1828.] Old Pictures. 31 
-with all its merits, included but little of these two rarest and most valu- 
-able of all qualities in painting. The effeminate style of Carlo Dolce 
-and Sasso Ferrato has been thought to be well adapted at least to those 
particular subjects which they so almost invariably chose, namely, the 
Magdalens and Madonnas of holy writ. But it was not so. To deli- 
neate the true characteristics of female form and expression, under what- 
ever circumstances, requires a feeling for them any thing but feminine. 
No female hand ever painted, or ever will paint, the true character of a 
finely-endowed female face—because she cannot, in the nature of things, 
feel that character. 
At this point of the catalogue, fine things so crowd upon us, that we 
are at a loss how either to notice them or to pass them by. No. 40, is 
a Virgin and Child, by Gentio Romano, which is exquisite ; 42, a noble 
Portrait by Titian, of his own daughter ; 46, a most curious and admi- 
rable piece called the Water Seller, by Velasquez ; 47, a grand and 
striking piece of Paul Veronese’s splendid colouring—Mars and Venus ; 
49, a most lovely gem, by Garafolo, full of mingled sweetness and 
dignity ; 52, a fine Portrait of Anthony Trieste, by Vandyke ; and 
59, a curious design of Raphael’s, carried into execution by Spagno- 
letto, called an Incantation.— All these fine works we can merely com- 
mend to the spectator’s best attention, and pass on to one which has 
long been held forth as among the most extraordinary productions of 
one of the most extraordinary of Painters: we allude to 60, Vanity and 
Modesty ; Leonarvo pa Vinc1.—This artist is one who excites more 
of our love than admiration. There is a sweetness about his best things, 
which, if it redeems them from insipidity, keeps them from ascending 
into the regions of grandeur or passion. This celebrated production is 
‘known to all the world by the engravings from it ; and there is no 
denying that the picture is precisely answerable to the notion of it 
received through the medium of the burin. But it is no more than 
answerable. We are no better acquainted with it now, than we were 
when we had only seen it at second-hand: which shews that its merit 
consists in one thing merely—expression ; and this one neither very 
intelligible, nor that portion of it which is so, very appropriate. Never- 
theless, it is an exquisite work in its way ; and being so, it is idle to 
complain of it for not being something else. 
No. 63. Assumption of the Virgin. Muri1tL0.—Small as this is—amere 
miniature—we cannot help dwelling upon it for a moment, on account 
of its rare and touching beauty. It is remarkable that the freedom, 
breadth, and lightness of this lovely little gem are in no degree impaired 
by the smallness of its size. It is a miniature, with all the effect of a 
gallery picture. And what is perhaps more remarkable still, that effect 
is but little injured by the total absence of any thing like refinement; 
elegance, or even passion, in the face of the Virgin—which is that of a 
erfectly plain, and even coarse English woman. . Notwithstanding this 
(which is often a fault, as far as it goes, in Murillo’s pictures of poetical 
subjects of this nature), the whole comes upon you like a seraphic 
vision; on account of the exquisitely ideal nature of the colouring and 
the handling. 
No. 66 and 69. Beggar Boys. Munir10.—These are the two won- 
derful pictures which form part. of the Dulwich gallery. One of them 
(that in which one of the boys is munching a piece of bread) is, perhaps, 
finer than any thing of the kind in existence; Though these pictures 
