FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING 



winter ; although the spring is the usual time for it 

 to be seen again running up and down the walls, 

 in and out of the crevices, in search of insects. 



A beautiful little goldfinch sits, feet covered by its 

 feathers and head turned slightly to one side, on a 

 beam projecting from the wall. It will be hard to 

 find another so well painted amongst the many re- 

 presentations of this favourite of the Italian painters. 



A peacock and a flying pheasant appear in an 

 Adoration belonging to Sir Frederick Cook. 



There is a good peacock in the beautiful coloured Peseiiino, 

 drawing of the Nativity by Lippi's pupil Peseiiino 

 (Francesco Pesello) in the Louvre.^ In Lady Wan- 

 tage's collection are two Cassoni paintings of the story 

 of David, in which many animals, including a cheetah 

 and a bear, are represented. 



With Benozzo Gozzoli, truly described by Vasari GozzoH, 



1420-1497 

 as "very fertile in animals," we come back to the 



Gentile tradition. In the great frescoes of the Journey 



of the Magi (Florence, Palazzo Riccardi) there is the 



same cavalcade, this time largely composed of camels, 



though the principal figures are on horseback." A falcon 



^ Mr. Berenson has an interesting note on this. See The Drawings 

 of the Florentine Paititers, 1903, vol. i. p. 35. 



- The camels seem to be of the shaggy Bactrian species, but without 

 their full winter coat ; some are laden with packs, others have men riding 

 between their humps. A monkey is sitting on the back of one of the horses. 



31 



