History and methods of ancient & modern painting

Front matter

HISTORYANDMETHODS OF AMCIENTAND MODERN

3 1924 008 744 041

Cornell University Library

Preface To Volume III

This volume is a continuation of the second on The History and Methods of Ancient and Modern Painting, and treats of Italian painting in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, beginning with the life and works of Benozzo Gozzoli and including the great masters of the Florentine School, also the Umbro-Florentine and Umbro-Romagnol painters. It also includes Raffaelle, Mantegna, the Muranese and early Venetian painters, from the Vivarini to Crivelli, and a chapter on Autonello da Messina.

In order to keep all the volumes of this work as far as possible of the same size, it has been considered necessary to issue another volume, which will embrace Italian painting of the seventeenth and part of the eighteenth centuries, so that the four volumes will complete this survey of painting from ancient historical times down to the eighteenth century in Italy.

The fourth volume, which will complete Italian painting, will be published shortly.

J. Ward.

Contents

OHAF.

I. FLORENTINE PAINTING (Continued from p. 302 of

vol. ii) : benozzo gozzoli, cosimo eosselli, andeea verrocchio, botticelli, filippino lippi, and domenico ghirlandaio . . 1

CHAPTER I FLORENTINE PAINTING (Continued from page 302, Volwme 11 )

Benozzo Gozzoli, Cosimo Rosselli, Andrea Verrocchio, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi,

AND DoMENICO GhIRLANDAIO

Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1498). The full name of this Florentine painter was Benozzo di Lese di Sandro. His first masters may have been the Pesselli, for there are many features and types in his early works, as well as a certain affinity of style, that would indicate he was either a scholar or close follower of these masters. He probably derived his fondness for the introduction of animals, birds, knights on horseback, splendid costumes, and spacious, rich, and well-cultivated landscape from the Pesselli. He was closely connected, however, when a young man, with Fra Angelico and was very much influenced by him, so much, indeed, that we may accept their relationship as that of master and pupil.

Though he has left many interesting and

VOL. in. B important works that show he was an artist of considerable power, who could design pleasing compositions, and execute them in a vigorous method of painting, he cannot be included in the ranks of the epoch-making masters of the Renaissance. He assisted Angelico at Orvieto in the frescoes of the S. Brizio Chapel in the Duo mo, in 1477, and later in those of the Chapel of St. Nicholas in the Vatican.

Benozzo was one of the first artists to see the beauty of the material world. He delighted in the representation of all natural objects and appearances, such as rich landscapes, with groups of trees, villages, country villas, cultivated hillsides, valleys and rivers, animals, and birds of many varieties ; in short, the still-life, and animated life, of the world he saw aroimd him. His architectural backgrounds, for the most part, are elegant in design, and rich in their forms, consisting chiefly of arcaded constructions, galleries and balconies with their slender pillars, all designed in the lighter Florentine style. He often, however, where his scenes and incidents were represented in cities or interiors, overcharged his compositions with an exuberance of architectural forms, so that the figures, which ought to be the chief actors of the drama, take a secondary position.

We have already mentioned that in 1449

Benozzo left Fra Angelico, and found his way to

Montefalco, near Foligno, in Umbria,^ and worked

there until about 1456, when he carried the

^ See Umbrian School, vol. ii, chap, xi, pp. 184-185.

principles and practice of Florentine painting to Umbria, and so helped to influence many of the local Umbrian painters.

Among his works at Montefalco is the fresco of the " Madonna and Child Surrounded by Saints and Angels," which he painted over and outside of the portal of the Church of S. Fortimato, also an " Apotheosis of S. Fortunato " on one of the altars, an " Annunciation " on one of the walls, and on the high altar the legend of " St. Thomas Receiving the Girdle." These were all painted in 1450.

In S. Francesco, now the picture gallery of Montefalco, Benozzo painted the walls of the hexagonal choir in 1452, with frescoes, representing the legend of S. Francis, and also with many portraits of popes, cardinals, and fathers of the church, in medallions, as well as figures of saints and angels. Below the window he painted the portraits of Dante, Petrarch and Giotto. These frescoes in this old church are some of his best works, and they show the influence of his old master, Angelico, more particularly those on the wall on the right of entrance, which represent the " Madonna with Saints," the " Crucifixion," and " Christ Blessing."

