igious frescoes--by the way,
Ghirlandajo painted there also. Now we must find what is the charm in
Botticelli's painting that accounts for the wonderful present interest
in his work. I think it is in a large degree his attempt to put
expression into faces. While Masaccio had taken a long step in advance
of other artists by making man himself, rather than events, the chief
interest in his pictures,--Botticelli, more imaginative and poetic,
painted man's moods,--his subtile feelings. You are all somewhat
familiar, through their reproductions, with his Madonna pictures. How do
these differ from those of other painters?"

"The faces are less pretty."

"They are sad instead of joyous."

"In some the little Christ looks as though he were trying to comfort his
mother."

"The angels look as if they longed to help both," were some of the quick
answers.

"Yes; _inner_ feelings, you see. Sometimes he put a crown of thorns
somewhere in a picture, as if to explain its expressions. His Madonna is
'pondering these things,' as Scripture says, and the Child-Christ and
angels are in intense sympathy with her. We long to look again and again
at such pictures--they move us.

"Another characteristic of his work is the action--a vehement impetuous
motion. You will find this finely illustrated in his _Allegory of
Spring_, a very famous picture in the Academy. His type of figure and
face is most easily recognizable; the limbs are long and slender, and
often show through almost transparent garments; the hands are long and
nervous; the faces are rather long also, with prominent rounded chins
and full lips. He put delicate patterns of gold embroidery about the
neck and wrists of the Madonna's gown and the edges of her mantle, and
heaped gold all over the lights on the curled hair of her angels and
other attendants. You can never mistake one of these pictures when once
you have grown familiar with his style.

"I think you should study particularly his _Allegory of Spring_ in the
Academy for full length figures in motion. You will find the color of
this picture happily weird to agree with the fantastic conception. Then
in the Uffizi Gallery you will find several pictures of the Madonna;
notable among them is his _Coronation of the Virgin_, painted, as he was
fond of doing, on a round board. Such a picture is called a _tondo_.
Here you will find all his characteristics.

[Illustration: BOTICELLI. UFFIZI GALLERY, FLORENCE.

CORONATION OF