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of the mother of God. The Byzantine influence, on the other hand, may be seen in the Greek type of feature and long, slender fingers. The revelation that Duccio made of the new powers of art was received, as was Cimabue's, with rapturous applause, and one of his pictures was carried in procession on a beautiful day in June to the Cathedral amidst the ringing of bells and the sounding of trumpets; the magistrates, clergy, and religious orders escorting it, followed by a multitude of citizens with their wives and families, praying as they went : the shops were closed and alms distributed to the poor. Fo: that masterpiece Duccio received 16 soldi (8d.) the working day, paid to him in monthly instalments. The city, however, found him his materials, which, owing to the quantity of gold used (see 1139, p. 39) raised the whole cost to 3000 gold florins. 1138. THE CRUCIFIXION.

Andrea del Castagno (Florentine: 1390-1457). A picture, impressive in its solemn gloom. The impenitent thief writhes in agony, the suffering Christ casts his last glance at his mother, who, with St. John the beloved disciple, stands below in speechless grief. There is a coarse vigour in the picture which agrees well with what we know of the painter, who was the son of a peasant, and used, when a boy at home, to trace rude figures on the wall. Benedetto de' Medici discovered him whilst tending his flocks at Castagnc, and sent him to Florence, where he afterwards lived in great poverty,1

582. THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI.

Fra Angelico (Florentine: 1387-1455). See under 663, p. 43.

1155. THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN.

Matteo di Giovanni (Sienese: 1435-1495).
See under 247, p. 38.

A picture in which the artist concentrates all he could command of gaiety and joyousness in colour, expression, action and sentiment; and thus typical of the personal feeling, approximating to that of a lover to his mistress, which entered

1 Vasari's story that Andrea was a fellow-worker with Domenico Veneziano, and was so jealous because of the latter's possession of the secret of oil painting that he murdered him, has recently been proved absolutely false in every particular.

into Madonna worship. These pictures of coronations and assumptions of the Virgin are not merely tributes of devotion to the mother of God, but are poetic renderings of the recognition of women's queenship, of her rule not by force of law but by tenderness and sacrifice

For lo thy law is pass'd

That this my love should manifestly be

To serve and honour thee:

And so I do and my delight is full,

Accepted for the servant of thy rule.

One may read the same spirit perhaps, in the legend of St. Thomas and the Madonna, introduced in this picture-of St. Thomas, who ever doubted, but whose faith was confirmed by a woman's girdle. For the story is that the Virgin, taking pity on his unbelief, threw down to him her girdle, which he is here raising his hands to catch, as it falls from her throne, in order that this tangible proof remaining with him might remove all doubts for ever from his mind:

Lady, since I conceived

Thy pleasurable aspect in my heart,

My life has been apart

In shining brightness and the place of truth;
Which till that time, good sooth,

Groped among shadows in a darken'd place.

D. G. ROSSETTI: Early Italian Poets.

1147. HEADS OF NUNS.

Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Sienese: died about 1348).

The chief works of this artist (a younger brother of Pietro, 1113, p. 38) are the frescoes still existing on the walls of the Town Hall in Siena, representing good and bad government. The work before us is a mere shattered fragment of fresco, but it is enough to show the artist's feeling for the true portraiture that identifies character with likeness. The nuns' faces are typical of the strong yet tender qualities developed in a life of seclusion and self-sacrifice.

1188.

THE BETRAYAL OF CHRIST.

1189. THE PROCESSION TO CALVARY.

Ugolino (Sienese: painted about 1300).
So great

Ugolino was one of the founders of the Sienese School. was bis reputation that he was unanimously chosen by the Florentines, in preference to their own artists, to paint the altar-pieces of their two

great churches; whilst another picture that he painted for them was credited with miraculous powers. These little pictures are portions of the one painted by him for the high altar of Sta. Croce. The points which have been already noticed as characteristic of his contemporary, Duccio (see 566, p. 46), may be traced equally in Ugolino.

Notice in 1188 that the disciples are not mere conventional types, but that an attempt is made to give them each an individuality, and to express their characters on their faces. The same expressions may be noticed again in 1189. It is interesting, too, to observe how the first attempts of painting (as of poetry) to express action were epic, rather than dramatic. The painter tries to tell the whole story at once; here is Judas giving the traitor's kiss, there is Peter cutting off the ear of the High Priest's servant, and beside them are all the other characters of the story (cf. under IV. 579, p. 74). As art advances, it becomes on the other hand dramatic; the painter seizes on the essential point and makes his picture out of that. The difference may be seen by contrasting Ugolino's picture with one of the same subject at Florence by Giotto, which Mr. Ruskin thus describes: "See what choice Giotto made of his moments. Plenty of choice for him-in pain. The Flagellation the Mocking-the Bearing the Cross ;-all habitually given by the Margheritones, and their school, as extremes of pain. 'No,' thinks Giotto.

'There was worse than all that. Many a good man has been mocked, spitefully entreated, spitted on, slain. But who was ever so betrayed?'. . . He paints the laying hands on him in the garden, but with only two principal figures—Judas and Peter, of course: Judas and Peter were always principal in the old Byzantine composition,-Judas giving the kiss, Peter cutting off the servant's ear. But the two are here not merely principal, but almost alone in sight, all the other figures thrown back; and Peter is not at all concerned about the servant, or his struggle with him. He has got him down, but looks back suddenly at Judas giving the kiss. 'What!—you are the traitor, then-you !'—'Yes,' says Giotto; 'and you, also, in an hour more (Mornings in Florence, ii. 41).

909. THE MADONNA OF THE WHITE ROSE.

Benvenuto da Siena (Sienese: 1436-about 1517). A charming combination of older and newer "motives." There is the gold background, true to the old Sienese traditions,

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but there are also the little fiddling angels, so common in Venetian and other pictures of the time of Benvenuto's later years. In the compartments on either side are St. Peter, and St. Nicholas of Bari (with various adornments referring to his story: see under VI. 1171, p. 112).

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I am poor brother Lippo, by your leave!
Yes, I'm the painter, since you style me so.
For me, I think I speak as I was taught;
I always see the garden and God there
A-making man's wife: and, my lesson learned,
The value and significance of flesh,

I can't unlearn ten minutes afterwards.
Why can't a painter lift each foot in turn,
Left foot and right foot, go a double step,
Make his flesh liker and his soul more like,
Both in their order?

BROWNING: Fra Lippo Lippi.

Botticelli, the pupil of Monk Lippo, is "the only painter of Italy who understood the thoughts of Heathens and Christians equally, and could in a measure paint both Aphrodite and the Madonna. So that he is, on the whole, the most universal of painters; and, take him all in all, the greatest Florentine workman" (RUSKIN: Fors Clavigera, 1872, xxii. 2).

782. MADONNA AND CHILD.

Ascribed to Botticelli. (See under 1034, p. 56). Probably only a "school picture." Most of the old masters kept schools, or shops, in which several pupils served as apprentices and worked at pictures under the master's directions. The sale of such pictures under the master's name was (and is)

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