Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/119

1428] ago, and so too has the wonderful chiaroscuro picture of the consecration of the church, in which he introduced portraits of his friends Donatello and Brunellesco, his master Masolino, Giovanni de' Medici, and many other Florentines. One of the few still in existence is the Madonna and St. Anne, in the Accademia, an altar-piece of early date, which has still much in common with Masolino, but which is too finely modelled for any doubt to have been entertained as to its authorship. Another work, which deserves the high praise bestowed upon it by Vasari, is the fresco of the Trinity on the entrance wall of Santa Maria Novella. This magnificent work was long hidden by a picture of Vasari's own painting, which has now been removed, and can only be properly seen when the great central doors of the church are thrown open. A majestic God the Father bearing the Cross on which Christ hangs, with the dove hovering about his head, while the Virgin, an elderly matron of noble aspect, and a youthful St. John gaze in deep, calm sorrow on their dying Lord. The form of the Crucified Christ is drawn with all Donatello's skill and science, while the Corinthian pillars and stately proportions of the classical architecture which frames in the whole, heightens the solemn effect of the vision, and two admirable portraits of the kneeling donors, a middle-aged man and woman of the higher class, are introduced in the foreground.

Some fragments of the altar-piece which Masaccio painted for the Church of the Carmine at Pisa, in 1427, are still in existence. A St. Andrew, with deep-set eyes and high forehead, like the Apostles in the Brancacci Chapel, is in a private collection