revelation of her laws and methods. The boy in the background, seated on a rock, shows an ease of fore- shortening incomparably fine three slight indications of line, and the position of the limb is assured, and could not be improved. The fresco which preceded this the Preaching of St John makes interesting record of the fashion of the moment the cult of Diirer. The warrior monk to the left of the picture, though here Italianised and softened, is taken bodily from his engravings of the Passion ; while the woman holding her child in the group behind St John comes directly from that artist's Birth of the Virgin. It could have been no want of resource in himself which tempted Andrea to appropriate these figures, for he was as independent in composition as in technique ; and had he wished dishonestly to profit by the work of another, he would doubtless have disguised his theft and passed it off as original. The Alinari photo] [Scalzo Cloister, Florence THE BAPTISM OF THE MULTITUDE BY ST JOHN DOMESTIC LIFE 21 presence of these figures is rather a historical record, and an admission that work which was the fashion of the time was considered by del Sarto not unworthy of a place beside his own masterpieces. The Imprisonment of St John, a fresco of great strength and fine perspective, was added to the Scalzo