Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/222

186 to imitate nature to the best of his power, he represented one of these archers leaning his shaft against his heart and bending down to load his bow with all the might of his strong arms: you see the veins and muscles swelling, and the breath being held back, as he puts his whole power into the effort. Nor was this the only figure executed with rare skill, but all the others, in their various attitudes, show the skill and labour which he devoted to this work, which Antonio Pucci fully recognised when he gave him 300 florins, saying that he knew this sum barely paid him for the colours." A study for this admirably modelled figure of St. Sebastian, who lifts his eyes to heaven, above the confusion of bent bows and flying arrows was in the Morelli collection, and is now the property of Signor Frizzoni. The National Gallery is fortunate in possessing another of this rare master's works—the charming little picture of Daphne flying from the embrace of Apollo, who seizes her by the skirts of her green robe, only to see her arms stiffen into laurel boughs at his touch. The picture of Tobias led by the Archangel Raphael, which, Vasari tells us, was painted by the brothers for Or' San Michele, is now at Turin, where it was long ascribed to Botticelli, but has all the characteristic features of the goldsmith-painters. The wide landscape with its rocky heights and castles, winding river and zigzag road descending into the fertile plains, recalls alike the background of the St. Sebastian, and that of Baldovinetti's fresco in the cloister of the Annunziata; while in the little white dog of Bologna breed, which runs before the Angel, Morelli recognises a household pet and com-