i^ ACCOUNTS, ETC., OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



the fact that the students' room was closed for four weeks 

 for cleaning and painting. 



Photographing. — Three hundred and forty-nine appli- 

 cations were made for leave to photograph objects in the 

 collection, and 2284 photographs were taken. 



II. — Additions. 



The total number of prints, drawings, etc. acquired 

 during the year was 4386, of which the following are the 

 most important : — 



Italian School. 



Drawings. 



Robusti, Jacopo (Tintoretto). A collection of ninety 

 sheets of drawings, acquired and bound in an album about 

 1680 by Don Gaspar d'Haro e Guzman, Spanish ambassador 

 at Rome and afterwards Viceroy of the Kingdom, of Naples. 

 This collection, hitherto unknown to students, is of the 

 highest value and importance, and throws a quite new light 

 on the methods and powers of this great Venetian master. 

 It consists of eighty fine original compositions rapidly drawn, 

 or more strictly painted, on paper, in tempera touched in the 

 high lights with oil, together with four or five copies by 

 pupils or imitators, and ten drawings in the artist's more 

 generally known manner (black chalk or brush outlines) ; of 

 these last five are on the backs of sheets having painted 

 compositions on their fronts. The compositions are in some 

 cases projects and first ideas for well-known existing pictures 

 by the master (e.g. the Miracle of the Slave liberated by 

 St. Mark, in the Venice Academy ; the Miracle of the Saracen 

 rescued by St. Mark from shipwreck, in the Royal Library at 

 Venice ; the St. Sebastian in the Scuola di San Rocco) ; in 

 many other cases they are for pictures which either were 

 never carried out or have perished. The same subject is 

 often repeated with experimental modifications many times 

 over. For the subject of St. Anthony tempted by demons in 

 the form of women there are twenty-two different designs ; 

 for his persecution by beasts and hobgoblins, twelve ; for the 

 Miracle of St. Mark and the Slave, five : for St. Mark en- 

 throned writing his gospel, three ; for Christ's Charge to 

 Peter, nine ; for an unexplained myth or allegory of a woman 

 seated on her child's cradle and receiving the homage of 

 attendant figures, six ; for another, possibly the descent of 

 Hercules or Theseus to the underworld, five ; for an allegory 

 of War, three ; for a reclining Venus, four. Subjects treated 

 only once or twice each are the Baptism of Christ ; Christ 

 raising the widow's son ; Christ healing in the synagogue on 

 the Sabbath day ; the Conversion of St. Paul ; St. Mary 



