Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/171

1499] you can count the separate straws and knots in the thatched roof of the hut, and you see the stones in the ruined house behind, worn away by rain, and the thick root of ivy growing up the wall is painted with so much accuracy that the green leaves are differently shaded on either side; and among the shepherds he introduced a snake crawling in the most natural manner along the wall." This treatment of landscape is common to all Baldovinetti's works, and forms a marked feature in the charming Madonna and Child in the Louvre, where it is still ascribed to his fellow-pupil Piero dei Franceschi. Unfortunately for the preservation of his paintings, Alesso followed his master Domenico's example in trying new methods of colouring, and his experiments, as Vasari tells us, often proved disastrous. "He began his works in fresco, and finished them in secco, mixing his egg-tempera with a liquid varnish, heated in the fire, which instead of protecting his paintings from damp, destroyed the colour; and so, instead of making a rare and valuable discovery, he deceived himself and ruined his works."

A few of his panel-pictures, however, are still in a fair state of preservation. One of the best is the altar-piece in the Uffizi, which he painted for the chapel of the Medici villa at Caffagiuolo. Here the Virgin—who has Angelico and Domenico Veneziano's grace of type and sweetness of expression—is seated in a garden, with her feet on an Eastern carpet, and palms and cypresses appearing above the rich brocaded hangings behind her throne. St. Francis and St. Dominic kneel at her feet in deep devotion, and the Baptist, SS. Cosimo and Damian and other