elation to Michelangelo as first instructor; but by the time that the
great master's "Holy Family," hanging here, was painted all traces
of Ghirlandaio's influence had disappeared, and if any forerunner
is noticeable it is Luca Signorelli. But we must first glance at
the pretty little Lorenzo di Credi, No. 1160, the Annunciation,
an artificial work full of nice thoughts and touches, with the
prettiest little blue Virgin imaginable, a heavenly landscape, and
a predella in monochrome, in one scene of which Eve rises from the
side of the sleeping Adam with extraordinary realism. The announcing
Gabriel is deferential but positive; Mary is questioning but not
wholly surprised. In any collection of Annunciations this picture
would find a prominent place.

The "Holy Family" of Michelangelo--No. 1139--is remarkable for more
than one reason. It is, to begin with, the only finished easel picture
that exists from his brush. It is also his one work in oils, for he
afterwards despised that medium as being fit "only for children". The
frame is contemporary and was made for it, the whole being commissioned
by Angelo Doni, a wealthy connoisseur whose portrait by Raphael we
shall see in the Pitti, and who, according to Vasari, did his best to
get it cheaper than his bargain, and had in the end to pay dearer. The
period of the picture is about 1503, while the great David was in
progress, when the painter was twenty-eight. That it is masterly and
superb there can be no doubt, but, like so much of Michelangelo's
work, it suffers from its author's greatness. There is an austerity
of power here that ill consorts with the tender domesticity of the
scene, and the Child is a young Hercules. The nude figures in the
background introduce an alien element and suggest the conflict between
Christianity and paganism, the new religion and the old: in short, the
Twilight of the Gods. Whether Michelangelo intended this we shall not
know; but there it is. The prevailing impression left by the picture
is immense power and virtuosity and no religion. In the beautiful Luca
Signorelli--No.74--next it, we find at once a curious similarity and
difference. The Madonna and Child only are in the foreground, a not
too radiant but very tender couple; in the background are male figures
nearly nude: not quite, as Michelangelo made them, and suggesting
no discord as in his picture. Luca was born in 1441, and was thus
thirty-four years older than Michelangelo. This pict