Simone, and was the first of the Neapolitans to forsake tradition for nature, but scarcely any of his works remain. Dominici, quoting an old writer, states that Colantonio painted in oil as early as 1375. Simple painting with oil was not the method of the Van Eycks; should this statement be true, it must have been a very crude kind of oil-painting; but it is probably an error. The St. Jerome, the best of this painter's remaining works, and now in the Gallery at Naples, is in tempera. Colantonio's son-in-law, known as Lo Zingaro, has of late years attracted much attention from the connoisseurs of Naples. The simple romance of his life has given an undue prominence to the painter.

ANTONIO SOLARIO (1382-1455), a native of Cività, in the Abruzzi, or according to another account, of Solario,' in the Venetian state, the scholar of Lippo Dalmasio, was originally a blacksmith; and, working in the house of Colantonio, he fell in love with his daughter. The painter, pointing to one of his own works, told the young smith that when he could paint such another picture he should have his daughter in marriage. Antonio, nothing daunted, like Quintin Matsys, forsook the anvil for the easel, travelled all over Italy in pursuit of his new art, studying the works of various masters; and after nine years returned to Naples, produced his picture, and won his bride. He became the principal painter of Naples, and the Neapolitans are proud of him. His most important works are some frescoes in the court of the Monastery of San Severino, at Naples, illustrating the life of St. Benedict; and a Neapolitan writer speaks of them as the most perfect works of their class in Italy; it is, however, certain that several works are attributed to Antonio which belong to his school. The Studj Gallery in the Museo Borbonico, possesses a picture by him of the "Madonna and Child enthroned, between Saints;" the head of the Virgin is a portrait of the Queen Jeanne II., of Anjou; his own wife is represented behind St. Peter, and he has placed himself behind St. Asprenus. Solario enriched his pictures with landscape backgrounds of a much better character than was usual at that time he was also an illuminator of manuscripts. Some Neapolitan writers have assumed that he also painted in oil, but this is very improbable.

The link between these old painters and the elder D'Amato was SILVESTRO BUONO, the scholar of Lo Zingaro, and, according to the Cav. Stanzioni, the master of Amato; but as Buono died in 1485 at latest, Dominici doubts this statement. Buono painted much in the

1 Moschini discovered a picture signed Antonius de Solario, Venetus; see Rosini, "Storia," &c., vol. iii. p. 9.

2 D'Aloë, in 1846, published an account of these frescoes with eighteen plates. 3 Dominici de' VidePittori," &c.

taste of the Umbrian painters, and was as much distinguished for his pious life as his beautiful works.

D'Amato was a complete imitator of Perugino, and rivalled Fra Angelico in the piety of his life. The Madonna and Child was his favourite subject, and he was in the habit of taking the Sacrament before he commenced his pictures. When the emperor Charles V. visited Naples, Amato was appointed to execute the decorations of the triumphal arch which was erected on the occasion; but he declined on account of the profaneness of the subject, and the impropriety of painting some partly naked women which he was required to introduce: he recommended Andrea da Salerno for the work. D'Amato died in 1555.

There are several of Amato's oil-paintings still preserved at Naples, but his frescoes have almost wholly perished. His masterpiece is the "Dispute on the Sacrament" in the Cathedral at Naples, excellent both in composition and in colouring. He was a man of great acquirements, and had a numerous school. The following were his principal scholars:-Gio. Bernardo Lama (1508-79), Vincenzo Corso (about 1490-1545), Pietro Negrone (1505-65) sometimes called 11 Giovane Zingaro; Simone Papa the younger (1506-67), Cesare Turco (1510-60); and his nephew Giovanni Antonio D'Amato, called Il Giovane, or the young. He was born at Naples in 1535, and died there in 1598. His colouring is exceedingly rich a large and celebrated altar-piece of the "Infant Christ" is still in the church of the Banco de' Poveri, at Naples.

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BOOK IV.

THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF PAINTING: THE CINQUECENTO SCHOOLS-CO-ORDINATE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SENSUOUS : MATURITY AND MASTERY A SECOND TIME.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE FLORENTINE SCHOOL: LEONARDO DA VINCI, FRA BARTOLOMEO, AND MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI; IDEAL FORM.

In the preceding book we considered the attainment of individuality of form, and remarked upon the predominant sentimental character of the works of the quattrocento schools, when compared with their development as mere works of formative art. In this period we at last arrive at a co-ordinate development of essence and form.

We now come to the consideration of individuality combined with an ideal selection of form, with dramatic composition, and with local colour and light and shade; in which combinations we have the perfect development of painting in its essential principles. This new epoch was brought about by Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolomeo, and Michelangelo Buonarroti; but the works of Leonardo and Fra Bartolomeo are distinct in style from those of Michelangelo. The works of Da Vinci and Bartolomeo hold a middle place between those of the quattrocentisti and the perfect cinquecento style of Michelangelo and Raphael. The same vigour of design, however, which distinguishes the works of the latter, distinguishes in nearly an equal degree those of Da Vinci and Bartolomeo in their principal works; the chief difference between these masters is in their compositions. In light and shade the last two named were superior.

LEONARDO DA VINCI was born at Vinci, in the Val d'Arno, below Florence, in 1452. His father Pietro da Vinci was a notary, and in 1484 notary to the Signory of Florence. Leonardo became the pupil of ANDREA VEROCCHIO (1432-88), who was at first apparently proud of his young pupil; but when Leonardo, says a popular tradition, painted an angel in a picture of the Baptism of Christ,