Bernard_. But this idea, not having aesthetic beauty, was also
abandoned. [Footnote: Padre Marchese, _I Puristi ed Accademici_.]
The monks of S. Pietro at Murano did not hasten to claim their picture,
but sent two friars to negotiate about the price; they failed to agree,
and the work is now in the Church of S. Romano in Lucca.
Lucca has another exquisite picture of the same year in the Cathedral
of S. Martino, a _Madonna and Child_--a lovely ideal of joyful
infancy--beneath a veil suspended above her head by two angels. S. John
Baptist and S. Stephen support this airy composition like pillars,
their figures showing in strong relief against the dark shades; the
whole picture is intensely soft, and yet the outlines are perfectly
clear. This is valued at sixty ducats in the Libri di San Marco.
Next followed the _Virgin and Child with four Saints_, in S.
Marco, which is so fine that it has been taken for a Raphael, although,
owing to the use of lamp-black, it has now become very much darkened.
The _Holy Family_ which he painted for Filippo di Averardo
Salviati, and which is now in Earl Cowper's collection at Panshanger,
is an almost Raphaelesque work, and attains the greatest excellence in
art.
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