There is dignity in the poets, slender, wiry activity in the sybils, with that peculiarity of length in neck and limb, and exaggerated size in the extremities, which char acterize the later Pollaiuoli and Botticelli. Study of the antique is clear in the half figure of Esther, 1 yet the coarse vigour of Andrea is visible in a large and common hand. The spaces are filled in with energetic firmness by one who knew the maxims of art as they were developed by Uccelli and Donatello, by one who might truly be called the rival of the former, the imitator in painting of the sculptural boldness of the latter, but whose fibre is coarser, and whose taste is more unselect and vulgar than theirs. Castagno, in fact, shows an impetuous spi rit, in bold freedom of action and outline, in the dash with which the colours are used; — a knowledge of antique examples, in classic costume and head dresses. His tones are of the hue of brick in the flesh tints of males, of a more delicate yellowish tinge in the sybils, broadly modelled with a brush full of liquid medium. 2 Such a talent as Andrea’s was well calculated for the production of works requiring no selection. He was there fore well suited to perform a duty imposed on him in 1435, by the Florentine government; and the fallen leaders of the Peruzzi and Albizzi were no doubt pictured by him, with daring truth, on the walls of the Palazzo del Podesta. 3 His success is proved by the name which he then earned of Andreino degli Impiccati. Free of the guild of barber-surgeons and grocers, in 1444, 4 Andrea is known to have laboured in that year for S. M. del Fiore 1 Originally in the centre of the wall, abovo the door. 2 Vasari notices the same paintings twice: once, as at Leg- naia in Villa Pandolfini. Vol. IV. p. 141; again, as in Casa Carducci Pandolfini at Florence, ibid. p. 150. The last statement is no doubt an error. 3 Vasari’s statement (Vol. IV. p. 150) that the paintings at the Palazzo del Podesta represented the traitors of the Pazzi conspi racy (1478) is devoid of founda tion, because Andrea del Castagno died before that time. But on this point see postea. 4 He is registered as “Andreas Bartholomei Simonis pictor populi S. M. del Fiore”. See the origi nal record in Giornale Stor. ub. sup. p. 3.