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seem to have found a place of safety in the Academy of Arts at Perugia. The Virgin, upon clouds, adores the infant seated on her knee, whilst two angels look up with kindly reverence towards her. At the sides, SS. Benedict and Peter, John Evangelist and Francis stand out of a golden ground. 1 To these, which composed the principal face, may be added the pinnacles containing the Eternal and four doctors of the church, and five longitudinal pieces in Avhich the angel and Virgin annunciate, two full and two half length saints are to be seen. 2 If we confine our attention principally to the first and most important por tion of this great work, we shall gain a just view of Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. Religious composure and modesty in the attitude of the slender Virgin, resigned timidity in the gently bending head, are relieving features in a form not entirely free from heaviness, nor altogether select in details. One feels inclined to pardon the breadth of nostril, the lean throat and collar-bone, the falling shoulders, the short broad hand. The infant is not the wooden mummy that disfigures the Madonnas of Gio vanni Boccati. The shape is coarse, the type common. The action is still broken and exaggerated, but the lines are not angular; and their curves reveal the approach of Perugino. High surface shadows, and transparent lights give relief to the vestments, whilst the verde ground crops up through the rough touches of the flesh. The angels with their falling locks unite grace with youthfulness in their neatly draped frame, and embody a class of beauty no longer surprising when one considers that the time is that of the great Vannucci. The saints are not less re- • 1 These five panels are now uni-1 the Angel and Virgin; No. 167 half ted under No. 13 in the gallery lengths (superposed) of SS. An- of Perugia. thony and Francis; No. 168. S. 2 The five pinnacles are num- Sebastian. These pieces are in bered as follows in the gallery of , Fiorenzo’s manner and , doubt- Perugia. Nos. 172. 3. 5. .6. The t less, formed part of the Silvestrini four doctors No. 174; The remain- | altarpiece. They have lost their ing pieces are: No. 111. full length | brightness through the effects of S. John Baptist. No. 120 and l69 j time and dirt.
