lfo Ghirlandajo, Cellini, Pontormo,
Jacopo Sansovino, Franciabigio, Aristotele da San Gallo, F. Granacci,
Bandinelli, Morto da Feltro, Lorenzetto--almost all the famous men of
the period. This influence was certainly more dangerous than useful. The
first fruits of it were the sudden unpopularity--almost like a decree of
exile of all the charming primitive painters, like Pinturicchio[21]
and Signorelli[22] at Rome (1508) just after their masterpieces at
Sienna and Orvieto and Perugino at Florence (1504) four years after the
exquisite decoration of the _Cambio_ of Perugia--and the loss of so much
grace, elegance and vigour sacrificed to a form of beauty undoubtedly
superior, but to which everyone can not attain. Instead of giving them a
broader point of view, the admiration for Lionardo and Michelangelo
narrowed and limited their followers. During 1508-1509 Pope Julius II
had the frescoes of Sodoma, Perugino, Signorelli and Piero della
Francesca put aside to leave space for Raphael. Thenceforth everyone was
governed by the same ideal, and whoever felt in himself fancy,
imagination and youth gave them up in favour of an attempt at breadth
and power which were not for him. Filippino Lippi renounced his serious
simplicity for pedantic dilettanteism and affected gestures. Instead of
being the first in the second rank Lorenzo di Credi, Ridolfo
Ghirlandajo, Raffaellino del Garbo and Piero di Cosimo preferred to be
the last of the first rank.

The same rivalry which had brought about the competition between
Michelangelo and Lionardo in the Council Hall appears again in a series
of works which belong to this Florentine period (1501-1505). These are
representations of the "Holy Family" in which Michelangelo attempts to
solve the same problem of composition as Lionardo and Fra Bartolommeo in
placing the figures in a circle. Such are the two circular bas-reliefs,
the Madonna and Child of the Museo Nazionale made for Taddeo Taddei and
the Holy Family of the Academy of Fine Arts in London made for
Bartolommeo Pitti. Chief of them all is the great picture in distemper
of the Holy Family of the Uffizi painted for Agnolo Doni--a heroic work
filled with the lofty serene life of Olympus and the Parthenon. The
painting is the most carefully executed of all Michelangelo's. The
colouring, blue, rose, orange and golden brown, has an effect that is
rather inharmonious, but young and fresh. The aerial perspective is
mediocre and the composition