_Zenobio Macchiavelli_ (Florentine: 1418-1479).
This picture was formerly ascribed to Fra Filippo Lippi. It is
now given to Macchiavelli, who was a pupil of Benozzo Gozzoli,
and perhaps also of Lippi. A signed altar-piece by this painter
is in the Museo Civico at Pisa; another is in the Louvre; and
a third is in the National Gallery of Ireland. The latter is
"a picture of singular interest," says the catalogue, "proving
this master to have been one of the first of his time; full of
delicacy and refinement of feeling, and the heads beautifully
drawn."
Madonna and her babe,
Ringed by a bowery, flowery angel-brood
Lilies and vestments and white faces.
BROWNING: _Fra Lippo Lippi_.
A characteristic production of a school which, "orderly and obedient
itself, understood the law of order in all things, which is the
chief distinction between art and rudeness. And the first aim of
every great painter is to express clearly his obedience to the law
of Kosmos, Order, or Symmetry" (_Fors Clavigera_, 1876, p. 292).
The four angel-faces on one side of the Madonna are matched by four
on the other; the bishop and black monk on one side-compartment, by
the saint and black nun on the other. Similarly at the foot of the
throne the two angels are arranged symmetrically, one facing one way,
the other the other. "You will at first be pained by the decision of
line, and, in the children at least, uncomeliness of feature, which
are characteristic, the first, of purely descended Etruscan work; the
second, of the Florentine School headed afterwards by Donatello. But
it is absolutely necessary, for right progress in knowledge, that you
begin by observing and tracing decisive lines; and that you consider
dignity and simplicity of expression more than beauty of feature"
(_Fors Clavigera_, 1875, p. 308).