L

HrIIIochs oItalian ArtLeonardo da Vinciand His ContemporariesBy Alfonso Arbib-CostaProfessor of ltalian at the College of the City of New yorkII.A T tle errel of tlre lifteerrtlr,Lt eerrtuLl', ItaJl- preserrts-/'- l- it rrrarvelous galarv of.:ninent zrrtists. At that timei-re art schools of the penin-:rila are constituted. Among:,re Tuscans, tr'ilippino Lippi: 'tnlrletes the chapei of theBrancacci; Cosimo Rosselli';r'orks at the Sistine Chapel,P,rllajolo and Sandro Botti-":elli bring forth with their,,rush those inimitable typesthose ingenious, fine ancl pro--rluncl expression impcses itselflike a cliscprieting ridcllerhich, after four centnries, still..irarms and perplexes us. Itis Leonarclo da \rinci l.ho wasto give these types their highestsignification, but SandroBotticelli (1447-1515) is alsoun€ of the most felicitous inr-enlorsof the Renaissance,hoth for the tender expressionn-hich dominates in liis r.irginsancl for the poetic phantasywhich is manifestecl rvith somnch superiority in his a}-legories of the Spring arrd ofCalumny; e\.en by the power,rf expression, as in the DeadChrist tliat is now at theJlunich Museum, and b_v thesentiment of great deoorationthat is found in his Moses inthe Sistine Chape}. Somecritics ciaim, however, that hecloes not possess the authorit_vof Domenico Bigordi, betterknorvn under the name of Ghi.rlandajo,l.ho was endowed withan imagination more powerfulthat Botticelli's, if less original,The lollowing article is thesecond ol a series of tour byProt. Arbib-Costa or,. greate,pochs ol Italian art. It followsthat in the preaious issueof ATLANTICA on "The Precursorsol the Renaissance:Giotto to lllasaccioo" and it uiillbe srrcceeded, by '(The Time,sof Michnel Angelo and, P.aphaelr"and 'oltalian Art i,n theSeaenteenth Century." Prol.Arbib-Costa here treats, but ind tnore extensiae wWt thesanne topics upon which he recen_tl,ydwelt in a series o!radio talhs oner StationVNYC lor the "Air Coll,ege',ol C.C.N.Y.and who was served besides b;'a rare surety of execution.Ghirlandajo is, indeed, theclassical master, the founderand head of a school. Hismasterpieces are to be seen ancladmired on the wall of theChurch of Santa Maria Novellain tr'l,rrence where, in his frescoes,on the lives of St. Johnthe Baptist and St. Francis ofAssisi he introduces l'ith arare dignity the portraits ofprominent tr'lorentine men andwomen of his time. The onlycontemporary- work that can57be corrparrecl to his is thatu..hich l-,uca Signorelli executedat Orvieto from 1499 to 1504.Those frescoes represent thescenes of the end of the x'orld:the Antichrist, the Resurrectionof the tr'lesh, the LastJudgment, and others. Signorelli,who livecl from 1441 to1523, is one of the greatest creatorsof forms that are to befound in the histor,v of painting.The originality of his lines,the porver of his composition,were to bc surpassed onl;. fu;.Michael Angelo, who himselfdeclares to have studiecl l-ithgreat attention the paintings ofOrvieto. J\-e can see Signoreilibesicle Ghir'lanclajo in tireChapel which Pope Sixtus I\'caused to be decoratecl b1' thegreatest artists of his time, anclperhaps of ali times, and whichtakes from that Pontiff thename of Sistine. \Ve har.e alreadyindicated the names ofBotticelli and Rosselli, whon'orked at the decoration of theChapel: u'e sha1l find there alsoPerugino.IETRO \-ANNUCCI, cal}etlPerugino from his natir.'ecity 61 Perugia, is the most remarkablerepresentatir.'e of theUmbrian School. -.\lthoughpreserving in most of his compositionsthe slightl). archaicsymmetry of his school, hebrings to his pictures a great