradate and Yarese, was built upon the site 
 of an ancient castle by Cardinal Branda di Castiglione in 
 1422. It was dedicated to Our Lady of the Kosary, and SS. 
 Lawrence and Stephen ; and Masolino da Panicale was chosen 
 by the Cardinal to decorate his new church with frescoes. 
 These he completed in 142S. For years they have been 
 concealed by whitewash, and were only rescued in the year 
 1843 by the exertions of the "Abate" Malvezzi, who had 
 further the intention of publishing a series of lithographs of 
 the long-concealed treasure, but receiving no support, was 
 obliged to abandon his intention. The subjects of the frescoes 
 are representations of incidents taken from the lives of the 
 Virgin, and the saints to whom the church is dedicated. 
 
 In the vault above the altar are the scenes from the life 
 ^ Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. i. p. 513. 
 
12 THE PRECURSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 of the Blessed Yirgin, the Annunciation, the Marriage with 
 S. Joseph, the Nativity of Christ, the Adoration of tJie Magi, 
 the Assumption and Coronation of tlie Virgin. Of these two 
 last but little remains. The historical interest of these 
 frescoes centres in that of the Nativity, in which the founder 
 of the church, Cardinal Branda, appears as one of the kneel- 
 ing figures, and in a scroll to the right is the inscription, 
 " Masolinus de Florentia Pinxit." Scenes from the life of 
 S. Lawrence and S. Stephen are represented on the walls of 
 the choir, which is of an octangular form. They are in two 
 different groups, the acts of S. Lawrence on the one side, and 
 those of S. Stephen on the other. The exact date is un- 
 happily lacking, though one may form a guess at it, from a 
 bas-relief in the lunette above the architrave of the entrance 
 door of the church, of the same period, but by another hand. 
 This bas-relief, of considerable merit, represents the Virgin 
 enthroned, with the Infant Saviour in the act of blessing 
 Cardinal Branda, who kneels on the left-hand side, supported 
 by S. Lawrence and one of the popes; on the opposite side are 
 SS. Ambrose and Stephen, and by the latter of these two 
 saints the date 1428 is engraved on the marble — the same 
 date runs round the upper and lower cornice of the architrave, 
 where are the figures of the four Evangelists, and these bear- 
 ing the date 1435 we are led to suppose that the decoration 
 of the church and baptistery occupied about seven years. 
 
 The frescoes in the Baptistery represent scenes from the 
 life of S. John the Baptist : 
 
 "The Baptistery is built in the form of a parallelogram 
 with a tribune of the same shape, but smaller dimensions, 
 attached to it. Moving to the right as he enters the 
 Baptistery, the spectator will notice, on the entrance wall, 
 traces of figures in a temple. On the next niche is the 
 daughter of Herodias before Herod with the usual attendant 
 episodes ; by the side of the arch leading into the tribune, 
 the execution of S. John. The rest of the Baptistery is 
 
MASOLINO DA PANIC ALE. 13 
 
 denuded of fresco except in that part which faces the dance 
 of the daughter of Herodias, where Zacharias may be seen 
 writing the name of his new-born son. In the vaulting of 
 the arch leading into the tribune are six saints, and in the 
 key-stone, the date of 1435 painted of a smoke-colour, and 
 apparently modern. In the tribune, S. John, on the wall 
 to the left, preaches to a multitude ; in the lunette and 
 sides of the end wall, he baptizes the Saviour, and is brought 
 before Herod, whilst on the face to the right, he appears in 
 prison. The ceiling of the Baptistery, divided as usual by 
 diagonals, contains the four evangelists, that of the tribune 
 the Saviour in a glory of angels." ^ 
 
 In this series of frescoes, the figures of the four evangelists 
 are the best preserved, and in the least changed portions we 
 can trace a careful and delicate handling, an excellent method 
 of colouring, both in the heads and the flesh tints. The 
 colours in the drapery have been absorbed by the damp, the 
 distemper employed being less tenacious than that used for 
 the flesh tints.^ 
 
 These undoubted works of Masolino da Panicale have given 
 rise to much discussion, whether those ascribed to him in the 
 Brancacci Chapel are his genuine work. It is argued that 
 the style of the work is totally different.; and we are told 
 that Masolino began them, and died before they were finished, 
 leaving Masaccio to complete the work. Now Masaccio 
 died in 1428, so Masolino survived him many years. Again, 
 documents still extant record that shortly after Masolino 
 had been admitted into the Guild of the Speziali, 1423, 
 he entered the service of Filippo Scolari, Ohergespann of 
 Temeswar, commonly called Pippo Spano. Spano is, perhaps, 
 
 ^ Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. i. p. 503. 
 
 * The account of these frescoes, and sketches taken from them, were 
 supplied to Milanesi for his new edition of Vasari by several artists and 
 amateurs of the fine arts who visited them for that purpose. — Vasari, note 
 to p. 272. 
 
14 THE PRECURSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 a corruption of Ohergespann} " Pippo Spano" was a 
 Ghibelline by birth, and, on that account, an exile from 
 Florence. He served the King of Hungary, first as a 
 captain, and afterwards as a statesman, when he was made 
 Obergespann of Temesvar. His wealth, of which fabulous 
 accounts are given, was employed in building churches, and 
 then sending to his native country for artists to decorate 
 them. Among these artists was Masolino ; to whom, accord- 
 ing to the inscription just cited, the heirs of " Pippo " owed 
 a sum of 360 florins. This was in the year 1427. 
 
 In 1428 he painted the Castiglione frescoes. There is no 
 record of his return to Florence, so if he had any share in the 
 frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel, it must have been previous 
 to his work at Castiglione. 
 
 This is admitted as just possible, and, while the latest 
 commentators on Vasari^ recognise the force of these 
 arguments, they do not consider them sufficiently con- 
 vincing to withdraw from Masolino the paintings hitherto 
 assigned to him in their apportionment of the frescoes among 
 the three artists.^ 
 
 But the common theory, that Masolino was prevented 
 from finishing his work by death, is obviously incorrect : 
 the Castiglione frescoes were executed subsequent to those 
 attributed to Masolino in the Brancacci Chapel. 
 
 As Paolo XJccello became the slave of perspective, so 
 Masolino gave himself up in turn to the study of the detail 
 of form to the sacrifice of composition, in his eagerness to 
 depict nature as he saw it. He is said by some to have 
 been a great master of chiaroscuro. 
 
 As to his colouring, the damaged state of his frescoes 
 ^ Hungarian title, signifying a Supreme Count. 
 2 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, vol. ii. pp. 265-273. 
 
 ^ Viz. , the Preachmg of S. Peter, the Healing of the Lame Man at tJie 
 Beautiful Gate hy SS. Peter and Paul, and the Resuscitation of PetrO' 
 nilla (Tabitha). It has also been called the Raising of Jairus^ Daughter, 
 Adam and Eve beneath the Tree of Knowledge,— Ihid. p. 324. 
 
MASOLINO DA PANICALE. 15 
 
 would make it difficult to give an opinion, but the system 
 employed was the distemper ("a tempera''), which, until the 
 invention of oils, was a general practice of the Italian artists. 
 The colours were first moistened with water, and afterwards 
 thickened into consistency by some glutinous mixtures, white 
 of egg or the juice of the young shoots of the fir-tree. Fra 
 Angelico's numerous specimens convey the best idea of this 
 method of colouring. The same mechanism was used in the 
 miniature painting on vellum. In fresco painting the colours 
 were laid on while the plaster, spread over the surface to be 
 painted, was fresh and wet ; they afterwards sank into 
 the surface, became incorporated with it, and became as 
 durable as the substance which received them. 
 
 No one knows the origin of the invention, but it dates as 
 far back as the Egyptians, from whom it was borrowed by 
 the Greeks. The paintings of Polygnotus at Delphi are said 
 to have been in fresco, and the mechanism of the art, which 
 required great dexterity and quickness of hand, is said to 
 have been better understood then than ever afterwards, even 
 in the time of Raphael. 
 
 Besides the frescoes of Castiglione, a few other vestiges of 
 Masolino's painting still remain in Lombardy ; but there is 
 so great an uncertainty about them that they cannot be cited 
 as his genuine works. It is supposed that Paolo Schiavo 
 was one of Masolino's pupils, and that he did credit to his 
 master's teaching in the foreshortening and colouring of his 
 figures. But of this the painting of the Madonna between 
 two Saints on the wall of the Canto de' Nelli at Florence is 
 produced as a solitary example.. 
 
-CHAPTER II. 
 MASACCIO. Born 1401. Died 1428. 
 
 ** Pinsi, e la mia pittura al ver fupari ; 
 L'atteggai, I'avvivai, le diedi il moto, 
 Le diedi affetto — Insegni il Bonarroto 
 A tutti gli altri, e da me solo impaii." 
 
 MASACCIO was the son of a notary, Ser Giovanni 
 di Simone Guidi, of Castello San Giovanni in the 
 Val d'Arno. 
 
 He was born on St. Thomas's Day, 1401. Hence his 
 Christian name of " Tommaso," of which the corruption 
 "Maso" had shortly the derogatory termination "accio" 
 affixed to it, on account of the boy's slovenly and disorderly 
 habits. It has ever since remained by the painter, and only 
 under this name are his illustrious works known to the 
 world. 
 
 From his early youth he showed an extraordinary natural 
 ability. This, when developed by continual study and the 
 training of such masters as Ghiberti, Donatello, and Brunel- 
 leschi, enabled Masaccio to reach a summit of excellence 
 hitherto unattained by the Florentine artists. 
 
 He was among the first to introduce freedom and ease into 
 art, facing the difficulties with confidence, and overcoming 
 t hem without betraying the effort which his victory had cost 
 
MASAGCIO. 17 
 
 him. We might take as an instance the practice, which, with 
 some few exceptions, generally prevailed, of representing the 
 figure poised on the points of the toes, to avoid the fore- 
 shortening of the feet. Masaccio despised this awkward 
 subterfuge, and succeeded in foreshortening the foot in such 
 a manner that the old ungraceful practice was, after his time, 
 never resorted to again. 
 
 If his drawing was admirable, his colouring was equal 
 to it, being famous for that almost untranslatable Italian 
 word " morbidezza " ; which combines the expression of 
 softness, flexibility, and texture in the rendering of the 
 flesh tints. 
 
 It is not clear, owing to the confusion, already alluded to 
 in the chapter on Masolino, between the names and dates 
 of the two painters, whether Masaccio learnt of Masolino. 
 The recent discoveries throw great doubt upon this point, 
 representing that — as Masolino entered the Guild of the 
 Speziali in 1423, and Masaccio in 1421 — Masaccio must have 
 entered it two years before his master ! In 1424 we find the 
 record of his being enrolled in the Guild of Painters. He 
 worked in Pisa, and in Florence, before going to Rome, but 
 these works have perished. 
 
 At Rome he acquired a great reputation in his decoration 
 of one of the chapels in the Church of S. Clemente, with 
 frescoes representing the Passion of our Saviour, and scenes 
 from the Life of S. Catherine. These early works, though full 
 of the promise of his early genius, are not to be compared to 
 his later productions. 
 
 The Crucifixion is represented on the wall facing the 
 entrance. One of the groups in the foreground, of the Virgin 
 in a swoon supported by the three Maries, was afterwards 
 copied by Perugino. The Legend of S. Catherine occupies the 
 wall to the left of this series ; the finest composition and the 
 best preserved is that which represents the Defeat of the 
 Doctors before Maxentius. 
 
 p p A G 
 
 ^fc 
 
18 THE PEECURSOES OF TEA ANGELICO. 
 
 " S. Catherine, standing in the centre of a hall, at whose 
 sides eight doctors are seated, propounds and enforces her 
 arguments by the action of one hand on the other. Her rea- 
 soning seems chiefly directed to one on the foreseat to the left, 
 who looks up, whilst his arms are crossed on a book resting 
 on his knee. Maxentius sits on a throne at the bottom of the 
 room in an attitude of majestic repose, and his face is affected 
 by surprise."^ 
 
 There were several other pictures executed by Masaccio at 
 Rome ; one of these, the Portraits of the Pope Martin V. and 
 the Emperor Sigismund, suggests the date of his sojourn 
 there, which coincides with that of the re-appearance of the 
 Plague at Florence (1417). 
 
 In 1420, the return from exile of the Medici, who had 
 always been his friends and patrons, enticed him back to 
 Florence. Yasari tell us that Cosimo, il Yecchio, was then ih 
 T^ower, but the date will not support the theory ; and it was 
 more probably Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici, whose portrait 
 was twice painted by Masaccio ; once as a figure in a proces- 
 sion, and again in a picture which once existed in the Casa 
 Simon Corsi. 
 
 Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici is known in the history of 
 Florence as the inventor of the Income Tax Schedule, which 
 supplied not only himself but posterity with information as 
 to the lives and estates of his subjects. 
 
 By these means we know that Masaccio was very poor, that 
 he lived with his mother and brother Giovanni, also a painter 
 (but far inferior to Masaccio), in a house in the quarter 
 S. Croce, and that Tommaso kept a shop near the old Badia, 
 that he had many debts, and was obliged to place some of his 
 property in pawn. Happily for posterity this struggling 
 existence did not cramp his powers nor fetter his genius. 
 
 His frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel of the church of the 
 Carmine in Florence, while they were the wonder of his own 
 1 See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. i. p. 522. 
 
MASACCIO. 19 
 
 time, have ever since formed as marked an era in the history 
 of painting as Ghiberti's gates in the history of sculpture. 
 
 Before beginning upon this task, he gave, as a sample of his 
 powers, the San Paolo in the bell-room, but this painting, 
 which Yasari tells us was so noble a figure that it lacked 
 only the power of speech, has since perished. It was drawn 
 from the life, and was the portrait of the Gonf aloniere Bartolo 
 d' Angiolino Angiolini.^ 
 
 It was one of the first and most successful examples of 
 Masaccio's triumph over the difficulty of foreshortening the 
 feet. 
 
 While he was engaged upon this first example, the church 
 of the Carmine was consecrated, and Masaccio was interrupted 
 in his work to commemorate the event in a fresco. Masaccio 
 represented the procession in terra verde above the door of 
 the convent, exactly as it issued from the cloisters on that 
 occasion. Among the groups of citizens who followed in its 
 wake, poi-traits are introduced of Brunelleschi, Donatello, 
 Masolino, Felice Brancacci^ (the founder of the chapel), Gio- 
 vanni di Bicci de' Medici, and others, including the porter of 
 the convent with the key of the door in his hand. 
 
 This work was considered a feat, because of the accuracy 
 of the perspective of the procession, the diminishing propor- 
 tions of the figures, and the care with which he represented 
 their different statures.^ 
 
 After the completion of this fresco, Masaccio returned to 
 work at the Brancacci Chapel. The chapel is in the form of 
 
 1 Bartoli d' Angiolino Angiolini — del quartiere Santo Spirito— was born 
 in 1373, and held many offices under the republic between the years 1406 
 and 1432. 
 
 2 The disputed point, as to which of the Brancacci was the founder of 
 the chapel, has been set at rest by the discovery of the will of Felice 
 Brancacci. See Vasari, ed. 1878, note to p. 296. 
 
 3 This fresco has also perished, although the original design is said to be 
 still extant in private hands. See Lanzi, Storia pittoriea della Italia, 
 vol. i. p. 50. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 THE PRECURSOES OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 a parallelogram, and three out of the four sides are covered 
 
 with frescoes divided into twelve compartments, of which 
 
 four are large and oblong, and 
 the rest narrow and upright. 
 The two frescoes immediately 
 on each side as you enter 
 represent — the one, Adcmi and 
 Eve in Paradise, the other, their 
 Expulsion from it. The rest of 
 the paintings represent scenes 
 from the Life of S. Peter, and 
 the two exceptions are said 
 to have been chosen with 
 design, because of the legend 
 that S. Peter was keeper of 
 the gates of Paradise. 
 
 It is perhaps no wonder that 
 these frescoes, forming so im- 
 portant a feature in the pro- 
 gress of art, should have been 
 the subject of prolonged and 
 eager discussion, as to the exact 
 share which may be attributed 
 to each of the painters who 
 were engaged upon them. 
 
 The learned commentator on 
 the latest edition of Yasari 
 gives us the result of his 
 
 careful sifting of the question to this effect, in assigning 
 
 the following to Masaccio : — 
 
 (1) The Expulsion from Paradise. 
 
 (2) The Tribute Money. 
 
 (3) The Resuscitation of the King's Son (begun by Masaccio 
 and finished by Filippino Lippi). 
 
 (i) S. Pettr ''inCathedrd." 
 
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 By Masaccio. 
 
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MASACCIO. 21 
 
 (5) The Infirm healed by the Shadow of SS. Peter cmd John. 
 
 (6) S. Peter baptizing. 
 
 (7) aS'. Peter distributing Alms to the Poor.^ 
 
 Among the most notable of the series illustrating the life 
 of S. Peter is — 
 
 (1) The fresco representing S. Peter taking the Tribute 
 Money out of the Mouth of the Fish.^ A wonderful truth- 
 fulness is given in the treatment of S. Peter, whose face 
 is dark from stooping over the fish. The surrounding 
 apostles appear as if alive ; the one on the extreme right 
 of the central group is known to be the portrait of Ma- 
 saccio himself, done from a looking-glass. It resembles 
 in form and feature the portrait of Masaccio given by Yasari, 
 while the compact, well-knit frame and square head are 
 suggestive of the young painter in all the power and strength 
 he exhibits in his works. For the first time the effect of life 
 is produced in the figures, which are raised from the flat 
 surface by modelling the forms. 
 
 (2) The fresco of the Resuscitation of the King's Son in 
 which this art is carried to a still greater perfection. The 
 subject of this fresco is by some supposed to be Eutychus,^ 
 by others the apocryphal story of the challenge of Simon the 
 Magician to the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul to restore to life 
 a youth, who had been dead fourteen years, the kinsman of 
 the Poman emperor. 
 
 The boy is represented in the picture kneeling before the 
 apostles ; by his side are the skull and bones to indicate his 
 former state of death. A large crowd stand round beholding 
 the miracle, and among the figures are contemporary portraits 
 of Guicciardini, Luigi Pulci, Antonio Pollaiuolo, and others. 
 The central group was afterwards finished by Filippino. 
 
 (3) S. Peter baptizing. — ^Among the figures in this fresco, 
 ^ As to the distribution of the remainder of the frescoes, see lAves of 
 
 Masolino and Filippino Lippi. 
 2 See S. Matthew xvii. 24—27. ' See Acts xx. 9. 
 
22 THE PEECURSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 that of the trembling proselyte, who appears actually to 
 shake from cold as he stands on the brink of the water, has 
 obtained a world-wide celebrity. Lanzi tells us that it formed 
 an epoch in the history of art,^ and was the centre of attrac- 
 tion to all who both at the time and afterwards studied these 
 frescoes. Among these we might enumerate Filippino Lippi, 
 who finished them, Yerrocchio, Ghirlandajo, Sandro Botticelli, 
 Perugino. Later on Michelangelo did not disdain to learn 
 there the principles of the art which he carried to perfection. 
 Raphael borrowed from them, and indeed found little to alter 
 in Masaccio's treatment of the Expulsion from Paradise, when 
 he painted the same subject in the Loggie at the Vatican. 
 
 Besides the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel, Masaccio exe- 
 cuted a work in S. Maria Novella, which was only dis- 
 covered in 1857, having been hitherto concealed by a large 
 picture by Yasari. This recent discovery, the undoubted 
 work of Masaccio, has, by comparing it with the frescoes of 
 the Brancacci Chapel, helped to determine which are 
 Masaccio's productions. In itself it is a painting of great in- 
 terest, showing how far Masaccio was guided by the Giotto type 
 before he abandoned traditionary art for the study of nature. 
 It has been truly said of him that with one hand he grasped 
 Giotto, while the other was stretched out to Eaphael. An early 
 example of his style was the group of S. Anna the Virgin 
 and Infant Saviour, originally painted for the Church of 
 S; Ambrogio, and now in the Accademia delle Belle Arti in 
 Florence.^ There are also two pictures by him in the Uffizi 
 Gallery, one supposed to be his own portrait (No. 286) ; the 
 other, not so certainly known to be by Masaccio, represents 
 a man the size of life (No. 1167). 
 
 Had Masaccio lived, he might have attained to still greater 
 heights of fame ; but his death was premature and sudden — 
 some, indeed, ascribe it to poison ; such was the jealousy of his 
 
 ^ Lanzi, Storia Pittorica della Italia, vol. L p. 50. 
 2 See Yasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 200. 
 
MASACCIO. 23 
 
 extraordinary talent. All we know is, that when the next 
 return was issued by the office of the Catasto, on Masaccio's tax 
 paper appeared the vague words, " Dicesi e morta in Roma." 
 
 Masaccio's method of drawing was, we are told, excessively 
 rapid ; he chiefly directed his attention to representing the 
 figures in action, neglecting the smaller details, which did not 
 immediately tend to produce this effect. In his early studies 
 of modelling, he learnt from Ghiberti and Donatello, not 
 merely the knowledge of form, but the effects of light and 
 shade, in giving roundness to his figures ; to this he added an 
 accuracy of drawing, a softness and harmony in colouring the 
 flesh, which had never been reached before. His habit of 
 painting from life (and it will be remembered how many 
 portraits he introduced into his work) gave animation and 
 character to each individual head, so that it was said of him 
 that he painted not only the body but the soul. 
 
 " Fu molto sempliceneir paneggiare," the Italian biographer 
 tells us ; and it is a relief to turn from the stiff longitudinal 
 folds of the Giotto school to the grand and simple treatment 
 of drapery by Masaccio. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds sums up his description in a few brief 
 words : " He appeared to be the first who discovered the path 
 that leads to every excellence to which the art afterwards 
 arrived ; and may therefore be justly considered one of the 
 great fathers of modern art." ^ 
 
 List op Paintings by Masaccio. 
 
 1. The frescoes in the Church of S. Clemente at Rome. 
 
 2. The frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in the Church of 
 the Carmine at Florence, as enumerated on page 20. 
 
 3. The Virgin and Child, in the Accademia delle Belle Arti 
 (No 36). 
 
 ^ Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourse XII. 
 
24 THE PRECURSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 The other works by Masaccio, noticed by Vasari, no longer 
 exist. ^ 
 
 Christ casting out a Devil; once in the house of Eidolfo 
 Ghirlandajo. 
 
 S. Ivo of Britain J once on a pilaster in the Badia, Florence. 
 
 The Nativity f between SS. Catherine and Julia, with Scenes 
 from the Lives of these Saints ; in the predella, formerly in 
 S. Maria Maggiore, Florence. 
 
 The pictures in the Carmine at Pisa. 
 
 Pictures ascribed to Masaccio, but not supposed to be 
 genuine — 
 
 A life-size Virgin enthroned with the Infant Saviour ; in 
 the Chapel to the right of the choir in the Church of 
 S. Giovanni. 
 
 A Portrait of a Member of the Pam,ichi Family ; exhibited 
 under Masaccio's name in the Gallery of Modena. 
 
 The Portrait called that of Masaccio, by himself, in the 
 National Gallery ; by some assigned to Botticelli, by others to 
 Filippino. 
 
 To the same class belong two portraits exhibited in the 
 Manchester Exhibition (Nos. 66 and 67). 
 
 A head and two profiles at the Oxford University. 
 
 A S. Lawrence and an Adoration of the Magi, in the 
 "Liverpool Gallery. ^ 
 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, pp. 290-292. 
 
 2 See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. i. pp. 548, 649. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 FRA ANGELICO. Born 1387. Died 1455. 
 
 ** Ed in quel mezzo con le penne sparte 
 Vidi pill di mille angeli festanti, 
 Ciascun distinto di fulgore e d' arte 
 Vidi quivi a' lor giuochi ed a' lor canti 
 Eidere una belleza, che letizia 
 Era negli oechi a tutti gli altri santi." 
 
 Paradiso, canto xxxi. line 131 e seg. 
 
 THE paintings of Masaccio have always been regarded as 
 powerful illustrations of what is termed realistic art, 
 because they were the first and nearly perfect results of the 
 study of the human form, foreshortening, perspective, and all 
 the science of art, the triumph of the great masters of the 
 Renaissance. 
 
 Those of Fra Angelico have been chosen, on the other hand, 
 as the last and best examples of the opposite school — the 
 school of symbolic religious art. 
 
 In his treatment of sacred subjects — and no others were 
 ever expressed by his pencil — he exhibits the devout re- 
 ligious feeling which he shared with Giotto and his pupils, 
 and which gives to the work of these early Italian artists an 
 enduring charm. 
 
 It is this special character, to use an artist's term, which 
 enables them still to hold their place in art, in spite of their 
 deficiencies in execution, nor can mere technical excellence 
 
26 
 
 FRA ANGELICO 
 
 1/ 
 
 ever make up for its absence. With Era Angelico it was 
 the single aim of his life to give expression to this feeling in 
 painting. 
 
 He was born, in 1387, at Yicchio, one of the fortified 
 villages which crowned the summit of the Apennines, in the 
 province of Mugello. Yicchio was but little removed from 
 Yespignano, the birth-place of Giotto rather more than a 
 century before. 
 
 We do not know much of his early years, except that his 
 father's Christian name was Pietro (the surname remains un- 
 known) ; that he was called Guido, or Guidolino, and that he 
 had a brother two years younger than himself, afterwards 
 called Fra Benedetto. 
 
 It is supposed that Fra Angelico must have made his first 
 essay in art, in miniature painting and illumination, with 
 which it was the custom among the different orders to 
 embellish their monastic missals. 
 
 Some of the biographers afiirm that Gherardo Stamina, the 
 most brilliant colourist of the age, was his master ; but this 
 assertion is founded, not so much on fact, as upon a 
 similarity of style between the two painters ; others, on the 
 contrary, declare that he was a pupil of Giottino. 
 
 We only know that at the age of twenty his gift for paint- 
 ing was fully recognised, and that he might easily have 
 earned from it, as a layman, a competent livelihood.^ 
 
 But he preferred to devote his life to the immediate service 
 of God, and, in the prime of his youth and strength, he joined 
 the Dominican Order. The chronicle of S. Domenico of Fiesole 
 records the event in these terms : — 
 
 " 1407. Brother Joannes Petri de Mugello of Yicchio, who 
 excelled as a painter, and adorned many tables and walls in 
 divers places, accepts the habit of a clerk in this convent 
 .... and in the following year professed." 
 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, vol ii. p. 505. 
 
