FLORENCE, BEGINNINGS TO UCCELLO 



deal to the Rapprezentazione. There it was that the 

 painter noticed how a monkey sat a horse, or a leopard 

 snarled as it looked round at the crowd. 



In a Nativity (Florence, Accademia), the ass puts 

 one knee on the edge of the manger, the better to 

 see the Child Jesus. The legs of the ox as it lies 

 are well studied. In the Virgin and Child zvith Angels 

 (Rome, Palazzo Colonna) are a peacock and other 

 birds, and in the picture of the Virgin and Child on 

 a Throfte at Bergamo, attributed to him, a bird sits 

 on the Virgin's arm and allows itself quite happily 

 to be played with by the Divine Child. 



The subject of the Ado7'atio7t is also painted by Fra 

 Fra Angelico, but how differently it is treated. All i-gf^j^;?! 

 he cares for is the essential action, the spiritual 

 significance of the scene. He is the angelical painter, 

 technically prepared by a sound training, but now dream- 

 ing in the peace of the monastery, painting the soul of 

 man in commune with the higher powers ; that is to say, 

 not a Renaissance type. 



This is one of the few Adoration pictures in which 

 there are no animals. One feels that the good brother 

 would not have been comfortable studying in the zoo- 

 logical gardens, or in the crowd at a public pageant. 

 He only paints animals where, as in the Nativity 

 (Florence, San Marco), the ox and ass would be 



25 



