Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/141

1455] of the Magi, with horses and camels in the procession, adorns the cell reserved by Cosimo de' Medici for his private use, in order that the great ruler might have this example of the Eastern Kings laying down their crowns at the manger of Bethlehem constantly before his eyes. The Virgin, to whom the Dominican Order paid especial devotion, is introduced in most of the scenes, while St. Dominic is often seen in the corner, devoutly meditating on the Christian mysteries set forth in the picture. The luminous clouds which encircle the form of the newly-baptised Christ deepen the significance of the event, and the lofty stature and outstretched arms of the Master lifted high above the mount, lend a new and impressive meaning to the Apostles' Vision of the Transfiguration. In the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament, Fra Angelico departs from the Giottesque tradition of the Last Supper, and adopts an old Byzantine form, rarely seen in Italian art, to which he gives a solemn pathos and beauty of the highest spiritual order. In the Agony, Martha and Mary are watching and praying in Gethsemane, while the Apostles slumber, and in the Mocking and Crowning with Thorns, only the hands of the soldiers are seen, while Dominic and the Virgin are introduced in the foreground. The rush of the spirits in prison to meet their deliverer in his Descent into Hades is rendered with a power and movement to which Angelico does not often attain, while the story of the Resurrection has seldom been more simply and touchingly told than in this picture of the white-robed Angel pointing heavenwards, as he tells the mournful Maries that their Lord is risen, and in the dim twilight of the Easter morning