e, and often after the lapse of
many years. The child Christs he paints over and over again, the same
figure, sometimes exactly in the same attitude, as in the "Madonnas," of
the Florence Academy and of the Brera. The seated burly Bishop of the
Loreto vaulting (one of his earliest works) occurs again in the Volterra
"Madonna," and again (painted many years later) in the "Madonna," of the
Florence Academy. Line for line he reproduces the figure of Echo, out of
the early "Pan," into the fresco of "The Crowning of the Elect," at
Orvieto. In one or two cases he boldly repeats the same figure in the
same picture, feature for feature, as in the Virgin and S. John of the
Rospigliosi "Holy Family," limb for limb as in the flying soldiers of
the Loreto "Conversion of Saul."

He was also most faithful to his own type of limb or feature, especially
those in which Morelli has taught us always to look for similarity. The
fleshy ear, with its slightly pointed top, is nearly invariable, as also
is the broad hand with its little outlined nails and thick wrists.

In glancing rapidly over the whole of Signorelli's work, consistency to
an absorbing interest is the note struck again and again. He has set
himself from the first a task--the mastery of the human structure and
its movements; and with the resolution and perseverance of a strong
nature, he never swerves from his purpose. This is the conscious aim and
intention of the artist. What he was able to give to the world, of
nobility and dignity--a wider and healthier conception of Nature and her
power and beauty--was the Message of his Genius, of which he was himself
unconscious, but which spoke all the more forcibly for the learning
acquired by hard application and earnest effort. In a detailed study of
his painting, it may be that the student of anatomy and the realist
often assert themselves, but as grand figure after grand figure has
passed before the mind, the general impression is solemn and ennobling.
"To no other contemporary painter," says Morelli, "was it given to endow
the human frame with the like degree of passion, vehemence and
strength."[41] To this we may add that no other painter has ever
conceived Humanity with the same stately grandeur and in the same broad
spirit. The confident strength of youth, the stern austerity of middle
life, the resolute solemnity of old age--these are his themes.
Signorelli is, before all, the painter of the dignity of human life.

FOOTNOTE