Facsimile of Binding

for

Swinburne's

"A Midsummer Holiday"

Done in Viennese Inlay
by

Ralph Randolph Adams

V

FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE QUATTROCENTO TO RAPHAEL

ANTONIO BILLI, and following

him, Anonimo and Vasari, report that Don Lorenzo Monaco (1370-1425?) painted Dante by the side of Petrarch in the Ardinghelli Chapel, Santa Trinita, Florence. But Vasari already adds: "opera che piu non si vede." Karl Frey asserts that these frescos were again uncovered; in spite of much searching, however, I was unable to verify this.

The

man. The expression is serious and dignified, but the resemblance seems to be somewhat indistinct. From what source this picture was taken, cannot be established. One might almost believe that the artist evolved the portrait from his own imagination, making use of the traditional characteristics. The photograph moreover suggests that the portrait was painted over in modern times.

A Dante portrait, from the early Benozzo Gozzoli (1420-1497) quattrocento, has come down to us in painted Alighieri in the side chapel of the painting of Andrea del Castagno S. Francesco in Montefalco, Foligno. (1390-1475). The fresco originally The bust is in a tondo, in the middle adorned a wall of the Villa of Pan- between the portraits of Giotto and dolfo Pandolfini at Legnaia. Petrarch. The inscription reads: artist had there painted nine single "Teologus Dantes nullius dogmatis. figures, poets and heroes of Italy, and expers." The youthful en face head three women of antiquity. Now the has no portrait qualities; it was detached portraits are to be found in probably never intended as a likeness. Santa Apollonia, Florence. Dante is According to Ferrazzi, time, and esshown in full figure, the head is turned pecially restorations-the last one in to one side, showing three-quarter 1858-have together disfigured the profile. The type is that of the elderly painting and robbed it of its original Copyright, 1902, by THE LITERARY COLLECTOR Co. All rights reserved.