is
entirely nude, and as rosy as the angels' flowers, and those in three
vases at the foot of the throne. On the right of the Virgin are St.
John Baptist and St. Catherine; on the left St. Dominic and St.
Nicholas. On the predella, which is divided into three parts, were
once various scenes from the life of St. Nicholas of Bari, two of
these are now to be found in the Vatican Gallery. In a complex
composition, they represent the birth of the Saint; his listening to
the preaching of a bishop to a congregation of women seated in a
flowery field; the Saint saving from dishonour the daughters of a poor
gentleman; and the miracle of causing a hundred measures of wheat to
rain down and relieve the famine in the city of Nuri. On the upper
portion the Saint appears from behind a rock, having been invoked by
some devotees to calm a tempest which threatened to wreck their bark.

[Illustration: MADONNA AND CHILD. (Pinacoteca, Perugia.)]

The portion at Perugia represents the miraculous salvation of three
innocent youths, sons of Roman princes; and the death and funeral of
the Saint. In the lower part of the picture he is extended on the bier
surrounded by monks, women and poor people who weep his loss, while
above, his soul is being led to heaven by four angels. The frame of
the painting is now divided into twelve fragments, each one containing
a small figure of a Saint: they are St. Romuald, St. Gregory, St.
Laurence, St. Bonaventure, St. Catherine, St. Peter Martyr, St. Mary
Magdalene, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Peter, St. Stephen, St. Paul and
St. John. The last four figures have been mutilated in the lower part,
and in these, as well as the others, the colouring is much injured.
If it were desired to complete the altar-piece, at present, the
gables of the tripartite frame would be missing, but there is no doubt
that--as in the Cortona picture--the two small rounds in the Perugian
Pinacoteca, representing the Angel of the Annunciation and the Virgin,
on gold backgrounds, formed part. Padre Marchese places this panel
among the youthful works of the artist, "because it shows more than
his other works the manner and technique of Giotto's school." Padre
Timoteo Bottonio wrote that it was painted in 1437, but the Dominican
author adds that this is not likely, as Fra Giovanni Angelico was at
that time in Florence, where the restoration of San Marco was begun,
and also the building of the new convent which he adorned with so many
marve