Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/214

178 Annunziata, where Baldovinetti had already executed his Nativity. The learned young doctor of Padua is seen on his knees before a classical temple, gazing on the vision of the Virgin floating through the air in a chariot, while in the other half of the picture, he is in the act of taking the habit of the Servi friars, and the towers of Florence rise on the banks of Arno, in the distance. After this, he was employed to execute frescoes in churches at Fiesole and Lucca, and must have attained considerable reputation, since he was among the Florentine painters who were summoned to Rome in 1480, by Pope Sixtus IV., to decorate his newly erected chapel in the Vatican.

Although Cosimo was a far inferior artist to any of the illustrious band of masters who worked with him in the famous chapel, between October 1481 and August 1483, the three frescoes which he painted in the Sistina rank among his best works. The Last Supper is the least successful of the three, and has been entirely re-painted. The figures are carefully grouped, but are lacking in life and expression, and the most interesting part of the picture are the four men in contemporary costume who are introduced, together with a playful little dog, in the foreground. There is more energy and animation in the youths and maidens, dancing round the golden calf, and the group of spectators in the frescoes of Moses descending from Sinai and breaking the tables of the law. In the third subject, both the Sermon on the Mount and the Healing of the Leper are introduced. The figure of Christ, standing on the green mound, with uplifted hand, speaking to the assembled listeners, seems to