[397] The whole lake-district of Italy, where the valleys of Monte Rosa and the Simplon descend upon the plain of Lombardy, is rich in works of this school.  At Luino and Lugano, on the island of San Giulio, and in the hill-set chapels of the Val Sesia, may be found traces of frescoes of incomparable beauty.  One of these sites deserves special mention.  Just at the point where the pathway of the Colma leaves the chestnut groves and meadows to join the road leading to Varallo, there stands a little chapel, with an open loggia of round Renaissance arches, designed and painted, according to tradition, by Ferrari, and without doubt representative of his manner.  The harmony between its colours, so mellow in their ruin, its graceful arcades and quiet roofing, and the glowing tones of those granite mountains, with their wealth of vineyards, and their forests of immemorial chestnut trees, is perfect beyond words.

[398] This, the last of the Stanze, was only in part designed by Raphael.  In spite of what I have said above, the “Battle of Constantine,” planned by Raphael, and executed by Giulio, is a grand example of a pupil’s power to carry out his master’s scheme.

[399] Baroccio had great authority at Florence in the seventeenth century, when the cult of Correggio had overspread all Italy.

[400] Pitti Palace.

[401] Franciabigio’s and Rosso’s frescoes stand beside Del Sarto’s in the atrium of the Annunziata at Florence.  Pontormo’s portraits of Cosimo and Lorenzo de’ Medici in the Uffizzi, though painted from busts and medallions, have a real historical value.

[402] The “Christ in Limbo” in S. Lorenzo at Florence, and the detestable picture of “Time, Beauty, Love, and Folly,” in our National Gallery.

[403] Opere Burlesche, vol. iii. pp. 39-46.

[404] Near Siena.  These pictures are a series of twenty-four subjects from the life of S. Benedict.

[405] In the church of S. Domenico, Siena.

[406] In the Uffizzi.  See also Sodoma’s “Sacrifice of Isaac” in the cathedral of Pisa, and the “Christ Bound to the Pillar” in the Academy at Siena.

[407] The church of S. Sigismondo, outside Cremona, is very interesting for the unity of style in its architecture and decoration.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I

The Pulpits of Pisa and Ravello

Having tried to characterise Niccola Pisano’s relation to early Italian art in the second chapter of this volume, I adverted to the recent doubts which have been thrown by very competent authorities upon Vasari’s legend of this master.  Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, while discussing the question of his birthplace and his early training, observe, what is no doubt true, that there are no traces of good sculpture in Pisa antecedent to the Baptistery pulpit of 1260, and remark that for such a phenomenon