AT FOLIGNO AND CORTONA. .27 
 
 He entered upon this new life under the name of Fra 
 Giovanni ; that of Beato or Angelico was afterwards conferred 
 upon him by universal consent on account of his blameless 
 life and the inspired beauty of his paintings. 
 
 The Order of S. Dominic had already contributed some of 
 the great art treasures of the world. In architecture they 
 gave to Florence the Church of S. Maria Novella, "sposa," 
 as it was fondly called by Michelangelo in the fervour of his 
 admiration. Not only was this church planned by the Domi- 
 nican architects, Fra Sisto and Fra Ristoro, but their designs 
 were executed by carpenters and masons also furnished by 
 the convent. In sculpture, a Dominican, Fra Guglielmo 
 Agnelli, had been employed by Niccol^ Pisano to assist in 
 the basreliefs of the famous tomb of S. Dominic. It re- 
 mained for Fra Angelico — for by that name he is best known 
 to the world — to prove by his numerous and beautiful paint- 
 ings that his order might claim another distinction from that 
 branch of the art. ^ , 
 
 From the time that he entered the Order of S. Dominic | 
 the life of Fra Angelico may be divided into several very , 
 distinct periods : 
 
 (1) His residence at Foligno and Cortona. i 
 
 (2) His return to Fiesole ; and his work at Florence. ! 
 
 (3) His work at Rome in the Vatican Chapel under Pope \ 
 Nicholas Y. 
 
 His Residence at Foligno and Cortona. 
 
 In 1409, the year after Fra Angelico and his brother had 
 entered the convent at Fiesole, the affairs of the Church, 
 already sufficiently troubled by two rival pontiffs, were 
 still further complicated by the election of a third, Alex- 
 ander v., by the Council of Pisa. The Archbishop of Florence 
 declared for the new pope and persecuted the brotherhood of 
 
^'28 FRA ANGELICO 
 
 C , ^ 
 
 ^ I S. Dominic for maintaining their allegiance to Gregory XII., 
 at Fiesole, till they were forced to abandon their convent 
 and take refuge at Foligno, in Umbria.^ 
 
 Fra Angelico was^thus by an accident remo ved from the in- 
 fluence of the Florentine school just as it was entering upon 
 a new phase of development, in which devotion and religious 
 feeling were no longer to be the first objects, but were to be 
 supplanted by the eager desire for perfection of form. 
 i^ This accidental change of abode no doubt preserved for him, 
 ! intact, the devotional feeling of his pictures ; more especially as 
 this must have been still further deepened and strengthened 
 by the influence of the Umbria^ school, as exemplified in the 
 ; works of Giotto and his pupils, which surrounded him when 
 ^ at Foligno. / If the tomb of S. Dominic, by Niccolb Pisano, 
 had already exercised its influence upon Florentine aii:, the 
 resting-place of S. Francis at Assisi, when adorned by Giotto, 
 was another witness to that spirit of wisdom and love com- 
 bined which should guide the treatment of sacred subjects. 
 It was as if the two great saints — of whom 
 
 " L' un fu tutto serafico in ardore, 
 L' altro per sapienza in terra fiie 
 Di cherubica luce uno splendore." 
 
 Par. xi. 37-40— 
 
 had influence even from their graves to inspire the hand of 
 the artist. 
 
 The lessons of the Umbrian school were supplemented by 
 the study of the old paintings of Siena, whence Fra Angelico 
 may have acquired that pure and perfect type which is never 
 absent from his Madonnas. Some technical peculiarities in 
 colouring would suggest the same influence.^! 
 ^ ^he brotherhood remained at Foligno till 1413, when, 
 driven thence by the plague, they removed to the convent 
 of Cortona. 
 
 ^ Marchess, vol. i. doc. v. p. 397. 
 
AT CORTONA. 29 
 
 There appear to be no works extant of Fra Angelico 
 bearing the exact date of his residence at Foligno, but it is 
 probable that the picture executed in the C hape l of S. Niccole 
 dei Guidalotti for the Church of S. Domenico at Perugia 
 belongs to this period. Originally oblong, divided into three 
 compartments, in the form of a triptych with a gradino, it 
 represents on a gold ground the Blessed Virgin and Child; on 
 either side of the throne are angels carrying baskets of 
 flowers. In the two compartments which serve as shutters 
 for this picture the artist has painted S. John the Baptist, S. 
 Catherine^ S. Dominic, and S. Nicholas. The gradino is also 
 divided into three compartments, representing the Legend of 
 S. Nicholas} 
 
 Although Fra Angelico, unlike most painters, scarcely 
 changed his manner all through his career, this pictureiis 
 placed in the category of his earlier works, because, in the ar- 
 rangement of the figures and in the treatment of the drapery, 
 it shows the unmistakable influence of the specimens of 
 Giotto's school, with which he was at that time immediately 
 surrounded. The same manner prevails in his paintings at 
 Cortona, which are very numerous. 
 
 In the interior of the Church of S. Domenico, on the right 
 of the high altar, is a picture representing the Virgin En- 
 throned, holding the Infant Saviour on her knee, between 
 SS. John the Baptist and the Evangelist on the right, and 
 SS. Mary Magdalene and Mark on the left. 
 
 The representation of the Virgin is one of the most beauti- 
 ful ever executed by Fra Angelico. The Infant Saviour, 
 standing on her knees, is covered in the lower part with a red 
 drapery, and holds a rose in His hand ; His face turned 
 towards His Mother with a beautiful smile. The gradino, or 
 pedestal, of this picture, ornamented with scenes from the 
 
 1 The first two of these are at Rome, in the Museum of the Vatican ; 
 the third remains at Perugia, in the sacristy of the Convent of S. 
 Domenico. Marchese, vol. i. note to p. 215. 
 
30 FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 life of S. Dominic,^ has been removed to the Chiesa del Gesii, 
 where it now is. 
 
 The same church contains another altar-piece represent- 
 ^ ing the Annunciation. The Virgin is seated on a throne, her 
 arms crossed on her breast ; she bends her head to receive the 
 tidings brought by the Angel Gabriel with golden hair and 
 wings dazzling in their gold and varied colours. Both texts, 
 the words of the angel and the Virgin's answer, are inscribed 
 on the field of the picture, a remnant of the customs of the 
 earlier Italian school.^ 
 
 The subject of the Annunciation was always a favourite 
 theme with Fra Angelico. We find it treated again in the 
 churches of S. Maria Novella, and in the convent of S. Marco 
 l^t Florence. That of S. Marco is considered the noblest, and 
 ' may be taken as the type of all others. In the treatment of 
 both figures Fra Angelico surpassed himself. The Virgin, re- 
 presenting the ideal of all that is pure and holy, is seated 
 with the arms crossed on the breast, the garments, the con- 
 ventional red with the blue mantle ; her countenance ex- 
 - pressive of holy repose; the fair hair falls loose on the 
 shoulders. The figure of the angel is of marvellous beauty. 
 Bending on one linee before her, the arms crossed, he seems 
 to await with a smile of ineffable joy the reception of his 
 / tidings. From Dante, Fra AngeHco must have borrowed the 
 
 1 In six compartments: — 1. In two parts, the Dream of Pope Inno- 
 cent III., who sees in his sleep S. Dominic supporting the tottering church. 
 The Embrace of SS. Dominic and Francis, symbolic of the conquest of the 
 world by science and love. 2. S. Dominic in ecstasy before the Altar — 
 the Apostles SS. Peter and Paul appear to him. 3. Dispute of S. Dominic 
 vnth the Albigenses. 4. T\iQ Holy Patriarch raises to life the young Napoleon, 
 nephew of Cardinal Stefano di Fossa-Nova. 5. S. Dominic and his Brothers 
 receive from the Angels a Miraculom Repast of Bread, 6. The Death of 
 S. Dominic. 
 
 ^ There are very few of the pictures of Fra Angelico which have not 
 some text or devout aspiration inscribed, either in the glories of the saints 
 or in the folds of the garments. 
 
- <w 
 
 painted by Fra Angelica for the Corporation of the Linaiuo in 143^3 > ^7 
 
 AN ANGEL. IN THE UFFIZT, FLORENCE. 
 One of the twelve which adorn the " Madonna and Sainfs^^ A /^/r 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 O^ . 
 
HIS EEPEESENTATION OF ANGELS. 31 
 
 idea of rapt joy which appears in his face, and to Dante alone 
 can we leave the description — 
 
 " Qual e queir Angel, che con tanto gioco 
 Guarda negli occhi la nostra Regina 
 Innamorato si che par di fuoco. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Baldezza e leggiadria 
 Quanta esser puote in Angelo ed in alma 
 Tutto e in lui, e si volem che sia 
 Perch^ egli h quegli che porto la palma 
 Giuso a Maria, Quando il Figluol di Die 
 Carcar si voile della nostra salma." 
 
 Par. xxxii. 110. 
 
 Any one acquainted with Fra Angelico's paintings would 
 admit that his genius most clearly shows itself in his painting \ 
 of angels. The difficulty of clothing the blessed spirits with a 
 body is manifest, and, perhaps, none of the Christian subjects 
 have been more unworthily profaned by the Renaissance. 
 The old school had been wont to paint the angels as they are 
 described to us in the Bible. Sometimes they are represented 
 as the Cherubim of the prophets, as we read in Isaiah : — 
 
 ** Each one had six wings ; 
 "With twain he covered his face, 
 "With twain he covered his feet, 
 "With twain he did fly."— vi.2. 
 
 In other places we read of the angels who appeared to 
 Abraham, Jacob, and Tobias clad in the shape of youth. 
 This type was always adopted by the school of Giotto, and, 
 in spite of the long flowing robe, there was nothing feminine \ 
 in their character. : 
 
 Fra Angelico was a true pupil of the school in this respect, 1 
 and if he sometimes made the angels younger in order to • 
 endow them with the freshness of the prime of youth, he 
 never represented them as infants (like the school of Perugino), 1 
 being of opinion that the age of childhood was not adapted J 
 
32 FRA ANGEUCO. 
 
 to express the zeal and intelligence which should belong to 
 the messengers and ministers of the Most High. 
 
 The fresco executed by Fra Angelico in the fa9ade of the 
 Church of S. Domenico above the door does not belong to this 
 period, but was probably painted later in life, on his way to 
 Rome.^ It represented the Madonna with the Child in her 
 arms, holding a globe, SS. Dominic and Peter Martyr in 
 adoration. The four Evangelists adorn the arch. These are 
 in the best preservation, having been sheltered from the sun 
 and rains of 400 years, which have damaged other parts of 
 the fresco, although a certain brilliancy of colour and sweetness 
 of touch still witnessed to the work of Fra Angelico till they 
 perished when the convent was destroyed by the French. 
 
 -^ While Fra Angelico was thus busily engaged in decorating 
 the church at Cortona, the head of his order, Giovanni 
 Dominici, profiting by the death of the anti-pope, Alexander 
 Y., obtained the sanction of Pope Gregory XII. to return to 
 Fiesole. The brotherhood had, however, to re-purchase from 
 the Bishop of Fiesole their right to inhabit the convent, 
 forfeited, according to the foundation deed, by an absence of 
 
 I two months, and their exile had extended over nine years. 
 
 ^-^The bishop demanded an ecclesiastical vestment worth a 
 hundred ducats, and then gave his consent to their return. 
 The brotherhood were enabled to pay this considerable fee 
 out of the paternal inheritance of S. Antoninus, one of the 
 brothers, which fell to him at that time. Their funds were 
 still further augmented by a legacy of six thousand florins 
 bequeathed to them by a rich Florentine citizen. 
 
 This last increase of wealth was spent in enlarging the 
 convent, so that Fra Angelico found an ample field for 
 the exercise of talent now recognised by all his brethren. 
 Some of his choicest works were executed in Fiesole. It 
 seemed as if — turning away from the sad realities of life, 
 ever before him in the city which lay at his feet, divided by 
 ^ Marchese, vol. i. p. 219. 
 
FRA ANGELICO. 33 
 
 faction, filled with evil customs and pagan doctrines — he took 
 refuge in an ideal world, and created out of his own imagi- 
 nation the saints who were to people- it, in his numerous 
 paintings. During the eighteen years he was at Fiesole, he 
 worked incessantly. For the convent he executed two paint- 
 ings in fresco, one in the refectory ; the other — a CrucifixiorO- 
 • — in the chapter-room. These are still extant. 
 
 The three pictures which he painted for the Conventual 
 Church were an altar-piece, which — originally a fine painting 
 — ^has been so badly restored by Francesco Mariani that but 
 little remains of the original colour : an Annunciation, and 
 the Coronation of tJie Virgin, now in the Louvre, and which 
 we select for description as the best example of his style at 
 the period.^ 
 
 "It represents a throne under a Gothic canopy, to which 
 there is an ascent by nine steps. The Yirgin kneels on the top- 
 most step, clothed in a red tunic with a blue robe thrown over 
 it ; a royal mantle with a rich border falls from it. The 
 features are delicate, the expression full of humility and 
 adoration. 
 
 " The Saviour seated on the throne bends forward and is in 
 the act of placing the crown on her head. On each side are 
 twelve angels playing on various musical instruments ; on the 
 lower grade again on either side are forty personages of the 
 Old and New Testament. Several saints are kneeling before 
 the throne — S. Catherine with her wheel, S. Agnes with her 
 lamb, S. Cecilia crowned with flowers. 
 
 " A row of seven small pictures form the predella ; beneath 
 
 1 This last has been removed since September 1879. An eye-witness 
 describes the process of renzoval thus : — " The brick wall was cut with a 
 saw all round the picture, the wall having been previously lined with a 
 wooden support and framework ; it was then lowered gi-adually and 
 removed." It is now in the Louvre. 
 
 * It was purchased by the French Government in 1812, and is now in 
 the long gallery of the Louvre. 
 
 PF A D 
 
34 FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 the principal picture are represented various incidents in the 
 life of S. Dominic. The whole is about 7g feet high by 
 6 feet in width. It is painted in distemper, the glories round 
 the head are in gold, the colours are the most delicate and 
 vivid imaginable, and the ample draperies have the long folds, 
 which recall the school of Giotto ; the gaiety and harmony 
 of the tints, the expression of the various heads, the divine 
 rapture of the angels, with their air of immortal youth, the 
 devout reverence of the other personages, the unspeakable 
 serenity and beauty of the whole composition render this 
 picture worthy of the celebrity it has enjoyed for more than 
 four centuries." ^ 
 
 Yasari praises this picture as an example not only of the 
 high quality of Fra Angelico's mechanical power, but also of 
 the profound intelligence which guided him in the composi- 
 tion and the arrangement of the figures. 
 
 Besides these he painted many pictures for the other 
 churches in Fiesole, and sent many to Florence. Several of 
 these have now found their way into the Accademia delle Belle 
 Arti. 
 
 Among them is the Life of Christ in thirty-five small 
 pictures. This series of paintings has always been reckoned 
 among the best of his small panel pictures. They once 
 formed the panels of a press intended for the treasures of the 
 chapel of the S. Annunziata at Florence. To those who are at 
 pains to examine them they will show that Fra Angelico was 
 a theologian of no mean capacity, and perhaps his superi- 
 ority in this respect to the artists who preceded him may 
 have been one cause of his successful treatment of sacred 
 subjects. Nowhere do such proofs appear of this as in these 
 paintings of the Life of our Lord. 
 
 His mind is imbued with the type and prophecies of the 
 Old Testament, and their fulfilment in every line of the New 
 Testament. 
 
 1 Mrs. Jameson's Early Italian Painters, p. 76. 
 
FRA ANGELICO. 35 
 
 We find an illustration of this in the double texts affixed 
 to each picture. He was also conversant with the commen- 
 taries of the Fathers upon them, and with all the sciences of 
 the Middle Ages. 
 
 It would take pages to describe the details and execution 
 of these pictures, the thought and knowledge which suggested 
 the ideas, the pains and care spent in expressing them. The 
 Life of our Lord was closed by two compositions, the sum and 
 conclusion of that Life. The Law of Love, the gift of the 
 Gospel to the world, and the Last Judgment. Again we 
 find the remembrance of Old and New Testament, in the 
 double texts ; the Prophets of the Old and the Apostles of 
 the New Testament, standing on either side of the Cross in the 
 centre of the picture, repeat the twelve articles inscribed on 
 the banner, and each in turn presents his scroll with the 
 text and answering text. The same mystical treatment is 
 carried throughout the work. 
 
 The Last Judgment was a very favourite subject with 
 mediaeval artists. Sculptors would often place it on the doors 
 of cathedrals as the entrance to Heaven. 
 
 The school of Giotto was well calculated to render aptly a 
 subject whose mysteries are foreshadowed in the Divina Corn- 
 media. Orcagna had already dealt with it in the church 
 of S. Maria Novella and in the Campo Santo. Fra 
 Angelico was not unlike the earlier Florentine in his method, 
 and grave, elegant style ; only his greater genius developed 
 and idealised fiu*ther the forms and types which Orcagna 
 had employed. 
 
 He painted the subject five times : the oldest is the one 
 to which we have just alluded ; it is inferior to the later ones 
 but still full of beauty. Few could rival Fra Angelico in the 
 gravity of his attitudes, the truthfulness of his expression, 
 and religious character of his work. 
 
 Another Last Judgment, that in the Accademia at Florence, 
 is more complete. Montalembert has described it in most 
 
 D 2 
 
36 TEA. ANGELICO. 
 
 beautiful language,^ which we will not mar by curtailing ; 
 we cannot reproduce it at length. 
 
 Another Last Judgment formed part of the Gallery of 
 Cardinal Fesch, and is now in that of Earl Dudley at Dudley 
 House, the composition the same, but the execution superior. 
 
 The fourth exists in the Corsini Gallery at Rome. It 
 is not so extensive a composition, and is more like a 
 miniature. 
 
 A fifth is in the Museum at Berlin, but it is a repetition or 
 copy of the one at Florence. 
 
 The original design in pen and ink of another Last Judg- 
 ment is preserved in the Gallery of the Uffizi, among the 
 collections of old masters made by Andrea Tafi in the thir- 
 teenth century. There is also a study for the same subject in 
 M. de Reiset's collection at Paris, executed in bistre. It 
 represents Christ as Judge, and the three angels accompany- 
 ing him recall the picture in the Corsini Gallery. 
 
 " At the top, is a hand drawn from life, and given with the 
 precision and liveliness admired in the hands of Holbein's 
 portraits. On the reverse of the sheet, on a yellow ground, 
 is a fine head of a ' religious ' seen in front, half in the light 
 and half in the shade ; and this portrait presents a surprising 
 character of truth. The smallest details are represented 
 in it with the fidelity of daguerreotype 3 a little swelling 
 over the left eye is given carefully. A painter of the 
 Renaissance could not have drawn it with greater breadth 
 and skill."2 
 
 The same collection contains a study probably executed in 
 Fra Angelico's youth when in Umbria — painted on coloured 
 paper set off in white, representing a S. Francis in glory. 
 Besides these there are studies for his latest works — the Evan- 
 gelists SS. Matthew and Mark — painted on the arch of the 
 chapel of the Yatican. The former, washed and set off in 
 
 1 Du Vandalisme et du Catholicisme, p. 79. 
 
 2 See Cartier, Life of Fra Jngelico, English edition, 1865, p. 63. 
 
FRA ANGELICO. 37 
 
 white and green ground, holds with both hands a book opened 
 on his right knee ; the latter has a pen in his right hand and 
 a closed book in the left. These last three studies are very 
 beautifully finished. 
 
 To return to the Gallery of Fine Arts at Florence, which 
 contains many other of Fra Angelico's pictures, we find 
 among the most remarkable : — 
 
 (1) The Descent from the Cross. It was in the Church of 
 Santa Trinita, and is executed with so much care that it may 
 be reckoned among the best works he ever did. It is framed, 
 like a jewel in its setting, with little pictures, twenty in 
 number. As a sequel to this " Descent from the Cross " and 
 apparently of the same period, we find — 
 
 (2) The Entombment. Painted for the Confraternity of 
 S. Croce del Tempio : also a picture in two parts, below — 
 
 (3) The Adoration of the Magi; above, A Pieta. The 
 fragments of the Legend of SS. Cosmo and Damian, which were 
 originally painted for the Pharmacy of S. Marco, and which 
 are now separated and are hung in the Pinacoteca at Munich. 
 
 In the Uffizi there are also several panel pictures by 
 Angelico, and also a magnificent altar-piece, painted for the 
 Guild ^ of Flax-workers, one of the well-known guilds of the 
 Italian Republic, about 1433. 
 
 This picture was to be painted, according to the contract, 
 within and without, alluding to the doors of the triptych, with 
 brilliant and varied colours, and gold and silver of the purest 
 and finest that could be procured, with the artist's best work- 
 manship, for which he is to receive one hundred and ninety golden 
 florins, and more or less according as the painter should think 
 fit, and according to the number of the figures. And here 
 we must notice that Fra Angelico never painted for money, 
 
 * The original document of this commission being still preserved, bears 
 witness to the name of Guido having been the ^'primitiva noma" of Fra 
 Angelico before he entered the Dominican Order. Marchese, vol. i. 
 p. 225. 
 
88 FRA ANGELICO 
 
 but the sums for whicli his paintings were purchased became 
 a considerable source of income to his convent. 
 
 The painter faithfully fulfilled his contract. The picture, 
 which is constantly copied by artists to this day, repre- 
 sents the Madonna (life-size) enthroned, holding the Infant 
 Jesus, with twelve angels in the cornice of such great beauty, 
 /that, according to Yasari, they seemed to have been rained 
 down from heaven (*^ piovuii dal cielo").\ 
 
 We will only mention one other picture, an altar-piece 
 for the church of S. Domenico at Fiesole, of which we 
 now possess the predella^ in our National Gallery^ (No. 663). 
 The Saviour " with the Banner of the Resurrection in his 
 left hand, in the midst of a choir of Angels, some blowing 
 trumpets, others playing various musical instruments. On 
 the two sides are kneeling a great crowd of the Blessed 
 .... Altogether two hundred and thirty- six figures or 
 portions of figures; many with their names attached." 
 
 Kesidence at Florence. 
 
 We now reach the next period of Angelico's life, that of 
 his residence in Florence, the time when he was brought face 
 to face with the Renaissance. 
 
 Brunelleschi was erecting the Cupola at S. Maria dei Fiori — 
 Ghiberti was finishing the gates of the Baptistery — Masaccio 
 had indeed disappeared from Florence, but his frescoes were 
 scarcely dry upon the walls of the Brancacci Chapel. Donatello 
 was the great sculptor of the day.^ Fra Angelico profited 
 
 ^ Predella or Gradino, a step which raised the picture quite above the 
 foot of the candlesticks on the altar, and was ornamented with pious sub- 
 jects, calculated to excite the devotion of the priest. 
 
 2 We possess also one other specimen of Fra Angelico's work in the 
 great National Collection, purchased in 1857 — The Wise Men's Ofering 
 (No- 582) — once in the collection of Professor Rosini, at Pisa. 
 
 ^ Crowe and Cav^caselle, vol. i. p. 575. 
 
AT SAN IVIARCO. . 39 
 
 by their fellowship; in his architectural backgrounds he 
 showed he understood and appreciated Brunelleschi, and his 
 figures improved after his study of those in the Brancacci 
 Chapel, while they lost none of their religious and devout^ 
 character. 
 
 The brotherhood were removed from their convent at 
 Fiesole to that of S. Marco, by the powerful influence of 
 Cosimo de' Medici. 
 
 While at his country house at Fiesole this prince and 
 patron of the arts had already been the benefactor of the 
 Fiesole convent. He had ordered many pictures from Fra 
 Angelico, and now on his return from exile to Florence he 
 determined that the brotherhood should accompany him there. 
 Through his influence with the Pope he caused the monks of 
 the order of S. Sylvester, who had long scandalised Florence 
 by their evil lives, to be ejected from their convent of 
 S. Marco, which was then given to the Dominicans of Fiesole. 
 S. Marco was at that time a miserable half -ruined building ; 
 Cosimo caused it to be rebuilt by the famous architect 
 Michelozzo Michelozzi. It was begun in 1437, and after six 
 years' labour it was completed, at the cost of 36,000 florins. 
 The restorations of the church were finished in 1441, and it 
 was consecrated in that year by Pope Eugenius TV. The 
 princely Cosimo further endowed it with a library, purchasing 
 for that purpose the world-famed collection of MSS. belonging 
 to Niccolo Niccoli, and thus organised the first public library 
 in Italy. He also presented the choir-books, at a cost of 
 1,500 ducats, intrusting their illumination to Fra Benedetto, 
 the brother of Fra Angelico. Meanwhile Fra Angelico him- 
 self was already at work upon the altar-piece for the choir, 
 which represented the Virgin enthroned with the Infant 
 SavioWj adorned by the kneeling figures of SS. Cosmo and 
 Damian ; these two saints he chose for representation as a 
 tribute of gratitude to the patron who had been so lavishing 
 in his gifts. 
 
 (V^P' 
 
40 FRA ANGELTCO 
 
 The pedestal of the altar-piece representing the lives of 
 these two saints has long been parted from the altar-piece, 
 now in the Accademia ; and has been scattered over various 
 galleries. Many duplicates also exist of the same subject, 
 as it was frequently treated by Fra Angelico. 
 
 As soon as the altar-piece was completed, Fra Angelico 
 began his celebrated frescoes, upon which so much of his 
 fame rests. They were painted upon the walls of the first 
 cloister called "primo di S. Antonino," and the cells con- 
 nected with it. The first painting was that of Christ upon 
 the Cross. It occupies the principal wall of this first cloister, 
 at the end of the side running along the church, and facing 
 the entrance door. 
 
 In this figure of our Saviour, Fra Angelico gave the most 
 
 perfect expression to the great Ideal which he had before 
 
 i him. "We believe that Fra Angelico only attained to the 
 
 \ representation of this supreme type of Christian art by the 
 
 careful study of tradition.^ He was guided by the light 
 
 1 of those who went before him, whilst increasing it, and 
 
 l^ndowing it with his own colouring. By examining his 
 
 works, it is easy to see that he has consulted the two great 
 
 schools, Greek and Latin, as to his treatment of this subject. 
 
 His types of our Saviour show a remarkable difference ; his 
 
 heart seems never to have been satisfied in its- passionate 
 
 yearning for the perfection of face and form which belonged 
 
 to One who was " fairer than the children of men." 
 
 Sometimes he follows the type of Giotto, and gives our 
 Saviour the power and strength of full manhood ; sometimes, 
 on the contrary, his types are extremely youthful, and his 
 representation is that of the Tender Lamb who redeemed 
 the world. 
 
