come; how each great master succeeding Cimabue
had added his contribution of thought and endeavor until artists knew
all the laws that govern the art of representation; and how finally, the
method of oil-painting having been introduced, they then had a fitting
medium with which to express their knowledge and artistic endeavor.

They had read about Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest masters, so
famous for his portrayal of subtile emotion, and were wonderfully
interested in his life and work; had been to the Academy to see the
_Baptism of Christ_, painted by his master, Andrea Verrocchio, and were
very positive that the angel on the left, who holds Christ's garment,
was painted by young Leonardo. They had studied his unfinished
_Adoration of the Magi_ in the Uffizi--his only authentic work in
Florence--and had wished much that they could see his other and greater
pictures. Mr. Sumner had told them that in the early summer they would
probably go to Milan, and there see the famous _Last Supper_ and _Study
for the Head of Christ_, and that perhaps later they might visit Paris
and there find his _Mona Lisa_ and other works.

They had been much interested in the many examples of Fra Bartolommeo's
painting that are in San Marco--where he, as well as Fra Angelico, had
been a monk;--in the Academy, and in the Uffizi and Pitti galleries; and
had learned to recognize the peculiarities of his grouping of figures,
and their abstract, devotional faces, his treatment of draperies, and
the dear little angels, with their musical instruments, that are so
often sitting at the feet of his madonnas.

They were fascinated by Andrea del Sarto, whom they followed all over
the city wherever they could find either his frescoes or easel pictures.
His color especially enchanted them, after they had looked at so many
darkened and faded pictures. The story of his unquenchable love for his
faithless wife, and how he painted her face into all his pictures,
either as madonna or saint, played upon their romantic feelings. Margery
learned Browning's poem about them, and often quoted from it. They were
never tired of looking at his _Holy Families_ and _Madonnas_ in the
galleries, but especially loved to go to the S.S. Annunziata and linger
in the court, surrounded by glass colonnades, where are so many of his
frescoes.

"Do you suppose it is true that his wife, Lucrezia, used to come here
after he was dead and she was an old woman, to look at the pi