FLORENTINE SCHOOLS OF ENGRAVING. 355 



the other through his childhood. And this master loves him 

 and instructs him ' so effectually/ in grinding colors, do you 

 suppose, only ; or in laying of lines only ; or in anything 

 more than these ? 



9. I will tell you what Lippi must have taught any boy 

 whom he loved. First, humility, and to live in joy and peace, 

 injuring no man if such innocence might be. Nothing is so 

 manifest in every face by him, as its gentleness and rest. 

 Secondly, to finish his work perfectly, and in such temper that 

 the angels might say of it not he himself 'Iste perfecit 

 opus.' Do you remember what I told you in the Eagle's 

 Nest, that true humility was in hoping that angels might 

 sometimes admire our work ; not in hoping that we should 

 ever be able to admire theirs? Thirdly, a little thing it 

 seems, but was a great one, love of flowers. No one draws 

 such lilies or such daisies as Lippi. Botticelli beat him after- 

 wards in roses, but never in lilies. Fourthly, due honour for 

 classical tradition, Lippi is the only religious painter who 

 dresses John Baptist in the camel-skin, as the Greeks dressed 

 Heracles in the lion's, over the head. Lastly, and chiefly of 

 all, Le Pere Hyacinthe taught his pupil certain views about 

 the doctrine of the Church, which the boy thought of more 

 deeply than his tutor, and that by a great deal ; and Master 

 Sandro presently got himself into such question for painting 

 heresy, that if he had been as hot-headed as he was true- 

 hearted, he would soon have come to bad end by the tar- 

 barrel. But he is so sweet and so modest, that nobody is 

 frightened ; so clever, that everybody is pleased : and at last, 

 actually the Pope sends for him to paint his own private 

 chapel, where the first thing my young gentleman does, 

 mind you, is to paint the devil, in a monk's dress tempting 

 Christ ! The sauciest thing, out and out, done in the history 

 of the Reformation, it seems to me ; yet so wisely done, and 

 with such true respect otherwise shown for what was sacred 

 in the Church, that the Pope didn't mind : and all went on as 

 merrily as marriage bells. 



10. I have anticipated, however, in telling you this, the 

 proper course of his biography, to which I now return. 



