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Chap. III. STEFANO DI GIOVANNI. 75 or gabled fronts of these altarpieces are purely Siennese; the subjects are handled in Sassetta’s style. At Asciano some grace makes amends for the comparative weak ness of the figures, or the flatness which results from variegated tints unrelieved by light or shadow and co pious use of ornament. It is almost touching to see how Stefano clings to old compositions in episodes of which the originals by Lorenzetti are copied succes sively by Andrea Yanni, Bartolo di Fredi, and him. 1 A tender air still pleases in the plump, small featured Vir gin at the Osservanza; and extraordinary softness per vades the rosy flesh, shadowed with the usual verdo. 2 * At Cortona, the saints are slender as before, but stork like in the gravity and awkwardness of their motion.' 1 Each of these three Sassettas is marked by painful mi nuteness of operation, a tendency to overweight of heads, festooned drapery, angular eyes, and superabundance of gold. They reveal the source from which Sano di Pietro obtained liis education. 4 Some interest attaches also to the life of Sassetta from the knowledge that Siennese art is traceable through him in a direct manner to the home of Piero della Francesca. Father della Valle quotes the con- 1 Lorenzetti’s original of 1342 is in the Sienna Duomo. Vanni’s adaptation (No. 119) in the Sienna Academy of arts; Fredi’s in S. Agostino at S. Gimignano. The central panel of Sassetta’s altar- piece represents the nurses busy with the child; the right side, S. Anna in bed washing her hands; the left side Joachim receiving the news of the birth. Above the lat ter, is her death, whilst on the op posite panel flanking a central one devoted to the Virgin giving the breast to Christ, is the funeral of Mary, the whole on gold ground. 2 The throned Virgin holds the infant erect on her knee. SS. Am brose and Jerom attend attho sides, and the pointed gables are filled by a Christ in benediction between | SS. Paul and Peter, whilst the spaces between the points contain two medallions with the Virgin and angel annunciate. On the lower border one reads the words: “Ma nus Orlandi fieri fecit hanctabulam cum tota capella MCCCCXXXVI”; on gold ground. 3 The centre represents the Vir gin with the child to her breast, and two kneeling angels on the foreground, between SS. Nicolas of Bari, Michael (in armour inju red by scaling) John the Baptist, and Margaret. A central medallion in the pinnacle contains the lamb, the side ones, the Annunciation. 4 Mr. Ramboux’s catalogue at Cologne, assigns to Sassetta the following panels, No. 149—53.
