d character; and note that this difference strikes the eye
even now, notwithstanding the difficulty of comparison owing to the
wretched condition to which the panel at San Marco is reduced.

In this cloister, therefore, where the pictures assume larger
proportions and more importance, and the figures greater character
and individuality of form, more solidity of artistic execution,--it is
here we perceive that far as he still was from the world and worldly
things, yet with earnest study and thought he had not failed to avail
himself of the progressive development of art around him to improve
his style and give more grandeur to his design.

We do not know whether the cause which influenced his mind was, that
in coming down to Florence from the Fiesole cloister he was brought
into more immediate contact with other styles of art, and artists who
followed a different, even opposite method. The distance of his
convent from the city was not, however, so great as to have prevented
his visiting the immortal works which enriched Florence, or to
diminish the relations of friendship or acquaintance which he surely
had formed with his greater colleagues. In fact, Fra Angelico and
Ghiberti must have already consulted together about the Tabernacle of
the Linen Guild; and the works which the pious monk sent from Fiesole
to the churches and convents of Florence could not have been unknown
there, any more than the works of the other artists in the city were
to him.

Certain changes independent of external causes sometimes take place
naturally, we might say spontaneously, in strong artistic
temperaments. Fra Angelico felt and understood as he continued his
work, that something was wanting in him before he could succeed in
giving reality to his thoughts and sentiment; he necessarily perfected
his studies, and investigated truth more conscientiously--the result
was the new style, a natural consequence of artistic individual
progress.

[Illustration: ST. PETER MARTYR.]

Opposite the entrance in the pretty cloister of the Florentine
convent we may admire the figure of the crucified Christ who turns His
eyes to St. Dominic kneeling below, and embracing the cross with both
hands, while raising his head to meet the glance of the Saviour. In
the five lunettes of the doors in the cloister, Fra Angelico has
represented St. Peter Martyr, St. Dominic, Christ issuing from the
sepulchre, Christ in the dress of a pilgrim, and St. Thomas Aquinas.