258 THE STORIES OF NOTED PAINTINGS. 



THE SHOWER, OF GOLD. 



By PIETRO LIBERI (born at Padua in 1605, died 1687). Away 

 back in the dateless periods of ancient Greece, as the fable runs, 

 a certain King of Argos, seeing no signs of a son to succeed 

 him, consulted the oracle thereon, and was told that he himself 

 would have no male issue, but that his daughter Danae would 

 bear a son who would one day kill and succeed his grandfather. 

 To prevent this unpleasant contingency the king locked up his 

 daughter in a brazen tower and kept her there for years. But 

 the cry of a little four year old at last opened the prison doors, 

 and the startled king demanded whose child that was. Danae 

 said that Jupiter had descended to her in a shower of gold, and 

 that she had borne the semi-divine offspring. The king, who 

 was evidently a wholly irreligious man, refused to believe any 

 such story. He boxed up the mother and child and pushed 

 them out to sea. They were carried by the winds and waves to 

 a certain island, where they were found and hospitably received, 

 and Perseus grew up to manhood. He went through adventures 

 too numerous to mention, till at last, being engaged in the public 

 games in some distant place, he accidentally pitched a quoit into 

 an old man and ended his days. This old man proved to be 

 Acrisius, his grandfather. Moral (according to the Greek 

 narrator) It is in vain for man to fight against the gods. 



ST. CECILIA. 



By EAPHAEL (born 1483, died 1520). St. Cecilia, with a 

 " regal " in her hands, is listening to the heavenly music in an 

 ecstatic trance. She is surrounded by the four patron saints of 

 Bologna, (commencing on the left) St. Paul, St. John, St. 

 Augustine and Mary Magdalene. There are many who think 

 this the finest painting in the world, and it would be hard to 

 prove them much in error. St. Cecilia lived in the third century, 

 and was the daughter of a noble and wealthy Roman who, with 

 his family, secretly embraced Christianity. Her husband was 

 beheaded on account of his faith, and she, being also suspected, 

 was ordered to worship Jupiter. On her refusal she was con- 



