Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/236

198 panels, one long, the other round, of the Adoration of the Magi, in the National Gallery. Both are there ascribed to Botticelli's pupil Filippino, but bear far more likeness to the work of that artist's father, Fra Filippo, who may himself have had a share in the composition. The Virgin and Child certainly resemble the friar's types, but the animated throng of spectators and their expressive faces reveal the hand of the scholar. The next group of Sandro's works—the seated figure of Fortezza, and the little pictures of Judith that once adorned Bianco Capello's studio—show that after his old master left Florence, he must have been closely associated with the Pollaiuoli brothers. The Fortezza, indeed, is a companion picture to the Virtues painted by these masters for the Mercatanzia, and is executed in the same sculptural style and pale colouring as their works. The same embroidered draperies, jewelled armour and variegated marbles adorn both Pollaiuolo and Botticelli's figures, but the bent head and weary, yet resolute, expression of Sandro's Fortitude show his finer and more imaginative conception. The same peculiar type of face, long neck, angular features, high cheek-bones and dreamy eyes, are repeated in his Judith, as, with sword in one hand and olive branch in the other, she returns over the hill-country to Bethulia, strong in the might of the great deed which she has done. In her swift action and fluttering garments we already see the love, of movement which is a characteristic feature of Sandro's art, while the dramatic quality of his imagination is equally apparent in the companion subject, where the servants and friends of Holofernes look with grief and horror on his headless corpse.