CHAPTER VI 



UMBRIA 



In the congenial soil of the simple provincial towns 

 within the immediate influence of Assisi we should 

 naturally expect to find the growth of a sympathetic 

 attitude towards nature. Gentile da Fabriano has 

 already been spoken of, on account of his quarter of a 

 century's work in Florence, and the religious paintings 

 of Piero della Francesca of Borgo San Sepolcro, of 

 Benedetto Bonfigli and Fiorenzo di Lorenzo of Perugia, 

 also contain evidence of a sincere appreciation of animal 

 life in the next generation. 

 Francesca, The OX and the ass are treated with much sympathy 



by Piero della Francesca in the Nativity in the National 

 Gallery. They do not appreciate the music of the 

 angelic choir, and the ass protests loudly with uplifted 

 head.^ A magpie perches on the roof of the shed, 



^ There are mediaeval legends, however, which suggest that it may be 

 thought of as taking part in the hymn of universal nature in honour of the 

 Incarnation. The ass was specially reverenced on account of its connec- 

 tion with our Lord's life (as in the Nativity, the Flight into Egypt, and the 

 Entry into Jerusalem), and this last favoured beast was believed to have 

 crossed land and sea to Italy, and to have found a resting-place in the 

 church of Sta. Maria in Organo, Verona. 



60 



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