To give intelligent expression even to dreams, visions and ideality of thought, a material and technical part is necessary; the mind may wander free in fantasy, through indefinite space, but it needs a firm hand to render the conception evident; and the clearer the expression is, the greater ability in the creation of his works does it show in the artist. Thus Fra Angelico, placing his figures in ideal surroundings, believed at first that refined thought was sufficient to make a perfect picture, and he illuminated his little figures with superficial delicacy, surrounding them with azure and gold, and so idealized them that they are more like diaphanous apparitions than human beings. [Illustration: CHRIST ON THE CROSS.] But he soon learned that by merely enlarging these little pictures, he could not succeed in giving them even that individuality to which he was led by natural taste and mode of life. In fact, what a difference lies between the figures of the Linen Weavers' Tabernacle painted in 1433, and those of the picture in the church of San Marco done in 1438! The first: void, weak and without expression; the second: full of life and character; and note that this difference strikes the eye even now, notwithstanding the difficulty of comparison owing to the wretched condition to which the panel at San Marco is reduced. In this cloister, therefore, where the pictures assume larger proportions and more importance, and the figures greater character and individuality of form, more solidity of artistic execution,--it is here we perceive that far as he still was from the world and worldly things, yet with earnest study and thought he had not failed to avail himself of the progressive development of art around him to improve his style and give more grandeur to his design. We do not know whether the cause which influenced his mind was, that in coming down to Florence from the Fiesole cloister he was brought into more immediate contact with other styles of art, and artists who followed a different, even opposite method. The distance of his convent from the city was not, however, so great as to have prevented his visiting the immortal works which enriched Florence, or to diminish the relations of friendship or acquaintance which he surely had formed with his greater colleagues. In fact, Fra Angelico and Ghiberti must have already consulted together about the Tabernacle of the Linen Guild; and the works which the pious monk sent from Fiesole to the churches and convents of Florence could not have been unknown there, any more than the works of the other artists in the city were to him.