By his power over his materials, won by hard study, he added much to Art, and presented things, not as conventional symbols, but as they are actually reflected on the eye. His people stand on solid ground by the help of firm muscle, substantial realities that we feel could be touched and walked round. His atmosphere gives the sense of real space and air. His trees seem to have roots, and their branches to be full of sap. By this truth and power of presenting things as they are he was able to endow his paintings with his own conception of Nature, grander and wider than our own, and to make us see mankind with his eyes, built on broader, stronger lines. Nothing trivial or insignificant enters into his perception of life. He takes his place with Mantegna, with Dürer, and with Cossa, the austere painters, who felt the dignity of life to lie in rugged strength, iron resolution, and unflinching self-reliance.
[81] See "Commentary on the Life of Bart. della Gatta." Vasari, iii. 227.
[82] Cavalcaselle e Crowe. Transcript of the Document, viii. 537.
[87] Portrait of Man. Pitti Gallery, Florence, No. 382.
[88] See Cavalcaselle e Crowe, viii. 521.
[91] Inserted at the end of Vischer's "Signorelli," 383.
[92] Unfortunately recently hung so high that any just appreciation of their great merit and beauty is impossible.
[93] Crowe and Cavalcaselle maintain that Raffaelle also studied carefully the works of Signorelli. See Cavalcaselle e Crowe, viii. 425, and i. 41, etc. etc.
[The following table is compiled from that of Cavalcaselle e Crowe. (Le Monnier, 1898) as being more complete than that in Milanesi's Vasari, and more condensed than that of Vischer. Dates, however, which are not supported by documentary evidence have been omitted.]
1441 (_circa_). Luca was born of Egidio, son of Luca, son of Ventura Signorelli.
1474. (November) Completed the fresco in the Tower of the Commune, Città di Castello, with the Virgin enthroned between SS. Jerome and Paul, first spoiled by exposure, and completely destroyed by the earthquake of 1789.
1479. (Sep. 6) Elected to the Consiglio dei XVIII., Cortona.
1479. (Nov. 28) Elected to the Conservatori degli Ordinamente del Comune.
1480. Elected to the Priori for the months of March and April.