Shortly after finishing this work he painted an altar-piece for a church in Perugia, with the Madonna and four kneeling saints. This is one of his finest works, and is now preserved in the Pinacoteca of Perugia, No. 20, in the Sala VII.

After leaving Umbria, Benozzo went to Florence, and was commissioned by Pietro de'

Medici to decorate the Chapel of Medici palace, now the Palazzo Riccardi, the walls of which he painted in fresco with a continuous procession, full of incidents, and representing the progress, or journey of the Magi, through a rich and diversified country. Kings and knights on horseback, lords, pages, squires and attendants, are sumptuously arrayed in richly-embroidered garments. The hunting-party occupies the left wall, looking towards the window, where there are some hunting leopards and hawks admirably drawn and painted. This is one of the best-preserved fresco paintings in Florence, though it has been cleaned and restored in places. The processional form of the work, which covers three walls of the Chapel, the rich decorative details and the interesting landscape remind us of the Cassone paintings of the Pesselli. The " Paradise " or " Garden of Heaven," which adorns the walls above and around the window, with the beautiful angels kneeling in adoration below, and hovering above, might have been designed by Fra Angelico, but they lack the intensity of devotional aspect that belongs to Angelico's angels. The frescoes contain portraits of many of the chief nobility of the time, and include those of Cosimo de' Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent, and one of the artist himself. The general colour is warm and rich in its glowing tones, the effect being considerably heightened by a free use of gold on the horses' trappings, and embroideries of the dresses. The work is executed in the buon-fresco method, with the exception of the blue draperies, and other

AHimri THE PARADISE. RICCARDI CHAPEL, FLORENCE : BENOZZO GOZZOLI blue colours, which have been painted a secco after the plaster was dry, this being the usual method observed by most of the Florentine fresco painters.^ This great undertaking was completed shortly after 1459.

Benozzo also painted the altar-piece for this Chapel, but that work is no longer in the Chapel, and all that remains of it is the predella, which is now in the Uffizi Gallery, No. 1302, and has for subject the Resurrection and Saints.

The central panel of another altar-piece of his of this period, is the " Madonna and Saints," No. 263, of the National Gallery. Above the Virgin's throne angels with extended wings, and richly dressed, hover in the clouds. SS. John, Zenobius, Peter and Dominic, are standing around, and SS. Francis and Jerome kneel in front of the throne, on the steps of which are two goldfinches. The dress of S. Zenobius is particularly rich with gold ornamentation, and all the saints have golden nimbi. The colouring of this well-preserved work is a rich harmony of blue, crimson and gold. Of the three predella belonging to this altar-piece, one each is now at Berlin, Milan and Buckingham Palace.

A very interesting and beautiful work is the octagonal-shaped panel in the National Gallery which has the subject of the " Rape of Helen." This panel is described as a work of the School of Gozzoli. It has probably been the lid of a cassonette, or wedding-gift box. If not a work of Benozzo's it is equal, if not superior, to his average 1 See vol. i, pp. 174-175.

productions, and the architectural setting resembles his work. It is remarkable for its bright scheme of colouring and extremely careful finish. The architectural parts are parti -coloured in clear and bright tints of pink with warm creamcoloured lights, bright blues, reds, dark brown, black and golden yellows, while the cap and hose of one of the figures, as well as a lady's dress on the right are in pure vermilion.

Benozzo left Florence in 1463, and went to San Gemignano, where he remained until 1467, and at that place and the surrounding neighbourhood he painted many frescoes and executed other commissions. He was there commissioned by Domenico Strambi to paint a fresco of S. Sebastian above the second altar on the left in S. Agostino, and also to decorate the choir with scenes from the life of S. Augustine. The former work was executed in 1464, and during this year and the following one he painted, with the aid of assistants, the great series of seventeen pictures, illustrating the life of S. Augustine, from his early school -boy days till his death. These works are in a triple course, and are very unequal in merit. Most of them are now in a very damaged state.

In the parish church. La CoUegiata, of San Gemignano, on the entrance wall, Benozzo, with some assistance, painted a " Martyrdom of S. Sebastian " in 1465, where the saint is of a colossal size; various other figures are around him shooting arrows. The style and execution is here below the average of Gozzoli's usual work.