 In the picture we are now considering, the representation 
 of Christ is inferior to that of Giotto in force, but is so 
 
 ^ See Didron, Histoire de Dieu, p. 229. Quoted in Kugler's Handbook 
 of Painting, vol. i. p. 9. See also Cartier's Life of Fra Angelico, p. 84. 
 
AT SAN MARCO. .41 
 
 sublime in its resignation, as to suggest the words of our 
 first Good Friday Collect, that He was indeed " contented to 
 suffer death upon the Cross." Perhaps, also, Dante's descrip- 
 tion of the Veronica at Kome, may have been before Fra 
 Angelico's mind : — 
 
 " Signer mio Gesu Cristo, Dio verace 
 Or fu si fatta la sembianza vostra ? " 
 
 Far. xxxi. line 106. 
 
 And if the expression is so wonderfully rendered as to give 
 a faint suggestion of the Divine nature to our feeble imagi- 
 nations, the representation of the human form far surpasses 
 any of Fra Angelico's previous works ; the drawing of the 
 figure being pronounced by able and careful critics to be 
 truly and exactly rendered.^ 
 
 The figure of S. Dominic is considered to be no less excel- 
 lent. He kneels at the foot of the Cross with an expression of 
 such intensity of passion, and so marked an individuality, that 
 it is supposed to have been a portrait of one of the brother- 
 hood. Perhaps, that of S. Antoninus the Prior, an intimate 
 friend of Fra Angelico ; perhaps Fra Benedetto ; perhaps 
 even the artist himself. 
 
 Near this painting, and above the door leading to the 
 sacristy, is the next work of Fra Angelico, a fresco of 
 S. Peter Ma/rtyr^ painted in the ogive. 
 
 In the left hand he holds a book and palm, and the fore- 
 finger of the right hand placed on his mouth enjoins silence. 
 S. Dominic with the discipline of his Order, occupies the 
 space above the door of the chapter-room. 
 
 The decoration of the cloisters is completed by a figure of 
 S. Thomas Aquinas, and two more, scenes from the life of our 
 Lord, one a Resurrection, painted near the door leading to 
 the refectory, in which the figure of the Saviour is again 
 
 * See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. i. p. 578. 
 
42 FRA ANGELICO 
 
 most beautifully rendered ; the other painted over the door 
 of the hospice, where strangers were entertained, in which 
 Fra Angelico represents Two Dominican brothers receiving 
 the Lord as a pilgrim. The heads of the two brothers are 
 full of expression, and Fra Bartolommeo must have been 
 inspired by the same idea when he painted the Disciples at 
 Emmaus above the door of the refectory. 
 
 Another of Fra Angelico' s masterpieces is at the farther 
 end of the chapter-room. It is a repetition of the painting 
 in the cloister, only with the addition of all the incidents of 
 the Crucifixion, and it represents the whole scene on Calvary. 
 The Cross of the Lord is very high, betwixt the two thieves. 
 At his feet a death's head marks the consequence of sin. 
 Around him are the witnesses of His Passion. The Blessed 
 Virgin, sinking under the weight of her griefs, is supported 
 by a holy woman. Mary Magdalen, kneeling at the foot of 
 the Cross, turns without rising to receive the Virgin in 
 her arms, and they form a very beautiful group. On one side 
 are S. John the Baptist, S. Mark, historian of the Passion, 
 and Protector of the Convent, S. Lawrence, SS. Cosmo and 
 Damian, patrons of the Medici. 
 
 On the opposite side are introduced the figures of various 
 other saints. The whole composition is framed in a broad 
 and rich border divided by medallions which frame the heads 
 of the prophets. In their hands they holds banderols, on 
 which are written texts taken from the prophets. 
 
 The glories of the order of S. Dominic are represented in 
 the lower border. Among all the figures of this vast com- 
 position, two only are badly represented, that of the un- 
 repentant thief- — it was always an impossibility with Fra 
 Angelico to depict crime — and that of S. Mark ; which is 
 accounted for by it having been possibly painted by Fra 
 Benedetto instead of by his brother. Otherwise the execution 
 is simple and free, the colouring soft and light, with the excep- 
 tion of the background, which is in a deplorable condition. 
 
AT SAN MARCO. . 43 
 
 having been since re-painted, with a dull red and a cold grey. 
 No one knows who was guilty of this destructive act. 
 
 From the Chronicle of S. Marco, we learn that there was 
 another fresco by Fra Angelico in the refectory, representing 
 a Crucifixion, but that it was destroyed in 1534. 
 
 Of all Fra Angelico' s works, there are none which give us 
 a better clue to the mind of the artist, none which give 
 greater evidence of the humility of his character than the ) 
 frescoes which adorn the bare walls of the cells of his con- ^ 
 vent. Narrow, low, lighted by little arched windows, with 
 just enough space for a table, chair, and bed, these rude 
 chambers contain some of Fra Angelico's best work, which, 
 unknown till the middle of this century, has for four hundred ' 
 years borne silent witness to his desire to promote the glory 
 of God, and his total indifference to the praise of men.^ ) I 
 
 The inexhaustible and favourite theme of this pious piainter ^ 
 was the life of the Lord, and, as it has been well expressed, 
 we find in each picture, material for a page of meditation upon 
 it.^ The figures are middle-sized, the original colouring — if 
 we except the background, which has been occasionally re- 
 touched — is in Fra Angelico's sweetest and purest manner. 
 On the outer wall of the range of cells, the series begins 
 with the Annunciation, to which we have already alluded as 
 the finest specimen of Fra Angelico's treatment of this 
 subject. It is again repeated inside one of the cells. The 
 Nativity was also a replica of that painted for the S. 
 Annunziata, now in the Accademia delle Belle Arti. The 
 Presentation in the Temple bears great resemblance to that of 
 Giotto, also in the Accademia ; but here, unhappily, the 
 background has been painted over with a heavy, ugly tint, to 
 the great damage of the general effect. The Adoration of the 
 Magi is a masterpiece, bearing the evidence of Fra Angelico's 
 recent studies among the Renaissance artists, and worthy to 
 
 1 Since 1867 the convent has been transformed into the Museo Florentine 
 (li S. Marco. ^ Cartier, Life of Fra Angelico, Eng. ed., p, 213. 
 
44 FRA ANGELICO 
 
 hold its place by them. It is painted in a cell much larger 
 than the others, the one set apart by Cosimo de' Medici for 
 his own use when he visited S. Antoninus, the prior of the 
 convent, and Fra Angelico. It also received Pope Eu- 
 genius IV., when he consecrated the Church of S. Marco, 
 on the Feast of the Epiphany, 1442. The subject of the 
 picture was no doubt chosen with reference to this event. 
 
 The Baptism of our Saviour^ The Sermon on the Mount, The 
 Transfiguration — truer, and more divine in its type of the 
 Saviour, though not so bold as that of Kaphael — The Institu- 
 tion of the Sacrament, The Agony in the Garden, The Betrayal 
 of Judas, TJie Lord in the Frcetorium, The Ascent of Calvary, 
 The Crucifixion, are all treated in turn with the inexhaustible 
 tenderness of feeling, the unwearied devotion which were the 
 inseparable companions of Era Angelico's labours. 
 
 The three last paintings of the series, 2%e Holy Women at the 
 Tomb, The Descent into Limbo, and The Coronation of the Virgin, 
 have been selected as the most remarkable — after The Adora- 
 tion of the Magi — of this series. In the Descent into Limbo, 
 Christ, as Conqueror, enters through the gate, which has 
 fallen flat at His approach, beneath it Lucifer lies crushed, 
 the impersonation of death and sin. 
 
 The Saviour stretches forth His hand to Abraham, the 
 father of the faithful, foremost among the vast multitude of 
 "spirits in prison," who have so long awaited His coming. 
 Among these we recognise Adam and Eve. 
 
 The Italian critics look upon it as a marvellous rendering 
 of the well-known passage in the Inferno — 
 
 *• Vidi venire un Possente 
 Con segno di Vittoria incoronato, 
 Trasseci I'ombra del Primo Parente. 
 D'Abel suo Figlio, quella di Noe, 
 Di Moise legista e I'ubbidiente 
 Abraam Patriarca e David Re ; 
 * * * * 
 
 Ed altri molti e fecegli beati." — {Inf. civ. 54, et seq.) 
 
AT SAN MARCO. 45 
 
 If, in The Descent into Limbo, Fra Angelico gives expression 
 to Dante's lines, it is the same poet's conception by which he 
 is guided in the grouping of the saints, who are contemplat- 
 ing the Coronation of the Virgin ; disposing them as if 
 they constituted one of those garlands of blessed spirits who 
 incessantly sing and dance round the Eternal Throne. The 
 principal figures are more celestial in their rendering in this 
 fresco than in the picture which treats of the same subject, 
 now in the Gallery of the Uffizi. The Virgin is seated on a 
 white cloud, overarched by a rainbow. She is robed in white, 
 her arms are folded on her bosom, a gentle smile is on her 
 lips, as she leans forward to receive the crown from the 
 Saviour seated by her side. Her whole attitude is one of 
 deep humility in the midst of all the surrounding glory. 
 
 The figure of the Saviour is also robed in white, shaded 
 with a light and delicate tone of colour, and in the drapery 
 of the two figures Fra Angelico surpasses himself. 
 
 The last painting, one of the most perfect as a composition, 
 in the Convent of S. Marco is upon the wall of the upper 
 dormitory, and represents the Madonna surrounded with the 
 patron saints of the convent and order. 
 
 Besides the paintings which have been specially selected as 
 types of the whole series, there are eighteen smaller pictures 
 in the cells on the right-hand side of the second dormitory ; 
 but of these, some have perished from damp, and some have 
 been still more effectually ruined by the attempt to repair 
 them. 
 
 Fea Angelico at Rome. 1445—1455. -^ 
 
 The last ten years of Fra Angelico's life were to be spent 
 at Rome, and some of his best work belongs to this period. ; ^^ 
 He was at that time between fifty and sixty, and it is a fact ' '^- 
 recently brought before our notice,^ that many of the great 
 artists during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, produced 
 * Burckhardt's Cicerone for Italy, ed. 1879, p. 55, 
 
46 FRA ANGELICO 
 
 their greatest chefs-d'ozuvre comparatively late in life. Titian 
 and Michelangelo, Leonardo, when he painted his Cenacolo 
 at Milan, and Bellini, the most astonishing of all, who painted 
 some of his finest pictures when he had passed his eighty- 
 eighth year! Nor is it difficult to imagine that with such 
 artists as these, and with all the great artists who have since 
 followed in their steps, every year of experience would only 
 add to the practised cunning of the hand so long as it 
 retained its power, and develop in the eye's undimmed gaze 
 an ever-increasing capacity for seeing with the understanding 
 as well as the sight. 
 
 Yasari tells us that Pope Nicholas Y. invited Era Angelic o 
 to Rome ; but in this he is proved to be inaccurate (and is cor- 
 rected in the new Commentary). It is true that Fra Angelico 
 was afterwards employed by him ; ^ but it was from Euge- 
 nius lY., the predecessor of Nicholas Y. in the Pontifical 
 ,^hair, that the first summons came. He consecrated the 
 Church of S. Marco in 1442 : the cell which he occupied on 
 that occasion had been adorned by Fra Angelico : it was, 
 therefore, no wonder that he should invite to Rome one who 
 had already achieved so much in art. 
 
 Fra Angelico painted for him the Cappella del Sacramento, 
 with scenes from the Life of Christ, but the chapel was after- 
 wards demolished by Paul III. It was while engaged upon 
 this- work that the Archbishopric of Florence fell vacant ; the 
 Pope offered it to Fra Angelico, who, shrinking from an 
 honour of which, in his modesty, he felt himself unworthy, 
 recommended in his stead S. Antoninus, who was afterwards 
 appointed to the vacant see. 
 
 Pope Eugenius died shortly after Fra Angelico' s arrival in 
 Rome, at the beginning of the year 1445. During the 
 interval which elapsed before his successor Nicholas Y. was 
 firmly established in the Papal Chair, Fra Angelico painted 
 some of his best frescoes in the Cathedral of Orvieto. He 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, vol. ii. p. 528. 
 
AT ROME. 47 
 
 was engaged by tlie Chapter in conclave assembled, to paint 
 the Last Judgment in the Cappella Nuova with figures the \ 
 size of life.^ 
 
 They conferred upon him the title of Maestro de' Maestri ; 1 
 he was to work there during the months of June, July, 
 and August, at the rate of 200 golden ducats a year. Fra 
 Angelico fulfilled his engagement as to time, and with the 
 help of his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli, was able to accomplish the 
 decoration of three triangular divisions in the ceiling. In 
 these, he represented : — 
 
 1. The Saviour surrounded by a glory of Angels, in the act 
 of giving judgment. The attitude is supposed to have been 
 afterwards copied by Michelangelo. 
 
 2. Sixteen figures of Saints and Apostles seated in the clouds. 
 
 3. The Virgin amongst the Apostles. 
 
 He was obliged to leave the work unfinished, being sum- i 
 moned back to Rome by Nicholas Y. There he decorated 
 the Chapel of the Vatican which bears the name of the 
 Pontiff.^ It is curious that for two centuries the key of the 
 
 1 Their deliberations (May 11th, 1447), still preserved in the archives 
 of the Cathedral, were thus worded : " Considering that the chapel 
 facing the one of the Corporal is blank .... it would be fitting to have 
 it painted by some good and famous master-painter. At this moment 
 there is at Orvieto a religious of the observance of S. Dominic, who has 
 painted, and is painting, the chapel of our most holy Father in the 
 Palace of the Vatican, who might perhaps be persuaded to come and 
 paint the chapel ; he is the most famous of all the painters of Italy, and 
 would paint in the church only three months in the year, that is, in 
 June, July, and Avigust, because during the other months he is obliged to 
 serve the Holy Father ; but in these three months he will not remain in 
 Eome. He asks a salary for himself at the rate of 200 ducats of gold a 
 year, with the expenses of food, and colours, scaffolding, &c. And this 
 master-painter is named Fra Giovanni." — Life of Fra Angelico, by E. 
 Cartier, p. 256. 
 
 2 The following notes are taken from documents, or registers, of 
 the Camera Apostolica relative to Fra Angelico's works in Rome: — 
 
 **1447 9 May. To Pietro Giacomo, who worked with Fra Giovanni, 
 
48 FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 chapel should have been lost, and thus the treasures which it 
 contained were unknown to the general world. 
 
 The frescoes illustrate scenes from the Life of SS. Stephen 
 and Lawrence. The history of S. Stephen is painted in the 
 arches of the upper part, that of S. Lawrence below. On 
 the pilasters on each side of the lower course of frescoes, 
 Era Angelico painted saints erect in niches. SS. Anastasius, 
 Leo, Thomas Aquinas, Ambrose, Buonaventura, Augustine, 
 John, Chrysostom, and Pope Gregory the Great. In the ceil- 
 ing which he painted azure spangled with stars, he represented 
 in the four compartments in which it was divided, the four 
 'Evangelists with their symbols. The whole series show the 
 result of Era Angelico' s studies in the Brancacci chapel, and 
 that while he had not lost any of his original qualities, he 
 had acquired new ones. Still preserving the purity, and 
 devotional feeling of his drawing, and the transparency of 
 his colouring, he added to these, more science in the lines, 
 more vigorous tones, greater mastery over the arrangement 
 of his figures, more powerful effects of light and shade. 
 Erom a distance they succeed in giving the effect of the bold 
 touch of Masaccio ; when looked at closely, they have the 
 finish of an exquisite miniature.^ Vasari mentions other 
 pictures by Era Angelico in Borne; a Crucifixion, in the 
 
 for working in the chapel at S. Peter's, 3 florins, 15 bolognese — salary for 
 1 month and 18 days from 18th March to 2nd of May. 
 
 "1447, 23 May. To Fra Giovanni di Pietro, painter of the chapel of 
 S. Peter's, to the 23rd day of May 40 ducats, 27 bolognese, on account of 
 the annual 200 ducats from 13th March to last of May proximo, 43 
 florins, 27 bolognese. 
 
 •' 1447, 1 June. To Fra Giovanni, who paints in the chapel of S. 
 Pietro, to the said day, 2 florins, 39 bolognese for expenses in the work of 
 that chapeL 
 
 " 1449. Ducats 182, bolognese 62, denari 8, for the painting of the 
 studio (di N.-S.), Nostro Signore (?), the Pope (?). For the salary of 
 Fra Giovanni, of Fiesole, and his workmen and other things." (This was 
 probably the cabinet of Nicholas V.) 
 
 I Marchese, vol. i. pp. 293 — 4. 
 
St. Lawrence giving Alms. By Fea Angelico. 
 In the Chapel of Nicholas V. in the Vatican, Rome. 
 
 V^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 \^ 
 
 P F A 
 
 
 ^ ^pv. 
 
 **:.x^^' 
 
50 FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 Vatican, and an Annunciation in Sta. Maria sopra Minerva ; 
 but these are no longer to be seen. We know, however, for 
 certain, that two of his Last Judgments, those in the Corsini, 
 and Dudley galleries, were executed at this time ; also two 
 pictures which have now been removed to Naples, and are 
 in the Bourbon Museum there. ^ One (296) is an Assump- 
 tion of the Virgin, the other Our Lady ad Nives, representing 
 the legend of the foundation of S. Maria Maggiore in 
 E/ome. The earth is covered with snow, and while the Pope 
 Liberius traces the foundation of the new Church, our Lord 
 and the Holy Virgin appear in the sky. 
 
 It is not known why Era Angelico never returned to finish 
 his work at Orvieto, but it is recorded as a fact that to the 
 last the Chapter of the cathedral waited in the hope of his 
 return. Many painters desired to finish the work, but they 
 never received permission to do so till the tidings reached 
 Orvieto that Era Angelico was dead. 
 
 He died in Rome, at the age of sixty-eight, March 18, 
 1455, and was buried in Santa Maria sopra Minerva; Pope 
 Nicholas V. himself wrote the epitaph, which, . while it 
 recognises the marvellous talents of the painter, still gives i 
 his virtues the first place : ^ 
 
 Hie jacet ven. pictor. 
 Fr. lo. de Flor. Ords. pdicato. ILLV. 
 M. 
 C. C. C. C. 
 L. 
 V. 
 Non mihi sit laudi, quod eram velut alter Apelles, 
 
 Sed quod lucra tuis omnia, Christe, daham. 
 Altera nam terns opera exstant, altera coelo ; 
 Urbs me Joannem flos tulit Etrurise. 
 
 Though no artist's life was, as a whole, more equal than 
 that of Era Angelico, we can yet trace the different influences 
 
 » Nos 296, 298. ^ Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 532, 
 
WORKS OF FEA ANGELICO. 51 
 
 whicli divided it into the three distinct epochs to which we 
 have alluded. The first epoch was that of the Umbrian School, 
 during his exile from Fiesole, which fostered the simplicity 
 and purity of his soul, and gave to his youthful compositions 
 great tenderness of feeling, and an inimitable freshness of 
 expression. Of these, the masterpiece is the Coronation of 
 tlie Virgin in the Louvre. 
 
 The second epoch, that of his full manhood, is best repre- 
 sented by the frescoes of S. Marco. He corrected the defects of 
 his youth, a want of life and pliancy in his figures, and a 
 too great love of ornament in the details. "While still pre- 
 serving the devotional spirit of his works, he gathered fresh 
 power from studying the paintings of his great contemporaries 
 in Florence. 
 
 In the third epoch, that spent at Rome, the fruit of these 
 studies is still more apparent, in an increased vigour of draw- 
 ing, a grandeur of style, and a marked improvement in his 
 architectural distances. 
 
 Some critics have indeed pronounced these later works of 
 Fra Angelico to be superior to those of Masaccio in the 
 harmony of his lines in composition, while his colouring only 
 appears inferior to that of Giotto and Masaccio, because his 
 light and shade were not sufficiently defined, and because he 
 was unacquainted with the mysteries of chiaroscuro. Per- 
 haps the best clue to Fra Angelico's paintings is to be found 
 in his character, which Yasari describes with simple eloquence. 
 
 " Fra Giovanni," he tells us, " was a man of simple and 
 blameless life. He shunned the world, with all its tempta- 
 tions, and during his pure and simple life was such a 
 friend to the poor that I think his soul must now be in 
 heaven. He painted incessantly, but would never represent 
 any other than a sacred subject. He might have been rich, 
 but he scorned it, saying that true riches consisted in being 
 content to be poor. He might have been placed in a position 
 of power and authority, but he declined on the ground that 
 
 E 2 
 
52 FEA ANGELICO. 
 
 it was easier to obey than to command ; that the temptation 
 was less. He might have enjoyed dignities both within and 
 without his convent, but he refused, declaring that his life had 
 but one end in view, to flee from the evils of hell, and to 
 approach the joys of heaven. . . . Humane and sober, he 
 lived a chaste life, avoiding the snares of the world, and he 
 was wont to say that the pursuit of art required rest, and a 
 life of holy thoughts ; that he who illustrates the acts of 
 Christ should be with Christ. He was never known to 
 indulge in anger against his brethren — a great point, and in 
 my opinion, all but unattainable — and he never admonished 
 but with a smile. With incredible kindness he would tell 
 those who sought his works that, if they could arrange with 
 the prior, he would not fail them. In fact, this father, whom 
 no one can too much praise, was in all his dealings and 
 intercourse modest and humble, and in his works simple and 
 pious. The saints whom he depicted had more the air and 
 semblance of saints than any produced by others. He never 
 retouched or altered anything he had once finished, but left 
 it as it was, believing it to be the will of God, that it should 
 be so. Some go so far as to say that Fra Giovanni never 
 touched a brush without first humbling himself in prayer. 
 He never represented the crucified Saviour without having 
 his cheeks bathed in tears ; and hence one may judge from 
 the features and attitudes of his figures the perfection of his 
 grand and sincere belief in the Christian faith." ^ 
 \^p~Here we find the secret of the beauty, sweetness, and 
 truth which prevail in his paintings. With the single aim 
 before him of giving back to the service of heaven talents 
 which were heaven-born, no worldly distractions had power 
 to disturb the untroubled peace of his soul. Secluded in this 
 holy calm, the cares and passions of human life were un- 
 known to him, hence his inability to deal with their repre- 
 sentation in painting ; hence the lack of power and strength, 
 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, vol. ii. p. 520. 
 
WORKS OF FRA. ANGELICO. 53 
 
 and the incapacity for representing evil, which appears in his 
 
 treatment of the unrepentant thief upon the cross, of the 
 
 wicked in his oft-repeated pictures of the Last Judgment. 
 
 In the joys of Paradise he found a more fitting theme for his 
 
 gentle, loving pencil ; he peopled the blessed regions with 
 
 saints and angels of unearthly beauty ; he adorned them 
 
 with the fairest flowers and colours, whose never-fading 
 
 / brightness have borne witness for more than four hundred 
 
 fi ^ years to the truth of that " Life of the world to come," 
 
 ' which throughout his earthly career was the abiding 
 
 conviction of the artist's soul. 
 
 167-^ 
 
 A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF 
 
 FRA ANGELICO.i 
 
 ANTWERP. Museum. 
 
 S. Romualdo reproaching Otho III. with the murder of Cre- 
 scentius.2 
 
 BERLIN. Museum. 
 
 Madonna Enthroned with Child, with S. Dominic and S. Peter 
 
 Martyr. 
 S. Dominic and S. Francis. 
 Glorification of S. Francis. 
 C ORTONA. San Domenico. 
 
 Virgin and Child with S. Dominic and S. Peter i^unette). 
 Four Evangelists {fresco, much damaged). 
 Vhgin and Child with Saints [altar-piece) a. 
 
 Baptistery {formerly the Jesuit Church). 
 
 )n, with scenes from the Life of the Virgin on tlie, 
 )redella {from San Domenico, Cortona). 
 Predella, with scenes from the Life of S". Dominic {predella to 
 altar-piece in San Domenico, Cortona a). 
 
 ^ Compiled from Crowe and Caralcaselle's History of Painting in Italy, 
 Barckhardt's Cicerone — an Art Guide to Painting in Italy (1879), and the 
 official catalogues of those galleries which contain works by Fra Angelico, 
 
 2 In Crowe and Cavalcaselle it is miscalled " S. Ambrose refusing the 
 Entrance of the Temple to Theodosius." See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 
 vol. i. p. 588. 
 
54 FRA. AXGELICO. 
 
 FLORENCE. ACCADEMIA DELLE BeLLE ArTI. 
 
 Descent from the Cross {from Santa Trinitd, Florence), 
 
 The Virgin and Child with Saints ; and, on the predella, a Piet^ 
 
 and Six Saints (from the Convent del Bosco a Frati di Mugello). 
 The Virgin and Child with Saints. 
 The 'Virgin and Child with Saints {from the Monastery of Anna- 
 
 Una, Florence). 
 S. Cosmo and S. Damian replacing a leg cut off a sick Man with 
 
 that of a Negro {part of a predella). 
 Eighteen scenes from the Life of Christ, /3 {from the Convent of 
 
 the SS. Annunziata — originally panels to ornament the plate 
 
 cupboards. *' The Last Supper, The baptism, and Transfiguta- 
 
 tion, are not by Fra Angelico." — Crowe and Gavalcaselle). 
 The History of Five Martyrs. 
 Predella, with six scenes from the lives of S. Cosmo and 
 
 S. Damian {from the Chapel of S. Luke, in the cloister of the 
 
 SS. AnnunziaM, Florence). 
 Seventeen scenes from the Life of Christ {from the Convent of the 
 
 SS. Annunziata). Same series as fi. 
 Coronation of the Virgin. 
 Crucifixion. 
 A Pietk, and The Adoration of the Magi. {'* Possibly by a pupil." — 
 
 Crowe and Cavalcaselle. ) 
 Entombment {formerly in the Monastery della Groce al Tempio). 
 Last Judgment {formerly in the Monastery degliAngeli, Floren/x). 
 
 Uffizi. 
 Virgin and Child with Saints {painted in 1433 for the Corporation 
 
 of the Linaiuoli) y. 
 Birth of John the Baptist {part of predella of 5). 
 Marriage of the Virgin {part of predella of 5). 
 Death of the Virgin {part of predella of 5). 
 The Coronation of the Virgin, S {from S. Maria Nuova, 
 
 Florence). 
 Predella of y. The Preaching of S. Peter; Adoration of the 
 Magi ; Martyrdom of S. Mark. 
 
 S. Matteo. In the Hospital — 
 The Virgin and Child adored by Four Angels. 
 
 Convent of San Marco {now the Museo Fiorentino di 
 San Marco). 
 In the Cloisters — 
 The Crucifixion, with S. Dominic. 
 S. Peter Martyr enjoining silence. 
 
