St. Zenobio, St. Bernard, and St. Vittorio, painted for the chapel of the Palazzo Pubblico, and now in the Gallery of Florence; and in the same gallery is the Adoration of the Magi-a richly-coloured splendid composition, with heads worthy of Raphael: this was painted in his twentyfifth year. To his excellence as an artist Filippino united irreproachable morals and the most courteous and amiable manner, so that he was adored by his fellowcitizens, and when he died in 1505 he was carried to the grave with public honours, all the shops being closed along the way. But to return to Masaccio. In considering his works, their superiority over all that painting had till then achieved or attempted is such, and so surprising, that there seems a kind of break in the progression of the art -as if Masaccio had overleaped suddenly the limits which his predecessors had found impassable; but Ghiberti and his Gates explain the seeming wonder. The chief excellences of Masaccio were those which he had attained, or at least conceived, in his early studies in modelling. He had learned from Ghiberti not merely the knowledge of form, but the effects of light and shade in giving relief and roundness to his figures, which, in comparison to those of his predecessors, seemed to start from the canvas. He was the first who successfully foreshortened the extremities. In most of the older pictures the figures appeared to stand on the points of their toes-the foreshortening of the foot, though often attempted with more or less success, seemed to present insurmountable difficulties. Masaccio added a precision in the drawing of the naked figure, and a softness and harmony in colouring the flesh, never attained before his time, nor since surpassed till the days of Raphael and Titian. He excelled also in the expression and imitation of natural actions and feelings. In the fresco of St. Peter baptizing the Converts there is a youth who has just thrown off his garment, and stands in the attitude of one shivering with sudden cold. "This figure," says Lanzi, "formed an epoch in art." Add the animation and variety of character in his heads-so that it was said of him that he painted souls as well as bodies-and his free-flowing draperies, quite different from the longitudinal folds of the Giotto school, yet grand and simple; and we can form some idea of the combination of excellence with novelty of style which astonished his contemporaries. The Chapel of the Brancacci was for half a century what the Camere of Raphael in the Vatican have since become -a school for young artists. Vasari enumerates by name twenty painters who were accustomed to study there; among them, Lionardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Andrea del Sarto, Fra Bartolomeo, Perugino, Baccio Bandinelli, and the divine Raphael himself. Nothing less than first-rate genius ever yet inspired genius; and the Chapel of the Brancacci has been rendered as sacred and memorable by its association with such spirits, as it is precious and wondrous as a monument of art. "In this chapel wrought One of the Few, Nature's interpreters; The Few, whom Genius gives as lights to shine- Oft till the day was gone, Raphael himself, No mention is here made of Filippino Lippi, one of the brightest among these "sons of the morning," and whose fame has been merged in that of Masaccio-unjustly as we are now obliged to confess; but when Lanzi wrote, some of his finest pictures were attributed to others. With regard to his precursor Masaccio, of him little but his works are known. We are told that he died suddenly, so suddenly that there were suspicions of poison, and that he was buried within the precincts of the chapel he had adorned, but without tomb or inscription. There is not a more vexed question in biography than the date of Masaccio's birth and death. According to Rosini (1842) he was born in 1417, and died in 1443, at the age of twenty-six. Vasari also says expressly that he died before he was twenty-seven; in that case he could not have been, as the same writer represents him, the pupil of Masolino, who died in 1415. According to other and better authorities, he was born in 1401, and died at the age of forty-one, which seems most probable. As to his early attainment of the most wonderful skill in art, we may recollect several other examples of precocious excellence for instance, Ghiberti, already mentioned; Filippino, who painted a masterpiece at the age of twenty; Michael Angelo, who executed the marble Michael Angelo. pietà in St. Peter's at the age of twenty-five; and Raphael, who was summoned to Rome to paint the great series of frescoes in the Vatican in his twenty-seventh year. The head of Masaccio, painted by himself, in the Chapel of the Brancacci, in the story of the Tribute-money, represents him as a man apparently about four or five and thirty.* * For all that can be known respecting the life of Masaccio, the date of his birth, and his share in the frescoes of the Brancacci Chapel, see the admirable commentary appended to his Life in the new edition of Vasari. BENOZZO GOZZOLI. BORN 1424, DIED ABOUT 1485. FRA GIOVANNI ANGELICO possessed, among his other amiable qualities, one true characteristic of a generous mind, the willingness to impart whatever he knew to others; and notwithstanding the retirement in which he lived, he had several pupils: but that which formed the principal charm and merit of his productions, the impress of individual mind, the profound sentiment of piety, was incommunicable except to a kindred spirit. Hence it is that his influence, like the Prophetic mantle, fell on those who had the power to catch it and retain it, and is more apparent in its general results, as seen in the schools of Umbria and Venice, than in any particular painter or any particular work. Cosimo Roselli, a distinguished artist of that time, is supposed to have studied under Angelico, and certainly began by imitating his manner: afterwards he painted like Masaccio, and then fell into a capricious manner, which strikes us as at once hard and fantastic. There is a picture by him in our National Gallery (an altarpiece dedicated to St. Jerome), and of great interest, though marked by his characteristic faults. A much more celebrated name is |