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Chai>. XI. CLOISTERS OF S. M. NOVELLA. 295 shown in the figure clinging to the ark and pressed to its side by the force of the wind. The clammy garments show the fleshy parts below, and the gale makes the folds flap again. Here, too, may be noticed Uccelli’s accuracy in rendering the projection of shadows; for, though the storm is in full rage, the sun still shines through an opening in the clouds. As to perspective and anatomy, sufficient is to be found in this one fresco for tracing the exact picture of Uccelli’s talent; and for gaining the con viction, that he had mastered the problem of retreating lines to various vanishing points on a common horizon, or in the definition of circles and curves at different dis tances and on numerous planes. His masterly fore shortening, in floating corpses must have astonished the men of his time. His knowledge of the forms of animals, native and foreign, is equally apparent and curious. The daring with which Uccelli depicted the Eternal, descending with his head away from the beholder, justly surprised Vasari. Its counterpart is to be found, in Uc celli’s century, only in a similar figure by Piero della Francesca in the fresco of the dream of Constantine at S. Francesco of Arezzo. In the Ebriety of Noah, which seems the last of the series, Uccelli displays greater boldness of hand; but he still preserves characteristic peculiarities, such as oval heads with angularly lined features. The figures are elastic in movement, firm in tread; and the colour, where preserved, is well modelled and softly fused in the system already noticed. The figure of Shem is, according to Vasari, a portait of Uccelli’s friend, the painter Dello. That painter had wandered in his youth into distant countries and had settled in Spain. He returned, however, in 1446 to Florence, where he remained two years. He was at the time about 42, 1 and that is the apparent age like the sky (repainted) is simple in its mass of rock. The fore ground is a meadow with flowers. 1 Dello was born about 1404. His life shall be sketched later, with the assistance of new do cuments discovered by Signor Gaetano Milanesi. See Gior. Stor,