WORKS OF FRA ANaELICO. 55 
 
 Convent of San Marco {continued). 
 S. Dominic with the scourge of nine thongs. 
 Christ coming from the Sepulchre. 
 S. Thomas Aquinas. 
 
 Christ as a Pilgrim welcomed by two Dominican Monks. 
 Christ with the "Woundprints. 
 In the Chapter Hoibse — 
 
 Crucifixion. Christ between the thieves, surrounded by a group 
 of twenty Saints, and below — bust portraits of seventeen 
 Dominicans. 
 On the Upper Floor — 
 ^n^ciation. 
 
 CfflB^inhe Cross, with S. Dominic. 
 Enthroned Madonna and Saints. 
 In the Cells — 
 
 - Coronation of the Virgin. 
 The Maries at the Sepulchre. 
 Christ opening the Gates of Hell. 
 Transfiguration. 
 Entombment. 
 Madonna. 
 Adoration of the Magi. 
 Coronation of the Virgin. 
 ^^^ Three Reliquaries. One adorned with " The Virgin and Child ; " 
 ^ I5j second with the "Annunciation" and "Adoration of the Magi ; " 
 and the third with a *' Coronation of the Virgin and Saints." 
 {From the Sacristy of Santa Maria Novella.) 
 
 FIESOLE. ' San Domenico. 
 
 Madonna and Saints {the predella is in the National Gallery). 
 In the Chapter House {now a green-hou^e) — 
 Madonna and Saints. 
 
 FRANKFORT. Stadel. 
 
 Virgin with twelve Angels. 
 
 LONDON. National Gallery. 
 
 Adoration of the Magi {from the Lombardi-Baldi Collection, 
 
 Florenc^. 
 Christ— with the banner of the Resurrection in his left hand, in the 
 midst of a choir of Angels, and crowds of the Blessed. In five 
 compartments. {Formerly the predella to the aUar-piece in San 
 Domenico at Fiesole. ) 
 
66 FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 LONDON. Dudley House. 
 
 Last Judgment {from the Fesch Collection). 
 
 Virgin and Child with Saints [from the Bisenzio Collection, Rome). 
 
 MUNICH. PiNAKOTHEK. 
 
 The Almighty adored by Angels. {"Falsely ascribed to Angelico." 
 
 — Crowe and Cavalcaselle.) 
 Three scenes from the Lives of Cosmo and S. Damian {part of a pre- 
 
 della of the altar-piece, pairUed in 1438 for San Marco, Florence). 
 
 ORVIETO. Cathedeal. 
 
 Christ, in a glory of Angels, as Judge — with sixteen Saints and Pro- 
 phets to the right, and the Virgin and the Apostles to the left. 
 {All more or less damaged; finished by Signorelli in 1499.) 
 
 PARIS. Louvre. 
 
 Coronation of the Virgin — on the predella, seven subjects : six 
 scenes from the Life of S. Dominic, and in the centre Christ risen 
 from the Tomb ( formerly in San Domenico, Fiesole). 
 
 Crucifixion {from the Convent of San Domenico, Fiesole). 
 
 :^ERIJftTA. Pinacoteca. 
 
 Annnn ^nation ( from San Domenico, Perugia). 
 Madonna and Saints. 
 Miracles of S. Nicholas of Bari. 
 
 ROME. Vatican. Capella di Niccolb V. 
 
 Six scenes from the Life of S. Stephen. {Above.) 
 Six scenes from the Life of S. Lawrence. {Below.) 
 The Four Evangelists. {On the Ceiling.) 
 The Teachers of the Church. {On the Vaulting.) 
 
 Vatican Picture Gallery— 
 S. Nicholas of Bari {part of a predella). 
 Madonna and Angels. 
 
 CoRSiNi Palace. 
 Last Judgment. 
 ' Ascension. {" Weak and re-painted." — Crowe and Cavalcaselle.) 
 
 Descent of the Holy Spirit. {"Much restored." — Crowe and 
 Cavalcaselle.) 
 
 TURIN. Gallery. 
 
 Two Angels kneeling on Clouds. 
 
^^ 
 
 FRA BENEDETTO. 57 
 
 FRA BENEDETTO. 
 
 We have seen tliat Era Benedetto, the brother of Era 
 Angelico, entered simultaneously with him the convent at 
 Fiesole. Era Benedetto was also an artist, but of a very- 
 inferior order. He resembled his brother in piety and 
 religious feeling, but had not the same talent ; nor was he, 
 like Era Angelico, an industrious student from nature. 
 
 It is necessary to recognise the difference between the 
 works of the two brothers, because, as they sometimes 
 worked at the same painting, the fame of Era Angelico has 
 somewhat suffered through the faults of Era Benedetto. A 
 careful study of the two styles will reveal which is the 
 work of Era Benedetto, and account for an irregularity of 
 painting which could not otherwise be explained in Era 
 Angelico's work. Benedetto's figures are dumpy and ill set, the 
 heads too broad, the extremities badly finished, the feet ugly, 
 and they are sketched with a heavy brown touch, while 
 those of Era Angelico are prepared with great lightness, 
 and the touch, which is hardly perceived, of a brilliant red. 
 
 But as a miniaturist and illuminator Era Benedetto earned 
 a well deserved fame in the choir-books of S. Marco. They 
 are in fourteen volumes, and still serve the church. They 
 were executed between the years 1443-8. The writing is 
 beautiful ; they are filled with illuminations, valuable texts 
 of ancient religious music, and bear the arms of Cosimo 
 de' Medici, from whom Era Benedetto received the 
 commission.^ 
 
 Like Era Angelico, Era Benedetto was particularly beloved 
 by S. Antoninus, who made him sub-prior of S. Marco, 
 where he lived till elected Prior of his former convent at \>> 
 Fiesole. There he died of the plague in 1448. ^,^ .^ \ v " 
 
 \ 
 
CHAPTEE lY. 
 
 FRA FILIPPO LIPPI, AND HIS IMMEDIATE FOLLOWERS. 
 
 ERA FILIPPO LIPPI. Born 1412 (?). Died 1469. 
 
 "I drew men's faces on my copybooks, 
 Scrawled them within the antiphonary's marge, 
 Joined legs and arms to the long music notes, 
 Found nose and eyes and chin for A's and B's, 
 And made a string of pictures of the world ; 
 Betwixt the ins and outs of verb and noun, 
 On the wall, the bench, the door." 
 
 Browning's Men and Women, vol. i. p. 42. 
 
 THE life of Era Eilippo Lippi presents in all points 
 as marked a contrast as possible to that of Era 
 Angelico ; but it need only be the concern of these pages to 
 treat of it so far as it is connected with his works as an 
 artist. His great natural gifts showed themselves at a very 
 early age. Having lost his parents in childhood, he was 
 place by an aunt in the convent of the Carmine at Elorence. 
 Here, in 1402, he began his novitiate as a brother of 
 the order, and here his drawings were so remarkable that 
 he was allowed to abandon all other studies and to devote 
 himself exclusively to art. Great models were immediately 
 before him in Masaccio's paintings, newly completed, in the 
 
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI. 59 
 
 Brancacci Chapel. He soon became so imbued with the style 
 of the great master, that Yasari tells us it was as if the 
 spirit of Masaccio had entered the body of Fra Filippo Lippi : 
 a,nd Lanzi says, that if he was not the actual pupil of 
 Masaccio, he was the pupil of his works. 
 
 These early productions have all perished, but many of 
 his altar-pieces and small pictures remain to testify to the 
 fruit of his training in the Brancacci Chapel. Among the 
 finest specimens of this early manner is the altar-piece, 
 painted when he was only twenty-five years of age, for the 
 church of the Santo Spirito at Florence, now in the Louvre. 
 It represents The Virgin standing on the first step of her 
 throne, between angels and archangels, presenting the infant 
 Saviour to two kneeling bishops of the Augustine Order, 
 SS. Frediano and Gregory. On account of the finish and 
 expression of their upturned faces, these two figures are 
 considered the best part of the painting ; as, although the 
 attitude of the Madonna is good, the head is commonplace, 
 and that of our Saviour of the heavy, earthly type, with the 
 short neck, which so often appears in Fra Filippo's repre- 
 sentations of the Infant Christ. The Gradino belonging to 
 it, representing the Annunciation and three (^ther scenes, 
 is now in the Accademia delle Belle Arti at Florence.^ •"'''** 
 
 We can form an idea of the amount of labour spent upon 
 this picture from the account of a contemporary artist. 
 Domenico Yeneziano, in a letter written from Perugia (1438) 
 to Pietro de' Medici, describes Fra Filippo as " engaged upon 
 an altar-piece for the church of tli^ Santo Spirito, which, if 
 he were to work upon it day and night, might be completed 
 in five years." ^ ^ » 
 
 We possess in our National Gallery another painting of 
 the Virgin Enthroned^ surrounded by Saints and Angels, said 
 
 ^ Quadri Grandi, No. 42. Gtowe an^ Cavakaselle, vol. ii. p. 326, 
 2 Vasari ed. 1878-9,»vol. wTnote to p. ^18J^ 
 
 . ^ :.^ >.-^ 
 
60 THE SUCCESSOES OF TEA ANGELTCO. 
 
 to be by Fra Filippo Lippi; but, according to the latest 
 edition of Yasari/ this is not the Santo Spirito altar-piece, 
 although it is so marked in the catalogue.^ 
 
 Three out of the other four pictures by Fra Filippo Lippi, 
 in our National Collection, can be exactly traced (Nos. 248, 
 666, 667). 
 
 (1) The Vision of S. Bernard,^ which was painted for 
 forty lire in 1447, to adorn the space above the door of the 
 Cancelleria in the Palazzo de' Signori at Florence. 
 
 It is a remarkable and authentic picture, but not by any 
 means so attractively coloured as most of Fra Filippo' s 
 pictures. 
 
 (2 and 3) The Annunciation, and aS'. John the Baptist with 
 fix other Saints. These were painted for his patron, Cosimo 
 de' Medici, for the Palazzo Riccardi, and, therefore, among the 
 saints in the last picture, the usual compliment is paid of 
 introducing SS. Cosmo and Damian among the saints. The 
 pictures are both marked with the crest of the Medici, three 
 feathers tied together in a ring. Cosimo de' Medici was, in 
 truth, his constant patron, not only using his influence to 
 procure for Fra Filippo ecclesiastical appointments, but 
 giving him commissions for pictures, which he afterwards 
 presented to the various potentates of Italy. 
 
 Among these we may mention Alfonso, King of Naples; 
 and a letter is extant, written by Giovanni de' Medici to 
 Messer Bartolommeo Serragli at Naples, June, 1456, re- 
 joicing that one of Fra Filippo Lippi's pictures should be 
 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, vol. ii. note to p. 618. 
 
 2 Crowe and Cavalcaselle are doubtful whether this picture is by Fra 
 Filippo at all, and see in it traces of the handiwork of Benozzo Gozzoli, 
 Vol. ii. p. 350. 
 
 3 No. 248, note. "The Saint, dressed in white, is represented writing 
 his homilies at a desk placed on a table formed of the solid rock. On the 
 desk is some paper and a leathern ink bottle ; by his side are some books. 
 The Virgin, surrounded by angels, appears before him." 
 
FKA FILIPPO LIPPI. 61 
 
 SO highly esteemed by his Majesty Alfonso, and offering 
 him another by the same artist. ^ 
 
 This commerce of pictures between Florence and Naples 
 accounts for those paintings which Era Filippo Lippi is said 
 to have executed during his supposed residence at Naples 
 and Ancona after his deliverance from slavery in Barbary 
 (1432-9). It is now estnblished, by documents proving his 
 continued residence in Tuscany at that period, that the 
 artist was never at either town ; and we learn with regret 
 that the story of his having obtained his freedom by a 
 clever sketch in charcoal of his master, is a fiction. 
 
 Besides the powerful support of the Medici, Fra Filippo 
 had other patrons among the great families in Florence 
 and its vicinity. In Arezzo we read of a certain Carlo 
 Marzuppini, who commissioned him to paint the altar- 
 piece for the Cappella S. Bernardo in Monte Oliveto of 
 Arezzo. 
 
 Yasari records ^ that " Messer " Carlo found fault with the 
 artist for the careless way in which he had painted the 
 hands of his figures, and adds that in consequence of this 
 remark Fra Filippo ever afterwards concealed the extremities 
 of his figures with drapery. 
 
 The artist introduced the portrait of his critical patron 
 into the picture, which is now in the Galleria Lateranense 
 at Rome. It is said by competent critics, who have seen 
 it there, that Messer Carlo had some ground for his 
 complaints.^ 
 
 The portrait of another patron, Messer Alessandro degli 
 Alessandri, is introduced among the figures in an altar-piece 
 painted for his chapel at Yincigliati. This picture was for- 
 merly in the Palazzo Strozzi, at Florence. 
 
 Fra Filippo painted, besides these, numerous other pictures 
 
 ^ Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii. p. 328. 
 
 2 Yasari, ed. 1878-9, pp. 618, 619. 
 
 ' Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii. p. 326. 
 
62 THE SUCCESSOES OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 for the churches and convents in Florence. Many of them 
 have now found their way into the galleries at Florence ; 
 among these : — 
 
 The Nativity of Christ, with a choir of angels singing the 
 " Gloria," and a background of rocks and caverns, into which 
 are introduced figures of S. Mary Magdalen, S. Jerome, and 
 another hermit, supposed to be a portrait. 
 
 A beautiful Madonna with four Saints, the best of his 
 sacred pictures. 
 
 The large Coronation of the Virgin, originally painted 
 for the nuns of S. Ambrogio, in which his own portrait 
 as an old man appears, while an angel in front of him 
 holds a scroll on which is written, " Is perfecit opus.^^ (See 
 Illustration.) 
 
 The Predella of the Santo Spirito, which we have already 
 mentioned. 
 
 One of his finest Madonnas is in the Pitti Palace, which, 
 although not vulgar, is of that essentially earthly type 
 which characterises all Fra Filippo's Madonnas. In all the 
 accessories it also marks a deviation from the principle 
 of devotion which had hitherto guided the treatment of 
 this subject.^ 
 
 But although the Italian critics select for especial praise 
 his smaller pictures, on account of their graceful execution 
 and the soft delicacy of their colouring, he derives another 
 kind of fame from his frescoes at Prato and Spoleto. His 
 first work in the cathedral was a picture representing the 
 Death of S. Bernard, painted to fill the space above one of 
 the side doors. In the centre of the painting the saint is 
 represented lying in his coffin, which is supposed to heal 
 
 ^ ** It is a circular picture representing the half length Virgin seated in 
 a chair with the infant Saviour, all but naked, on her knee. In her left 
 hand she holds a pomegranate which the Saviour grasps with his right, 
 whilst, looking up, he holds a few of the red grains in his left." — Crowe 
 and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii. p. 333. 
 
f LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 CALIFC; 
 
THE CORONATION OF THE 
 In the Accademia dell 
 
5IN. BY FILIPPO LIPPI. 
 ? Arti, at Florence, 
 
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI. 63 
 
 all the sick who approach to touch it. Round it stand a 
 group of weeping friars, among whom Fra Filippo intro- 
 duced his own portrait. The expression of the heads is 
 admirable, and the fresh and delicate colouring in the artist's 
 best style. 
 
 This work gave such satisfaction to the superintendent of 
 the cathedral, Geminiano Inghirami, for whom it was painted, 
 that it obtained for Fra Filippo the commission to paint the 
 frescoes in the choir. He chose two subjects, the life of S. 
 John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, under whose 
 rule Prato fell ; and that of S. Stephen, the saint to whom 
 the Church or " Pieve " (for it was not then a cathedral) was 
 dedicated. 
 
 The scenes selected from the life of S. John the Baptist 
 were — (1) his Birth; (2) Parting from his Parents; (3) his 
 Preaching in the Wilderness ; (4) the Baptism of our Saviour ; 
 (5) Herod's Feast ; and (6) the Decapitation of the Baptist. 
 
 The Preaching in the Wilderness and Herod s Feast are con- 
 sidered to be the most remarkable of this series. In the 
 first, Fra Filippo succeeds in giving a look of almost divine 
 inspiration to the countenance of the preacher, while the 
 listening crowd exhibit every variety of expression and atti- 
 tude as they hang upon his words. The same talent for 
 varying the expression and attitude of his figures finds full 
 scope in Herod's Feasty which is represented with much 
 splendour, and again the artist introduces his own portrait, 
 dressed in his friar's dress, among the guests. These are 
 clad in the costumes of the period, richly ornamented and 
 embroidered, with the Florentine head-dress of the period. 
 The dismay of the guests when the decapitated head is 
 brought in is admirably rendered. 
 
 The frescoes representing the life of S, Stephen occupy 
 the opposite side of the choir. In the last of these — the 
 Lamentation over the Death of S. Stephen — is considered 
 almost equal to Raphael in the varied attitudes and motion 
 
64 THE SUCCESSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 of his figures. Among the bystanders he introduced por- 
 traits of himself, Era Diamante, and Carlo de' Medici, a very- 
 powerful and unmistakable portrait. All the figures are 
 larger than life, a practice which was afterwards much 
 adopted by succeeding artists. 
 
 The decoration of the choii* at Prato, often interrupted by 
 other commissions, was not completed till the year 1465. 
 To the same period belong the altar-pieces for the churches 
 of Sta. Margherita and San Domenico at Prato, and others, 
 which have now found their way into the museum there. 
 The frescoes at Spoleto, representing scenes from the Life of 
 the Virgin, were on the same grandiose scale. They were 
 painted in the apse of the cathedral. Pra Filippo was 
 never able to complete them; dying suddenly, it is said, 
 from poison, in 1469. He was buried in the cathedral 
 at Spoleto, in the midst of his unfinished labours. 
 
 Pra Pilippo was looked upon as the greatest colourist of 
 his age, especially in wall painting, where he succeeded in 
 giving great charm to his colouring. He was a powerful 
 and rapid draughtsman, thoroughly acquainted with the 
 technicalities of his art, although, partly on account of the 
 indolence of his nature, he had a tendency to generalise the 
 drawing of the hands and feet of his figures. Although he 
 formed his style upon Masaccio, he never attained to his 
 master's serious and dignified treatment of his subjects; a 
 certain coarseness of thought and a want of spirituality mar 
 paintings which would be otherwise full of grace. He has 
 also the unenviable distinction of being the first among the 
 artists to introduce a wilful irreverence into his treatment 
 of sacred subjects, one of the first steps which led to the 
 final desecration of religious art. His method of dealing 
 with drapery will serve as an illustration of this ; which, in 
 his hands, underwent a complete transformation, consistent 
 with the realising tendency of the time. He attempted the 
 imitation of texture and material, a practice hitherto un- 
 
FRA FILIPPO LIPPI. 65 
 
 known among the artists ; and it is a painful shock to 
 devotional feeling when he introduces the costume of the 
 day into the most sacred scenes, clothing the angels in the 
 Florentine garb, and exchanging the ideal drapery of the 
 Virgin for the same realistic style. Sir Joshua Reynolds 
 tells us that " it is the inferior style that marks variety of 
 stuffs ; in the grand style the clothing is neither woollen nor 
 linen, nor silk nor satin, nor velvet — it is drapery, and 
 nothing more." 
 
 The immediate followers and pupils of Era Filippo were — 
 Fra Diamante, who assisted him in the frescoes at Prato and 
 Spoleto. He also painted two or three altar-pieces at Prato, 
 and the latest commentary has assigned to him a fresco in 
 the Sistine Chapel of Our Saviour giving the Keys to S. Peter, 
 hitherto said to be by Fra Bartolomjneo della Gatta.^ 
 
 Jacopo del Sellajo was another pupil and assistant, but of 
 his works little is known. Francesco Peselli and Sandro 
 Eotticelli were pupils of considerably more mark, and will 
 find their place in succeeding chapters. 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF FILIPPO LIPPL 
 
 BERLIN. Museum. 
 
 Madonna and Child. 
 Madonna adoring the Infant Christ, with S. John and S. Bernard 
 
 {signed fkater philippvs. p). 
 The Virgin of Mercy. 
 
 FLOEENCE. Accademiadelle Belle Arti. 
 
 Madonna and Saints {from Santa Croce, Florence : the predella is by 
 
 Pesellino). 
 Coronation of the Virgin {signed is. perfecit. opus ; from Sani 
 Ambrosia, Florence). 
 
 I Vasaxi, ed. 1878-9, p. 641. 
 P F A P' 
 
6Q THE SUCCESSOES "OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 FLORENCE. Acoademia delle Belle Arti {continued). 
 
 Predella, Annunciation, and three other scenes {from the Convent of 
 Santo Sjpirito, Florence .-predella of the ** Virgin and Child" in 
 the Louvre). 
 Virgin adoring the Infant Christ, with the Magdalen, S. Jerome 
 
 and S. Hilarion {from the Church of the Annalena, Florence). 
 Virgin and Child, with S. John the Baptist and a Camaduline 
 Monk {from the Convent of the Camalduli). 
 
 Uffizi. 
 S. Augustin. (^^ Certainly not by Fra Filippo, but is either by 
 
 Filippino or Botticelli." — Crowe and Cavalcaselle. *' Certainly by 
 
 Filippino." — Burckhardt's " Cicerone.") 
 Virgin adoring the Infant Christ, with Angels {the drawing for this 
 
 is also in the Uffizi). 
 
 PiTTi Palace. 
 Madonna and Child {The Madonna is said to be a portrait of 
 Lucrezia Buti). 
 
 San Loeenzo. 
 Annunciation. 
 
 Chiesa degli Innocenti. 
 Virgin and Child, with Saints {similar to the picture in the Uffizi). 
 
 LONDON". National Gallery. 
 The Vision of S. Bernard. 
 Madonna and Child enthroned, surrounded by Angels and Saints 
 
 {said to be from Santo Spirito, Florence. ^* It bears the stamp of 
 
 the school of Fra, Filippo, with a mixture of characteristic 
 
 features peculiar to the manner of Benozzo Gozzoli." — Crowe and 
 
 Cavalcaselle). 
 The Virgin Mary seated, an Angel presenting the Infant Christ to 
 
 her. {^*Its style shows it to be by one vjho issued from the school 
 
 of the Carmelite." — Crowe and Cavalcaselle.) 
 The Annunciation {painted for Cosmo de' Medici). 
 S. John the Baptist with six other Saints {painted for Cosmo de* 
 
 Medici). 
 The Adoration of the Magi. {In the catalogue *' ascribed to Filippino 
 
 Lippi." Mr. J. A. Crowe attributes it to Filip)po.) 
 
 MUNICH. PiNAKOTHEK. 
 
 The Annunciation. 
 Madonna and Child. 
 
FILIPPINO LIPPI. 67 
 
 PARIS. LouvRK. 
 
 The Nativity {from the church of S. Margherita, Prato. Crowe arid 
 
 Cavalcaselle consider that it is probably by Francesco Peselli). 
 The Virgin and Child [from Santo Spirito, Florence). 
 
 PRATO. San Domenico. In the Refectory. 
 
 The Infant Christ adored by the Virgin and Saints. 
 
 Cathedral. 
 Life of S. John the Baptist. 
 Ijife of S. Stephen. 
 Death of S. Bernard. 
 
 Gallery. 
 The Virgin giving the Girdle to S. Thomas {perhaps painted for 
 
 Santa Margherita, Prato). 
 The Virgin and Saints and four poor members of the Ceppo. 
 Predella [said to be that of the Nativity in the Louvre). 
 
 ROME. Lateran Gallery. 
 
 Coronation of the Virgin {painted for Carlo Marzappini). 
 
 Palazzo Doria. 
 The Annunciation. 
 
 SPOLETO. Cathedral. 
 
 Scenes from the Life of the Virgin {completed by Fra Diamante in 
 1470). 
 
 TURIN. Gallery. 
 
 Two Bishops. 
 
 riLIPPINO LIPPI. Born 1460. Died 1504. 
 
 The birth of Pilippino di Pilippo Lippi is enveloped in 
 hopeless obscurity. Unfortunately his registry in the guild 
 of the Florentine painters is illegible. Yasari tells us that 
 he died in 1505, aged forty-five. That would place his birth 
 in 1460 — a date given by many writers. Others give 1461, 
 and some 1458. 
 
 The story of his being a son of Pilippo Lippi has long been 
 dismissed. That he was a favourite pupil of the Frate is 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE SUCCESSORS OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 probable, and an adopted son or a relative of some degree 
 quite possible. Apart from the commissions he received for 
 paintings, and the dates on his works, we have but scanty 
 records of his life. He was educated at Prato. 
 
 In 1496 he and Perugino and Cosimo Rosselli were called 
 upon to value Baldovinetti's fresco in the Gianfigliazzi chapel 
 in Santa Trinita, Florence. And in the following year he 
 married : his wife's name was Margherita : his son Francesco 
 became a friend of Benvenuto Cellini. 
 
 In 1498 Filippino was appointed, with Perugino and 
 Lorenzo di Credi, a member of the committee to decide on the 
 best means of repairing the damage, done by a storm, to the 
 lantern above the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence. 
 In 1501 we find him mentioned, by a member of the Town 
 Council of Prato, as a "fit person" to paint a picture for 
 the audience chamber of the Palazzo Pubblico. And the last 
 record we have of him, previous to his death, is on the 
 25th of January, 1504 (the year of his death), when he, with 
 Leonardo da Yinci, Perugino, Ghirlandajo, and others, was 
 called upon to decide on a fitting place for Michelangelo's 
 David. And it was Filippino who made the most practical 
 suggestion, that as Michelangelo had made the statue, he 
 should be asked to say what site it should occupy. 
 
 The instruction in art of Filippino Lippi was confided to 
 the care of Sandro Botticelli and Fra Diamante. 
 
 Of these two teachers, Filippino seems to have been most 
 guided by the style of Fra Diamante. Many years of work 
 under Fra Filippo had thoroughly imbued Fra Diamante 
 with his master's manner, hence the indelible stamp of the 
 Frate which appears in Filippino's works. But Filippino 
 was free from many of the defects which are blots upon the 
 paintings of the Carmelite artist. He is never coarse or 
 vulgar in his treatment of sacred subjects, and was far better 
 able to appreciate the grandeur of Masaccio's manner when 
 called upon to complete the painting of the frescoes in the 
 
9 L I B K A K J 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 OALIFOUN 
 
THE MARTYRDOM OF ST. PETER. 
 
 BY FILIPPINO LIPPI. In the Brand 
 
ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL BEFORE THE PROCONSUL. 
 I, in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. 
 
