PREDELLA.
(National Gallery, London.)
The greater part of the draperies are rendered with most refined colouring, so delicately toned and judiciously contrasted, that no part of the painting appears either crude, or of exaggerated richness; while the gold used in every part of the background contributes to give great harmony to the whole. In the pictures placed at the end of the predella, the Dominicans are depicted in their white robes and black mantles.
This delightful work, which roused the admiration of Vasari, contains not less than 266 figures and may justly be considered as one of the gems of the collection. Executed with all the delicacy of an illumination, it sparkles with bright but harmonious colours, while the spirit of devotion which penetrates the whole is entirely characteristic of the painter.[22]
Angelico reached greater perfection in the picture of the "Annunciation" of which Vasari says: "In a chapel of the same church is a picture from the same hand, representing Our Lady receiving the Annunciation from the angel Gabriel, with a countenance which is seen in profile, so devout, so delicate, and so perfectly executed, that the beholder can scarcely believe it to be by the hand of man, but would rather suppose it to have been delineated in Paradise. In the landscape forming the background are seen Adam and Eve, whose fall made it needful that the Virgin should give birth to the Redeemer."[23]
This picture (purchased in 1611 by Duke Mario Farnese) is now in the Museum at Madrid. The Virgin is seated on the right under a graceful portico sustained by small columns. Her head inclines a little towards the Angel, in the same attitude as in the Cortona altar-piece and the fresco at San Marco. She holds the book on her knees, and crosses her hands on her breast; while the golden winged Angel, in its rose coloured robe, with an arm curved in similar attitude of reverence, sheds light around, as in the painting at Cortona. High up in the left corner the hand of the Eternal Father sends down a ray of light, in the midst of which the Holy Spirit is symbolized. In the background, as in the Cortona picture, Adam and Eve are being expelled from Paradise.
In the predella are some beautiful "stories" representing the "Marriage of the Virgin," the "Salutation," the "Adoration of the Magi," the "Circumcision of Christ" and the "Death of the Virgin."[24]
"But superior to all the other works of Fra Giovanni, and one in which he surpassed himself, is a picture in the same church (i. e. San Domenico at Fiesole), near the door on the left hand of the entrance: in this work, he proves the high quality of his powers as well as the profound intelligence he possessed of the art which he practised. The subject is the Coronation of the Virgin by Jesus Christ: the principal figures are surrounded by a choir of angels, among whom are vast numbers of saints and holy personages, male and female. These figures are so numerous, so well executed, in attitudes so varied, and the expressions of the heads so richly diversified, that one feels infinite pleasure and delight in regarding them. Nay, one is convinced that those blessed spirits can look no otherwise in heaven itself, or to speak under correction, could not, if they had forms, appear otherwise; for all the saints, male and female, assembled here, have not only life and expression, most delicately and truly rendered, but the colouring also of the whole work would seem to have been given by the hand of a saint, or of an angel like themselves. It is not without sufficient reason therefore, that this excellent ecclesiastic is always called Frate Giovanni Angelico. The stories from the life of Our Lady and of St. Dominic which adorn the predella, moreover, are in the same divine style; and I, for myself, can affirm with truth, that I never see this work but it appears something new, nor can I ever satisfy myself with the sight of it, or have enough of beholding it."[25]
