Art and Science 



The first chapel with which we need concern 

 ourselves is numbered 4, and shows the Con- 

 ception of the Virgin Mary. It represents 

 St. Anne as kneeling before a terrific dragon 

 or, as the Italians call it, " insect," about the 

 size of a Crystal Palace pleiosaur. This 

 "insect" is supposed to have just had its 

 head badly crushed by St. Anne, who seems 

 to be begging its pardon. The text " Ipsa 

 conteret caput tuum" is written outside the 

 chapel. The figures have no artistic interest. 

 As regards dragons being called insects, the 

 reader may perhaps remember that the island 

 of S. Giulio, in the Lago d'Orta, was in- 

 fested with insetti, which S. Giulio destroyed, 

 and which appear, in a fresco underneath the 

 church on the island, to have been monstrous 

 and ferocious dragons ; but I cannot remember 

 whether their bodies are divided into three 

 sections, and whether or no they have exactly 

 six legs without which, I am told, they can- 

 not be true insects. 



The fifth chapel represents the birth of the 

 Virgin. Having obtained permission to go 

 inside it, I found the date 1715 cut large and 



