406 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Chap. XIII. learn that before Leonardo joined Francis the First, an attempt had been made to engage the Dominican in the same service. Why the negociation failed, we can now scarcely tell; but it is not unlikely that an event of the most painful interest to the Frate prevented him from leaving Florence. Mariotto, who had resumed the brush fell sick at the end of October 1515. The news of his illness necessarily reached Fra Bartolommeo, and brought him to his friend’s bedside. We can imagine his grief when Albertinelli expired on the fifth of November. The inexhaustible nature of the Frate and his capacity for keeping art at its highest level, even when time and circumstances were combining to give a variety to his manner, are displayed in the results of his labours during 1516. Foremost amongst the creations of that year is the Re surrection at the Pitti, in which he discloses anew his pro gress towards the true grandiose. The Saviour, on a pe destal in front of a classic block of architecture, rests on his left leg, before moving the right from a step. The sceptre is in one hand, and the other is raised in bene diction. A splendid cast of, drapery falls across the breast, and sweeps round to the hips and limbs. There is a bold foreshortening in the S. Mathew who points outwards towards the spectator. Splendid gravity is in the features and pose of the S. Mark on whose shoulder S. Luke rests his arm, whilst S. John speaks to S. Mathew. This subject, ordered for Salvadore di Giuliano Billi, was placed in the SS. Annunziata de’ Servi 1 in a frame work comprising, it is said, the two prophets Isaiah and Job, now at the Uffizi. It may have been completed just after a sketch at Panshanger in which we believe we see the apotheosis of a Dominican saint. S. Antonino was a friar whom we recollect as the co temporary of Fra Giovanni, and of whom Vasari relates that Angelico recommended him to Nicholas the Fifth for 1 Now No. 159, Pitti gallery. Marchese, II. 123. 5. 145; and Vas. VII. 163.