Chap. XII. LORENZO DI CREDI. 405 in pictures of a finish so elaborate that Vasari could not help exclaiming “such diligence was not more justifiable than excessive neglect”; 1 and his genuine piety found expression in the tender simplicity and melancholy air of Virgins and saints. The companionship of Perugino was calculated to affect his style, which was not without a shade of Umbrian softness; but he was cold and formal as compared with Vannucci, whilst in contrast with Leonardo, he was de void of genius. Under Verrocchio’s care he went through a long course of probation, copying either the sketches of the master or those of Leonardo; and this with such patience and industry tha’t Vasari says, you could not tell Lorenzo's imitation from da Vinci’s original. We have seen how difficult it is to distinguish the drawings of the three men from each other; 2 and inquired whether panels might not exist illustrative of this phase in Credi’s career. Repeated examination only seems to confirm the belief that the Virgin and child between two attendant angels, a beautiful tempera, assigned to Ghirlandaio or Antonio Pollaiuolo, in the National Gallery, 3 may have been executed in the shop of Verrocchio when Leonardo and Credi were employed there; its tone, its clean pre cision and staid carefulness of handling, the softness of the heads, and the "Leonardesque character of the angels, the infant Christ stamped in the mould of Credi, all tend ing to strengthen this impression. Lorenzo, in fact, be came completely absorbed in da Vinci, and was but slightly altered as regards type or cast of drapery by contact with Perugino. It was, no doubt, a consequence of Credi’s peculiar la boriousness in the treatment of oil medium that he re mained altogether an easel-painter. He was so anxious to obtain a pure enamel of colour,, that he distilled his 1 Vasari VIII. 208. 2 Vasari preserved, as he tells us, many drawings of Credi from elay models upon which linen cloth had been wetted to form the dra peries (Va s. VIII. 203). 3 National Gallery. No. 296.
