"We see for the first time an attempt to render a particular effect of light, the first twilight picture with clouds rosy with the lingering gleams of sunset, and light shining from the sky on hill and town—the first in which a head is seen in shadow against a brilliant sky."-(C. M.)

His Madonna of the Pomegranate is an early work. The Child is about to take a pomegranate from the Virgin's hand. On either side of the green hanging, which forms the background, the landscape is visible.

"In all his versions of the Madonna and Child, the exact shade and variety of the feeling are perfectly explicit and almost always distinct; and the richness of his invention is shown by the perfect harmony of the particular feeling expressed by the mother with the pose and expression of the Child."-(R. E. F.)

A masterpiece by Pisanello is the Miraculous Stag appearing to St. Eustache, famous for its beautiful treatment of animal life.

"The Saint himself riding out to the chase, reins back his steed, covered with rich trappings, as he sees before him a great stag with between his horns the Crucified Christ. Elsewhere in the picture a hound is chasing a hare; in the marsh above herons are fishing in their quiet deliberate manner; stags are browsing; a bear climbs the hillside; and every hair, every feather of these creatures is finished to perfection."-(S. B.)

Marco Basaiti's St. Jerome Reading in a landscape, where walls and flowers rise on the steep hillside, should be compared with one by Catena, also a masterpiece.

"His period of penitence over, the Saint is seated in the study of the monastery which he built at Bethlehem, reading intently and engaged perhaps in his translation of the Scriptures (the Vulgate). The sense of retirement and

peace is perfectly given, and is undisturbed even by the presence of his lion, his dog and his partridge, who are enjoying a luxurious leisure. His figure is beautiful and full of serene dignity as he sits absorbed in his book with his slender hand raised to his forehead. The colour is pure, bright and clear, and the details are all painted with such truth and care that they might suggest the hand of a Fleming, except that no regard is paid to the reflection of colour. It will be observed that his cardinal's hat is blue." -(C. M.)

Mantegna's Madonna exhibits a thoughtful and contemplative Virgin with the Child on her knee, and on either side the tall and earnest Magdalen and John the Baptist.

"The drawing of the bodies as well as of the draperies is worthy of admiration, and the extremities, especially the feet, are excellently treated. The figures, in the subdued dignity of their motions, and the bright clearness of their colours, stand out in a genuine poetic spirit from the background of dark green orange trees laden with golden fruit, and the sky with its silvery clouds.”—(A. W.)

The Triumph of Scipio represents Scipio receiving, according to the command of the oracle, Cybele, the Phrygian mother of the gods. The details show the painter's familiarity with classical traditions.

The Madonna and Child with Saints, by Ercole di Giulio Grandi, is an altar-piece remarkable for its decorative details and splendid throne with sculpturesque ornaments on which the Madonna sits. Costa's Madonna and Child, also enthroned, has a landscape in the background that recalls Perugino.

Garofalo has a fine Madonna and Child Enthroned.

The Vision of St. Augustine, which refers to the lesson the Saint received from a child on the seaside trying to empty the sea into the hole he had dug. St. Catherine, standing by, looks into the sky at the Virgin, Child and angels:

"This picture is of that period of Garofalo's career in which he combined the powerful and full mode of painting by which Raphael's pupils from Bologna and Ferrara distinguished themselves above the others, with the more noble expression, the purer forms and the grace of Raphael." (W.)

The Virgin Enthroned and St. Anne is Francia's best-known work. Little St. John with his scroll appears at the foot of the throne, near which stand three other saints.

The Pietà, in which the Virgin and two angels are weeping over the dead body of Christ, was the lunette for this altar-piece:

"There is no finer representation of the dread scene to be found in the whole range of Italian art. There is nothing in which pathos and sublimity are so happily blended, and in which there are no distracting elements to be considered." (G. C. W.)

Noticeable for its gentleness and sweetness is Girolamo dai Libri's Madonna, Infant Christ and St. Anne. The lemon tree, the trellis-work of roses, and the three little angels making music are beautifully painted. The slain dragon at the Virgin's feet is emblematic of Christ's victory over evil. This charming picture hung in the Church of the Scala in Verona next to the San Rocco of Cavaggola by Morando now also its neighbour. In the last, St. Roch, or Rocco, patron of the plague-stricken, has prepared to die when an angel appears to dress his sores.