There is also on the right wall of the choir a work by him of the " Madonna and Saints," painted in 1466, and in the same year he painted a fresco of the " Crucifixion " in the cloister of the Convent of Monte Oliveto, near San Gemignano, but this is an inferior work betraying the hands of assistants.

In the Chapel of the Ponte dell' Agliena, near Certaldo, Benozzo and his assistant, Giusto d'Andrea, decorated a Tabernacle with frescoes of the " Crucifixion," the " Deposition," and the " Martyrdom of S. Sebastian," all of which are now much damaged.

At San .Gemignano, in the year 1467, Benozzo restored and completed Lippo Memmis' great fresco, the " Maesta," in the Palazzo Comunale, adding some figures to it on the right.

The most important undertaking by this painter was the extensive series of wall paintings he and his assistants executed in the Campo Santo of Pisa. In some of the groups and incidents in those great works Benozzo is seen at his best, but it must be said that these works, as a whole, or what is now left of them, for they are rapidly perishing, are very unequal. This is not surprising, for apart from the inequality of Benozzo's own powers, the work of liis assistants, in quality, fell below that of the master. The chief of the assistants employed in these works was Zenobi MacchiavelH. It is also evident that the painter, Cosimo Rosselli, had a good share in the execution of these wall paintings, for his own frescoes in the Sistine Chapel are much in the style and manner of some of the Campo Santo works.

Benozzo was occupied in the Campo Santo from about 1469 until 1484. His great works here represent twenty-three scenes and episodes from the Old Testament, beginning from the history of Noah until the Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. The paintings occupy the greater part of the north wall, and the whole of the work is executed in tempera on the plaster, not in buon fresco, which chiefly accounts for the bad state of the work at the present day. It remains an unexplained mystery as to why Gozzoli adopted this method of painting on walls exposed to the open air, in a tempera medium, and yet adopted the more permanent method of buon fresco for his indoor paintings, as in the case of the Riccardi Palace frescoes. Year by year the colours have been and are still falling off, owing to the powdery state of the surface, and now much of the work has disappeared. The wall painting of the " Vintage " and " Noah's Drunkenness," two subjects in one compartment, is, from what can be judged of the present state of the series, perhaps the best in composition. On the left is seen the grapes growing on a pergola, and men and girls gathering them, girls are treading the winepress, and other incidents are represented. On the right is depicted Noah in disgrace, and his family around, and also a pleasing group of figures in the mid-distance. In the compartment where the subject of the " Tower of Babel " is painted, the artist has introduced portrait-figures of Cosimo de' Medici, the latter's son, Piero, and his grandsons, Lorenzo and Giuliano. Benozzo died in 1498, probably at Florence, and was buried in the Campo Santo.

Zenobi de Macchiavelm (1418-1479). This Florentine painter, according to Vasari, was a pupil of Benozzo Gozzoli, and one of his best assistants in the Campo Santo frescoes, but Venturi states he was a pupil of Pessellino. His works show that he was greatly influenced by Fra Filippo Lippi, and the few authentic examples fi'om his hand that are still in existence prove that he was a more important painter than has been formerly thought.

His finest existing work is the picture of the " Madonna Enthroned," with the infant Saviour and Saints, No. 108, in the National Gallery of Ireland (Dublin). This is a work of a very pleasing composition, where the six figures, a little less than life-size, agreeably fill the space enclosed by the frame. The saints standing on the left are S. Bernardino of Siena and another, and on the right S. Louis of Toulouse (or S. Nicholas of Tolentino) and S. Jerome. The figures are tall in stature, and have well-designed draperies, but the Virgin's dress, and especially the robes of the two saints on the right, have a surplusage of voluminous folds. The original colouring has been well preserved and is still very clear, fresh and bright. The painting is boldly treated in strong light and shade. The Virgin's dress is a light rose-red and her mantle bright blue, with a green lining. S. Bernardino has a grey-green habit, the saint next to him in red, S. Louis, or Nicholas, has blue, red, and white robes, and S. Jerome's robe is a rose-grey colour. In regard to the colour of the flesh in Zenobi's pictures, it is of a cooler and more natural tone than Gozzoli's flesh-colour, being more of a pinkish-grey, and without the reddish tone of the latter's work. The picture, which was originally in the Church of S. Croce, Pisa, is signed " Opus Zenobii De Machiavelis." The nimbi and upper part of the picture are in gold.