 (\^ 
 
 3^ 
 
 V^^^ 
 
 
 :^l^^ 
 
riLiPPiNO Lippi. 69 
 
 "'Jrancacci Chapel/ which had remained unfinished since 
 Masaccio abandoned them fifty-eight years before. Here he 
 shows himself fully capable of grasping the serious dignity of 
 Masaccio's style. Although not quite equal to the great master 
 either in the clearness of his colours, or in the distribution 
 of his groups, some of the individual figures are magnificent ; 
 if we take, for example, that of S. Paul standing before the 
 prison of S. Peter, which was afterwards adopted with little 
 alteration by Paphael in his famous cartoon. 
 
 The Visit of S. Paul to S. Peter in Prison and the Libera- 
 tion of S. Peter occupy the two pilasters of the chapel, and 
 were his first composition there. The next, of SS. Pe^er and 
 Paul before the Proconsuly although the figures are noble and 
 dignified, shows the failure in distributing his groups, and the 
 same fault appears in the Crucifixion of S. Peter. The last 
 fresco was the Resurrection of the King's Son, left incomplete 
 by Masaccio. Filippino's work in this painting comprised 
 the youth himself, painted from a portrait of the painter 
 Granacci, and the figures of the surrounding group ; among 
 them, the artist introduced portraits of the historian 
 Guicciardini, Luigi Pulci the poet, Antonio Pollaiuolo, a 
 contemporary artist, and many others. 
 
 His fame as an artist being undeniably established by the 
 completion of this task, Filippino received numerous com- 
 missions. The archives of Florence record that he was chosen 
 (in 1492) to replace Perugino, then absent at Rome, in the 
 adornment of the hall of the Palazzo Pubblico. It is not 
 known whether or not he performed this office, but we do 
 know that about this period he finished the great painting 
 of the Madonna and Saints in the Uffizi, originally intended 
 
 1 S. Peter in Prison visited by S. Paul, and S. Peter freed from Prison ; 
 SS. Peter and Paul before the Proconsul ; the Crucifxion of S. Peter ; 
 the Resuscitation of the King^s Son (begun by Masaccio). Vasari, ed. 1878-9, 
 vol. iii. pp. 479 et seq. See also p. 488 et seq. for the new commentary, in 
 which Filippino is undoubtedly proved to have finished these frescoes. 
 
70 THE SUCCESSORS OF FKA ANGEUCO. 
 
 for the Sala degli Otto in the Palazza Pubblico. This 
 picture was only rivalled by the altar-piece painted by 
 him in the Badia at Florence ; which, executed when he was 
 only twenty years old, is always considered, for drawing, 
 expression, and vigorous colour, the best type of his early 
 manner. Fra Filippo's treatment of the same subject, 
 the Vision qf S. Bernard (now in our National Gallery), is 
 very different. The altar-piece of the Cappella Nerli in the 
 Santo Spirit© at Florence belongs also to Filippino's prime. 
 
 His next commission was from Rome, where he was sum- 
 moned by Cardinal Olivieri Caraffa, to paint the Cappella 
 Caraffa, in Sta. Maria sopra Minerva.^ He ornamented this 
 chapel with scenes from the Legend of S. Thomas Aquinas ; 
 and although these allegorical and ceremonial subjects were 
 not in harmony with his genius, he showed a remarkable 
 advance in his power of distributing his figures in the prin- 
 cipal scene, which represents the Miracle of the Crucifix, 
 In another episode, the Glorification of S. Thomas, he gives 
 a marvellous variety of expression to the false teachers who 
 have been confounded by the reasoning of the saint. 
 
 In another part of the chapel he represents scenes from 
 the Life of the Virgin, but these have been retouched. The 
 Caraffa Chapel was finished in 1493. The altar-piece painted 
 for S. Francesco del Palco at Prato belongs to about the 
 same period (1495). It is still recorded how the brotherhood ^ 
 intended the commission for Domenico Ghirlandajo, but could 
 not raise the sum he required for it, and therefore entrusted 
 it to Filippino. In the following year he painted for S. 
 Donato al Scopeto at Florence an altar-piece, the Adoration 
 of the Magi, and followed the pyramidal form of composition 
 adopted by Fra Filippo in his treatment of the same subject. 
 Filippino's composition is considered to be the better of the 
 
 1 On his journey to Eome he was commissioned by Lorenzo de' Medici 
 to order on his behalf a magnificent tomb to be erected to Fra Filippo in. 
 the cathedral at Spoleto. ^ Yasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 4d7. 
 
VISION OF SAINT BERNARD. BY FILI^IJIO J^W* \\ J 
 In the Church of La Badia, FloreJicA -^ ' 
 
 n 
 
 
riLipriNO Lippi. 71 
 
 two, some of Ms heads being little inferior to those of 
 Kaphael. 
 
 Quite late in his career he painted, for the heirs of Filippo 
 Strozzi, the paintings in , the Strozzi Chapel, for which he had 
 received the commission, when at Rome in 1489, from Filippo 
 Strozzi himself. The taste of the decorations of the Strozzi 
 Chapel have been called in question, because of the grotesque 
 mixture of exaggerated actions, the architecture overcharged 
 with ornament, and the too brilliant colouring. But these 
 faults are compensated for by traits of great beauty. The 
 artist's extraordinary power of representing emotion and 
 varied dramatic action is nowhere more clearly shown. The 
 paintings represent the Miracles of SS. JoJm and Philip. In 
 one of these — the Resuscitation of Drusiana by S. John — he 
 succeeds in giving a wonderful expression of returning life 
 to Drusiana, as she raises herself upon the bier, from which 
 the bearers flee in terror, while a number of women remain 
 in trembling attention, with children clinging to their knees. 
 
 The same animation and movement appears in another of 
 the series, in which S. Philip exorcises the Dragon. The 
 figures are drawn with peculiar energy and ease — the women 
 beautiful, and the men dignified. 
 
 These frescoes are also remarkable for the careful painting 
 of the accessories — vases, armour, head-dresses, swords, togas, 
 and sacerdotal vestments, of which Filippino made a careful 
 study, and he was among the first of the artists who introduced 
 this new feature into art. Filippino died suddenly on April 
 18th, 1504. He was universally beloved not only on account 
 of his rare talents, but also because of his blameless life, un- 
 failing gentleness and courtesy to all. Vasari records that 
 he was carried to the grave in the Church of San Michele 
 Bisdomini, Florence, with every mark of public esteem. 
 
 Among his pupils, Bafaellino del Garbo was the one who 
 most closely followed his master's manner. 
 
72 THE SUCCESSORS OF FEA AlfGELICO. 
 
 THE PRINCIPAL WORKS OF FILIPPINO LIPPI. 
 
 BERLIN. Museum. 
 
 Portrait of a Young Man. 
 
 Madonna and Child. 
 
 Christ on the Cross, with the Virgin and S. Francis. 
 
 Madonna and Child. 
 
 BOLOGNA. San Domenico. 
 
 Madonna and Saints. 1501. 
 
 FLORENCE. Badia. 
 
 The Vision of S. Bernard. 1480. 
 
 Santa Maria del Carmine. In the Brancacd Chapel. 
 S. Peter in prison visited by S. Paul. 
 . S. Peter freed from prison. 
 
 S. Peter and S. Paul before the Proconsul. 
 
 Crucifixion of S. Peter. 
 
 Recuscitation of the King's son {begun by Masaceio). 
 
 Santa Maria Novella. In the Chapel of Filippo Strozzi. 
 The Miracles and Martyrdom of the Apostles John and Philip. 
 
 ACCADEMIA DELLE BeLLE ArTI. 
 
 Deposition from the Cross {the lower part by Ferugino : from the 
 
 SS. Annunziata, Florence). 
 S. Augustin. (Attributed in the Catalogue to Filippo Lippi ; ascribed 
 
 by Mr, Crowe to Filippino.) 
 
 CoRsiNi Gallery. 
 Virgin and Child with Saints. 
 
 PiTTi Palace, 
 Holy Family with Angels. (** /i5 wants the finish and feeling notice- 
 able in Filippin/)." — Crowe and Cavalcaselle.) 
 The Death of Lucretia. 
 
 Torrigiani Palace. 
 The Life of Esther {panels of a wedding -chest). 
 
 Sawto Sfirito. In the Cappella Nerli. 
 Madonna with S. Martin and S. Catherine. 
 
FILIPPINO LIPPI. 73 
 
 FLORENCE. Uffizi. 
 
 Adoration of the Magi {signed filippus me pinxit de lipsis 
 
 FLORENTINUS, and dated 1496; painted for San Donato al Scopeto, 
 
 Florence). 
 Madonna and Child with Saints [painted in 1485 /or the Sala degli 
 
 Otto in the Palazzo Signoria, Florence). <^ 
 
 S. Augustin. {This work^ though given in the catalogue to Filippo, 
 
 is hy several authorities attributed to Filippino. ) 
 
 LONDON. National Gallery. 
 
 The Virgin and Child, S. Jerome and S. Dominic adoring the Infant 
 
 Christ {painted for the Eucellai Chapel in San Fancrazio, 
 
 Florence). 
 Adoration of the Magi {originally part of a painted chest). 
 S. Francis in Glory {dated mccccxcii). 
 
 LUCCA. San Michele. 
 
 Madonna enthroned with Saints. 
 
 MUNICH. PiNAKOTHEK. 
 
 The Appearance of Christ to the Virgin {painted about 1495, for 
 
 the Brotherhood of S. Francesco del Falco^ at Prato). 
 Pietk {given in the catalogue to Ghirlandajo. Crowe and Cavalcasclle 
 
 consider that it is by Filippino). 
 
 PRATO. Mercatale. 
 
 Madonna and Saints {a tabernacle), 
 
 ROME. Santa Maria sopra Minerva. In the Capella Caraffa. 
 
 Legend of S. Thomas Aquinas. 
 
 SAN GIMIGNANO. Palazzo Pubblico. 
 The Annunciation. 
 
CHAPTEK V. 
 BENOZZO GOZZOLI. Boen 1420. Died 1498. 
 
 ** Thou in our wonder and astonishment 
 Hast built thyself a life-long monument." 
 
 BENOZZO GOZZOLI was the favourite pupil and com- 
 panion of Era Angelico. He was almost the last 
 artist who represented the expiring school of sacred art in 
 Italy ; but even in his case, the influence of his master seems 
 only to have guided the first period of his painting. In his 
 later works he became a decided realist, using Scripture scenes 
 and subjects chiefly as a means for the representation of 
 luxurious dress, animal life, and landscape. 
 
 Benozzo di Lese di Sandro, commonly called Benozzo Gozzoli, 
 was born at Florence in 1420 (or, according to his father's 
 income paper of 1470, in 1424). Gozzoli, as we have seen, 
 accompanied Era Angelico to Rome, and was his assistant in 
 decorating the cathedral of Orvieto in 1447. Two years later 
 he parted from his master, and went to seek his own fortune. 
 He first applied to the Council of the Duomo at Orvieto, for 
 the commission to complete Era Angelico's unfinished work ; 
 but was met by the request to give some proof of his skill. 
 In this he would appear to have been unsuccessful, as he did 
 not receive the commission ; and we next hear of him at 
 
BENOZZI GOZZOLI. 75 
 
 Montefalco, near Foligno, the scene of Fra Angelico's early 
 works. Here his master's name stood him in good stead, for 
 he obtained many commissions, and his paintings at this 
 period show more than any of his other works the impress of 
 his master's manner. 
 
 He painted some frescoes for the Church of S. Fortunato, 
 about a mile from the town ; a Virgin and Child, "above the 
 portal, with all the fresh purity of Fra Angelico's colouring ; 
 an altar-piece of aS'. Thomas receiving the Girdle, with a gradino 
 representing scenes from the Life of the Virgin ; an Annuncia- 
 tion, in fresco on the walls, and an A'potheosis of S. Fortunate, 
 which has been much repainted. His labours for the church 
 and monastery of S. Francesco in the same town were more 
 considerable. The apse of the church and four sides of the 
 choir are occupied by Twelve Scenes from the Life of S. Francis ; 
 and on the base of each of the four sides are medallion por- 
 traits of S. Francis and the most illustrious men of his order. 
 Among these are introduced those of Dante, Petrarch, and 
 Giotto, ^ with Latin inscriptions. The whole work is signed 
 by the painter, and dated 1452.^ 
 
 He remained at Montefalco till 1456, painting also for the 
 Chapel of S. Jerome, and a large altar-piece for a Perugian 
 church,^ still in the manner of his master, though he never 
 attains to his excellence. 
 
 In 1457, Gozzoli was summoned to Florence by Piero de* 
 Medici ; here his paintings in the Palazzo Picardi give evidence 
 that he was no longer proof against the temptations of the 
 realistic school. His great fresco in the chapel, which repre- 
 sented the journey of the wise men from their own country, 
 and their return to it, in one long procession of figures, on 
 
 ^ Beneath that of Giotto : — 
 
 " Pictorum eximius Jottus 
 fundamentum et lux." 
 
 2 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 60. 3 ^^^ \j^ ^\^q gallery at Perugia. 
 
76 THE SUCCESSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 foot and on horseback, covered the whole walls of the body of 
 the building. 
 
 Here Benozzo appears to have laid aside his master's reli- 
 gious and devotional treatment of the subject, and to have 
 adopted another, which, though full of invention and variety, 
 was purely secular. All religious feeling is merged in the 
 gay and brilliant cortege of crowned kings, knights, pages, 
 and squires, horses with their trappings, leopards, and dogs, 
 with a profusion of gold ornament, which with portraits in 
 the costume of the time down to the minutest details, make a 
 living page out of the history of the fifteenth century. 
 
 Something of his master's teaching reappears in the paint- 
 ings of angels singing and scattering flowers as they advance, 
 which adorn the sanctuary of the choir. Fra Angelico's in- 
 fluence is still more evident in one of the panel pictures, 
 considered to be Benozzo' s best example, representing the 
 Virgin Enthroned, painted for the Compagnia di S. Marco, 
 and now in the National Gallery.^ 
 
 At S. Gimignano during the years 1463-4, Benozzo finished 
 a series of wall-paintings, under the patronage of Domenico 
 Strambi, for the Church of S. Agostino, representing scenes 
 from the Life of S. Augustin ; and several of the neighbour- 
 ing churches contain frescoes executed by him at this 
 period. 
 
 But the scene of his greatest labours was Pisa. The Pisans 
 were beginning to recover from the calamities with which they 
 had been overwhelmed at the beginning of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. Once more they had leisure to think of those arts of 
 peace which they had been the first to promote in Italy. 
 Their far-famed Campo Santo was not complete, the north 
 wall was still bare, and they entrusted the work of decorating 
 it to Benozzo in 1469. He was at this time past fifty, but so 
 
 ^ No. 283. The contract stipulated that the figure of the Virgin was 
 to he made similar in mode, form, and ornament to The Virgin Enthroned^ 
 over the high altar of S. Marco, Florence, by Fra Giovanni da Fiesole. 
 
THE CAMPO SANTO AT PISA. (The North Side.) 
 Showing the position of Benozzo Gozzoli's Frescoes.' -o y^ 
 
 \ 
 
 \\> 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
BENOZZO GOZZOLI. 77 
 
 passionate was his love of art, so indefatigable his powers, 
 that he cheerfully undertook a task, which, according to 
 Yasari, was sufficient to scare a whole army of painters.^ 
 
 The frescoes were twenty-four in number, but two out of 
 the twenty-four have completely perished. They represent 
 scenes from the Old Testament, beginning with Noah, 
 and ending with the Queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon. 
 The accompanying illustration shows their position on 
 the wall. On the extreme right hand are, on the top, the 
 Fall of Jericho and David and Goliath, and underneath 
 Aaron's Bod. 
 
 This marvellous series, in which Benozzo displays an end- 
 lessly fertile imagination, took sixteen years to accomplish. 
 It has the same features as the Adoration of the Magi, in the 
 Palazzo Riccardi. Hundreds of figures, rich colours, ample 
 draperies, profusion of accessories ; portraits of the great 
 people of his time, Cosimo, Lorenzo, and Giuliano de' Medici, 
 Poliziano, and the artist himself on horseback, witnessing the 
 adoration of the eastern kings before the shrine at Bethlehem. 
 Perhaps some remnant of his master's spirit induced the 
 painter to introduce the portraits of the living only as spec- 
 tators, not as taking part in the action of the scene, as if to 
 suggest that the scenes of sacred history belong to all time, 
 and must pass before the understanding of all mankind. The 
 frescoes were executed in tempera, but owing to some new 
 method employed by the artist, great portions of the colouring 
 have perished, especially in the fresco of the Queen of Sheha, 
 of which scarcely a fragment remains. 
 
 Both as a draughtsman and a colourist, Benozzo Gozzoli 
 was more a clever imitator of the masterpieces of other 
 artists, than gifted with any great original talent. But this 
 power of imitation, which serves him up to a certain point, in 
 lieu of scientific principle, fails him at critical moments, such 
 as the foreshortening of his figures, in which he showed the 
 J Yasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 49. 
 
78 THE SUCCESSOES OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 deficiencies of Fra Angelico's school ; and the perspective of 
 his architecture. 
 
 Even with this gigantic work in hand, Benozzo found means 
 to paint several other pictures in Pisa ; The Apotheosis of 
 Thomas Aquinas ^ for the Duomo ; ^ the Virgin and S. Anna for 
 S. Marta, now in the Academy of Pisa ; also in the same 
 gallery, A Virgin and Child, once in S. Benedetto a Ripa d' 
 Arno, and another of the same subject in the Monastery of 
 S. Anna. The Pisans, as a token of their gratitude for such 
 gigantic labours on their behalf, erected a tomb for him, in 
 the midst of them in the Campo Santo, which they presented 
 to him, during his lifetime, in 1478. The inscription in one 
 of the frescoes above records that his surrounding works are 
 his best monument. The frescoes were finished in 1485, 
 but records prove Benozzo to have been alive in 1496. He 
 died in 1498, at the age of seventy-eight. 
 
 Zanobi Macchiavelli was the chief pupil of Benozzo Gozzoli. 
 They worked together in the Campo Santo ; he was not an 
 artist of very high powers, but his ability rather consisted in 
 imitating great models. He is supposed to have painted the 
 Madonna and Child (No. 586), ascribed to Fra Filippo Lippi 
 in the National Gallery. In the Louvre the Coronation of the 
 Virgin is signed with his name, and the date 1473 ;2 and 
 there is another painting of the same subject in the Academy 
 of Pisa. He must not be confounded with Zanobi Strozzi, 
 a miniaturist, and a pupil of Fra Angelico. 
 
 Melozzo da Forli has sometimes been confused with Benozzo 
 Gozzoli. He was a contemporary (born 1438, died 1494), and 
 executed some considerable paintings in several churches at 
 Rome. Among these, an altar-piece in the Chiesa degli 
 Santi-Apostoli, representing the Ascension, was once a fine 
 painting, but only a fragment of it is now extant. He also 
 painted portraits of the Popes Sixtus IV. and Julius II. in 
 the Vatican. 
 
 1 Now in the Louvre. ^ Ifot now exhibited. 
 
LIBKA '. 
 
 UN I VERS 
 
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BENOZZO GOZZOLI. 79 
 
 Melozzo is supposed to have been the protege of Federigo 
 di Montef eltro, Duke of Urbino. Two out of the seven pictures 
 painted by Melozzo for the Palace at Urbino are now in our 
 National Gallery. Another is in the possession of Her 
 Majesty the Queen. 
 
 THE PEINCIPAL WORKS OF BENOZZO GOZZOLI. 
 
 FLORENCE. Palazzo Riccardi. 
 
 The journey of the Magi to Bethlehem. 1463. 
 
 Uffizi. 
 A predella — Christ between S. John and the Magdalen; the 
 Marriage of S. Catherine {from Santa Croce^ Florence). 
 
 LONDON. National Gallery. 
 
 The Yirgin and Child enthroned {painted in 1461 for the * Com- 
 
 pagnia di San Marco y Florence). 
 The Rape of Helen. 
 
 MONTEF ALCO. San Foetunato. 
 
 Virgin and Child {painted about 1450). 
 
 Apotheosis of S. Fortunato ,, „ „ 
 Annunciation ,, ,, „ 
 
 MONASTEKY OF SaN FrANCESCO. 
 
 Scenes from the Life of S. Francis. 1452. {In the choir.) 
 Madonna and Saints. 1452. {In the chapel of S. Jerome.) 
 
 PARIS. Louvre. 
 
 Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas {painted for the Cathedral at 
 Pisa). 
 
 PERUGIA. Gallery. 
 
 Madonna and Child with Saints, opus benotii db floreiia 
 mcccclvi. 
 
80 THE SUCCESSORS OF FKA ANGELICO. 
 
 riSA. Campo Santo. 
 
 Scenes from the Old Testament ^ : — 
 (i.) Noah and Lis Family ; (ii.) The Curse of Ham ; (iii.) The building of the Tower 
 of Babel ; (iv.) Adoration of the Magi ; (v.) Abraham and the worship of Baal ; (vi ) 
 Abraham and Lot in Egypt ; (vii.) Abraham's Victory ; (viii.) Abraham and Ilagar ; 
 (ix.) Sodom and the escape of Lot ; (x.) Sacrifice of Isaac ; (xi.) Marriage of Rebecca ; 
 (xii.) Birth of Jacob and Esau ; (xiii.) Marriage of Jacob and Rachel, and Jacob's 
 Dream; (xiv.) Meeting of Jacob and Esau, and Rape of Dinah ; (xv.) The Innocence 
 of Joseph; (xvi.) Joseph made known to his brethren; (xvii.) Moses's first Miracle; 
 (xviii.) Passage of the Red Sea; (xix.) The Tables of the Law; (xx.) Aaron's rod; 
 (xxi.) Fall of Jericho, and David and Goliath ; (xxii.) The Queen of Sheba's visit to 
 Solomon. The "Destruction of Dathan and Abiram," and the " Death of Aaron," are 
 now no longer existing. [Painted from 1469 to 1485.] 
 
 Academy. 
 The Conception {painted for Santa Marta, Pisa), 
 Virgin and Child with Saints {painted for S. Benedetto a Bipo 
 d'Arno, Pisa). 
 
 Monastery of Santa Anna. 
 Virgin and Child, with two Angels. 
 
 ROME. Lateean Gallery. 
 
 S. Thomas receiving the girdle. On the predella, scenes from the 
 Life of the Virgin {from San Fortunato, Montefalco). 
 
 SAN GIMIGNANO. Sant' Agostino. 
 S. Sebastian. 1464. 
 
 Scenes from the Life of S. Augustin {seventeen scenes, from his 
 school-days to his death), 1463-4. 
 
 PlEVE. 
 
 Martyrdom of S. Sebastian. 1465. 
 
 Madonna {painted in 1466 for S. Maria Magdalena in San Gimi- 
 gnano). 
 
 Sant' Andrea {near San Gimignano). 
 Madonna and Saints {signed and dated 1466). 
 
 TERNI. San Francesco. 
 
 Marriage of S. Catherine {signed aiid dated 1466). 
 
 ^ Arranged in the order given by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. II. 
 page 510, et seq. 
 
CHAPTEE, VI. 
 
 OIL PAINTING IN FLOEENCE. 
 
 ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO. DOMENICO VENEZIANO. 
 PESELLO AND PESELLINO. 
 
 LIBK.. 
 UN I VERS 
 
 GAUFOilN 
 
 BALDOVINETTI. 
 
 ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO, and Domenico Yeneziano, 
 have hitherto been as inseparably coupled together in 
 history, as Ugolino and his enemy the Archbishop Ruggiero 
 in Dante's Inferno-,^ and for the same reason — one being 
 supposed to have been the victim of the treachery of the 
 other. 
 
 The much vexed question of the introduction of oil-painting 
 into Italy is founded on this story, which is as follows, in 
 the first edition of Yasari. Domenico Yeneziano, • when 
 in Yenice learnt the secret of oil-painting from Antonello 
 da Messina, to whom it had been communicated by Jan 
 van Eyck in Flanders. Domenico Yeneziano brought this 
 new invention to Florence, where he astonished the artists by 
 the brilliancy of his colouring. 
 
 Andrea del Castagno, the friend of Domenico, persuaded 
 him to impart the secret of his method, and then murdered 
 him. Two motives are alleged for this atrocious crime, 
 jealous of the superiority of Dome- 
 a work they were simultaneously 
 ^ Canto xxxii. 1. 15. 
 
 First, that he was 
 nico's painting in 
 
 P F A 
 
82 THE SUCCESSORS OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 engaged upon, in the church of Sta. Maria Nuova ; secondly, 
 that he wished to remain the sole possessor of the marvellous 
 discovery. 
 
 This story, universally accepted hitherto, has been re- 
 examined by Signor Milanesi, the great modern authority on 
 Italian art. ^ 
 
 In his new gloss upon Yasari we find the conclusive 
 argument that, as Domenico Veneziano survived Andrea del 
 Castagno four years, he could not have fallen a victim to the 
 jealousy of his fellow artist in the way Yasari describes. ^ 
 
 It is further stated that the reason for this supposed 
 jealousy was also unfounded, as the two painters did not 
 work simultaneously in Sta. Maria iJiTuova, Domenico' s 
 frescoes being finished in 1445, six years before Andrea 
 began his share of the decoration of the choir. 
 
 The learned commentator can only account for the imputa- 
 tion which has for four centuries stained the fame of Andrea 
 del Castagno, by suggesting, that in 1448, one Domenico di 
 Matteo, a painter, was murdered in Florence by an enemy, 
 who might possibly have been another painter, Andrea di 
 Matteo, who died in 1457. The works both of Andrea del 
 Castagno and Domenico Yeneziano in Sta. Maria Nuova have 
 perished ; but other works remain to prove that both of them 
 were painters of considerable merit. 
 
 It remains a disputed point whether the Florentine 
 artists did derive the secret of oil painting from Domenico 
 Yeneziano. 
 
 There is no doubt that in the list of expenses for painting 
 the frescoes in Sta. Maria Nuova, there are items of linseed 
 oil supplied in large quantities to Messer Domenicho di Yine- 
 
 ^ Ann. 1862. Gennaio-Marzo, p. 1. The question was first opened in 
 the Criornale Storico degli ArcMvi Toscani. 
 
 2 Andrea del Castagno died in 1457, Domenico Yeneziano in 1461, 
 according to the records of the Libri dei Morti in Florence. Vasari, 
 ed. 1878-9, pp. 683, 689. 
 
