aspirations of Christian truth found their most complete and beautiful expression.
All the mystic thought of the mediæval world, the passionate love of God and man that beat in the heart of St. Francis, the yearnings of Dante's soul after a higher and more perfect order, the poetic dreams of the monks who sang of the Celestial Country, are embodied in the art of Angelico. The depth and sincerity of his own religious feeling lent wings to his imagination, and the exquisite purity of his soul breathes in every line of his painting. It is the intensity of his own love and sorrow that weeps with Dominic at the foot of the Cross, or gazes with Francis in unspeakable longing on his dying Lord: it is his own sweet and gentle fancy that brings down these enchanted visions of Paradise. Vasari's eloquent language shows how profound was the impression made upon his age by this friar, whose saintly life was reflected in his works, and whose simple and child-like faith supplied the inspiration of his art.