Chap. XV. FRANCIA BIGIO. 501 ready flight of the angel, the graceful attitude of the Virgin as she kneels to receive the salutation, and the ingenious perspective of a block of houses. He neglects to add that in the sky to the left the Eternal gives his blessing from a cloud in which pretty cherubs fly; and sends down the dove with a ray from his glory. In con sidering the question of authorship, we note that the ruddy flesh-tints with their cool shadows are in some measure like those of Pontormo. But the broad mask of the faces in the Virgin and Angel, the bony shape and small pinched features, the trite and straightly lined dra pery, seem a modification of Bugiardini’s by a man of superior attainments. The sombreness of the colour is apparently derived from Leonardo through Mariotto, and the buildings, so justly praised for their perspective, are not dissimilar from those of Del Sarto. 1 Every thing thus points to Francia Bigio. Another contribution to the embellishment of the altars in S. Piero Maggiore was, according to the historian, the Vii’gin with the Saviour grasping her neck, and a boy Baptist playing with him, 2 a panel which has been mis sing for many years; though quietly ensconced at the Uf- fizi under the title of Madonna del Pozzo. 3 Passavant very properly expels this from the catalogue of Raphael’s works, 4 though it is of a period when Sanzio left a clear impress on Florentine art. The playful clinging of the Redeemer to his mother’s bosom, as if he had sprung there into charming security at the approach of the Bap tist, the Leonardesque turn of her movement, are quite as characteristic of Francia Bigio when his style was not yet very distant from that of Bugiardini, as are the round head of the Virgin, the forms of the infants, and the dres ses. In these we meet with a cento of Fra Bartolommeo and Andrea del Sarto, whilst the landscape is still nearer 1 A fresco of S. Bernard, and a S. Catherine of Sienna, in S. Pan- orazio, of the same period, are gone (Vas. IX. 97). 2 Vas. IX. 97. 3 Florence. Uffizi. No.1125. Ca talogued as Raphael. 4 Passavant’s Raphael, ub. sup. II. 407.