painted in 1532 after the Cardinal had taken part in a campaign against the Turks, is represented in a Hungarian costume consisting of a garnet velvet doublet and a red cap adorned with a buckle and plumes. His left hand holds a sword; his right the bâton of command.

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Nothing shows to better advantage the marvellous suppleness of Titian's genius and his skill in varying treatment according to the requirements of the subject than this portrait, where strength of modelling is shown in the face, the principal character of which lies in the contrast of the delicacy of the skin with the clear-cut features and the extraordinary penetration of the eyes.”— (C. and C.)

Aretino was ordered by the "Scourge of Princes" in 1546, as a present to his patron, Cosimo I., but the latter had to pay for it. Aretino called it a "hideous marvel," though admitting that it was the very living image of himself and seemed actually to breathe. He wears a yellow tunic and red mantle held by his gloved left hand, and a gold chain.

"A marvel of finish. The face is idealized, and, as far as possible, ennobled. The model has not lost its characteristic cunning and audacity; the type of the blusterer and bully is not completely effaced, nor has the natural effrontery of the scribe entirely disappeared; but the worst points are cleverly toned down."-(C. and C.)

The Young Man, sometimes called the Duke of Norfolk, is, however, peculiarly Venetian in type, with his blue eyes, reddish-brown hair, and delicately-cut features. It is a marvellously life-like production, and belongs to Titian's best period.

"This is one of the greatest masterpieces that I know. He is a man of thirty-five, dressed in black, pale, and with a fixed glance; his face is somewhat thin; his eyes

are pale blue; and a small moustache joins his beard. He is of a great race and of high rank; but seems to have enjoyed less of ease than action; experiences, anxieties and dangers have left their trace, as well as incessant hard work. His energetic, weary and dreamful head has had to form sudden resolutions at critical moments." (H. A. T.)

Philip II. is a copy with slight changes of the one in the Prado.

The very beautiful Magdalen is a theme that the master often treated, because this mixture of piety and sensuality appealed at once to his own taste and to that of his day. So he repeated it more than once; and his pupils reproduced to satiety the image of the Penitent, with eyes. drowned in tears, and hair flowing over her shoulders and half hiding her breast. The Pitti example and the one in the Hermitage are the finest expressions of this mystical and sensual theme.

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Even in spite of its sensuality of flesh tint and golden hair, painted from pure delight in beauty-Titian's Penitent Magdalen retains its spiritual purport of affecting penitence."-(A. G.)

Swinburne said that only in Florence could one realise how great and versatile was Andrea del Sarto. The Pitti is very rich in his works. One of the most celebrated is the Disputà, or Conference of the Fathers of the Church regarding the Doctrine of the Trinity, in which Andrea's fine sense of colour is shown to the best advantage. The single female figure is a lovely portrait of the painter's wife. The picture was once damaged by a rising of the Arno, traces of which can be seen.

"The so-called Disputà della SS. Trinità is particularly

fitted to exhibit Andrea's affinity with the Venetian School. This is a Santa Conversazione of six saints. St. Augustine is speaking with the highest inspiration of manner; St. Dominic is being convinced with his reason and St. Francis with his heart; St. Lawrence is looking earnestly out of the picture; while St. Sebastian and the Magdalen are kneeling in front, listening devoutly. We here find the most admirable contrast of action and expression, combined with the highest beauty of execution.” -(K.)

The Descent from the Cross, painted for the sisters of a convent where Andrea lived during the plague of 1523, is also beautiful in colour. The Virgin and St. John are holding the body of Christ; the two female saints are Mary Magdalen and Catherine, and St. Peter and St. Paul stand on the right and left.

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The Italians call him il pittore senza errori, or the faultless painter. What they meant by this must have been that in all the technical requirements of art, in drawing, composition, handling of fresco and oils, disposition of draperies and feeling for light and shadow, he was above criticism. As a colourist he went further and produced more beautiful effects than any Florentine before him. His silver-grey harmonies and liquid blendings of hues, cool yet lustrous, have a charm peculiar to himself alone." (J. A. S.)

Two Assumptions of the Virgin are masterpieces. In one picture the Virgin is raised up towards heaven very gracefully and the atmosphere is like Correggio's. The other, in which the painter appears as one of the apostles, was never finished; but it is full of lightness and vapour.

Of three Annunciations, No. 124 is the best: the Madonna in Glory with Four Saints was completed by Bonilli; the Madonna and Child and