Catherine_ in the Pitti Palace; he also put in
the shadows in monochrome. But the assistants, who were skilled
artists, were called to put broad level tints of local colour on the
buildings, &c., the master himself finishing the faces. No doubt
Albertinelli was often deputed to the study of the lay figure and its
drapery. Where he assisted, the monogram, a cross with two rings and
the joint names, marked the work, as en a panel of 1510 in Vienna, and
another at Geneva.
Fra Bartolommeo only imitated Leonardo in his intense force and soft
gradations; the general thinness of colour is opposed to his system. He
followed him, however, in his method of painting his shadows with the
brush, instead of "hatching" them; he used the same yellowish ground,
and "sfumato," [Footnote: Eastlake's _Materials for a History of Oil
Painting_, vol. ii. chap. iv.] _i.e._ the imperceptible softening of the
transition in half-lights and shadows; it was effected by glazes, and is
not adapted to a thin substance. The great mistake in Fra Bartolommeo's
system was the preparing his paintings like cartoons, and using asphaltum
or lamp-black for outlines and shadows; this in process of time destroys
the super-colour, and gives a general blackness to the painting.
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