FILIPPO LIPPI TO BRONZING 



sheep, brought as tribute to Csesar ; an allusion to the 

 zoological fancy of Lorenzo the Magnificent.^ The 

 fresco was left unfinished, and completed by another 

 hand. 



The Medici Library in Florence, to which scholars 

 had free access, contained many volumes which would 

 be useful to the naturalist. A copy of Pliny's Natural 

 History which once belonged to Lorenzo, and which 

 may well have helped in suggesting details in paintings 

 ordered by him, is now in the British Museum. It was 

 printed in Venice in 1472, and the first page, on which 

 are his arms, is illuminated with all sorts of creatures, 

 ranging from a bear to a " Ladybird." 



Francesco Ubertini, called Bacchiacca, commended Bacchiacca, 

 himself to Cosimo de' Medici by his skill as an animal ^494-i557 

 painter. He was in great request as a designer of 

 tapestries, which he covered with animals, birds, fish, 

 and rare plants. Some of these may be seen in the 

 Museum of Tapestries in Florence. His pictures in the 

 National Gallery (cassoni panels) do not well illustrate 



^ Lorenzo was not only a naturalist from curiosity, but made the grounds 

 of his villa of Poggio a Cajano, built for him by Giuliano da San Gallo, what 

 would now be called aijardin d''acclimatation. " He procured from Sicily 

 a breed of golden pheasants for his estate at Poggio a Cajano, where also 

 he had large quantities of silkworms for commercial purposes. He was 

 interested in pigs, importing a specially fine breed of these animals from 

 Calabria. His cows were noted throughout the country." — E. L. S. Hors- 

 burgh, Lore7izo the Magnificent, 1908, p. 462. 



47 



