re in the
Uffizi are two of his early works, the Holy Family (1291) and a Madonna
and Child (74), where, behind the Virgin holding her divine Son in her
lap, you may see four naked shepherds, really the first of their race.
This picture was painted for Lorenzo de' Medici, and doubtless
influenced Michelangelo when he painted his Holy Family for Messer
Angelo Doni, who haggled so badly over his bargain.

It is really the decadence, certainly prophesied in the later work of
Andrea del Sarto, that we come to in the work of that pupil of his, who
was influenced by what he could understand of the work of Michelangelo.
Jacopo Pontormo's work almost fails to interest us to-day save in his
portraits. The Cosimo I (1270), the Cosimo dei Medici (1267), painted
from some older portrait, the Portrait of a Man (1220), have a certain
splendour, that we find more attenuated but still living in the work of
his pupil Bronzino, who also failed to understand Michelangelo. Fine
though his portraits are, his various insincere and badly coloured
compositions merely serve to show how low the taste of the time--the
time of the end of the Republic--had fallen.

Thus we have followed very cursorily, but with a certain faithfulness
nevertheless, the course of Florentine Art. With the other schools of
Italy we shall deal more shortly.

II. THE SIENESE SCHOOL

It is as a divine decoration that Sienese art comes to us in the
profound and splendid work of Duccio di Buoninsegna, the delicate and
lovely work of Simone Martini, the patient work of the Lorenzetti. The
masterpiece, perhaps, of Duccio is the great Rucellai Madonna of S.
Maria Novella. There is none of his work in the Uffizi; but one of the
most beautiful paintings in the world, the Annunciation of Simone
Martini (23), from the Church of S. Ansano in Castelvecchio, is in the
first Long Gallery here. On a gold ground under three beautiful arches,
in the midst of which the Dove hovers amid the Cherubim, Gabriel
whispers to the Virgin the mysterious words of Annunciation. In his hand
is a branch of olive, and on his brow an olive crown. Madonna, a little
overwhelmed by the marvel of these tidings, draws back, pale in her
beauty, the half-closed book of prayer in her hands, catching her robe
about her; between them is a vase of campanulas still and sweet. Who may
describe the colour and the delicate glory of this work? The hand of man
can do no more; it is the most beautiful of all religiou