1400; the Early Renaissance, from about 1400 to 1500. Masaccio, as we
have seen, was the first great painter of the Early Renaissance, and he
lived from 1401 to 1428. But these dates are not arbitrary. Fra Angelico
lived until 1455, and yet his pictures belong wholly to the Gothic
period; so also do those of other Gothic painters whose lives overlap
the Early Renaissance in point of time. It is the spirit of the art
that definitely determines its place, although the general dates help
one to remember.

"We will not talk long of Ghirlandajo,--Domenico Ghirlandajo (for there
is another, Ridolfo by name, who is not nearly so important to the
art-world). His composition is similar to that of Masaccio. A few people
are intimately engaged, and the others are bystanders, or onlookers. One
characteristic is that many of these last are portraits of Florentine
men and women who were his contemporaries, and so we get from his
pictures a knowledge of the people and costumes of his time. His
backgrounds are often masses of Florentine architecture, some of which
you will readily recognize. His subjects are religious.

"For studying his work, go again to Santa Maria Novella, where is a
series of frescoes representing scenes in the lives of the Virgin Mary
and John the Baptist. I would give some time to these, for in them you
will find all the characteristics of Ghirlandajo's frescoes, which are
his strongest work. Then you will find two good examples of his
_tempera_ painting on wooden panels in the Uffizi Gallery: an _Adoration
of the Magi_, and a _Madonna and Saints_, which are in the Sala di
Lorenzo Monaco near Fra Angelico's _Madonna_--the one which is
surrounded by the famous musical Angels. Others are in the Pitti
Gallery and Academy. His goldsmith's training shows in these smaller
pictures more than in the frescoes. We see it in his love for painting