history of Florence, and of her many legends and traditions. They had
not forgotten or passed by the sculptured treasures of the city, but had
learned something of Donatello, her first great sculptor; of Lorenzo
Ghiberti, who wrought those exquisite gates of bronze for Dante's "Il
mio bel San Giovanni" that Michael Angelo declared to be fit for the
gates of Paradise; and of Brunelleschi, the architect of her great
Duomo.

Through all had gone on their study of the Florentine painters. After
much patient work given to pictures of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, they were now quite revelling in the beauty of those of the
sixteenth century, or the High Renaissance. This was all the more
interesting since they had seen how one after another the early
difficulties had been overcome; how each great master succeeding Cimabue
had added his contribution of thought and endeavor until artists knew
all the laws that govern the art of representation; and how finally, the
method of oil-painting having been introduced, they then had a fitting
medium with which to express their knowledge and artistic endeavor.

They had read about Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest masters, so
famous for his portrayal of subtile emotion, and were wonderfully
interested in his life and work; had been to the Academy to see the
_Baptism of Christ_, painted by his master, Andrea Verrocchio, and were
very positive that the angel on the left, who holds Christ's garment,
was painted by young Leonardo. They had studied his unfinished
_Adoration of the Magi_ in the Uffizi--his only authentic work in
Florence--and had wished much that they could see his other and greater
pictures. Mr. Sumner had told them that in the early summer they would
probably go to Milan, and there see the famous _Last Supper_ and _Study
for the Head of Christ_, and that perhaps later they might visit Paris