OIL PAINTING IN FLORENCE. 83 
 
 zia ;* but, on the other hand, those who have examined his 
 painting now ia the Church of Sta. Lucia de' Bardi declare 
 that it is painted in tempera, with no trace of oil; from 
 which two things it would appear that in employing 
 linseed oil to temper his colours for fresco painting he was 
 only following a practice which had been frequently adopted 
 before, but that in panel painting he either could not or 
 would not use it. 
 
 The question as to the use of oil as a vehicle in painting 
 has been discussed with vehemence by all the great writers 
 on art, both as to the exact date when it was first intro- 
 duced, and the method in which it was used by the artists. 
 The result of their deliberations would appear to be as 
 follows : — Linseed oil was no doubt used in painting as 
 early as the eleventh century. We find frequent mention 
 made of it in the writings of the Monk Rugerius, or 
 Theoplulus, called Th& Schedule of Different Arts. Thirty 
 out of the forty chapters of this most interesting work 
 refer to the preparation and application of pigments both 
 for oil, tempera, and fresco painting. ^ It was not, how- 
 ever, used by Giunta and his contemporaries, although their 
 paintings have a certain brilliancy of colouring very like the 
 effect produced by oil painting. A careful chemical analysis 
 has proved this brilliancy to be derived from wax, a vehicle 
 much employed by the Greeks in encaustic painting.^ This 
 practice declined towards the end of the thirteenth century, 
 and was succeeded by that of tempera. 
 
 ^ Gfiomale Storico degli Arch. Toscani, 1862. Gennaio-Marzo, p. 6. 
 
 * Lib. i. c. 18, 20, 26, 27. **And then take the colours which you 
 wish to lay on, rubbing them diligently in linseed oil without water, and 
 make mixtures for faces and drapery as before you have made with water ; 
 beasts, too, and birds, or foliage, you will diversify with their own colours 
 at your will." — Cap. 26, Lib. i. p. 45. 
 
 8 "The colours were mixed with melted wax, and applied to an ab- 
 sorbent ground, into which they sank. "When the whole was finished a 
 
 g2 
 
84 THE SUCCESSORS OE ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 Towards tlie middle o£ the fifteenth century (1437) we 
 find that oil was used by Andrea Cennini in the background 
 of his pictures, both in colours and gold, but not for figures. 
 There are also many other records of oil being in common 
 use as a medium, in England,^ France, and Germany before 
 the time of Yan Eyck. 
 
 The difference between the old method and that dis- 
 covered by the Flemish painter may be described as follows : 
 — According to the old system, it was impossible to put 
 another colour upon the canvas until the first had dried. 
 On this account the artist had a practice — which Theophilus 
 describes as " overlong and tedious " ^ — of exposing their 
 picture to the sun, and waiting till each tint had separately 
 dried. Yan Eyck found the extreme inconvenience of this 
 method when his panel cracked right across from the heat of 
 the sun, and being somewhat of an alchemist as well as a 
 painter, he bethought himself of composing colour with a 
 species of oil and resin, which would dry of itself without 
 exposure to the sun ; which, when dry, would not be injured 
 by water ; which made the colours unite in a way hitherto 
 unknown, and gave them an additional force and brilliancy. 
 Therefore, although Yan Eyck cannot be said absolutely to 
 have invented the use of oil in painting, he certainly brought 
 it to a perfection which it had never attained before. 
 
 hot iron was passed over it, which brought out the colours to the surface. 
 This manner of painting was extremely durable, and had the advantage of 
 not being easily injured by damp, sun, or air." — Mrs. Jameson, Handbook 
 to the Public Galleries of Art, p. xxvii. 
 
 1 " The King to his treasurer and chamberlain sends greeting : Pay out 
 of our treasury to Odo, the goldsmith, and Edward his son, 117 shillings 
 and 10 pence for oil, varnish, and colours bought by them, and for paint- 
 ings made in the Queen's chamber at Westminster, to the octaves of the 
 Holy Trinity (May 25), in the twenty-third year of our reign [1239] to the 
 Feast of S. Barnabas (June 11), in the same year, that is, for fifteen 
 days." — Walpole's Anecdotes of Fainting, ed. 1828, vol. i. p. 13. 
 Lib. i. cap. 27, *' diutumam et tcediosum nimis." 
 
OIL PAINTING IN FLOEENCE. 85 
 
 The new system was first practised in the south of Italy 
 by the Neapolitan painters, and pre-eminently by Antonello 
 da Messina, who brought the art to great perfection, and 
 carried it with him to Venice, where the inscription on his 
 tombstone 1 gives him the credit of having first introduced 
 the system of oils into Italian painting. But he could not 
 have imparted the secret to Domenico Yeneziano ; Antonello 
 da Messina was only twice in Venice, once in 1445, and again 
 in 1470.^ In 1445 Domenico was established in Florence ; 
 in 1470 he had been dead some years. It is, therefore, still 
 uncertain how Van Eyck's discovery became known to the 
 north of Italy. We only know that, dating from the close 
 of the fifteenth century, the use of oil colours gradually 
 superseded that of tempera in the Italian School. 
 
 Alesso Baldovinetti. 
 
 Alesso Baldovinetti, the master of Ghirlandajo, (born 1422, 
 died 1499) and the Peselli are named by Vasari as foremost 
 among the artists who made the experiment of introducing 
 oils and varnishes as vehicles for their colours. 
 
 The Peselli. 
 
 The elder of the two Peselli, Giuliano d'Arrigo di Giuocolo 
 Giuochi, is commonly known as " Pesello." He was born in 
 
 1 , D. 0. M. 
 
 "This earth covers Antonello the painter, the chief ornament of his 
 native Messina, and of all Sicily, celebrated for ever by artists with the 
 highest praise — ^not only for his pictures in which there was a singular 
 art and grace, but also because he first, with his colours mixed in oU, 
 [gave] to Italian painting splendour and durability," 
 
 2 One of the few paintings, by this master, still extant, an Anmmdationf 
 is now in the possession of the Right Hon. Sir R. Phillimore. The 
 picture is painted much in the style of Van Eyck, in oils on a wooden 
 panel. 
 
86 THE SUCCESSOES OF ERA ANGELICOi 
 
 1367 at Florence. He was in truth more of a sculptor and 
 architect than a painter, being associated with Brunelleschi in 
 the erection of the cupola of Sta. Maria del Fiore. But he 
 seems to have formed the style of his grandson, Francesco di 
 Stefano, who was born in 1422 and was left an orphan at the 
 age of five ; he was brought up as an artist by his grand- 
 father, and was called, in consequence, " PeseUino." 
 
 Giuliano, or " Pesello," was looked upon as the best animal 
 painter of his time. Pesellino's finest work, although not 
 executed according to the new method, was the predella 
 for Fra Filippo's Santa Croce altar-piece. This predella 
 has now been divided into five pieces, of which three are 
 in the Accademia in Florence, and two in the Louvre. 
 
 The works of the Peselli, even when taken together, were not 
 numerous. Pesello died at the age of seventy-seven (1446), 
 and was buried in the Carmine. PeseUino died young, at the 
 age of thirty-five, in 1457, only surviving his grandfather 
 eleven years. 
 

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 THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 
 
 THE POLLAIUOLI. SANDRO BOTTICELLI. DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO. 
 IL VEEROCCHIO. 
 
 * ' L'antica gloria e'l celebrate onore, 
 Chi non sa della Medica famiglia 
 E del gran Cosmo, Italico splendore 
 Di cui la patria sua si chiam6 figlia." 
 
 PoLiziANO, Stanze per la giostra di Giuliarw 
 de' Medici, Lib. ii. § 2. 
 
 THE POLLAIUOLI. 
 
 THE great affinity "whicli always existed among the Flo- 
 rentines between the painter and the goldsmith is best 
 illustrated by the group of artists by whom this early period 
 of the Renaissance is closed — the PoUaiuoli, Sandro Botticelli, 
 Domenico Ghirlandajo, and II Yerrocchio. 
 
 Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo were sons of Jacopo 
 d'Antonio, a poulterer according to some biographers, hence 
 the origin of the name; a goldsmith according to others, 
 hence the origin of their profession. However that may be, 
 Antonio del Pollaiuolo (born 1429,^ died 1498) began his career 
 as a goldsmith, a modeller, and a carver in wood and metal. 
 He was first of all apprenticed to Bartoluccio, the stepfather 
 of Lorenzo Ghiberti, and after that worked, it is said, under 
 * 1433 and other dates are also giver. 
 
88 THE SUCCESSORS OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 the great Lorenzo himself, as an assistant in the second bronze 
 gate of the Baptistery. 
 
 It is said that Lorenzo, when at one time engaged upon a 
 particular group of ornament in this gate, left it to Antonio 
 to finish, who thereupon introduced a quail of such perfect 
 workmanship "that it only lacked the power of flying." i 
 
 As soon as his term of apprenticeship expired, Antonio 
 opened a shop as goldsmith in the " Mercato Nuovo," Florence, 
 where he rivalled Maso Finiguerra, the best modellist of the 
 time, in the beauty and variety of his works, both in 
 chiselled bronze, silver and gold, representing all sorts of 
 figures and ornaments. The dossale, an elaborate silver 
 altar for the church of S. Giovanni, is selected as a particular 
 instance of this elaborate and beautiful kind of workmanship. 
 It was engraved in low relief with incidents from the Life of 
 S. John the Baptist, culminating with the Feast of Herod and 
 the Dance of the Daughter of Herodias. It is still preserved in 
 the cathedral, and exhibited every year on the festival of the 
 saint.'' He also supplied the altar with a silver cross and 
 candlesticks of magnificent proportions. 
 
 Besides these, and many other works of the same kind, 
 with which he embellished the churches of Florence, his 
 talents ministered to the fastidious taste of Lorenzo, II 
 Magnifico. We. read of a silver helmet carved by Antonio, 
 and presented by Lorenzo to his general, Federigo di Monte- 
 feltro, after the successful sack of Yolterra ; and of a silver 
 basin furnished to the Signori in 1473; but it, would be 
 impossible to enumerate the variety of articles, both eccle- 
 siastical and secular, of exquisite taste and subtle workman- 
 ship, which issued from the shop of the " first goldsmith of 
 the day," as he is named in contemporary records. 
 
 Throughout his life this branch of the art absorbed his 
 talents and energies. His designs were so good that Ben- 
 venuto Cellini testifies to their having been used by sculptors 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 287. ^ Ybi^^^ ^ote to p. 288. 
 
THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 89 
 
 and painters ; but his colouring was hard and formal, showing 
 the defects of the goldsmith training. 
 
 These faults are obvious in the best specimen of his work, 
 now in the National Gallery.^ This picture was originally 
 painted, in 1475, as an altar-piece for the Pucci family in the 
 church of San Sebastiano dei Servi at Florence, and repre- 
 sents the Martyrdom of S. Sebastian. In spite of the defect of 
 the colouring, the composition is beforehand with the age in 
 vigour and power of design, the great technical skill of the 
 artist being especially manifest in the foreshortening, and 
 the expression of strong bodily effort, of the two soldiers in 
 the foreground in the act of charging their crossbows. 
 
 Piero (1441-1489), the younger brother of Antonio, was the 
 better colourist of the two. Both brothers had a leaning to 
 the pagan and classical taste of the age, and took pleasure in 
 representing mythological subjects. The Combat of Hercules 
 and the Hydra, and the Death of Antceus, were painted by 
 them in colossal proportions for the Casa Medici. These 
 paintings have since perished, but two little pictures of the 
 same subject are still to be seen in the Uffizi. 
 
 The figure of Prudence in the same gallery, one out of the 
 series of Virtues painted by the Pollaiuoli for the Mer- 
 catanzia at Florence, is noticed as a specimen of strong, bold 
 drawing, after the fashion of Andrea del Castagno, of a 
 successful adaptation of the new method employed by the 
 Peselli in colouring, and of careful, well-executed" draperies. 
 The rest of the series of figures are stowed away in the private 
 magazines of the gallery. 
 
 The Pollaiuoli were among the first artists who made a 
 study of anatomy with the view of making it serve a purpose 
 in art. "We shall find in the monument of Sixtus lY.. in the 
 Cappella del Sacramento in S. Peter's at Rome, an illustration 
 of their elaborate study of the bones and muscles of the 
 human figure.^ 
 
 ^ No. 292. 2 See concluding chapter. 
 
90 THE SUCCESSORS OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 SANDEO BOTTICELLI. Boen 1446. Died 1510. 
 
 Alessandro, the son of Mariano Filipepi of Florence, 
 was also apprenticed in his early youth to a goldsmith, 
 named Botticelli ; hence the name by which he is usually 
 known. Alessandro, or " Sandro," as he was commonly 
 called, soon turned aside from that branch of the art to 
 follow the pleasanter study of painting, which, as we have 
 seen, was closely connected with the sterner work of the 
 goldsmith during the fifteenth century. Sandro set before 
 him as a model Fra Filippo's style of painting, and was for 
 some time his pupil ; following his teaching with such dili- 
 gence and success that at the death of Fra Filippo, Sandro 
 remained one of the first masters in Florence. He assisted 
 the Pollaiuoli in their work of decorating the Mercatanzia 
 at Florence, but his Fortitude, the virtue which he chose 
 to represent, is not an example of his best manner. The 
 figure is that of a woman enthroned under a niche. She 
 wears a winged helmet adorned with pearls, and wields a club. 
 It is now in the Uffizi. His fresco of S. Augustin, in the 
 Ognissanti, was another of his earlier paintings. Ghirlandajo 
 was at the same time engaged in painting the head of S. 
 Jerome on the opposite side of the choir, and the two painters 
 were fired with generous rivalry. Yasari gives the palm 
 to Botticelli, on account of the expression of concentrated 
 thought which he has managed to convey to the countenance 
 of S. Augustin. 
 
 The famous circular picture of the Virgin Crowned hy 
 Angels (now in the Uffizi), is one of the best specimens of 
 Sandro' s painting. "With one hand the Yirgin supports the 
 Infant Saviour, while with the other she is in the act of 
 writing the Magnificat on the leaf of a book held by an 
 angel. The angel behind her throne is the portrait of 
 
LIBRA n 
 
 UNIVEKSIT 
 
 CATJFORNIA 
 
0^^ 
 
THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 91 
 
 Lorenzo de' Medici. The conception was new and original, 
 and the execution worthy of Fra Filippo in character, action, 
 and colouring ; but Botticelli's Madonna is of a more refined 
 type, and was the beautiful original of the female heads 
 repeated many times by this master, especially in the pictures 
 where the same subject is represented with little variation, 
 as in the Berlin and Louvre Galleries, and in our national 
 collection. 
 
 The great Coronation of the Virgin, at the Florentine 
 Academy, is considered more harsh in colour, but it shows a 
 great mastery of action in the springing, dancing attitudes 
 and floating drapery ; yet, unlike the spiritual joy conveyed 
 by Fra Angelico to his saints and angels in Paradise, the 
 heavenly sphere, as Sandro represents it, appears like one of 
 the earthly courts of the fifteenth century, with all its 
 solemn pageantry translated into the clouds. The same 
 spirit inspires the artist in his painting (now in the Uffizi) 
 of the Adoration of the Magi, for Sta. Maria Novella, where 
 he introduces Cosimo il Vecchio, as the first of the eastern 
 kings, kneeling before the Virgin and worshipping the Infant 
 Saviour, followed by Giuliano de' Medici, and Giovanni the 
 son of Cosimo — all, Tasari tells us,, living portraits^ — with 
 the retinue of each of the princes exactly rendered. 
 
 Botticelli's talents afterwards procured him the favour and 
 patronage of Lorenzo il Magnifico, and he painted several 
 pictures for the Casa Medici, in the classical and allegorical 
 style which was the fashion of the time. Among these his 
 chef d'ceuvre was Venus floating on a shell on the Oceans 
 driven by two of the winds with a shower of roses towards 
 the shore. It is now in the Uffizi. The Birth of Venus, and 
 Venus amiong the Graces, are inferior examples of the same 
 class of pictures, and are cied as showing the goldsmith's 
 taste in representing luxurious richness of ornament and 
 abundant jewellery. 
 
 ' Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 315. 
 
92 THE SUCCESSOES OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 But the allegorical picture of the Calumny of Apelles (no-w- 
 in the Uffizi) shows Botticelli to have been a student both of 
 sculpture and architecture. The vehemence of Sandro's action, 
 an exact contrast to that of his master Fra Filippo, who was all 
 repose, is nowhere more shown than in this painting. Sandro's 
 love of movement, his quaint, fanciful conceptions and bril- 
 liant colouring, have been made familiar to us in his illustra- 
 tion of Boccaccio's story of Nastagio degli Onesti} These four 
 panels were originally painted for the Casa Pucci in 1487, 
 for the wedding of Pier Francesco di Giovanni Bini with 
 Lucrezia Pucci. 
 
 Besides these decorative paintings, Sandro was employed, as 
 the chief historical painter of the day, to paint the effigies of 
 the conspirators in the famous " Congiura de' Pazzi," on the 
 walls of the Palazzo Pubblico. The fame of his paintings 
 caused him to be summoned to Rome, to share in the decora- 
 tion of the Sixtine Chapel.^ 
 
 His labours were munificently rewarded by Pope Sixtus lY., 
 but Sandro was of an improvident disposition, and quickly 
 squandered all his money in Pome. He returned to Florence 
 totally impoverished, but found a new scope for his energies 
 in designs for engraving. He was one of the first artists to 
 engrave some of his own designs ; but his illustrations of 
 Dante, the best specimens of his work, were engraved by 
 Baccio Baldini, and belong to the edition commented by 
 Cristoforo Landino, and printed in Florence in 1481. 
 
 At the close of his life he became a devoted adherent of 
 Savonarola, and gave up, it is said, his profession as a 
 painter. Under such auspices it is most probable that he 
 did renounce the secular subjects which had been hitherto 
 expressed by his pencil ; but competent critics have decided 
 that the picture of the Nativity of our Saviou/r^ recently added 
 
 1 Winter Exhibition of Old Masters at Burlington House, eleventh 
 year, 1879-80 ; Nos. 212, 213, 253, 254, lent by Mr. F. R. Leyland. 
 ^ See concluding chapter. 
 
THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 93 
 
 to the collection in the National Gallery,^ must belong to thi 
 later period of Sandro's life, more especially as the inscription 
 would refer to the troubles in Italy, so eloquently foretold 
 by Savonarola, which must then have reached their height. 
 Sandro Botticelli died in 1510, and therefore outlived by some 
 years the great preacher and reformer of Italy. 
 
 THE PEINCIPAL WOEKS OF BOTTICELLI. 
 
 BERLIN. Museum. 
 
 Madonna and Child enthroned with Angels. 
 
 Madonna and Child and the two S. Johns {formerly ^ it is said, in 
 
 Santo Spirito, Florence). 
 Portrait of a Young Woman {supposed to be *'la bella Simonetta")- 
 Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici. 
 
 The Annunciation. » 
 
 Venus {study for the painting in the Vjffizi). 
 S. Sebastian {formerly ascribed to Antonio del Pollaiitolo). 
 
 FLORENCE. Accademia. 
 
 Virgin enthroned with Saints {from the Convent of SanC Ambrosio, 
 
 Florence), [^^ Probably by Andrea del Castagno." — Crowe and 
 
 Cavalcaselle.] 
 The Coronation of the Virgin, with SS. John the Evangelist, 
 
 Augustin, Jerome, and Eloisius (from the Convent of San Marco, 
 
 Florence). 
 and its Predella. The Annunciation : and four scenes from the 
 
 Lives of SS. John the Evangelist, Augustin, Jerome, and Eloisius. 
 The Virgin and Child, and with Saints (from Santa Barbara, 
 
 Florence). 
 Allegory of Spring (painted for the Villa Medici at Castello). 
 S. Augustin dead, and Vision of S. Augustin (from Santa Barbara, 
 
 Florence). 
 The Daughter of Herodias with the head of S. John : and the 
 
 Resurrection (from Santa Barbara, Florence). 
 Uffizi. 
 The Allegory of the Birth of Venus (painted for the Casa Medici at 
 
 Castello). 
 
 I No. 1,034. Purchased from Mr. W. Fuller Maitland, M.P., 1878. 
 
94 THE SUCCESSOKS OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 FLORENCE. Uffizi (continued). 
 
 Judith cutting off the head of Holofemes. 
 
 Holofemes found Dead in his Tent. 
 
 The Calumny of Apelles. 
 
 Madonna and Child, and Angels, i {The Magnificat.) 
 
 The Adoration of the Magi (painted for Santa Maria Novella). 
 
 Madonna and Child, and Angels. 
 
 Fortitude. 
 
 Madonna and Child. 
 
 The Annunciation. 
 
 PiTTi Palace. 
 
 Holy Family, with Angels. 
 
 Portrait of " La bella Simonetta." 
 
 The Virgin, Infant Christ, and S. John. 
 Casa Alessandri. 
 
 Madonna and Child, with Angels. 
 CoEsiNi Gallery. 
 
 Madonna and Angels. 
 
 San Jacopo di Ripoli. 
 
 The Coronation of the Virgin (formerly ascribed to GMrlandajo ; 
 given by Crowe and Cavalcaselle to Botticelli). 
 San Salv adore d' Ognissanti. 
 
 S. Augustin {fresco : painted in 1480). 
 LONDON. National Gallery. 
 
 The Virgin and Child, S. John the Baptist, and two Angels. 
 
 The Virgin and Child, S. John the Baptist, and an Angel (once in 
 the possession of OiuUano da San Gallo). 
 
 Madonna and Child. 
 
 Mars and Venus. 
 
 Venus reclining, with Cupids. 
 
 The Nativity of the Saviour. (The inscription on it has been thus 
 read by Professor Sidney Colvin: " This picture 2, Alessandro, 
 painted at the end of the year 1500, in the (troubles) of Italy in 
 the half-time after the time during the fulfilment of the eleventh of 
 S. John in the Second Woe of the Apocalypse, in the loosing of the 
 devil for three years and a half. Afterwards he shall be chained 
 and we shall see him trodden down as in this picture," The date 
 has been variously read as 1460, 1500, and 1511. 1500 is that 
 most generally accepted.) 
 MILAN. Am^rosian Gallery. 
 
 Virgin and Child. 
 
THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 95 
 
 MCJNICH. PiNAKOTHEK. 
 
 Pietk. 
 
 PARIS. Louvre. 
 
 The Magnificat {nearly similar to the pictv/re in the UJizi^ Florence). 
 The Virgin, Infant Christ, and S. John. 
 
 ROME. Yatican. (Tn the Sixtine Chapel.) 
 
 The Miracles of Moses (fresco). 
 Death of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (fresco). 
 Temptation of Christ (fresco). 
 BoRGHESE Gallery. 
 Madonna, Infant Christ, S. John the Baptist, and Angels. 
 
 GHIRLANDAJO. Boen 1449. Died 1494. 
 
 Domenico, di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo, Bigordi, called 
 Ghirlandajo,^ because of his skill in making silver garlands for 
 the Florentine women, was the prince of the goldsmith painters. 
 He was the son of a goldsmith, he was brought up as a gold- 
 smith, and the name by which his paintings have come down 
 to posterity was derived from his success in the goldsmith's 
 art. Still, early in life, at the age of twenty-four, the trade 
 became irksome to him, and the talents which had declared 
 themselves in taking likenesses of the customers who fre- 
 quented his father's shop, were placed under the direction of 
 Alesso Baldovinetti.2 Although the precision of his draw- 
 ing, and the exquisite finish of his paintings, were no doubt 
 due to his early training, his manner was not cramped by the 
 formality of the goldsmith's style. He is entitled to rank 
 among the first fresco painters of the age, and, like all the 
 great masters of this branch of the art, he studied the 
 immortal works of Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel. The 
 first fruits of his labours showed themselves in the frescoes 
 of the Cappella de' Yespucci, at the church of Ognissanti 
 
 1 In the Florentine dialect, Grillandaio. 
 * Vide ante, p. 85. 
 
96 THE SUCCESSORS OF TEA ANGELICO. 
 
 (1480). These were, unliappily, covered with whitewash in 
 1616, and with them perished the interesting portrait of 
 Amerigo Vespucci, introduced by Ghirlandajo into one of his 
 pictures. Those in the body of the church — including the pic- 
 ture of S. Jerome, the rival of Botticelli's jS. Augustin — still 
 exist; also a Cenacolo in the refectory, but this is fast 
 perishing from the damp.^ The frescoes in the Sala del 
 Orologio, in the Palazzo Yecchio, were his next work, in 
 which he painted simultaneously with Botticelli, Pollaiuoli, 
 and other Florentine artists, till they were interrupted in 
 their labours by the summons of Pope Sixtus lY. to decorate 
 the Sixtine Chapel at Rome.^ The wall pictures of the 
 Chapel Sta. Eina in the pieve of San Gimignano — ^very 
 beautiful decorative works — may be classed among Ghir- 
 landajo's early paintings. But they were surpassed by 
 those in the Sassetti Chapel, where his great powers as 
 a fresco painter declared themselves in the most unmis- 
 takable manner. These were painted for a rich Florentine 
 citizen, Francesco Sassetti, and the artist therefore chose for 
 his subject scenes from the Life of S. Francis. The whole 
 series of pictures is full of feeling and dramatic power, mark- 
 a different epoch in Italian art, which was carried another 
 stage on its road to perfection by Ghirlandajo. The per- 
 fection which he aimed at was of a peculiar kind. He was 
 not satisfied with the mere representation of the external 
 form, or an imitation of the circumstances of nature in the 
 abstract, however admirably rendered ; but, with him, land- 
 scape, architecture, and portrait were destined to be com- 
 bined in some grand composition to redound to the glory and 
 honour of his native city. 
 
 In the frescoes of the Sassetti Chapel we find familiar 
 features of Florentine and Pisan architecture in the back- 
 grounds ; and portraits of the most famous citizens — Lorenzo 
 11 Magnifico, Maso degli Albizzi, Agnolo Acciajuoli, Paolo 
 
 ^ Yasari, ed. 1878-9, note to p. 255. ^ See concluding chapter. 
 
THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 97 
 
 Strozzi, and others — introduced as spectators of the events 
 chosen for illustration. The portrait is indeed an eminent 
 characteristic of the work of Ghirlandajo ; but, unlike Botti- 
 celli, in sacred pictures he follows the more devout school of 
 thought, which only introduces the familiar figures and faces 
 of the time as witnesses of, and not actors in, the incident 
 represented by the picture. 
 
