Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/316

272 that it was almost impossible to distinguish the copies from the originals. The Madonna, in the Borghese, with the Child in her arms, leaning forward to bless the young St. John, and the wonderfully-painted glass of flowers on the parapet deceived Vasari even, who describes it as the work of Leonardo. This little picture, which once belonged to Pope Clement VII., unlike most of Lorenzo's works, is painted in tempera, and is marked by that conscientious workmanship and miniature-like finish which made Vasari declare that such excessive care was as blameworthy as extreme negligence. This laborious and minute attention to detail, however, was characteristic of the artist, who ground his colours and distilled the oil with his own hands, and was so careful to keep his tints clear and distinct that he often had as many as thirty different shades of colour on his palette at the same time, and always used a different brush for each. His servant was forbidden to sweep out his studio, lest a single speck of dust should injure the transparency of his colours or spoil the polished surface of his pictures.

Lorenzo's style was mainly derived from that of Verrocchio, whose sharply-defined outlines he preserves, and whose fat babies with awkward limbs and turned-up toes he imitates, while his smiling Virgins and curly-headed angels often recall Leonardo's types. Although he never attained either the grace of Leonardo's forms or the ardent devotion of Perugino's heads, the deep sincerity and earnestness of the man's nature breathes in every picture which he painted. Among his early works are the altar-piece of the Madonna and Saints, in the Duomo of Pistoia, which