Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/109

1447] told with a naīve sincerity, mingled with a new sense of actuality, which are very characteristic of Masolino. Herod and his guests are seated at table, under a classical loggia, decorated with a frieze of cherubs bearing garlands, such as Jacopo della Quercia had carved on Ilaria del Carretto's tomb at Lucca, twenty years before, and Salome, a gentle and modest maiden, with arms folded across her breast, advances to proffer her request to the king. The two fashionably dressed courtiers behind her closely resemble the figures in the Raising of Tabitha, in the Brancacci Chapel, and in the fine profile of the middle-aged man, with the short beard and moustache, we recognise the portrait of Masolino himself, as painted by Masaccio in his fresco of the Healing of the Cripple, and reproduced by Vasari in his life of the artist. The aged priest with the keen face and white hair, seated next to Herod at dinner, clad in purple and white ermine, is evidently Cardinal Branda, who was at that time over eighty years of age; while in the Hungarian magnate at his side, with the huge bear-skin and long dark beard, we have a portrait of Masolino's former patron, the great Hospodar, Pippo Spano. Under the open colonnade on the right we see another group. Herodias, robed in gorgeous flowered brocades, and wearing a small gold crown on the top of a towering turban, receives the Baptist's head, which Salome presents on her knees. The girl's long hair is wreathed with roses, and both mother and daughter have the same air of quiet content on their faces; but the two maidens in plum-coloured robes, standing behind Herodias, start back and hold up their hands in horror at the dreadful sight. In the distance