Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/277

1494] do not hear his voice, no one would believe him to be painted." But in spite of the painter's cleverness, in spite of the marked advance in every branch of art which had been made in the last century, and the rich costumes and splendid architecture with which Ghirlandajo adorns the subject, his picture lacks the supreme qualities of Giotto's work, and we feel how far short he falls of his great forerunner.

The portraits of many of the artist's most illustrious contemporaries are introduced in this series. Lorenzo de' Medici, wearing a red mantle, stands on the left of Pope Honorius, in the second fresco, while Maso degli Albizzi, Palla Strozzi, Angelo Acciaiuoli, and Ghirlandajo himself, in a red cap, with his hand on his hip, all figure in the fifth subject, where St. Francis raises a dead child to life, and the bridge of the Trinità and Palazzo Spini are seen in the background. Many fair maidens and handsome youths of the Sassetti family appear in this picture, and Francesco Sassetti himself, the wealthy banker who, as Lorenzo's agent at Lyons, played a leading part in politics, is represented, together with Madonna Nera, his wife, kneeling on either side of the altar. The altar-piece of the Nativity, a tempera painting, containing an admirable portrait of the artist, who kneels by the shepherds at the manger of Bethlehem, is now in the Accademia, and bears the date of 1485. This is one of Ghirlandajo's best works, and is full of reminiscences of his visit to Rome. Corinthian columns support the penthouse roof, a procession of the Magi passes under a triumphal arch, and a Roman sarcophagus with a Latin inscription takes the place of the manger.