Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/314

 XXI

LORENZO DI CREDI

1459-1537

founded no school in Florence and had no Florentine pupils, but his influence made itself felt in the work of almost every artist of his age. This was above all the case with the masters of the rising generation. Andrea del Sarto, Fra Bartolommeo, Piero di Cosimo, Raphael himself, studied his works closely and learnt much from his example. They adopted his method of handling colours, and tried to imitate his delicately blended tints and chiaroscuro effects. A new and more intimate note became evident in the character and expression of individual heads, together with a grace and suavity which had never been known before.

One of the second-rate masters who strove diligently to form themselves on Leonardo's pattern, and succeeded in catching something of his charm, was Lorenzo di Credi, his fellow-student in Verrocchio's workshop. Born in 1459, and belonging to a family of goldsmiths, Lorenzo began life in his father's shop, and after his death entered that of Andrea Verrocchio. Here the lad grew up with Leonardo and Perugino as 270