of Filippo, was
called the best Florentine painter of his time. FILLIPINO LIPPI
(1460-1505) was a pupil of Botticelli and a very important artist. ANDREA
VERROCCHIO, LORENZO DI CREDI, and ANTONIO POLLAJUOLO were all good
painters of the Florentine school of the last half of the fifteenth
century.

Of the same period was DOMENICO GHIRLANDAJO (1449-1494), who ranks very
high on account of his skill in the composition of his works and as a
colorist. He made his pictures very interesting also to those of his own
time, and to those of later days, by introducing portraits of certain
citizens of Florence into pictures which he painted in the Church of Santa
Maria Novella and other public places in the city. He did not usually make
them actors in the scene he represented, but placed them in detached
groups as if they were looking at the picture themselves. While his scenes
were laid in the streets known to us, and his architecture was familiar,
he did not run into the fantastic or lose the picturesque effect which is
always pleasing. Without being one of the greatest of the Italian masters
Ghirlandajo was a very important painter. He was also a teacher of the
great Michael Angelo.

Other prominent Florentine painters of the close of the fifteenth century
were FRANCISCO GRANACCI (1477-1543), LUCA SIGNORELLI (1441-1521), BENOZZO
GOZZOLI (1424-1485), and COSIMO ROSSELLI (1439-1506).

Some good painters worked in Venice from the last half of the fourteenth
century; but I shall begin to speak of the Venetian school with some
account of the Bellini. The father of this family was JACOPO BELLINI
(1395-1470), and his sons were GENTILE BELLINI (1421-1507) and GIOVANNI
BELLINI (1426-1516).

The sketch-book of the father is one of the treasures of the British
Museum. It has 99 pages, 17 by 13 inches in size, and contains sketches of
almost everything--still and animal life, nature, ancient sculpture,
buildings and human figures, stories of the Scriptures, of mythology, and
of the lives of the saints are all illustrated in its sketches, as well as
hawking parties, village scenes, apes, eagles, dogs, and cats. In this
book the excellence of his drawing is seen; but so few of his works remain
that we cannot judge of him as a colorist. It is certain that he laid the
foundation of the excellence of the Venetian school, which his son
Giovanni and the great Titian carried to perfection.

The elder son, Gentile, was a good artist, and gained