Another picture by this painter is the " Madonna and Child," enthroned and surrounded by saints and angels. No. 586, in the London National Gallery. This work has a gold background. The Virgin's mantle is pale blue, patterned with silver stars. Two angels dressed in pink and green are playing instruments at the foot of the throne. In the side and separate compartments are two saints on the right, and two others on the left, and nine angels stand behind the Virgin. The Louvre Gallery contains a picture by Zenobi, a " Coronation of the Virgin," which is signed and dated 1473, and another signed work of his is the " Madonna and Child," with saints, now in the Academy at Florence.

Giusto d'Andrea was another of Gozzoli's pupils, or assistants, who worked with him on the Campo Santo frescoes, and also at Gemignano. Giusto was a painter of inferior talents to Macchiavelli; his drawing is indifferent and his colour in flesh painting is of a disagreeable brick-red tone. He is represented by pictures in the

Academy at Florence, and by one in the Museum at San Gemignano. In the Dublin National Gallery there is a panel by him representing two saints, Mark and Augustine. This is one wing of an altar-piece, the other being in the National Gallery of Scotland.

CosiMO RossELLi (1439-1507). This painter was the pupil of Neri di Bicci, who was an artist of mediocre powers. But as a very young man Cosimo came in contact with Benozzo Gozzoli, probably when the latter arrived in Florence from Umbria, about 1456, and may have been employed by Benozzo as an assistant, first in Florence, and afterwards on the Campo Santo wall paintings at Pisa. In any case Cosimo was greatly influenced by Gozzoli, as well as by Fra Angelico, especially in his early work, but later he studied the works of Masaccio and Ghirlandaio to some purpose.

His finest fresco painting is that in the Chapel of the Sacrament, in S. Ambrogio, Florence, which represents the scene of the " Removal of the Miraculous Chalice," or " Procession of the Corpus Christi." The priest holds up the sacred cup, which is adored by monks, priests and nuns, who kneel before and around him, and a crowd of spectators stand around dressed in the costumes of the period. Many of the male figures are very dignified in pose, and there are many pleasing female heads. Much of the work shows the influence of Masaccio and Ghirlandaio. The dates of 1456 and 1486 liave been given for the painting of this work; the style, however, proves it as being a still later production. His altar-piece of the " Assumption of the Virgin " in this church is a work of 1498.

In Florence, Cosimo painted, among other works, a fresco in the left cloister of SS. Annunziata representing S. Filippo Benizzi taking the Servite Habit, and also a fine picture of the " Coronation of the Virgin," a late work, painted in S. Maria Maddalena de' Pazzi, in 1505.

He spent some years at Lucca, where he painted in the Duomo frescoes of the " Descent," and " Story of the True Cross," on the left wall of the entrance, and in the Church of S. Francesco, the fresco of the " Presentation of the Virgin."

His frescoes in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, are " Christ's Sermon on the Mount," " Moses Destroying the Tables of the Law," and the " Worship of the Golden Calf." The fresco of the " Last Supper " has been ascribed to Cosimo, but this is not a work of great merit, and is likely to have been painted by assistants. The other frescoes ascribed to liim are not of great interest, and are much crowded ^vith figures ; the best of them is the " Sermon on the Mount," where there are some pleasing groups of figures, diversified in scale and arrangement. In the figures, and also in the rich landscape with its cultivated hills, trees and towered buildings, the influence of Benozzo Gozzoli is clearly seen. The incident of the " Cure of the Leper," on the right, in its grouping and general formation reminds us of Masaccio's compositions. Cosimo Rosselli was assisted in his frescoes of the Sistine Chapel by his chief pupil, Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521), who also painted, on his own account, in this chapel the fresco of the " Destruction of Pharaoh." Piero had accompanied his master, about 1480, when he would not be much more than twenty years old, and returned with him to Florence in 1485. Vasari states that Piero helped Rosselli in the portraits and landscapes of his frescoes. The same writer also relates that Piero remained with his master until the latter 's death.

Piero di Cosimo was also known as Di Lorenzo, his father's name. He was a very capable and interesting painter, and noted as well for his great industry. Clever he was, but, as Vasari tells us, he was a very eccentric and solitary person, a misanthrope, who eschewed company, and was very much wrapped up in himself. Though he helped his master, Rosselh, to a very great extent, he was a keen student of the art of many other painters such as Ghirlandaio, Verrocchio, Credi, Signorelli, Leonardo and Filippino, all of whom influenced him in various ways.

