Ranking almost with Raphael's Transfigura- i tion is Domenichino's masterpiece, the Communion of St. Jerome, painted for the monks of Ara-Cœli, who quarrelled with the painter and suppressed the picture. Some time afterwards they ordered Poussin to paint an altar-piece and gave him this canvas to paint upon. Poussin refused and made its existence known to the world.

"The aged saint,-feeble, emaciated, dying, is borne in the arms of his disciples to the chapel of his monastery and placed within the porch. A young priest sustains him; St. Paula, kneeling, kisses one of his thin bony hands; the saint fixes his eager eyes on the countenance of the priest, who is about to administer the Sacrament, a noble, dignified figure in a rich ecclesiastical dress; a deacon holds the cup and an attendant priest, the book; the lion droops his head with an expression of grief; the eyes and attention of all are on the dying saint, while four angels, hovering above look down upon the scene."-(A. J.)

Another masterpiece is Leonardo's St. Jerome, but very differently treated. This is painted in bistre, and corresponds in character with the Adoration of the Magi (Uffizi).

"The St. Jerome inspires the beholder with a feeling of surprise that Leonardo should have been at so little pains to convey the idea of a weather-beaten hermit. On the contrary, we are shown the kneeling figure of a comely old gentleman with the refined features of a philosopher, against a background of rocky landscape which shows up the alabaster whiteness of his skin."-(R. M.)

One of Titian's most beautiful "Holy Conversation" pictures is his Madonna and Saints, representing St. Nicholas in full episcopal costume; St. Peter with a book; St. Catherine, who is very beautiful; St. Francis; St. Anthony of Padua; and St. Sebastian.

"In this picture there are three stages, the same as in the Transfiguration. Below, saints and martyrs are represented in suffering and abasement; on every face is depicted sadness, nay, almost impatience: one figure in rich episcopal robes looks upwards, with the most eager and agonized longing, as if weeping, but he cannot see all that is floating above his head, but which we see standing in front of the picture. Above, Mary and her Child are in a cloud, radiant with joy and surrounded by angels who have woven many garlands: the Holy Child holds one of these, and seems as if about to crown the saints beneath, but his Mother withholds his hand for the moment. The contrast between the pain and the suffering below, whence St. Sebastian looks forth out of the picture with gloom and almost apathy, and the lofty unalloyed exaltation in the clouds above, where crowns and palms are already awaiting him, is truly admirable. High above the group of Mary hovers the Holy Spirit, from whom emanates a bright streaming light, thus forming the apex of the whole composition."-(F. M-B.)

Crivelli's Pietà, a lunette, is an extraordinary combination of the expression of emotion and decorative effect. The body of the Saviour is temporarily resting on a board placed across the sarcophagus and covered with a piece of brocade which is also used as a background for the heads of Christ and His mother. On either side stand the Magdalen and St. John, whose faces are contorted with grief.

"The accessories are superb both in design and execution. The cherub heads are meant apparently to float in the air, but they are so thickly set that they produce the effect of a background of burnished metal-a magnificent variety for the ordinary gold field. The whole picture is extraordinarily brilliant in colour and strong in relief."— (G. McN. R.)

A Pietà, which has always enjoyed a great reputation, consisting of five persons dramatically

posed, the most striking of which are Christ and Magdalen, is attributed by some critics to Mantegna and by others to Montagna.

St. Petronilla is regarded by some critics as Guercino's masterpiece.

"Here is represented with an almost Venetian opulence of splendid costume and detail, but with a startlingly powerful, if somewhat violent and scattered chiaroscuro-devised from Parmese originals-the disinterment of the fair saint's body at the bidding of her lover, while, in the upper part of the canvas, her immortal part, still sumptuously clad in mindane garments, already appears kneeling in Heaven before the Saviour."—(C. P.)

One of the most important works of the whole Naturalist school is Caravaggio's Entombment.

"A picture wanting in all the characteristics of holy sublimity; but it is nevertheless full of solemnity, only perhaps too like the funereal solemnity of a gipsy chief. A figure of such natural sorrow is the Virgin, who is represented as exhausted with weeping, with her trembling, outstretched hands, has seldom been painted. Even as mother of a gipsy chief, she is dignified and touching.”—(K.)

Andrea Sacchi's St. Romualdo requires explanation. It represents the dream the saint had of a ladder like Jacob's, uniting heaven and earth, upon which he saw the monks of his Order ascending by twos and threes, all clothed in white. The monks in their robes are noble figures, and the landscape is also noteworthy.

A Repose of the Holy Family in Egypt, by Baroccio, is natural and charming.

"The right part of the picture (the Child, the ass, and the landscape) is particularly good. The faces, the naked feet of the Virgin and the Child recall Correggio and the draperies Tiepolo."-(M. P.)