angels-two of them in attitudes of homage and the rest playing on musical instruments—is one of the few works of Fra Angelico the date of which is known; and with its wing pictures, representing St. John the Baptist and St. Mark on the inside. and St. Mark and St. Peter on the outside, and its predella, is, perhaps, the best of all his compositions. It was painted in 1433 for the Company of Flax Merchants, whose patron saint was Mark. The figures are painted on a gold ground, and the angels are particularly beautiful.

The predella to this work, consisting of the Adoration of the Magi, with an especially lovely Virgin, as the central picture; St. Peter preaching and St. Mark writing his Gospel, on the left; and the Martyrdom of St. Mark on the right are ranked among Fra Angelico's most exquisite works.

His Marriage of the Virgin (a predella) contains twenty-two figures beautifully grouped and very animated. All the colours are lovely, particularly the rose-hued mantles of the Virgin and St. Joseph. The latter carries a flowering branch on which is perched a dove. Correggio has a beautiful Virgin and Child in the open air.

"The Virgin is enveloped in a mantle in a peculiar way; it is bunched up from the waist, and thrown over the head like a veil, one of the falling flaps serving as a support for the Child. This idea, which has been censured and considered to be an invention of Correggio's, is not new: it is found in paintings of the Florentine and German Schools, and also in a picture of the Veronese master, Girolamo dai Libri. There is something almost playful in the arrangement of the rich voluminous garment which is made to occupy so prominent a place in this picture. The smiling Madonna bends playfully over the charming little being lying before her, with her elegant hands clasped in adoration, and, like some beautiful idyl, the

whole is set in a lovely landscape, which blinds effectively the beauty of the southern scenery with the stateliness of Classical architecture. A full light is thrown over the Infant Jesus and the Madonna, and gradually toned off towards the background. The effect produced is almost as if the figures emitted their own radiance, which grew fainter and fainter till at last dissolved into space."(J. M.)

Correggio's Repose on the Flight into Egypt is an early work, showing the straw-colour peculiar to Dosso Dossi and Garofalo. The Virgin's face is very spirited. Authorities disagree as to whether this is Correggio's own work, but all believe that the composition is his.

"Here for the first time, the scene becomes the charming genre picture, which before this time has not been the case with the realists of the Fifteenth Century in spite of all the traits taken from reality. The colouring is unequal, in parts wonderfully finished."-(J. B.)

Correggio's Madonna and Child with Angel Musicians is also a youthful work, though exquisite in colour and finish. It has been attributed by some critics to Titian.

One of the Sienese Sodoma's best works is St. Sebastian, which is considered the most beautiful example of this subject in all painting. It was painted for a banner for the Brotherhood of St. Sebastian.

"Gifted with an exquisite feeling for the beauty of the human body, Sodoma excelled himself when he was contented with a single figure. His St. Sebastian, notwithstanding its wan and faded colouring, is still the very best that has been painted. Suffering, refined and spiritual, without contortion, or spasm, could not be presented with more pathos in a form of more surpassing loveliness. This is a truly demonic picture in the fascination it exercises and the memory it leaves upon the mind. Part of its

unanalysable charm may be due to the bold thought of combining the beauty of a Greek Hylas with the Christian sentiment of martyrdom. Only the Renaissance could have produced a hybrid so successful, because so deeply felt." (J. A. S.)

Mantegna's Madonna and Child in a Rocky Landscape was painted during his Roman period. The detail is marvellous and the whole work a specimen of delicate miniature painting.

"It is surprising that Andrea should have compelled his usually hard and rugged pencil to so much softness. The Virgin sits on a stone supporting the sleeping Infant upon her knee, her glance downcast, tender and mournful; she seems to hush the half-dying and flexible child into slumber; about her a fine cast of sculptural drapery; behind a rugged shred of rock tunnelled by quarrymen; a road with shepherds and their flocks, a distant hill and a castle-for Mantegna's stern habits a wonderfully tender performance."-(C. and C.)

In different style but one of the artist's most carefully finished works is his triptych representing the Adoration of the Magi in the centre with the Circumcision on the right panel and the Ascension on the left. The high lights are heightened with gold and all three pictures are greatly admired by all critics.

"A triptych, the central part slightly concave-the Adoration of the Magi, the Circumcision and the Ascension-is another specimen of solemn grandeur of conception combined with the minutest finish,-Mantegna's finish never being mere labour, but simply the conscientious satisfaction of the keenest eye and most intelligent hand.”(A. H. L.)

One of Cristofano Allori's most attractive pictures is the Infant Jesus Sleeping on the Cross, much in the style of Correggio.

"On the parted lips there is a placid smile, which seems