THE STORIES OF NOTED PAINTINGS. 281 



THE FATHER OF PETRARCH THROWING HIS BOOKS 

 INTO THE FIRE. 



By ACHILLE LEONARDI, of Rome. When Petrarch, the Italian 

 poet, was a young man of twenty (in the year 1324), all his atten- 

 tion and study were absorbed in classical literature. His father, 

 who wanted to make a lawyer of him, and had kept him at much 

 expense in law schools for five years, became disgusted at his 

 little progress in law studies. Going to his room one day, he 

 wound up his complaints by throwing into the fire Petrarch's 

 precious manuscripts of Cicero, Virgil, and the others. But the 

 despair and the tears of the young student at this martyrdom of 

 his authors, were so touching that the father relented and 

 snatched the books from the flames, telling his son to go on read- 

 ing his Latin. So a genius was saved to the world, and there 

 was one less poor lawyer in it. 



SAPPHO. 



By EDWARD RICHTER, of Paris. The fair subject of this paint- 

 ing is the loveliest character in classic history. Six hundred years 

 before Christ, in the very earliest dawn of literature, a young 

 Greek girl, from the Island of Lesbos, presented herself before 

 the rude warrior clans of Greece, overflowing with song and 

 sweetest poetry. She captivated all hearts with her minstrelsy 

 and her modest virtues. She was revered as a goddess. Her 

 lovely face was stamped on the ancient coins, with the inscrip- 

 tion, "The violet-crowned, the pure, and sweetly smiling Sappho." 



SPECKBACHER AND HIS SON. 



This is a reproduction of the great masterpiece of FRANZ 

 DEFREGGER in the National Museum of Innspruck. The story 

 of the scene is this : In the year 1809 happened the famous up- 

 rising of the Tyrolese under Andreas Hofer against the French 

 and Bavarians whom Napoleon had quartered upon them. The 

 women fought by the side of the men, and there was not a hand 

 that held back. They drove out their oppressors, successively 

 routed all the armies that the great invader could send against 



