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298 THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. Chap. XI. In the third compartment the pyx, miraculously entire, is carried in procession to the church from which it was stolen. The fourth represents the guilty persons brought to the place of execution by a train of soldiers on horseback, in the dress of the period, and blowing trumpets. At one side the female awaits the cord at the gallows. The fifth part is confined to the burning of the receivers of the stolen silver at the stake. The last scene shows the dead body of one of the guilty ones swollen in death, — angels carrying away the wafer of the sacrament, and devils waiting for the soul of the criminal. This predella was evidently ordered by the wealthy patron of some altar in S. Agatha. His arms cover a shield above the chimney in the interior of the first piece of the series. In this as in all the parts, the per spective is remarkably correct. The figures are steady of tread and drawn with much fidelity from nature. The style of Uccelli is displayed in the general oval character of the full faces and their small pinched features, in the slender necks and frames, in the vulgar individuality which reveals merely a patient study of nature, and in the hard cutting lines which minutely and sharply define the forms. The drawing of the horses in the processions is equally charac teristic of the master. The colour, though abraded, is still warm, of an equal, and therefore monotonous, value of tone; and recals to mind that of the early battle pieces of Gualfonda. Copious details of costume and ornament confirm the impression that Uccelli is the painter of this piece. In the same manner, though executed with less power, is a Virgin and child, with attendant figures in possession of the Duke of Verdura at Palermo. The Virgin’s face seems cast in the mould peculiar to Fra Filippo. The colour is transparent and golden; and the picture recals to mind those which usually pass in galleries for productions of Baldovinetti or Pesellino. 1 1 Gold-ground. The Virgin, half length, holds the infant erect on a stage before her. Her right hand grasps the stage. On each side is a vulgar angel whose orna ments and wings are engraved in the gold-ground.
