Sun 18. [18 February 1894] To the Academia where I discovered with
great pleasure that the middle aged king in Gentile da Fabriano's
Adoration is the same man as Benozzo Gozzoli's! Face and
headdress just the same, and I make no doubt that Gentile who was
painting his picture just about the time John Paloeologus was in
Florence [Firenze] took him as a model of his king from the east and
that Benozzo followed his example. The Lippo Lippi coronation
grows on one, so does the Primavera. (The birth of Venus I think
remains stationary). There is a lovely Andrea of 4 saints and a
Salutation by Pacchiaroto which is very nice and two little Lippo's of
the Virgin kneeling before the child and then the Verocchios and the
Botticellis. I don't care the least for the great Perugino it seems to me
to smell of the atelier. We went on for a few minutes to the Uffizii to
look at the Calumny again - it is a most lovely thing, the colour quite
perfect and the figures most interesting. I don't care at all for the
Lorenzo Monaco in the Venus room - the only Monaco I really have
liked is the Annunciation in S Trinita; nor at all for the big Fra Angelico,
though there is an exquisite coronation by him in the 3rd room. The
Professor came after lunch and stayed till 4. A tramontana began and
I did not go out again.