 The Death of S. Francis, surrounded by weeping monks of 
 his order, is considered to be the most remarkable of the 
 frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel. At the head of the bed a 
 bishop chants the Litany, the figure so life-like that Yasari ^ 
 tells us his silence alone proves him to be a painting and not 
 a reality. The spectacles on his nose are said to be the first 
 representation of them known in a picture. 
 
 The decoration of the Sassetti Chapel was completed by an 
 altar-piece representing the Adoration of the Shepherds, now 
 in the Accademia at Florence. 
 
 The subject was a very favourite one with Ghirlandajo j 
 he represents it again in a painting at the back of the choir 
 of the church " degli Innocenti " at Morence, besides the 
 circular picture now in the Uffizi. 
 
 As soon as he had completed the Sassetti Chapel, Ghir- 
 landajo received a commission from one of the great citizens 
 of Florence, Giovanni Tornabuoni, to restore the choir of S. 
 Maria Novella, replacing by new frescoes the damaged work 
 of Andrea Orcagna. Ghirlandajo was to receive 1200 ducats 
 for his work, and 200 more if he pleased his patron. On its 
 completion, Tornabuoni expressed his complete satisfaction at 
 the work, but endeavoured to excuse himself from payment 
 of the 200 ducats. Ghirlandajo generously said that he was 
 satisfied with his reward. 
 
 The work of re- decorating the choir should have fallen by 
 rights on the family of the Ricci, who were the patrons of 
 the altar, and whose arms were to be seen in every part of 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 255. 
 P F A. K 
 
98 THE SUCCESSOES OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 the church. But poverty compelled them to waive their right 
 in favour of Giovanni Tornabuoni ; it was stipulated, how- 
 ever, that their arms should be preserved intact in the most 
 honoured positions. Tornabuoni agreed, but, nevertheless, 
 had his arms engraved prominently on the front pilaster of 
 the choir, on a much larger scale than those of the Ricci, 
 who moreover had the mortification to see portraits of their 
 richer rivals frequently figuring in Ghirlandajo's frescoes. 
 
 Ghirlandajo's task occupied him four years. On the right 
 hand wall he represented the History of S. John the Baptist, 
 on the left the Life of the Virgin. 
 
 In the picture which represents the Birth of the Virgin, we 
 find in the lady who advances toward S. Anne the portrait of 
 Ginevra de' Benci, the loveliest woman of her time.^ The same 
 portrait is again repeated in the corresponding picture of 
 the Meeting with Elizabeth. 
 
 Mr. Buskin compares Ghirlandajo's treatment of this last 
 incident with Giotto's fresco of the same subject, in its 
 recess behind the Marchesa Bidolfi's tomb in the same church, 
 very much to the disadvantage of Ghirlandajo. His remarks 
 are severe upon what he terms the " pompous " style of paint- 
 ing adopted by Ghirlandajo ; and yet there is something so 
 inimitable in his description of the two pictures, that we 
 must cite the passage : — 
 
 " You can't easily see better pieces (nowhere more pompous 
 pieces) of flat goldsmith's work. Ghirlandajo was to the 
 end of his life a mere goldsmith with a gift of portraiture. 
 And here he has done his best, and has put a long wall in 
 wonderful perspective, and the whole city of Florence behind 
 Elizabeth's house in the hill-country ; and a splendid bas- 
 relief in the style of Luca della Bobbia in S. Anne's 
 bedroom ; and he has carved all the pilasters, and embroidered 
 all the dresses, and flourished and trumpeted in every corner ; 
 and it is all done, within just a point as well as it can be 
 ^ Vide Introduction. 
 
THE VISITATION. BY GHIRLANDAIO. 
 In the Louvj-e, Paris. 
 
THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 99 
 
 done ; and quite as well as Ghirlandajo could do it. . . . 
 Now, just for another minute, look at the Birth of the Virgin; 
 a most graceful group (your Murray's Guide tells you) in the 
 attendant servants. Extremely so, — also the one holding the 
 child is rather pretty ; also the servant pouring out the water 
 does it from a great height without splashing, most cleverly. 
 Also the lady coming to ask for S. Anne,^ and see, the baby 
 walks majestically and is very finely dressed." ^ 
 
 Still with all due deference to so great an authority upon 
 art, we must give Ghirlandajo credit for a higher motive in 
 art than the brilliant display of his abilities as a painter of 
 portraits, classic ornament, and architecture in accurate per- 
 spective. His singular gift as a portrait painter — which even 
 Mr. Ruskin will not deny — is again displayed in the opposite 
 series, representing the Life of S. John the Baptist ; in which 
 he introduced, as spectators of Zacharias offering sacrifices 
 in the Temple, living likenesses of the well-known brilliant 
 satellites of II Magnifico's Court — Angelo Poliziano, Cristo- 
 foro Landino, Marsilio-Ficino, and Demetrio Greco. 
 
 Two other prominent characteristics in the paintings of 
 Ghirlandajo — his power of composition, and his art in group- 
 ing the figures — are exemplified in the Preaching of S. John 
 the Baptist, another fresco in this series. 
 
 Although Domenico was the best colourist of the time in 
 fresco, he has not the same success with his easel pictures, 
 which are often marred by gaudy inharmonious tones. The 
 Madonna and Saints, an altar painted for S. Giusto, now in 
 the Uffizi ; the Adoration of the Magi, the altar-piece of S. 
 Maria Novella ; and the Visitation, in the Louvre, are selected 
 as the finest specimens of Domenico' s numerous paintings of 
 this class, which have been scattered all over the world. He 
 adhered throughout his life to the use of tempera or fresco, and 
 never attempted the new system of oils — perhaps discouraged 
 by the failure of his master's (Alesso Baldovinetti) efforts to 
 
 ^ Ginevra de' Benci. 2 Mornings in Florence, No. ii. p. 27. 
 
 n 2 
 
100 THE SUCCESSORS OF FRA ANGELICO. 
 
 introduce it into wall painting. As a worker in mosaic, the 
 Annunciation over the portal of Sta. Maria del Fiore is an 
 instance of his great ability in that branch of the art. 
 
 His brothers, Davide and Benedetto, made it their distinct 
 profession, and it was Davide who repaired the mosaics of the 
 Duomo at Orvieto which had been entrusted to Domenico. 
 
 Domenico died at the age of forty-four, with sudden illness, 
 in the prime of his manhood. " "Would I had all the walls of 
 Florence to paint ! " he had exclaimed only a short time pre- 
 viously, fired with indomitable energy and conscious of his 
 great powers. He had been twice married ; his first wife, 
 Constanza, died in 1485 ; his second choice was Antonia, a 
 widow of San Gimignano. Ghirlandajo was, as a painter, in- 
 dustrious, painstaking, and always ready for work. He 
 considered no order too unimportant for his acceptance, and 
 was wont to tell his assistants that "they were not to 
 refuse any commissions that should be brought to his shop, 
 were it even for ladies' petticoat panniers ; and that, if they 
 did not choose to accept them, he would." His pupils were 
 Granacci, Jacopo del Indaco, Alessandro of Florence, Sebas- 
 tiano Mainardi his favourite assistant, and last, but not least, 
 Michelangelo. 
 
 THE PEmCIPAL WORKS OF GHIRLANDAJO. 
 
 BERLIIT. Museum. 
 
 Madonna and Child, with Cherubim and SS. Paul, Clara, Francis, 
 and Catherine {exevuted with the assistance of pupils). 
 
 Madonna and Child, with SS. John the Evangelist, John the 
 Baptist, Francis, and Jerome (SS. Francis and Jerome are in oil, 
 by Granacci ; the two S. Johns by another assistant). 
 
 FL0RE:N^CE. Accademia. 
 
 Adoration of the Shepherds (painted in 1485 /or the Sassetti Chapel). 
 
THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 101 
 
 FLOEENCE. AccADEMiA {continued). 
 
 Madonna, with SS. Thomas Ac[uinas, Dionysius the Areopagite, 
 Clement, and Domenic. 
 
 Uffizi. 
 Adoration of the Magi 1487. a. 
 Madonna and Saints {painted for San Giusto, near FloreTux). 
 
 PiTTi Palace. 
 Adoration of the Magi {replica of a). 
 
 Spedale degli Innocenti. 
 Adoration of the Magi, 1488 {in the Refectory). 
 
 San Salvadore d' Ognissanti. 
 S. Jerome, 1480. 
 Last Supper, 1480 {in the Refectory). 
 
 Monastery of San Marco {in the Small Refectory), 
 Last Supper. 
 
 Santa Maria Novella {in the Choir). 
 Various frescoes : — 
 
 The Coronation of the Virgin ; S. Francis before the Sultan ; Death of 8. 
 Peter Martyr ; the Annunciation ; Departure of John the Baptist for the 
 Desert ; Portrait of Giovanni Tomabuoni and his wife. 
 Scenes from the Life of the Virgin : — 
 
 (i.) The Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple; |(ii.) Birth ; (iii.) Pre. 
 sentation in the Temple ; (iv.) Marriage ; (v.) Adoration of the Magi : 
 (vi.) Massacre of the Innocents ; (vii.) Death; (viiL) Assumption. 
 
 Scenes from the Life of S. John the Baptist : — 
 
 (i.) Zacharias in the Temple [containing portraits of tTie Tomabuoni family, 
 and other celebrated persons of Florence'] ; (ii.) the Visitation ; (iii.) Birth 
 of John ; (iv. ) Naming of the child ; (v. ) John .preaching repentance ; 
 (vi.) Birth of Christ ; (vii.) the Daughter of Herodias dancing. 
 
 Santa Trintta {in the Sassetti Chapel). 
 •Scenes from the Life of S. Francis : — 
 
 (i.) Renouncing his father's heritage: (ii.) Pope Honorius confirming the 
 rules of the Franciscan order ; (iii. ) Before the Sultan ; (iv. ) Receiving 
 the Stigmata ; (v.) Resuscitation of a child of the Spini ; (vi ) Funeral 
 of S. Francis (painted in 1485). 
 
 Palazzo Vecchio {in the Sala del Orologio). 
 Glorification of S. Zenobio. 1481. 
 
 LUCCA. San Martino {in the Sacristy). 
 
 Madonna and Saints. 
 
102 THE SUCCESSORS OF FEA ANGELICO. 
 
 MUNICH. PiNAKOTHEK. 
 
 Madonna and Child, with SS. John the Baptist, John the Evange- 
 list, Michael, and Domenic. 
 
 On the wings — (i.) S. Catherine of Siena ; (ii.) S. Lawrence. 
 [Part of an altar-piece executed from designs by Domenico Ghir- 
 landajo for Santa Maria Novella, Florence. The exterior icings, 
 finished by Davide and Benedetto Bigordi and Granacd, after 
 Domenico' s death, are in the Berlin Gallery. ] 
 
 PARIS. Louvre. 
 
 The Visitation, 1491 {from Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence). 
 Portrait of an Old Man. 
 
 RIMINI. Palazzo Pubblico. 
 
 S. Domenic, S. Sebastian, and another Saint. 
 
 ROME. Vatican {in the Sixtine Chapel). 
 
 The Calling of Peter and Andrew. 1483. 
 
 SAN GIMIGNANO. Pieve. 
 
 Vision of S. Fina, and Burial of S. Fina {in the Cappella S. Fina). 
 The Annunciation, 1482 {in the Oratorio San Giovanni). 
 
 VOLTERRA. San Francesco. 
 Christ adored by Saints. 
 
 ANDREA DEL YERROCCHIO. Born 1435. Died 1488. 
 
 Goldsmith, master in perspective, sculptor, carver and 
 painter ; Andrea del Yerroccliio makes a worthy climax to the 
 Florentine art of the fifteenth century ; and reveals, at the 
 same time, the source of the versatile talents of his great 
 pupil Leonardo da Yinci. 
 
 Andrea was the son of Michele de' Cioni. He did not belong 
 to the family of Yerocchio who were in existence at the time, 
 but derived his name either from the truth of his sight — the 
 keen-sighted — or because it was the name of the goldsmith 
 Giuliano Yerrocchi to whom he was apprenticed. While in 
 his service, he executed many curious and beautiful works ; 
 among others, two goblets engraved with curious figures of 
 animals and foliage, well-known to all the goldsmiths in 
 
THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 103 
 
 Vasari's time} The fame of these goblets caused him to be 
 employed by the Arte de' Mercatanti, to model two of the 
 reliefs of the silver altar, which was then being prepared by 
 the Pollaiuoli for S. Giovanni. Like the other Florentine 
 artists of the day, he was also summoned to Bome,^ to place 
 his talents at the disposal of the imperious pontiff. On his 
 return from Rome he pursued in Florence the sculptor's art ; 
 which he had brought to perfection in the study of the 
 antiques of the ancient capital of the world. His works are 
 few, and little known ; but among others we may instance a 
 life-size statue of David, which, when finished, was placed at 
 the head of the Palace stairs, and is now to be seen in the 
 Uffizi ; the figure of the Virgin above the sepulchre of 
 Leonardo Bruni Aretino in Sta. Croce ; two bronze heads of 
 Alexander the Great and Darius, presented by Lorenzo il 
 Magnifico to Mathias Corvinus, King of Hungary ; and his 
 representation of the Incredulity/ of S. Thomas, in bronze, foi- 
 the church of Or San Michele. 
 
 Andrea del Yerrocchio is said to have been the first artist 
 who took casts in plaster from life, as aids to the study of form. 
 He was a careful student of nature, and his designs — some 
 of which have been preserved to us — have the admirable 
 precision and clearness natural to a carver in metal, but he 
 never succeeded in rendering them in colour. 
 
 These defects are visible in the one authentic picture 
 which he has left behind him in Florence of the Baptism of 
 Our Saviour ; and they are, perhaps, made more evident by 
 contrast with the grace and beauty of one of the angels, 
 supposed to have been introduced into the picture by 
 Leonardo da Yinci. 
 
 In England one of the few paintings by Yerrocchio, still 
 extant, is in the possession of Mr. W. S. Dugdale, of Mere- 
 vale, Warwickshire. It is painted on panel, 2 feet by 1 foot 
 9 inches. It represents our Saviour crucified between the two 
 * See Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 359. ^ gee concludiug chapter. 
 
104 THE SUCCESSOKS OF ERA ANGELICO, 
 
 thieves : the blessed Yirgin and another woman, perhaps the 
 Magdalen, on her knees clasping the cross, and S. John. Two 
 angels, nearly the same size as the figures in the foreground, 
 in the upper corners, are in the act of adoration. Jerusalem 
 is seen in the distance. 
 
 As a sculptor, if Verrocchio had given no other proof of 
 his skill, his fame might securely rest on the equestrian 
 statue of Bartolommeo Goleoni at Venice, the last work of 
 his life (see illustration). A masterpiece of its age, it remains 
 a masterpiece to the present day ; and while it makes up for 
 the loss of Leonardo's productions of the same kind, it ex- 
 plains where the great pupil of Yerrocchio learnt his thorough 
 knowledge of the form, action, and anatomy of the horse. 
 
 But although Verrocchio's talent in modelling a horse was 
 universally accepted, the Venetians seem not to have placed 
 such entire confidence in his power of representing the rider, 
 and therefore proposed to entrust this part of the commission to 
 Giacomo Yellano, da Padova. Andrea, as soon as this scheme 
 became known to him, roused to just indignation, broke the 
 model of his horse to fragments, and went back to Florence. 
 The Signoria bade him beware of ever returning to Yenice, 
 for if he did so his head would pay the forfeit. To which 
 Andrea made answer that they had .better take care what 
 they were about ; because, although they had the power 
 of chopping off men's heads, they were unable to put them on 
 again ; and certainly they could not replace his, though he 
 could make another head as good as, and better than, the 
 one he had broken off his horse. The Venetians, pleased 
 with his spirit, invited him back to Venice to execute the 
 model a,s he thought best, offering him a double commission 
 for his pains. Those who have seen the magnificent counten- 
 ance and attitude of Bartolommeo Coleoni, as he sits on his 
 bronze steed in the Piazza outside SS. Giovanni e Paolo, 
 know that the Venetians have had no cause to regret their 
 bargain. 
 
BARTOLOMMEO COLEONI. BY ANDREA DEL VERROCCHIO. 
 In the Piazza outside SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice. 
 
THE GOLDSMITH PAINTERS OF FLORENCE. 
 
 105 
 
 The model was complete ; but in casting it, owing to the 
 great heat of the furnace, the sculptor caught a cold, of 
 which he died in a few days.^ In his will he had entrusted 
 the completion of his work to his pupil, Lorenzo di Credi. 
 The Venetians, disregarding his request, placed it instead in 
 the hands of Alessandro Leopardo, whose name is engraved 
 on the girth of the horse. He was ever afterwards called 
 by the people " Alessandro del Cavallo." The pedestal, also 
 Yerrocchio's design, is one of the finest of its kind, and 
 scarcely less worthy of attention than the statue itself, 
 
 Andrea del Yerrocchio was only fifty-three years of age 
 when he died. His friends and pupils grieved sorely over his 
 untimely end. We have mentioned that the great Leonardo 
 da Yinci learnt the first principles of art under the guidance 
 of Yerrocchio ; Pietro Perugino, an artist of almost equal 
 fame, was also his pupil. 
 
 1 Vasari, ed. 1878-9, p. 368. 
 
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 CHAPTER YIII. 
 
 THE FLORENTINE ARTISTS IN ROME. 
 
 •* Study, therefore, the great works of the great artists for ever. Study, 
 as nearly as you can, in the order, in the manner, and on the principles on 
 which they studied. Study nature attentively, but always with those 
 masters in your company ; consider them as models which you are to 
 imitate, and at the same time as rivals with whom you are to contend." 
 —Sir Joshua Reynolds, Discourse VI., p. 109. 
 
 VASAE.I tells Tis that, " of all the methods of painting, 
 the fresco upon the wall is the most masterly and 
 the most beautiful ; because, in it the painter must do his 
 work in one day, and at one stroke ; whereas, in other cir- 
 cumstances, he may touch and re-touch it as often as he 
 pleases." It was a custom much employed by the Greeks, 
 and the old masters of the Renaissance adopted the same 
 practice. The art consisted in working upon the fresh plaster, 
 and in finishing a certain portion of the picture by the end of 
 each day, while the plaster remained fresh. Then both dried 
 together, the painting and the plaster, and there was no 
 possibility of re-touching the work afterwards. If there was 
 any delay, the plaster, exposed to the effects of heat and 
 cold, sun and wind, became coated with a sort of crust, 
 which blurred and stained the work. It was necessary to 
 
THE FLORENTINE ARTISTS IN ROME. 107 
 
 keep tlie wall moist during the process, and the colours had 
 to be of a special kind, vegetable and not mineral. The 
 fresco painters required, above all things, a swift, dexterous, 
 and resolute hand, a dexterity which was only acquired by 
 years of study and practice, and great powers of calculation 
 as to the tints which changed with the wall as it dried. 
 Many of the painters who succeeded admirably well in 
 tempera and oil-painting, failed in the fresco, which may be 
 considered the highest kind of art, both on account of the 
 great abilities it develops in the artist, and because, once 
 done, it remains for ever. 
 
 Was it possibly the strong conviction of this durability 
 which made Zeuxis so paint, that posterity might be his 
 spectators, while he exclaimed with confidence, " In seter- 
 nitatem pingo ! " (" I paint for eternity ! ") 
 
 Yasari concludes his advice to the fresco painters by 
 urging them to paint " Virilmente e non ritocchino a secco." 
 (" With decision, and never to retouch their work when dry.") 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds^ chooses fresco painting as the illus- 
 tration of that "great style" which he would have the 
 ambition of every art student, for in it, he says, consists 
 "the intellectual dignity that ennobles the painter's art, 
 that lies the line between him and the mere mechanic, and 
 produces those great effects in an instant which eloquence 
 and poetry by slow and repeated efforts are scarcely able 
 to attain." 
 
 Never was there so grand a field for the fresco painters as 
 when Pope Sixtus lY., having erected the chapel which bears 
 his name (1474), sent to Florence for the great masters in 
 that special branch of the art to come and vie with one 
 another in decorating the newly-finished walls. They came : 
 Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandajo, Cosimo Eosselli, 
 and Luca Signorelli. More or less distinguished in their 
 own country, these great masters surpassed themselves in 
 ^ Discourse V. p. 33. 
 
108 THE SUCCESSORS OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 the decoration of this chapel. Perhaps they were fired with 
 generous emulation ; perhaps the mere fact of their residence 
 in the far-famed city enlarged their ideas, and gave them a 
 fresh and more powerful grasp of the great principles of 
 their art. 
 
 Sandro Botticelli was chosen to superintend the whole 
 work. It was proposed that the frescoes should represent 
 the History of Moses on one side of the chapel, and that of 
 Owr Saviour on the other ; the intention being to place in 
 contrast the old law and the new, the Hebrew with the 
 Christian dispensations, types and prophecies with their 
 fulfilment.! 
 
 Besides the general superintendence, Sandro undertook 
 three of the subjects himself: — 
 
 1. Moses's Miracles in Egypt. 
 
 2. The Fall of Korah. 
 
 3. The Temptation of our Saviour. 
 
 All three paintings are still extant, and are reckoned by 
 the critics as Botticelli's best productions, both on account of 
 the spirit and vivacity of their action, and the brilliancy of 
 their colouring ; these two especial features of the painter's 
 
 ' The series begins from the altar on the wall to the left : — 
 
 1. Journey of Moses and Zipporah. (Penigino.) 
 
 2. Moses's Miracles in Egypt. (Botticelli.) 
 
 3. Drowning of Pharaoh. (RosselU. ) 
 
 4. Moses receiving the Law : Adoration, and destruction of the Calf. 
 
 (Rosselli. ) 
 
 5. Fall of Korah and his Followers. (Botticelli.) 
 
 6. Publication of the Ten Commandments, and Death of looses. 
 
 (SignoreUi.) 
 On the wall to the right : — 
 
 1. The Baptism of Christ. (Perugino.) 
 
 2. The Temptation of Christ. (Botticelli.) 
 
 3. The calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew. (Ghirlandajo. ) 
 
 4. The Sermon on the Mount. (Rosselli. ) 
 
 5. The Investiture of S. Peter. (Perugino.) 
 
 6. The Last Supper. (Rosselli.) 
 
THE FLOEENTINE ARTISTS IN ROME. 109 
 
 style appear most vividly in the two paintings which relate 
 to Moses, where he succeeds in rendering with extraordinary 
 power the numerous figures in strong and varied action, the 
 flutter of the draperies in the breeze, and all the richness of 
 Eastern ornament. Being ignorant of the laws of distribu- 
 tion, he is tempted to overcrowd his paintings with figures ; 
 but some of the individual groups in his last painting of the 
 Temptation in the Wilderness are equal in their beauty to any 
 work produced by him either before or afterwards. Cosimo 
 E,oselli continued the representation of the life of Moses. 
 He was not equal to his fellow-labourers in the power of 
 design ; to make up for this deficiency, he loaded his pictures 
 with gold and brilliant colouring — a style which, if it pleased 
 no one else, pleased the pontiff, who, having no real taste in 
 the fine arts, commended Cosimo beyond all the other artists. 
 Cosimo' s best work in the Sixtine was the Sermon on tJie 
 Mount ; he was assisted in the landscape* by Piero di Cosimo, 
 who also was a better colpurist than draughtsman. 
 
 The real claim of both artists to distinction is derived 
 from their pupils, Fra Bartolommeo, the pupil of Roselli; 
 Andrea del Sarto, the pupil of Piero di Cosimo. 
 
 Ghirlandajo continued the illustration of the Gospel history 
 in the Calling of JSS. Feter and Andrew, and the Resurrection. 
 The last has been so much repainted that it can no longer be 
 called Ghirlandajo's work ; but the Calling of SS. Peter and 
 Andrew, both for design and execution, is one of the noblest 
 frescoes of the series. 
 
 Not only does Ghirlandajo exhibit in this painting his 
 unsurpassed skill in the technical management of the fresco, 
 but in the conception he rises far beyond the realism of the 
 goldsmith's school, and gives the most solemn and striking 
 side of the incident, making it the principal idea. Some 
 critics have compared the grandeur and dignity of the figure 
 of our Saviour with Masaccio's treatment of the same figure 
 iu his fresco of the Tribute Money ; while others look upon 
 
110 THE SUCCESSORS OF FKA ANGELICO. 
 
 it as an anticipation of Raphael's Miraculous Draught of 
 Fishes, and of his Feed my Sheep. 
 
 Thus does Ghirlandajo form the connecting link between 
 the two great masters, Masaccio and Raphael. The nobility 
 of his conception is, in this instance, enhanced by a vast 
 landscape background, displaying the artist's accurate know- 
 ledge of the laws of linear perspective to which we have 
 already alluded ; the subordinate figures are admirably 
 grouped, nor are the garments overcharged with gold and 
 ornament — always the temptation of the goldsmith painters, 
 as if the beauty of the figure increased in proportion to the 
 richness of their apparel. 
 
 LUCA SiGNORELLI. 
 
 The name of Luca Signorelli (born 1441, died 1523), called, 
 from his birthplace, Luca da Cortona, completes the group of 
 the great fresco painters of the fifteenth century. Although 
 not a Florentine by birth, Signorelli was an eminent painter 
 of the Florentine school, and, as such, was called upon to take 
 his share in the decoration of the Sixtine Chapel. He carried 
 on the series illustrating the history of Israel, and painted 
 the Publication of the Ten Gormnandments and the closing 
 scenes of the life of Moses. 
 
 Yasari places these works as the highest of all the frescoes 
 in the Sixtine Chapel ; but, although equal to Ghirlandajo in 
 the grandeur of his conception, Signorelli is more coarse in 
 his selection of individual forms. 
 
 The pupil of Piero della Francesca, he possessed his 
 master's gift of drawing the forms of the body anatomically, 
 and was thus able to throw a wonderful spirit and expression 
 into the various attitudes of his figures. He was a complete 
 master of the delineation of the nude form, and was in this 
 point only equalled by Michelangelo, whose immediate pre- 
 decessor he was in this class of study. Michelangelo is 
 
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THE FLORENTINE AETISTS IN ROME. Ill 
 
 supposed to have borrowed many of his ideas from Signo- 
 relli's Last Judgment in Orvieto Cathedral — especially the 
 principal figure, which in his hands lost much of the original 
 nobility of the conception. The fresco was designed by Fra 
 Angelico. 
 
 But although it would be in vain to look for the spiritual 
 rendering of the saintly master, Luca Signorelli awakens at 
 once our astonishment and admiration by his knowledge of 
 human anatomy. This he displays by throwing his figures 
 into every conceivable attitude never attempted before in 
 art. We might choose, for an example, the Fulminatii or 
 the Wicked cast out of Heaven, in which he foreshortens 
 the falling figures with a daring success quite unapproached 
 by any of the masters of the fifteenth century. 
 
