FIRST PERIOD IN ROME
A fact that another has once discovered and substantiated seems so
obvious to those who come after, that they can hardly understand how it
could so long have remained unrecognised. To Morelli belongs the credit
of having swept away the tradition that in Signorelli and Perugino were
to be found the authors of the two frescoes, "The Journey of Moses" and
"The Baptism," on either side of the altar-piece in the Sixtine Chapel.
After four hundred years of gathering oblivion came one who looked with
open eyes, disregarding all mere tradition, and who saw the handwriting
of Pintoricchio writ large upon the walls, waiting there, full within
sight, yet overlooked, till, after centuries, the truth is acknowledged,
unmistakable, supported not only by internal evidence but by drawings
and studies--direct testimony affording conclusive proof of their
authorship.
It is perhaps owing to Melozzo da Forli being court painter to the
Vatican in 1480 that we may attribute the preference shown in the first
instance to Umbrians in the choice of decorators for Sixtus IV.'s new
chapel. To Perugino the direction seems to have been given in the first
place, he and his assistants arriving in Rome in October 1482. Here they
would have had a great deal to prepare, the spaces to plan, the Pope's
directions to consider, the ornamentation of the windows and the niches
for the martyred Popes to decide upon. The scheme of the type and
anti-type which balances the opposite walls, is very probably due to the
Pope and his advisers. Pope Sixtus was a writer on theology, was
esteemed a man of profound scholarship, and had in the years immediately
preceding written several books on important points of doctrine.
Perugino was at that time the undisputed head of the school of Umbria,
and his religious spirit and conventional treatment of sacred subjects
was likely to be much more acceptable to the Holy See than the new
spirit of scientific inquiry. The contract between him and the Pope
makes it probable that at first he and his assistants were to be
entrusted with the entire work. Whether the Pope got impatient and
wished to see his chapel more speedily completed, or for what other
reason, is uncertain; but when Giuliano della Rovere went to Florence in
December, he agreed with a number of Florentines to resort to Rome, and
the whole company of artists was gathered there by the year 1483.
Foremost among these was Sandro Botticelli, and from documents which
have recently come to light we gather that the superintendence of the
entire scheme was finally entrusted to him and not to Perugino.
Among the assistants brought by Perugino, were "Rocco Zoppo and
Bernardino Betti, called il Pintoricchio." The operations of the first
were limited to certain portraits of the Rovere family in the
altar-piece, which at that time represented the "Assumption," by
Perugino, with the "Finding of Moses" and the "Nativity of Christ" as
the beginning of the two sacred histories. Pintoricchio's place, in his
master's estimation, was a very different one. We have no reason to
doubt that he was Perugino's right-hand man. From the degree to which he
has imbibed his style, he must have been working with him for some time
before, and the drawings in the Venetian sketch-book, as it is generally
called, so long erroneously attributed to Raphael, make it clear that he
supplied Perugino with designs for several of his principal figures,
which the master altered slightly to suit his taste when he came to
transfer them to the plaster.
Vasari[17] tells us that Pintoricchio worked with Perugino in the Sixtine
Chapel, and took a third of the profits, but this testimony afforded no
clue to former critics, and for some centuries "The Journey of Moses"
was attributed to Luca Signorelli. Burckhardt was the first to dispute
this claim, and to ascribe the fresco with more _vraisemblance_ to
Perugino.[18] Crowe and Cavalcaselle[19] repudiate the attribution to
Signorelli. They see in both this and "The Baptism" the work of
Perugino, but in parts, in the young man stripping, and in the youth by
his side, they recognise a likeness to Pintoricchio, though in the
children of "The Journey" they profess to see plainly the hand of
Bartolommeo della Gatta.
[17] Manni. _Raccolta Milanese di vari opuscoli_, vol. i. f. 29.
[18] Vol. iii.
[19] _History of Painting in Italy_, iii. 1783.
The attribution of these two great frescoes to the younger master has
made a great difference to his place in art. In some ways they are the
finest and truest works he has left us; it is curious that they are the
first that can with certainty be ascribed to him.
Morelli,[20] in appealing to the internal testimony of the frescoes in
the Sixtine Chapel, tells us it was their landscape backgrounds which
first opened his eyes. He further cites the overcrowding in the
composition--"a fault which Pintoricchio very often commits, Perugino
hardly ever." Even the falcon in the air is repeated by Pintoricchio in
his frescoes at Siena. The children he compares with those in the chapel
in Ara Cœli. He sees the character of the master plainly stamped on
many of the individual figures, and on the plan of the composition.
