s. Then the compositions are as overfilled as the sheets of
an illustrated newspaper--witness the "Massacre of the Innocents," a
scene of such magnificent artistic possibilities. Finally, irrelevant
episodes and irrelevant groups of portraits do what they can to distract
our attention from all higher significance. Look at the "Birth of John";
Ginevra dei Benci stands there, in the very foreground, staring out at
you as stiff as if she had a photographer's iron behind her head. An
even larger group of Florentine housewives in all their finery
disfigures the "Birth of the Virgin," which is further spoiled by a _bas
relief_ to show off the painter's acquaintance with the antique, and by
the figure of the serving maid who pours out water, with the rush of a
whirlwind in her skirts--this to show off skill in the rendering of
movement. Yet elsewhere, as in his "Epiphany" in the Uffizi, Ghirlandaio
has undeniable charm, and occasionally in portraits his talent, here at
its highest, rises above mediocrity, in one instance, the fresco of
Sassetti in Santa Trinita, becoming almost genius.

XI.

[Page heading: LEONARDO]

All that Giotto and Masaccio had attained in the rendering of tactile
values, all that Fra Angelico or Filippo had achieved in expression, all
that Pollaiuolo had accomplished in movement, or Verrocchio in light and
shade, Leonardo, without the faintest trace of that tentativeness, that
painfulness of effort which characterised his immediate precursors,
equalled or surpassed. Outside Velasquez, and perhaps, when at their
best, Rembrandt and Degas, we shall seek in vain for tactile values so
stimulating and so convincing as those of his "Mona Lisa"; outside
Degas, we shall not find such supreme mastery over the art of movement
as in the unfinished "Epiphany" in the Uffizi; and if Leonardo has been
left far behind as a painter of light, no one has succeeded in conveying
by means of light and shade a more penetrating feeling of mystery and
awe than he in his "Virgin of the Rocks." Add to all this, a feeling for
beauty and significance that have scarcely ever been approached. Where
again youth so poignantly attractive, manhood so potently virile, old
age so dignified and possessed of the world's secrets! Who like Leonardo
has depicted the mother's happiness in her child and the child's joy in
being alive; who like Leonardo has portrayed the timidity, the newness
to experience, the delicacy and refinement of maiden