Among the most graceful of the scenes is Noah's I in/agc (p1. 30, 6). Here, in the midst of a picturesque landscape, rises a vine-covered arbor. Two men mounted on ladders have been filling baskets with the fruit, which they are handing to women who stand below ready to receive the burden and carry it on their heads (as is still the custom) to the large circular wine-vat, in which stands a man, scantily dressed, treading the grapes. One woman is pouring the contents of her basket into the vat, while another is on her way. Noah stands in the foreground, and close to him nestle two children, while two others, seated on the ground near by, are shrinking from Noah's dog, which is barking at them in no friendly manner.
Domenico Ghirlandajo (1449-1494), far less coarse in style, combined a refined naturalism with a classic grace unknown to Gozzoli. The most beautiful among his series of frescos at S. Maria Novella, Florence, is the one representing the Birth of the I' in (p1. 31, fig. 4). The scene is laid in a large room richly decorated in the style of the Renaissance, with a frieze of cupids that calls to mind the creations of Donatello. Three attendants are engaged in preparing a bath for the babe, which the mother, reclining on her couch, is watching, while a stately procession of Florentine virgins and matrons is approaching to congratulate her. At the top of a flight of steps, on the left, the painter has placed another incident in the life of the Virgin—the meeting of Mary and Elisabeth. Ghirlandajo is famous for the beauty of his female figures, and the group of three attendants has always been considered remarkably graceful.
The School became prominent during the latter part of the fifteenth century. It was from the first remarkable for the strength and beauty of its system of coloring. Apart from some earlier masters, the first great artists of this school were the Bellini.
Jacopo Giovanni the same time that Mantegna was attaining to fame in the neighboring Padua and founding the classic ideal in painting, Jacopo and Giovanni Bellini were accomplishing a correspond ing work in Venice. Jacopo (1393-147o) was evidently a careful student both of antiquity and of nature, but as a painter he is far surpassed by his son Giovanni ti 126-1516), who is great as a colorist and as a creator of broad and majestic types, and who in his creations gave to the classic spirit a large measure of preponderance. Though not strictly a religious painter, he et gives to his saints and virgins a grand character quite above the portrait-types of many of the Florentine masters.
Instead of intricate compositions in which architecture and landscape occupied a large share, Giovanni loved simple scenes with a few powerful strongly-colored figures, in which landscape never, and architecture but seldom, played an important part. In depth, richness, and intensity of
coloring he is perhaps not equalled by any other master. This simplicity in composition carried with it an aversion to dramatic scenes, and the Venetian school came to be characterized, especially during this period, by quiet and sculpturesque figures. In Figure 9 (p1. 30) is reproduced a Chris! by Giovanni which is marked by a quiet majesty and stateliness.
later phase of Venetian art is represented by Giorgio Barbarelli—called Giorgione (1477-1511)—a contemporary of Titian, and his early rival. In Giorgione the religious element is entirely absent; the art becomes weaker and more effeminate, and sensualism predomi nates. In Figure io we see his Litte-p/trycr, a woman whose well-rounded face and form are typical of the Venetian beauty of the day. Giorgione carries to its full extent the Venetian love for genre and brilliant color ing.
Umbrian the flourishing but small cities of 'Umbria painting had developed under the aegis of the school of Siena, and, like it, had remained entirely religious. At the close of the fifteenth century there were at the head of this school two men who stood on the threshold between a past and a future development of art, looking back to the old religious masters and forward to the style of Raphael.
Piciro Perirchie (1446-1524) was one of the most famous masters of his time, and commands attention on account of the importance of his work and because of the fact that he was Raphael's master. Although devoid of the strength and character of the Florentines, of the coloring of the Venetians, and of the religions power of Fra Angelico and his co workers, there is in Perugino a studied grace and elegance which pleases and satisfies the majority. His compositions are symmetrical; his figures never take unusual or startling positions; their expression is generally of resignation or of a more or less pronounced ecstasy. In the altar-piece (pi. 31, jig.. 6) Saint Sebastian is quite unconcerned about the arrows, and John the Baptist shows no special enthusiasm about the Divine Child, who is looking at him. The Virgin herself gazes into the distance with a languid air of self-satisfaction. A glance at this picture will show one of the great defects which mar many of Perugino's productions: there is no connection between the various actors in the scene, and any of them could be removed or replaced by others without sensibly affecting the composition.