arvellously drawn hands
support an open book which rests on his side. Here Fra Angelico
reveals his skill in all its fulness; and when we reflect on his
advanced age, we can only remain in admiring surprise before the
freshness of his creative power, and the force of his execution.

We have documental evidence that Benozzo Gozzoli assisted his master
in these frescoes, and doubtless we may attribute to him the fine
decorations, where roses bud amidst flowers and foliage of every kind,
and garlands are resting on pretty little children's heads, or are
festooned on medallions bearing the tiara, and crossed keys of
Nicholas V.; but we cannot give him the merit of having beautified the
scenes of the "Preaching of St. Stephen," or "St. Laurence
distributing alms."[63]

[Illustration: CHAPEL OF POPE NICHOLAS V. VATICAN--ROME.
ST. LAURENCE CONDEMNED TO MARTYRDOM.]

We admit the probability that Benozzo may have executed some of the
figures, but there is a difference between this and supposing that he
had any conspicuous part in the compositions, especially in the St.
Laurence series, which we cannot believe. If the whole scene were
indeed by Benozzo, would not the difference of hand between master and
scholar be more strikingly evident? And the more so, as the scholar
had not yet reached mastery of technique, and his early frescoes show
a certain crudeness, want of harmony and incorrectness of design,
which far remove them from the proved technical ability of his master.
Nor can we believe that he timidly followed the lines traced on the
walls by Fra Angelico, for even in that case something peculiar to
himself must have been clearly perceptible in them. Now this, to speak
frankly, is not evident.

None of the women assisting at the preaching of St. Stephen recall the
characteristic type of those which Benozzo painted in the frescoes at
Montefalco. The saint's listeners have regular features, and remind
one of the various female figures in the San Marco frescoes
("Resurrection of Christ" and "Prayer on the Mount of Olives").
Benozzo's handling is less solid, his outlines are hard and sharp,
colouring crude and chiaroscuro weak; in the stories of St. Laurence
we find instead, and in a very high degree, the solidity and
correctness which we have admired in Fra Angelico's Florentine
paintings.

It suffices to recall the "Adoration of the Magi," in San Marco, one
of his last works before leaving for Rome, and the beautiful