ANDREA DI CASTAGNO,

BORN 1403, DIED 1477;

AND

LUCA SIGNORELLI,

BORN 1440, Died 1521.

TOWARDS the close of the fifteenth century we find Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent, master of the Florentine republic, as it was still denominated, though now under the almost absolute power of one man. The mystic and spiritual school of Angelico and his followers no longer found admirers in the city of Florence, where the study of classical literature, and the enthusiastic admiration of the Medici for antique art, led to the cultivation and development of a style wholly different; the painters, instead of confining themselves to Scriptural events and characters, began at this time to take their subjects from mythology and classical history: meantime the progress made in the knowledge of form, the use of colours, and all the technical appliances of the art, prepared the way for the appearance of those great masters who in the succeeding century carried painting in all its departments to the highest perfection, and have never yet been surpassed.

About 1460 a certain Neapolitan painter, named ANTONELLO DA MESSINA, having travelled into the Netherlands, learned there from Johan v. Eyk and his scholars the art of managing oil-colours: being at Venice, on his return, he communicated the secret to a Venetian painter, Domenico Veneziano, with whom he had formed a friendship, and who, having acquired considerable reputation, was called to Florence to assist ANDREA DI CASTAGNO in painting a chapel in Santa Maria Novella. Andrea, who had been a scholar of Masaccio, was one of the most famous painters of the time, and a favourite of the Medici family on the occasion of the conspiracy of the Pazzi, when the Archbishop of Pisa and his confederates were hung by the magistrates from the windows of the palace, Andrea was called upon to represent, on the walls of the Podestà, this terrible execution" fit subject for fit hand "—and he succeeded so well, that he obtained the surname of Andrea degl' Impiccati, which may be translated Andrea the Hangman ; he afterwards earned a yet more infamous designationAndrea the Assassin. Envious of the reputation which Domenico had acquired by the beauty and brilliance of his colours, he first by a show of the most devoted friendship obtained his secret, and then seized the opportunity when he accompanied Domenico one night to serenade his mistress, and stabbed him to the heart. He contrived to escape suspicion, and allowed one or two innocent persons to suffer for his crime; but on his deathbed, ten years afterwards, he confessed his guilt, and has been consigned to merited infamy. Very few works of this painter remain: they are much praised by Lanzi,

PEPI, called BOTTICELLI, remarkable for being one of the earliest painters who treated mythological subjects on a small scale as decorations for furniture, and the first who made drawings for the purpose of being engraved: these, as well as his religious pictures, he treated in a fanciful, allegorical style. Six of his pictures are in the Museum at Berlin-one an undraped Venus; and two are in the Louvre. Sandro was a pupil of the monk Fra Filippo already mentioned, and after his death took charge of his young son Filippino Lippi, who excelled both his father and his preceptor, and became one of the greatest painters of his time. In the south corridor of the Florence Gallery hangs a picture by Sandro Botticelli of surpassing beauty. It represents the Virgin with the infant Saviour on her knee, whom she supports with one hand, while with the other she is in the act of writing her famous and beautiful hymn (My soul doth magnify the Lord!') on the leaf of a book held by an angel. The angel behind her throne is the portrait of Lorenzo de' Medici when a boy.† Another exquisite picture in the first room of the Tuscan School represents the "Calumny of Apelles."

Another painter employed by Pope Sixtus was LUCA SIGNORELLI Of Cortona, the first who not only drew the human form with admirable correctness, but, aided by a degree of anatomical knowledge rare in those days, threw such spirit and expression into the various attitudes of

*He completed the frescoes in the chapel of the Carmine at Florence, left unfinished by Masaccio, as already related.

There is a poor duplicate or copy of this picture in the Louvre, No. 195; nor is our specimen in the National Gallery first rate.