DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61542#0112
82
MASOLINO
[’3^3-
these masterpieces, had left his work unfinished, and
had gone to die, unknown and unhonoured, in Rome.
The second series of Masolino’s works at Castig-
lione show us how ready he was to receive new
impressions, and how attentively he had studied
these things in his old home. The Baptis-
tery frescoes abound in reminiscences of the new
Quattrocento art, which was fast superseding the
old Giottesque tradition. Both the Evangelists and
Angels on the ceiling, and the Gabriel and Virgin
of the ruined Annunciation on the entrance wall,
still recall Angelico by their slender forms and
masses of fair curls; while the small folds and
flowing scroll-work of the draperies are curiously
like Ghiberti’s reliefs. But in. the scenes from the
Baptist’s life there is far more of the new realism.
The Baptist standing before Herod is a fine and
imposing figure, and the action of the soldier who
strikes off his head in prison is singularly well
rendered, although the structure of the forms is still
vague and uncertain, and the limbs and details of
the hands and feet are often badly drawn. The
shivering boy wrapping his yellow cloak around
him, in the Baptism of Christ, and the man with
his back turned towards us in the act of pulling
off his shirt, are plainly adapted from Masaccio’s
famous fresco in the Carmine, and are both excel-
lently drawn; the figure of Christ, again, standing in
the stream of Jordan, is not without a certain
grandeur; but the arms of the Baptist are too short,
and his whole form is awkward and ill-proportioned.
Perhaps the most effective subject of the whole series
is that of Salome before Herod. Here the story is
MASOLINO
[’3^3-
these masterpieces, had left his work unfinished, and
had gone to die, unknown and unhonoured, in Rome.
The second series of Masolino’s works at Castig-
lione show us how ready he was to receive new
impressions, and how attentively he had studied
these things in his old home. The Baptis-
tery frescoes abound in reminiscences of the new
Quattrocento art, which was fast superseding the
old Giottesque tradition. Both the Evangelists and
Angels on the ceiling, and the Gabriel and Virgin
of the ruined Annunciation on the entrance wall,
still recall Angelico by their slender forms and
masses of fair curls; while the small folds and
flowing scroll-work of the draperies are curiously
like Ghiberti’s reliefs. But in. the scenes from the
Baptist’s life there is far more of the new realism.
The Baptist standing before Herod is a fine and
imposing figure, and the action of the soldier who
strikes off his head in prison is singularly well
rendered, although the structure of the forms is still
vague and uncertain, and the limbs and details of
the hands and feet are often badly drawn. The
shivering boy wrapping his yellow cloak around
him, in the Baptism of Christ, and the man with
his back turned towards us in the act of pulling
off his shirt, are plainly adapted from Masaccio’s
famous fresco in the Carmine, and are both excel-
lently drawn; the figure of Christ, again, standing in
the stream of Jordan, is not without a certain
grandeur; but the arms of the Baptist are too short,
and his whole form is awkward and ill-proportioned.
Perhaps the most effective subject of the whole series
is that of Salome before Herod. Here the story is