Chap. XXII. ANTONIO’S MANNER. 483 the frescos executed at Pisa in 1386—87, in which Antonio shows that he studied nature with industry, and suc ceeded in reproducing form in all its details with con siderable fidelity and realism. He emulated in this Gio vanni da Milano and Giottino, whilst in composition, his tendency to reproduce attitudes and movements more natural than choice or noble, deprived him of the grandeur of the earlier Giottesques. The conventionalism, which they corrected only in part by deep religious sentiment and dignified severity of mien, was it is true avoided by Antonio, but, whilst their art was subordinate to a lofty idea, to an aim corresponding with the fervor of religion, that of Antonio had no better moving principle than imitation of nature. Yet Antonio could pursue that imitation in many moods, and he thus forms an im portant link in the chain which unites Orcagna to Maso- lino, Angelico and Masaccio. Through him one may trace the passage from the art of the fourteenth century to that which, taking a newer garb, became in the fifteenth century that of form. Antonio excelled com paratively, as Vasari truly says, in the sweet and tender mood. He had as a colourist the qualities of Giovanni da Milano and Giottino, much lightness and transparence united to gaiety and force. In technical execution he marked a period of progress. He used methods of gla zing, such as may be found later in Masolino and Ange lico, the same as those which Masaccio improved. His works are unfortunately scarce, though less so than those of Stamina his pupil, who almost fails in the great chain of progress in Florentine art. In the records of the Campo Santo of Pisa it is written that Antonio, on the tenth of April 1386, received 135 florins of gold from the operario on account for three stories from the life of S. Raineri to be executed by him at the rate of seventy florins for each story. 1 This saint was in great honour at Pisa, where he had lived in the twelfth century, and the 1 Ciampi, ub. sup. p. 151, and Forster, Beitrage. p. 117. 118. 31*