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Technically Masaccio introduced into painting the same tools almost as the sculptor. His drawing was here more than usually rapid; for it seems to have been traced with the speed of lightning on the wall, appearing to be rather an instant creation of the will than the deliberate work of the hand. He concentrated his attention prin cipally on the development of the movement of the figure, and hence no doubt, was led like Giotto to neglect the more minute detail that was of little use for significance. Having given the general movement he searched out the forms of the head, in order that it might be imbued with life, character and expression. The care with which he chose the instruments of his trade is a proof that his skill as a manipulator did not disdain every facility that might minister to success. By these means, by relief in mo delling the form determined by the drawing, with the life created by the just value of tints, and with the trans parency caused by never totally concealing the under ground, he produced the works which we admire. A less perfect and probably earlier example of Ma saccio’s manner than those hitherto noticed is the “Con ception” painted originally for the church of S. Ambrogio and now in the Academy of Arts at Florence. 1 In arrange ment exactly similar to one by Agnolo Gaddi outside Prato, its colour is altered to a sad red tone in the flesh, and it is generally flat from the • superabundance of var nish laid on in past times or from restoring, but it recals the style of the Temptation, of the healing of Tabitha, or of the least advanced portions of the Sermon of S. Peter at the Brancacci chapel. It is therefore a picture reminiscent of the manner of Masolino, being composed of figures, of regular forms, but of soft features, and marked by draperies in a slight degree festooned. The nude of the infant Saviour, the angels, are not as finely drawn as the figures in the frescos at the Brancacci •Vas. Vol. III. p. 155. The altarpiece is now catalogued under