Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/193

1457] were formerly in the Palazzo Torrigiani, and are now the property of Lady Wantage. In refinement and beauty of type, in poetic conception and delicate colouring, these panels surpass all Pesellino's earlier works, while the variety of animals introduced in David's triumphal procession are characteristic of the master's style. Unfortunately, these charming paintings were some of Pesellino's last works, and on the 29th July 1457, he died, at the early age of thirty-five, leaving a young widow, Mona Tarsia, and several children, in great poverty. After Fra Filippo settled at Prato, in 1452, Pesellino had taken another artist, Piero di Lorenzo, a man of fifty or sixty, to share his bottega, and work as his assistant; and shortly before his death the two painters agreed to execute a large and important altar-piece for the Church of the Trinità, at Pistoia, for which they were to receive 200 florins. But when Pesellino died, the members of the Company of the Sta. Trinità who had given him the order, handed over the unfinished picture to Fra Filippo, and, two years later, paid him the sum of 115 florins for completing the work. This explains the curious discrepancies of style which have puzzled critics in Pesellino's last altar-piece. The general design is clearly his, but the execution betrays the work of other hands, and the face of God the Father bears a marked resemblance to Fra Filippo's style. The central portion of this altar-piece now hangs in the National Gallery, while two Flying Angels from the upper part belong to Lord Brownlow and Lady Henry Somerset, and a panel with four Saints that originally