Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/142

112 the Christ is seen floating upwards with the flag of victory in his hand.

The great advance that marks these frescoes, both in conception and execution, is still more apparent in the noble altar-piece of the Descent from the Cross, which Angelico painted about the year 1440, for the Church of the Trinity. Here the fine drawing of the dead Christ, and the difficult foreshortening of the disciples who lower the body from the Cross, show how much the painter had learnt from the attentive study of Masaccio's works; and sadly as the harmony of the colour has been marred by restoration, nothing can impair the beauty of the conception—the reverent tenderness of the disciples, or the deep repose of the dead Christ, with the words, "Corona gloriæ" inscribed above his brow. As usual in Angelico's pictures, the scene of suffering and death is surrounded with loveliness. Bright flowers spring up in the grass at the foot of the Cross, glittering seraphs hover in the air, and between the tall pines and cypresses we see, on one side, the towers and battlements of Florence, on the other, the green slopes and wooded hills of Vallombrosa, in the rich glow of the evening light. The portrait of Angelico's friend, Michelozzo, the architect of San Marco, may be recognized in the middle-aged man in the black cap, seated on a step of the ladder; and the pilasters of the richly-carved frame are decorated with exquisitely-painted figures of Dominican and Vallombrosan saints. But the three paintings of Resurrection subjects on the Gothic pinnacles in the upper part are the work of Lorenzo Monaco, who died long before the picture was painted, and were