He painted in tempera, and also in oil, works both of a religious and mythological kind, many of which are in private and public collections in England and on the Continent, and also in America. All of his works are extremely interesting in design, some are charming in colour, and excellent in technical qualities. One of his early works is the beautiful warm-toned tempera painting of the "Death of Procris," No. 698, in the National Gallery. Here beside the recumbent figure of Procris, a satyr kneels on the left, the large hound, Lselaps, painted in a reddish colour, sits on the right, and other dogs and some birds are seen in the background, on the seashore. Piero in this work displays his fondness for painting animal life. The flesh tones of the figures are very warm, almost red. These hot tones of the flesh in Piero's paintings are strongly characteristic of his master's work, and also of Benozzo Gkizzoli's paintings. Works of his, of a similar mythological class, but not so successful as the Procris picture, are the " Mars and Venus," No. 107 of the Berlin Museum, and the " Wedding of Perseus Disturbed," No. 84, in the Uffizi Gallery, and three others with subjects representing the story of Perseus and Andromeda are in the corridor of this gallery. All of these works are painted in oil, and are full of varied incidents and representations of animal life in rich landscape backgrounds. They have been painted as decorative panels for rooms and festival-cars.

In the Louvre Gallery there are three pictures by Piero, namely, the " Youthful Baptist," the " Coronation of the Virgin," and a very finely-coloured painting of the " Madonna and Child, with a Dove," No. 1662.

Piero excelled in portrait painting; one of his finest is that of " Giuliano di Sangallo," No. 254 in the Hague Collection, and among many others may be mentioned the "Man in Armour," a Florentine general, No. 895, in the National Gallery, where in the backgroimd is seen the Palazzo Vecchio with the statue of Michelangelo's

" David " in front of it, and his highly-decorative half-length portrait of " La Bella Simonetta," the Genoese wife of Guiliano Vespucci, whose beauty and gifts of the mind were celebrated by poets, painters and princes. This charming portrait, which is now in the Museum at Chantilly, is not so much a study from the life, as a splendid composition of decorative design. It is the profile of a fair and beautiful woman, painted against a rich landscape, where the shape of the clouds add to the beauty of the composition. Her golden hair is a finely-designed mass of intricate plaitings, decked with pearls and jewels. Around her neck is a garland with a curious design of a twisted green snake. Piero had as his pupils the two celebrated painters, Fra Bartolommeo, and Andrea del Sarto,

Andrea del Verrocchio (1435^1488). This great Florentine master was a pupil of Donatello in sculpture, and of Alessio Baldovinetti in painting. His authentic pictures are extremely rare, and not a single painting that has been ascribed to him is a finished work, or is wholly a work from his hand. His great influence, however, as a teacher on his pupils and followers, and the drawings and examples of bronze sculpture that he has left, compensate for the scarcity and possible loss of his paintings. His studio was one of the most renowned in Florence, and was the training-school of Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo di Credi. Perugino for some time also worked there, as well as many others who were attracted to this famous school.

Vasari says of Verrocchio, that " he was a goldsmith, a master of perspective, a sculptor and carver, a painter and musician." His works in sculpture were mostly executed in bronze, and he certainly has done his finest work in that material, in which he has shown his unrivalled powers as a designer and modeller, and his great knowledge of form, anatomy and perspective. In these respects he carried the art of the goldsmith and sculptor to a still higher perfection than his great contemporary, Antonio PoUaiuolo, with whom he worked in parallel lines, namely, in the application of the scientific and artistic laws of anatomy, perspective design and form, the principles of which they found in nature and successfully applied them to their art. With these they formulated the fundamental structure on which Leonardo da Vinci afterwards built, and it is by a study of Leomardo's work that we can appreciate the extent and proper value of Verrocchio's teaching. Antonio PoUaiuolo and Verrocchio sometimes worked together. It is well known that in company, in 1477, they carved two of the compartments of the dossale, or altartable, of the Baptistery of Florence.

