er's finger and his completely relaxed figure has
unquestionably been studied from life. At the right and left of the
Virgin are St. Peter and St. John, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St.
Dominic, whole-length figures strongly individualized and
differentiated. St. John in particular reveals in the beauty of feature
and expression Crivelli's power to portray subtleties and refinements of
character without sacrificing his sumptuous taste for accessories and
ornament. The Saint, wearing his traditional sheep skin and bearing his
cross and scroll, bends his head in meditation. His brows are knit, his
features, ascetic in mold and careworn, are eloquent of serious thought
and moral conviction. By the side of St. Peter resplendent in pontifical
robes and enriched with jewels, he wears the look of a young devout
novice not yet so familiar with sanctity as to carry it with ease. He
stands by the side of a little stream, in a landscape that combines in
the true Crivelli manner direct realism with decorative formality. The
St. Dominic with book and lily in type resembles the figure in the
Metropolitan, but the face is painted with greater skill and has more
vigor of expression. Above this lower stage of the altarpiece are four
half-length figures of St. Francis, St. Andrew the Apostle, St. Stephen
and St. Thomas Aquinas, and over these again are four pictures showing
the Archangel Michael trampling on the Dragon, St. Lucy the Martyr, St.
Jerome and St. Peter, Martyr, all full length figures of small size and
delicately drawn, but which do not belong to the original series. The
various parts of the altarpiece were enclosed in a splendid and ornate
frame while in the possession of Prince Demidoff in the latter half of
the nineteenth century and the whole is a magnificent monument to
Crivelli's art. The heavy gold backgrounds and the free use of gold in
the ornaments, together with the use of high relief (St. Peter's keys
are modeled, for example, almost in the round, so nearly are they
detached from the panel) represent his tendency to overload his
compositions with archaic and realistic detail, but here as elsewhere
the effect is one of harmony and corporate unity of many parts. The
introduction of sham jewels, such as those set in the Virgin's crown and
in the rings and medallions worn by Peter, fails to destroy the dignity
of the execution. It may even be argued that these details enhance it by
affording a salient support to the