Here we find a very famous portrait group by Rubens, the Four Philosophers, sometimes called Lipsius and his Pupils, representing four men in a room, where a looped curtain reveals a beautiful landscape. At the table are seated Rubens's brother, Philip, a noted philologist, with pen in hand; on his left is Lipsius, wearing a rich fur collar and pointing out a passage in a book with his forefinger; and next to him is seated a man, supposed to be Hugo Grotius," the marvel of Holland," with a dog at his side. In a niche is a bust of Seneca and a vase of tulips, a flower much loved by Lipsius. Rubens himself stands behind his brother.

Ulysses and Nausicaa is a masterly work full of strength. The landscape is by Van Uden, retouched by Rubens, who painted the figures. Ulysses is trying to hide himself; and Nausicaa, having witnessed the shipwreck, lifts her veil while her frightened companions hide. A town appears on the shore on the left; and on the right there is a hill crowned by a castle and down which a cascade falls. Jupiter and Minerva are seen in the clouds.

Van Uden also painted the landscape in the Hay Harvest, or the Return from Work, in which peasants with their tools are moving towards the right; two horses draw a wagon on the left; and the town of Mechlin is visible on the horizon.

"The Hay Harvest at Mechlin, in the quietest landscape lines, gives quite a delightful sense of air and light, while the Nausicaa, with its rich landscape of rocks and sea and its fanciful effects of light, elevates us into the enjoyment of a fabulous state of existence."-(B.)

The Allegory of War is considered one of Rubens's best works, and one in which he had no

aid. It is also called Mars Going to War and was a present from him to the painter, Sustermans, who had asked for a picture from him as a souvenir. On the right the Temple of Janus stands open; in the centre, Mars is tearing himself away from Venus, urged forward by Discord and preceded by Famine and Pestilence. Study, Architecture, Music, and Charity all suffer as the God advances; and Europe, dressed in blue, raises her arms in lamentation to the sky. In the background, a battle is in progress. The work is brilliant in colour.

The Holy Family is another masterly work.

Salvator Rosa's Battle (No. 133), with its two detachments of cavalry and Turks on the right, contains a portrait of the painter, who has represented himself as the knight, unhorsed, with a shield on which the word Saro is inscribed. A Harbour is one of Salvator's best marines, the sky having all the glow and softness of Claude Lorraine. His Portrait represents him, palette in hand, wearing blue and a large white collar.

THE UFFIZI

FLORENCE

THE Galleria degli Uffizi is contained in the Palazzo degli Uffizi built by Vasari in 1560-1574 for the municipal offices of Cosmo I. and connected to the Pitti Palace by a covered corridor a quarter of a mile long. The nucleus of the pictures was the collection from the Villa Medici in Rome and was enriched by various collections of the Medici family. Cardinal Leopold began the collection of portraits of masters by themselves, which is one of the features of this gallery. The gems are hung in the Tribuna. Chief among these is Raphael's Madonna del Cardellino (of the Goldfinch), a forerunner of La Belle Jardinère (Louvre), painted for Lorenzo Nasi in Florence, who gave it to his bride for a wedding-present. The picture was badly injured by an earthquake when Nasi's house was destroyed in 1548; but Nasi's son put the fragments together with great skill. The work takes its name from the goldfinch (Cardellino) which little John the Baptist presents to the Child Jesus. Florence, with the Duomo and Campanile, appears in the distance.

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The group is relieved equally against the warm brownish ground and the cool distance and sky. The children stand out clearly against the coloured dress of the Virgin. The attitude of Christ contrasts in statuesque and classic rest with the impulsive movement of the Baptist, who has just arrived after finding the bird and shows by the twitch of his eye and puffed cheeks and open lips that he has been