The Picture Gallery of the Vatican. 173 



These two little pictures are inclosed in one frame. The first con- 

 tains several subjects. In the first place it represents the birth of the 

 saint. The holy infant the moment after his birth miraculously 

 stands upright in the vessel in which he is washed, and with his 

 hands folded together is offering his thanksgiving to the Almighty, 

 who had heard the prayers of his hitherto barren parents, and had 

 sent him into the world. It also represents how the young saint on 

 three different nights threw bags of money through a window into 

 the house of a certain soldier who despaired of being able to settle 

 his three daughters in marriage from want of a portion to give them ; 

 which said young ladies are seen asleep all in one bed, whilst their 

 father stands watching in disguise to surprise the unknown benefac- 

 tor. There is besides his vocation to the bishopric, which he heard in 

 a sermon. In this compartment we see St. Nicolo sojourning in 

 Mirra. He was there informed by a preacher, the bishop of that 

 city, that be should be his successor ; for he had seen a vision in 

 which God commanded him to elect as the next bishop the person 

 who should come into the church very early in the morning on the 

 day after the death of the former bishop, and who should bear the 

 name of Nicolo. 



The second division displays how St. Nicolo, while still living, 

 saved his people of Mirra from a horrible famine by having miracu- 

 lously provided a quantity of grain ; how he harassed an imperial 

 agent who was come to collect a heavy tribute ; how, after his death, 

 he saved a ship's company from shipwreck, by appearing in all his 

 glory, with a lighted taper in his hand, as a symbol of his inextin- 

 guishable love. 



The manner of these two little paintings very much resembles that 

 of Giotto, both in the position of the figures and the folds of the dra- 

 pery ; but they still are full of that grace and elegance which this 

 painter used to introduce into the countenances of his saints and an- 

 gels, and which have gained for him the surnames of // Beato, " the 

 happy," and the Guido of his time. As his first occupation was that 

 of illuminating manuscripts, he always retained that attention to the 

 smallest details which is peculiar to miniature painters. 



These two little cabinet pictures were judged worthy of being taken 

 to Paris in 1797. They are very old, and, like the productions of many 

 other early painters, are ridiculously curious. The figure of the saint 

 peeping out from the clouds with a lighted candle in his hand is par- 

 ticularly ludicrous. However, it falls very far short of many things 

 that are to be found elsewhere. In the Museum at Brussels there is 

 a picture of the Ascension, in which the legs of Jesus Christ are just 

 cut oft* by the frame of the painting, and which gives the idea of a 

 person tumbling through the joists of an unfinished floor rather than of 

 any thing else. In the same collection is the Creation of Eve*, in which 

 the Deity, dressed in a mitre and full pontificals, with two angels as 

 train bearers, is modelling Eve while she is half extricated from 

 Adam's side. And there is the Murder of the Innocents, said to be 

 by Breughel, where He rod's soldiers, in an antique Flemish dress, are 

 armed with match-lock guns ! The scene represents a Dutch-look- 

 ing village in the depth of winter, and the innocents, girls as well as 

 boys, are lying murdered on the snow. 



