534 REVIEWS—HISTORICAL PICTURES RETOUCHED. 
Our authoress then proceeds :-— 
It is after praising the eminence to whieh Isotta attained that Vasari introduces 
tous the name of Properzia dei Rossi, “a maiden of rich gifts, who, equally 
excellent with others in the disposition of all household matters, gained a point 
of distinction in many sciences, well calculated to arouse the envy, not of women 
merely, but of men.” Alidosi calls her the daughter of Martino Rossi of 
Modena; but, if she was not born in Bologna, it was there that she grew up, and 
there that she exercised her talents. 
Properzia was distinguished by remarkable beauty of person. She sang and 
played better than any woman of her time in Bologna; and to satisfy an exube- 
rant fancy, began her life as an artist by carving peach-stones. More fortunate 
than many children of more modern times, she found among her immediate 
friends warm and appreciating admirers. No one said, “ A foolish fancy, that: 
she had better be taking care of the house.” And when she finally completed, on 
this small surface, a sculptured Crucifixion, containing many heads besides those 
of the executioners and the apostles, no one added, “‘ It is but a womanish trick 
of art, after all.” The true lovers of beauty, beside and around her, said, “ See 
what better you can do.” So encouraged, she executed numerous arabesques in 
stone, of flowers, animals, and so on, for the principal chapel of Santa Maria del 
Baracano. 
Just at this time, the superintendent of the Cathedral was authorized to orna- 
ment with marble figures the three doors of the principal facade of San Petronio. 
For a portion of this work, Properzia now applied; and here occurs an inconsis- 
tency in her biographer, ‘which we cannot explain by any authors within our 
reach, At the beginning of the Life, Vasari says, ‘‘she was a maiden of rich 
gifts :’ he now says that she applied to the superintendent of this work through 
“her husband ;” and again, that she succeeded in a certain piece of sculpture all 
the better for a disappointment in love, all the more grievous to bear, because, 
with this exception, she was perfectly successful in all things. 
However she applied, she was commanded to produce a specimen of her work 
as a proof that she was capable of what she undertook; and, for this purpose, 
she executed from the life that admirable bust of Count Guido Pepoli, now 
preserved in the Chureh of San Petronio. Upon this, she was entrusted with the 
execution of two groups. She chose the wife of Pharaoh’s steward and the 
Queen of Sheba for her subjects, and delighted the whole city by her eminent 
success. But there was one critic whom she could not please,—a certain 
Maestro Amico Aspertini, who is elsewhere described as having his head full of 
vapour and vain-glory ; who never spoke well of any one, yet was always full of 
babble and gossip ; and who had so little true love of art, that, when he made 
any fortunate discovery, he immediately destroyed all traces of it, lest some 
other person should by chance derive some benefit from it. 
Properzia was a woman, and she did not care to struggle with this incarnation 
of the evil passions. Having finished several noble works already undertaken, 
she turned her attention to copperplate engraving, wherein she soon established 
an enviable reputation, The rumor of her lofty genius spread through Italy, and 
