THE CERTOSA OF FLORENCE 



miserably inadequate to the grandeur of the design, 

 and before the work was completed the artist died, 

 worn out by his exertions and heart-broken at the 

 failure of his attempts. All through his life he suffered 

 from this ambition to imitate the work of greater men ; 

 and Vasari says that the frescoes he painted at the 

 Certosa were spoilt by an ineffectual attempt to follow 

 the manner of Albert Durer. Of this it is impossible 

 to judge, for only the merest fragment of these works 

 are now left. A graceful head or two, a bit of Andrea- 

 like colouring here and there are all that remain to 

 recall the memory of a painter worthy of a better fate. 

 Time has proved less destructive to the sculptor's 

 art, and besides the tombs of the Acciaiuoli, many 

 specimens of Renaissance work are still to be seen at 

 the Certosa. Luca della Robbia has left there some 

 of his Saints and Angels in delicate blue and white, 

 and in the refectory is a pulpit carved with the cross 

 and crown of thorns by that sweetest of all Floren- 

 tine sculptors, Mino da Fiesole. Donatello is said 

 to have fashioned the tomb of Cardinal Angelo 

 Acciaiuoli, who died in 1409. This monument was en- 

 riched with a garland of fruit and flowers by a later 

 master, Giuliano di San Gallo, the favourite architect 

 of Lorenzo de' Medici. In the Chapter-house, under 

 Mariotto's fresco, is another tomb, which must not 

 be passed over, the work of Francesco di San Gallo, 

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