onor
for classical tradition. Lippi is the only religious painter who dresses
John Baptist in the camelskin, as the Greeks dressed Heracles in the
lion's--over the head. Lastly, and chiefly of all,--Le Pere Hyacinthe
taught his pupil certain views about the doctrine of the Church, which
the boy thought of more deeply than his tutor, and that by a great deal;
and Master Sandro presently got himself into such question for painting
heresy, that if he had been as hot-headed as he was true-hearted, he
would soon have come to bad end by the tar-barrel. But he is so sweet
and so modest, that nobody is frightened; so clever, that everybody is
pleased: and at last, actually the Pope sends for him to paint his own
private chapel,--where the first thing my young gentleman does, mind
you, is to paint the devil in a monk's dress, tempting Christ! The
sauciest thing, out and out, done in the history of the Reformation, it
seems to me; yet so wisely done, and with such true respect otherwise
shown for what was sacred in the Church, that the Pope didn't mind: and
all went on as merrily as marriage bells.

190. I have anticipated, however, in telling you this, the proper course
of his biography, to which I now return.

"While still a youth he painted the figure of Fortitude, among those
pictures of the Virtues which Antonio and Pietro Pollaiuolo were
executing in the Mercatanzia, or Tribunal of Commerce, in Florence. In
Santo Spirito, a church of the same city, he painted a picture for the
chapel of the Bardi family: this work he executed with great diligence,
and finished it very successfully, depicting certain olive and palm
trees therein with extraordinary care."

It is by a beautiful chance that the first work of his, specified by his
Italian biographer, should be the Fortitude.[AV] Note also what is said
of his tree drawing.

"Having, in consequence of this work, obtained much credit and
reputation, Sandro was appointed by the Guild of Porta Santa Maria to
paint a picture in San Marco, the subject of which is the Coronation of
Our Lady, who is surrounded by a choir of angels--the whole extremely
well designed, and finished by the artist with infinite care. He
executed various works in the Medici Palace for the elder Lorenzo, more
particularly a figure of Pallas on a shield wreathed with vine branches,
whence flames are proceeding: this he painted of the size of life. A San
Sebastiano was also among the most remarkable of the wo