Chap. V. GENTILE DA FABRIANO. 97 were completely at variance with each other; and the angelic candour of the creations due to the one has no relation whatever to the smorphia and affectation of those produced by the other. Gentile and Fra Giovanni may have met at Florence where tliey dwelt at the same time; but we think that Gentile did not go there to teach; and insofar, Vasari is nearer the truth, perhaps, than his op ponents. The uninterrupted connection of Siennese and Umbri ans may be considered to have had its effect on Gentile’s style; nor is it extraordinary that he should have ex hibited a certain relationship to Taddeo Bartoli, when we remember how frequently that artist was employed in Umbrian cittes, or sent his pictures there on com mission. It is unnecessary in consequence to assume that Gentile should have made an early visit to Sienna. A distinct Siennese character is plainly to be discerned in the only fragment of wallpaintings that we possess at Orvieto; and the older Coronation of the Virgin at Val Romita, the predella of which still remains at Fabriano, whilst its centre and sides have found their way into the Brora at Milan, .is powerfully stamped with a similar im press; 1 a circle of eight angels exhaling their joy as they play about the rays of a sun at the base of the pic ture, recalling similar passages in Taddeo Bartoli’s illustra tions to the “Creed” in the opera of the Sienna cathedral. In these figures, as well as in the principal group which is capped by the Eternal resting a hand on the shoulders of Mary and of Christ, we see the faults common to most of the men of these regions. Short and ill-grown personages, without charm in their features or action, are 1 No. 75. Brera catal. The figu res are half life size. The sides, parted from their centre, are Nos. 102. 104. 10G. 108. Five panels ori ginally formed the predella. Four of them are in possession of Signor Giuseppe Rosei at Fabriano: 1. Death of S. Peter Martyr, is split VOL. III. vertically into two; 2. S. John the Baptist kneeling in prayer, is da maged by sealing; 3. S. Francis receiving the stigmata, is split like No. 1; 4. S. Dominick. In all these panels (1 foot by 7 1 /, inches) the heads are abraded (the figures full length). 7