sserted influence of Pintorricchio, it is more probable that
what likeness there is in their style should testify to the impression
of the stronger upon the weaker nature. With Andrea di Castagno his
work, both in outward form and in spirit, has something in common; and
no doubt Signorelli was impressed by paintings which themselves show so
much the influence of Donatello.

As we have seen, Luca's chief interest, like that of Pollaiuolo, lay in
the effort to render movement of limb with facility, and therefore his
attention was concentrated on the muscles and their action. We do not
know how long he studied anatomy from the dead and living model in the
Florentine workshop, nor have we any example of his gradual development,
for when he first appears before us in his earliest remaining work, "The
Flagellation," of the Brera, he is already the master who has conquered
all the difficulties of muscular movement, and surpassed even Antonio
Pollaiuolo in freedom of gesture and correct anatomy.

It is not till later, however, that the most important advance he made
on previous painting first begins to show itself--the power, namely, of
rendering combined action, of working the limbs of a crowd into a single
movement. This is Signorelli's special achievement, on the merits of
which he takes rank with the most important masters of the Quattrocento
as a pioneer and teacher. Great as was Pollaiuolo's command over gesture
and action, it was limited to the combination of two figures only,[36]
while with Signorelli the action of the single figure is held
subordinate to that of the multitude. He gives the stately march of an
army, as in the Umbertide predella and the Monte Oliveto fresco; the
writhings of innumerable figures, like heaps of coiled serpents, as in
the "Damnation" of Orvieto; the rush of a violent mob stirred by a
common impulse, as in the Florence and Cortona "Betrayals." This command
over united movement was new in painting, though, like all other
difficulties, it had been already mastered by Donatello, as we see in
his romping children of the Prato pulpit, and the Florence Cantoria, to
name only two examples. Botticelli, who, with so different a nature, had
yet, in common with the robust Signorelli, this passion for swift
movement, achieved later, it is true, almost as great triumphs[37]; but
to Luca belongs the merit of having endowed painting with the same
freedom of combined movement which Donatello had given to sc