Evidence more minute and conclusive is derived from the book of drawings
to which I have already alluded. Towards the middle of the nineteenth
century these, on the authority of Professor Bossi, were assigned to
Raphael. Bossi bought the book at a sale, and deciding that they were
studies by the great Urbinate, was full of elation at the acquisition of
such a priceless treasure. When at Bossi's death they were bought by the
nation, Passavant, Count Cicognara, and Marchese Estense, all noted
connoisseurs, unhesitatingly pronounced them to be by Raphael, and for
his work they still pass in the Accademia in Venice.
[20] _Italian Masters in German Galleries_, pp. 264-284.
It would take far too much space to go with Morelli through all the
fifty-three drawings, with a circumstantial criticism which leaves only
three (detached and on different paper) to the younger master. We must
content ourselves with examining those which Pintoricchio used for
figures in frescoes which remain to us. A number of these examples
occur in "The Journey of Moses." On one sheet is a sketch for the woman
kneeling with outstretched arms, who performs the rite upon the little
son of Moses. On another page is a study for the drapery of the seated
woman. Again, the heads of four women are drawn on one sheet; no less
than three of these are introduced in the fresco. One of the two upper
heads is used for the woman bearing a jar, the position being very
slightly altered; while of the two lower heads, that on the left is a
study for Zipporah leading her child, the other for the head of the
woman with the child upon her knee. The quaint head-dresses are
reproduced to a nicety: one with outstanding bows on either side, and
the loose, flying scarf, knotted in front, the other with the scrolled
cornucopia-like ornament curling round the ear. For "The Baptism" we
have a study of the seated woman in the background, and for two of the
nude figures of youths. For Perugino's fresco, "The Giving of the Keys,"
Pintoricchio has left two drawings for St. John, standing with his hand
upon his breast; one of the two is ruled in squares for transferring to
the wall, and this is the one adopted by Perugino. From two other
studies figures have been introduced; the cloaked man, third from the
left, and two just above, in the background. There is also an elaborate
drawing for the Madonna in the altar-piece in Santa Maria del Popolo,
and a drawing for the lion in a scene from the life of St. Jerome in the
same church. We thus have no fewer than thirteen heads and figures,
clearly recognisable as studies for frescoes painted before Raphael was
six years old.
[Illustration:
_Private photo_] [_Venice_
STUDY OF HEADS FOR THE "JOURNEY OF MOSES"]
The drawings, fine and delicate as they are, have the stiffness, the
careful, square-crossed hatching which is found in others by
Pintoricchio, also his shape of hand and foot, and the narrow, elongated
forms and in-bent knees.
Pintoricchio was now twenty-eight. He must already have produced a great
deal of work, but not only have we no trace of it, but what is left is
almost all known to be of later date. However obscure his life before he
came to Rome, his proceedings after that are well known, and there is
hardly a year unaccounted for, or which cannot be almost certainly
filled up from inference.
Rome had no cinque-cento painters of her own; but none the less, the
great traditions of the past, which that century was fast reviving, made
her the Mecca of the artists of Italy. That the two frescoes in the
Sixtine Chapel were Pintoricchio's first great commission is probable,
and it must have been with exultation that he set to work to give free
play to his decorative instincts on the large bare walls. Though the
whole is imbued with Perugino's spirit, and full of _motifs_ copied from
him, the composition is not the least like his calm, glowing landscapes
and well-ordered, symmetrical groups. The background is all reminiscent
of Fiorenzo--the toppling rocks, the little bushy trees, the joyous air
of the little figures frolicking on the hillside, the palms and
cypresses, the beautifully shaped hollow of the valley, the falcon in
the air pursuing smaller birds. The crowded groups are in Pintoricchio's
style; the want of concentration of interest, the narrative spirit
running through the whole are just what were most dear to his genius.
