DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51584#0200
196
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
meanness of his soul, to be in the end overpowered
and held down by the growing- weakness and de-
basement ; yet when young in his art a pure and
gentle feeling guided his pencil; and in the desire
to learn, in the fixed determination to improve and
-to excel, his calm sense and his calculating spirit
stood him in good stead. There was a famous
convent near Florence, in which the monks—not
lazy nor ignorant, as monks are usually described—•
carried on several arts successfully, particularly the
art of painting on glass. Perugino was employed
to paint some frescoes in their convent, and also to
make designs for the glass-painters: in return, he
learned how to prepare and to apply many colours
not yet in general use; and the lucid and vigorous
tints to which his eye became accustomed in their
workshop certainly influenced his style of colouring.
He gradually rose in estimation; painted a vast
number of pictures and frescoes for the churches
and chapels of Florence, and particularly an altar-
piece of great beauty for the famous convent of
Vallombrosa. In this he represented the Assump-
tion of the Virgin, who is soaring to heaven in the
midst of a choir of angels, while the twelve Apostles
beneath look upwards with adoration and astonish-
ment. This excellent picture is preserved in the
Academy of the Fine Arts at Florence, and near
it is the portrait of the Abbot of Vallombrosa by
whose order it was painted. Ten years after Peru-
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
meanness of his soul, to be in the end overpowered
and held down by the growing- weakness and de-
basement ; yet when young in his art a pure and
gentle feeling guided his pencil; and in the desire
to learn, in the fixed determination to improve and
-to excel, his calm sense and his calculating spirit
stood him in good stead. There was a famous
convent near Florence, in which the monks—not
lazy nor ignorant, as monks are usually described—•
carried on several arts successfully, particularly the
art of painting on glass. Perugino was employed
to paint some frescoes in their convent, and also to
make designs for the glass-painters: in return, he
learned how to prepare and to apply many colours
not yet in general use; and the lucid and vigorous
tints to which his eye became accustomed in their
workshop certainly influenced his style of colouring.
He gradually rose in estimation; painted a vast
number of pictures and frescoes for the churches
and chapels of Florence, and particularly an altar-
piece of great beauty for the famous convent of
Vallombrosa. In this he represented the Assump-
tion of the Virgin, who is soaring to heaven in the
midst of a choir of angels, while the twelve Apostles
beneath look upwards with adoration and astonish-
ment. This excellent picture is preserved in the
Academy of the Fine Arts at Florence, and near
it is the portrait of the Abbot of Vallombrosa by
whose order it was painted. Ten years after Peru-