. The study and criticism of Italian art : second series. ut in all sorts of little details aswell. The difference I shall now try to point out, andthus, I hope, prove conclusively that Alessio, andnot Piero dei Franceschi, was the painter of thispicture. Piero is happily too well known to requireany fresh words of characterization Comparedwith Baldovinetti, he is sterner and harder and moremonumental. The word delicate could never beemployed in speaking of him ; neither could onecall his work refined—not that it lacks refine-ment, but it belongs, so to speak, to an entirelydifferent sp
. The study and criticism of Italian art : second series. ut in all sorts of little details aswell. The difference I shall now try to point out, andthus, I hope, prove conclusively that Alessio, andnot Piero dei Franceschi, was the painter of thispicture. Piero is happily too well known to requireany fresh words of characterization Comparedwith Baldovinetti, he is sterner and harder and moremonumental. The word delicate could never beemployed in speaking of him ; neither could onecall his work refined—not that it lacks refine-ment, but it belongs, so to speak, to an entirelydifferent sphere. Well! the Madonna of the Du-chatel collection is majestic, hieratically majestic,but she is very refined, very delicate : she is neithermassive nor monumental. Pieros Madonnas havea fixed and severe physiognomy, massive structureand immobile pose. In vain would one look amonghis pictures for a single personage who betrays a 1 I have touched upon Piero in my book upon the CentralItalian Painters of the Renaissance, pp. 68-75. ALESSIO BALDOVINETTI. Aliuariphoto.\ [Uffizi, Florence. THE ANNUNCIATION ALESSIO BALDOVINETTI 35 fleeting emotion. The expression of his almostalways imposing figures is the expression of theentire character, or, at most, of the whole action re-presented. Never a smile, never a touch of tender-ness. How different from all this is the Madonnawho forms the subject of our present discussion,with her refined features and her pensive gaze ofadoration—a look that unveils her inner life, a lookthat will soon develop into the mystery which wefeel in the face of the Mona Lisa ! How differentis Piero, even when he approaches this type ofwoman, as in his Madonna in the Nativity in theNational Gallery ! On the other hand, Piero con-structs his figures far better. The modelling of historsos is decided and powerful, while that of Alessio—this Madonna is an instance—is scarcely the difference between the torso of our LouvreMadonna and the torso
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectartital, bookyear1902
