similar figure to that in the "Deposition," and with
the same head-gear, again appears a little older in the fresco of the
convent of San Marco representing the "Adoration of the Magi"; also in
another picture of the "Presentation in the Temple"; and in the little
square with a "Flight into Egypt", on one of the doors of SS.
Annunziata.

[Illustration: FLIGHT INTO EGYPT.]

If Michelozzo be really portrayed here, we must conclude that the
Deposition was painted long before 1442, and the press doors about the
same time, or a little later; but the student must take into account
the curious fact that in the "Deposition" the disciple who talks to
the man with a cowl above him, has also a certain resemblance to the
supposed Michelozzo, and that Nicodemus reappears as St. John Baptist
on the left of the large altar-piece painted for the church of San
Marco, as well as in the picture of the dead Christ, and also as the
kneeling King who kisses the feet of the Babe in the fresco of the
"Adoration of the Magi."

Therefore, without giving great importance to the question of the true
portrait of Michelozzo, we find that these heads, whether of Nicodemus
or the hooded disciple, are represented in various pictures by our
artist, modified by age, so that from them we may establish the
succession of the different works, i. e. first the "Dead Christ" of
the Company of the Temple, next the picture at San Marco (1438), then
the "Deposition," and lastly the fresco in San Marco, and the little
"Annunciation." Thus all these works would certainly date during Fra
Angelico's stay in Florence.

But to return to the doors of the presses in the SS. Annunziata, it is
true, as Rio writes, that instead of being a series of subjects for
future frescoes or altar-pieces, the "stories" seem a hasty resume,
often too hasty, of works already painted in the convent of San Marco
or other places. Some of them are noticeable for firmness of design
and vigour of colouring, others instead are unworthy of the master and
evidently show another hand.

[Illustration: CHRIST BETRAYED BY JUDAS.]

[Illustration: THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS.]

To give this great work its due appreciation we must take it as a
whole, as the profound genius of Fra Angelico had conceived it.
Wishing to give it the unity of a dramatic poem, he placed at the
beginning and at the end, like a prologue and an epilogue, two
symbolic figures, in the last of which the seven branched cand