There has been much discussion as to whether his master helped him. Did
Perugino paint the figure of the woman busied with the rite of
Circumcision, and of Moses looking on? Or did he execute the heads of
any of the Florentine colony who are brought in, and who might have
preferred to have their portraits from the hand of the master rather
than from that of the pupil? I can find very little trace of Perugino's
own hand, unless it be in the head of Moses on the right, in which the
execution of the hair is more in his manner, though not nearly as fine
and rippling as he paints it in the frescoes of the keys. The action of
the angel in the centre is quite in the manner of Pintoricchio, and
Perugino never would have placed the hand of Moses in such an awkward
attitude of expostulation. The children are like his in the Buffalini
Chapel in the Libreria and Borgia apartments, and contrast favourably
with Perugino's fat, unshapely babes. As a whole, it would be difficult
to find a more attractive piece of decorative painting than this. The
various scenes, the shepherds dancing at the marriage feast, Jethro and
his household taking leave of Moses, the departure of the leader of
Israel with his family, and the rite of Circumcision are pressed into
one harmonious scene. The background melts naturally into the foreground
without appearing confused, and the vigorous white-robed messenger of
God, with shimmering hair and wings, drawn sword and outstretched arm,
divides the two foreground groups in a manner as original as it is
sufficient. Moses, clad in the traditional yellow robe and green
mantle, stopping at the angel's command, is a fine, grave figure of
marked personality. The two women occupied with the child on the right,
Zipporah leading the little boy, the damsel on the left balancing her
jar, are some of the most beautiful and graceful forms that Pintoricchio
has given us. The draperies are less voluminous than in later pictures,
and fall in straighter, simpler folds, resembling the more statuesque
drapery such as we find in the "St. Thomas and the Saviour" of Or San
Michele, and which Perugino, on his return from Florence, imparted to
his pupil in place of Fiorenzo's sharply-cut-up folds. Here, too,
Pintoricchio proves himself to be, what he was evidently considered in
Rome, a landscape-painter of the first rank; and it is especially by the
landscape that Morelli tells us he made out the identity of the painter
of this fresco. Nothing up to this time had been seen so lovely as this
background,--on one side, the low purple hills, touched with golden
gleams, running down into the soft distance, on the other, a clear,
grassy space, giving a sense of air and gaiety to the little pastoral.
Both the frescoes in the Sixtine have undergone such repeated cleanings
and restorations that little of the original colour remains, and the
effect is somewhat faded and grimy; but we are still able to see with
what skill white robes are made use of--an art in which Pintoricchio
excels in many of his paintings.
[Illustration:
_Anderson photo_] [_Sixtine Chapel, Rome_
THE JOURNEY OF MOSES]
The scene on the opposite wall of the "Baptism of Christ" is much fuller
of figures than the "Journey of Moses." Separated incidents are more
largely made use of, in the archaic mode which the artists of the
Renaissance soon after this abandoned. That the central figures are a
copy of Perugino's "Baptism" at Rouen need be no argument that the
latter had an active share in it himself. The angels overhead are the
same that Perugino and all his school have reproduced many times, and
this interchange or imitation was merely a proper compliment between
master and pupil. Pintoricchio here owes no more to Perugino than the
latter does to Verrocchio, of whose "Baptism," in Florence, with the
angels kneeling by, we are strongly reminded. St. John is a type of
great freshness and individuality: the long lean form has simplicity and
directness of action, the shape of hand and foot, the blacker and more
angular draperies, are all unlike the master and like the pupil. St.
John pours the water with a painstaking, literal intention. In the
frescoes by Perugino at Foligno and at Rouen, his eyes are raised, his
body thrown gracefully on one side, and the little cup is raised aloft
with a sort of symbolical wave, while the contemplative angels kneeling
around are very unlike Pintoricchio's prim little attendants.
In the groups in the background on either hand, listening to the
preaching of the Baptist and the Saviour, only one, the St. John on the
left, with head raised and inclined and hand on breast, reminds us at
all of Perugino. We have a great many of the figures the younger master
is so fond of, turning their backs and enveloped in the voluminous folds
of great cloaks--a _motif_ which is not common with Perugino, but which
Pintoricchio makes lavish use of in the Libreria, and which he derives
from Fiorenzo, who often brings it in. Here we find the seated woman,
for which he has left the drawing, who, with the children clinging to
her, looks up and listens to the Baptist on the right, and who, in her
gracefully swathed garments, is beautiful enough for the pencil of
Botticelli or Agostino di Duccio. We also find a study for the nude
figure at the back with outstretched hand. These nudes are among
Bernardino's few attempts at anatomical drawing, to which he never takes
kindly. We cannot say that they show much real acquaintance with form,
though it is evident that they are from the living model, which at this
time he was faithfully seeking to render. Many of the portraits are
admirable. It would be difficult to find stronger, more satisfactory
heads, more solid in drawing and more full and interesting in
expression, than three or four of the heads in the group standing a
little way behind Christ, or the old man grasping his napkin on the
opposite side, in whom Dr. Steinmann suggests we see the Pope's
brother-in-law, Giovanni Basso della Rovere, who died this year, and
whose shrewd features and close shut mouth we recognise again in his
tomb in Santa Maria del Popolo. The deepest interest of the picture
centres in these fine portraits of men of the time, and in the landscape
which, though this fresco is the most injured of all, is still beautiful
in its varied light and shade, and in the lie of the ground in hill and
slope and distant vale.