 From the time of Niccolo Pisano up to that of Michel- 
 angelo, this fearful subject, the Last Judgment, always had 
 an irresistible attraction for the minds of the great artists, 
 who vied with one another in their endeavour to portray with 
 equal vividness in sharp contrast the joys of the just and 
 the despair of the wicked. Their efforts were, no doubt, 
 greatly due to the influence of the Divina Commedia — and 
 they were, in fact, rivals of Dante, endeavouring to depict 
 in their art the scenes which he had rendered in his immortal 
 poem. 
 
 They exhausted their invention in the effort to represent 
 the frantic despair of the wicked at the sudden realisation of 
 their awful condition ; the body writhing with the torture of 
 the mind in every conceivable attitude of pain and agony, 
 so that the spectator turns shuddering away from such fearful 
 scenes as Signorelli' s Last Judgment in Orvieto, or that of 
 Michelangelo at Rome. Unhappily, neither the artist nor 
 the poet are able to depict with corresponding power the 
 joys of the blessed. It would seem as if man, familiarised 
 by a long apprenticeship with pain and sorrow, knew only 
 too well how to represent them, either in poetry or on canvas. 
 
112 THE SUCCESSORS OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 but that his invention fails him to describe a joy which he 
 cannot even approach with his imagination. 
 
 Portrait of Signorelli. By Himself. 
 In the Cathedral of Oi'vieto. 
 
 Signorelli worked in Umbria, Perugia, Yolterra, and 
 Florence. His greatest works in fresco, besides those we 
 
THE FLORENTINE ARTISTS IN ROME. 113 
 
 have already mentioned, were painted in the convent of 
 Monte Oliveto, south of Siena, representing scenes from 
 the Lyfe of S. Benedict ; and those in the sacristy of the 
 church at Loreto representing the Evangelists and Doctors 
 of the Church in the vaulting, and the Conversion of S. Paul 
 upon the walls. His native city of Cortona was enriched by 
 many of his works. Three powerful pictures adorn the choir 
 of the Duomo : — 
 
 1. llie Institution of the Holy C ommuniony remarkable 
 because he departs from the usual custom of representing a 
 long table running across the picture. He makes the dis- 
 ciples kneel on either side of our Saviour, who stands in the 
 midst of them. 
 
 2. The Descent from the Cross, celebrated for the great 
 number of beautiful heads, the power of the colouring, and 
 the chiaroscuro, worthy of a later age. 
 
 3. The Conversion of S. Thomas, the least important of the 
 series. Besides these in the sacristy, he painted the lunette 
 of a Madonna, almost equal to a Leonardo in beauty. These 
 were his principal paintings, but many other churches, in 
 Cortona and its vicinity, can boast some beautiful works by 
 Luca Signorelli. 
 
 Luca Signorelli lived to a great age. In his eighty-second 
 year he undertook one of the frescoes in the new palace built 
 by Sylvio Passerini, Cardinal of Cortona, about a mile out of 
 the city. The subject of the fresco was to have been the 
 Baptism of our Saviour, but he died before it was finished. 
 Besides his very singular genius, he was a man of great 
 industry, who thoroughly mastered every subject he under- 
 took, and then treated it with unfaltering decision and energy. 
 He was no doubt the greatest fresco painter of his age, but he 
 also painted movable pictures and altar-pieces of great value 
 which have found their way to the various galleries of Europe. 
 Vasari, who was personally acquainted with him, describes 
 him as a man of bl-vmeless life, and gentle courteous manners ; 
 
 p F A 1 
 
114 THE SUCCESSORS OF TEA ANGELICO. 
 
 and, like the true artist he was, most anxious to impart the 
 result o£ his labour and experience to his pupils, to enable 
 them to follow in the path which he had opened to them — a 
 path which led straight to that perfection of design illustrated 
 by the immortal works of the succeeding century. 
 
 Besides the decoration of the Sixtine Chapel by the fresco 
 painters there was work also in Rome for the Florentine 
 goldsmiths and sculptors. The huge silver figures of the 
 Apostles which stood on the altar in the Pope's Chapel were 
 missing. Andrea del Yerrocchio was sent for from Florence to 
 supply them. Inspired by the treasures of antique sculpture 
 which surrounded him, Verrocchio abandoned the goldsmith 
 art for that of the sculptor and statue maker, and, after casting 
 several small figures in bronze, embarked in the large under- 
 taking of a marble tomb for the wife of Francesco Torna- 
 buoni, with bas-reliefs representing scenes from" her life, very 
 finely sculptured, which was placed in the Minerva, but has 
 since been removed thence. 
 
 The Pollaiuoli were also summoned by the successor of Sixtus 
 IV — Innocent YIII — to adorn the tomb of one who had, from 
 whatever motive, been so keen a patron of the fine arts. 
 They spent themselves in the effort to produce a monument 
 befitting the occasion, which is still to be seen in the Cappella 
 del Sacramento bearing their name and the date 1493. 
 
 It has been made the subject of careful criticism by the 
 great writers on art.^ 
 
 ''The pontiff (Sixtus lY.) lies at full length on the lid of a 
 sarcophagus, on the corners of which are figures of Yirtues 
 and ornaments in relief. The piece is remarkable for its 
 successful distribution and the beauty of its ornamentation ; 
 but the rigid and exaggerated action, the searching study of 
 the muscular developments of fiesh, the realistic coarseness 
 of the joints and extremities, the defective draperies, accuse 
 1 Crowe and Cavalcasell», vol. ii. p. 388. 
 
THE FLORENTINE ARTISTS IN RO^IE.' 115 
 
 an absence of the idea of severe vsculjftural simplicity, or 
 prove that the hardness and angularity incidental to the 
 casting of bronze were not to be overcome, when the artist 
 attempted to realize too many of the details of movement in 
 the limbs and extremities, or in the tendons and muscles." 
 
 The tomb of Innocent VIII. now in the Cappella della 
 Concezione was also the work of the Pollaiuoli ; and it was 
 superior to that of SixtUs IV. The subject was differently 
 treated, the Pontiff being twice represented ; first, seated on 
 high, the right hand in the act of Benediction, the left 
 holding a lance ; the second time he is represented at the 
 foot of the monument in a recumbent attitude.^ 
 
 The Pollaiuoli died in Eome, and are buried in the church 
 ^mXt-v of S. Piero in Vincoli. 
 
 Such was the state of art in Italy at the decline of the 
 fifteenth century. Much progress had been already made in 
 painting from life, and the heads of the figures are charac- 
 terised by a truth and vivacity not surpassed even in the 
 present day. The painting of the hands and feet was by no 
 means so excellent, and there was still great scope for improve- 
 ment in representing the ideal beauty — instead of the bare 
 imitation — of the form. Fulness of design, harmony of 
 colour, serial perspective, variety in composition, freedom of 
 the pencil, — still somewhat cramped even in the hands of the 
 greatest artists ; all these were necessary to complete that 
 perfection of art which belongs to the succeeding age In 
 Florence every surrounding circumstance combined to promote 
 this improvement. The taste for fine architecture was rapidly 
 spreading all over Italy : the most beautiful buildings, cathe- 
 drals, public and ducal palaces in Florence, Pome, Mantua, 
 Venice, TJmbria, and Rimini were the creation of this century. 
 When their magnificent external proportions were complete, 
 the internal decoration followed as a matter of course. There 
 1 V^sari. ed. 1S73-0. p. 2G6. 
 
116 THE SUCCESSORS OF ERA ANGELICO. 
 
 was a universal demand for the painter and sculptor — and 
 thus arose among the artists that noble emulation and inter- 
 change of ideas so conducive to the progress of art. 
 
 The study of poetry, analogous to that of painting, was 
 likewise in the ascendant ; investing the age with that golden 
 halo, which, ever ready to shine upon the sister arts, does not 
 shed so brilliant a light upon the severer studies of science. 
 These circumstances prepared the way for the most glorious 
 era in painting, when the schools of Italy, fired with generous 
 rivalry, each developed a decided character of its own — some 
 one peculiar excellence, illustrated by some famous master — 
 which, as it has been aptly described by one of their great 
 artists, procured for each school its own special claim to 
 distinction. 
 
 " Chi farsi un buon Pittore brama e desia 
 Tl discgno di Roma abbia alia Mano 
 La Massa coll' ombra Veneziano 
 E 11 degno colorir di Lombardia 
 Di Michel Angelo la terribil viu 
 II vero natural di Tiziano 
 Di Coreggio lo stil puro e sovrano 
 E di un Raffael la vera simmetria 
 Del Tebaldi il decoro e il fondament'j 
 Del dotto Primaticcio I'inventare 
 E un p6 di gvazia del Parmigianmo. " 
 
APPENDIX. 
 tka:n^slations of Italian quotations. 
 
 Page 1. 
 
 " Thou didst as one, 
 Who, journeying through the darkness, bears a light 
 Behind, that profits not himself, but makes 
 His followers wise." 
 
 Gary's Translation. 
 
 Page 9. 
 
 " Zeuxis, Parrhasius, Polygnot, stand by, 
 Art in my hands became a silent nature ; 
 Feeling and force I gave to every feature 
 My fish appear to swim, my birds to fly.' ' 
 
 R. P. 
 
 Page 16. 
 
 " I painted — and the very truth my painting seemed to be 
 Each figure on my canvas with quick life appeared to glow 
 Every ieature moving, speaking — let great Angelo 
 Teach the rest as his disciples, but learn alone from me." 
 
 K. P. 
 
 Page 25. 
 
 " And in that midst their sportive pennons wav'd 
 Thousands of Angels ; in resplendence each 
 Distinct, and quaint adornment. At their glee 
 And carol, smiled the Lovely One of heaven, 
 That joy was in the eyes of all the blest." 
 
 Gary's Translation. 
 
 Page 28. 
 
 " One, seraphic all 
 In fervency ; for wisdom upon earth, 
 The other, splendour of cherubic light." 
 
 Gary's Translation. 
 
118 APPENDIX. 
 
 Page 31. 
 " Say, who that angel is that with such glee 
 Beholds our queen, and so enamoured glows 
 Of her liigh beauty, that all fire he seems. 
 
 ***** 
 In him are summed 
 Whate'er of buxomness and free delight 
 May be in spirit, or in angel, met ; 
 And so beseems ; for that he bare the palm 
 Down unto Mary, when the Son of God 
 Vouchsafed to clothe Him in terrestrial weeds." 
 
 Gary's Translation 
 
 Page 41. 
 
 " And didst thou look 
 E'en thus, Jesus, my true Lord and God? 
 
 And was this semblance thine ? " 
 
 Page 44. 
 
 Gary's Translation. 
 
 *• I beheld a puissant One arrive 
 Amongst us, with victorious trophy crowned. 
 He forth the shade of our first parent drew. 
 Abel his child, and Noah righteous man. 
 Of Moses lawgiver for faith approv'd. 
 Of patriarch Abraham : and David King. 
 
 ***** 
 
 — And others many more, whom he to bliss 
 Exalted." 
 
 Gary's Translation. 
 
 Page 116. 
 
 " How to paint well who doth desire to knoV 
 Careful design will study well at Rome. 
 From Venice breadth of light and shadow come. 
 Of Lombard colouring mark the noble glow ; 
 Then tread the awful path of Angelo. 
 See Titian's nature every eye beguile, 
 Correggio's chastening and imperial style. 
 The matchless symmetry of Raffaello, 
 Tibaldi's grave decorum and his ground ; 
 In Primaticcio learned invention trace, 
 From Parmigianino steal a little grace." 
 
 li. P. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 « TEMPERA.'' 
 
 (C. Ti., Yasari, ed. 1878—9, vol. i. p. 183.) 
 
 OF THE USE OF DISTEMPER. 
 
 " Before the time of Cimabue, the use of distemper both in panel and 
 wall-painting was common among the Greeks ; and afterwards it was a 
 universal practice among Italian painters. These old masters used to pre- 
 pare their panels by spreading a linen cloth over them, and glueing it 
 tirmly down, lest they should split at the joins. Over this they spread 
 ingesso, a sort of prepared j»]aster, made from sulphuric acid and lime ; 
 and they then distempered their colours to lay upon this gi'ound with 
 yolk of egg, or 'tempera.' Their method of distempering was as fol- 
 lows :— They took the yolk of an egg and beat it up, they then mixed 
 with the egg the tender shoots of a fig, in order that the milk of the fig 
 combined with the egg might temper the colours to the different qualities 
 with which they afterwards worked. Their colours were mineral, partly 
 made by the alchymist, partly found in caves and grottos. All colours 
 were good for this species of work, except white made from slaked lime, 
 which was too strong for the purpose. The azures were tempered with 
 glue or size, because the yellow of the egg was liable to turn them green, 
 but the glue (size) preserved their own colour, also gum. 
 
 " This method can be pursued either with or without the preparatory 
 chalk. In jjaintiug upon the wall when dry (as opposed to fresco when the 
 plaster is fresh), the method is the same, only the wall is first prepared to 
 receive the tempera colours with hot size. The colours themselves can 
 also be tempered with size without being any the worse for it ; it was a 
 Dractice with many of the old masters, whose works have remained for 
 hundreds of years in their first beauty and freshness. Certainly this freshness 
 is most obvious in Giotto's works, for there is not one of them which does not 
 now appear as fresh as when it was first painted two hundred years ago.' 
 
 "The recent discovery of the oil colours has caused many to lay aside 
 the tempera, so that we see this new method constantly employed now 
 both in panel painting, and other works of importance." 
 
 Still more elaborate recipes for the illumination of books are to be 
 found in the Monk Theophilus's "Schedule of Diff'erent Arts,"^ already 
 mentioned. "We give one or two at full length as instancing the minute 
 care and pain required for one preparation of the colours before using them. 
 
 Extracts from "SCHEDULE OF DIFFERENT ARTS." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 HOW GOLD AND SILVER ARE LAID IN BOOKS. 
 
 ** Afterwards take pure minium (red lead) and add to it a third part of 
 cinnabar (vermilion), grinding it upon a stone with water. Which, being 
 carefully ground, beat up the clear of the white of an egg, in summer with 
 water, in winter without water ; and when it is clear, put the minium into 
 a horn, and pour the clear upon it, and stir it a little with a piece of wood 
 put into it, and with a pencil fill up all places with it upon which you wish 
 
 * The first edition of Vasari was published 1550. 
 a Vide ante, chapter oa Oil Painting. 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 to lay gold. Then place a little pot with glue over the fire, and when it is 
 liquified pour it into the shell of gold, and wash it with it. When you have 
 poured which into another shell, in which the purifj'ing is kept, again 
 pour in warm glue, and holding it in the palm of your left hand, stir it 
 carefully with the pencil, and lay it on where you wish, thick or thin, so, 
 however that there be little glue, because, should it exceed, it blackens 
 the gold and does not receive a polish ; but after it has dried, polish it 
 with a tooth or bloodstone, carefully filed and polished, upon a smooth 
 and shining horn tablet. But should it happen, through negligence of 
 the glue not being well cooked, that the gold pulverises in rubbing, or 
 rises on account of too great thickness, have near you some old clear of 
 egg, beat up without water, and directly with a pencil paint slightly and 
 quickly over the gold ; when it is dry again rub it with the tooth or stone. 
 Lay in this manner silver, brass, and copper in their place andx)olish them." 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI V. 
 
 HOW COLOURS ARE TFMPERED FOR BOOKS. 
 
 "These things thus accomplished, make a mixture of the clearest gum 
 and water as above, and temper all colours except green, and ceruse, and 
 minium, and carmine, with clear of egg. Compose all preparations of 
 colours for a book as above, if you want them for painting figures. All 
 colours are laid on twice in books, at first very thinly, then more thickly ; 
 but twice for letters." 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 OF INK. 
 
 " To make ink, cut for yourself wood of the thorn-trees in April or May, 
 before they produce flowers or leaves, and collecting them in small bundles, 
 allow them to lie in the shade for two, three, or four weeks until they are 
 somewhat dry. Then have wooden mallets, with which you beat these 
 thorns upon another i)iece of hard wood, until you peel off the bark every- 
 where, put which immediately into a barrel ful of water. When you have 
 filled two or three, or four, or five barrels with bark and water, allow them 
 so to stand for eight days, until the waters imbibe all the sap of the bark. 
 Afterwards x>ut tliis water into a very clean pan, or into a cauldron, and 
 fire being placed under it, boil it ; from time to time, also, throw into the 
 pan some of this bark, so that whatever sap may remain in it may be 
 boiled out, when you have cooked it a little, throw it out, and again put 
 in more ; which done, boil down the remaining water unto a third part, and 
 then, pouring it out of this pan, put it into one smaller, and cook it until 
 it grows black and begins to thicken ; adtl one-third part of pure wine, 
 and putting it into two or three new pots, cook it until you see a sort of 
 skin show itself on the surface ; then taking these })ots from the fire, place 
 them in the sun until the black ink purifies itself from the red dregs. 
 Afterwards take small bags of ]tarchment, carefully sewn, and bladders, 
 and pouring in the pure ink, suspend them iu the sun until all is (juite 
 dry ; and wlien dry, take from it as much as you wish, and temper it with 
 wine over the fire, and, adding a little vitrol, write. But if it should 
 happen througli negligence that your ink be not black enoufjh, take a frag- 
 ment of the thickness of a finger, and putting it into the fire, allow it to 
 glow, and throw it directly into the ink." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 (The Names of Paintings are printed in italic.) 
 
 Academy Eoyal (Old Masters), 92. 
 Alfonso, King of Naples, 60, 61. 
 Angelico, Fra Giovanni, 15, 25—56. 
 
 „ Works of, 53. 
 Angiolini, Bartolo d'Angiolino, 19. 
 A nnunciation, The, 33, 43. 
 Antoninus, S., 41, 46, 57. 
 Antwerp Museum, 53. 
 Apotheosis of S. Thomas Aquinas, 78. 
 
 Cennini, Andrea, 84. 
 Coleoni, Bartolommeo, 104. 
 Conversion of S. Thomas, 113. 
 Coronation of the Virgin, by Fra An- 
 gelico, 33. 
 
 • , by Filippo Lippi, 62, 
 
 • , by Benozzo Gozzoli, 78. 
 
 , by Botticelli, 91. 
 
 Cortona, 28, 29, 32, 43, 53. 
 
 Badia, Florence, 70, 72. 
 
 Baptism of our Saviour, Tlie, 103. 
 
 Baldovinetti, Alesso, 68, 85. 
 
 Benci, Ginevra de', 98. 
 
 Benedetto, Fra, 39, 57. 
 
 Berlin Museum, 36, 53, 65, 93, 100. 
 
 Bologna, 72. 
 
 Botticelli, Sandro, 65, 68, 87, 90—95, 
 
 109. 
 Botticelli, Works of, 93. 
 Brancacci, Chapel of the. 
 
 Frescoes in, 13, 14, 18, 19, 22, 30, 
 48, 69, 72. 
 Brancacci, Felice, 19, 
 Branda, Cardinal, 11. 
 Brunelleschi, Filippo di Ser, 8, 38, 86. 
 
 Campo Santo, Pisa, 76, 78, 80. 
 Caraffa, Cappella dei, frescoes in, 70. 
 Carmine, Convent of the, 58. 
 Castiglione di Olona, frescoes at, 11— 
 
 15. 
 Castagno, Andrea del, 81, 82. 
 Cellini, Benvenuto, 88. 
 
 P F A 
 
 Dante, 28, 30, 31, 41, 44, 75, 81, 111. 
 Death of S. Bernard, The, 62. 
 Death of S. Francis, The, 91. 
 Descent from the Cross, by Signorelli, 
 
 113. 
 Diamante, Fra, 64, 65, 68. 
 Distemper, or a tempera, 15, 83. 
 Dominic, S., Order of, 26, 28. 
 Donatello or Donate, 6, 8, 9. 
 
 Fesch, Cardinal, Gallery of, 36. 
 Fiesole, Convent of, 27, 33, 34, 38,39, 
 
 55. 
 Florence, Accademia delle belle Arti, 
 
 22, 34, 37, 43, 54, 65, 72, 91, 92, 97, 
 
 99, 101. 
 Florence, Cathedral of (Santa Maria 
 
 del Fiore), 5, 38, 68, 86. 
 Foligno, 27—29, 100. 
 Forli, Melozzo da, 78. 
 Frankfort, 55. 
 Francis, S. of Assisi, 28. 
 Fresco-Painting, 15, 83, 106. 
 Fulminati, Ttie, 111. 
 
122 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ghiberti, 2, 16, 19, 23, 87. 
 Ghirlandajo, 70, 85—87,95—102, 109, 
 
 110. 
 Ghirlandajo, Works of, 100. 
 Giotto, 1, 8, 28, 29, 75. 
 Goldsmith Painters, The, 86—105. 
 Gozzoli, Benozzo, 74—80. 
 
 „ „ Works of, 79. 
 
 Gradino, A, 38. 
 
 National Gallery, 10, 24, 38, 56, 59, 
 
 60, 66, 73, 76, 79, 89, 93, 94. 
 Nativity of Christ, The, 62. 
 Nicholas V., Pope, 46, 47, 50. 
 „ Chapel of, 48, 49. 
 
 Oil-Painting, origin and use of, 83. 
 Orvieto, Cathedral of, 46, 56, 74, 111, 
 112. 
 
 Hawkwood, Condottiere, 5, 6. 
 
 Institution of the Holy Communion 
 113. 
 
 Last Judgment, The, by Fra Angelico. 
 35, 36, 47. 
 
 , by Signorelli, 111. 
 
 iMjend of S. Catherine, The, 17, 18. 
 
 Leopardo, Alessandro, l(-5. 
 
 liClmo. Hospital of, 4. 
 
 Life of Christ, 34. 
 
 Lippi, Fra Filippo, 58—67. 
 
 „ „ Works of, 65. 
 
 Lippi, Filippino, 67 — 73. 
 
 Works of 72. 
 Louvre, The, 10, 33, 56, 59,' 67, 78, 79, 
 
 95, 99, 102. 
 Lucca, 73, 101. 
 Lucifer cast out of Heaven, 1, 2. 
 
 Macchiavelli, Zanobi, 78. 
 
 Jlfadonna with four Saints, 60. 
 
 IVIanetti, 3, 8. 
 
 Martyrdom of S. /Sebastian, 89. 
 
 Marzuppini, Carlo, 61. 
 
 Masaccio, 8, 13, 16—24, 59, 69, 109. 
 
 „ Works of, 23. 
 INfasolino da Panicale, 10 — 15, 17. 
 Medici, Cosimode', 18,39,44,60, 77.91. 
 
 „ Giovanni di Bicci de', 18, 19. 
 
 „ Giovanni de', 60. 
 
 „ Lorenzode', 70, 77, 88, 91. 
 
 „ Piero de', 75. 
 
 „ Giulianode', 77, 87, 91. 
 Messina, Antonello da, 81, 85. 
 Milan, 94. 
 Montefalco, 75, 79. 
 " Morbidezza," 1 7. 
 Munich, Pinakofchek, £6, 66, 73, 95, 
 
 102. 
 
 Padua, 10. 
 
 Palazzo Pubblico, Florence, 68, 69, £2. 
 
 Pazzi, Congiura de', 92. 
 
 Perugia, 29, 56, 75, 79. 
 
 Peruzzi, Loggia de', 8. 
 
 Peselli, or Pesellino, Francesco. 65, 
 
 86. 
 Pesello, Giuliano d'Arrigo, 85, 86. 
 Pisano, Niccolo, 27. 
 Pisa, 76, 77, 78, 80. 
 Pippo Spano, 14. 
 Pitti, Palazzo, 62, 72, 94, 101. 
 PollaiuoH, The, 87—89, 114, 115. 
 Polygnotus, 9, 15. 
 Prato, Frescoes at, 63, 64, 67, 73. 
 Predella, A, 38. 
 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 23, 65, 107. 
 
 Riccardi, Palazzo, 60, 75. 
 
 Roll Call, The, 6. 
 
 Rome, 17, 45, 56, 67, 73, 95, 102. 
 
 Rugerius, 83. 
 
 Ruskiu, Mr., 98, 99. 
 
 San Cleraente, Church of, Rome, 17. 
 
 Sm Fortunato, Church of, near Mon- 
 tefalco, 75. 
 
 Sm Gimignano, 73, 76, 80. 
 
 .San Giovanni e Paolo, Venice, 104. 
 
 Sm Marco, Convent of, 30, 39, 45,54, 
 55, 101. 
 
 Santa Maria Novella, Church of, 
 Florence, 6, 10, 22, 27, 35, 72, 91, 
 97, 101. 
 
 Santi Apostoli, Churrh of, Rome, 78. 
 
 Santo Spirito, Caurch of, Florence, 
 59, 60, 70, 72. 
 
 Sassetti Chapel, Frescoes in, 96, 99. 
 
 Savonarola, 92, 93. 
 
 Schiavo, Paolo, 15. 
 
 Sellajo, Jacopo del, 65. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 123 
 
 Signorelli, Luca, 110—115. 
 
 Sixtine Chapel, Paintings in, 107 — 
 
 110, 114. 
 Sixtus IV., Pope, 89, 92, 96, 107, 114. 
 Spoleto, Cathedral of, frescoes in, 64, 
 
 67. 
 Stefano Fiorentino, 1, 2. 
 Stamina, Gherardo della, 10. 
 Strozzi, Palazzo, 61. 
 
 „ Chapel, 71, 72. 
 Strozzi, Zanobi, 78. 
 
 Thompson, Miss, 6. 
 Tornabuoni, Giovanni, 97. 
 Turin, 56, 67. 
 
 Uccello, Paolo, 2—10. 
 
 „ List of his paintings, 10. 
 
 Uffizi Gallery, 10, 22, 36, 37, 54, 70, 
 72, 76, 91—94, 97, 99, 101, 103. 
 
 Van Eyck, 83, 85. 
 Vatican, The, 27, 29, 48, 56. 
 Veneziano, Domenico, 59, 81 — 83. 
 Veiins Floating on a Shell, 91. 
 Verrocchio, Andrea del, 102 — 105. 
 Vicchio, 26. 
 
 Vinci, Leonardo da, 103. 
 Virgin Crowned hy Angels, 90. 
 Virgin Enthroned, The, 76. 
 Virgin and S. Anna, The, 78. 
 Vision of S. Bernard, The, 60. 
 Volterra, 88, 102, 112. 
 
 Zeuxis, 107. 
 
 TIIF. END. 
 
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