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Chap. XI. GIROLAMO DEL PACCHIA. 379 suits lie fails; because he has not the suppleness or cor rectness of drawing, or the mastery of anatomy which might enable him to overcome the difficulties he courts. He produces strained attitudes and contorsions; and though feeling and dignity are conveyed in the figure of the Vir gin, awkwardness and rigidity are common to the sur rounding saints. If he has any special tendency in addition, it is to make the human frame long and bony, to suggest by childish curls of drapery the idea of a breeze, to colour the flesh without marked contrasts of light and shadow, in a warm, rosy, but well-fused, yellow ish tint. He has perhaps in his memory reminiscences of the most varied nature, Umbrian poses of Perugino and Pinturicchio, agitated or convulsed action of Signorelli, affectation caricaturing the Leonardesque of Bazzi, and recalling even Piero della Francesca. 1 The features of this Ascension are no longer entirely characteristic of Pac- chiarotti; they lead one forward to the consideration of Girolamo del Pacchia, his cotemporary and perhaps at one time his fellow labourer. It is curious, indeed, that whilst the study of Fungai reveals a companionship be tween him and Pacchiarotti, a similar relation is after wards to be noticed between Pacchiarotti and del Pac chia. The link which connects the two last might be traced even to the Ascension just described in the Aca demy of Sienna, a picture differing from that of the Car mine in some particulars only. The latter, in fact, is a composition of the same stamp as that in the Academy, but a variation of it as regards tone and the admixture of more modern elements derived from the Umbrians. It makes a sensible approach to Del Pacchia’s Coronation of the Virgin in S. Spirito of Sienna, and is to be classed rather as one of his youthful creations than as a work in 1 We have noticed in Piero della Francesca (II. 544) an Ascension at Borgo S. Sepolcro, with the execution of which the names of Gerino da Pistoia and Francesco da Citta di Castello have also been mentioned. There is much in that picture roininiscent of this at the Carmine of Sienna, and others to be named in connection with Pacchia.