[Illustration:
_Anderson photo_] [_Sixtine Chapel, Rome_
THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST]
The old Pope died before the paint was dry upon the walls of the chapel
by which his name is best remembered; but long before his companions had
got down to the west end, Pintoricchio must have done his share, though
he may still have worked at draperies and minor details in his master's
allotment. What he had achieved had established his reputation, and when
he went forth it was as an independent artist, himself an employer of
assistants, soon to be the honoured recipient of papal commissions.
To this time we may assign the panel painting of the "Madonna teaching
the Child to read," which is now at Valencia. Indeed, Dr. Schmarsow
holds it to be his earliest known work. It was formerly at Xativà, and
was sent as a present to his native city by Roderigo Borgia, and was
placed later in a chapel which his brother Francesco built to his
memory. The crest of the Borgias shows that it was painted for that
house, and the donor himself, as a comparatively young man, kneels on
the right, with his mitre on the ground by his side.
We can trace the likeness to that other kneeling Pope in the Borgia
apartments, though the features are less strongly marked. In this little
panel, both the Mother and Child are standing,--He mounted on a chest,
upon which the crest is painted; she with one hand tenderly placed on
His shoulder, while the other holds the open book. She has the same type
to which Pintoricchio was faithful, the egg-shaped face, arched brows
and close shut mouth. The heavy folds of the mantle are starred and
edged with gold, and the Child's robe is of rich gold brocade. The
picture is full of feeling, but is stiff in drawing and almost Byzantine
in style. The delightful little lunette in Sant' Onofrio in Rome,
painted about 1505 by one of his scholars, is adapted from this picture,
of which the master must have retained a sketch. The same follower was
employed on the apse, where scenes by Peruzzi alternate with several in
Pintoricchio's manner, though they are far too ill-drawn to be from his
hand.
We have no means of deciding what was the first important commission the
young painter undertook after he left the Sixtine Chapel. The German
critics, however, agree in placing the Buffalini Chapel in Ara Cœli
as his next work. Morelli thinks it was later on account of the
decoration of "grottesques," but it has a simplicity and absence of
ornament more akin to the Sixtine work than to Pintoricchio's later
gorgeous achievements, and he uses much of the same soft grey colour. It
is not unlikely that he would have brought a special commendation from
the Buffalini of Perugia to those members settled in Rome, and it is
easy to see how fresh in his mind were the architectural traditions of
Fiorenzo. The chapel, being painted almost entirely by his own hand,
looks as if he had not yet gathered together so many assistants, and a
little later, loaded with papal commissions, he would hardly have had
time to devote to a private citizen.
It seems to me that we have scarcely any work of his for which we can
feel such unalloyed admiration as that in this little chapel in the dim
old church upon the Capitoline Hill, where from the midst of classic
marbles and pre-historic legends, you pass into the quiet side aisle,
and the level rays of the golden evening sunshine that pour through a
little west window, light up the story of the mediæval saint as
illustrated by his Umbrian name-child.
Hardly any saint could have been more dear and familiar to the sons of
mid-Italy than San Bernardino of Siena, the disciple of their beloved
St. Francis, and one who had exercised such a strong and recent
influence over his followers. He died only nine years before
Pintoricchio was born, and as he grew up the little Bernardino must have
heard ardent references to his holy patron from men who had crowded
round the pulpit outside the cathedral in Perugia. His gonfalon, painted
by Bonfigli, hung in the Church of San Bernardino. His thin face, with
its pinched mouth, was familiar to every one, and stories of his wisdom,
his virtue, his miracles, were fresh on men's lips. Pintoricchio must
have been well acquainted with the history of the saint's amicable
arrangement of a deadly feud which had raged between the Buffalini and
the fierce Baglioni of his native town, and both as a _protégé_ of San
Bernardino and as a Perugian, the commission to paint a chapel in honour
of the saint and to commemorate the healing of the quarrel must have
made a special appeal to his quick and sensitive fancy. The chapel was
probably the gift of Lodovico Buffalini, advocate to the papal
consistory, who, we find from an inscription on a stone in the pavement,
died in 1506. The painting was for many years almost concealed by a
hideous wooden hatchment, and only re-opened again in the last century,
which accounts for the excellent preservation it is in.
