Not so radiant as Fra Angelico's, in the room we have visited out of due course, but as charming in its own manner--both in personages and landscape; while the city to which Joseph leads the donkey (again without reins) is the most perfect thing out of fairyland.
Ghirlandaio's picture, which is the neighbour of Gentile's, is as a whole nearer life and one of his most attractive works.

It is, I think, excelled only by his very similar Adoration of the Magi at the Spedale degli Innocenti, which, however, it is difficult to see; and it is far beyond the examples at the Uffizi, which are too hot.

Of the life of this artist, who was Michelangelo's master, I shall speak in the chapter on S.Maria Novella.

This picture, which represents the Adoration of the Shepherds, was painted in 1485, when the artist was thirty-six.

It is essentially pleasant: a religious picture on the sunny side.