96 Chap. V. THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. We shall not say that he did not deserve the honour which he obtained at their hands; and whilst we refuse to admit any superiority in him over the Florentines, we may concede that he worthily closed an epoch in the pictorial development of Umbria. It is not to be denied that Gentile da Fabriano concentrated the better quali ties of the Gubbians, and that he brought their peculiar art to a combination as complete as it w r as capable of attaining; but his masterpieces are only remar kable for their longing softness, their affectation of grace, their laborious fusion, and for a profuse orna mentation inherited from the Umbrian and Siennese schools. Gentile di Niccolo di Gioyanni Massi of Fabriano, for so a cotemporary record teaches us to call him, 1 was probably born at Fabriano between 1360 and 1370, and taught by Allegretto Nuzi. 2 In the prime of his man hood, when Ottaviano Nelli produced the Madonna of the Belvedere, he may have derived some useful lessons from one whose style seems naturally linked to his and to Nuzi’s; but he quickly distanced the Gubbian as he settled into the possession of a manner, often contrasted with that of Fra Giovanni of Fiesole; and his fame speedily extended beyond the limits of Umbria proper. We shall not discuss the arguments of Vasari and his antagonists, who affirm in turn that Gentile was the pupil and the master of Angelico. 3 It would be difficult to find tw r o men more totally divergent in aim than the Flor entine monk and the painter of Fabriano. Both were noted for tenderness and finish, for the care with which they prepared and used their materials, but the results 1 See postea. 2 This is affirmed as a fact by Lori. MS. ap. Ricci, mem. stor. ub. sup. I. 147. 165. Vasari says (IV. 159) that Gentile died aged eighty. If we ascertain the period of his death, we shall then have a clue to the date of his hirtli. Biondo da Forli who wrote his Italia illustrata in 1450, speaks of Gentile in the past tense, thus proving that he was dead at that time (Biondo, Ed. Basil. 1531. p. 337). 3 Vasari IV. 39, and Bernasconi (Cesare) “Studi”, ub. sup. p. 9.
