there were any worthy to influence the artistic spirit of our artist) did the landscape of verdant Umbria stir his soul, which even the sweet slopes of Fiesole could not touch.

Doubtless from the heights of the convent at Cortona, which dominates one of the finest views in Italy, the young monk admired the beautiful horizon, and enjoyed the splendour of the verdant plain, and the blue mountains, "enwrapt in mists of purple and gold", as he had often at sunrise and sunset, enjoyed from his Fiesole convent the gentle fields and dales "peopled with houses and olives"; but, after all, these beauties of nature so often displayed before him, were dumb to an artist who was wholly absorbed in visions beyond this world.

The study of the verdant country never occupied his mind; in his paintings, landscape is either an insignificant accessory, or if it occupies a large space in the picture as in the "Deposition from the Cross" in the Florentine Gallery, it shows plainly that it is not the result of special study, of personal impressions, or of love of the place itself. In fact it does not attract or interest the observer at all.

Nor could this be otherwise; the inner life of the spirit, which he lived so intensely, and so vividly transfused in the figures of his Saints, must necessarily have abstracted his mind from his surroundings, to which he therefore gave little attention. In this he was faithful to the Giottesque principle of not enriching the background, except by just what was necessary to render the subject intelligible, and this without pretension, or new research.

His trees rose straight on their trunks, the leaves and branches spreading in conventional style; his rocks have the usual gradations which we find in the old school; the views of distant cities are absolutely fantastic and infantile creations; only the green plain is often illumined, in an unusual manner, by tiny flowerets of many hues, while mystic roses crown the angels' locks, adorn overflowing baskets, or rise on long stalks at the foot of the Virgin's throne in transparent vases.

Such are the characteristics, the spirit and the sentiment that appear in the works of Fra Angelico, who might be considered as the last representative of that school of which Giotto was master; and at the same time the initiator of "Quattrocento" art, whose powerful development irresistibly attracted him. He painted so many pictures for the houses of Florentine citizens, that "I was often astonished," writes Vasari, "how one man alone could, even in many years, do so much and so well." "And we also," justly observes Milanesi, "are not less amazed than Vasari, for although many works have been dispersed or are still hidden, yet a great number still remain both in Italy and other countries, and, what is more remarkable, the greater part are not mentioned by Vasari."[14]

We will follow our artist in his different places of abode, thus establishing the various periods of his life and artistic productions; from the Fiesole hills, where the first seedlings of his fantasy were sown, to green Umbria, where his early works are, works warm with enthusiasm, faith and youthful candour: from Florence, which he enriched with admirable frescoes, and innumerable pictures dazzling with gold and azure, to Rome, where he left his grand pictorial legacy in the oratory of Pope Nicholas V.

I.

FRA ANGELICO

AT CORTONA AND PERUGIA.

[1409-1418.]

ANGEL OF THE ANNUNCIATION.
(Pinacoteca, Perugia.)

f, after a study of the pictorial works of Fra Angelico, any one should undertake to make a precise classification of them, he would—although his frescoes are easy enough to classify—find himself confronted by no small difficulty in regard to the panel paintings.

So active and original was the artist, and so grand in his simplicity, that he always remained just what he appeared from the beginning,—the painter of ingenuous piety, mystical ecstasy, and intense religious fervour.

HISTORY OF ST. DOMINIC'S LIFE.

No record is extant of his first visit to Foligno, but in the church of St. Dominic at Cortona we may still admire a triptych with the Virgin and four Saints; an Annunciation; and two "predelle"; one of which is said to have belonged to the picture of St. Dominic, as the scenes relate to the life of that Saint, and the other with some stories of the Virgin, to the Annunciation mentioned above.

THE RESURRECTION
OF CARDINAL DE' CECCANI'S NEPHEW.

To the story of St. Dominic (which had already been treated in a masterly manner by Fra Guglielmo, in the "arca" at Bologna, and by Traini in his picture at Pisa), Fra Angelico has, in some scenes, given a fuller development, but with less dramatic sentiment; exactly the good and bad points which are more clearly shown in his other works. The "predella", divided into seven parts, represents the birth of Saint Dominic; the dream of Pope Honorius III., to whom the Saint appears in act of steadying the falling church; the meeting of the Saint with St. Francis; the confirmation of his rule by means of the Virgin; the visits of St. Peter and St. Paul; the dispute with heretics; the resurrection of the nephew of Cardinal de' Ceccani; the supper of the Saint and his brethren; and lastly his death.

DEATH OF ST. DOMINIC.

The scene of the resurrection of the young Napoleon, nephew of Cardinal Stefano de' Ceccani, had been already powerfully depicted by Traini; in Angelico's hands it comes out restrained and cold, the acts of amazement in the devotees present at the miracle, who raise their hands in astonishment, are too conventional: and it is precisely in the intermingling of these gestures of sorrow for the death, and wonder for the revivication,