o portrayed Luigi Guicciardini the elder, Luca Pitti, Diotisalvi
Neroni, and Giuliano de' Medici, father of Pope Clement VII; and beside
the stone pilaster he painted Gherardo Gianfigliazzi the elder, the
Chevalier Messer Bongianni, who is wearing a blue robe, with a chain
round his neck, and Jacopo and Giovanni, both of the same family. Near
these are Filippo Strozzi the elder and the astrologer Messer Paolo dal
Pozzo Toscanelli. On the vaulting are four patriarchs, and on the panel
is the Trinity, with S. Giovanni Gualberto kneeling, and another Saint.
All these portraits are very easily recognized from their similarity to
those that are seen in other works, particularly in the houses of their
descendants, whether in gesso or in painting. Alesso gave much time to
this work, because he was very patient and liked to execute his works at
his ease and convenience.

[Illustration: ALESSO BALDOVINETTI: MADONNA AND CHILD IN A LANDSCAPE

(_Paris: Louvre, 1300B. Panel_)]

He drew very well, as may be seen from a mule drawn from nature in our
book, wherein the curves of the hair over the whole body are done with
much patience and with beautiful grace. Alesso was very diligent in
his works, and he strove to be an imitator of all the minute details
that Mother Nature creates. He had a manner somewhat dry and harsh,
particularly in draperies. He took much delight in making landscapes,
copying them from the life of nature exactly as they are; wherefore
there are seen in his pictures streams, bridges, rocks, herbs, fruits,
roads, fields, cities, castles, sand, and an infinity of other things of
the kind. In the Nunziata at Florence, in the court, exactly behind the
wall where the Annunciation itself is painted, he painted a scene in
fresco, retouched on the dry, in which there is a Nativity of Christ,
wrought with so great labour and diligence that one could count the
stalks and knots of the straw in a hut that is there; and he also
counterfeited there the ruin of a house with the stones mouldering, all
eaten away and consumed by rain and frost, and a thick ivy root that
covers a part of the wall, wherein it is to be observed that with great
patience he made the outer side of the leaves of one shade of green, and
the under side of another, as Nature does, neither more nor less; and,
in addition to the shepherds, he made a serpent, or rather, a
grass-snake, crawling up a wall, which is most life-like.

It is said that Alesso took