Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/319

1537] was probably executed in Verrocchio's life-time; a tempera-painting of an angel bringing the Sacrament to the penitent St. Mary of Egypt, formerly in the Convent of Santa Chiara and now at Berlin, and the graceful little Annunciation, in the Uffizi. Here the youthful Virgin turns round with uplifted hand and an expression of surprise on her face at the Angel just alighted on the floor, and through the round arches and elegant pilasters of the open loggia, we look out on a lovely stretch of green lawn and woodland shades. These park-like landscapes, watered with running streams and planted with long avenues of trees, whose spreading branches throw deep shadows on the grass, recur continually in the pictures of Lorenzo, and form charming settings for his favourite themes of the Annunciation or Noli me Tangere.

A nude Venus which has lately been discovered in the magazines of the Uffizi, and which originally adorned the Medici villa at Cafaggiuolo, reminds us that this gentle painter of sacred stories was among the artists who studied antiques in the Medici gardens with Leonardo and Michelangelo. But the fiery eloquence of Savonarola sank deep into Lorenzo's gentle nature and influenced the whole course of his life and art. He became an ardent piagnone, and burnt his studies of nude and pagan subjects on the Bonfire of Vanities, during the Carnival of 1497. In later years he remained closely associated with the artists who had been known as the most devoted followers of Fra Girolamo. He painted the portrait of Benivieni, the poet who gave up writing carnival songs and licentious ballads to compose Lauds and hymns