Phillipps, Evelyn March: The frescoes in the Sixtine chapel (London: John Murray, 1901)

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THE WALL FRESCOES

reversed; while one model seems to have
served for the head and shoulders of Pan,
and for those of the woman with her child
upon her back, and a figure lies across the
picture below, in each. No one figure
is exactly copied, but, taken altogether,
they surely have considerable signifi-
cance ? The general arrangement, and
the fact of Pan and his satellites being
in the nude, confirm the presumption
that the oil-painting was executed before
the fresco, in which case the former is an
earlier work than is usually supposed. It
was painted for the private collection of
Lorenzo de’ Medici, consequently is less
likely to have been seen and copied than a
fresco, and one is led to speculate whether a
part, at least, of the Sixtine fresco may not
have been designed by Signorelli, and the
execution left to Bartolommeo Della Gatta.
It is, of course, quite possible that the latter
may have had drawings of Signorelli in
his possession, and yet the old tradition of
Vasari may have some foundation after
all.