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398 1 EARLY CHRISTIAN ART, Chap. XVI. CHAPTER XVI. STEFANO FIORENTINO. Stefano Fiorentino shares with Taddeo Gaddi the praises of Vasari, who forgets in exalting the latter that he has already exhausted almost all that can be said in favour of an artist in eulogy of the former. Stefano, indeed, must be considered one of the greatest artists of his time, if it were possible to prove “that he surpassed Giotto in drapery, that he sought to develop with the help of folds the nude of the figure;” — “that he brought perspective to such a height of improvement as might show he enjoyed a ray of the perfect manner of the mo derns;” — “that he foreshortened arms, torso and legs, much better than they had ever been before. ” 1 He may have done all this; yet such progress would have left its mark upon the art of the time; and, if it did not, as is evi dent enough, one may assume that the biographer lavished his encomiums on Stefano, that he might, as a Florentine, stand in a better light when compared with Ugolino of Sienna, a patriarch who sternly maintained the traditio nal forms of past centuries. 2 Still, to affirm any thing 1 He is called by Albertini (Opusculum mirabilibus nove et Vetere Rome. 4°. Rome 1510. p. 56), the precursor of Vasari who used his books, Stefano “symia”. Vasari enlarging upon this, says Stefano was the ape of nature. (Vas. Vol. II. p. 15 and following.) Christofano Landini, apology to his comment on Dante ap. Bot- tari. Rom. Ed. of Vasari, also says: “Stefano da tutti e nomi- nato Scimmia della natura, tanto espresse qualunque cosa voile”; to which Lanzi adds: “An eulogy of a rude age”. Hist, of painting uh. sup. Vol. I. p. 65. 2 Vasari wrote the lives of Ste fano and Ugolino together, and says they were intimate friends. The truth of the latter statement may be doubted.