PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO 



St. Guthlac, in his retirement far in the fens at Crow- 

 land, said when the swallows came and perched upon 

 his knee, "He who leads his life according to the will of 

 God, to him the wild deer and the wild birds draw more 

 near." ' 



The same artist, painting a Vii^gin and Child with 

 the Conegliano background (National Gallery), thinks it 

 worth while to introduce a man driving a mule laden 

 with a pack, two swans in the river, and a bird on the 

 bough of a tree on the bank. They are all so small that 

 they have to be looked for. This is an example of the 

 common tendency to introduce animal life even where it 

 could serve no decorative or symbolical purpose. In 

 the Madonna of the Goldfinch, also in the National 

 Gallery, the bird in the child's hand appears to be a 

 linnet, A stag feeds in the landscape. Cima paints a 

 lizard on the wall behind the Madonna Enth^'oned in the 

 Museo Civico, Vicenza. Around the sleeping Endymion 

 (Parma) are two storks, a dog, a young stag, and two 

 rabbits. 



^ A group of stories, other than those of St. Francis, illustrates this ; for 

 instance, that of St. Hugh of Lincoln and the swan at Stow. 



83 



