S:

[32] It is sufficient to cite the double picture of "Hercules," of the
Uffizi, the "S. Sebastian," of the National Gallery, and the engraving
called "The Battle of the Nudes."

[33] Cavalcaselle e Crowe, viii. 424, etc.

[34] Ital. Forsch. ii. 333.

[35] Vischer, 77, etc. Vischer considers the likeness to Fiorenzo due to
their mutual relation to Verrocchio.

[36] Even the splendid decorative engraving called "The Battle of the
Nudes," is only a series of duels. A comparison of these figures with
the two nude executioners in the Brera "Flagellation" will justify the
assertion of Signorelli's superiority as a master of anatomy and
movement.

[37] Specially in "The Death of Virginia," of the Morelli Collection,
Bergamo, and the sketched figures in the repainted "Adoration of the
Magi," lately exposed in the Uffizi.

[38] "Purgatorio," ii. 38.

[39] For example, in the "Madonna," of the Mancini Collection, and "The
Crowning of the Elect," at Orvieto.

[40] Signorelli's pictures, when not frescoed, are invariably painted
with oil.

[41] "Italian Painters," i. 92.

CHAPTER III

EARLIEST WORKS

One of the most remarkable things in the history of Signorelli's work,
considering what a number of his paintings remain, is that only two of
them can be placed with any degree of certainty as having been executed
before his fortieth year. These two are the "Madonna" (No. 281), and
"The Flagellation" (No. 262), in the Brera Gallery, Milan. This last,
however--"The Flagellation"--indicates in what manner much of his
earlier time had been employed, for although betraying in parts a
certain youthful immaturity, yet the skilful drawing and thorough
comprehension of anatomy shown in the nudes, especially in the backs of
the two executioners, reveals already the practised hand of a master of
his craft.

[Illustration: [_Brera, Milan_

THE FLAGELLATION]

The best studies of the nude remaining to us by earlier painters, are
the figures in "The Death of Adam," by Pier dei Franceschi, in his
frescoes at Arezzo, the "Hercules overcoming Antaeus," and "The Battle of
the Nudes," by Antonio Pollaiuolo, in the Uffizi Gallery. It is
sufficient to compare with these the freer rendering of gesture, and the
greater accuracy of the anatomy in Signorelli's executioners, to see
what an advance he had already made upon any previous painting. (I
limit, of course, this assertion to painting only, for in sculpture
Donatello ha