[98] See also Panizzi's London edition of the Orlando Innamorato and the Furioso, vol. VI., p. 59.
[*99] This hardly needs comment: it has become universally accepted as the truth. The Prediche Volgari of Fra Bernardino afford ample evidence, as do the Novelle generally. I shall therefore confine myself to referring to two English writers who have treated of this subject: William Heywood, The Ensamples of Fra Filippo (Siena, 1902), pp. 118, 122 et seq. and 295 et seq., who gives an infinite number of authorities and is exhaustive in his evidence; Vernon Lee, Euphorion (Fisher Unwin, 1899), pp. 25-109, who treats of it in two essays, The Sacrifice and The Italy of the Elizabethan Dramatist, with exquisite understanding and the wide tolerance of a poet. Nothing is to be gained by going into this subject so casually as Dennistoun does. He speaks of the Italian genius without understanding either its strength or its weakness. He judges Machiavelli, for instance, or Cesare Borgia, as one might have judged an Englishman of the depressing age he himself lived in, and thus his judgment is at fault in regard to nearly every great man of whom he writes.
[100] Hodœporicon and Epistola, passim.
[101] Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella.
[*102] I have not deleted these pages partly because it has been thought better to give the whole text as nearly as possible as Dennistoun wrote it, and partly too because they serve to show that Dennistoun was in advance of the general taste of his day in England. But, of course, the whole of our knowledge about Italian art has been revolutionized since he wrote. It is almost hopeless to try to annotate these pages. To begin with, the author is dealing with a subject of which even to-day we know very little. And then Urbino seems to have had almost nothing to do with the rise of the Umbrian school of painting. The reader must therefore accept with care every statement which follows.
[*103] This is true in a sense, but the work in the catacombs and the mosaics (III. cent.) in S. Maria Maggiore, for instance, are based on classic models, and are often very excellent and beautiful.
[*104] The Byzantine work was not always "unskilful," only its intention seems to have been rather decorative than realistic, yet in S. Maria Antigua, for instance, we can see the models were classical.
[105] A large picture of the Glorification of the Madonna, long placed in the Belle Arti at Florence, was painted by Sandro Botticelli for Matteo Palmieri, who, in his Dantesque poem entitled La Città della Vita, has advanced a theory that, in Lucifer's rebellion, a certain number of angels assumed a neutral attitude, as a punishment for which they were doomed to a term of trial in the quality of human souls. Although never printed, this work was solemnly condemned by the Inquisition after the author's death, and the picture, which had been composed under his own direction, fell under similar suspicion of heresy. On a rigid examination, the censors having discovered a sort of fullness in the draped bosoms of some angels, pronounced them females, and for this breach of orthodoxy denounced the painting. It was accordingly covered up, and the chapel where it hung in S. Pietro Maggiore was for a time interdicted; but, having escaped destruction, it was offered for sale a few years ago by the heirs of Palmieri. The opportunity for procuring for our national collection a most interesting and characteristic example of early art was as usual lost; but it was brought to England by Mr. Samuel Woodburn in 1846, and has now found a resting-place at Hamilton Palace, in one of the few collections of art which contain nothing common-place or displeasing.[*B]
[*B] This picture, now in the National Gallery [No. 1126] is by Botticini, not Botticelli.
[106] The Gospel account of St. Thomas's doubtings finds a counterpart in the Roman legend of the Madonna, after her interment, being seen by him during her corporeal transit to heaven; whereupon, his wonted caution having led him to "ask for a sign," she dropped him her girdle or cintola, which he carried to the other apostles in proof of his marvellous tale; and the fact of her assumption was verified by their opening her tomb and finding it empty.