Volltext Seite (XML)
294 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Chap. VIII. flight to the left. The Baptist holding a reed cross sits writing on the step of the throne, in a forced position. In front of him is a desk with a pair of nippers and other instruments, and the letter of Baglioni. To the right stand S. Francis, a good type, and S. Lawrence with the gridiron, reading. In the border of his dress a rich embroidery represents the crucifixion. To the left, S. Andrew, and S. Louis in prayer. The throne and its steps are minutely orna mented. The method of drawing recalls that of Perugino. The colour is slightly abraded in some places, and with this exception the altarpiece is fairly preserved. The distance is a landscape (wood). Spello. Ex-church of the Minorites. On the front of the pulpit in this church is a half length of the Redeemer in a round (oil) much darkened by time and restoring. A flaw cutting the elbow and pit of the stomach has been filled up and coloured. The panel is also vertically split in half. The hips of the Redeemer who holds a banner are in a red cloth. • The type is good, recalling those of Fiorenzo and Benozzo, lean too, and probably executed by Pintu- ricchio about 1500. Sienna. Academy. Stanza de' quadri di Scuole diverse. No. 45. (Round, wood, tempera.) In its old gilt and ornamented frame. Holy Family. The Virgin sits to the left in a graceful attitude on a mound with a book in her left hand. Her face is perhaps one of the most pleasing that Pinturicchio ever created. Neatly trimmed hair is tied in a veil, the whole quite Raphaelesque. She points with her right to the Baptist who walks away from her arm in arm with the youthful Christ; the latter wearing a hair dress, the former a white flowered tunic. The ground is overgrown with herbs and flowers; a fountain is in the middle ground. In the distance to the right is S. Jerom in prayer, and to the left a friar, S. Joseph be hind the Virgin holding a barrel and bread. The head of the latter is well modelled, but somewhat pinched in features, his forms precisely defined. The action of the Baptist is a little affected, "the youthful Christ heavy in frame and limb. The colour is rich, the touch clear and firm, the ornament minute and profuse; and the panel is one of the exquisite ones of Pinturicchio, dating about the time when the first Piccolomini frescos were completed. Sienna. Academy. No. 353. Wood. Nativity. The child, in a pretty movement, lies on the foreground, pinguid inform; near him, left, the Virgin, pretty and plump like one of Spagna’s Peruginesque Madonnas. S. Joseph, on the right, of paltry aspect, sits behind the 1 Noted in annot. Vas. 271—2. 292. in Verm. XLIII. and 178.
