None of the women assisting at the preaching of St. Stephen recall the characteristic type of those which Benozzo painted in the frescoes at Montefalco. The saint's listeners have regular features, and remind one of the various female figures in the San Marco frescoes ("Resurrection of Christ" and "Prayer on the Mount of Olives"). Benozzo's handling is less solid, his outlines are hard and sharp, colouring crude and chiaroscuro weak; in the stories of St. Laurence we find instead, and in a very high degree, the solidity and correctness which we have admired in Fra Angelico's Florentine paintings. It suffices to recall the "Adoration of the Magi," in San Marco, one of his last works before leaving for Rome, and the beautiful prophets at Orvieto; in both these pictures we meet with the same types and figures as in the Roman frescoes, especially in those representing "St. Peter ordaining St. Stephen," "St. Laurence distributing alms," and "St. Stephen before the high priest." Without then following up doubtful suppositions, it does not seem admissible that Fra Angelico, old as he was, should have ceded to his pupil either the direction, or the greater part of works of such importance, which it was greatly to his interest to finish with the utmost care and perfection. Cavalcaselle remarks that the severity of the Orvietans who would not let Benozzo finish the work which Fra Angelico had left incomplete, is inexplicable; but we must remember that though Benozzo imitated his master's style, the inferiority of his talent was always apparent in the common types, false anatomy, and mistaken proportions of his figures. "He does not equal the master who guided him in his first years, but he follows his style as much as he can, with less talent."[64] It was not therefore Benozzo's work which enlarged the master's style, but in the Vatican frescoes the master clearly [64] shows the effort he has himself made to render the action of his figures more grand, his painting more solid, figures more characteristic and the episodes with which his admirable compositions are enriched more fundamentally truthful. These paintings prove that he had reached his greatest artistic development; although always retaining his innate character he concedes to the new requirements of art as much of his temperament and sentiment, as he can conscientiously yield. Thus his works display a continuous improvement, each new stage in the long road of his artistic career, represents a fresh conquest, a new and remarkable progress. His pupils and collaborators limited themselves to aiding him, and rendering his work lighter in parts of secondary importance, but he needed no other help to be, and always remain, worthy of the high company in which he finds himself in the Vatican.