CHAPTER XVIII

OF A GENTLE SOUL INCAPABLE OF TRAGEDY

THERE were working together in Verrocchio's workshop in Florence three youths who were destined to become famous as painters-Leonardo da Vinci, Perugino, and Lorenzo di Credi. Of these the least entitled to a great name was Lorenzo di Credi.

LORENZO DI CREDI
1459 - 1537

LORENZO DI CREDI, however, must not be judged by his paintings, which have brought him far higher repute than they ought, for it is almost certain that he must have achieved something approaching the masterpiece in sculpture, since a sculptor of Verrocchio's genius was little likely otherwise to leave instructions in his will that Lorenzo di Credi was to be entrusted with the finishing of his superb equestrian monument of Colleoni at Venice. Unfortunately no sculpture by Lorenzo di Credi has come down to us whereby to judge him. But that, even as a sculptor, Verrocchio estimated his gifts too highly is proved by the fact that the completion of the Colleoni statue was given to Leopardi, Lorenzo being adjudged incompetent to carry it through.

Careful, painstaking, and gifted with a sense of gracefulness, Lorenzo di Credi's paintings are little more than an echo of the religious picture which was becoming a set formality of the studios. One looks in vain for that forceful [136] personal note that marks the compelling achievement of the Florence of these years. Lorenzo di Credi neither revealed a personal vision nor won to great accomplishment in craftsmanship-his feeling for form and his powers in uttering colour were neither remarkable nor vigorous nor subtle. About the year 1470 the Flemish (Zeelander) painter, Hugo van der Goes, painted at Bruges for Tommaso Portinari, the agent of the Medici, a huge Nativity which Portinari presented to the hospital at Florence. This Flemish work had a very large effect upon the art of Florence ; Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di Credi, and others copied or adapted many of its details. But Lorenzo di Credi's imitative nature could do little more than imitate.

Di Credi assisted his master Verrocchio in the painting of the large The Madonna with Two Saints which stands in Pistoia Cathedral. He is seen at his best in his Annunciation and his Adoration of Christ in the Uffizi, and in the Nativity and Adoration in the Academy at Florence. His was, like Fra Bartolommeo's, a gentle soul, deeply impressed by Savonarola's fiery preaching, but unable by force or vision to give utterance to the violences of life, its vigours, or its tragedies.

GIOVANNI ANTONIO SOGLIANI (1492-1544) was a pupil and imitator of Lorenzo di Credi.