first fight his pictures appear all spotted with mould; the prevailing colours being a black and a bluish grey, with fpecks of white.-In a cabinet, a Salutation by Rembrandt; the St. Elizabeth is full of merit. In another, belonging to the fummer apartment, are the portraits of Martin Luther and his wife, by Holbein. I do not doubt their being ftrong likeneffes; they are a homely, good couple, and the want of fhade in their faces does not render them more pleafing. Notwithstanding this peculiarity in all Holbein's paintings, they are esteemed confiderably in Italy, as Monsieur Groffo Cavallo affured us were all the works of our old English painters; if that is true, I believe it is owing more to their politeness than to their fincerity. The Queen's gallery, which is 30 feet wide, and 270 long, is to be lined with marble; this is already begun, and meant to be completed with the marble of this country, excepting one narrow moulding round the pannels, which is of that of Verona. It will be extremely fine when finished. Amongst the variety of coloured marbles, an alabafter coffee colour and white, and a green, are of extraordinary beauty. Here are fome paintings of great merit. A prodigal fon by Guercino. This picture is a proof of the expreffion a human figure is capable of conveying, without the aid of the counfor the face of the prodigal fon is not feen: he is reprefented in a kneeling pofture, his back turned to the spectators, but every feeling of his mind is fhewn in the mufcles of his back, legs, and

tenance;

the

the foles of his feet; fhame, regret, and repentance, are as ftrongly expreffed as they could have been in his face. The colouring is vigorous, the drawing bold, and the clair obfcure well preferved and ftrongly oppofed.-Two very large pictures of Paul Veronefe. One of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who is very ugly indeed: this picture is full of faults and abfurdities. The other is the finding of Mofes by Pharaoh's daughter. It is remarkable that Paul Veronefe has introduced himfelf amongst the attendants of the princess, and is one of the most alert to preserve the little Mofes, whom he is extricating from amongst the bulrufhes. Pharaoh's daughter is too finely dreffed. The beauty of the filks and embroidery of Paul Veronese can never be too much admired. It is fingular, that fo good a painter should invariably fall into the fame abfurdity, of draping the ladies of antiquity in the most modern dreffes and ornaments of his own day.-A David by Guido; there is one alfo at the Luxemburg, and another at Genoa. Monfieur Groffo Cavallo thinks that all the three were done by Guido's fcholars, and afterwards touched by himself. The figure is ftriking, and there is all the grace of Guido in the air of the head.-A holy family alfo by Guido; the Virgin's attitude too much ftrained, and false in the drawing; the little Jefus finely done.-Rape of the Sabines, by Jacopo Baffano: fome of the women's heads have great expression, and their faces are handfome.-Its pendant, by the fame

mafter;

master; the subject, a woman whipping a Cupid out of a tinker's fhop. Here Baffano had an opportunity of representing all forts of brass and copper kitchen utenfils, in which he excels.—A St. Sebastian fhot to death with arrows, by Cigniani; a faultlefs picture, but the fubject too fhocking to think of or dwell upon.--Alfo a Saint Andrew crucified, by Espagnolet. This great

master has here difplayed all that manner and vigour of colouring for which he is fo justly famous. -The Queen's cabinet de toilette, which is a cube. of 30 feet, is entirely wainscotted with japan: either it never was fine of the fort, or else it is spoiled, for the varnish is faulty, and the grain coarse. There is a jar of old japan, which is the finest piece of the kind I ever faw. In another cabinet are twelve jars of japan china, black and gold of exquifite beauty, and of great value; presented by the King of Portugal to the King of Sardinia. In the Queen's bed-chamber are two very tall filver ewers, I fhould think about three feet high, finely wrought in bas relief; the handles are formed by two lions, who bending their bodies, from near the top, ftretch out their tongues to drink out of the ewer; they are extremely well executed. This room is hung with crimson-velvet, and laced with gold: the bed. the fame.-In a fmall chamber of audience, ftands a clock of very curious workmanship; it is of gold, and reprefents a Chinese temple. From my recollection it may be about fixteen inches high: it stands on a table. A fmall

A fmall cabinet which leads to one still lefs; covered with curious woods inlaid, ivory and mother of pearl: the latter is engraved, but indifferently done. Here are some shelves of books; my curiofity urged me to open two or three, amongst which I found the Female Spectator tranflated from the English; a book entitled A Monitor for Sovereigns, doubled down and marked in feveral places. On one fide is a little oratoire, with a fine picture of a Madona by Carlo Maratti.-I believe I did not mention the four elements by Albani, which are in the King's bed-chamber; they are perfect in colouring and defign. This mafter's works always please.-In another chamber is an Annunciation, very large, by Gentileschi. The virgin is more natural than beautiful; the modefty and confufion of an exceeding young perfon is the characteristic of her figure; the angel is kneeling to her: the colouring is gay and fresh looking; and, upon the whole, makes a very good picture. -Opposite is a St. Françoife by Guercino, who hast made as much of his fubject as it admits of. The furbafe of the fame room is prettily painted, by a Piedmontoife artist, after the Flemish manner. The angles of the coved cieling are formed by four great shells of fingular beauty.-In a fmall cabinet are four childrens heads by Scudoni; they are freely touched, rather than finished.-A virgin and a little Jefus by Pietro Perugino, Raffaello's mafter. All the remains of this painter are more curious than perfect; he had but one manner, and

that fo ftiff and fo flat that his pictures can never be mistaken for thofe of another: his women are always red-haired; their drapery commonly without folds, and generally black, or very darkcoloured; the face broad, fair, infipid, and for the most part viewed in front; the teint of the skin a light vermilion. He wanted a fufficient knowledge in painting to give thote beautiful demiteints that are conftantly found in nature, and that the great Raphael so well understood, and fo amazingly imitated-A weeping Magdalene, very homely, by Rubens. In a cabinet, highly ornamented with glafs, and beautiful gilt foliage, are a vast number of miniatures; all portraits. These pictures are difperfed in fuch a manner, amongst the glass and foliage, as to have a fingular and very pretty effect. They are incomparably well executed, on ivory; none hatched, all dotted, and bear the test of the higheft magnifying glass. They are painted by one man, named Carameli, a Monk; his own picture is amongst them. Instead of ufing a camel's hair pencil, which is (I believe) universal in miniature painting, this man dotted all his pictures with the feathers plucked from woodcocks' wings; and instead of finishing as he went on, he began them nearly at the fame time, and worked at each every day, till they were all completed. Amongst

I owe this piece of intelligence, which I intend to try, to the Marquis de Barbian, one of the gentlemen of the chamber. He fays, no hair-pencil can be brought to the point that these feathers have naturally. Carmeli took thirty years to finish them; and had never learnt. VOL. I.

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many