396 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Chap. XI. knees in a pose, the counterpart, as to spirit, of one in the Sixtine chapel. The grand figures of the virgin, child, and S. Brigitta, would be still more effective, were it not for something strained and affected in them and a certain mannerism in the drawing, but Ferrando Ponzetti’s is a broad and massive portrait; and the pose, the drapery and the out line of the head are a noble mixture of the sculptural with the Leonardesque of Bazzi. The bold and pastose touch proclaims a thorough mastery over the technica though, as usual, the flesh is a little raw and rusty in tone. 1 An artist who can produce the frescos of S. M. della Pace has reached a giddy and dangerous elevation, be yond which it is difficult to advance and but too easy to recede. Peruzzi at this point had tried his powers to the utmost. It was but human that he should rest on his laurels, and that the result should then be rather the reflex of past greatness than the accession of new strength. But Peruzzi preserved his ascendency in architecture after he had yielded his best in painting; and he remained in honour in consequence of a versatility which he shared with others of his highly favoured age. We shall see how he ultimatily fell into increasing conventionalism and affectation. In the meanwhile the ravages of time and restorers are alone the cause why less attraction is felt for the Presentation in the Temple at S. M. della Pace, than for the frescos of the Ponzetti chapel. In the ab sence of any outer charm we may still admire in it the maxims of true 1 composition, the introduction of the antique into architecture, the illustration of several ab- 1 The blue drapery on the Vir gin’s shoulder, and the left hand of S. Catherine are repainted, the tapestry behind the group dimmed by time. Flesh parts here and here are renewed. Paintings by 1 Peruzzi on the face of the wall | into which the domed chapel is sunk, are greatly damaged. One sees traces of the angel liberating S. Peter, David playing the harp, and Christ appearing to S. Paul.