Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/267

1504] aggerated action of many of the figures, the confusion of streaming draperies and waving scarves, and the endless quantity of bas-reliefs, caryatides, and arabesques with which the walls and pilasters of the temple are loaded, destroy all sense of beauty and repose. Yet these frescoes excited the utmost admiration at the time they were painted, and Vasari cannot contain his delight in the novelty and variety of the objects introduced—"The temples, armour, helmets, vases, trophies and other things, all painted in so admirable a manner that they deserve the highest praise."

In 1503, Filippino—who had already undertaken two commissions which Leonardo had failed to execute—agreed to paint a Deposition for the high altar of the church of the Annunziata, to supply the place of the picture which his great contemporary had begun, but never finished. This altar-piece had in the first place been assigned to Filippino, but when Leonardo came back to Florence, in 1500, he was heard to say, that he would gladly have undertaken the work himself. Upon this, says Vasari, Filippino "like the amiable man that he was," gave up his claim at once, and Leonardo produced the cartoon of the Madonna and St. Anne which excited so much admiration. Since, however, he made no further progress with the picture, and had again left Florence, the friars turned once more to Filippino, who set about the work at once. But there was a fate against the completion of the altar-piece, and only the upper part of Filippino's picture was completed, when he was seized with a violent attack of fever, which carried him off in a few days. Filippino died on the 18th of April,