FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO 



the early Middle Ages." ^ At any rate this painting may 

 safely be taken as a representative of the latest pre- 

 Giottesque art.- For our present purpose one panel, 

 the uppermost on the left, is very suitable. Here is a 

 Nativity. The Child is in the manger under a shed. 

 The heads of an ass and a bright red cow appear above 

 the manger. On a hillside in the foreground is Joseph, 

 a sheep and a ram walking towards him : these are 

 small and mouselike, such as may be seen on the early 

 mosaics or in mediaeval illuminations. But there are 

 also two goats with long straight horns, not needed 

 for a correct traditional representation. These seem to 

 be studied for their own sake. One crawls with diffi- 

 culty up the almost precipitous slope ; the other stands 

 on its hind legs eating from the top of a small shrub, as 

 do its destructive descendants which to this day swarm 

 over the more mountainous parts of Italy. Can we 

 detect here a slight tremor among the dry bones ? 



It must of course be remembered that there is no 

 period at which animals have not been represented with 

 more or less accuracy, and pleasure in the doing of it. 

 The cave man of the stone age scratches his rough 



^ J. P. Richter, Lectures on the Natioftal Gallery, 1898, p. 11. 



^ Ruskin, speaking of a Psalter of St. Louis, says, " He and his artists 

 are hardly out of their savage life yet, and have no notion of adorning the 

 Psalms other than by pictures of long-necked cranes, long-eared rabbits, 

 long-tailed lions, and red and white goblins putting their tongues out." — 

 Val UArno, 1890, § 60. 



II 



