h canopy with inlaid columns and brocade hangings the
Redeemer seated on the throne, places the crown on the head of his
Mother, who kneels before him, with hands crossed on her bosom. Around
them angels are making the air resound with the voice of song, and the
music of many instruments. Saints, male and female circle round, some
standing, others kneeling, their fixed eyes and ecstatic features
denoting their joy in such divine splendour. Among the saints are the
great personages of the religious orders, together with bishops and
emperors. On the right, among the kneeling female saints are seen St.
Agnes tenderly pressing the lamb to her breast, St. Catherine holding
her wheel of torture and a palm, St. Ursula clasps the arrow which
united her in death to her divine Spouse, St. Cecilia's pretty head is
garlanded with flowers, while St. Mary Magdalene turns her back
showing the rich locks of hair flowing over her shoulder as she holds
the vase of ointment in her left hand. On the opposite side are St.
Dominic with the lily and open book, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, St.
Anthony and St. Francis. On a higher level St. Louis, with his crown
of _fiordalise_, talks with St. Thomas; while St. Nicholas supports
himself with both hands on his pastoral staff.

"It is a clever composition, wonderfully balanced, and the solemnity
of style does not at all exclude exuberance of life or infinite
variety of ideas.

"The bodies are almost diaphanous, the heads ethereal, the atmosphere
and light have a touch of the supernatural. Up to this point the
subject is subdued, but the colours lively and pure--among which blue
and carmine predominate--gleam with particular splendour."[26]

The predella contains in some small compositions the chief episodes in
the life of St. Dominic, excepting the central compartment where
Christ is drawn, issuing from the sepulchre between the Virgin and St.
John. The compositions are all executed with that love and delicacy
which are the glory of the artist, but even these little stories, like
the larger panel, have been more or less injured by repeated
restorations.

[Illustration: UFFIZI GALLERY--FLORENCE.
THE CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN.]

A similar subject now in the Uffizi Gallery at Florence and which Fra
Angelico painted for the church of Santa Maria Novella, is still more
aerial and celestial, a perfect masterpiece of sentiment and mystic
expression.

Here also Fra Angelico clings to that traditio