The little Gothic chapel at the extreme west end of the church lighted
by a small west window, has an arched roof with crossed pieces; the side
walls are divided by painted pilasters. The whole architectural
decoration is in monochrome, in pale brownish grey upon a rich brown
ground. On the pilasters on either side is a beautiful decoration of
fruits and seed-pods in great masses, tied in with ribbons adapted from
the antique, and resembling a framework by Mantegna in the Eremitani
Chapel at Padua. The frescoes on the walls are separated by long slender
candelabra with flaring flames, the stems formed of grotesques, masks
grave and grimacing, climbing stags and gambolling _putti_. The arches
of the roof have been profusely enriched with gold, and culminate in a
blue and gold boss. Below the altar is a long procession, also in
monochrome, captives and warriors, a soldier on horseback dragging a
nude woman, others laden with spoils and torches, a conqueror on a
triumphal car, with a naked captive bound behind; these are painted with
almost impressionist touches, and the horses are much better drawn than
we usually expect from Pintoricchio.
In the roof, in four triangles, are the "Four Evangelists": St. Matthew
looking up as for inspiration, dipping his pen in the ink held by a
beautiful kneeling angel-figure at his side. Both this figure and that
of St. Luke are very broadly and freely painted. Steinmann points out
that we find them almost repeated, apparently by a scholar, in the
sacristy of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. This church has been closed for
two years for repairs--I have not been able to see the frescoes.
On the west, on either side of the tall narrow window, are two simulated
windows. From that nearest the altar the figure of "God the Father,"
surrounded by cherubs and golden rays and holding a globe, looks into
the chapel and towards the fresco below on the right. The panel to the
right is filled by a long row of arches in side-long perspective, and
on the top of a pedestal straddles a charming little _putto_, reminding
us of Mino da Fiesole's children on monuments, who bears an axe and
shield with the buffalo head, the crest of the Buffalini. In the
background there is a trace of landscape seen through a ruined arch, and
above, a lunette of the "Madonna and Child," His foot rests on the heads
of two cherubs. In the foreground kneels the small thin figure of "San
Bernardino" receiving the monastic habit of the Franciscan order from a
father, while his cast-off scarlet robes, his money and box of jewels,
lie beside him on the ground. Following the line of the father's gesture
across the wall, we find that it is directed towards St. Francis, who
kneels to receive the stigmata with an expression of deep devotion and
spiritual insight that Pintoricchio has not often repeated. In the
middle, under the window, two monks recount a history to three lay
listeners, two of whom are evidently portraits, while a procession of
horsemen rides across the background. Whether this relates to the
miracle of the stigmata, or has some reference to the feud with the
Baglioni, is uncertain.
It is on the opposite wall, and on that above the altar, that the
painter has put forth his best efforts, and has produced work which, if
he ever equalled, he never surpassed.
In the arches above the left hand wall is "San Bernardino" as he arrayed
himself in camel hair and sackcloth and went into the wilderness to
study, leaving his rich home and his gay companions in Siena. The
population of the city comes out to interview him, grave elders with
turbaned heads, young men dressed in the height of fantastic fashion.
The saint, absorbed in the study of his Bible, does not even perceive
them as they gaze on him with wonder mixed with reverence, recalling the
devotion he has already shown during the visit of the plague to Siena.
The grass on which he walks is besprinkled with spring flowers, arums
with their red seed-pods, hyacinths and anemones; a little stream
trickles through the green past mossy tree stumps, and the tall towers
of Siena are seen afar in the valley. Below, the whole breadth of wall
is devoted to the burial procession of the saint. Here is a great
market-place surrounded with airy buildings, such buildings as Fiorenzo
had used in those other legends of San Bernardino, which Pintoricchio
would naturally have thought of as he drew his design; indeed, we have
little difficulty in tracing those which he specially adopted.