A few of the celebrated works in bronze sculpture by Verrocchio may be mentioned, among which is the beautiful life-size bronze of the youthful David, now in the Bargello, Florence. This figure shows Verrocchio's consummate knowledge of anatomy. The attitude is perfect in its freedom, expressive in action, and full of youthful buoyancy. It is as dignified and as fine as one of the old Greek bronzes, but greater in its realism, for more attention is given to the reproduction of the forms and action of the living model.

From 1478 till 1480 Verrocchio was engaged on the making of the candelabra for the audience hall of the Palazzo Pubblico, Florence, and adorning it with reliefs and rich ornamentation. In the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio is a beautiful bronze fountain-figure of a winged boy with a dolphin. This dainty figure was executed by Andrea for a fountain in one of the villa-gardens of the Medici, at Carreggi, and afterwards removed to the old palace at Florence. It is the recognised type in form and style of that which we notice in most of the drawings and paintings of infants and young children in the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo di Credi and Luini. They all are distinguished by the same natural roundness and fullness of form, and are alike of the same good proportion, with the exception of Lorenzo di Credi 's works where the infantile plumpness is exaggerated.

In 1472 Verrocchio finished the tomb of

Cosimo de' Medici, in the entrance to the Sacristy

of S. Lorenzo, Florence. This is executed in

bronze, and is a finely-proportioned design of a

dignified simplicity. Outside the Or San Michele,

Florence, is his bronze group of " Christ and St.

Thomas," a work of 1483, in the execution of

which he had the assistance of his pupil, Lorenzo

di Credi. The group displays his searching study

of anatomy, and all the details of the flesh forms, VOL. in. c drapery, and its iembroidered ornamentation, are carefully modelled and finished by chiselling.

Verrocchio's greatest work in bronze sculpture is the world-famed equestrian statue of Bartolommeo Colleoni, at Venice, which he left unfinished at his death. Ruskin, when speaking of this great masterpiece of Florentine art, said that he did not believe there was " a more glorious piece of sculpture existing in the world." The original model for this work was made by Verrocchio, but the statue was cast in bronze after his death by Alessandro Leopardi, the Venetian sculptor. It would be almost impossible to imagine a more noble embodiment of a spirited war-charger, nor one with more stateUness of step and swing, nor a rider seated so firmly in the saddle, and in such perfect harmony with the movement and nobility of his steed.

Though there are a few pictures where the composition and parts of the painting are ascribed to Verrocchio, there is only one authentic work from his hands, and even parts of this are said, by some writers, to have been the work of another master. This is the well-known picture of the " Baptism of Christ," which is now in the Academy of Arts at Florence. Vasari informs us that it was painted by Verrocchio for the brethren of the Vallombrosa, at S. Salvi. The work is much injured and the figure of S. John is unfinished. The Redeemer is represented in the centre of the picture as an almost nude figure, with His head slightly bowed, and hands placed together in prayer; on the left the Baptist is drawn as a

Brogi

THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST. ACADEMY, FLORESCE : AXDREA VEEKOCCHIO tall and somewhat lean and ascetic figure. His action, movement and anatomical rendering recall the works of Antonio PoUaiuolo. His figure is balanced on the left by a group of two kneeling Leonardesque figures of youthful and extremely beautiful angels, who wait on the Saviour. The stream, rocks, tree and sky, with the bird winging its flight to the wood, are features of a quiet and still landscape that harmonises so perfectly with the sacred scene. The Dove and the hands of the Eternal are represented in the centre above, and over the head of Christ.

There is a beautiful picture in the National Gallery, "The Virgin Adoring the Infant Christ," No. 296, which has been at various times ascribed to Ghirlandaio, Antonio PoUaiuolo, and to Lorenzo di Credi. It is quite likely, however, to have been designed in the studio of Verrocchio, and the painting may have been executed by one, or perhaps more, of Verrocchio's pupils. There is much in this work which suggests the manner of Lorenzo di Credi, and he may have had the principal share in the execution. A drawing for one of the angels in this picture by Verrocchio is preserved in the Uffizi Collection. The Infant in the work is of the similar plump type that may be seen in Lorenzo's picture, No. 132, in the National Gallery, and there is also a great similarity in the drawing of the hands in both pictures. In regard to its composition, colour, execution, and in short, to its great pictorial beauty, it is one of the finest works in the National Gallery. In all the range of Italian art it would be very difficult to find a sweeter or more beautifully conceived figure of an angel than the one on the left in this picture, with the lily in her hand.