Chap. XII. NINO PISANO. 349 in his early time, for the Minerbetti chapel, in S. Maria Novella, 1 a virgin and child, left unfinished by Andrea, and above the door leading to the canonry of S. Maria del Fiore, a Madonna between two angels, with bronze wings. 2 Six or seven of his works remain in Pisa. A half figure of the Virgin giving the breast to the infant Saviour, placed between the two doors of the Western front of S. Maria della Spina, disclosed first in Nino a modification of Giottesque feeling and a tendency to na turalism. Nothing can be truer than the movements of mother and child. The former bends her head down with an expression of maternal affection, apparently struggling to suppress the sense of pain caused by the draught of the child at her breast. The eyes are partially closed; and mixed pleasure and pain are cleverly combined. The infant scratches one foot with the toe of the other, and drinks evidently with supreme contentment. Here are the elegant forms, the fine draperies, without the essen tially religious feeling of the Giottesque period. Another example of this pecularity in Nino is the standing Virgin and child between S. John and S. Peter, in three niches by the high altar of La Spina. The head of S. Peter holding the book and keys is a portrait of Andrea Pi sano 3 somewhat disproportioned, and remarkable for the shortness of the arms. The Virgin is, or should be, in the act of presenting a rose to the Saviour, 4 who expresses in his face and action a desire to take hold of it. Here, Nino again admirably expressed maternal affection, and the face, figure, and draperies, are so admirably carved, that the sculptor deserves the praise of having “deprived marble of its hardness and infused into it the life of flesh”. 5 Yet the figure, with all its grace, is slender, and affects a bend similar to that which in Parri Spinelli’s painting became a ludicrous exaggeration. Nature and grace, 1 Of Florence. 2 This Madonna Vasari assigns to Giovanni, sec antea and Vas. Vol. I. p. 274. 3 Vasari. Vol. II. p. 43. 4 The ro3e and part of the hand are broken off. 5 Vas. Vol. II. p. 44.