Indeed, the contrast is great between the
simplicity of ornament and more ambitious, scientific spirit in the
Sixtine, and the return here to the conventional composition and the
mediæval fondness for accessory. Both "The Annunciation" and "The
Adoration of the Magi" are of the Umbro-Perugian type. Pintoricchio
repeats the angel of the first scene again at Spello, with several other
figures. In the radial lines of the pavement we recognise the example of
Perugino in the Sixtine fresco. The whole scene in the stately halls
opening out in a beautiful landscape, is full of soft dignity. The
rose-pink of the angels' robes, the peacock-blues and greens of Mary's
garments, the rose-wreath, the lilies, make a luscious combination of
colour. It is the impassionate character, the childlike and unconscious
spirit of all Pintoricchio's creations that gives them such a piquancy,
in contrast to their splendid setting.
[Illustration:
_Anderson photo_] [_Borgia Apartments, Vatican, Rome_
THE ANNUNCIATION]
Dr. Auguste Schmarsow, of all the critics, is the one who has given most
careful study to these frescoes and has brought most knowledge and
erudition to bear upon them. He divides a great deal of the execution
among the various schools to which he thinks Pintoricchio's assistants
belonged, and his assignments, if not to be taken as actual facts, are
worth considering--it being allowed that the whole is due to one
designer. All critics concur in giving the figures in the "Annunciation"
to the master. In the next, the "Nativity," the Virgin and Child are
also from Pintoricchio's own hand, and many details recall the
altar-piece in Santa Maria del Popolo. The "Adoration of the Magi" is
attributed to a Lombard, except the boy at the right, who is by a pupil
of Botticelli. We should be sorry to hold Pintoricchio immediately
responsible for the ill-drawn Child and awkward hands in this fresco;
and in the patterns on the dresses and the terra-cotta mouldings of the
buildings we see the Lombard taste. In the "Resurrection" we have the
broken tomb, the risen Saviour, and the guards in armour, set in a
landscape of rocky ground and cypresses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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