[Illustration:
_Anderson photo_] [_Church of Ara Cœli, Rome_
THE BURIAL OF SAN BERNARDINO]
In the fresco of "San Bernardino upon his Bier," the radiating marbles
of the great Piazza stretch away to a Bramante-like temple, arch soaring
above arch; flanking the ancestral dwelling of the donor of the chapel,
with the buffalo's head carved above the doorway, and a quaint little
scene of a buffalo assaulting the populace on the Piazza. In the
foreground stands the bier, upon which, with outstretched feet and
folded hands, lies the emaciated figure of the whilom gay young noble of
Siena who left all to follow Christ. Round him gather the monks of the
order, beggars, women and children. Down from the long _loggia_ on the
left, with the blue and gold decoration copied from Fiorenzo, comes the
stately figure in cap and gown of Messer Avocato Lodovico Buffalini
himself, face keen, precise yet gentle, figure conscious of position,
and the rustle of silken robes, observant too of the young sons, the
youth and the boy, who also in robes and close caps upon flowing hair,
stand on the opposite side of the bier. In the foreground Pintoricchio
has broken the monotony of the rich dark green bier by two of his most
charming little children with rounded limbs and gestures half saintly,
half childish, while by them lies something stuck in as an afterthought,
without meaning, without perspective, a babe in swaddling clothes in a
sort of crib or basket. This is the miraculous _bambino_ of Ara Cœli,
the Byzantine doll preserved in the church, which could by no means be
left out on such an occasion. The effect of ærial space about the whole
composition is very remarkable. The people gather round, life beyond
goes its way, and the whole is set in so peaceful and spirit-lifting an
environment that it does not need the little sky episode of the saint
received into glory to give it spirituality.
So, too, in the "Apotheosis of San Bernardino," which occupies the altar
wall, the sense of space and largeness is the prevailing quality.
Overhead, the stiff _mandorla_ with cherubic heads frames the Saviour,
who, standing upon clouds, raises His hand in benediction. This figure,
as usual, is not altogether happy in the rendering; but thin and
awkwardly drawn as it is, it is not without force or dignity, and has
something earnest and lovable in its expression. It is the direct
simplicity of Pintoricchio's manner which saves from self-consciousness,
and gives a serious quality that atones for the want of grandeur. The
remaining figures leave hardly anything to be desired. Italian art can
show us few more beautiful single figures than that of St. Louis of
Toulouse.[21] The young bishop in his rich episcopal robes and mitre,
his pastoral staff laid against his shoulder, while with absorbed
earnest look he turns the pages of his great breviary, is one of the
most satisfactory creations, full of dignity, goodness and thought, that
any artist has shown us. The face is well and strongly modelled, and the
outline is simple and large. Sant' Antonio of Padua on the opposite
side, holding his flaring heart in token of burning love, is a feebler
figure, and reminds us of some of Perugino's weaker saints; but San
Bernardino himself, in the midst, is full of striking individuality, and
there is great simplicity and repose in the outlines of all three
figures. Nowhere have more beautiful angels been painted. Pintoricchio
has shaken himself out of the conventional slavery of Perugino. These
figures making music upon the clouds are full of life and vigour,
reminiscent of Melozzo da Forli's energetic inspiration, while the two
who, bearing lilies, kneel and between them raise a golden crown above
the saint's head, are Pintoricchio's own, instinct with his own fresh
and delicate feeling for the beautiful, as lovely in colour as they are
in form.
[21] Patron Saint of Lodovico Buffalini.
The grouping in the burial procession is more successful than usual, and
the light and shade more massed. The colouring of all the frescoes is
exceedingly harmonious, the greenish greys of the background are very
delicate, and the foliage in the fresco over the altar must have been
most beautiful. Touches of bright colour are brought in sparingly, and
with good effect. Nothing more satisfactory is to be found in the
Umbrian school up to now, than the _tout ensemble_ of the altar wall.
The unity and balance of the whole, the variety, yet connection of the
subject, the groundwork occupied, yet not crowded, free from spottiness
and harsh transition. The palm tree filling the space on the right, the
cypress on the left, the maintenance of the distances, relieve the
fresco of all stiffness and flatness. The landscape is full of light and
atmosphere. On the right we look away to a valley which has never lost
the freshness of morning, on the left is a fairyland of sea and distant
mountains and little far-away towns, gleaming, blue and mysteriously
radiant. The whole shape and position of the country at the back is
quite excellent, and in happy contrast to the artificial elegance of
colonnades and radiating pavement of its neighbour on the adjoining
wall.
[Illustration:
_Anderson photo_] [_Church of Ara Cœli, Rome_
THE GLORIFICATION OF SAN BERNARDINO]