292 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. CnAr. XI. of ordinary men whose form and action he realizes with hard and unchoice character, yet the plastic forms accuse a fruitful study of nature, with recurrent reminiscences of the antique, — fair proportions and real bone and muscle beneath broad draperies. Perspective is carried to a high level of perfection in its application to animate and in animate objects, and an improved artfulness is visible in the mode of rendering projections of shadows. The subjects of the frescos in the cloisters of S. M. Novella are numerous: Starting from the space nearest the entrance from the cloister into the church, the eye first glances (left) at the animal creation, (right) the creation of man in the lunette. In the first the Eternal of human size, in copious drapery and grave attitude, is surrounded by animals of various kinds. In the second, parted from the first, by a rock, the Eternal, again, advances and helps Adam to rise. In the lower course of this arched space are traces of the form of Eve and of the Father, with the Temptation to the right. 1 The second lunette contains the Expulsion and “Adam and Eve labouring by sweat of their brow.” In the lower course, is the sacrifice and the death of Abel. The third lunette and its lower course, rudely represent the building of the ark and the procession of God’s creatures; and they suggest either that Uceelli had no part in their production, or that some inferior painter renewed them at a later time. 2 Far more interesting is the fourth lunette, of the deluge,, in the upper part of which angels and monsters seem to urge the elements to the destruction of every thing on the earth’s surface. On the right, floats the ark in turbid waters, 1 Part of the intonaco in the creation of animals has fallen and much that Vasari describes is gone (Vas. HI. p. 92). The crea tion of Adam is better preserved, the most perfect indeed as re gards condition of the whole series. The trees in the distance originally painted in red are spoiled by retouching. This and other back-grounds are originally water colour, not fresco. In the creation of Eve there are but traces of the upper part of the outline of the Creator in profile, and of the form of Eve. Adam is gone. In the Temptation one still sees on the left the outline of Adam and a serpent about the tree. The latter has a human head of a pleasing regular profile and not in dead colour like the rest. On the right, Eve holds the apple. The distance is red. 2 Vasari notes that “two scenes are by another hand” (Vol. III. p. 92.)